PBI - Preacher Bureau of Investigation 2012 All Rights Reserved
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Exposing The Greed In Our Pulpits
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Hey Bishop J.D.Wiley Something Is Not Adding Up!
-$2 Million = ?
Life Center Cathedral Still Having Church In A Tent 7 Years After Hurricane Katrina
PimpPreacher.com New Orleans Bureau 03/22/2012
Almost seven years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the last family living in federally provided temporary housing in the city has moved out of their trailer, but not the case with Life Center Cathedral where Bishop J.D. Wiley is the Pastor.
As a citizen of New Orleans, and someone who lost everything in the now historic storm I know firsthand how difficult it can be to recover, but I recovered. This past weekend as I drove down General DeGaulle Dr., in New Orleans (known locally as the West Bank - 70114) on my way to pick up my daughter, I couldn’t help but notice the ruins to my right formally known as Life Center Cathedral.
Bishop J.D. Wiley
Ruins that have now become a part of the backdrop of the Algiers as all of the locals go about their daily lives totally oblivious to this half of a church building. There it has sat year after year and no one seems to care when the construction will resume on the building or when the congregation will move out of their worship tents.
That’s right, and you heard me correctly, worship tents. I remember Muammar Kaddafi's visit to the UN in September of 2009, and the entire spectacle surrounding his tent which he preferred over State accommodations. Truly a ridiculous extreme in order to prove a point, but eventually we all got the point. Muammar Kaddafi was a little off his rocker, but can someone please explain Bishop J.D. Wiley?
The Question Is?
Not the song made famous by the Winans (who also performed at the funeral service for the late Whitney Houston), but the real “Question Is” what happened to the insurance money awarded to repair Life Center Cathedral? According to a 2011 interview with WDSU TV 6 News of New Orleans, Bishop Wiley blamed the stalled construction on a contractor that he claims beat the church out of $2 million. In the same interview Bishop Wiley explained and I quote:
"Fortunately, we had no trouble with our insurance company as many people, churches and individuals did. Our trouble was (the) contractor."
The interesting fact that wasn’t made clear during the 2011 interview was whether or not Bishop Wiley filed criminal charges against the contractor that he claimed failed to repair the church after receiving what appeared to be the full cost of construction upfront.
I also found it unusual that Bishop J.D. Wiley never mentioned the name of the contractor that he claimed hustled the church out of $2 million if for no other reason than to warn other potential customers in New Orleans.
Nope, not a word of the company that beat Life Center Cathedral out of an insurance award that would have restored the once adorned church to its original condition perhaps five years ago. For a man known for his extensive vocabulary, and gift of articulation, why so much silence when it comes to identifying the company or individual that stole money from his members? With a stolen insurance payout of $2 million dollars and the fact that the money belonged to a so-called Non Profit, how difficult would have been to get a prosecutor to file charges of Contractor Fraud against the guilty party?
All of these questions and more just simply roll off the top of my head, but no one within his current flock of tent dwellers can seem to muster up the gall to call Bishop Wiley out when it comes to what really happened to the money.
Here are a few more questions for Bishop Wiley (in my African American Voice).
• Bishop Wiley, you mean to tell me that you handed a guy $2 million without even doing a basic background check or even something as simple as a Google Search?
• Bishop Wiley, you mean to tell me that there was no agreement to pay the contractor in three portions (one third at the start of the project, one third midway, and the final third once the project was completed) which is a recommended practice suggested by the Better Business Bureau?
• Bishop Wiley, you mean to tell me that you alone made the decision on how to spend $2 million in a Non- Profit organization that was supposed to have a governing board?
I can go on and on, but the reality is Life Center Cathedral remains in ruins and the members of this congregation remain in a church tent Sunday after Sunday while Bishop Wiley has been given a Get Out Of Jail Free Card. At least up until now.
Spiritual Arithmetic
In the same WDSU interview Bishop J.D. Wiley indicated that Life Center Cathedral once proudly had over 8000 members in attendance before Hurricane Katrina, but now has only 1600 members who attend the tent services every week.
When I read his current attendance numbers I couldn’t help but notice that Bishop Wiley still has 1600 members attending his church services weekly in a tent!
When it’s cold, their service is in a tent. When it’s hot, their church services are in held in a tent. During the pouring rain, and year after year, all of their church services are being held in the same tent. So what about all of the tithes & offerings Bishop Wiley has collected weekly from the 1600 members since Hurricane Katrina?
I decided to do a little math based on Bishop Wiley’s remaining 1600 members and I think you will find the numbers very intriguing to say the least.
Let’s say each one of the 1600 members at Life Center Cathedral gave only $20 in weekly donations (we know many give more than $20) but we will use this dollar amount for example.
1600 Members x $20 per week = $32,000 each week
$32,000 x 52 weeks yearly = $1,664,000.00 per year
$1,664,000.00 x 5 (we took off two years and counted from 2007) = $8,320,000.00
That’s right, Bishop Wiley even on the low end would have collected $8.3 million dollars off his 1600 members since 2007. Here is another mathematical fact for you, we didn’t even count his bible studies, additional Sunday Services or Pastor Appreciation gifts, but only $20 a week donated by 1600 members.
Even if Bishop Wiley lost the entire insurance check to a scam artist contractor, you can clearly see that even on the low end, Bishop Wiley should have collected more than the $2 million he lost to the contractor. Something is not adding up!!!!
To The 1600 Members
In The Tent
Have you even considered the fact that Bishop Wiley was collecting tithes & offerings off 8000 members before Katrina, what happened to all of that money? Regardless of the perpetrator, there is no excuse for Life Center Cathedral to still have church services in a tent.
Maybe the remaining 1600 members should realize what the 6400 members that left realized, Bishop Wiley has been a poor manager of their tithes and offerings. If the so-called purpose of the tithe was to make sure that there was meat in the so-called storehouse then Bishop Wiley better head to Wal-mart and get some meat real quick.
The storehouse at Life Center Cathedral has obviously been empty for a very long time – and clearly explains why there were no funds available to replace the insurance money that was stolen.
This is an accountability issue at its core, and no man is exempt from being held accountable, I don’t care how much you love him. In not holding Bishop Wiley accountable for $2 million you are actually stunting his spiritual growth, because he has gotten away with not giving you full disclosure.
Or maybe he has given you full disclosure into what happened to the money that was provided by the insurance company but you mistook the forgiveness of God for an acquittal from the Judgment of God, and for this oversight you now deserve the tent you sitting in.
It is my belief that there was never a faulty contractor at fault here but rather a greedy pastor. A Pastor that would rather you sit in a hot tent before spending $2 million dollars to provide you with heat in the winter, and A/C in the summer.
Like a battered woman who refuses to leave her wife beater, at some point the abuse will become your fault. If he loves you so much then why hasn’t Bishop Wiley made his residential home in the same tent you’re asked to worship in? Just another question for you, your pastor, and your tent.
Since Pastors love to place Christians under the Law in order to justify the collection of tithes (used to build buildings) I have now placed all Pastors under the following Law. Enjoy
Exodus 22:1-8
1. If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.
2. If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
3. If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
4. If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double.
5. If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man's field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution.
6. If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.
7. If a man shall deliver unto his neighbour money or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man's house; if the thief be found, let him pay double.
8. If the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges, to see whether he have put his hand unto his neighbour's goods.
Church Folk Revolution
