T.D. Jakes, influential pastor of Dallas megachurch The Potter’s House, has been mentioned in a lawsuit against embattled music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
On Monday, producer Rodney “Lil’ Rod” Jones alleged in a lawsuit that Combs engaged in a multi-year “sex trafficking venture.” The sordid 98-page legal complaint mentions Jakes once, as part of a list of evidence that Jones “has personally witnessed and secured.”
Jones’ accusations are related to multiple allegations of sexual assault against Combs, including a suit filed in November by Cassie Ventura, Combs’ former girlfriend. Earlier this week, agents raided Combs’ residences in Los Angeles and Miami as part of a federal sex-trafficking investigation.
In the suit filed Monday, Jones claimed he has “irrefutable evidence” that detail “how (Combs) planned to leverage his relationship with Bishop T.D. Jakes, to soften the impact on his public image of Cassie Ventura’s lawsuit.” No allegations of wrongdoing were made against Jakes in the suit.
The Roys Report (TRR) reached out to a spokesperson for Jakes, but she declined to comment on the record.
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Several celebrities are named in Jones’ lawsuit, including Prince Harry, rap artist Yung Miami, and actor Cuba Gooding Jr.
As previously reported by TRR, Combs’ then-girlfriend Ventura, in her lawsuit, accused Combs of rape and repeated physical abuse over about a decade.
Last year, four other plaintiffs filed civil lawsuits against Combs accusing him of rape, sex trafficking a minor, assault, and several other alleged abuses, The Columbian reported at the time. Combs and his attorneys have denied the accusations.
Jakes was drawn into Combs’ controversies after the pastor attended Combs’ 53rd birthday party in Los Angeles on Nov. 4 last year.
However, Derrick Williams, executive vice president of TD Jakes Entertainment, told The Christian Post that Jakes only briefly attended the party because Jakes’ sermons are aired on Revolt Network, where Combs served as chairman at the time.
Williams said Jakes made a brief appearance to greet the Combs family and then left. “Any accusation to the contrary is wholly unsubstantiated, unverified, and false,” Williams said.
Combs subsequently stepped down as chairman of Revolt Network, the Dallas Morning News reported, and the music mogul has sold his stake in the company.
According to an NBC News report, some real footage of Jakes appearing at Combs’ party was remixed with AI-generated video and audio in several videos that “flooded” YouTube in late December and early January. Many such manipulated videos have since been removed.
The news report on Jan. 30 cited deepfake detection expert Siwei Lyu, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University at Buffalo, who reviewed videos that came up in a search of “TD Jakes.”
Detection tools that Lyu used found that audio of Jakes in at least one YouTube video was “more than 90% likely to have been AI-generated.”
Jakes referenced the misinformation being spread about him in a Dec. 24 sermon at The Potter’s House. “All of you who expect me to address a lie, you can log off,” Jakes said.
In that Christmas Eve sermon, Jakes called his accusers “liars.” He added, regarding the allegations, that even “if everything was true, all I got to do is repent sincerely from my heart.”
Beyond his role as a pastor, Jakes is known for being a “charismatic leader, visionary, provocative thinker, and entrepreneur,” according to the Potter’s House website. The church reportedly had 30,000 members as of 2021.
A ministry spokesperson, Jordan Hora, later stated that claims being spread about Jakes via social media “are unequivocally false and baseless.”
“Chairman Jakes (is) undeterred by false, perverse, ignorant, and conspiratorial speculations,” he added.
Freelance journalist Josh Shepherd writes on faith, culture, and public policy for several media outlets. He and his family live in the Washington, D.C. area.
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18 Responses
“T.D. Jakes Entertainment” – tells you all you need to know.
Dee,
Please follow the counsel of Proverbs 17:28 before you consider posting disparaging remarks about a brother or sister in Christ.
Jakes, like MANY others has produced Christian movies… hence he needs a production company.
So, I’m assuming you intended to make the observation that in addition to preaching on Sundays, he has harnessed the power of media and gone into the marketplace of ideas circa Paul on Mars Hill in the shadow of the Acropolis, or as a tent maker in Korinth in the shadow of the temple of Baal. That’s what you meant to say… right?
The Word of God is sufficient for this. But if the pastor Himself does not believe it is then no wonder there is rampant unbelief in the congregations, not unbelief in who christ is but in what Christ says through the Word of God, beginning with the New testament teachings. Paul did not need a whole theater and all kinds of gimmicks. Paul taught scripture empowered by he Holy Spirit.
I say this in the spirit of love for all of my brethren in Christ.
2 Thess 2:15
“So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.”
Only the beginning of the rot that’s about to be exposed in the Celebrity Christian Industrial Complex.
Jesus is cleansing the Temple once again.
Dee – Sounds like the same complaints the Pharisees leveled at Jesus. We are not of the world but we are in the world and TD Jakes seems to do a good job balancing those two. He is reaching people many of us could never hope to have access to.
Like many of us who do not know Thomas Dexter Jakes, I can find information about how he began as a pastor in a church in his 20’s. But how did he become a bishop?
Jakes carefully guards his on-line presence. It appears he was given the title bishop by the Higher Ground Abounding Association around 1987 or 1988. He is also Vice-Prelate of the group. Pentecostals like to give and receive titles of honor like bishop, prophet, apostle, etc. Jakes’ BA, MA, and D.Min are from a diploma mill called FICU. https://www.christianpost.com/news/td-jakes-launches-divinity-school-draws-criticism-from-some-in-academia.html https://www.apologeticsindex.org/2794-name-it-and-frame-it-phony-doctorates-in-the-church
So were the Pharisees… Money loving, highly regarded by others e.t.c…. Their fruit my dear brother or Sister ( the fruits of The Spirit)… This is not a matter of liking or disliking a person.. It is about the eternal destiny of many souls who blindly trust elevated personalities who use the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in vain.
His bishopric was self-proclaimed. He is not part of any denomination.
https://www.highergroundaaa.com/about-us
Always Abounding Assemblies Inc is an incorporated business that was founded in, the same year T.D. Jakes joined up. The founder is also a bishop, unsurprisingly.
It’s weird that they’re so keen to put the Inc at the end of their name, if they’re a denomination.
Mike,
I’m sorry but the ignorance revealed in your statement is thick with irony.
Have you ever started a
Business?
Do you realize the difference between Inc, LLC and NFP.
Do you recognize that legally they have to have Inc behind their name because the “incorporated” as a tax paying and not as an NFP or 501c3.
Which, my guess is that would have drawn your ire as well.
SMH, anyone remember this guy named Jesus. His critics didn’t like that he hung out with tax collectors and sinners either.
They are a 501c3. Sounds like a denomination to me. “In 1988, through the leading of the Lord, Dr. Watkins established an independent organization under the charter of Higher Ground Always Abounding Assemblies Inc. Now under a new name and with a new direction, Higher Ground is now the head church and central business office, and Dr. Watkins is the chief prelate over many churches both nationally and internationally.” They are a church and don’t file 990s. https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/341710440 https://app.blacklivingknowledge.com/sherman-s-watkins/ https://nonprofitlocator.org/organizations/oh/columbus/311246332-higher-ground-always-abounding-assemblies-incorporated
Who are we to judge? Whatever anyone do in his private life is his business. We had all kinds of things that went on in the Bible. I’m sure what his answer he gave is true. If not he has to deal with it with his savior. Who saohe wasn’t there to save souls. Remember no sun goes under promise. So if he did anything wrong he has to deal with it. The only presumption is leave it up to the savior. The savior is a forgiving God.
1 cor 5:11
“But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who CLAIMS to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or GREEDY, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people”
1 cor 5:12 – 13
“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
Ps.The disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ.obey his instructions given to us in The Word God.
Disciple of a pastor follow the instruction of the pastor and their own reasonings.
It is not easy to follow Christ, but He is so faithful and will help you when you ask.
God bless you
I do not recall Jesus refusing to be associated with the sinners:
MK 2:15-17
And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him.
And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?
When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Lk 5:29-32
And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.
But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?
And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Also see MT 9:10-13
Paul gives Christians a lot of excuses to not follow God’s Commandments, and Jesus’ example
I’m not affirming Jakes by asking this question. But if “No allegations of wrongdoing were made against Jakes in the suit…” why does this article exist?
Mike Quimby asks why does this article exist?
And I as a reader of this article ask why is there no response from TD Jakes?
Touché
The Roys Report (TRR) reached out to a spokesperson for Jakes, but she declined to comment on the record.