Waitaminute.
He sold the lot to his church? For how much and did he pay taxes on the gain? And the church presently owns the land on which he is building a home? And the church is presently liable for the mortgage on Wright's house?
Is this dude and this church going to get audited soon?
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.
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.
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.