Leonardo Blair
Leonardo Blair is an award-winning investigative reporter and feature writer whose career spanned secular media in the Caribbean and New York City prior to joining The Christian Post in 2013. His early work with CP focusing on crime and Christian society quickly attracted international attention when he exposed a campaign by Creflo Dollar Ministries in 2015 to raise money from supporters to purchase a $65 million luxury jet. He continues to report extensively on church crimes, spiritual abuse, mental health, the black church and major events impacting Christian culture.
He is a 2007 alumnus of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he was an inaugural member of the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. He lives with his wife and two sons in New York City.
Latest
84-year-old white man pleads not guilty to shooting black teenager who rang his bell by mistake
Andrew D. Lester, an 84-year-old homeowner who shot Ralph Yarl, a black teenager twice after he mistakenly rang his doorbell in Kansas City, Missouri, in April is now headed to a trial after he pleaded not guilty to charges of assault in the first degree and armed criminal action, saying that he, too, made a mistake.
Muslim call to prayer can now be broadcast publicly in NYC without permit
The Islamic call to public prayer can now be publicly broadcast by mosques in New York City without a permit every Friday and throughout Ramadan under a new initiative launched by Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban.
Medical missionary who once criticized the UN's work in Haiti wants them back after government collapse
As the security situation in Haiti has deteriorated to the point where it is now dangerous for American missionaries, Dr. David Vanderpool, a trauma surgeon who co-founded the medical ministry LiveBeyond, which does significant work in the Caribbean nation, says he believes the United Nations needs to return to help stabilize the country despite its checkered history there.
As pastors age, majority struggle to find mature young Christian successors: study
As American pastors continue to skew older, with an average age of 52, a majority now say it is becoming increasingly difficult to find mature young Christians willing to do their jobs as they prepare to retire, data from a new Barna study shows.
Churches, Christians respond as Hurricane Idalia batters Florida
Churches across Florida canceled services, offered help, and hunkered down as Hurricane Idalia made landfall as an “extremely dangerous Category 3” storm Wednesday, and at least two people have already died in weather-related crashes across the state.
Rock Church Pastor John Blanchard gets prostitution charge expunged; prays over baby for church dedication on Sunday
Despite a special prosecutor concluding that prostitution-related charges brought against him by local police nearly two years ago were "sound," a Virginia judge agreed last Wednesday to expunge the case from the record of Rock Church International Senior Pastor John Blanchard.
Historic Miami church needs $3M to save buildings from foreclosure
The historic St. John's Institutional Missionary Baptist Church in Miami, Florida, could lose several of its buildings to foreclosure in less than two weeks after a former pastor allegedly mishandled the finances of the 117-year-old church and left the congregation drowning in debt.
Pastor claims church members got killed by gang during Haiti protest because they lost faith
After at least seven of his members were executed when he led them into what local police have called an ill-advised protest against a powerful gang in Haiti on Saturday, Pastor Marcorel Zidor, leader of the Church of the Pool of Bethesda in Caradeux said they only died because they lost their faith.
Ron DeSantis calls racist Dollar General shooter ‘major league scumbag’ at prayer vigil
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the white man who fatally shot three black people at a Dollar General in Jacksonville because of their race, “a major league scumbag” at a prayer vigil for the victims Sunday where he was booed by some as he promised help for the grieving community.
At least 7 church members executed, others kidnapped, injured for challenging gang in Haiti
At least seven members of the Evangelical Church of the Pool of Bethesda in Caradeux, Haiti, were executed while several others were injured or kidnapped on Saturday after their pastor convinced them to protest a heavily armed local gang with just sticks, machetes, and the belief that God would protect them from bullets.