Creflo Dollar lives a life typically reserved for billionaires and celebrities.
He and his wife, Taffi, own a mansion in Fayette County, a $2.1 million home near New York City and a luxury condominium in Buckhead.
For the past 15 years, they’ve had two private jets and a crew whisking them off to every corner of the globe.
However, unlike most who enjoy lives of luxury, Dollar earned his fortune off religion, which has earned him his share of critics.
A pastor, in the Bible view, is a servant,” said Ole Anthony, of the Trinity Foundation in Dallas, TX. “His role isn’t to make money off the sheep or eat the sheep.”
Dollar’s World Changers Church International claims 30,000 members between its main location in College Park, and another in New York City. His sermons are shown live on big screens in two dozen satellite churches in North America and Australia, and are broadcast on television around the world.
According to Vic Bolton, spokesman for Dollar’s World Changers Church International, the church brings in $80 million annually from its congregation. According to its website, WCCI donates to charities and organizes international missions, but it is unclear how much of the $80 million helps people in need, and how much it helps Dollar become wealthier.
Unlike other tax-exempt, nonprofit organizations, churches aren’t required by law to make public their financial information so it’s unclear how the money congregants give to WCCI is spent.
Bolton said the church gives “gazillions” of dollars to charities but couldn’t be more specific since the church doesn’t keep track of how much it gives.
Through Bolton, Dollar declined to be interviewed by CBS46 and refused to provide a copy of the church’s audited financial statements or the names of those who sit on the church’s board of directors and make financial decisions for the church.
Dollar’s lack of openness about the finances of the tax-exempt church isn’t new.
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SOURCE: CBS 46
Jeff Chirico
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