“Prophetess (Christina) Glenn’s life — past, present, and future — isn’t anyone’s business unless she makes it their business.”
Angelia Burkes e-mailed this response to a column two weeks ago about the engagement of her pastor, Prophetess Christina Glenn, to Bishop Thomas Weeks III.
Glenn is the pastor of Victory of Praise in Greensboro. Weeks is the former husband of Prophetess Juanita Bynum, who divorced him after he assaulted her in a hotel parking lot in Atlanta.
Weeks pleaded guilty to the crime and is serving three years of probation, news reports say. Pictures of a bruised Bynum also ended up on the celebrity Web site TMZ.
Weeks proposed a reality show to find “the next Mrs. Weeks.” He scrapped those plans, but later fell in love — according to a video on his Web site — with Glenn.
She had a show on local cable access in which members of her family participated, including, at one time, her husband.
The couple was seen on the Web celebrating his birthday at a fancy hotel. They are also featured in online Webisodes about starting over again.
Burkes wasn’t the only member of Glenn’s church to take issue with the column.
Virtuousn2008 started her e-mail this way: “When is it a sin to be in love? When is it a sin for God to send you your mate? People just need to mind their own business and leave others alone.”
Others, who likely don’t attend the church, had their own take , such as Arnold030555:
“... Especially the part where she says 'God has truly blessed her with an awesome man of God.’ Did she miss the wife beating part? ... You can’t even write comedy this good!”
The column never said the two of them shouldn’t be in love, get married or be in a relationship with one another.
Another member wanted to know why the 20-something pastor’s ministry, which Glenn began as a teenager, hadn’t been in the newspaper for her work with the area’s youth.
Other e-mail messages seemed to get the point of the article: that a preacher, part of this national story, had found love in Greensboro.
Mrsjoann wrote: “I noticed that you appear to be unbiased, which made me wonder why you had links to Weeks and Glenn’s Web sites but no link to Juanita Bynum’s Web site even though you mention her in your article. Juanita Bynum has moved on just like Weeks and Glenn.”
Some of you questioned why people are given the name “prophetess.”
Others found the attention insulting, even though it spoke of how people were drawn to Glenn’s ministry.
Beverly Burkes wrote:
“She is a bold soldier and mouthpiece for God. People should be lifting up the woman of God instead of tearing her down. We all have a past, but tell me who wants everyone to know about our flaws and shortcomings?”
What Beverly Burkes says about flaws and shortcomings is true — and Christian stars from Paula White to Michael Smith have attested to that.
Robyn Cheek, in a letter copied to me, wrote:
“This is only gossip for itching ears. ... Nancy McLaughlin is totally out of order in the Kingdom she claims to be a part of, because she is being a 'busybody in other men’s affairs’ (see 1 Peter 4:15).”
Reporters, including religion reporters who might or might not be people of faith themselves, try to write about all their subjects in an objective way.
Which also means it’s OK to give readers the last word, this one from Brittany Burkes:
“You all better pray and ask God to have mercy on you for talking about Prophetess Christina Glenn and Bishop Weeks.”
Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com
Join the discussion at staff writer Nancy McLaughlin's blog The Front Pew.
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