A pastor who said he did not use church money when he bought his wife a $200,000 Lamborghini as an anniversary gift lives in a $1.8 million house paid for by the church.

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Pastor John Gray, who leads megachurch Relentless Church and is an associate pastor at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church, was widely criticized in December after spending $200,000 on a Lamborghini for his wife as an anniversary gift.

He defended the lavish purchase, saying he bought it as a husband, not a pastor. At the same time, Gray was living in a $1.8 million house purchased by the church in October, the Greenville News reported.

"This is not anything new," Travis Hayes, chief financial officer for Relentless, told the Greenville News. "This is a practice that is done with every denomination in the nation. That's what this is. This is an asset that belongs to the church."

Gray did not comment to the Greenville News.

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State Sen. Marty Harbin (R-Tyrone) speaks during a state Senate Ethics Committee hearing on election security at the Paul D. Coverdell Legislative Office Building in Atlanta on Wednesday, November 1, 2023. Harbin is the main sponsor of SB 120, which would withhold state funding or state-administered federal money to any public school or college that implements DEI policies. (Arvin Temkar / arvin.temkar@ajc.com)

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com