Speak Out!

I don't think the church condones Pastor Weeks' behavior, but they clearly support him. This is no different from the Catholic Church supporting priests who have been accused of sexual abuse. The support is always there, acceptance of the behavior is not. What makes this situation different is the fact that Pastor Weeks "owns" his church. So, who will address his wrong doing? The answer is his congregation must address the actions of their leader, otherwise they are not being true to him (or Ms. Bynum). If he has taught his flock anything, they will do what needs to be done. Clearly Pastor Weeks will not do so on his own.

I heard an internal voice one day saying: "Upon the backs of men I have built my Church, then why are my children still sleeping?"

As long as men keep going to the pulpit and keep preaching about our sins and our being "not worthy" of the glory of God, we will forever fall short. God created perfect beings, who are eternally perfect in HIS/HER eyes, we are the ones who have turned away from our Divine nature, to instead believe that we are incapable and unworthy of such Divine stature; therefore, as a man thinks so is he...

In my opinion, the Church (for the most part) today, preaches by habit with their theatrical fire and brimstone messages. This becomes a learned thing and quite frankly in many cases, lacks deep sincerity. Needless to say, there is very little surprise that the lives of these church leaders from time to time do reveal a lifestyle not in sync with their preaching; Ted Haggard, Jim Bakker, Bishop Terry Hornbuckle, Larry Crocker, a North Texas pastor at Lakeview Christian Church, Dr. Joe Ratliff, pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church, Robert Tilton and the list goes on and on..

My point is that most preachers today are talking about a God of the intellect and not the Supreme Presence guiding their moment to moment consciousness. Teaching and preaching about A God of the intellect deals with information gathered from books (including the Bible) and other people's interpretations. Teaching about the Presence who dwells in our consciousness 24/7 becomes a knowing because it becomes your actual life's experience taking it out of the realm of the intellect into a "living testimony"... moment by moment reality. And therein lies the difference; if more and more preachers were engaged in this internal path toward their re-connection to God, then God would never have to ask, why are His/Her children still sleeping.

I fear we sleep because our Ministers are also sleeping. How many preachers today can lead their congregation through the practice of literally quieting the mind to hear the still, small voice of God? Very few I fear, because they themselves have no idea how to do so. How many have actually practiced the art of allowing the Holy Spirit into their being (literally as an energy wave) to heal our internal wounds and comfort our souls? Again, very few I fear.

For me, my worship of the Divine is very simple.... GOD IS LOVE, therefore my effort on this earth is to make a conscious effort in every single moment, to think, speak and act with the consciousness that is GOD... think love, speak love, be love. Sounds crazy, but anything else is not of God and man-made. Therefore, the day that all churches stop preaching prejudice and the alienation of others because they are different, when they begin to focus on our Divinity (the most awesome aspect as we are in God's image), when they begin to proclaim our only objective as assimilating our God-like nature, which is LOVE... then and only then, will my hope for the church be restored.... until then, there will be more like Bishop Thomas Weeks who continually demonstrate that we sleep....
"Love is the answer"

The reported cheering condones the behavior. I am a (former) member of Global Destiny ministry in Duluth, GA. After observing inappropriate behavior by T. Weeks, the LORD laid on my heart in 2006, to pray for the woman of G-d to see him for what he is and for her to get away from her husband's Jim Jones spirit. Who knew it would turn out like this? The congregation may have been drinking grape Kool-Aid (Weeks is desperate so this is still a possibility), if Juanita Bynum had not become the sacrifice and taken the stripes for His people.

You can distance yourself from a leader, mourn for them as Samuel did for Saul and remain in the will of the Most High G-d.

Case and Point - When the prophet Samuel informs King Saul, who has been ordained the first king of Israel that the kingdom was being taken from him by G-d because of his disobedience, the bible states after they parted, the two men never conversed again (1 Samuel 15:1-35).

I have not gone back and hope the remaining members will refuse the communion cup - you know? Grape Kool-Aid or juice laced with cyanide. Jim Jones oh excuse the Freudian slip I meant Thomas Weeks, III - desperate leader under investigation. Get the picture? CUT BAIT, IN THE NAME OF JESHUA HA MESHIACH {*_*}

Some of the most profoundly wrong events seem requisite to stimulate us to proper thought and action. This is a warning and wake up call for the church. There are many great men and women of the cloth that I admire and respect, but they are still just men and women.

Many make selfless sacrifice, and provide outstanding guidance to their congregations, but they still fall short of God's wisdom and glory. A crime has been committed by a man, and justice should be demanded. If the church remains silent they are accessories to this crime.

When we violate each other we have violated God whose very essence is Love. What are our churches representing and is our theology and life philosophy sound? You and I are “the houses that God built”, and when we fail to exemplify the powerful and great Love that God has for us by loving one another, we dishonor that house.

The certain things we have going on is just that “we have certain things going on”, and if it is our sincere desire to eliminate these “things”, let's do it through our thought, word, and action. Let it begin with you and I, the building blocks of the church; shouldn't we speak out against violence and injustice if we are truly the houses that God built? Let’s hold ourselves accountable for our actions and when we fall, this means some deep soul searching and separation from business as usual. Perhaps then we can make recompense by first forgiving ourselves, asking those we have violated for forgiveness, and disavowing anything unlike God. I pray that we will all recognize that humility requires meekness with the discarding of pride.

Peace be with you

Tavis,

This is not the first time this happened with Ike and Tina, excuse me I mean Weeks and Bynum. This is the first it was witnessed in a public place. They have been heard cursing at each other and some other devilish things on other occasions. He openly admitted that he enjoys when she curses at him when they are having sex. (TMI)

This man was in a marriage with another woman when they met. They were having problems and his wife was ready to call it quits. She prayed that their marriage would be healed. Then months later she told him that God told her he was going to be her husband. He divorced his first wife and planned a million dollar wedding with Nita. She made him marry both of her hands. Then a few months ago she came out and said, she made a mistake, God didn't tell her he was going to be her husband; it was the flesh. She confronted him about his rumored gay lifestyle, but he got mad and walked away, so she went after him and threw gas on the fire. (My mother told me at a young age that a woman will not let a man go that's good to her).

When I read it on BAW, I was nervous. I couldn't believe this Bishop Weeks could do something like that.

No I don't think they will support him, once they find out he was living a double life. Plus there are many pastors speaking against physical and sexual abuse .

As an ordained minister, I have learned that certain things are still kept under the rug: silent. Even if those things are abusive to someone else. There is a culture and a code with the culture that determines whether we talk or not talk. Just like the code of blue with police officers, there is the code of silence with ministers.

One reason, I often ponder, is the old saying let us not air our dirty laundry. Another reason may be that so many "Black" men and women are negatively categorized, that to reveal certain things would be to add fuel to the fire. The reason I begin this way is that this abusive marriage did not just suddenly happen. Time will tell how long the abuse has been taking place, and who knew about the abuse and did not intervene. Just because one has a "mega-church" does not give that man or woman authority or power to do whatever they want to do without any accountability.

Second, why is it that when trouble takes place, it is the fault of the devil? "The devil made me do it." What is that? Why do we give the devil so much credit? The devil may have taken advantage of the situation, but the decision to beat, to hit, to hurt another human being was the decision of a man who allowed his ego, his jealousy, his envy, his insecurity to influence him. Believers understand that the devil works to destroy, but much of the mess that takes place is mess that we created ourselves. We need to stop blaming the devil, and start taking responsibility for our decisions and our actions; and if the devil is getting at us, then we need to do what we need to do to put ourselves in a position to fight against the devil, especially pastors.

I believe every pastor needs a pastor, and every pastor needs to remind him/herself that he/she is human and we are not ever so far removed from sin, that we cannot and will not make mistakes. It is when we make the mistakes, that we need to have the courage to accept, acknowledge and admit our wrong, and begin the process of amending the damage that we have caused.

Well it appears to me that we fight against racism with more zeal than sexism. Sexism and crimes against women are hushed or pushed under the rug. I think Weeks' church condones his behavior because they did not raise their arms together and tell him no more.

As human beings, we will all make mistakes. So to forgive in this case is divine. However, I cannot stomach sending mixed messages to our daughters and sons that this behavior is acceptable. They should both sit down somewhere and be quiet. He should publicly and privately atone. And he should suspend himself from the public or pulpit until the atonement process is through. He should then ask permission of his parishioners to be welcomed back into the fold. How does God give you the gift of a woman and you then abuse it physically and mentally. It is a disrespect to the God Himself. If he had struck Jesus, we'd have more to say. But it's just a her. She must have done something to provoke him. This is what we say. This is not the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I always wonder of those seeking to get to heaven, what could you really say to God about the mistreatment of women. After he left you the vicegerent, you have done nothing but damage and cause distress and done nothing in the way of providing her safety, security and protection. How shameful. When history records this era or generation, we will have been described as the most uncivilized of them all, even with all the advancement in technology and knowledge. Our actions towards women are like that of a caveman, the lowest of animals and the like. My heart breaks for my daughters who will have no choice but to accept abusive men or being alone. What a choice they will have to choose when God has already declared the union of the two.

It's hard to say if the church is condoning his behavior. Right now, we're looking at one church, and that's his own. I remember hearing as a child that you should always stick behind your pastor. Well, me personally, I feel that he's still human, and who knows what made him react the way he did. I will still call wrong, wrong. Now as a church, we can sit down and pray about it. Forgiveness can be giving, but, at the end of the day, he was wrong.