Citing Titus, Christian Fox Sports 1 analyst Chris Broussard slammed a suggestion by televangelist T.D. Jakes as “offensive” and unbiblical that if unverified sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him were true, all he has to do is repent and keep on working.
Broussard said in an Instagram post, “I didn’t like the way he handled the situation at his church that first Sunday after the allegations were made. He said something to the effect of if he did commit these things, all he’d have to do is repent and plead the blood and all that, and he’d be forgiven.” Broussard’s post comes after Jakes, who leads The Potter’s House megachurch in Dallas, Texas, intimated to his congregation on Christmas Eve that if an unverified report casting innuendo about his sexuality and accusing him of participating in sex parties hosted by Sean Combs, known as Diddy, was accurate, all he had to do was repent and everything would be alright.
Jakes declared in a livestream of the service on YouTube, which has since been made private, “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 sins. I don’t care what it is; the blood would fix it. But I ain’t got to repent about this. All I got to do is step over top of it and keep on going on. I’m not in trouble.”
He continued, “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 got to 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.”
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Citing the requirements for leaders in the church from Titus 1, Broussard called Jakes’ response “offensive” and unbiblical. He also said that any pastor found guilty of sexual misconduct shouldn’t just repent, but they should be removed from their office or made to do so by the elders in the congregation they represent. Broussard said, “That’s offensive that you get up there [the pulpit] claiming to know the Word of God and say that all you got to do is repent as if we can just all live as unholy and unrighteous as we want and just repent. That’s abusing the grace of God, and the grace of God is nothing to play with.”
Broussard continued, “I’m not saying he’s guilty, Bishop Jakes. I’m just saying if he is, then this is what should happen. So again, my concern is the Body of Christ. And the way that those of you believers out there, the way that you avoid getting fooled by a false teacher, a charlatan, the way you avoid getting sucked into a really bad situation, bad church situation, is to hold your pastors to the Word of God.”
He added, “What I just read in Titus, if your pastor is blatantly stepping outside of that, habitually stepping outside of that righteous, holy, self-controlled [character], then you need to jet. I’m serious. You need to get out of that church.” Jakes, a 66-year-old married father and grandfather, has been a well-known figure in the Christian community for decades, filling arenas across the globe with followers clamoring to hear his sermons, buy his books and support his philanthropic work.
Recently, Jakes’ name became a trending topic on multiple social media platforms after a YouTube channel known as Tuff News T.V. 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.