Prosperity gospel preacher and Trump evangelical adviser Kenneth Copeland has been in the news recently after he had a bit of a meltdown when he was confronted by a reporter from "Inside Edition" about his lavish lifestyle and, particularly, his ownership of a private jet.
Given that Copeland did not come off looking particularly good in this exchange, his right-wing allies are now rallying to his defense, with fellow Trump evangelical adviser James Robison declaring that this "is the kind of attack our President faces 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And if you love freedom and its foundation, and you love God and your neighbor, desiring the best for all of them, get ready to be ambushed yourself, because you are a target of the Deceiver."
Stephen Strang, publisher of Charisma magazine, also came to Copeland's defense and dedicated his most recent podcast to arguing that Copeland is simply too important to fly commercial or take a bus.
Strang argued that Copeland's infamous comment that he needs a private jet because commercial planes are nothing more than "a long tube with a bunch of demons" was simply hyperbole and an attempt at humor. Strang's argument is absurd, as anyone can watch Copeland's comments for themselves and see that they most certainly were nothing of the sort.
"Why is this so controversial?" Strang asked. "It is like a tube. It's very crowded and, you know, he'd be speaking a little bit in hyperbole, but there are people in those airplanes who are not spiritual. Sometimes they have to haul them off because they get into fights with each other. An airplane these days, commercial airline, is a flying bar, they serve alcohol ... There's a lot of things that are not spiritual and it's not necessarily a good environment."
Strang said that "there are demonic activities" and an atmosphere of "oppression" on commercial flights that someone like Copeland simply shouldn't have to endure as he travels the world spreading the Gospel.
"You could make the same argument about a bus," Strang said later in the podcast. "Taking a bus is a whole lot less expensive than buying a car, making payments on it, paying the insurance, paying that gas and maintenance on it. But I'll tell you what, almost no one takes the bus unless they have no other option because it is so inconvenient."
"If we have the means for a car, it gets us where we need to go when we need to go," he added. "If you have the means for an airplane—whether you're a politician, or a businessman, or the head of a large ministry with hundreds of employees, with ministry locations all over the world—you do that ... I have no criticism of Copeland having an airplane."
