Net Worth: $30 million Isn’t it interesting that politics and religion seem so often to go hand in hand? As with many of the pastors on this list, John Danforth’s career took him as far into the realm of politics as it did into the world of religion. Danforth served as Missouri’s Attorney General for seven years, his tenure spanning from 1969 to 1976. From there, he went on to serve for 19 years in the US senate. Danforth, in fact, had a remarkably illustrious political career, having also headed up the investigation of the 1993 Waco siege, and later working as Ambassador to the United Nations for the US from 2004 to 2005.
It wasn’t until he retired from politics that Danforth really started dedicating energy and time to serving as an Episcopal priest. Though, during his tenure as Ambassador to the UN, he did officiate the funeral of former US president, Ronald Reagan.
Kenneth Copeland
Net Worth: $26.5 million Another of the more famous preachers on our list, Kenneth Copeland has also been at the center of a fair amount of controversy over the course of his career. The televangelist falls under the banner of the Charismatic Movement and preaches the infamous prosperity gospel, also known as seed faith, which we described before (aka: send us your money and the Lord will send you abundance, we promise). Unsurprisingly, this lucrative form of ministry cops a fair amount of heat from all walks of society, brought into question by atheists as much as other Christians.
Copeland has also been criticized for encouraging an anti-vaccination mentality among his followers and for raising funds for charitable actions that were never actually followed through on. For example, Copeland fundraised for “Angel Flight 44,” a mission that was supposed to deliver aid to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. However the mission was never even attempted, let alone completed. Meanwhile, Copeland had, just the year before, attempted to claim tax exempt status for his $3.6 million dollar private jet.
Creflo Dollar
Net Worth: $27 million With a name like Creflo Dollar, you surely won’t be surprised to learn that this televangelist is also a fan of Copeland’s favorite kind of ministry: seed faith. He is a non-denominational pastor who founded Georgia’s World Changers Church International. While the results of ascribing to the prosperity gospel are, at best, questionable for the followers who send money, there’s no doubt this form of ministry makes the pastors who espouse it monumentally wealthy. With a $27 million net worth, Dollar is the proud owner of a private jet, two shiny Rolls-Royce's, and a fat real estate portfolio which includes two multi-million dollar homes, one in Atlanta and one in New Jersey. Not to mention his inner Manhattan home which he put on the market for a cool $3.75 million.
The things Dollar requests his followers to send him money for are truly astounding. While Copeland at least gives the premise of wanting to help out people in need (whether he follows through on it or not is a different matter), Dollar genuinely called for his followers to donate funds to pay for a new private jet when his own Gulfstream III crashed at Biggin Hill Airport in the UK. That’s $60 million total he was asking everyday Americans for, so he could have a shiny new Gulfstream G650. And he eventually got what he wanted.
Benny Hinn
Net Worth: $42 million Benny Hinn is arguably the ultimate archetype of a televangelist. The Israeli-born Pentecostal minister even freaked his Greek Orthodox family out, not simply by converting but by becoming what they felt was something of a religious fanatic. Indeed, Hinn was responsible for the “Miracle Crusades” of the '80s. These you certainly will have seen footage of. Hinn would pack out stadiums in which energetic revivalist meetings would be held, complete with the frenetic chaos of faith healing. All of this would be broadcast to a worldwide audience.
Like most faith healers, Hinn claimed to have the miraculous power to bring sight to the blind, cure cancer, reverse AIDS, and even repair damaged limbs; though he stopped short of claiming to be able to regrow amputations. While skeptics had been throwing shade of Hinn’s capabilities for some time, they were really brought into question when he was hospitalized with shortness of breath (that he apparently couldn’t clear up with his powers) soon after returning to California from spreading his ministry in Brazil. Since then, investigations have been conducted and no confirmed cases of permanent healing from an encounter with Hinn could be found.
Robert Tilton
Net Worth: $50 million You’ve probably seen the American televangelist’s infomercial-esque program, Success-N-Life. While he doesn’t offer free knife sets, he does teach that any hardships viewers may be experiencing – poverty in particular – are as a result of their own sin. Conveniently, the best way out of the self-made predicament is to send money to Tilton, thus planting a seed of prosperity through the penance and faith embodied in the act. Tilton doesn’t ask for small amounts from these poverty-stricken people either. Apparently $1,000 is a minimum benchmark for impressing the Lord enough to be blessed with material abundance in return.
Tilton was investigated in the early '90s by Diane Sawyer, who’s piece aired on ABC News. Among other shocking revelations, Sawyer depicted Tilton throwing away prayer requests from viewers, his only interest being in the money they were accompanied by. Around this time, Tilton’s ministry was hitting its peak, pulling in around $80 million each year. After his fraudulent ways were brought to light in the media, however, many donors sued the minister, meaning the incredible $50 million he’s sitting on today is actually a step down for him. Guess he needs to starts planting more seeds.