TD JAKES SAID HE NEVER “HARBORED SODOMITE/HOMOSEXUAL DESIRES” FOR MEN AS HE CHOOSES TO DEFEND HIMSELF WITH A VERY EXPENSIVE DEFAMATION LAWSUIT
Pictured:Bishop T.D. Jakes speaks to The Potter’s House congregation via video, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (Video screen grab)
DANIEL WHYTE III, PRESIDENT OF GOSPEL LIGHT SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL, TELLS TD JAKES AS IS THE CASE FOR ALL US SINNERS, THAT IF HE HAD TAKEN HEED TO THE REBUKES AND WARNINGS GIVEN TO HIM BY GOD AND OTHERS, INCLUDING DANIEL WHYTE III FOR OVER A DECADE, HE WOULD NOT BE IN THIS SITUATION. THIS SITUATION IS HELLACIOUS FOR HIS LOCAL CHURCH AND THE CHURCH INTERNATIONAL. WHYTE URGES TD JAKES TO TELL “THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH”; DO NOT PERJURE YOURSELF. MANY OF THE THINGS THAT LARRY REID, WHO HAS BENT OVER BACKWARDS TO TRY TO SAVE YOU AND HELP YOU AVOID THIS PREDICAMENT THAT YOU ARE IN RIGHT NOW, HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED BY MANY. WHYTE TELLS TD JAKES TO BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT STARTING A WAR WITH LARRY REID BECAUSE REID HAS MADE IT CLEAR HE DOES NOT WANT TO SEE YOU “THROWN AWAY” IN THE TRASH DUMP OF FALSE PROPHETS AND FALSE PREACHERS WHO HAVE SINNED AGAINST GOD AND WHO TRY TO COVER UP THEIR SINS INSTEAD OF CONFESSING THEM.
BESIDES THAT, LARRY REID IS A PROFESSIONAL “RECEIPT” KEEPER. HE HAS “RECEIPTS” ABOUT EVERYTHING HE SAYS. HIS LEGAL TEAM MAKES SURE HE DOES. THIS IS NOT HIS FIRST ECCLESIASTICAL RODEO. SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE LARRY REID HAS TOLD THE TRUTH ABOUT YOU TO HELP YOU AND TO PROTECT HIS JOURNALISTIC/COMMENTARY INTEGRITY. SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE HE HAS NOT SAID SOME THINGS TO HELP YOU GET THROUGH THIS AS HAS OTHER CHRISTIAN MEDIA OPERATIONS. WHYTE TELLS TD JAKES, PLEASE UNDERSTAND, HOWEVER, IF YOU OR ANYBODY ON YOUR TEAM HAS DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY OFFERED ANYBODY MONEY FOR FAVOR OR DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY PAID MONEY FOR FAVOR TO LARRY REID AND/OR OTHER MEDIA OUTLETS, THAT OUGHT TO BE DISCLOSED UP-FRONT BECAUSE SOMETIMES “FAVOR AIN’T FAIR,” ACCORDING TO YOUR WORDS, AS IT IS NOT THE FAVOR OF GOD, IT IS THE FAVOR THAT COMES FROM THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR — DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY. IN THE WORDS OF SPIKE LEE, “DO THE RIGHT THING!”
WHYTE SAYS TD JAKES YOU HAVE EXPRESSED THE TOLL THIS HAS TAKEN ON YOUR WIFE, YOUR CHILDREN, AND YOUR CHURCH. WHYTE SAYS THIS IS WHY HE HAS TOLD JAKES OVER 5 TIMES THAT FOR THE GOOD OF HIMSELF, FOR THE GOOD OF HIS FAMILY, FOR THE GOOD OF HIS CHURCH, AND FOR THE GOOD OF THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL THE BEST THING TO DO IS TO RESIGN POST HASTE.
Dallas megachurch pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes continued to deny claims by two other ministers who have accused him of sexual misconduct, describing the accusers in a newly filed affidavit as “bullies” and himself as the victim of a scheme to “destroy” him.
“In all my years, I have never initiated a lawsuit against anyone,” Jakes said in the eight-page affidavit that was part of a 562-page package of legal documents filed in a Pennsylvania federal court on Friday. “We filed this lawsuit against individuals who were supposed to be men of God but are clearly not.” Two men, the brothers Duane and Richard Youngblood, allege that Jakes made sexual advances decades ago, when he was pastor of a church in West Virginia.
Jakes’ legal team filed a defamation suit against Duane Youngblood in November, a day after Jakes suffered an unspecified medical incident in front of his congregation attending a Sunday service at The Potter’s House in Dallas.
Jakes claimed the incident, for which he was briefly hospitalized, along with other family health situations, spurred him to take the legal action.
“All of this was happening while I found myself helping my wife recover from knee replacement surgery and while helping my brother navigate kidney failure,” he wrote in the statement filed Friday. “This unwarranted stress brought me to a place of having a health crisis on stage in front of my entire congregation. As a guy who’d had no previous health challenges, this near-death experience was a turning point for me. Enough is enough!”
Friday’s filings came in response to a January motion to dismiss the defamation suit by Duane Youngblood, a Pennsylvania man who made his allegations against Jakes in two 2024 interviews on the “Larry Reid Live” YouTube talk show.
In his affidavit, Duane Youngblood recalled a long conversation he had with Jakes as a teenager at the private home where the elder minister was staying. “As I prepared to leave, he pulled me close and tried to kiss me,” according to the affidavit. Youngblood said Jakes called him the next morning and “told me he wanted me to be the only person he had a sexual relationship with when he came to town.”
The motion to dismiss Jakes’ suit included a sworn affidavit from Youngblood’s older brother, the Rev. Richard Edwin Youngblood, who testified that he had heard Duane Youngblood describe the alleged misconduct by Jakes. But Richard Youngblood also claimed that Jakes climbed into bed with him on a church business trip.
Richard Youngblood said he first met Jakes around the spring of 1986 and worked as an assistant and praise and worship leader in Jakes’ church before “things started to become weird,” including Jakes discussing oral sex. Later, he said, Jakes rented a hotel room one night for them with two beds.
“That night, while I was laying in my bed, I felt Elder Jakes climb into my bed. He pressed his body against mine and asked, ‘Youngblood, do you feel that?’” reads the statement, signed in December 2024. “He was referencing his erection that he was pressing against my back side.”
Jakes and his legal team responded to the allegations by noting that Duane Youngblood has felony convictions for sexual assault and corruption of minors and said Richard Youngblood’s “story surfaced only after I declined to hire him due to his lack of qualifications.” Jakes said the request from Richard Youngblood occurred about 10 years ago.
In a second affidavit in Friday’s filings, Jakes’ son Jermaine spoke in support of his father. In Duane Youngblood’s filings, the younger Jakes was accused of sending the accuser a “message perceived as carrying a direct threat of harm.”
But Jermaine Jakes said that after he saw an ad about the then-pending second YouTube interview with Reid, he reached out to Duane Youngblood via text to warn him about Reid, whom Jakes’ son did not consider to be trustworthy.
“There was no reason for me to say anything that I intended or meant to be threatening,” Jermaine Jakes wrote in the document filed Friday. “Duane responded to my message practically immediately stating that he received the message and ‘it was noted.’”
Larry Reid, left, interviews Duane Youngblood on the “Larry Reid Live” YouTube talk show on Nov. 3, 2024. (Video screen grab)
Duane Youngblood, who described T.D. Jakes as a groomer, alleged that Jakes had offered to take care of the then-teenager financially “for life,” but Jakes and his team maintained that at the time of the alleged incident, the elder minister could not have afforded to make that offer. “During that period, I was barely keeping my own family out of poverty,” Jakes wrote. “I was not the ‘Bishop TD Jakes’ of today. I was a pastor with no substantial following, and no financial resources.”
The court filings include as exhibits two images that Jakes’ team said depict the location of his storefront church and house at the time and that the team says show he was a “small-town preacher.” Jakes said it was only an introduction to evangelist Carlton Pearson at a 1992 evangelical conference, followed the next year by his preaching a “Woman Thou Art Loosed” sermon, that led to his being known nationwide.
The filings also include a Nov. 15 letter in which Duane Youngblood’s lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn, requested an “opening settlement demand of six million dollars” to resolve Youngblood’s claims against Jakes.
They also note that Duane Youngblood has created a website where Youngblood may be booked as a speaker, coach or to present webinars on overcoming trauma. Jakes also claims Youngblood has plans for a forthcoming book that is, as Jakes stated, a “‘tell-all’ about me.”
“I suspect a larger network is involved in this scheme, all anticipating a share of this attempted ‘money grab,’” Jakes, whose entrepreneurial pursuits include movie production and real estate development, wrote in the affidavit. “This entire smear campaign began shortly after the public announcement of a commitment from Wells Fargo of up to $1 billion for community redevelopment.”
Jakes’ representatives declined to respond to questions from media about the legal filings, citing it as “an ongoing legal matter,” but said he is continuing to recuperate from the medical incident.
To read more, click here: https://julieroys.com/t-d-jakes-defamation-suit-filed-health-incident-because-enough-is-enough/
TD Jakes denies claims he ‘harbored carnal desires’ for men in defense of defamation lawsuit
Megachurch Pastor T.D. Jakes has formally denied allegations he sexually assaulted former pastor Duane Youngblood when he was a teenager or his older brother, Pastor Richard Edwin Youngblood, in a legal response to a motion seeking to dismiss a defamation lawsuit against his accusers.
Calling the claims an orchestrated “campaign of lies” in a failed attempt to extort $6 million from him, the 562-page response was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and reviewed by The Christian Post.
Jakes and his three high-profile attorneys — Devin J. Chwastyk of McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC in Pennsylvania; Dustin A. Pusch of Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch LLP in Washington D.C.; and Derrelle M. Janey of The Janey Law Firm P.C. in New York City — aggressively challenge the credibility of his accusers who sought to dismiss his defamation lawsuit pursuant to Pennsylvania’s anti-SLAPP statute last month.
The filing includes an eight-page affidavit from Jakes, who declares under penalty of perjury that the claims made against him by the Youngblood brothers and multiple John Does are malicious lies.
“I have reviewed the affidavits of Duane Youngblood and Richard Youngblood submitted in support of the motion to dismiss. The statements in these affidavits purport to describe situations where I harbored carnal desires for these men. These statements are knowingly and flagrantly false,” Jakes, who founded the 80,000-member Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, states in the affidavit.
“I am repulsed by these defamatory accusations and the $6 million extortion letter I received from Duane Youngblood’s attorney, Tyrone Blackburn.”
In the 167-page motion to dismiss Jakes’ lawsuit, Richard Youngblood claims that similar to his younger brother’s experience, Jakes tried to sexually assault him years ago, while he shared a hotel room with the bishop during a ministry trip.
“He secured a room with two beds in it, and we went to the room for the night. That night, while I was laying in my bed, I felt Elder Jakes climb into my bed. He pressed his body against mine and asked, ‘Youngblood, do you feel that?’ He was referencing his erection that he was pressing against my backside,” Richard Youngblood wrote in his affidavit.
“I got up out of bed in complete shock as he also [got] up from the opposite side and met me. He grabbed me by my arms and pulled me to him and started trying to kiss me. At this point, I cannot believe what is happening to me.”
Others who have made sworn affidavits in support of Duane Youngblood’s claims are Jeffrey S. Gray, who also shared Duane Youngblood’s disclosures about Jakes; Daniel B. Spaulding; LaShawn Youngblood; Joshua Munoz; and Landon Claybourne.
In addition to his previous claim, Duane Youngblood also alleges in the motion that since he has gone public, Jakes and his associates “have engaged in retaliatory conduct to silence him.”
According to the motion, Duane Youngblood reported “receiving threats from individuals associated with Plaintiff, including his son.”
Jakes insists that he is making the unprecedented move to defend himself legally because of the “lies” propagated by his critics and because he is tired of turning the other cheek.
“For years, I have been counseled to ignore the constant stream of low-level smears against my reputation. However, the emotional and physical toll of this coordinated campaign of lies, designed to damage my reputation and legacy, has become overwhelming,” he explains.
“The pain it has caused my wife of 43 years and my five children, whom I have always loved, nurtured, and provided for, is simply too much to bear. Every person has a breaking point. I have reached mine. I authorized this lawsuit because I can no longer remain silent,” he adds.
Jakes, 68, filed his defamation lawsuit against 58-year-old Duane Youngblood last November, a day after he suffered “a slight health incident,” which he said almost killed him while preaching.
Duane Youngblood claimed in interviews with internet personality Larry Reid on his “Larry Reid Live” show on Oct. 28 and Nov. 3, 2024, that Jakes assaulted him when he was about 18 or 19 years old.
The younger Youngblood told Reid that he had been talking with Jakes for about two hours at the home of an older adult clergywoman, where he was staying during a local church revival approximately 40 years ago when Jakes tried to kiss him.
The morning after the encounter, Youngblood, who is now a registered sex offender who served time for abusing minors while he served as their pastor, alleges Jakes called his home and intimated that he wanted him to become a local sex partner.
“My mother answers the phone, and she says to me, ‘Duane, it’s Elder Jakes.’ Jakes and I get on that phone and when I get on that telephone, I can hear water. He is sitting in a bathtub, and in that thing, he says to me, without any hesitation, ‘there’s three things I need you to do. The first one is, when I come to Pittsburgh, you’re going to be the only person I sleep with. The second one is, you can’t sleep with anybody else because I don’t want to give my wife anything. And thirdly, I will take care of you the rest of your life,” Youngblood claimed during his interview with Reid.
Days after making those allegations public, Jakes’ attorneys said an attorney representing Youngblood sent a demand letter to him on Nov. 24, 2024, demanding $6 million “to ‘resolve this matter quickly and privately;’ otherwise, Youngblood would bring a lawsuit against Bishop Jakes for sexual assault and harassment.”
Jakes argues in his Feb. 14 affidavit that he could barely afford to financially support himself and his family around the time Duane Youngblood claims he offered to pay him for exclusive sexual favors. Jakes contends it doesn’t make sense why he would offer to financially support a young man in exchange for sexual favors.
“This assertion is not only ludicrous; it is a bald-faced lie. To be clear: while I occasionally travelled to Pennsylvania around 1986 to preach at area churches that were part of the Greater Emanuel International Fellowship network, I never tried to corner, grab, or kiss any teenagers,” Jakes insists.
“I never phoned Duane Youngblood to proposition him for sex in exchange for financial support. And I never groomed, sexually abused, sexually assaulted, and engaged in predatory conduct of a sexual nature towards Duane Youngblood. I never apologized to Youngblood for any such conduct because it did not happen.”
Jakes claims that Richard Youngblood is simply trying to get revenge because he refused to give him a job for which he was unqualified.
“He hasn’t been able to maintain a job, he has multiple children with different women, and a felony conviction for failure to pay child support. It’s difficult to respect a man who doesn’t take care of his children. In all my years, I have never initiated a lawsuit against anyone. We filed this lawsuit against individuals who were supposed to be men of God but are clearly not,” Jakes adds in the affidavit.
“The catalyst for this action was not simply the nature of the accusations but the relentless attacks by the overzealous blogger. I have faced many attacks in my life, but none like this. Even so, I feel compelled to stand up against these bullies,” Jakes notes, pointing fingers at internet personality Larry Reid.
To read more, click here: https://www.christianpost.com/news/td-jakes-denies-claims-he-harbored-carnal-desires-for-men.html
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- My husband, but I didn’t want to hear it from him
- Other Christian women speakers
- Other preachers
- Books and other materials, but I would not take heed
GOSPEL LIGHT MINUTE X #447 WITH DANIEL WHYTE III
The question is not “Have you joined a church?” or “Are you trying to do your best?” or “Do you have religion?” but “Are you twice-born?” Jesus Christ said in John 3:3, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”.
We enter the physical world by birth. Spiritual life likewise is entered with a birth. We become members of a human family by birth; we become members of the family of God by birth, by being “born again.” There is no other way to get into the human family except by birth, and there is no other way to get into God’s family except by the new birth. Neither education, nor cultivation, nor reformation, nor “turning over a new leaf,” will accomplish this. What is needed is not a new “leaf” but a new “life”! “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
By physical birth we become partakers of human nature; by being born again we become “partakers of the divine nature”. A Christian is the product of a divine “begetting”. The second birth is not an improvement of the old nature; it is the imparting of an entirely new nature. The old nature is hopelessly corrupt and incapable of ever being made fit for His presence. The new birth requires a creative act of the Holy Spirit. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature”.
Simply “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”. The Bible says in 1 John 5:1, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God”. The Bible states in John 1:12,13, “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”.
You are born again, you become a Christian by trusting a Person—receiving a Person. The very moment you do this, the Lord Jesus Christ comes in and life begins!
To “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” means more than simply believing the historic facts concerning Him. Intellectual belief about Christ is not sufficient. The belief that brings salvation must be “with the heart,” that is, with the whole being. This belief also includes repentance: “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”. The Bible states in Acts 17:30, “God … now commandeth all men every where to repent”.
This is an important question. We know that we are born again by the testimony of God’s Word. God says in John 5:24, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life”. Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as explained by God’s Word? If so, then you are saved, you are “born again,” you have “passed from death unto life.” God says so! Take God at His Word, and go on your way rejoicing!
You may “belong to a church,” you may be “trying to do the best you can,” you may be “striving to live right.” Your outward life may be the model of moral correctness, and you may be looked up to, honored, revered, and respected. Yet, if you have not been “born again” you are just as lost as if you had never heard of Christ. Yes, you may teach in the Sunday school, read the Bible, sing, shout, “feel happy,” and all the rest—but if you have never been “born again” you are still in your sins and a stranger to the Lord Jesus Christ!.