Disgraced South Carolina pastor and prophetic minister Chris Reed has admitted to becoming dependent on the addictive herbal drug kratom.

Kratom, used for pain relief, has opioid-like effects and is labeled “drug and chemical of concern” by the Drug Enforcement Agency. It contains a substance that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering making a controlled substance.

In a video Sunday, Reed accused people who made his drug use public of trying to “betray” him. He also said they were being used by Satan to try to bring down his church, Friends of the Bridegroom (FOTB), in Lancaster, South Carolina.

“I ask you to pray for our church that has come under attack and I’m not going to lay down and let the devil destroy it,” he said.

Reed said in his video that he used kratom for back pain. He also said he relied on it to handle the loss of his mother, the stress of caring for a sick father and the trauma of public shaming for sexual misconduct. In 2024, Reed admitted to sexual misconduct while training to be president of MorningStar Ministries, a prophetic ministry based in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

“That is why I turned to kratom, an herbal supplement sold over the counter, even at gas stations, to help people with back pain, to help with body pain, and to help with anxiety,” Reed said. “I had become dependent on it, but I don’t believe I was addicted to it.”

Reed said he got clean within “a few days to a week or two” and was accountable every month to a church elder with drug screens.

Kratom is legal in South Carolina. But last year the state started regulating it, banning it for people under 21 years old. It’s illegal in six states including Alabama, Indiana and Vermont.

‘A man that lives in the shadows’

Reed was celebrated in the charismatic world for several years for his prophetic dreams and words purporting to foretell the future. Last year, however, the website Pentecostals and Charismatics for Peace and Justice gave Reed a dismal score on the veracity of 40 predictions he made in 2023.

“Reed fails so hard it is unimaginable that anyone could consider him a reliable prophet,” Swedish pastor and Bible teacher Lars Gunther wrote.

In the past week, several of Reed’s former friends have released critical videos about him. California pastor Joe Sweet issued a “warning” that Reed — who has previously spoken at Sweet’s church — cannot be trusted.

Reed lies, manipulates and uses prophecy to intimidate, Sweet, pastor of Shekinah Worship Center, north of Los Angeles, said in a statement.

“As a shepherd to God’s people, it is my duty to warn them,” Sweet wrote. “I highly encourage all to avoid Chris’s ‘ministry.’”

Eric and Loretta Rote, former evangelists at FOTB Church posted a Facebook video on Sunday stating that Reed has a drug problem.

Reed opened Jesus Revolution Church in York, South Carolina weeks after resigning from MorningStar and admitting to sexual misconduct with an adult student at the ministry. When critics asked why he was rushing into starting a new church, Reed declared he was leading a “Jesus revolution” and “time is running short!”

Last May, Reed moved the church about 40 miles southeast to Lancaster, S.C. and changed its name to FOTB.

During their Facebook video, the Rotes said they resigned from their leadership role at FOTB due to Reed’s drug use and lack of real accountability. Eric Rote said Reed shouldn’t be preaching.

“I have personal testimony of him being high, so high that his eyes were rolling in the back of his head,” Eric Rote said. “I want you to understand he preached from the pulpit many times, high on drugs.”

Reed has been living a double life, Rote claims, not following his own preaching, isolating himself from others who want to help.

“Chris Reed is not who he says he is,” Rote said. “Chris Reed is a man that lives in the shadows.”

Rote said after he and three other church leaders tried confronting Reed in June 2025, Reed agreed to sit under Sweet’s accountability. But Loretta Rote said she worried Sweet, in California, was too far away to provide real accountability. Reed only took one Sunday off from preaching, she said, which wasn’t enough time to get the help he needed.

Reed seemed to do better for a short time, but Eric Rote said he believes Reed went back to using.

Reed can be seen talking slowly, slurring his words and sometimes losing his place in a Jan. 18 FOTB service. By contrast, in a sermon from 2021, Reed’s cadence is faster.

Sweet didn’t mention Reed’s drug use in his Jan. 21 statement and didn’t answer TRR’s request for comment on this allegation. Sweet wrote that he has stopped inviting Reed to preach at Shekinah because Reed has engaged in “charismatic witchcraft” with false prophecy for financial gain.

“I have seen and personally experienced Chris giving a soulish and manufactured false ‘word’ for the purpose of trying to intimidate me when he became angry for not being invited back here to minister,” Sweet said.

Sweet wrote that since August 2024 and up until a couple weeks ago, he’s tried confronting Reed multiple times.

“My warnings fell on deaf ears,” Sweet wrote. “In my last communication with Chris, warning him about a week ago, he asked me to not speak with him at all anymore.”

Reed’s response

Reed made two separate videos to respond to both Sweet and the Rotes. Dismissing their accusations as part of “exposure culture,” he said the Rotes broke their promise to keep Reed’s drug use confidential.

He also said that when he resigned from MorningStar in 2024, Sweet agreed to financially support Reed at $14,000 monthly for a year. Reed said he needed help feeding his six children and paying a $6,000 monthly mortgage. Ree

d explained that his mortgage was so high because he had been previously underpaying his tax and insurance payments.

In the fallout from the sexual misconduct scandal — which included  MorningStar founder Rick Joyner publicly criticizing Reed — Sweet didn’t follow through, Reed said.

“When the fallout happened, he turned his back on me and walked away from me and all the help he promised me, he went back on,” Reed said.

Addressing Sweet, “Tonight broke the camel’s back when you attacked me publicly as though I’m some grifter,” Reed said.

In his video responding to the Rotes, Reed said that last June, four elders confronted him for his drug use. Reed acknowledged that he was originally under Sweet’s accountability, but after their falling out, FOTB elder Jack Linder became his accountability.

Reed said he immediately saw a doctor and quickly got clean. Reed said he’s been providing monthly drug tests to Linder to prove he’s no longer using any drug. He said his kratom use only added up to a few months.

He attributed the halting nature of some sermons to being extra tired after caring for his father late into the night.

“Just like last night, I didn’t get to bed until 4 a.m. and I got up and we did the online service today,” Reed said Sunday.

TRR attempted to contact Linder through the church’s contact email, but Linder didn’t respond. TRR also reached out to Reed to ask for copies of his drug tests, but Reed didn’t respond.

Reed blamed his drug use as the enemy’s work during a vulnerable time of his life. Similarly, in 2024, he also blamed his sexual misconduct on being “under attack.” In his response to the Rotes, he also said his church is “under attack.”

The Rotes denied attacking Reed. They said they care about his health and soul.

“We will not be under you, but we’ll walk with you,” Eric Rote said. “We’ll help you get help. And if you don’t get that help, you are on the wrong path.”

They insist, however, that the drug use had to be made public.

“We’re not going to have people that are living under false, false, false leadership,” Rote said. “We don’t want it on our hands.”

Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.