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File: This is BEATRIFUL Sessions. Every beat, beautiful.

Host: Seed Money. Six songs by SizzleC about a living public figure, the Atlanta preacher Creflo Dollar. SizzleC, before we play anything, what is this album?

Sizzle: It's the public record of an Atlanta prosperity preacher, from nineteen eighty-six to twenty twenty-two, in six songs. Eight people in a school cafeteria. A dome. Sixty-nine million dollars. A Senate inquiry. A case in Fayette County that was dismissed. A sixty-five million dollar jet campaign. And a sermon that took the tithing teaching back. It's commentary, and every factual line in it comes from a page you can go and read.

Host: He's a living person. How careful did you have to be?

Sizzle: Very careful. Every line about him, his wife Taffi, the church or the money is attributed inside the song itself. The paper said. The staff wrote. The board said. If I couldn't find the exact words on a page, the line didn't go in. The album has a sources page with every quote next to its link.

Host: And the sound. Honestly, it sounds like a crime film.

Sizzle: That's the tone, not the story. Every song opens in a crime-thriller score, low brass, a sub drone and war drums under a church organ. Then it switches hard into the Atlanta sound of that chapter's own era. Nineties Southern hip-hop, crunk, trap, and at the end, gospel house. The score is a mood. It is not an accusation. The story is the public record.

Host: Who is the preacher we hear at the top of the songs?

Sizzle: That's the Pastor. He's an original character I wrote, the voice of the offering plate, a generic prosperity-sermon cadence. He is not Creflo Dollar. He never quotes him, and he never says a number, a place or a date from the record. When you hear Dollar's own words in a song, the narrator tells you whose words they are and where they were printed.

1 · The Cafeteria

Sizzle: Song one. Nineteen eighty-six. The church's own history page says the first service of World Changers Ministries was held in the cafeteria of Kathleen Mitchell Elementary School, with eight attendees. Nine years later, the same page says, the church moved into the eight thousand five hundred seat World Dome, and it calls it a debt-free facility. The Pastor opens it. Don't look at the room, look at what's in your hand. Then it switches into nineties Atlanta, with live bass and a Hammond organ.

[song 01 — 01-the-cafeteria-take2.mp3]

Host: Eight people to eighty-five hundred seats. Is that the church telling its own story?

Sizzle: Partly, and the song says so. Debt-free, that's the way the church tells it, is in the hook on purpose. The eight people and the cafeteria are on the church's history page, and on Wikipedia, which cites that page. The Georgia filing is in the Senate staff review. World Changers was incorporated effective December thirtieth, nineteen ninety-four. And Wikipedia has the move into the current headquarters in December nineteen ninety-five.

Host: Lunch tables pushed back, planes low over the rooftops. Where did that come from?

Sizzle: That's paint. The tables pushed back on a Sunday, the airport rumbling over the roofs, the crowd outgrowing the room, remember that room when the lights get dim. All of that is my imagery, not the record. What the record does have is a step in between. The church's timeline says that in nineteen eighty-eight it acquired the former Atlanta Christian Center Church in College Park as its new location. So there was a new room two years later. The rest, I painted.

2 · Sixty-Nine Million

Sizzle: Song two is the money, two thousand six. The Pastor does the offering call. Lift it up, I can't hear the envelopes. Then it's mid two-thousands Atlanta crunk, with a hook that is just one number. Sixty-nine million. Where that number comes from is the whole song.

[song 02 — 02-sixty-nine-million-take1.mp3]

Host: So where does sixty-nine million come from?

Sizzle: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November two thousand seven. The paper wrote that the church took in sixty-nine million dollars in two thousand six, according to a brief report the church showed the paper. Not an audit. A brief report. The same fact box says the church claims thirty thousand members. And the Senate staff later noted that the church released that sixty-nine million figure after the Senate investigation began.

Host: And what did he say about the money at the time?

Sizzle: To be fair to him, he told the paper he was releasing some information about his and the church's finances because of the senator's probe, and that his own income is separate from the church's, from businesses he owns, investments and real estate. The salary is the part the Senate staff called conflicting. In January two thousand six, the New York Times reported his salary was set by a compensation board, and he declined to say what it was. Ten months later, in a television interview, he said he'd stopped taking a salary about two years before. In two thousand eight, he said he does not draw a salary.

Host: And there are three answers about the cars, too.

Sizzle: Three in the song. The New York Times in two thousand six, two Rolls-Royces, gifts from his congregants. WSB-TV, Channel Two, November two thousand seven, the Rolls-Royces belong to the church. The next day, to CBS, we don't have two Rolls-Royces, and the one that was purchased was purchased by the donors, and it was a surprise to me. In twenty fifteen, PolitiFact reported that a World Changers spokesman said he no longer uses those cars and drives a regular Mercedes sedan. The plates going round and the cameras on the corners are paint.

3 · Least Cooperative

Sizzle: Song three is the Senate. No Pastor at the top this time. It opens on a flat official voice reading the staff review over a ticking drone. Then it's late two-thousands Atlanta trap with orchestral brass, and the choir sings the staff's own two words.

[song 03 — 03-least-cooperative-take1-ext2.mp3]

Host: Least cooperative. Whose words are those?

Sizzle: The Senate Finance Committee's minority staff, in their review of World Changers. Despite repeated communications, the church did not provide responses to any of the questions, and was, therefore, the least cooperative. Senator Grassley had written to six ministries, in letters dated November fifth, two thousand seven, and Creflo and Taffi Dollar were on that list. The Associated Press reported the questionnaires asked about salaries, perks, travel and oversight.

Host: Did he ever explain why he wouldn't answer?

Sizzle: His side came through his lawyer, and that matters, because it's the lawyer's letter, not his own words. The Associated Press reported that his lawyer asked Grassley to either refer the matter to the IRS, or get a subpoena. In March two thousand eight, the senators wrote that the ministries still not cooperating were citing privacy protections, or questioning the committee's standing, and World Changers was one of them. And in January twenty eleven, Grassley's release said Creflo and Taffi Dollar declined to provide any of the requested information.

Host: So the staff went around the front door.

Sizzle: In their words, they ceased communicating with the church and its attorneys, and began obtaining information from public records and third parties. That's where the jet comes from. The staff wrote that FAA records show his primary means of travel was a nineteen eighty-four Gulfstream, tail number N one oh three C D, owned by World Heir, a for-profit company, with Creflo Dollar as CEO and Taffi Dollar as CFO and secretary. Then the flights. The staff wrote that some flights could not be verified and needed further explanation, one-day trips or trips to known vacation spots. That is an open question in a staff document, and the song says could not be verified, because that is all the staff said.

Host: And how did the whole inquiry end?

Sizzle: January twenty eleven. The Christian Post reported that the investigation concluded with a list of concerns and a call for a federal advisory committee, and that despite the lack of cooperation, no penalties were handed out. Wikipedia sums it up as no penalties or charges filed. The locked front door in the hook is paint. The rest of that song is the staff's own paper.

4 · Fayette County

Host: The next song is the hardest one. Before we play it, how did you handle it?

Sizzle: Carefully, and with less, on purpose. In June twenty twelve, he faced two misdemeanor charges in Fayette County, Georgia. He denied it from the start, in a statement released by his lawyer. In January twenty thirteen, the charges were dismissed after a pretrial intervention program. That is an allegation he denied, and a case that was closed. There's no Pastor on this song.

Host: And the song starts at the end. Why?

Sizzle: Because the end is the fact. The first words you hear are the county solicitor's, as Reuters reported them. As a result, the case against him is over. Then it's sparse, dark twenty-tens Atlanta trap, slow eight-oh-eights, and a hushed choir.

[song 04 — 04-fayette-county-take2.mp3]

Host: You left a lot out of that one.

Sizzle: I did, deliberately. The song says what the papers said about how it ended, and what he said about it. The charges on the sheet. His statement through his lawyer, I would never use my hand to ever cause bodily harm to my children. A pretrial intervention program. The solicitor said he paid about a thousand dollars in court fees, and the Journal-Constitution reported the program meant an anger management program and reporting to a probation officer. CBS wrote that he has consistently denied the allegations. That's where the song stops, and that's where I stop.

Host: And the house in the bridge, the two sides to every door?

Sizzle: Paint. Lord, have mercy on the house, two sides to every door. That's a mood for a closed case, not a description of anyone in it.

5 · Project G650

Sizzle: Song five. Twenty fourteen into twenty fifteen. The Pastor casts a vision, higher than the weather, over a rising jet-engine swell. Then it's mid twenty-tens triplet-flow trap, and the choir sings the campaign's own sentence. Turn this dream into a reality.

[song 05 — 05-project-g650-take2.mp3]

Host: Start with the old plane.

Sizzle: The Christian Post quoted the NTSB. On November twenty-fourth, twenty fourteen, his Gulfstream, tail number N one oh three C D, had a nose landing gear collapse during a runway excursion at London Biggin Hill. That's the same tail number the Senate staff traced to his for-profit company years before. In June, the church's board said an accident had left the ministry's aircraft declared a total loss. The ministry's old jet down on its chin, that one's paint.

Host: And then came the ask.

Sizzle: The Project G six fifty website, as Atlanta Black Star quoted it. The mission of Project G six fifty is to acquire a Gulfstream G six fifty airplane, so that Pastors Creflo and Taffi and World Changers Church International can continue to blanket the globe with the gospel of grace. We are believing for two hundred thousand people to give contributions of three hundred US dollars or more, to turn this dream into a reality. The Christian Post put the plane at sixty-five million dollars. By the middle of March the campaign page had been deactivated, and a public relations man who represents the ministry, not Dollar himself, told the Christian Post, there is no campaign, it's a moot point.

Host: And then he answered the critics.

Sizzle: In April, to his own church, in clips the press reported. I'm on my sabbatical, and the enemy's trying to discredit me. I never one time came to you and asked you for a dime for this airplane, did I? CNN, in the same report, pointed out that in March he did appeal in a video to friends from around the world, for donations to replace his nineteen eighty-four Gulfstream. Both are in the song, side by side.

Host: And the line everybody remembers.

Sizzle: The one the Christian Post put in its headline. If I want to believe God for a sixty-five million dollar plane, you cannot stop me. The clip shows his congregation rising to its feet and cheering. In June, the church's board wrote it plainly. We plan to acquire a Gulfstream G six fifty because it is the best. The nearly seventy million dollar price in the last verse is the Christian Post's number, not the board's.

6 · The Great Misunderstanding

Sizzle: Song six. June twenty-sixth, twenty twenty-two, a Sunday sermon billed The Great Misunderstanding. The Pastor comes back one last time, and this time he tells the room to put the envelope down. He is still my invented character, not Dollar. Then it's Atlanta soulful gospel house, a woman's lead and the choir.

[song 06 — 06-the-great-misunderstanding-take2.mp3]

Host: So in the end, he took the teaching back.

Sizzle: In his own words, as the Christian Post printed them. I want to start off by saying that I'm still growing, and the teachings that I've shared in times past on the subject of tithing were not correct. He said he could never understand it clearly because he had not yet been confronted with the Gospel of grace. And he told people to throw away every book, every tape and every video he ever did on the subject of tithing, unless it lines up with this.

Host: Did he apologize for any of it?

Sizzle: No, and he said so himself. I won't apologize, because if it wasn't for me going down that route, I wouldn't have ended up where I am now. He also said, I may lose some friends. Preachers may not invite me no more. The song keeps both. And the plates went round for decades is my own line. That is paint too, not the record.

Close

Host: Six songs. Where does the album leave Creflo Dollar?

Sizzle: Where the last song leaves him. Twenty twenty-two, in his own pulpit, telling people to throw the old tithing teaching away, under grace. Behind him, eight people in a cafeteria, a dome the church calls debt-free, a number from a brief report, a staff review that wrote least cooperative, and a case the county closed. I didn't need to invent a villain. The music sounds like a crime film because that's the mood of the score. The story is only what was printed, with the page beside it.

Host: Seed Money, six songs by SizzleC.

File: This has been BEATRIFUL Sessions. Every beat, beautiful. Find it all at beatriful dot com.