Louisiana televangelist Jesse Duplantis is asking his followers to donate $54 million so he can buy a private jet to help him preach the gospel "to the world." His ministry has already paid for three others.
Now Duplantis wants to buy a luxurious Dassault Falcon 7X, Fox News reported.
The televangelist said the other three aircraft have served their purpose, but he feels that the multiple stops required to have them refueled is interfering with his campaign to evangelize the world.
By purchasing the Falcon 7X, Duplantis reasoned he would save money by not having to spend as much on jet fuel as he flies across the globe.
"I really believe that if the Lord Jesus Christ was physically on the Earth today, he wouldn't be riding a donkey," Duplantis said in a video posted on his ministry's website, the Times-Picayune in New Orleans reported. "He'd be in an airplane flying all over the world."
Call it the "new normal.”
Duplantis' appeal comes shortly after Texas televangelist Kenneth Copeland splurged on a Gulfstream V jet for $36 million, Fox News said.
Quick to defend their use of private jets, the two televangelists made a joint appearance on Copeland’s program to say that it had become a necessity for them to use the luxurious carriers to travel.
Copeland explained that another notable minister used to fly on commercial airlines but "it got to the place where it was agitating his spirit," The Washington Times reported.
"People coming up to him, he had become famous, and they wanted him to pray for them and all that," he continued. "You can’t, you can’t manage that today. This dope-filled world, and get in a long tube with a bunch of demons. And it’s deadly."
It appears that more celebrity pastors are turning to the use of private jets as their go-to form of traveling.
A prominent Georgia megachurch pastor and evangelist made headlines recently when he also appealed to the public for donations to buy a luxury jet valued at more than $65 million.
Creflo Dollar and his wife and co-pastor Taffi, of World Changers International Church in College Park, encouraged people to "sow your love gift of any amount" to help the ministry buy a Gulfstream G650 airplane.
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