Rev. Creflo Dollar on Fatherhood

What if one of your children came home and said they wanted to convert to Islam?

Well, hopefully, I've done a good job in raising my kid in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord so the Bible promises me that if I do that, that when they're old, they won't depart from it. But let's just say for some reason, that they came home and said, I want to convert over to this. I would challenge them to find out first, what it is that you're talking about. Do you understand what it is, go do research on it, find out what's happening and then compare it to what we've been teaching you all along, and then let's make a decision.

What if one of your children came home and said he or she was gay?

I'd probably do the same thing. But what I'm hoping on, what I'm betting on, is if I raise my kids in the word of God, in the nurture of God's word, then I'm also responsible for shaping their character. I'm responsible for who they are. Honestly, some of those things I wouldn't want to deal with it. But if I had to deal with it, you know the bottom line is they're my children, I'm gonna love 'em. I'm going to love them through the process and never give up on them; I'm going to love my kids no matter what. Because I believe that the power of love is strong enough to overcome anything.

How and what do you teach children about money?

Well, first of all, we teach our kids to value it. You don't take money. Some people just give money to their kids -- they don’t make them work for it, they don’t give them an understanding of how it's to be used. We come from the old school. We believe that when you become a teenager, you need to get a summer job, we believe that you need to have chores when you come home, we believe you need to clean your room up, and do what needs to be done. We also teach our kids that when God blesses you financially, you are blessed so that you can be a blessing to somebody else.

How can men and black men in particular become better fathers?

I think it's so important for every man to spend time with their kids. The kids sum it up in one way -- we want time. You can buy things; you can support us and give us a house, but time. I think a father has to make their children feel like they're significant and that they're valuable and that they hold value. It's important that fathers make a decision to put it on their schedule, to schedule time with their children -- imparting into their lives, spending time with them, setting the example up and telling them, "I love you", "I appreciate you" "You've impacted my life." I think that we need to take the time in building significance in our children, because they're hungry for that.

What do you tell you children about poor people here in the United States and around the world?

Well, basically, we use that as an opportunity to show our kids, how fortunate that they are. And we also use it to tell them how important it is for them to grow up and to be somebody so that they can help somebody who is not as fortunate to have a mommy and a daddy and a house or there were unfortunate things that happened. And not everybody's in the position you're in so don't look down at poor people. We used to be poor. The Bible even tells us to "Don't turn our face to the poor or you'll be looking at poverty yourself.” So there's a level of respect because we've got to understand that poor doesn't mean dumb or ignorant or stupid, it's just some unfortunate situations that took place.