Posted on 03/29/2008 6:54:50 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Church builds mansion for Obama's former pastor
March 29, 2008
By Kristen Schorsch, Staff writer
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright's four-bedroom home in Tinley Park will feature an elevator, a large family room with a fireplace and bar, a butler's pantry, a rubberized exercise room, a circular driveway, a four-car garage, a spare room for a future theater or swimming pool and a master bedroom with a whirlpool and custom shower as well as a fireplace and under-counter fridge, building plans show.
He would add to the mix of townhomes and multimillion dollar single-family homes that make up Odyssey Club, which backs up to Odyssey Country Club and golf course.
The subdivision has some of the largest homes in Tinley Park, said Trustee Greg Hannon, an avid golfer at the country club.
"I think it's where people kind of decide to get away from things," he said.
Wright's Tinley Park mansion is estimated to cost $1 million, a building permit shows. Trinity United Church of Christ, 400 W. 95th Street, Chicago, is listed as the landowner on the permit.
Wright could not be reached for comment. A business manager with the South Side church did not return a phone call for comment.
The pastor has made national news in recent weeks as one of his congregants - presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama - has been forced to comment on controversial words Wright has said from the pulpit.
Among the minister's inflammatory remarks was that U.S. foreign policy was to blame for terrorist attacks on Americans. He also blasted Obama's Democratic rival, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton.
"I am sick of negroes who just do not get it," Wright said. "Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single-parent home, Barack was. Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich, white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a nigger."
Wright has retired from preaching. Obama said on a Friday television appearance he would have left Trinity otherwise.
"Had the reverend not retired and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying there at the church," the Illinois senator said.
The Rev. J. Bennett Guess, communications director for the United Church of Christ national office, said local congregations decide how to spend their own money. At Trinity, pastors spend cash based on the contributions to their church, Guess said.
He added in a prepared statement: "It is customary and appropriate in many Christian denominations, including the United Church of Christ, for local churches to offer housing provisions for retiring clergy, especially in cases where pastors have served long-term pastorates.
We support efforts by our 5,700 local churches to ensure that retiring pastors and spouses have continuing housing, adequate pension and health care, as an expression of our continuing appreciation for their years of service. Each local UCC congregation is free to honor a retiring pastor in ways it feels most appropriate to address the needs of that clergyperson's circumstances."
Sounds like "Wright flight" to me!
Meagre profit for a man who sold out his pastoral obligation for the pottage of false, wicked theology.
I don’t know, but a person could get the idea that he prefers the company of rich white people.
This white person sure wouldn’t want “Rev.Racist” as a neighbor.
This upscale residential development is located in Tinley Park, Illinois. A gated, luxury golf course community in and around the championship Odyssey Golf Course. Featuring estate size single-family home sites and distinctive maintenance-free town homes. Ranch and two story town home models are available for viewing. Please come and visit us.
Nick Halikias, President
Map
Always said there was money to be made in the Race-Baiting Industry.
I think there is a course for this at ITT Tech.
Why do we care what type and size home does a church give it's pastor of over thirty years?
Granted the man is a racist, hate monger, anti American Marxist, but he didn't take a taxpayer dime to build it.
If his church wants to do this for him, so what? It's between him, his congregation and the IRS
He isn't the first guy to profit from peddling evil
He better make sure that the plans include several well grounded lightening rods!
It’s not the house - it’s the hypocracy.
There goes the neighborhood!Imagine owning a house on his street and trying to sell it.Think you’d get many offers when people found out Wright could be their neighbor?
The church doesn't pay income taxes.
The church is building this home with tax free money and the Rev. isn't paying any taxes on the money used either. There's no indication he's even paying the property taxes.
So relative to the rest of us who had to pay taxes on the money we used to buy a home this guy is off scott free. Hardly equitable.
Actually there is money to be made in the Jesus industry too. Preachers do it all the time. Wright didn’t need to go as far as he did.
http://www.modernconservative.com/the_metablog/1632_New_Hood_for_Obama%27s_Pastor.html
Jeff Goldblatt (Fox News) also reports that Wright purchased the property for $345K in 2004 and sold it to his church (Trinity) in 2006 for $308K, with the proceeds going to a living trust shared with his wife. His church then secured a $1.6 million mortgage for the home with a $10 million credit line.
Huh, I thought he was raised by his mother and Indonesian stepfather untill he was 10 or so, then by his grandparents?
True, so what about the thousands of small churches that have a small parish home for the local pastor?
We going to throw the baby out with the bathwater over one abused incident?
“He isn’t the first guy to profit from peddling evil”
Maybe why people get worked up is because of your last sentence. Worked up sometimes leads to thinking outside the box and finding ways to right the wrong, so to speak. Taking a ho-hum attitude insures that this kind of stuff continues. Yes, it’s legal, but that is such a cop-out. Too many discussions stop at, well it’s legal so let it be. No. Ho-hum was how Clinton handled Al Qaeda. Worked up is how Bush has handled Al Qaeda. This Reverend has personally profited from pedaling hate. That’s just not okay with me.
Yes, institutional racism in America has treated this person poorly.
I guess he made it OK in Whitey’s world. Truth is, he made his millions through the race industry which keeps minorities down by getting them to blame all their troubles on Whitey.
Heard a guy on the radio who knew the Rev back in high school. The Reb came from a upper middle class background, father a minister and his mother a assistant principal for a prestigous girls high school. The Rev attended an academic boys high school which was over 90% white and upper middle to upper class students. He wasn’t born a poor black man like Steve Martin in the Jerk.
The house says so much about Obama’s “uncle.”
Wright could have declined the church’s offer of the house. The house demonstrates the character of the person Obama says is his spiritual mentor.
He's (Wright) not a hypocrite.
The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
He knows full well what he is saying. If you are meaning 'how dare he take advantage of the American dream while spitting on America itself' That's elitism. He feels he entitled to spit on America because he is black and take advantage of her greatness.
Now Obama is the hypocrite, but this isn't his house.
“If his church wants to do this for him, so what? It’s between him, his congregation and the IRS
He isn’t the first guy to profit from peddling evil”
Absolutely right! But this surely is an important context for Wright’s rantings, isn’t it? I mean..Black theology wants Blacks to shun “middleclassedness” and to reject whites on all levels...and this guy chooses to reject everything he has been preaching. You are right... it is not the first time, but it IS the first time that Marxists like Wright are being exposed for their hypocrisy. Jesse Jackson and AL Sharpton have made big money on playing the race card and victimhood, yet nothing is said about it.
Let the church use the money this way if they want, but let Americans be aware of Obama’s choice of ministers and church...
Apparantly, he only whips up the hate, to better pass the plate.
But when he goes home, he doesn't go home among the po' oppressed black folks who made him a millionaire.
“A gated, luxury golf course community in and around the championship Odyssey Golf Course.”
.....
Does this mean he is going to take back what he said about Tiger Woods? What. a. hypocrite.
They don’t build multi million dollar mansions for them and are therefore not abusing it.
Yes, the key line being “His church then secured a $1.6 million mortgage for the home with a $10 million credit line.”. The “church” is the one who secured the loans not Wright. No income taxes for anyone and no property taxes for the Rev. It is all the “churches” name.
You want to equate a "small parish home" with Wright's mansion?
“A gated, luxury golf course community in and around the championship Odyssey Golf Course.”
.....
Does this mean he is going to take back what he said about Tiger Woods? What. a. hypocrite.
No. It just means he get’s a kick out of hitting White balls.
I wasn't
.... but the point is there do you draw the line and most importantly WHO draws the line on what a church does with the monies voluntarily given by people of their own free will
Almost all churches have some type of governing bodies, the leadership of the church is accountable to, some are outside the church itself, some are part of the church and in many cases it's both
As long as this deal was legal, it's between the membership and God.
Personally, I think they are going to be mighty surprised on what God has to say about it in the long run
See post #36
Hows about an explanation for the 10 million dollar line of credit....
There is a certain irony that none of this housing will be considered taxable income. Under my proposed Fair Tax plan, liberals would have to pay 80% of the federal tax burden, while conservatives would have to fund 20$ to cover the military and some other stuff.
I'd wondered about the demographic make-up of the area.
Just sleazy and hypocrisy in the extreme.
And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
I could care less if Wright takes money from the collection plate to build himself a 10,000 square foot ten million dollar mansion.
It’s the amazing hypocrisy that is galling: he made the millions by slamming “whitey,” Ameroca and capitalism to his black flock in the ‘hood.
But when he builds his dream mansion, it’s in an all-white gated golf community 18 miles from his ‘hood and his beloved black flock.
Not too shabby. I'm guessing the only "people of color" will be maintaining the grounds.
It's 18 miles from his former church.
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