Oyarzo had a list of controversies the Copelands have faced and asked Acuña about the family’s “lavish lifestyle” and the “infamous tube full of demons comment.”
Regarding the “tube full of demons” remark, Acuña said, “First of all, that actually wasn’t my grandfather. That was someone else that said that in a conversation with my grandfather.”
Copeland did in fact make the comment about demons in a conversation with prosperity preacher Jesse Duplantis in which the two were discussing the benefits of having a private jet versus flying commercial. The two agreed that private jets allowed for moments of quiet before God not available when flying commercial.
“Now, Oral [Roberts] used to fly airlines, but…even back there then, man, it got to the place where it was agitating his spirit,” Kenneth Copeland said during the discussion. “People coming up to him, he had become famous and they wanting him to pray for him and all that. You can’t manage that today, this dope-filled world, and get in a long tube with a bunch of demons. And it’s deadly.”
Acuña said she believed the “heart” of Copeland’s comments came from the fact that someone had attacked him while he was traveling commercial. “My grandfather does not think that flying on an airline is flying with a tube full of demons,” said Acuña. “I would like to say, show me an airline that can keep up with my grandfather’s schedule and we’ll sell the jet tomorrow.” She also said that the ministry has “designated funds,” meaning no one is donating money to fund Copeland’s private jet without knowing it.
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To the question of how she feels about public investigations into the Copeland family, Acuña said, “Honestly, I think people are bored…it’s just like a fun thing to go crazy about. I honestly don’t understand—if people knew what my grandfather [was] actually worth, they would be so bored.”
Acuña next responded to accusations that Kenneth Copeland takes advantage of people by promising them that if they donate money to his ministry, God will work a miracle, such as healing them of cancer.
“That is not what we believe,” she said. “We do not treat God as a vending machine.”
“We do believe in the law of prosperity, which the Bible distinctly talks about,” she continued. “Like I said, when you drop something and it falls, it’s the law of gravity. The Bible talks about the law of prosperity. Whatsoever you sow, you’ll reap. And we just have repeated that.”
“So if someone is in a position and they’re like, ‘Wow, I don’t have any money, and this person’s saying that if I sow $10, I’m going to reap a harvest,’ that is something that I believe,” said Acuña, “but it’s also what the world believes. So, I don’t understand…again, karma, Law of Attraction—it’s the same thing.”
