A televangelist in Louisiana has a problem he needs his disciples’ help with: he’s due for a new private jet.
In a video published to his website last week, televangelist Jesse Duplantis asked his followers for help in defraying the cost of a $54 million Dassault Falcon 7X private jet, according to the local Times-Picayune newspaper. Of course, Duplantis has already had three private jets over the past several decades. And all of them have been paid for by his Jesse Duplantis Ministry. But the trouble is, he’s “just been burning them up for the Lord Jesus Christ.”
In a tweet last week, Duplantis teased his “This Week with Jesse” video, saying that it illustrated “the importance of using aviation as an amazing tool for evangelizing the world.” He said in the clip, according to the newspaper, that having a jet that could get him “anywhere in the world in one stop” would help him evangelize and ostensibly share his teachings.
The Dassault Falcon 7X would certainly do the trick. It’s been blessed with three engines and can travel nearly 6,000 nautical miles on a single leg. Best of all, it can carry up to 16 passengers, so Duplantis doesn’t need to be alone.
“I want you to believe in me for a Falcon 7X,” Duplantis said, according to the Times-Picayune. He then asked his followers to “pray about becoming a partner to it.”
But if they’re still not sold on the idea, Duplantis had one more thought.
“I really believe that if the Lord Jesus Christ was physically on the Earth today, he wouldn’t be riding a donkey,” Duplantis said in the video, according to the report. “He’d be in an airplane flying all over the world.”