This week, Davina Kelly details her allegations of abuse against Pastor Sherman Allen. A 33-year-old mother of three named Davina Kelly is at the center of the abuse allegations against Pastor Sherman Allen, and she is already the subject of much controversy in local black church circles. The question people…
El Greco, “Descent of the Holy Spirit” He called himself Apostle. And many a Sunday morning was punctuated with the skronk-skronk of a saxophone as he blew his rendition of “Amazing Grace.” He was a young man, and he’d recently gotten out of prison, where he had some kind of…
Bishop J. Neaul Haynes: What did he know about Pastor Sherman Allen, and what did he do about it? Pastor Sherman Allen’s bishop in the Church of God in Christ, J. Neaul Haynes of Dallas, has been aware of paddling allegations involving Allen for at least 17 years. One of…
Gilbert Patterson, presiding bishop of the Memphis-based Church of God in Christ, died yesterday of heart failure. He had been ill for some time. Patterson was much admired within his denomination, the largest Pentecostal body in the United States, with some 5 million members. He commanded respect throughout Pentecostalism and…
Pastor Sherman Allen of Shiloh Institutional Church of God in Christ offered advice on proper sex techniques, a source says. In what kind of church atmosphere would a woman submit to the unthinkable — allowing her pastor to paddle her repeatedly in various states of undress, sometimes causing bruises and…
The influential Bishop Gilbert Patterson has a tie to Pastor Sherman Allen, who’s been accused of abusing several women. Patterson’s executive secretary is married to Allen. The Church of God in Christ — one of the oldest, most historically significant Pentecostal denominations in the United States — has flown well…
Pastor Sherman Allen of Shiloh Institutional Church of God in Christ is accused of assaulting at least eight women. Eight women have now come forward alleging that Pastor Sherman Allen of Fort Worth beat them with a wooden paddle and, in several cases, sexually abused them, according to Stan Broome,…
Bible Girl questioned Bishop Jordan about his prophecies during a recent visit to town. She did not ask about the fake dreads, however. “You must prophesy for me.” E. Bernard Jordan heard the words in a dream, and he knew it was God speaking. But he was only 15, he…
Bible Girl, if it makes you feel any better, distributors don’t think anyone else wants to see Dakota Fanning get raped in Hound Dog either. One of us has got to be crazy. One of us has got to be deluded, dumb and blind. It is so very daring to…
Maya Angelou had one comment about the Fond du Lac controversy: “I’m saddened.” (Click here for Part 1 of this story.) This crowd was itching for a fight. About all the wrong things. The “Save us from the Christian Taliban” placard was a pretty good indication. David and Lorrie knew…
Once you’ve lost your innocence, you don’t think about it much anymore. We accustom ourselves so quickly to compromise, to an acceptable level of sin. Really, it’s our only line of defense from a loss for which there is no remedy. That and depression. One day, though, you’ll get a…
Can’t think of anything more contrary to the Christmas spirit than a Cowboys-Eagles game. The Eagles have the nastiest batch of fans in the NFL—these are the charitable folks who cheered when Michael Irvin sustained a career-ending spinal injury and was lying motionless on the field—plus there’s serious bad blood…
It began as a typical Sunday-morning service. Really doesn’t matter where, but since you’re curious, it was in a South Dallas church. There was an opening prayer. A handful of praise songs. A solo. Nothing that presaged much of anything. By the end of the morning it would sink in…
Young and old, they lined up to get healed. Old farmer’s wives with calloused, misshapen hands. A pot-bellied guy and his bum knee, souvenir of an athletic youth. Willowy teenage girls with their eyes closed, arms raised, illness unspecified. On some faces you saw quiet expectation. Others seemed so weary…
Aren’t Pentecostal churches the only place in the world where a man can get away with wearing a bright purple sportcoat? And did I not see with my very own eyes a Pentecostal preacher step behind the pulpit in a pastel yellow suit with matching shoes? Oh, I forgot. The…
As I told you a couple months ago, neither the Dallas Mavericks’ collapse nor the city’s premature parade plans were the fault of Celia Barshop. Yesterday, Dallas took steps to prevent its special events manager from ever again being conveniently abused as a scapegoat. You remember what you did last…
If the Southern Baptists forbid speaking in tongues in order to talk to God, we did find this handy book. More than 100 Southern Baptist leaders gathered today at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington to talk about their denomination’s sharpening opposition to speaking in tongues–specifically, whether members should be allowed…
Conclusive evidence that man and dinosaurs coexisted. If little else happens in a Christian’s life, he should develop a certain measure of humility. That, after all, is the character of Jesus Christ, who emptied himself of his rights and privileges as God’s only son to die for sorry folks like…
Leave it to Jack E. Jett, a Dallas comedian and cable TV talk-show host who has a love/hate relationship with Bible Girl (the love part: he keeps reading it), to cut right to the heart of the matter. “Just to get things clear,” he wrote last week in the wake…
Mike Jones blew Ted Haggard’s cover. Patty Calhoun, editor of Denver’s Westword–one of the Dallas Observer’s sister papers–suggests in her column this week that Ted Haggard was deeper into the gay lifestyle than his statements might have led you to believe. Mike Jones–the male prostitute who blew Haggard’s cover last…
Mark Graham Craig Watkins is the new Dallas County District Attorney. You think you’re shocked, imagine how Toby Shook feels. People are walking around like zombies at Dallas County courthouses today as incumbent judges who looked invincible last week began contemplating the prospect of looking for new jobs in the…
The election results are a big smack upside the head to American evangelicals–a firm rebuke. Don’t explain them away or blame them on gays, the media and godless liberals. Yes, Ted Haggard had something to do with it. Maybe a lot to do with it. Most of all, he exposed…
