Is Bishop T.D. Jakes going to gay sex parties?
Shock accusations against the famous Black pastor
The American Black church has no more famous or ‘anointed’ figure than megachurch pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes. He’s often called the “Black Billy Graham.”
But on December 16, 2023, a YouTube channel that covers the Black music scene posted a startling claim. Germaine McKinley of Tuff News TV reported from an anonymous source that Jakes has attended gay sex parties hosted by Diddy, the rapper and music mogul.
The Black church was thrown into an uproar.
The parties got all the attention, but the report was a sexual history of Jakes’ whole life.
It was put together by a person who seems to be close to Diddy, and who summarizes the talk, at least, that has circulated.
The source says that “Jakes was always gay,” as was known since early in his life, growing up in Charleston, West Virginia. The source says Jakes, who is called ‘Tommy’ in real life, was “sexually involved with men” starting with an “older pastor in the area.”
In 1982, Jakes became pastor of a small church in Smithers, West Virginia. The same year he married his wife Serita. They’d have five children.
He’s also been pursuing young men—aggressively.
In 1983, the source claims, Jakes was “accused of sexually assaulting a young man” and that this was “covered up” by the church.
Jakes is personally rather effeminate, or as he’s called, “swishy and sweet.” That was true even as he condemned men with ‘feminine mannerisms’ as ungodly. He was given to anti-gay rants in general.
But in the Black church, fiercely anti-gay rhetoric and surmise of a pastor’s closeted homosexuality often seem to coexist. It might even be a desired profile, for reasons that can be elusive.
Jakes took to pastoring a megachurch in Dallas, Texas.
He published books, apparently all ghostwritten. He became a well-known, even beloved figure in American Christianity—and continuously in gay situations, according to the source.
In 1999, the source says, a man threatened to expose to Jakes’ gay life, and was “paid to keep quiet.”
Two years later, the man was found dead, apparently a suicide, though the source is suspicious about that.
The Black church was realizing that many of its favorite ministers were “DL.”
But it would be unseemly to get into the details. Many churches would not want to know them. The actual Evangelical theology on gay issues is a preference for silence and omission. The denials and attacks come only if those strategies fail.
In 2005, two gay activists, Keith Boykin and Jasmyne Cannick, had a campaign called “Outing Black Pastors,” probing the sexuality of many Black pastors. Most prominent were T.D. Jakes and Eddie Long, but with scrutiny of Noel Jones, Charles Blake, Willie Wilson, Gregory Daniels, Paul Morton and Creflo Dollar.
They had somehow neglected the famous Carlton Pearson, who had gone on, very controversially, to advance LGBT issues in Black churches while denying he was gay. He was married, or he was until he divorced.
In 2010, Eddie Long was exposed.
Three men filed lawsuits against the Atlanta megachurch pastor, exposing his very gay life.
T.D. Jakes was out trying to minimize the damage to Long, urging his wife and congregation to stick with him. It was the Christian way.
T.D. Jakes had a flamboyantly gay son.
That was very public, and in 2009, it hit the newspapers when Jermaine Jakes was arrested for exposing himself to a vice detective in a Dallas park. The incident was a few blocks away from his famous father’s church.
T.D. Jakes kept quiet about it. Over the years, though, he became less hostile on the gay issue, and could even seem vaguely “affirming.” As of 2021, however, he identified with Evangelical anti-gay theology in every respect.
In the Black church it could hardly be otherwise. And a pastor’s views, finally, are only the views of his congregation. An offering in the offering plate is a payment for the pleasure of being told that the church members’ own, unmodified thoughts are divine.
Jakes was a regular part of Black American culture.
He was a natural spiritual advisor to Diddy, though the rapper and music mogul didn’t strike many as too holy.
The source says that Jakes’ started to attend Diddy’s notorious sex parties.
He is known in the circle as a “power bottom,” the source says. Many escorts are said to have been called on to service Jakes.
The source has one other detail. A young man was made at age 16 to do fellatio on Jakes, as the story went, and his parents were paid to keep quiet. The young man is of age now, and is thinking of suing.
Was any of it true?
Jakes used his Christmas Eve sermon to deny it.
The denial was very welcome in his church. But it struck some odd notes. Jakes added that even “if everything was true, all I got to do is repent sincerely from my heart.”
Germaine McKinley of Tuff News TV continued with exposés.
It turned out that there had been many speaking of Jakes in slightly veiled terms. He posts a video by a man, Manasseh Jordan, describing what he calls a culture of “grooming” by a powerful Pentecostal preacher.
Jordan recalls the intense interest and flattering dialogue: “What are you into? What are you like? You need to tell Daddy everything.”
Then it gets sexual—while the cleric says, “You’re the one making me do this.” If it doesn’t get sexual, Jordan says, the young man is dropped.
He adds: “Some of the biggest monsters are right in front of your face. And they manipulate their pulpit to push their nasty agenda.”
Many now think over Jakes’ career.
There’d been so many odd moments. Many ask: had they not seen what was right in front of their eyes? 🔶