Celebrity Pastor John Gray is coming to the defense of Marvin Sapp after a viral video of him demanding $40,000 from a congregation started a firestorm of debate earlier this week.
The heavily shared and criticized clip has stirred up major controversy due to Sapp‘s “close them doors” command seemingly keeping the congregation as holy hostages until they raised enough money. However, Gray says there is a great deal of both culture and context missing from the conversation.
“I’ve known Marvin Sapp for many years. He’s a great human being and he loves God, those are unquestioned things. He loves his children, he loves the church,” Gray told TMZ. “I think the challenge is context, cultural context. Within the context and the construct of the people he was speaking to at that particular service, they would understand his language.”
He continued,
“Within that construct, I’ve seen much, much worse. I’ve seen $1000 lines, $500 lines. ‘No one’s leaving until…’ and I think what he was saying was more for order and I have to take his word for that but I understand how culture sees a moment like that, particularly when it comes to faith. You’re looking at an absolute influx of multiple things happening and then they see a pastor saying ‘2,000 people give $20’ and that can seem deeply offensive. I think it’s more incumbent upon leaders and pastors to truly be servant leaders, shepherds because I understand what it’s like. Our church, we do reverse offerings: we’ve put baskets at the front and I’ve told people to ‘come down and get what you need. If you have a bill, you come get that.’ That didn’t make the news because, the truth is, that’s what the church should be doing. We should be meeting the needs of the poor, the widows, the orphaned and the elderly. We in the faith community have to do a better job of communicating biblical truth.”
Gray went on to say that the vitriol attached to Sapp’s viral moment may be a bit misdirected, as he was allowed to make those demands because of a culture that already exists in many faith-based environments. In some ways, he echoed what Sapp said in his own defense when he chalked up the online hate train to people simply not understanding the way the church operates. The gospel singer turned bishop took to his Facebook page to set the record straight for his over 2 million followers.
“Some have taken issue with a particular moment when I instructed the ushers, rather firmly, to close the doors during the offering. To those unfamiliar with the church context or who may not regularly attend worship gatherings this has been misinterpreted as holding people hostage as well as offensive. That was never my intent,” Sapp wrote.
“The truth is, when finances are being received in any worship gathering, it is one of the most vulnerable and exposed times for both the finance and security teams. Movement during this sacred exchange can be distracting and, at times, even risky. My directive was not about control it was about creating a safe, focused, and reverent environment for those choosing to give, and for those handling the resources.”
He also went on to say that it was his “biblical” duty to help raise an offering to cover the budget and costs for the conference he was booked to speak at. There were definitely tons of churchgoers who came to his defense in the comments so, maybe, this is much ado about nothing.
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