Poor pastor John Gray. He just can’t seem to win for trying.
First, the paragon of piety, who became well-known while an associate pastor at Houston’s mega Lakewood Church, caught heat for buying his wife a $200,000 Lamborghini.
Then, came news of an alleged affair (Gray told the women of The Real the affair was an “emotional” one, not physical):
Then, there was the criticism about the $1.8 million home in South Carolina paid for by Relentless Church, the Greenville, S.C., house of worship where Gray and his wife, Aventer, are currently pastors.
And now, even a show of support the Grays received is kicking up new dust.
And it was apparently quite a show:
During a sermon Sunday at Relentless Church, Hope Carpenter, the church’s pastor before she moved last year to a church in San Jose, made an appearance. She spoke of the need to hold on to one’s faith in times of trouble and showed her support for the embattled Grays.
“I love you Pastor John and Pastor Aventer. I believe in you,” Carpenter said, the Washington Post reports. “I’m praying for you. I’m rooting for you!”
Then, things took an, uhm, sharp turn.
Referring to the local Greenville News, which has published several stories that have been critical of the Grays, Carpenter promised, well, violence.
As the Houston Chronicle reports:
“I cut people,” she said in a video of the sermon posted on YouTube. “I got a knife right there in that pocketbook, so Greenville News, come on. We done went through that already. ... I’m still here, and guess who else is still gonna be here?”
She then pointed to John Gray, who nodded in agreement, according to the Post.
In a statement to the Post, a spokeswoman for Relentless Church said the Grays had no idea what Carpenter would say, and that while they “believe Pastor Hope was joking, we completely understand how her comments could be received in today’s climate. There is no place in our society for words that could fan the flames of discord.”
Welp. There is that. Wonder what the next chapter will be?