A state lawmaker's proposal to rename part of Old National Highway in Fulton County in honor of the prosperity gospel preacher Rev. Creflo Dollar has been in the hopper for less than a week but is already drawing serious opposition.
An online petition posted on Monday by a political blogger seeking to block the legislation by State Sen. Donzella James, D-Atlanta, garnered 46 signatures within hours.
The Senate Resolution, SR 805, would rename Old National Highway from Jonesboro Road North to the bridge at Interstate 285 as the “Creflo Dollar Highway,” and marked as such with signs that would be erected and maintained by the Georgia Department of Transportation.
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, as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Kristina Torres reports.
James could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.
George Chidi, who writes for GeorgiaPol.com and also criticized Dollar in an Atlanta Magazine article last year, called the very idea "an affront."
"There may be 50,000 people in the world who adhere to his World Changers Church, but there are a heck of a lot more people who want nothing to do with prosperity gospel and don’t want him to have the government’s stamp of approval," Chidi said.
Dollar is the founder and senior pastor of World Changers Church International in College Park, as well as "a host of fellowship churches located throughout the United States and Australia," the resolution states.
Dollar also is a bestselling author and publisher of an online publication CHANGE magazine, and his "Changing the World" television broadcast reaches nearly a billion viewers.
"It is abundantly fitting and proper that this enduring example of God's message be recognized by dedicating a road in his honor," the resolution states. The legislation was filed on Friday.
Credit: Andria Brooks
Credit: Andria Brooks
Dollar is perhaps best known for what critics viewed as an audacious request to his congregation last year to pay for a $65 million luxury jet to facilitate his world travel for his ministry.
Dollar and other church leaders sought pledges from 200,000 of the faithful to donate $300-plus each toward the Gulfstream G650.
The board of World Changers Church International announced in June that it was ready to purchase the plane, according to the Washington Post.
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