TD Jakes: ‘If everything was true, all I got to do is repent sincerely from my heart ... but I ain’t got to repent about this’
Days after denouncing an unverified report casting innuendo about his sexuality and accusing him of being a frequent participant at sex parties hosted by producer and music mogul Sean Combs, popularly known as Diddy, televangelist T.D. Jakes called his accusers “liars” on Sunday and noted that even “if everything was true, all I got to do is repent sincerely from my heart.”
Jakes, who leads The Potter's House megachurch in Dallas, Texas, directly addressed his congregation for the first time on Christmas Eve and urged them not to worry about him because “I’m good.”
“Would y'all please do me a favor and stop worrying about me and give God some praise and honor and glory? I can feel you. … I am fine. I'm good. I'm good. I'm the man for the job. I'm good,” Jakes declared in a public livestream of his Christmas Eve service on YouTube which has since been made private.
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“I can feel you. I can feel you. Relax ... We’re not gonna let the devil take over our service. No, no, no, no, no. We're gonna give God some praise and some honor and some glory, for this is the day that the Lord has made, we shall rejoice and be glad in it,” he insisted. “I'm not going to let the rain stop me. I’m not going to let the weather stop me. And I'm sure not going to let the liars stop me.
“The worst that could happen, if everything was true, all I got to do is repent sincerely, from my heart. There's enough power in the blood to cover all kinds of sin. I don't care what it is, the blood would fix it. But I ain't got to repent about this,” Jakes declared.
“All I got to do is step over top of it and keep on going on. I'm not in trouble. I'm talking about the power of the blood. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. I have used it, and I will use it again. But I ain't gotta use it for that. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Whenever I need it, it's available to me. And it's available to you. And you can have it when you need it. But you don't have to plead the blood if you didn't do the crime.”
On Thursday, Jakes' name became a trending topic on multiple social media platforms after a YouTube channel known as Tuff News TV embroiled the Woman Thou Art Loosed author in a recently-settled lawsuit in which R&B singer Cassie accused Combs of rape, as well as repeated physical abuse over nearly a decade.
In the explosive lawsuit, Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, alleged that shortly after she met Combs in 2005 at the age of 19, he began a controlling and abusive relationship with her in which she was given drugs, beaten, and forced to have sex with male prostitutes as he filmed. Combs allegedly hosted the orgies at high-end hotels across the U.S.
On Wednesday, Tuff News TV host Germaine McKinley claimed near the end of a 37-minute video on YouTube that he received an email from an unnamed source alleging that Cassie turned over to investigators a burner phone that belonged to Kim Porter, the late model and mother of Diddy's children, who died in 2018. Cassie also allegedly shared a USB device containing recordings of Diddy's alleged "sex parties," where he reportedly hosted several powerful people, including Jakes.
"I'm also told that multiple male escorts corroborated the fact that T.D. Jakes [has] slept with multiple men at Diddy's parties and abroad," the unnamed source claims. "It's also been said that a young male has acquired a lawyer to represent him as he is set to sue Jakes for an incident that took place when he was just 16 years old."
The video's source alleges that the minor, whose family attended The Potter's House until he left in 2015, was forced to perform a sex act on Jakes. The source further alleged that the teenage boy's family was paid off to keep what happened quiet, but he now intends to seek his own justice as an adult.
Jordan A. Hora, executive director of public relations and communications for the T.D. Jakes Group, T.D. Jakes Ministries and The Potter's House, told The Christian Post in an exclusive statement Thursday that the unverified report is "unequivocally false and baseless."
"Recent claims circulating on pockets of social media about Bishop T.D. Jakes are unequivocally false and baseless," Hora said.
"What has always been true, in the words of the late Pastor Charles H. Spurgeon, 'If you want the truth to go round the world you must hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a lie to go round the world it will fly; it is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it.'"
On Thursday, TikTok user jusnene made a video clip of the allegations cited by Tuff TV News, and posted it on her page and it went viral. It has already been viewed more than 1.7 million times on that platform alone as of Sunday and elicited hundreds of thousands of reactions. The video was also shared on X, making Jakes a top-five trending topic with Diddy. The X video has been viewed 11.4 million times as of Sunday afternoon.
When questioned by CP about the source of the allegations against Jakes, McKinley did not respond.
In their response to the unverified report, Jake’s team also addressed a video of the bishop attending Diddy's 53rd birthday party in Los Angeles which caused many eyebrows to raise in the Christian community a year ago.
Derrick Williams, executive vice president of TD Jakes Entertainment, who was also in attendance at the party, told CP that the video was captured during a brief stop at the party while they were on business in the area. Another source close to the situation also told CP that, as far as they are aware, that is the only party hosted by Diddy that Jakes has ever attended.
"As a filmmaker, executive producer and one of the pioneers of value-based movies, Bishop Jakes, in his role as CEO of T.D. Jakes Entertainment, paid respect to the former Chairman of Revolt during the celebration of his birthday," Williams said.
"Bishop Jakes was in LA for important business meetings, and we felt that a quick appearance at the former Chairman of Revolt's birthday event was the respectful thing to do since Bishop Jakes' sermons are aired on the Revolt Network," he explained.
"We both greeted the family, Bishop Jakes recorded a brief celebratory birthday video and left immediately to take our other scheduled meetings. Any accusation to the contrary is wholly unsubstantiated, unverified, and false," Williams said.
As news of the allegations swept the internet over the weekend it triggered a whirlwind of reactions including open concern from some of his most ardent supporters. He told his congregation on Sunday, however, that they shouldn’t worry about him.
“Y'all looking at me like you’re my physician trying to see if I'm good. I'm good. You can't do this 50 years and ain't been in a fight, haven't been in a storm, haven't been up under attack. I'm fine. He that is with me is more than all those that are against me. I'm fine,” Jakes insisted.
“Thank you for loving me. Thank you for praying for me. Thank you for being concerned about me. I can feel you. I can feel you. I'm OK. Come on. Come on. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good because I know the truth. When you know the truth you ain't got to be nervous. You ain't got to be uneasy. You ain't got to be in trouble,” the 66-year-old father and grandfather added.
“This is the Potter's House. There will never be anything like the Potter's House. This is the same Potter's House that you have known for the last 30 years. This is the Potter's House. Preaching the Gospel, teaching the Word, ministering to the lame, helping the lost, ministering to those in trouble, reaching out to those who are oppressed, and we are still on our job and we're gonna stay on our job praising our God for the things He has done and let God be true.”
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