Preacher Creflo Dollar is speaking out in support of his “friend,” fellow mega-church pastor and “brother in the Lord,” Eddie Long.

“That preacher is still anointed to what he was called to do. He just had a wreck. Blood will take care of his issue, just as it will take care of yours,” Dollar, the pastor and founder of World Changers Church International, said in a recent sermon.

His advocacy for Long did not stop after one sentence, however. Dollar told his congregation that he could not believe that people would leave their preacher because he had a “wreck,” instead of praying for him. Dollar also expressed that he did not want any of Long’s members attending his church.

Though he travels to New York weekly to deliver a sermon, Dollar’s main church is near Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

“Let me have a wreck. I wanna see how many of y’all Negros still gonna be here” he told the congregants. “If you from that church and you trying to join here, I don’t want you to join here.”

Dollar admits that he, as well as anyone else, is not perfect.                                

Dollar’s congregation exceeds 30,000 members and his church revenue has exceeded $69 million in the past. He has been criticized for his lavish lifestyle including his multiple Rolls-Royces, private jet and million dollar homes in Atlanta and Manhattan.

In 2007, Dollar, along with several other mega-church preachers including Long were under investigation by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to determine if personal profit was made from any financial donations. Dollar refused to cooperate and issued a legal letter stating that Grassley’s requests raised serious First Amendment concerns. 

(Photo: John Amis-Pool/Getty Images)