Public Response
The public seemed to have a few words to say regarding this $200k purchase for Aventer Gray. My limited research has revealed over 80 tweets using the advanced search script: John Gray (“Lamborghini” OR “Lambo” OR “car”) lang:en. I have also compiled over 30 Reddits across a number of subreddits and nearly 30 articles from news outlets or blog posts who covered this controversy.
I discovered 86 tweets that fit into the 6 themes outline below:
Defense for gray
congregation blame
theft/money reassignment
taxes
cheater/pattern of behavior*
John Gray's infidelity and subsequent scandals are not explored in this project, but I deeply recognize that part of the outrage is linked to broader issues of Gray's character and actions. I explore this briefly in my reflection.
news article
I found 32 posts from reddit. All the posts were solely news articles, but there are interesting implications of the subreddits where news was posted.
/r/removalbot
/r/littlenews
/r/Jowanonline
/r/USATODAYauto
/u/ncarlo
/u/ThrillBlender
/r/houston
​
/r/betternews
/r/Protestant
/r/schenectady
/r/FreeAtheism
/r/exmormon
/r/atheism
/r/atheism
/r/atheism
​
​
/r/atheism
/r/blackladies
/r/Christinaity
/r/news
/r/BreakingNews24hr
/r/BreakingNEws24hr
/r/TYTnetwork
These subreddits yield from two distinct frameworks: news readers and religious groups.
news articles
This controversy was fiercely covered in the news. I found 26 articles that range in length, popularity, and focus. Below is a list of all the article titles and a word cloud of the word usage in the text of these articles.
Notice: "Pastor" , "car", "church", "wife", "money", "media" , "God", "purchase", "gift"
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Should a megachurch pastor be lambasted for buying his wife a $200,000 Lamborghini?
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Pastor John Gray defends decision to buy wife Lamborghini for anniversary
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Pastor who came under fire for buying wife $200,000 Lamborghini revealed to live in $1.8MILLION home
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PASTOR JOHN GRAY REACTS TO HARSH CRITICISM AFTER BUYING HIS WIFE A $200K LAMBORGHINI [VIDEO]
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Pastor John Gray draws flak for gifting wife $200K Lamborghini Urus for anniversary
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With tears, John Gray defends gift to wife: No Relentless Church money used to buy Lamborghini
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SC pastor was ‘failing as a husband,’ bought wife a Lamborghini. She blames the devil
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Megachurch pastor John Gray defends $200K Lamborghini purchase for wife
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Megachurch Pastor Passionately Defends Giving Wife A $200K Lamborghini Urus. BYLINE: John Gray, a pastor of Relentless Church in Greenville, South Carolina, is unapologetic about using personal funds to buy his wife an extravagant anniversary present.
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SOUTH CAROLINA PASTOR JOHN GRAY DEFENDS BUYING WIFE $200,000 LAMBORGHINI FOR ANNIVERSARY
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Pastor John Gray defiantly defends buying wife $200K Lamborghini with Ephesians 5
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With tears, Lakewood Pastor John Gray defends $200K Lamborghini anniversary gift to wife (In an Instagram video taken at the celebration Saturday, John Gray, pastor of Relentless Church in Greenville, SC, led his wife to a bow-wrapped car and handed her the keys while saying "Lamborghini Urus.")
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Houston pastor on $200K Lamborghini gift: 'It wasn’t a pastor that bought the car. It was a husband'
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Pastor John Gray under fire for $200,000 Lamborghini bought for wife, an Alabama native
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Pastor John Gray allegedly bought wife $200K Lamborghini after cheating
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John Gray says he made ‘faith deposit’ on wife’s $200K Lamborghini as she defends lavish gift
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Pastor John Gray Accused of Buying Wife Lamborghini Because She Allegedly Learned Of His Pregnant Mistress
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Megachurch Pastor John Gray is Defending His Purchase of a $200,000 Lamborghini BYLINE: While he’s certainly taken a lot of heat for it, pastor John Gray isn’t apologetic about his recent major purchase.
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Pastor Gray on Lamborghini Purchase
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Why did Pastor John Gray really buy his wife a new Lamborghini?
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Pastor John Gray Defends Gifting His Wife A $200K Lamborghini For Their Anniversary
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Preacher with Joel Osteen's Lakewood church who worked with Donald Trump now under fire for giving his wife a $200,000 Lamborghini as an anniversary gift. (John Gray, currently pastor of Relentless Church in Greenville, South Carolina, was seen on video giving the pricey gift to his wife
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Aventer Gray, his wife of eight years, received a Lamborghini Urus)
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The Grays received a social media backlash for the extravagant spending of a megachurch preacher
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Both Grays took to social media to strongly defend the purchase, clarifying that no church funds were used
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Emotional pastor defends $200K Lamborghini purchase for wife
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PASTOR JOHN GRAY SLAMMED FOR BUYING WIFE $200,000 LAMBORGHINI
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Is social media right to grill megachurch pastor John Gray for buying wife a Lamborghini?
news outlet titles
linguistic analysis
Of all the responses to John Gray's present to his wife, newspapers and tweets were the most striking. In order to analyze how and what people were responding to, I used LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) to gain further insight. The software textually analyses "the degree to which various categories of words are used in a text." Here are a few insights from the analysis:
1
Newspaper Text
Word Count
13127
Negations
1.87
Positive Emotion
2.31
Reward
1.15
Focus Past
6.00
Negative Emotion
1.68
Cognitive Processing
7.77
Focus Present
8.75
Money
Religion
2.51
3.44
Tweet Text
Word Count
3049
Negations
0.98
Positive Emotion
1.31
Reward
0.75
Focus Past
3.25
Negative Emotion
2.33
Cognitive Processing
5.90
Focus Present
5.51
Money
Religion
3.61
5.35
These findings indicate the broader public response has focused on his identity as a religious leader and the financial implications of the car purchase with more negative emotion than news media. News media show twice as much positive emotion and far more cognitive processing. In other words, there is evidence that the populous was not quite receptive to his purchase. People were frustrated and upset with Gray. He was not operating as he "should". More importantly, he did not meet the high standard se before him: excellence and/or perfection. These are some of the questions the public was hoping to find answers to:
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Where did this money come from?
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How could he afford this?
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Did he use the church's funds for personal gain?
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Should a pastor be rich?
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Should a pastor flaunt his wealth?
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Should a preacher commit to a life of poverty?
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Can a pastor be wealthy and not corrupt?
1
Tausczik, Y. R., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2010). The psychological meaning of words: LIWC and computerized text analysis methods. Journal of language and social psychology, 29(1), 24-54.