Excerpt: December 2001

The question for today is why do some churches allow their preachers to do anything and still stand in the pulpit and preach? Where is the accountability?

My husband screwed everything walking in the church and community and the churches did nothing, but like me, turned a blind eye. There is no accountability for the preacher in the church, at least not in our church. In the eleven years since Curtis and I went to Morning Glory nothing positive has taken place. The ministry hasn’t grown, there’s no vision from the pastor and there’s been one sexual scandal after another, and the church leaders and members did nothing. One night I asked Curtis what was his vision for the church and you would have thought I was speaking German to him. With a puzzled expression he asked me what I meant. I couldn’t believe he was serious, but I didn’t push him for an answer because I didn’t want to piss him off. When the church did try to question or chastise Curtis for unseemly behavior, I always stepped in and shut them up. I had a knack for intimidating the members, especially the men, with intellectual and manipulative words that shut them down. The devil has seen to it that Shanequa has stepped in to take my place IN COVERING his shit. Our deacon staff was another problem; most of them were all so carnal and weak. Another problem is that churches don’t take the pastor’s sins of adultery seriously. Our situation was ridiculously clear, it couldn’t have been clearer that Curtis was out of control in his sexual escapades if Jesus himself had written it on the wall. The church had to pay off whores with church funds, run whores out of the church, and pay for an abortion! Some of these churches would say “amen” if Satan was in the pulpit preaching! Over the years women had repeatedly come in droves to me, and the church officials, yelling that the pastor had screwed them and nothing was ever done about it. The deacons held public and secret meetings between the women and Curtis, and he had won every time. Hell, it got to the point where the majority of the members in our church were committing adultery and screwing each other. Deacons were screwing the pastor’s aid members. Choir members were cheating on their spouses. The musician was screwing the trustee. No marriage was safe in our church. It was a regular Peyton Place. The church officials could have at least taken measures to protect the membership, knowing what kind of pastor they had. They could have ensured that he didn’t counsel female members without a chaperone. I should have been in the office when he counseled females. I guess I can’t place the entire blame on the church, I also knew and did nothing. A commitment to God’s word was lacking in the church. There was no vision, mission, or adherence to the word at Morning Glory. There was no power or authenticity behind the messages and we were all just playing church. I figure if the preacher doesn’t live the life he preaches about, neither will the membership. But I have to ask what the hell the church was thinking. I wonder if members went home and pondered over what to do about the “first family”? Were they just too afraid to take a stand against Curtis? Those lone soldiers who tried to admonish Curtis were ostracized and stripped of their positions or just gave up and left the church. Curtis has never admitted guilt to his church, but they know he is a liar. After every church meeting where women came forth accusing him of seducing them they were made to feel worthless and dismissed as liars. I could look in their eyes and hear the pain in their voices and knew they were telling the truth, yet I stood by my man. Churches need to realize that a pastor who repeatedly commits adultery is sick and the problem should be addressed. It is a serious issue, that left unaddressed, will lead to the ultimate destruction of his family, witness and the church, or worse like Morning Glory, just a church on a corner ministering to no one. All the signs of satanic warfare against the church were there all the time and we all ignored those signs. The youth were having babies out of wedlock. The adults in the church having were sex with one another. The majority of the counseling sessions pertained to marriages in trouble or turned into sex fest with the pastor. Sex, sex, sex was the major issue up, in and around our church. Ministers were coming to run revivals at our church and leaving our church members brokenhearted, with shattered faith and sometimes pregnant. I wonder if our church is isolated or is the norm cheating preachers? I searched for cases in the news, and wracked my brain among our personal ministerial friends for those who have suffered scandals of sexual impropriety, and found an overwhelming number of incidences. Curtis and I love each other and we are attractive, charismatic, talented and gifted individuals with so much to offer. We could have been a power ministry couple! Why did this happen to us?