Kennet Copeland is one of the most hated and reviled American megachurch pastors. He is one of those "prosperity gospel" evangelical pastors who have become immensely successful and rich by preaching this form of exploitative theology. He is, indeed, a multi-millionaire who flies in his own private luxury jets and lives in multi-million-dollar mansions, not because he is the CEO of some huge company but because of donation money given to him by his followers. (And that's one of the key things that make "prosperity gospel" pastors so hated: They become super-rich without actually contributing anything to the economy or to society. They just get loads of money without helping produce or improve anything. They are, essentially, super-succcesful freeloaders.)
It doesn't exactly help that he just looks evil. Most pastors try to make themselves look as presentable and as sympathetic as possible, but not Ken. He seems to revel in his "evil villain" look.
Unsurprisingly, people just love to write articles and create videos deriding the guy. Most of the criticism is quite valid and deserved.
However, there's one very commonly cited criticism that I myself am not so sure is so legit.
In some Christian TV program he talked about why he always flew in private jets rather than commercial airplanes, and he said that the people in those airplanes are "demons". Or at least that's what the critics often like to claim.
Here's the exact quote of what he says in that interview:
"He used to fly airlines, but it got to the point where it was agitating him spiritually. He had become famous and they were wanting him to pray for them and all that. You can't manage that today. This dope filled world. You get in an airplane, you get in a long tube with a bunch of demons. And it's deadly."
In a later on-the-street interview by the show Inside Edition he was asked by the reporter if he believed that human beings are demons, and he responded very strongly:
"No, I do not! And don't you ever say I did!"
Of course most critics just think that he's lying and trying to deny what he said. However, I myself am willing to give him more of the benefit of the doubt in this particular case.
In that original interview he said that passenger airplanes are full of demons. He did not say that the people themselves are the demons. Evangelical Christians believe that the fallen angels who sided with Lucifer and were kicked out of Heaven are the demons, and angels are not people. They believe that these angels may roam the Earth and try to influence people, but they very clearly believe that angels are angels (even if fallen), and people are people, and they are two completely different things.
Some Christians may believe that people may get possessed by demons, but this varies from denomination to denomination. I have not researched the exact theology that Copeland believes in and preaches, but it may well be that he does believe that fallen angles, ie. "demons", can either fully possess, or at a very minimum influence a person so strongly that they can directly affect their behavior and thoughts (this is a relatively common belief among many American evangelical Christians.)
Either way, it doesn't really matter: American evangelical Christians, which also likely includes Kenneth Copeland, do not believe that people themselves are demons, or become demons, or anything of the sort. They can believe that demons "hover around" certain people that they have "possessed" or at least heavily influencing, and these bad spirits can be sensed by particularly sensitive Christians.
I consider it highly likely that when Copeland said "you get in a long tube with a bunch of demons", he was referring to evil spirits, ie. fallen angels, ie. "demons", to be there alongside the people, a bit like stalking them (and that sufficiently sensitive believers can sense them and be distraught by them). I highly doubt he meant that the people themselves are the demons. He was not calling the people themselves "demons".
Like or hate the guy, I don't think it's very constructive to deliberately misinterpret what he means when he speaks.
