My first time hearing about Baltimore Pastor Jamal Bryant was a month ago when he was trying to raise $75,000 through crowdfunding for a trip to Nigeria to do a prayer rally to #BringBackOurGirls.
He was asking for 274 people to donate $274. You know, because he seems to have the only direct line to God and only his rally was needed to get those girls home. Let me find out that he has Jesus’ Google Voice number.
Then I found out he’s also the dude named in some salacious rumors WHILE HE WAS MARRIED, mind you. That is when I knew he was more crooked than a toddler’s doodles. But I ain’t the one to gossip so you ain’t heard that from me.
Anyway, “Pastor” (shade) Bryant is confirming that his gospel doesn’t curl all the way over once again. There’s a video showing him preaching a sermon about Pontius Pilate.
He tells his people “Old saints, y’all forgive me, but I gotta tell you. These hoes ain’t loyal!”
And his whole congregation starts church scooting and cheering. Meanwhile, I’m left looking like I just finished watching an episode of Scandal. My jaw is on the floor.
It is incredibly inappropriate and ridiculous for a supposed man of God to be on the pulpit referring to women as “hoes” as part of his message. No one is saying he can’t incorporate popular music into his words but this is not how you do it. He has this authority and he’s using it to spew misogynistic garbage and that is not ok!
Bryant’s church is named Empowerment Temple, but who is he empowering with this foolishness? If he wants to talk about hoes who ain’t loyal, he better look in the mirror because his ex-wife would probably want to buy him a t-shirt with that phrase on it. OOPS. Yes, I went there. Google Maps directed me.
Jamal took to his Twitter to defend his words, talking about, “Don’t critique a quote when you never heard message. 20 seconds of a 30 minute message is an incomplete assessment.”
Unless the 29 minutes and 40 seconds of the sermon we didn’t hear was about how preachers shouldn’t reduce women to chauvinist slurs, then he has no leg to stand on.
Preachers, pastors and prophets aren’t perfect because they’re regular people who are just spreading the gospel. However, their supposed authority lends them the ears of sinners who want to be saints. It behooves them to be more intentional and more principled than the average person. So yes, Pastor Jamal H. Bryant should be admonished for being a negligent nincompoop as he invokes God’s name. He was being couthless and he’s clearly going to stand in his wrongness.
This is why we cannot have nice things and this is why we cannot be sheep to every shepherd in a shiny suit holding a mic. The road to Satan’s condo is paved with the words of wolves in sheep’s clothing. I just want to offer Jamal a seat ___ and a church pew |____| to occupy.
Luvvie is a serial ranter and blogger who talks pop culture at Awesomely Luvvie, technology at Awesomely Techie and is the head behind DumbestTweets.com. She can also be found on Twitter (@Luvvie), Facebook and Instagram.