Post by Watchman on Sept 5, 2007 15:00:23 GMT -5
By Julia Duin
September 5, 2007
A violent confrontation between two married black televangelists — one of whom has a cyber-church based in the District — has shocked black and white Pentecostalists nationwide after the husband, Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III, reportedly beat up and choked his wife, Juanita Bynum, last month in an Atlanta parking lot.
"The black church cannot allow this present incidence involving Bishop Weeks to go unanswered nor unchallenged," said the Rev. Anthony Evans, head of the District-based National Black Church Initiative, which claims 16,000 black- and Hispanic-affiliated churches.
"No matter who had the moral high ground in their discussion regarding their marriage, Bishop Weeks' actions were morally wrong and reprehensible. ... The black church will not in this and any other case justify Bishop Weeks' or any other person's action when it comes to spousal abuse. Too often, the church has remained silent, but not anymore."
In an editorial published yesterday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bishop T.D. Jakes, the nationally known pastor of the Potter's House Church in Dallas and mentor to Mrs. Bynum, said he was "concerned and saddened" by the incident.
"Perhaps this is a teaching opportunity to awaken us to the fact that thousands of women are beaten and many killed by someone who says they love them," he wrote.
J. Lee Grady, editor of the Pentecostal-oriented Charisma magazine, referred to the incident in an editorial as "this painful drama." The editorial was posted Thursday on the magazine's Web site, www. charismamag.com.
"After all," he added, "Christian leaders are not supposed to be linked to domestic violence, irreconcilable differences or gay sex scandals. Ideally they should be role models of integrity who live what they preach."
The Aug. 21 confrontation, according to numerous Atlanta press accounts, occurred at about 4 a.m. in the parking lot of a hotel near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The husband and wife, who had been separated for several months, met for dinner to iron out their differences