Posted on Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Hope Carpenter, former First Lady of Pastor John Gray’s Relentless Church, Threatens Greenville News With a Knife, Saying ‘I Cut People!’

Hello World,

Pastor Hope Carpenter aine no Beyoncé or Hillary Clinton for matter. There is no hot sauce in her bag. On Sunday, the former First Lady and co-founder (along her with her husband Pastor Ron Carpenter) of Redemption World Outreach Center in Greenville, South Carolina, returned to her church renamed Relentless Church under Pastor John Gray and told the congregation, “I cut people. I got a knife right there in that pocketbook. Greenville News, come on.” That’s right Greenville News, pull up on the pastor if you want to…(I can only imagine the discussions taking place in the newsroom about this…)

If you don’t believe me, see for yourselves…Go to about :35…

Her sharp (LOL) words were part of an overall public show of support for Pastor John and his wife Aventer Gray, who took over the church after the Carpenters left. As you probably know, the Grays have been really going through some thangs in terms of the all of the media coverage they have garnered. She told the Grays, “I love you, Pastor John and Pastor Aventer. I believe in you. I’m praying for you. I’m rooting for you.”

As far as The Greenville News is concerned, the media outlet recently ran this story: John Gray asks Relentless Church members to give $250K to help pay for church roof. Daniel J. Gross reported that, “Redemption had accrued substantial debt that Relentless has had to assume responsibility for when Gray took over. ‘(Ron Carpenter) handed us keys. The keys were not to a paid off building, the keys were to an opportunity, an opportunity to continue the work,’ Gray said. “Nothing you see is paid off. It wasn’t paid off when we got here.'”

The article ended with this paragraph: “Gray and Relentless Church came back into the spotlight in January when The Greenville News reported that Gray was living in a $1.8 million home in Simpsonville that was funded by the church. Church leaders said the particular parsonage is what was needed to entice a pastor of Gray’s ‘caliber’ to Greenville.

As a journalist with a journalism degree and over 20 years of experience, I will say this: journalists don’t make the news, they simply report it. Sometimes, people will like how they are covered by the media and many times, they will not. (Thus the term “fake news.” Anything that you don’t like is fake…SMH…) That is price of being in the public eye. What you do will be reported and as a result, you will be praised and or criticized. That being said, there are many people (notice I didn’t say journalists) “reporting” on the news and various issues who seem to not want to present facts or even fairly presented opinions, they seem to want to tear people down. As a Christian first and as a journalist second, I will not do that. Yes, my critiques (and I have critiqued many on this blog) may not always be liked but no one can claim that I called them everything but a child of God or that I tried to send them to hell with my words.

As THE Word says, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21) While this verse applies to spoken words, I think it can be applied to written words as well.

As far as Pastor Hope Carpenter’s words are concerned, a Relentless Church spokesman Holly Baird told this to The Greenville News the following day:

“While we believe Pastor Hope was joking, we completely understand how her comments could be received in today’s climate,” said spokeswoman Holly Baird, in a written statement. “Neither our pastors or anyone in our leadership would agree with any type of communication that would encourage or incite violence against another individual or entity.”

Ultimately, I believe Pastor Hope Carpenter was joking as well, but with the way the media is being attacked right now, this needed to be said…

So what do you think about Pastor Hope Carpenter at Relentless Church this past Sunday?

Any thoughts?

Posted on Sunday, March 31, 2019

Why Pastor Jamal Bryant Should Get Married Following Tweet’s Announcement That She is Done With Church…

Hello World,

Back in November, shortly after Dr. Jamal Bryant was named the new pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, I penned this post ‘Should Divorced Men Such as Dr. Jamal Bryant, Newly Named New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Pastor, Be Allowed in the Pulpit?’ Many people had varied opinions and I understand why. But after all that New Birth Missionary Baptist Church has been through, at the end of the day, I wished and do wish Dr. Bryant well as he puts his stamp on this well-known but beleaguered church. And I’m taking notice of what he has done thus far. I wrote one complete post about one of his initiatives, ‘New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Dr. Jamal Bryant & Members Give Approximately $300 Each to Members Affected By Government Shutdown…’ and I mentioned the FREE City Wide Wedding the church held in another post.

I enjoyed listening to his recent interview with Dr. Rashad Richey, a local radio show host, at Beulah Heights University!

I found him to be very transparent about himself and his ministry. (And he is too charismatic!) He mentioned that while he was a student at Morehouse College, education, in the traditional sense, wasn’t his primary goal. He said, “On paper, my major was political science, but in actuality, my major was Spelman.” Ha! He also revealed that being called to ministry does not mean you are not flawed. He said, “I’m anointed, but I hate sleeping alone.” He offered this as one example of being a flawed person in ministry. He didn’t say he was referring to himself when he made that statement, but given his past, you have to wonder. I mean this was the man who had to address a random paternity allegation just three years ago!

And now his most recent girlfriend R&B Singer Charlene Keyes known as Tweet (that we know of anyway) is saying she is done with church! Remember when he called her his last lady! And that was just in 2016…

Well, chile, in a Instagram Live video from a few days ago, Tweet and her daughter Shenice discuss their dislike for the church. Without apology, Tweet said she will speak her “truth.”

“It’s coming out in the music, it’s coming out in interviews, It’s coming out. I’m saying what I want to say. I’m not shading nobody. I’m telling my truth. And church has been the worst, I will not do church anymore. I love God like you said, and I have a relationship with God, but you won’t see me in nobody’s church house, not giving nobody my tithe, not giving 10 percent to nobody, period.”

Tweet explained that people presented themselves one way in a public setting but acted in another way in private. She said it really shocked her because her pastor that she knew while she was growing up had integrity. She also mentioned another pastor in Atlanta that she feels has integrity.

“Bishop Weeks, who was an incredible man of God, integral, Bishop Weeks, if he still had his church in Atlanta, I would drive there and go to his church. He taught me integrity.”

That statement to me was very telling. Does Tweet live in the metro Atlanta area? Her former man’s church is in the metro Atlanta and she didn’t say anything about driving out there!

You have to wonder what went down in their relationship. It’s not a good look when your former boyfriend has been named the new pastor of a church in another city and now you’re done with church and talking about it! They reportedly broke up last year! And Tweet mentioned going out to have a cocktail twice in that video! She was once a heavy drinker by her own admission and now she’s joking about going to have a cocktail after going off about church…What’s really going on?

Smh…chile….I fear that a scandal is waiting to happen at New Birth…And if it’s one thing that New Birth does not need it’s a new scandal. That church is not over the old scandal yet…

I’m not saying that Pastor Bryant should just pick the first woman that he sees, but the Word says that it’s not good for any man to be alone (“The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18) and this man in particular it seems…

So if Pastor Bryant meets a nice woman who has what it takes to be a First Lady (And it kind of messed up that Pastor Bryant and Tweet didn’t make it because she would have been a saaangin First Lady too) and after thorough premarital counseling (because pastors need counseling too), he should go ahead and get that done sooner rather than later. As the Word says, “Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” 1 Corinthians 7:8-9

He’s a man of a particular age so he should know what he wants by now. And it shouldn’t be that difficult to find her with all of the suitable woman we have in Atlanta 🙂

So what y’all think?

Any thoughts?

Posted on Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Bishop Eddie Long’s Son Edward Long Carves Out Radio Career Following Dr. Jamal Bryant Becoming New Birth Missionary Baptist Church’s Pastor…

Hello World,

It’s not easy being a preacher’s kid. That’s one thing among others I know for sure. I was one for 38 years so I know of which I write. The scrutiny by an entire congregation of folk. The inability to make mistakes and be downright foolish as a young person in private. The expectation that you will grow up to be carbon copies of your parents. These situations are what I experienced as the pk of a small church pastor so I can only imagine that Edward Long experienced this on a MUCH larger scale as the son of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church’s Bishop Eddie L. Long. The megachurch was once helmed by his father.

And Edward Long has had some other crosses to bear as well. His father passed away suddenly in January 2017 and although he wasn’t immediately named as the new pastor after his father’s death, he thought he had a chance to finally fill his father’s shoes when the pastorate opened up again following the departure of Bishop Stephen A. Davis according to the AJC. He applied for the position and was among 138 candidates in a national search. Bravely, Edward Long shared his thoughts about the process and the ultimate decision in a recent sermon at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. Below is what the AJC reported in the article “Edward Long Shares Feelings About Not Being Named to Lead New Birth.”

“I’m standing in a place now where publicly my character is being judged,” he said. “I can come out here and throw a pity party and cry like a baby because things didn’t go the way I anticipated them going.” Instead, he made the decision to “praise while I’m in the pit. I’m not going to have a pity party, I’m going to party in the pit.”

Long mentioned Bryant in his sermon. “I didn’t choose Dr. Jamal Bryant, but a choice was made so I’m not going to speak against him. I’m going to speak for him. I’m not going to talk trash about him. I’m going to love on him and pray for him.”

Read the entire article HERE.

Truthfully, if I were in his position, I would be hurt too. But there is no law that says that just because your parents did something, you have to do it too or to the degree that your parents did it. And I’m sure being named after a parent causes even more pressure to be like that parent for which you are named. Martin Luther King III has his father’s name but it is his sister Dr. Bernice King who has more closely followed in their father’s footsteps. This expectation doesn’t just happen in the field of religion. Willow Smith, who is named after her father actor Will Smith, rebelled when her father was trying to make her follow his path in entertainment. She mentioned having to forgive him for that on Red Table Talk, her show with her mother Jada Pinkett Smith and grandmother Adrienne Banfield-Jones. My mother has said that I’m just like my father except that I’m a female, but thank God she didn’t see fit to name me Denzilla. Willow after Will is cute. Denzilla after Denzil. Not so much 🙂 But I digress…

Thankfully, following the disappointment and rejection he felt after not being chosen as New Birth Missionary Baptist Church’s new pastor, Edward Long is carving out a career on his own terms according to the AJC’s article “Eddie Long’s Son Returns To First Passion: Radio.”

On Jan. 31, during Super Bowl weekend, Long, the son of the late Bishop Eddie L. Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, launched “Lit Nights With Ed” on Praise 102.5. The late-night show airs from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. Mondays-Fridays and 10 p.m. to midnight Saturdays.

“It feels purposeful. It feels divine. It feels like this is what time it is,” said Long, 36, about going back into radio, an interest he’s had since he was a student at Stephenson High School. “I want to continue to move forward with the vision the Lord gave to me really since I was in high school and college and through my professional career and now.”

Read the entire article HERE.

This is what Edward Long said about the AJC article on his Instagram account:

View this post on Instagram

POSITIVE PRESS 📰🗞 Extra, Extra, read all about it! Radio isn’t my only passion, but my first passion. I didn’t want to preach, but once I accepted the calling, I became very passionate about it too! To me, they are more similar than separate. Link in bio to read the full article by @shelia_poole & 📸 by @emilymhaney. @ajcnews https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/eddie-long-son-returns-first-passion-radio/VcrDbmJCycqgnQ92RwDw7M/ (Swipe right) Tune in to @litnightsshow LiT Nights w/ ED 🙌🏽 with @iamedwardlong and co-host @bre_singleton on Praise 102.5 fm in Atlanta. We’re bringing inspiration and the mainstream together to form what we call #UrbanInspiration. Download the MY PRAISE ATL app or listen only as we at www.MyPraiseATL.com.

A post shared by ED (Text EDwardLong to 71441) (@iamedwardlong) on Mar 18, 2019 at 5:24pm PDT