Texas-Based Televangelist Faces Scrutiny For Using 3 Private Jets

U.S. pastor under investigation for using 3 private jets.

A Texas-based televangelist is being scrutinized following an ongoing TV meet in which he safeguarded his utilization of three personal jets and alluded to people in general as "a lot of devils" that he expected to maintain a strategic distance from while setting up his lessons.

Kenneth Copeland, chief of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, was confronted by reporter Lisa Guerrero of “Inside Edition” in May while in his car outside an event in Branson, Mo.

Upon questioned why he needs the private jets, Copeland responded: “If I flew commercial, I’d have to stop 65 percent of what I’m doing.”

Guerrero then asks Copeland about a past statement attributed to him, in which he reportedly said he doesn’t use commercial airlines because he doesn’t “want to get into a tube with a bunch of demons.”

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Copeland appears to become annoyed by the question and denies referring people to demons.

“Don’t you ever say I did!” the preacher growled at the reporter.

Copeland typically refuses to address inquiries concerning his buys, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The preacher’s organization runs 22 churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and operates a 1,500-acre campus that entails an airstrip and a hangar for its planes, the report said.

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According to the newspaper, Copeland’s third jet, a Gulfstream V, was bought in January 2018 from Hollywood star Tyler Perry.

But the evangelist tells Guerrero in the meeting that he got a decent cost on the airplane and didn't overspend.

Copeland, however, declined to disclose a specific price, upon asking. As such he told it was really none of Guerrero’s business.

Neither Copeland nor his ministry answered when the Star-Telegram asked for their reaction to the Inside Edition interview, the newspaper reported.

Copeland is a long way from the main religious pioneer connected to costly buys.

In December, a South Carolina minister burned through $200,000 on a Lamborghini as a commemoration present for his better half.

Pastor John Gray, leader of the Relentless Church in Greenville, was widely panned on social media but still defended the deal.

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Gray said the pastor often buys his wife the expensive car and stressed ‘husband is the one who bought the car, not a priest.’ He also addressed the rumor that he used some church money to pay for the Lamborghini.

Gray swore on God taking his life if he had used such money. Last May, Louisiana-based preacher Jesse Duplantis announced he was seeking donations so he could buy a $54 million private jet.

At the time, Duplantis said he really believed that if Jesus was physically on the Earth, he wouldn’t be riding a donkey. Duplantis said he’d instead be in an airplane preaching the gospel all over the world.