Picture on the left is not the mansion, it is the dump Bishop Wilton Gregory used to live in before he built and moved into the bigger mansion shown in the video.
This defeat for Wilton Gregory was mainly due to Pope Francis walking the walk of austerity and a lending a hand to the poor, which caused the local Diocese to act. Some checks and balances in the opulence of the Catholic Church which has been going on now since Francis became the voice of God.
Let’s move on to the more powerful American religion, Evangelical Protestantism which has no checks and balances at all.
Recently the biggest single church in America was burglarized on a Sunday morning of $1.5 million. Several years ago Preacher Joel Osteen bought The Summit which was the the old Houston Rocket’s arena. Every Sunday he sells out two services of 16,000 seat each. Tickets range between $25 and $250 per seat. I decided to use an average of $50. Times 32,000 equal $1.6 million. So Joel and his wife only made $100,000 that day. I did not address any money sent in from his televised sermons or his stadium appearances.
Any complaints about the Osteen’s bling? Anyone he and his wife have to answer to? Anyone even complaining? No taxes paid on the at minimum the $75 million Osteen and his wife make each year. And of course that is $75 million a year collected without and return in a product, goods or services. That’s a lot of tax free money for what is in reality self help speeches with Jesus.
My point is not that these American evangelical preachers wallow in unlimited tax free bling – but unlike Archbishop Gregory who has the Pope, the Vatican and his parishioners on his blinged-out ass – no one cares that they wallow in it.