quote:NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP (Detroit) -- A Redford Township church that believes wealth is God's reward is raising eyebrows for buying its pastor a $3.65 million mansion and taking it off the tax rolls.
This month, township officials grudgingly conceded they had no choice but to remove the 11,000-square-foot home overlooking Maybury State Park from its assessment rolls, losing $40,000 annually in taxes.
They concluded the plush pad is a parsonage, but that hasn't quelled debate among township officials and neighbors about whether Christian charity extends to the Detroit World Outreach Church's purchase in September of the home for Pastor Ben Gibert and his wife and co-pastor, Charisse Gibert.
"I also have faith in God, but I don't expect to live in such opulence," said Evgenia Asimakis, a single mother of two who lives nearby and has trouble paying her property taxes. Her neighbor, Gary Wall, is blunter: "You don't need a multimillion-dollar place to see God. He'll take a lot less."
Detroit World Outreach Church isn't apologizing. In fact, members say the mansion is proof God has blessed them. The 4,000-member church is part of a growing movement that preaches prosperity. Also known as "health and wealth" theology, the ideology preaches that God wants followers to do well, be healthy and have rewards -- such as the $50,000 Cadillac Escalade the church bought the Giberts, who have four children.
1 Timothy 6:5: and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
Nothing has changed, has it? You and me, let us not be overcome with evil or envy but overcome evil with good.
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