Posted on 05/03/2008 10:05:43 AM PDT by knighthawk
The fiery African-American pastor whose incendiary outbursts on race have dented the prospects of Barack Obama becoming the first black US president is to retire to an upmarket suburb where almost all of the residents are white.
Grateful parishioners of Rev Jeremiah Wright, 66, are building him a $1 million, 10,400 sq ft mansion, next to a country club and golf course in the prosperous Chicago suburb of Tinley Park. In the 2000 census, just two per cent of Tinley Park’s 48,400 residents were black and 93 per cent were white.
Rev Wright built up his Chicago mega-church over 36 years on the principles of black liberation theology under the bold slogan, “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian”, and Mr Obama was among his most enthusiastic parishioners - until he was forced to disavow him completely last week.
The Trinity United Church of Christ is located in the heart of the city’s rundown and predominantly African-American South Side, and worshippers are instructed to live by its self-proclaimed Black Value System. Among the tenets is “Disavowal of the Pursuit of 'Middleclassness’.”
But Rev Wright will not be living among his flock following his recent retirement. Instead, he is leaving them in pursuit of distinctly middle class - indeed upper-middle class - environs.
According to building plans reviewed by Chicago newspapers, Mr Wright and his wife Ramah will not be the poor relations in their new and overwhelmingly white neighbourhood. The property will boast four bedrooms, a whirlpool, butler’s pantry, elevator, exercise room, circular driveway and four-car garage.
Real estate records show that Rev Wright bought the empty land in 2004 and sold it two years later to Trinity, the current owner, which later took out a $1.6 million mortgage on the property.
During his 36 years at its helm, Rev Wright built up Trinity from a church with 87 members to a congregation of 10,000 that includes many of the most influential figures in black Chicago. By joining its ranks, Mr Obama overcame some of the local doubts he faced as the Harvard-educated son of a white woman and Kenyan man who had been brought up in Hawaii.
But his former spiritual mentor’s rants against white America are dogging his campaign. Video clips of Rev Wright bellowing “God Damn America” are expected to feature prominently in Republican attack ads if, as expected, Mr Obama secures the Democratic nomination.
Rev Wright turned Trinity into one of the most powerful and well-funded institutions in Chicago’s South Side with the help of contributions from adherents such as the Obamas who gave the church $26,000, according to their 2007 tax returns.
And in America, it is not unusual for pastors of such financially successful churches to be rewarded for their accomplishments with rather more than a carriage clock or wristwatch at retirement. It is the ethnic/racial breakdown of Rev Wright’s preferred home for his retirement years that has caused surprise.
Trinity did not respond to a request for comment by The Sunday Telegraph. The national United Church of Christ has said that it is for local congregations to decide how to spend their funds and that it is appropriate for local churches to provide housing for long-time pastors when they retire.
I think a tax-exempt religious organization can buy debt-financed land if it intends to use the land for a tax-exempt purpose within 15 years (or something like that).
So WRIGHT buys the land and two years later sells it to the church-—for what tax-exempt purpose? Is his home going to be his home or the parish home? And if it’s the parish home, shouldn’t it be used by the CURRENT preacher, not a retired, former preacher?
Bishop's charity generous to bishop
New Birth's Long received $3 million
Atlanta Journal-Constitution/August 28, 2005 By John Blake
In 1995, Bishop Eddie Long established a nonprofit, tax-exempt charity to help the needy and spread the gospel.
But it was Long, leader of the largest church congregation in Georgia, who became the charity's biggest beneficiary.
The charity, Bishop Eddie Long Ministries Inc., provided him with at least $3.07 million in salary, benefits and the use of property between 1997 and 2000 --- nearly as much as it gave to all other recipients combined during those years, tax records show.
It is one of at least 20 nonprofit and for-profit corporations that Long founded after becoming pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in 1987. Long's businesses include a music publishing company and a transportation service.
The charity's compensation to Long over that four-year period included:
A $1.4 million six-bedroom, nine-bath home on 20 acres in Lithonia.
Use of a $350,000 luxury Bentley automobile.
More than $1 million in salary, including $494,000 in 2000.
Long said the charity, which reported that it stopped doing business after 2000, did not solicit donations from New Birth members. It reported that its income included royalties, speaking fees and several large donations.
The charity made $3.1 million in donations to others between 1997 and 2000, the records show, but they did not contain any itemized breakdown of the donations, as required by the Internal Revenue Service.
Nonprofit groups are exempt from paying state and federal income taxes if they meet certain criteria. In return, the federal tax code says their executives' benefits may not be excessive.
Long and his wife, Vanessa, were two of the charity's four board members. The charity gave a third board member, Terrance Thornton, a $160,000 loan in 1999 to buy a home site across the street from Long's house, tax records show.
Long's tax attorney, J. David Epstein, said an independent compensation committee, along with a second committee within New Birth and a national accounting firm, oversaw those decisions. He declined to identify the firm or members of the committees.
Long, 52, defended his compensation during an interview about his charity. He's transformed New Birth, based in Lithonia, from a 300-member church to a 25,000-member megachurch with a global presence, according to the church's Web site.
"We're not just a church, we're an international corporation," Long said. "We're not just a bumbling bunch of preachers who can't talk and all we're doing is baptizing babies. I deal with the White House. I deal with Tony Blair. I deal with presidents around this world. I pastor a multimillion-dollar congregation.
"You've got to put me on a different scale than the little black preacher sitting over there that's supposed to be just getting by because the people are suffering."
Where else would a rich White liberal bigot like Wright live ?
He’ll fit in fine. He’s whiter than I am.
A $10M LOC would be based on roughly $10M in EQUITY equity in the property/improvements...or else a bank officer has grossly breached shareholder trust and due diligence, methinks.
Paging some experts...
I suspect that the line of credit is co-secured by the property and by the collection plate. A great deal of revenue comes in to that church.
When the teachers unions in California fought the proposition on the ballot that would have required yearly approval to use union dues for politics, they took out a loan for $50 million for a last-minute advertising blitz. That loan was secured by ....................... teachers’ salaries.
This gated golf course neighborhood is probably the most upscale part of Tinsley Park, too......I’ll bet that this upscale gated community is not even “2%” black..... maybe Wright, like Jesse Jackson, gets scared when he’s on the street and sees young black men behind him...... so he’s moved to a place where he doesn’t have to confront the phenomenon of street crime, safely ensconced behind secure gates. So much for his devotion to his “brothers” in the ‘hood.....
btw, who ever heard of a fancy mansion nowadays being built for only $100/square foot (10,000 sq ft for $1 million???). I’d guess that it’s more like a $4-5 million mansion, at least...... there must be a reason for that $10 million line of credit.
Says quite a bit about this ‘pastor’. He too good to live in the same neighborhoods his parishioners do? Apparently so. Isn’t he afraid all that surrounding Whiteness will rub off on him?
If his congregation is stupid enough to foot the bill for such hypocrisy shame on them.
Mr Wright and his wife Ramah will not be the poor relations in their new and overwhelmingly white neighbourhood. The property will boast four bedrooms, a whirlpool, butler’s pantry, elevator, exercise room, circular driveway and four-car garage.
During his 36 years at its helm, Rev Wright built up Trinity from a church with 87 members to a congregation of 10,000 that includes many of the most influential figures in black Chicago.
I excerpted the key points I wanted to address from the article. This nasty, hateful, racist old country, and that hateful God who has for some reason smiled on it, sure did treat Mr. Wright horribly. I'm white, educated, and worked my @$$ off all my life, and I'll never have any of the above. I don't begrudge him a penny of what he's got; I wish he could afford a bigger house, in a better place.
What I DO find infuriating is for people like the Reverend Wright to complain about America, while gorging himself on its fruits. I'd be willing to be be called a n****r every day for the kind of remuneration he's gotten.
He's lived a fuller, more productive, more interesting, more lucrative life than I, a supposed member of the "ruling class". Again, I don't begrudge him that. I chose my life style. What I despise is someone like him crying about the evil system and what it's done to him. Ted Kennedy, John Edwards, the Clintons, and a bunch of others are on my list for the same sins, in case any of you think this is a race thing deep down inside.
My guess is they have accumulated a sizable endowment fund from their wealthy wannabe parishioners like Obama, buying acceptance, status and influence. Probably more than enough to pay for Wright's opulent lifestyle and provide security for a line of credit as well.
He probably got some government grant.
Oh it's definitely sleazy and cheesy all right, but I bet they have hired some first rate shysters to make sure it passes legal muster.
If the church owns it there would be no real estate taxes on it. Supporting schools, law enforcement etc.
I’m flattered...If I were a real estate expert, I would be posting on FR from my yacht. :-)
That said, I agree with your assessmet.
Really ? I'd be interested to hear about what the typical pastor receives upon retirement in America.
ANy Freepers care to comment ?
If a $10 million house in a gated community is the norm, I guess at my church we are a bunch of cheapskates.
I think we sent our pastor and his wife on a one-week cruise when he retired.
Then, he and his wife left to build a school for an Indian tribe in Mexico. He now lives there in a motor home, ministering to the Indians.
His calling did not stop when he retired.
Accding to BOT, Rev W owns two Mercedes worth $150,000.
As Dr. Dre said:
I moved out of the hood,can you blame me?
Niggas can’t hit niggas they can’t see
You’d probably move to a new house on a new hill
If niggas wanted you killed
Its either my life or yours
Now how much Tupac in you you got?
every group in America is described by their ethnicity except we “whites” are just “white”..
the Rev. does have a lot of white blood in him.....or so it seems....do you think he is going to belittle his white side like Barry Bama has done?
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