The Old Black Church

A South Georgia pastor will forfeit the Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan he bought with nearly $150,000 in fraudulent pandemic business disaster loans in accordance with a plea agreement after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud. Mack Devon Knight, 45, of Kingsland, Georgia, pleaded guilty to the charges on March 25, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia said. Knight admitted sending fictitious documents to the U.S. Small Business Administration, including a fake tax document and an altered bank record.   He will serve up to 20 years in prison and face financial penalties and restitution as well as three years of supervised release after completion of any prison sentence. The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case. Court documents and testimony showed that in February and March 2021, Knight applied for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) from the SBA on behalf of multiple Camden County, Georgia, businesses.  In addition to being a p

Some on social media are accusing Evangelist Jekalyn Carr of selling out her anointed look and Gospel message for entertainment purposes. Some are saying that this woman of God has really kept her heart towards God! She’s been faithful in her Christian walk, seeking God with her whole heart, mind, and soul. And that she’s the Prophetess assigned to the Nation.  Last Friday night, March 11the Atlanta Hawks hosted its Faith & Family Night during the team’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers.  As part of the entertainment , the dynamic and multiple award-winning Gospel artist Jekalyn Carr perform at both halftime and postgame. Anyone who visits this blog on a regular knows that I'm a big supporter of Jekalyn Carr's ministry. Jekalyn began singing and ministering professionally when she was only 15 years old. Less than a decade later, she is one of the top-selling independent recording artists in Gospel music with nine Billboard No.1’s. Check out the YouTube video below and

Last night I felt bad after watching what happened to Chris Rock at the hands of Will Smith. If anyone believes Will Smith was defending his wife by committing a criminal act has not been following this family’s story. I commend Chris rock for his composure and professionalism.  Chris probably got paid a little money to tell a few of the polite laughter-inducing jokes that one hears constantly at these shows and suddenly he has to hear how a guy he's been friendly with for years is a hero for assaulting him over a freaking GI Jane joke. No wonder all he could say is “Wow!”  I'm not sure what's wrong with Will Smith or what's going on in his personal life. His actions can't be explained with this nonsense about standing up for loved ones or bald women though. Let's not make Smith a hero because of this. People need to with the foolishness, Jada has a battle with Alopecia. It’s not like she’s really battling a deadly disease. This isn’t cancer or due to Chemo tr

Dr. Jerome V. Harris A retired minister has filed a class-action lawsuit against the African Methodist Episcopal Church after nearly $100 million has gone missing from the church's retirement fund after "foolish" investments, forcing the denomination to freeze plan funds and distributions as it investigates the matter with the help of federal agencies. The AME Church last month halted making payments to retired ministers on its pension plan after it unearthed possible payment irregularities. The denomination is one of the largest Black Protestant churches, having as many as 2.5 million members, according to a Wall Street Journal report. According to the same report, the church had approximately $120 million in retirement assets in 2017.

 According to The Christian Post Senior Reporter Leonardo Blair , less than two weeks after Reed Bogard abruptly resigned as lead pastor of the now-defunct Hillsong Dallas church in January 2021, an internal investigation commissioned by Hillsong Global showed that the married father of three was accused of rape by a junior female staff member with whom he had a monthslong sexual affair while serving at Hillsong NYC years earlier. The former junior Hillsong NYC staffer who asked not to be publicly named in this report when contacted by The Christian Post said she has been trying to move on with her life. She confirmed she participated in a deposition concerning the allegation but would not say anything more than what was already included in the report.

American Jews say they were blindsided by the U.S. Senate’s lightning-fast passage of a bill to make daylight saving time year-round and intend to fight it. On March 15, the United States Senate unanimously approved a bill to make daylight saving time permanent. The bill still needs to be approved by the House and signed by President Joe Biden to take effect. The Sunshine Protection Act, which passed the Senate on March 15, will make it nearly impossible for Jews to pray communally in the morning, Jewish advocates say, and still, get to work or school on time during the winter months. According to Jewish law, morning prayers must take place after the sun rises. Daylight saving time, which currently begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, extends darkness on late-winter mornings. Daylight saving time, which currently begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, extends darkness on late-winter mornings. https://

I first blog about this in 2020, when this news was first announced you can read it here  and below.  Shortly after the announcement of the resignation of Hillsong Church's founder Brian Houston, Hillsong Atlanta's senior pastor Sam Collier has also announced that he is stepping down. Sam Collier, the first-ever Black lead pastor of a Hillsong church, has announced he is stepping down from his position in the wake of the slew of scandals surrounding the church and its founder, Brian Houston.  you can read about it here:  Hillsong Atlanta was launched in October 2020 with Collier being the first Black American to be appointed as a senior pastor in the mega-church. Collier announced, " It is with great sadness that I inform you of my departure from Hillsong. I have appreciated the Hillsong family and want to thank the Houstons for the love they have shown Toni and me. " Collier believed that the young church in Atlanta may not withstand the scandals surrounding the

Hundreds are mourning the death of a beloved Florida pastor who passed away as the result of a tragic drowning shortly after being rescued from a lake. Shawn Thomas, a former youth pastor who was recently appointed to lead Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, was rescued by Seminole Fire Rescue on Friday at around 2:17 p.m. First responders arrived at Lake Seminole regarding a call about a capsized boat with two occupants on board. They were able to bring Thomas and his friend to shore safely. A few hours later, Pastor Thomas phoned another friend, Joe Wright, and asked if he could come to help him retrieve his boat from the water. When Wright arrived, the two men went out into the lake. Once returning to his disabled vessel, Thomas tied a rope between the boats. However, things took a turn for the worse when Thomas’s boat flipped over and dragged him into the water.

As social media has proven to be a platform that has made a lot of people famous and rich, by the same token every social media user and celebrity around the world knows it can also pull those at the top down at any point. Case and point the following post.  It's being alleged on these internet streets and on TikTok, that Jessi Bailey and Associate Pastor Christian Gray are some naughty people. The pastor's wife has taken to TikTok in an effort to call the now couple out. The wife is stating that the daughter was born with a birth defect and had a life-long illness that required constant care and that he abandoned his family. I read his dissertation on how he "tried," but I guess he didn't try enough. He never mentioned anything about counseling, I am pretty sure that this family needed additional support, self-care, and counseling services because of the strain of parenting a sick child. There had to be a lot going on. And, he leaned on someone else, the other wo

And it just keeps coming……The board of directors of Hillsong, the global megachurch and music empire co-founded by Australian pastor Brian Houston, released a statement Friday (March 18) addressing two complaints about Houston, including an accusation that the married pastor had spent time alone in a hotel room with a woman in 2019. In the statement, which came as the story was breaking in the Australian press, said the Hillsong board has been “dealing with two complaints made against Pastor Brian over the last 10 years,” and said each was investigated by a board member, or “a body appointed by the global board,” and dealt with confidentiality. The other complaint related to an accusation that Houston had flirted with a staff member over text message a decade ago. Prior to the statement being released, Hillsong reportedly held a video meeting with 800 Hillsong staffers around the world in which interim senior pastor Phil Dooley, who is leading the church while Houston is on leave due t

 Why would Believers pay to watch a sex tape of this Pastor? Is that not considered porn? It has been made extremely clear by Larry's post below that it's a sex video between two men. Now I don't understand why anyone holding up the Christian banner would pay to watch this? It's alleged that Pastor Dywane Dawkins Sr. pastor of Praise Tabernacle International in Fort Lauderdale FL, has a XXX Homosexual Sex Tape on Only Fans. Larry has uploaded the video in his Patron and offering it to his subscribers.     

Jussie Smollett was released from jail, in my opinion, he shouldn't be there. Trying the whole case was a waste of taxpayer money. Have the man pay a fine and move on or probation. Jail was a ridiculous outcome for a nonviolent crime. The criminal justice system is deeply flawed and biased. I don't know what happened that night, but I do know it's been repeatedly proven that police, courts, etc are corrupt and severely disproportionately harsh on black people. He insists, that the two accused were coerced by police to cooperate under arrest, that's not far-fetched, considering this is America.  Supposedly an eyewitness in Jessie's defense was suppressed. But even if it is all untrue, this doesn't seem like a crime that should carry incarceration.     Jussie Smollett has been released from jail in Chicago after an appeals court agreed with his lawyers that he should be free pending the appeal of the Black and gay actor's conviction for lying to police about

When I first moved to Jacksonville FL in 2008 one of my coworkers invited me and hubby to Celebration Church which was at the time her home church, inwhich we kindly decline.   Anyhow, the founders of Celebration Church, one of the largest churches in the Jacksonville FL area, are in a legal dispute with the church that involves allegations of financial misconduct and fraud. Stovall and Kerri Weems, who founded Celebration Church in 1998, filed a lawsuit for injunctive relief against Celebration Church on February 23, alleging a church trustee was improperly billing the church and was setting the scene to oust Stovall Weems from the church he built. The Weems also said they’ve been threatened with arrest if they come onto church property. Celebration Church responded saying this is the “latest chapter in a campaign of deception, manipulation, distraction, and abuse of power by Stovall and Kerri Weems against Celebration.” Celebration’s motion also alleges the couple improperly used o

Last week former pastor Jared Olivetti had his ordination and elder status revoked by the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America after an investigation ruled he mishandled child sex abuse allegations within the church.  Immanuel recorded an attendance of 137 members in 2018, making it the fifth-largest reformed Presbyterian congregation in the state.  In addition to Olivetti’s defrocking (the removal of a clergy’s rights to exercise their functions in the ordained ministry), his church membership privileges were also suspended, Meaning that the former pastor will not be allowed to partake in the sacraments, such as communion. According to the announcement sent to the IndyStar regarding the investigation, Olivetti’s church membership privileges will not be reinstated until “penitence and new obedience on his part has shown him worthy of the exercise of those privileges, and until this Court restores his ordination.” The West Lafayette, Indiana pastor resigned along with three o

A federal appeals court on Thursday said the pop superstar Katy Perry and her team were not liable to a hip-hop artist who claimed they copied her No. 1 hit Dark Horse from his Christian rap song. In a 3-0 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Flame, whose given name is Marcus Gray, did not deserve damages for copyright infringement over a musical pattern he said Perry, 37, borrowed from his song Joyful Noise. The Pasadena, California-based court said the eight-note pattern, known as an ostinato, consisted ‘entirely of commonplace musical elements’ that lacked the ‘quantum of originality needed for copyright protection. A Los Angeles jury had in July 2019 awarded Flame and two other plaintiffs $2.79 million, including $550,000 from Perry and $1.29 million from her label Capitol Records, part of Universal Music Group. Source Here:

How can a loving father cosign foolishness like this? As long as I live, I’ll never understand why more people don’t express fury over the horrible atrocities that some church leaders have committed and continue to commit. I suppose the answer is that our whole society has been, itself, indoctrinated to accept their behavior as normal.  In a sense, our entire culture has been groomed to become an accessory for abuse.  Anyhow it’s being reported that the 63-year-old “Bishop” of Christ Apostolic Temple Church married an 18-year-old girl who grew up in his church and recently graduated from his church’s high school not long after her 18th birthday. Christ Apostolic Temple is a Jesus Only, Apostolic and Holiness church. The sad reality? This happens all too often in the apostolic church. Grooming right in front of our eyes and we stay quiet and “mind our business”. At some point, silence makes you an accomplice~Bishop Demetrius Sinegal 

 I've seen this play out up close and personal. I was introduced to Mary Kay in the early '80s with the promise of making good money. My recruiter, at the time, was the church's, first lady. She tried to sell me, on being a Mary Kay consultant, telling me that I could make great money doing it. She told me the technique I used to apply my own makeup would/could be my way of selling the brand, but the thing about that was I wasn't using Mary Kay products because I didn't like the product, it was not a dark skin-friendly product. I was a Fashion Fair and Flori Roberts kind of girl. There are a lot of first ladies within the black church community who are Mary Kay Consultants exploiting their pew sitters.  They use religion and other inspirational bull to “inspire” women who go broke. They prey on the weakest among us. Same technique the televangelist cults use. Pyramid schemes are scamming those who are ignorant enough to play along, plain and simple.   

 How can we expect to have a government representative of the people if our census data doesn't accurately reflect the population? Nothing like doing a national census during a pandemic where people did not want to be contacted regardless of the reason. New U.S. Census Bureau data shows how Black people, Latinos, and Native Americans were undercounted in the 2020 national census, while white people and Asian Americans were overcounted. The national census is used to determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives. When this process is bungled it ensures that we can't appropriately apportion seats.  

Saw this book mentioned in one of my Facebook groups, a lot of people were getting upset over this, but be aware this is a very real and growing movement that believes this. The book was published a month ago.. not very surprised at all... It's the culmination of a brainwashed false conservative right deception.  This does not mean every nutty Trump supporter feels this way, however, there is a very large growing group that fully believes he is a messiah that is coming to save the world and that should be concerning for bible believers.

They need to do an internal investigation, this is nonsense freezing retirement funds, instead of bringing to justice those who are responsible. Do the right thing. One of the nation’s largest Black Protestant denominations has stopped making payments to retired ministers on its pension plan, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Ministers are worried about their savings after the AME Church suspended retirement payments and said federal law enforcement is investigating funds managed by the church.    According to The Wall Street Journal 📸 The Rev. Dr. Dale B. Snyder Sr., pastor of Bethel AME Church in Pittsburgh, is among those whose retirement accounts are frozen. ‘I try not to be angry, but it breaks my heart,’ he said. From the story: "The African Methodist Episcopal Church, among the largest U.S. Protestant denominations, has suspended retirement payments and discussed steep cuts to the savings of its ministers amid an investigation into missing funds, accordin

According to a source,78year old Paul B Dyal, pastor of the Jacksonville Assembly of the Body of Christ on Old Kings Road North was arrested last night after a coordinated police raid on the church.  Multiple sources told News4JAX the arrest capped a long-standing investigation into sexual abuse, and there could be more arrests. Dyal is expected to appear before a judge on the charge Thursday afternoon. News4JAX is looking into Dyal’s background and the charge and will have more on this story throughout the day. 

Oh my god, this is too much.  In 2001, the wife of a child abuser went to the pastors at John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church (GCC) for help. But instead of protecting her and her kids, she says GCC subjected her to spiritually abusive counseling and used church discipline to try and coerce her to take her husband back into the family’s home. When she refused, John MacArthur publicly shamed the woman, Eileen Gray, in front of his 8,000-member congregation.   Today, Eileen’s former husband, David Gray, is serving 21 years to life in a California prison for aggravated child molestation, corporal injury to a child, and child abuse. But the story of what Eileen suffered at the hands of MacArthur and GCC has never before been told. In the article linked below, Julie tells that story. She also shares an exclusive video of MacArthur’s public shaming; exclusive first-hand testimony from Eileen and the LAPD detective who investigated the case; and numerous court documents revealing GCC’s

Until recently, Pastor Bruxy Cavey was the lead teaching pastor at The Meeting House (TMH), based in Oakville, Ontario. At the end of November 2021, a woman brought an allegation of sexual misconduct to The Oversight Board of TMH involving Bruxy. The Board immediately placed Bruxy on leave and initiated an independent third-party investigator to investigate the allegations. A few days ago, the Board released the findings of the investigation and asked Bruxy to resign, which he did. Bruxy has posted a confession on his blog (www.bruxy.com) . From what I can gather, he was counseling his victim....it was his responsibility as her pastor and counselor to maintain a professional and safe relationship with her....he abused his power over her...this is a particularly heartbreaking example of clergy abuse.   

This is some interesting news that Voddie Baucham may be running for President of the SBC. Current SBC President Ed Litton isn’t seeking re-election. My question is Voddie Baucham even an actual Southern Baptist? And aren't the people backing him for SBC President the same folks who were mega-concerned about the current President Litton's plagiarism? Renowned Southern Baptist preacher Voddie Baucham, who denounced critical race theory and the social justice movement in his latest book, Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe, confirmed Friday that he has been asked to “accept a nomination for SBC President.  Will he also denounce American history that’s been told for decades? Critical Race Theory is America’s absolute Truth in real history. Voddie Baucham has sold his soul, I wonder who brought it. White America? BREAKING: Voddie Baucham says he's been asked to accept nomination for SBC president https://t.co/hSHH106ySl — The Chris

Kanye West has been making headlines for his social media antics as the rapper continuously taking shots at Kim Kardashian’s boyfriend Pete Davidson, and also threatening the comedian. This will not end well for Kanye. I said when he first started those “Sunday services”, there was something dangerous about a man with narcissistic and manipulative traits trying to lead a religious movement. Then again some of the biggest scandals/takedowns in the church have occurred because of people with these personality traits running churches and movements. The abuse is sickening and the silence of so many in the church is disturbing and unfortunately. Thank you Candice Benbow for pointing it out.    

I remember years ago Pastors Taffy and Creflo Dollar came under fire from the Christian community because their underage daughter allegedly was doing some extremely vulgar rapping. Fast forward to today, the internet is seemly calling Elevation Church Pastor Steven Furtick and his wife out for a similar thing. Folks are saying that 1 Timothy and 3 says that one of the qualifications of a pastor is that... "He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity, but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?  You be the judge. Steven Furtick of Elevation Church has a son who just released a new song. Under the name of "DoTheDash" which means "run from the cops after committing a crime", he says some very questionable lyrics, and the videos seem to be shot by someone on the staff of the youth team.  This is disheartening. I understand (as a parent) being pro

The daughter of former cult leader-turned-child killer 'Mother Anna' has opened up about growing up in her mother's twisted 'House of Prayer,' recalling how she watched two children die of starvation and abuse. Joy Fluker says she grew up living under the power of mind control. She says her mother, Anna Young, was the leader of the extreme religious sect, “House of Prayer,” where she abused members. Joy Fluker's mother, whose real name was Anna Young, died in prison last March at age 79 after spending just 42 days behind bars for the deaths of toddlers Emon Harper and Katonya Jackson in the 1980s. It was Fluker who had called the police in 2016 to report that her mother had killed Harper decades earlier while running her tightly-controlled religious community in Micanopy, Florida.