EVANGELICAL church Destiny has defended its decision to invite Creflo Dollar, the controversial “prosperity gospel” pastor, to Scotland.
As revealed in The National last week, Dollar, who recently instructed his followers to chip in for his new $65m private jet, will be appearing at the SECC in June, much to the upset of Scottish Christians.
Last Saturday this paper reported the concerns of the Free Church of Scotland, who said Dollar’s “blasphemous” teachings were not welcome.
That story was picked up by UK and US Christian news sources, causing a bit of a stooshy for the church.
Now Destiny has announced that Dollar’s trip to Scotland will take in even more cities and venues.
In a statement on the church’s Facebook page, Andrew Owen, the senior pastor of Destiny Churches international, said: “We are very much looking forward to welcoming Dr Creflo Dollar to Scotland in the next few months.
“Scotland has a tradition of warmly welcoming visitors from many diverse backgrounds and welcomes all and any to come and listen to Dr Dollar when the church meets at the Armadillo Clyde auditorium, the Aberdeen AECC or our own Gorgie campus Edinburgh.”
David Robertson, the Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, told The National, Owen’s “naive statement” missed the point.
“By the same criteria I look forward to Destiny inviting Donald Trump, Richard Dawkins and Marie Le Pen to preach at their churches,” he said.
By inviting Dollar to speak, Robertson said, they were “endorsing his message”.
He continued: “Creflo Dollar’s prosperity gospel message is not the Christian good news. The Church in Scotland is in enough trouble without adding Creflo Dollar’s nonsense to our portfolio.”
The prosperity gospel preached by Dollar on TV and at his megachurch in Atlanta, is a branch of theology that promises riches and wealth to those who give a tithe of about 10 per cent of their income to the church.
Last year in a video on his ministry’s website, the minister begged parishioners for money to help him raise funds for a luxury Gulfstream G650 jet so that he could spread the gospel.
Dollar asked for “200,000 people committed to sow $300 or more (to) help achieve our goal to purchase the G650 airplane.”
It is not known if Dollar will be using the jet to fly to Scotland.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here