(The Washington Post) – The Gulfstream G650 isn’t just any private jet. The billionaires lining up these luxury jets, which sell for upwards of $65 million each, are willing to put their names on a waiting list for years just for the pleasure. It is the “Holy Grail” of luxury private jets, Bloomberg once wrote. And now, televangelist Creflo Dollar’s ministry has announced that it will also buy a G650, a purchase the ministry says is “necessary” to spread God’s word.
The announcement comes months after Dollar’s ministries abandoned an earlier campaign to raise funds from his faithful followers for the same plane, following considerable backlash.
The board of World Changers Church International — which also operates as Creflo Dollar Ministries — said in a statement that the ministry will now go ahead and buy a Gulfstream G650 jet anyway, “at a time, place and price of our choosing.”
“We wholeheartedly reject the notion that the ministry’s airplane project is an imposition on our community or that it somehow takes advantage of our people,” WCCI said in a lengthy statement. “We plan to acquire a Gulfstream G650 because it is the best, and it is a reflection of the level of excellence at which this organization chooses to operate.”