When Sean “Diddy” Combs accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award from BET in 2022, the rapper gave shoutouts to supporters who “lifted me up in prayer.” Amongst them have been Kim Porter, the late mom of his kids, and his ex-girlfriend and R&B artist Cassie, who filed a sexual assault lawsuit towards him final 12 months that was so disturbing it got here with a set off warning.
“Prayer works. I’mma pray for y’all. Pray for me. Let’s pray for one another,” Diddy instructed the group on the 2022 BET Awards. The mogul added, “I used to be in a darkish place for a couple of years. I’ve to provide a particular thanks to the those who was actually, like, there for me.”
He then named one well-known helper particularly: megachurch pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes.
In latest weeks, the Texas preacher has been on the heart of a social media rumor mill accusing him of showing at Diddy’s sex-charged events. One TikTok person’s video circulating the unconfirmed accusations has 1.8 million views.
Jakes obliquely addressed the controversy in a Christmas Eve sermon, advising his flock at The Potter’s Home Church in Dallas to “log out.”
“All of you who count on me to handle a lie, you’ll be able to log out,” Jakes said to applause. “I cannot use this sacred day and this sacred pulpit to handle a lie when I’ve an opportunity to evangelise a fact.”
“However there will probably be a time,” he continued. “So you’ll be able to cease dragging individuals and arguing with individuals and preventing and simply log out… There isn’t a present right here.”
At one other level, Jakes said, “The worst that might occur, if the whole lot was true, all I gotta do is repent sincerely from my coronary heart. There’s sufficient energy within the blood to cowl all types of sins. I don’t care what it’s, the blood would repair it.
“However I ain’t acquired to repent about this. All I acquired to do is step over high of it.”
Based on Christian media web site the Roys Report, different movies additionally declare that Jakes groomed a former mentee.
A spokesperson for Jakes denied the claims spreading on Black Twitter and TikTok.
“Bishop Jakes is without doubt one of the most transformational leaders of our time who has made a profound influence on my life”
— Sean Combs
“Latest claims circulating on pockets of social media about Bishop T.D. Jakes are unequivocally false and baseless,” Jordan A. Hora, govt director of public relations and communications for the T.D. Jakes Group, T.D. Jakes Ministries and The Potter’s Home, instructed on-line newspaper The Christian Post.
“What has all the time been true,” Hora added, “within the phrases of the late Pastor Charles H. Spurgeon, ‘In order for you the reality to go around the world you have to rent an categorical prepare to tug it; however if you’d like a misinform go around the world it is going to fly; it’s as gentle as a feather, and a breath will carry it.’”
Since November, Cassie and several other different ladies got here ahead in lawsuits to accuse Diddy of rape, intercourse trafficking, beatings, revenge porn, and drugging way back to the early Nineteen Nineties. (Cassie settled her case a day after it was filed for an undisclosed sum, and Combs’ lawyer stated the settlement was “under no circumstances an admission of wrongdoing.”) One go well with accused him and former Dangerous Boy president Harve Pierre of gang-raping a 17-year-old woman.
After the lawsuit was filed, Diddy denied her claims and stated “sickening allegations have been made towards me by people in search of a fast payday.” Pierre additionally issued a denial, calling the claims “a story of fiction” and “determined try for monetary achieve.”
In her personal criticism, Cassie accused Diddy of directing her to ingest medication, put on a masquerade masks, and carry out intercourse acts with male intercourse staff whereas he watched in an encounter that might final days—an association he referred to as a “Freak off.”
Cassie’s go well with alleged that Diddy would beat her however his “tremendously loyal community” refused to cease the rapper’s conduct. “What began as a whirlwind of celeb conferences and drug-and-alcohol-fueled events,” the criticism says, “rapidly turned scary and violent.”
Earlier than the settlement, Diddy’s lawyer referred to as Cassie’s allegations “offensive and outrageous” and claimed the singer had tried to “blackmail” Diddy for $30 million and threatened to write down a dangerous tell-all about their relationship.
The rumors about Jakes exploded after YouTuber Tuff News TV posted a Dec. 18 video whereby he recited an e mail from an alleged tipster claiming Jakes was a participant in Diddy’s intercourse events and had engaged in misconduct with a former mentee.
“Bishop Jakes is about to get railroaded and all of his dust will probably be uncovered,” the supposed e mail continued.
“Now I do wish to defend the integrity of my platform and say that the whole lot that I simply conveyed to you is all alleged,” the host, Germaine McKinley, instructed viewers, earlier than claiming that the feds had Diddy’s ex Kim Porter’s burner telephone and USBs.
“It’s about to go down,” McKinley stated. “It’s actually about to go down.”
Diddy hasn’t weighed in on the Jakes controversy charming on-line corners.
The rap mogul is a longtime fan of the pastor, who in 2001 appeared on the quilt of Time magazine below the headline, “Is that this man the subsequent Billy Graham?”
The beloved 66-year-old father and grandfather was additionally the keynote speaker at former President Obama’s 2009 Inauguration Day prayer service. In 2015, Obama instructed Variety, “I’m lucky to rely myself among the many numerous People whose lives have been touched by the ministry of Bishop T.D. Jakes.”
“The worst that might occur, if the whole lot was true, all I gotta do is repent sincerely from my coronary heart.”
— Bishop T.D. Jakes
As an writer, filmmaker and actual property developer, Jakes confronted criticism as early as 1997 for preaching the “prosperity gospel”—and driving flashy automobiles and proudly owning a multimillion-dollar mansion. “A number of instances individuals will have a look at somebody like me, however they actually need to have a look at individuals who’ve acquired 20 [church] members and have a Rolls,” Jakes as soon as told Oprah.
In 2021, the Instagram @PreachersNSneakers, which shares photographs of pastors and their luxurious put on, featured Jakes for his $1,250 Louboutin fanny pack.
Diddy has been spreading Jakes’ phrase as early as 2010, retweets from his previous Twitter account @iamdiddy present. Again then, the rapper shared quotes from Jakes such as, “Someone is within the hospital begging God for the chance you could have proper now. Step into your second” and “I’m not strolling by sight—I’m strolling by religion.”
When Diddy hosted a memorial for Porter in 2018, Jakes performed the service.
Three years later, Diddy’s Revolt TV community partnered with the pastor for an unique sermon sequence titled Kingdom Tradition with T.D. Jakes. (Diddy quickly stepped aside as chairman of the media firm after three ladies accused him of sexual assault in lawsuits.)
“Bishop Jakes is without doubt one of the most transformational leaders of our time who has made a profound influence on my life,” Diddy stated in a press launch saying the challenge, “so we’re honored for him to affix the REVOLT household and use his reward to empower the tradition.”
In 2022, the boys have been photographed at one another’s birthday events.
That June, Diddy attended Jakes’ sixty fifth birthday bash (hosted by his buddy, the filmmaker Tyler Perry) and posed for a photograph with the preacher.
And when Diddy threw his 53rd birthday celebration in L.A. in November, Jakes was among the many celeb visitors and was recorded singing “Comfortable Birthday.” “We love you, man,” he signed off within the clip, which raised eyebrows when it was first shared.
Derrick Williams, an govt of Jakes’ leisure firm, told The Christian Post that the footage was taken throughout what was solely a quick cease on the festivities.
“Bishop Jakes was in LA for vital enterprise conferences, and we felt {that a} fast look on the former Chairman of Revolt’s birthday occasion was the respectful factor to do since Bishop Jakes’ sermons are aired on the Revolt Community,” he stated.
“We each greeted the household, Bishop Jakes recorded a quick celebratory birthday video and left instantly to take our different scheduled conferences,” Williams added. “Any accusation on the contrary is wholly unsubstantiated, unverified, and false.”