The estranged husband of evangelist Juanita Bynum says in a new book that she has tried to use a highly publicized physical altercation to revive her own flagging ministry.
The self-published book by minister Thomas Weeks III includes chapters with titles such as "I Would Rather Push You Now Than Punch You Later" and "She Wanted to Be Oprah at Any Cost" and says it was Weeks who suffered physical and emotional abuse in the relationship.
In the 153-page "What Love Taught Me," Weeks says the Aug. 21 dispute was nothing more than a continuation of the "heated fellowship" the two ministers engaged in during their marriage. The scuffle between the two in a hotel parking lot landed Weeks in jail on charges he pushed, choked and beat Bynum, and he ultimately pleaded guilty to assaulting her. He is serving three years of probation.
Weeks claims his wife instigated the parking lot incident and used it to paint herself as a poster girl for domestic violence and to boost her ministry.
"Ultimately, she had to have a plot and a plan to destroy my credibility, to leak issues that were in the process of being resolved ... so that she could get out of the marriage almost blameless," he wrote.
Weeks said he wrote the book in the days after his arrest. Within days, Bynum announced her intentions to become "the new face of domestic violence" and last week, she appeared in a two-part episode of "Divorce Court" offering advice to a couple dealing with alleged abuse in their marriage — moves Weeks said were indicative of her desire for more secular fame.
"She needed a way out of the marriage so that she could keep her following, possibly grow her following ... develop a cause that can support her without preaching and promote her secular career, while ending her marriage," Weeks wrote. "Juanita was tired of preaching. She was tired of the conference circuit. She was more bored."
Amy Malone, Bynum's publicist, said Monday she had not seen the book and could not comment. Bynum did not immediately respond to a request through Malone for a response to Weeks' claims.
The book is Weeks' most lengthy public statement about their marriage. He remained largely silent while charges from his criminal case loomed and because he held out hope for reconciliation with Bynum, who filed for divorce.
Weeks said he is telling his story to help others heal, to clear his name and to bring balance to the story that has unraveled over the past eight months.
Weeks said in the book that they both had strong personalities and that there were times when their arguments turned violent.
In one altercation Weeks describes, he says Bynum became enraged and choked him when he was distracted on his laptop computer while riding home in a limousine after a black tie affair in New York. Weeks claims that a few months later, Bynum punched him in the face and neck while he was sleeping.
Weeks said Bynum was the instigator of both incidents and that he walked away.
"I decided a long time ago to become a man avoiding domestic violence," Weeks wrote. "My internal mantra was I would rather push you now than have to punch you later. I can count at least 20 to 25 times I had to get out of the room before things escalated, and some of those times I had to push her out of the way as a result of her trying to keep me in the room where things could have gotten much more serious."
The night of Aug. 21 was an example of such a situation, Weeks said. Continue >>
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It is time to say, enough of this nonsense. Who is going to stand and say enough. I wish they would ALL just go away. This continuing behavior is an embarrassment.
This is why divorce is a sin...and so is pride.
How very sad this makes me and how dishonoring it is to Him who died for us.
My hope is that they repent of this foolishness
These people are an embarassment to the Body of Christ.
If as christians, we were trying the spirits as the Bible tells us to do, we would have realised
that JUANITA BYNUM is a false prophetess operating with another spirit and not the Holy
Spirit. This whole spectacle between herself and her husband is so sad as they both claim to
be representing the Most High God. This is clearly the spirit of the anti-christ.
Ministry takes time to be developed. When the process of time is short circuited, fame added to such a ministry is disaster bound. Unfortunately the former couple are now buried in the self-vindication, desperate to win the propaganda war. What they dont realise is that they are losing the battle as the scramble for portions of their fans. In growing up, a good ministry should grow at its pace and corresponding time. They are unwisely wining like babies in their diapers. They should stop throwing the stones and go back to the school of Christian foundation and Character building. They should have done that before standing before crowds world over, before printing any book, before selling any teaching and preaching CD. Your Character as a believer is greater than the fame.
Believers are totally confused and it is high time to pay any attention to these televangelists
of mass marketing of cheap CDs and books and getting rich. They fly around the world
in private jets, wear custom-made clothings, dine and stay in the most expensive places.
My Lord ate the same food with his disciples, slept wherever He could find a place. He never
rode on special chariats, and down through years, I can't find any similarity in between these
preachers and their subject of money making " Jesus Christ". These are religious corporations
and systematically exploiting religious people of America and around the world. They deserve
an encounter with humility, simple life and the genuine compassion of Jesus in their hearts.
These two are a disgrace to the ministry as was their wedding, a Christian spectacle, how are we to talk to young people about the sanctity of marriage when these two and others carry on the way they do, they are both in need of psychiatric care, don’t blame the ministry or make an excuse for them, I have been in the ministry for 39 years and married for 40 years because we are submitted to our parents and our elders, there two are submitted to no one except the $$$$$ AND NO MINISTER SHOULD EXPOSE HIS OR HER CONGREGATION TO THIS TYPE OF “MINISTRY” do we forgive them? Yes but they have disqualified themselves from the ministry and leaders like Bishop Jakes and other fathers in the faith, who are the mentors of these two as well as Paula White should place them under discipline and exclude them from all ministry, any person that has this kind of anger needs deliverance they are opressed by the devil and need help, this anger is ungodly.
let me clarify something: I am born again. But it is easy to be deceived. So I am more than alittle cautious anymore. When you have been stung, you kinda are on guard the rest of your life.
i have never put alot of stock in tele evangelists. Are they goin to be there for you if you are sick? I think not. Are they goin to be there when you are goin thru a hard time and need encouragement? I think not. But the majority of them sure know how to say the right words to get you to give lots of ????????? and then they will give you a word from God. Yeah right!!
Amen tamna!
The Public Preaching of Women
http://polemos.net/Articles/The%20Public%20Preaching%20of%20Women.html
Womanhood, Biblical
http://polemos.net/Womanhood,%20Biblical.html
I agree with you tamna. I don't think Jesus is Lord in either one of them personally or their respective ministries.
(I flagged myself)
Let's see, in this marriage of "ministers" there was Bynum and there was Weeks. It is quite obvious these two didn't have the third member of a Christian marriage - GOD - in their relationship.