The pastor of a megachurch in South Carolina, United States has
defended buying a $200,000 Lamborghini luxury car as gift for his
wife on their eighth wedding anniversary.
Pastor John Gray |
Pastor John Gray captured headlines over the weekend after an
Instagram video taken of the moment he handed his wife the keys to the
bow-wrapped “Lamborghini Urus” on Saturday went viral.
Gray, who is the pastor of Relentless Church, later stressed online
that he had purchased the vehicle for his wife, while rebutting critics
who raised suggestions about whether he bought the car with church
money.
“God helped me to make my wife’s dream come true,” Gray said in an
Instagram post on Tuesday. “Why not? She’s made mine come true!”
He then addressed the matter in a video on Facebook Live on Thursday,
in which he doubled down on his defence of the purchase and said “not a
nickel, not a penny” of money from the church went to the gift.
“First of all, it wasn’t a pastor that bought the car. It was a husband that bought the car,” Gray said in the video.
“I’m a husband first. Don’t confuse what I do with who I am. What I
do is I pastor God’s people. Who I am is a husband and a father and I’ll
do anything to honour them. And I won’t ask permission from anybody to
do it.”
“My wife has pushed for my dreams and my vision, and she has toiled
with a man who is still trying to find himself,” Gray continued. “That
carries a weight. I wanted to honor her for how she’s covered me.”
“What should concern people who are actually genuinely concerned is
‘did this man use any money from the church to do this?’ And the answer
is no, absolutely not,” he continued.
Some critics pointed to the pastor’s association with Lakewood Church
pastor Joel Osteen, who once proclaimed, “It’s God’s will for you to
live in prosperity instead of poverty.”
Osteen has also captured flak for his lifestyle, including living in a
$10.5 million mansion in River Oaks, according to the Houston
Chronicle.
However, other social media users supported Gray and his wife,
Aventer Gray, and questioned why people were critical of the purchase
given the pastor also has other forms of income.
Gray’s wife also jumped to her husband’s defense on Instagram,
mentioning a number of different projects her husband is currently
involved in – including a reality show on the Oprah Winfrey Network
(OWN) and his various book deals.
“I don’t see anyone screaming about how basketball players drive what
they do while you paying $$$ to see them play in arenas and on fields.
We don’t live for people! We live for God!” she said in the post.
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