INTRODUCTION:
Join De’Vannon as he closes out 2022 with some real talk on bad preachers, the church’s hustler-like mentality, Tyler Perry, Joel Osteen and so much more…
INCLUDED IN THIS EPISODE (But not limited to):
· My Takedown Of Preachers
· My Takedown Of Tyler Perry
· Religious Trauma
· Shade Against Joel & Victoria Osteen
· Lakewood Choir Bullshit
· The Hustler State Of Mind
· Taking A Step Back
· The Three Things I’m Glad I’m Not
· Unpreached Scriptures
· The Church Choir Orgy
CONNECT WITH DE’VANNON:
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DE’VANNON’S RECOMMENDATIONS:
· Pray Away Documentary (NETFLIX)
o https://www.netflix.com/title/81040370
o TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk_CqGVfxEs
· OverviewBible (Jeffrey Kranz)
o https://www.youtube.com/c/OverviewBible
· Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed (Documentary)
· Leaving Hillsong Podcast With Tanya Levin
o https://leavinghillsong.podbean.com
· Upwork: https://www.upwork.com
· FreeUp: https://freeup.net
VETERAN’S SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS
· Disabled American Veterans (DAV): https://www.dav.org
· American Legion: https://www.legion.org
· What The World Needs Now (Dionne Warwick): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHAs9cdTqg
INTERESTED IN PODCASTING OR BEING A GUEST?:
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TRANSCRIPT:
Solo Dolo: Bad Preachers
[00:00:00]
You’re listening to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast, where we discuss whatever the fuck we want to! And yes, we can put sex and drugs and Jesus all in the same bed and still be all right at the end of the day. My name is De’Vannon and I’ll be interviewing guests from every corner of this world as we dig into topics that are too risqué for the morning show, as we strive to help you understand what’s really going on in your life.
There is nothing off the table and we’ve got a lot to talk about. So let’s dive right into this episode.
De’Vannon: Hello everyone and welcome to the Final sex Drugs in Jesus episode of 2022 , I’m so happy to have you here and I appreciate you listening all year long. Heaven’s blessings reign down upon you in massive abundance. For the support that you have shown this show. So as we get ready to close out this year, I thought I would end it.
You’re sharing, you’re sharing some shit with you from off of my heart. I [00:01:00] love how I can use this show to heal both myself and other people. I hope I say something that’s meaningful to you. Hope I say something that changes your life. I hope I say something that helps you to go a little higher.
Now in this show, I’m gonna dive a little deeper into the problems I have with the modern day preacher. And about this choir orgy that happened that one time at that one Pentecostal church back in California. . Stay tuned. Enjoy the show and have a happy fucking new year.
Hello, all my beautiful, delicious people out there and welcome back to the Sex Drugs in Jesus podcast. This is your final show that I’m giving you for this year, right here in 2022. Before we roll on over in the 2023, hopefully, God willing I’ve been toiling about what was gonna be the final show for the year, you know, and I didn’t wanna do another one of those.[00:02:00]
Hey, next year’s gonna be great sort of messages and everything like that because we hear those all the time. And so I was, I. , I like to use my show as a, as a cathartic tool for myself. It helps me heal to talk about things that bother me. And I know that the things that bother me bother you too because of the way some of you have reached out to me and have shared with me the problems that are going on in your life.
And so one of the biggest problems that have ever plagued me in my life has been the church dealing with preachers and stuff like that. And so I wanted to take a moment and, and just give my take on, on preachers specifically. I’ve talked a lot about churches and religion and stuff like that. That’s a free book that I just released on my website called Don’t Call Me a Christian, what is his Word even mean?
And you can go to my website, download it, [00:03:00] and go to several different bookstores and get it here for free, as well as all at Sex Drugs and jesus.com. And so, I wanted to start with the scripture in Jeremiah 23 that I’ve never heard a preacher preach before in church because this scripture preaches against preachers.
And how much of the Bible is littered with God? Not, not just striving with sinners, but striving specifically with the priesthood, but the kings of Israel and with people who are under positions of authority, you know, who really killed Jesus and responsible for his crucifixion church folks. And there’s no sense for us to be so naive as to think that, you know, just because we have the Bible to read the mistakes that preachers and priests and kings of the past have made that churches are not going to turn around and do those same things today because they’re totally, absolutely doing the same things today, or as they say, history as a way of repeating itself.
So in Jeremiah 23, [00:04:00] There’s four scriptures that I’m gonna read. So four verses I’m gonna read. So please bear with me. It just says, woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pastor, says the Lord. And therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people.
You have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you. The evil of your doings says the Lord. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries, whether I have driven them and will bring them again to their foes. And they shall be fruitful and increase.
And I will set up shepherds over them, which shall feed them and they shall fear no more nor be dismay. Neither shall they be lacking, says the Lord. So what is this scripture saying here? This scripture is coming for pastors, preachers, priests, whatever you want to call them, thought leaders, whatever. [00:05:00] Who, who do damage to the congregation, who do damage to people who listen to them.
And then they don’t go back intend to the damage that they have done. Instead they just press forward with more book deals, with more church services, with more arena tours, you know, and everything like that. And so
I was flipping around social media the other day and I saw where Tyler Perry was speaking at Lakewood Church. Okay. So I was like, okay, I didn’t know when he became a preacher. But I guess, you know, the way churches are these days in times you’re famous enough, or if you have a large enough platform or people to you and you can get onto churches you know, platform and speak to people.
Maybe he is a minister, I don’t know. But, but what pissed me off was what he was saying. And I think it was like, as he was closing his message, he was saying, [00:06:00] the thing that I’ve heard so many people say in so many churches from coast to coast and around the world, Christian churches now about how if you’re out, if you’re growing in life and you’re prospering and stuff like that, there’s gonna come a time according to them, I don’t agree with this at all, that you’re gonna have to outgrow the people around you and don’t be afraid to let them go and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and so on and so forth.
And thunderous applause erupted. And, and the comments, you know, on, on the social media, like, yes, of course. Oh my God, that was the word I needed. Same shit that they always say you know, in these churches. It, it’s, it’s so, it’s so expected. It’s so . It is just, it’s just, this is just what’s gonna happen because church people are so damn, you know, programmed and so,
What I don’t like about it is I don’t feel like that we should be rejoicing over leaving somebody behind. You know, if this person was a friend of ours, [00:07:00] at some point, you know, these preachers are not even saying, you know, leave them behind because they hurt you, try to destroy you. That’s different.
They’re saying is, you used to be on the same level, I guess now you’ve gotten some promotion at work or whatever the fuck, you feel like you’re now elevated and this person is now beneath you. If anything, if there must be some sort of disconnect because you feel like somebody’s holding you back or whatever, I think that that’s a sad thing because y’all started off great and now you’re losing a friend.
I don’t, I don’t get what the clapping and the thunder is of parole is for that. That’s something that shouldn’t be done, regrettably, if it has to, but with, but with sorrow. Not with joy. But what does this do? It feeds on the narcissism that prevails within the church body. There’s this thinking of you know, I have to improve, but only if somebody else’s, if only if somebody [00:08:00] else’s diminishes.
So I’m like, so like, why can’t it just be like my growth and not my growth relative to somebody else’s lack of growth? You know, when I was, when I used to go to churches, they would take this so far and they would say like, you know, if somebody is, you know, not speaking positive or not being good, or whatever, Christian enough, you don’t want them to hold you back from your blessings.
So they would tell us not to let them ride in our cars, don’t speak to the people and do all of these things that Jeremiah 23 is saying not to do. You know, the, the Lord always said to go back and find the one lost sheep. Not, not to, to, to discard of them and just move on. This whole idea, we’re just gonna move on and leave certain people behind so we can go forward in life.
Is it, it just rubs me the wrong way. And I hated seeing Tyler Perry at Lakewood Church of all [00:09:00] places, you know, the largest church platform in the country when the big is in the world next to Hillsong Church, and their Hillsong is caught up in their own scandal right now. Brian Houston is currently going through trial right now for his daddy molested them boys and they didn’t tell anybody.
You can find out more about that at, at the Leaving Hillsong podcast. Tonya Tonya Levine is covering that over in Australia as we speak. You know, like why, you know, why is, why is, why is this same message still being preached? And I, you know, I, and I really fell out with Tyler Perry anyway because, you know, I was researching him and, you know, and I found where, you know, he does not accept mail from people.
No fan mail, no nothing. Like, so either he only wants to be contacted electronically or not at all. But the people I physically talked to on the phone, you know, verifying this, they, they really sounded more like gatekeepers that were just like trying to block anybody from reaching Tyler Perry. And I [00:10:00] thought, you know, this isn’t the same tone that he had back when he was trying to come up and was wondering if anyone would come to any of his shows.
You know, now he’s come to a point that he’s not even interested in getting a letter from a fan. , but this makes sense, you know, with how Lakewood Church is and how Tyler Perry is now very dismissive, you know, of people who they feel like are beneath them. You know, the same thing happened to me when I was there at Lakewood and I got kicked out for not being straight.
But this mentality, you know, you know, and that’s that same mentality that prevails. They’ll leave you behind in a minute. And, and I, I really think that there is an overemphasis here on the impact that somebody else can have on our destiny, you know, just by us hanging around them. You know, your purpose is your, your purpose in life, and there’s nothing anybody can do to take that from you.
What God has for you is for you. It’s a shame that, that the body of [00:11:00] Christ, that these church people are so damn fragile, are so damn made out of thin ass paper. It, you know, such, such, such thin veneer that they think that just merely hanging around a person is gonna cripple them so much so that they’re gonna completely miss their whole purpose for existence.
Again, this is not the same as somebody’s actively working against you. What these preachers are saying is just don’t even be around somebody who’s not, I guess as you’re, as you might examine them to be on your level, whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean. And so, and my whole thing is this, even if you are being elevated to another level, that means you’re going somewhere you’ve never been before.
That means that you’re going to hang around people you’ve never hung around before. So you currently are not on the those people’s level where you’re headed anyway, and they’re being open-minded and humble enough to accept you. Okay. They are not treating you the way you’re treating your ex-friend by [00:12:00] saying, bye, you basic bitch, I can’t fucks with you no more because I’m better now and you not on my level.
So I’m gonna leave you behind because I have to grow. That’s all I’m gonna say about this. That’s part of this. It just really pisses me off the way churches, when these preachers get on this whole, you know, we’re all gonna move forward, but we’re gonna leave people behind, you know, you know, if they, if they no longer serve our purposes or we deem them as heretics or whatever the case may be,
you know, and just for references, I continue down this, this path I’m on. Just remember, you know, the gospels, you know, are littered. You know, with, with, with church people striving with Jesus, Jesus didn’t really have to fight, you know, with what’s considered the Gentiles, people who are not people, not really like, who are not really like, hanging around godly things all the time.
I don’t know why, but this, this, the war really comes from within the church though. The, the book of Malachi, you know, the first couple of [00:13:00] chapters of that is all about God struggling with priest, not struggling with sinners, you know, struggling with priest, you know, the leaders of the church. There is so much in the Bible about that, but this does not get preached.
Why? Because it doesn’t serve the churches agenda. You know? It’s difficult for a preacher to preach these sort of scriptures, like what I’m talking about today, and not include themselves in it, because that would be obviously, , you know, to be like, I see God here in Jeremiah 23 is talking about these trifling ass preachers.
But that’s not me though. Well, that’s not for them to decide. . So , you know, and everybody has a super high opinion of themselves. Most people assess themselves really, really great at the beginning of the book of Revelation when John is sending out the letters to the seven angels of the churches. You know, God is judging these churches and getting entering into judgment with them, and he’s assessing them and letting them know, y’all are not really as cute as you think you are.
you know, you’re not as far along in your spiritual growth. As you might like to, [00:14:00] to, to say that you are. And so he’s giving ’em a gut check moment, a performance evaluation, if you will, and letting them know you’re doing all of these things, but you’re not as glistening as you think. And look, God’s judgment is the only judgment that matters.
It doesn’t matter what our friends say about us, our lovers, our family, our our preachers. None of that unless say, preachers truly has a divine word or something like that, which preachers these days don’t. When they prophesy, all they’re doing is speaking positive things over you. There’s nothing more than positive manifestation that is not the same as true prophecy.
True prophecy is past, present, and future. Not just good things are going to happen, you know, great things are going to happen. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, what they say is so general. I grew up with true prophecy in my life and things like that where people can tell you what’s gonna happen, when it’s gonna happen, how it’s gonna happen.
They can tell you what happened in the past and you, you know, you know, my dreams come to me the same [00:15:00] way. You know, when, when the spirit reveals to me things about people that they have done or doing or are going to do, and I go and talk to them about what the Lord is trying to, to deliver them and to heal them.
That’s true prophecy, not the spoken positivity that that prevails in churches today. I mentioned the Leaving Heal Song podcast. I wanna give a shout out to the Preachers and Sneakers Instagram page because that that guy preachers and sneakers tracks celebrities and how they buy all this expensive shit and all these expensive clothes and stuff like that, and how.
that really, really turned a lot of people off from following Christ. You know, it’s up to you to make your decision on that. But I think it’s a very, very interesting way that he’s followed that. And then he even wrote a book called Preachers and Sneakers too, I believe it is. And so I mentioned earlier about how I didn’t, how, I don’t like how these, these, these, these preachers, they just [00:16:00] discard people, move on, keep selling out, you know, selling their books and stuff like that.
You know, that’s how I feel when I got kicked outta Liquid Church. I talk about this all the time because it’s one of the biggest, you know, scars that I yet bear. It’s one of the greatest traumas that ever happened to me in my life. And it’s something that still affects me to this day. Though I am getting better every day.
You know, every day I’m a little less bitter. You know, as I clear this out, what really helps me is being able to talk to people like you who are willing to listen to my show and everything like that. And I, and I love you cuz it heals me so much. And I pray that you be healed too. , you know, to, to have served that church for so long and so dedicatedly, you know, being on time most days of the week, showing up early, staying late, you know, you know, to be kicked out because I’m not straight, won’t say discovered on my MySpace page, you know, and then, you know, nobody called me from that church, you know, all those years of serving and volunteering, [00:17:00] you throw me out and nobody called to see how I’m doing.
What did they do? They just kept on moving forward, kept on having church services and, and then they told me I wasn’t the only volunteer that they kicked out. They said they do this all the time, . So it was just common to them. And so, so speaking of like these arena tours, so what I mean, and so you would have like, say Joel and Victoria, Joyce Meyer Ministries, Hillsong, whoever, you know, would go and do just like a, a Beyonce or somebody would do and go s.
Goes to Madison Square Garden or whatever, Verizon Wireless Center or wherever, and and do like a concert, you know, it’s, it’s the same sort of mentality. You know, they don’t, I think, I think Joel and Victoria would charge people, like, I wanna say, let me like $10 to go and know, so, which made it look like it was to cover the cost.
But [00:18:00] the thing that I want people to consider is what is the monetary benefit outside of ticket sales? So if I’m a celebrity and I’m making music, I gotta go out and tour to promote my product. To promote whatever cha uh, streaming channels I might be on, or whatever else I might be doing. So these churches are not just going to spread the gospel, they’re also going to sell their books to sell the music they’ve produced and created, you know, to also get people more engaged in their church to, to ultimately gen gen, generate more revenue for the church.
Do what you want with this. I’m just trying to get you to consider the other implications. It’s not just the word of God coming to your town. These people are coming to your town to get money from you too, you know, and to, and, and to boost their bottom line. And it just, it looks so much like the world, the way that they conduct their business and stuff like that.
And it’s so [00:19:00] hypocritical of them because, you know, they’re like, don’t be like the world. You can’t, they don’t want you to smoke and drink and fuck and, you know, do anything and masturbate and you know, in heaven forbid you’re not straight, but. Then when it comes time to money, when it comes time to the money, then the, then these churches look just like the world.
They, they cannot chart their own path. They go and say, let’s do it . They literally gonna say, let’s do it the same way these other people did it so that we could get money like they did and so and so. Like. I just can’t, even with that, speaking of Joel and Victoria and, and again I talk about Joel and Victoria and Lakewood church cuz that’s the church that I was at, you know, I was not at some other church otherwise I would talk about that church.
It just happens to be the lord of church in the country and one of the most prolific churches in the world just happens to be that. And so they were going to New [00:20:00] York to do what they call a night of worship, I think, or whatever the fuck they call their shit when they go out. And I was in the choir, the adult choir at this time.
and they wanted the choir to fly with them to New York. Okay? You would think that a church that size with all the millionaires running around there with all that money and the church being a volunteer unit, that they would have paid for the choir to go. Not so honey. Not so for those of us who would’ve gone, we would’ve had to pay our own way for the privilege, okay?
Of singing background in Joel and Victoria, and oh my God, what a hot mess that ensued in the choir. It was chaos. You know, fighting over who’s gonna go, who’s not gonna go. Room assignments, you know? You know all of this here. And I’m all like, but bitch, [00:21:00] I’m working for you for free.
Your staff members, you’re gonna pay to go. Oh. So I suppose my reward is gonna be in heaven. or it’ll just come back to me some type of way. Eventually, I thought that that was very, like, low, you know, of the ministry to, to want the choir to be there because people are very, very entrance by the choir. The choir’s fucking awesome.
okay. Very organized and musically, you know, and everything like that. And people show up a lot of times for the music to these events in the church and more so than anything. And it’s, it’s, it’s, no, it’s no misstep or mistake as to why they wanted the choir, I think for their first time in New York, and I think they were at Madison Square Garden or some large place like that.
But I’m like, why the fuck would I pay you to go volunteer to help booster your image that you’re gonna make all kinds of [00:22:00] crazy money off of this? Then I’m gonna be in a deficit because it’s what, it’s the right thing to do. I just thought that it was really fucked up. Know what I’m talking about? Fucked up shit in the choir.
you know, they would get on us for like, say if a fr like, I remember one time a friend of mine had on like the full choir suit and everything, like we’re supposed to have, but his shoes were like, I don’t know, Chuck Taylor’s a, you know, some cool ass vans or some shit like that. And, and one of these stubby ass, little Sopranos was like trying to tell him he can’t sing that Sunday, you know, and stuff like that.
We’re all like, bitch, nobody can say our feet. Nobody can say Our feet not on the cameras, not anywhere in the church. No one can see what the fuck kind of shoes we have on now. Now this dude was also queer, so I don’t know if she just had a problem with the gaze or what, but there’s definitely that sort of mentality of anti queerness that prevails in [00:23:00] churches.
And so I’ve said this a million times and I’ll say it, a billion queer, F queer folk. Queer folk, queer folk, queer folk, stop going to these churches that are not affirming. If you insist upon going to church and get you one that is totally okay with who you are, that way you don’t have to deal with this low-key discrimination that shows up in ways like this.
But I just thought that was so tacky, you know, of the choir to be like attacking people who are sh again, showing up to work for fucking free. We’re showing up to work for free and you worrying about what Chinese shoes we have on which no one can see, but your petty evil hate fla soprano choir bitch.
And you know who you are. And I just think about sometimes, like all the jobs that I used to have, I work for myself now because I can’t, I don’t have the patience to deal with people’s bullshit. And so, especially for the low pay that they try to, to low ball you with, I’ll go to work for somebody one day if it’s for like a million dollar contract apps to fucking literally.
But see, at [00:24:00] that level, you’re not gonna have. Fuck. I would hope as much like pettiness like that, you’re gonna have pettiness everywhere you go, but at least not nitpickiness because everybody is well paid and everyone’s happy. But all the little jobs I’ve had along the way, they would just, you know, fire somebody over an outfit, a, a, a uniform, you know, petty shit like this.
One thing I’m thankful for about the coronavirus is that it pulled the teeth out of these petty assed employers and now they can’t find anybody to go to work. You know, they deserve that for being so goddamn mean and dismissive of people over the years, over stuff that was completely un jobb related when I was homeless and going from like house to house, being in these trap houses, you know, walking in there, there’s all kind of people just scattered about an abandoned house laying on the floor or some drug dealer house, some or some meth cooks home or something like that.
I never saw people get judged for like the shoes they were wearing, the [00:25:00] clothes, you know. , yeah. But what we were, what we were doing was totally illegal and stuff like that. And we never pretended like it wasn’t, you know, there’re more, there’s more realness in a, in a dope house than there is in the church, but I, but I, I’ve seen more acceptance in a trap house than I’ve ever found in a church or in any sort of like, public, you know, setting like work or something like that.
And I don’t know, that just really, really rubs me some type of way, you know? And we’re sitting here in this choir fighting over who’s gonna get to go to New York and everything and sing, you know, behind Joel and stuff like that. And the last time I was at that church, I went there a couple of shit, like last year, no fi a couple of years ago, whatever.
And we were filming that, the docuseries that’s on my website. And, and when I walked in there, they had changed the carpet and, which was fine, but what pissed me off was that I looked up and I saw these, this [00:26:00] huge like mural. This, this larger than life picture of like Joel and Victoria and their children, and then slightly smaller pictures of like the worship leaders and stuff like that.
And I’m like, Hmm, okay. So, so we’ve gone from like a golden calf back in the Old Testament to like these murals at Lakewood Church, these monolithic golden idols, basically in the form of Joe Victorian, their kids and the worship leaders who, who you now get to look up at every time you walk through the halls of Lakewood.
And this is a golden calf idol tree of our day. Now let me step into my hypnotist mindset here, you know, cause I’m also a licensed hypnotist. Hypnosis. Hypnosis Motivation Institute is a wonderful school. Highly recommended now every time. You look up at somebody on stage, there’s something that happens and your subconscious that makes you believe that that person is higher than you, better than you, knows [00:27:00] more than you, that’s further along than you.
And it’s something that makes you all, all automatically wanna listen to them and hear what they have to say. It’s something about that that makes you feel this big, very tiny while they, while you view them as this big larger than you, because they’re on stage and the cameras are on them. Now, you already have this happening because Joe Victoria, their worship leaders are on stage weekly and on camera all the time, not just Lakewood Church.
Many churches across the country, you know, are like this and across the world are like this. But on top of this, you now gonna put big ass pictures of yourself,
all over the, you know, the inside of the church. Like, you know, to reinforce. What, what you’re already doing. You’re reminding the people whose fucking house it is, it’s not theirs. And look, y’all making a mistake. No matter how much these churches tell you, they [00:28:00] couldn’t make it without you and they need you, and they wouldn’t be the same.
You know, they are lying at least on an individual basis. What they mean is conglomerate. Yes, they need multiple people to continue to fund them so they can keep on living the lifestyle that they wanna live. But individually, no. As soon as you no longer serve their purposes, or you might tarnish their reputation, they will get rid of you.
So, so don’t let their, their, their glittery, glittery golden words make you feel like you’re so special to them. You’re not , you’re just not. And so
and so I’m like, if you just had to paint a picture, You know, in these walls, couldn’t you have done like some sort of interpretation of the spirit or of angels or of the people you help of missions work? Why the fuck do you need to show us Joel and Victoria and their children and your worship leaders when they’re on TV in front of people [00:29:00] all the time anyway.
Like, I just felt like you could have come up with something else. I think it’s vain and I, and I judge them for it, and don’t even get me started on like, Joel’s this, this relationship he has with Kanye West. You know, I’m just gonna take time to say right here, right now, we’ve seen Kanye , I can’t even believe I’m saying his name on my show.
What, what a tragic human mean that, I mean that with to so much just like pity, you know, to be that, that low, you know, , I’m like, so let me get this straight. I can’t stay at Lakewood because I hang out in Montrose in the gay district and I’m not, Straight, even though I show up to work and I don’t bring my gayness to, to church, but you invite Kanye West to be on stage with you because he what exemplifies the epitome of Christianity and everything, like what church stands for.[00:30:00]
So no to the van in, yes to Kanye. I’m just gonna leave that there. The next thing on my list, , is oh, Jesus Christ. That’s something about money. Again, it’s not more money. And the way, and I look, I used to let myself be deceived by these churches too. They’d be like, give us your tides, give us your money, and good things.
Again, that, that, those vague promises, good things will happen to you one day. Like, if they don’t happen, then it’s because you didn’t believe or it’s because you didn’t have enough faith. It’s never the church’s fault. It’s never the preacher’s fault. It remind me of casinos. It’s like they always keep like a dangling carrot in front of you.
It’s always gonna be the next hit. The next hit, the next hit the next time you put that card down, the next time you pull a a slider mash, mashed a button on the fucking, the colorful ass machines in there. [00:31:00] But one thing I, two things. One thing that casinos have in common with churches is that the house is always going to win.
The house will absolutely always win. Those, those casinos have guaranteed income churches because of all of their people coming there always have guaranteed income. So, so they gonna promise to pray for you for possible money tomorrow while they’re asking you for guaranteed cash today. , these people remind me of hustlers.
You and I’ve dealt with a lot of hustlers, you know, and shit. When I was, you know, a drug dealer and I was in the game, you know, and a hustler is always gonna be sure that they’re watching the numbers and the value of things and make sure they come out ahead. They going to trickle you a little bit every now and then say nice words to you to make you feel good.
But if you run the numbers that, that, that hustler is always gonna make this much a whole hell of a lot. And you always gonna be down [00:32:00] here, but you gonna have good feelings though. A hustler has a way of making you feel like the, it’s very special to even be in his presence. And that’s really the greatest gift.
I’m talking about street hustlers now. And this was, this was not something I could really see when I was still in the game or when I was still at church, but now that I’ve stepped away from both of them, I can, I can draw the curtain back and see both of them for what they really are in these disturbingly eerie parallels between like a street hustler and a pastor, you know, or a street hustler and the whole game and the church itself.
I’m like, honey, there ain’t much difference. There ain’t much difference. What the hell do you really have to show for like the money that you have given to these churches over the years? They try to say Any blessing that [00:33:00] comes into your life is gonna be because of money you’ve given to the church. No, that’s not true.
But if, if they’re gonna play on your fear, then they’re gonna say, if you don’t give us money, then bad things are gonna happen to you. A lot of churches say this completely not biblical, because in the book of Acts it says that, you know, people don’t have to do anything. Except for basically not put any other God before God.
You know, God is, it’s not about idolatry. Are you idolizing anything? And tho that was the only thing, there was this whole big argument about like exactly what people who are not, you know, of, of the bloodline of Abraham supposed to do and not supposed to do was a whole falling out. And when they came out of the meeting, they were like, okay, these are the things, and none of it had to do with money.
Tithing, you know, drugs, sex, music, you know, none of these things at all. And so basically you can give the money to your church if you want to, but ain’t nothing bad gonna [00:34:00] happen to you if you don’t. And so some people give, give their ties or money to nonprofit organizations that are non-religious and stuff like that because they just refuse to give their money to the organizations that discard of certain people.
Keep certain people, you know, I’m reminded right now of a, a nonprofit called Compassion Art. They’ve since changed the verbiage on their website, but years ago, and this, this, they, this is an organization that’ll, you write letters to kids in third world countries and then over time you might have a chance to go visit them and stuff like that.
People just living really fucked up lives and ain’t got shit. And they had on their like, if you’re homosexual, we don’t want you to volunteer with this program. We don’t. We just don’t. And I was all like, I think if you ask that kid in a third world country who’s like drinking water outta landfills and walking around barefoot, if he gives a damn that the person helping him is gay or not, I don’t really think that [00:35:00] kid gives a fuck, a flying fuck where his help is coming from.
As long as he gets some goddamn help up in this bitch, . Okay, , fucking Americans, fucking Christians have confused and thrown so much complications. Into what is supposed to be. A simple approach to God is made open to us by Jesus Christ because of people’s hate and prejudice. As my good friend John Vanier, who is the host of the Cult of Christianity podcast, and the author of the book named the Same says, every man before Jesus Christ added rules.
Jesus came and simplified everything down in the two things. Love the Lord and love your neighbors yourself, and put nothing before God. And then every man after Jesus Christ went back and added more shit, more shit to it. You know, every time humans get their hands on shit, it just becomes unnecessarily complicated,[00:36:00]
you know? There, there, there, there’s there. There’s three things in life that I’m glad I’m. A police officer, which I almost became a preacher at a church, which I almost became an A politician, which I never fucking thought about being, you know, what is it about these three things? I think that the three of them are pure calling at the onset, and they are really designed to help better society, but the three of them are so full of corruption in all, in all three of them.
You have people making way more money than what the position actually pays. Does it matter if it’s a p, a Democrat, capital D, Democrat, Republican, you know, both sides of the aisle. You know, police officers taking bribes, politicians taking briars. [00:37:00] Church is just, well, there’s mindf fucking people, you know?
And because it’s, because it’s easy for churches to do that. You know, like a hustler. That’s one thing I forgot to say. A hustler. The first thing a hustler does if you meet one on the street is they’re gonna assess your mental strength. Hustlers are really fucking good at reading people. I mean, it’s like some sort of gift they have.
They can size you up like that, and they’re only gonna deal with people who they know are weak-minded enough to go along with their gangs. Other than that, they’re moving right on. They’re not gonna do that. And churches are no different. They look for the weakest people to pray on. And church people are very, very, very easily manipulated.
I used to be one of those people.
And so in all of these three positions, getting back to the point, you know, a police officer, a preacher, a politician, it’s basically like these are such highly respected positions of society. , but these people are basically still criminals. They don’t have a [00:38:00] checks and balance. They have a lot of money and a lot of power over people.
And I think it’s that power over people and that money is why a lot of them start out with the good intentions. But that stuff goes to your head and, and I think it’s a slow corruption over time in many cases as we, you know, as they begin to justify their compromises and their negotiations with the truth.
Because all three of these people have a very, very negotiable relationship with the truth. I think that we can agree on that. It’s the same goes power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Okay. Or, or, or is our friend miss Sheri with the Real Housewives of Atlanta would say, you know, who gonna check me Boo?
Who in the hell? You know, we’re starting to get, you know, a check on police starting, but who in the hell really checks politicians? Look at all the shit that has happened in the last year or two. [00:39:00]In politics, it’s so hard for a politician to actually get in trouble for doing anything. And preachers, you know, which is the episode of my conversation, that they have no checks and balances.
They surround themselves with yes. Men who support their narcissism. And preachers are highly narcissistic people. It’s very difficult to get one of them to say they’re sorry they’re anything like that. I’ll give a shout out to my good friend Barry Bowen over at the Trinity Foundation in, in Texas, and they investigate all kinds of nonprofits and stuff like that.
And and churches are not exempt from their investigations and they dig up all kinds of shit all the time. All of these preachers. So check out Barry Bowen, you know, on Twitter or Trinity, Trinity Foundation’s website for that. I did a couple, several interviews with him too, you know, and like my evangelist Nelson, you know, my spiritual mentor would tell me someone who, who, who is a true prophet.
You know, preachers just like the kings of [00:40:00] Israel are gonna be really, really strong or really, really weak. There isn’t an InBetween. You know, when you’re reading the Old Testament and Israels going from king to king, a judge to judge, it’s like the way it’ll start out. It’s like such and. Died and now this new person is the king and this person was either righteous or wicked, and it was like either or.
There was never an in between. The righteous people elevated Israel to good times. The wicked people brought ’em down. There was never anybody that I could remember who was like kind of, sort of both. You know, when I don’t, I don’t know why this is, but when you’re in a high leadership, spiritual leadership position, you’re either really strong or really weak.
And the thing is you don’t know when your preacher transitions from being strong to weak. You don’t know that. You know, I look at, I look at Paula White’s crazy ass, you know, standing besides Donald Trump praying and trying to prophesy and saying he’s gonna stay in power and making no poems about asking [00:41:00] somebody to send her a hundred thousand dollars.
I’m like, but I’ve seen her live before, back in the day when I go, when I went, when I used to go to churches that dealt with all of that. You know, speakers and shit like that. And I’m like, you know, at what point did you go from being somebody who’s anointed and called to a Trump supporter who’s just trying to get another hundred thousand dollars to somebody because you asked for it.
You know, you know where, you know, where, where, when did the change come? You, you, it’s difficult to see if you’re setting up under these people all the time. So see, sometimes we have to get away from the influence of something that you discern and separate our own mind, our own mentality, and thinking from as it relates to whatever it is that we’ve been under the influence of.
So yeah, it’s gonna be difficult for you to render a true assessment of your church if you keep going there because you, you’re consistently reposing yourself to their hypnosis. [00:42:00] It’s gonna be difficult for you to, to. Properly assess things that have a strong grip on you unless you take yourself away from it for a considerable time and then consider independently, you know, but they keep you in fear and they say, if you don’t keep coming here, then bad things are gonna happen.
And stuff like that. I’m like, the church has way too much control over people, way too much control. so, so, so I want y’all to stop believing these preachers because it’s, cuz they’re on stage and because of who you think they are, you don’t know them. You don’t go to their houses with them. You don’t hang out with them. You don’t, you not there, you know, they say words to make you feel like you’re a part of their family, but you’re not, you know, many of them have security.
You can’t even get close to them on most days. You can’t, they’re not accessible to you. These people are not your friends. You know, they’re not. And the only thing you’ve ever needed was the Lord. , it’s not a person like they have the answers to everything cuz they don’t, some of these, some of the ways some of these preachers preach is so overly simplistic [00:43:00] and especially with compared to how the, the deep things the Bible goes into, how deep our problems are.
You know, I was reaching the other day over and judges about how this one woman got, you know, raped so much about a bunch of men, you know, that she died, you know, churches that they don’t preach that scripture. You know why? Because it’s difficult for them to act like they’re the men in Sodom Gaur, who they, who they try to say wanted to have sex with.
The dude is a reason all homosexuality is wrong. But then when there’s scriptures in the Bible of a bunch of men doing terrible things, not wanting to actually doing terrible things to women, they don’t use that to say all heterosexuality is wrong. You see? You know, so they don’t get into this. So I have a problem with preachers because they only talk about the flowery shit.
They don’t talk about the deep shit, you know? , or they might say, you know, break up into your small groups once the main service is over to go deeper. I’ve been in those [00:44:00] small groups. They don’t go that much deeper because those churches have a protocol and everything is guarded and protected that is ever said or spoken.
The spirit is not for flow freely in churches anymore because they’re too concerned with their bottom line and their image and their media schedule and stuff like that. You know, I’ll never forget the time I was sitting in Lakewood Church and this woman caught the Holy Ghost. The only time I’ve ever seen this in any sort of, you know, church of that stature, and they put her out the, you know, they put her out, the congregate out the out the sanctuary, you know, and I was like they’re like, okay, so is this God’s house or is this Joel’s house?
You know, I don’t know, because you know, the spirit wants to move and this woman wasn’t faking. , you know, it takes a lot of nerve to let the spirit move you that freely in the Lord’s Church in America and not be shamed, you know? And she got up and the spirit started, you know, to move and to speak through her.
And you know, she was doing a [00:45:00] little dance, you know, something that, you know, I’d really only seen in Pentecostal churches, you know, and then them ushers got on her so fast, before I had a chance to, to be impressed in an about what was happening. She was already gone. And so do it in what you will. But what I’m saying is there’s, I don’t think that there’s really as much God in these churches anymore, you know, as what it seems to be to some people.
As the Bible says, there’ll be a great falling away, you know, from the church. You let the church tell it. That falling away is just because we’re all gonna become heretics and wanna leave God. No. Like we’ve falling away because the church is full of shit, you know? And full of assholes, you know, and narcissistic people.
Who, who discarded people fire volunteers that are more concerned about the next book they’re going to write, the next album they’re gonna release in the next arena. They’re gonna sell out, you know? And you know, rather than actually tending to the hurting people, [00:46:00] they got flowery words, you know, and everything like that.
But for the amount of money that people pay them donate to them in exchange for what? Positive words, girl, you can go on YouTube and listen to somebody tell you something kind about yourself. You don’t have to deal with the church’s bullshit for that. You know,
when I, when I, when I sit here and I’m thinking about the controlled churches have over people, I remember I was at this Pentecostal church in California when I was in the military out there. This church didn’t have like a choir, they just had about, you know, seven or eight worship leaders or 10 whatever.
They would rotate behi, you know, you know, in the back of the preacher. Well, three of the two, three or four of them decided to have them a good old orgy girl. And you wish, I’m like, Hey, you know what, y’all are young hot , you know, you, a couple of boys and girls got together, you know, [00:47:00] they need to do some experimentations and whatnot.
You know, I don’t see the problem with it, you know, but , one of them was a Judas and decided got guilty after they had busted their nut. And when Rand told the pastor snitch because he had this, this woman who just went and told him every fucking thing. And and I know that because when the pastor got back in town he said that his snitch told him what had happened in the choir.
and and I’m all like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Why in the hell is the church getting all up in people’s sexual lives, you know, in the first damn place? And then why are you announcing this to the congregation? He didn’t say their name, but he was like, basically like, well, it’s seven people who usually sing up here.
Three of them aren’t here tonight. So you know who they are. I’m like, you may as well have said the names, if you gonna be that messy about it. [00:48:00] And so, but look at how much control this person could not go and enjoy a sexual experience that clearly was planned and just let that be that, and if they felt bad about it, prayed and been done with it.
This person is so convinced that they, if they feel guilty, they can’t get right unless they go confess to a human. You know, that’s just so, that’s so stupid. Like, wait, what is the point of Jesus if. If we feel bad about something, we can’t get reconciled to God unless we go through a human. What was the point of the crucifixion?
I don’t get it. That’s why I don’t get the existence of the Catholic church. I don’t get their existence. I don’t get half of their fucking rituals and canon and whatever the fuck they have going on. I just don’t understand how there’s so many people in the way of us in Jesus when the whole point of him coming here was to get rid of the necessity of people in the first damn place.
And [00:49:00] so I digress. I want y’all to be cautious of these I statements, these preachers make. They’ll say like, so when, when Joel and Victoria were being interviewed by Larry King and, and Larry King asked him about his view on homosexuality, the first word outta outta Joel’s mouth was like, I wasn’t raised that way.
I’ve heard many preachers say this. I wasn’t raised this way. I, I, I, I, I. But you know, from the beginning, it was not. So when the prophets and the kings of Israel, the righteous ones spoke, they said, this is what God says. Thus say, if the Lord, this is a message from God, not, let me think about how I was raised and see what I’m going to tell you.
But that doesn’t have anything to do with the cost of tea in China. Bitch. The nothing, it has nothing to do with anything. But preachers are so damn narcissistic by nature, they cannot separate [00:50:00]themselves from their message.
I, I’m thinking about TD Jakes now. Who has preached vehemently against homosexuality. There was a moment where he had a chance that he was gonna like actually do the right thing, and he was on some damn show and he was all like, you know what, my thinking’s evolving concerning this. You know, he got back to his own congregation and then he was like, you know, that’s not really what I meant.
But first of all, it’s not your thinking, you know, it’s not your thinking. You know, these, these preachers get there and they tell us what they think. When you hear Joyce Meyer talk all the time, she, I mean, I, I don’t listen to the bitch anymore, but you know, she be like, you know, I, you know, I, I, I, I, aye you know, there, there, there’s so much I that comes outta these preacher’s mouths.
And I used to sit there and listen and take this shit off of these people. But again, now that I’m no longer in [00:51:00] it, I can stand back and look and see how stupid I was to let them manipulate me like this. These, these ministries are not ministries of God. These are ministries that belong to these preachers and their families.
These are family businesses, and you are not doing nothing more, but supporting their family business in exchange for very little in return in most cases. And this is all I’m gonna say about that. I, I hope I don’t ever hear another preacher say, I think, or I feel, or what I, because we’re all gonna do what we think and what the fuck do we need you for.
And if everybody’s gonna just do what they were raised, then I mean, that, that just goes against every, it just goes against so much, you know? It’s about how does God want us to be and who can give us an unadulterated, true word from the Lord? Well, you can go and find it yourself because we all need to graduate from church.
I don’t know where this whole idea came from about [00:52:00] being in church forever, you know, and from the beginning. . I mean, churches were first introduced to the nation of Israel. Those people didn’t go to church every week like, like that. They went up to that temple I think like once a year, or for special reasons.
This whole concept of gathering like that was not an all the time thing, you know? And you don’t, I mean, well, two or three people are gathered. The Lord is there. You don’t, I mean, that’s just you talking with your friends, your neighbors and stuff like that. But the whole purpose of church is to be a school.
It’s a place where you go to learn and to be educated. I guess now you go there to, I guess may be made to feel better about yourself or whatever. There should come a time where you will learn the enough from the preachers you said under, you know, they are hopefully growing, but you are too. And the thing about it is you’re gonna be super serious about getting close to God.
Then there’s, there’s gonna come a point, [00:53:00] as the Bible says in the scripture, there comes a day and time where you will have needs that no man teach you. That is in the Bible. And preachers don’t preach that either. And God is calling for you to come to a point that you are spiritually in the pen. I n d e p e n D, tea bitch.
Okay? And so, cause the thing, another thing I don’t like is like when people try to attack other people for religious reasons and stuff like that, they always say, well hear this scripture here says this is wrong. And that, you know, but true people, people who truly has achieve spiritual growth, understand that as you walk with God, everybody’s walk with him is gonna be a little bit different.
In some ways. Jesus is the same. The Holy Ghost is the same, the angels are the same, but it’s like when God reveals himself to certain people, in scriptures, it’s always a little different every time. He never ever does anything exactly the same [00:54:00] way. So we all dealing with the same God, but he’s gonna deal with us uniquely cuz we’re all different people.
So somebody who’s truly walking with the Lord will speak from their experiences with God. You know, I’ve walked with God long enough. I know his personality, I know him, I talk to him, I pray to him. I read his Bible, you know, and I do recommend trying to learn the Bible in as many of its original languages as you can, or cross-referencing things and trying to look it up because those biblical interpretations and translations out there are, are done by people.
I just did a show with Barry Bowen. The Bible translations industry and how much money is in it. You know nothing but white conservative people control the interpretation of the Bibles as we know them. You know, black, brown colored indigenous people, queer people. Were not at the table. You know, you know women not really at the table.
And so get to get to learn those original languages as much as you can for yourself. Overview [00:55:00] bible.com. Jeffrey Kranz, my homie over there, is a great place to go to learn really what the Bible is and all the years it took to try to put it together, how it was started out being orally spoken and transferred.
Everything that you need is not gonna be in the Bible. It is not. I don’t give a damn what people say. It isn’t. You know, they like the preachers like to use though that acronym, that Bible stands for basic instructions before Leaving Earth. Well, then at the same time, they wanna say, but everything you need is in here.
Well, bitch, is it basic or is it comprehensive? Because it can’t be both. And so , those preachers in their narcissism are gonna say whatever serves them at the moment. But we gotta come to a point people where we speak about God out of our personal experiences with him, and we’ve walked with God long enough, we know how he’s gonna act.
Probably in this situation, just like we do with anybody else, for all of our personalities and the way we commune with each other. This came to us from God. He [00:56:00] is the biggest person there is. You know, a lot of us have a lot of strong personalities, but we ain’t stronger than the most high, and so we are just little microcosms of him.
Okay. So walk with him, get to know him, and you know, whenever somebody tries to tell you, try to correct your behavior based on a scripture, you tell them to go fuck themselves. Because these people, if they really walked with the Lord, then they would know better than that. They would know the folly in thinking that that scripture is to be weaponized cuz that’s not the point.
God is all about grace, mercy, long suffering, loving kindness, understanding and being patient with people and being patient more like he says, if you walk a mile with somebody, walk two and you forgive people up to up to 70 times seven times, 70 times seven times a day, which is basically unlimited forgiveness is what he wants people to work towards, not refusing to make a cake for people if they’re not straight and they want to get married for refusing them, service, kicking them out.
This is not of God. This is of the spirit of [00:57:00] narcissism, , this is arrogance. These are insecure little people who are cavernous holes on the inside of their heart who need to feel better about themselves. By making other people feel bad. This is not God. This is something else. Posing is God, wolves and sheeps clothing, as Jesus said, would be here, has gotta be somebody.
And they are found in the church. And so, you know, so as you walk with the Lord, you’ll grow with him over time and you’ll get to know him as a person. And then you’ll be able to, to speak about the things of God and what he will or won’t do based on your experience, not, not other people’s experiences that you read in the Bible, though that’s a great place to start.
That’s not where you should finish. And so by the time you get done with God, well in this life the Bible should be something you reference. And if you insist upon going the church, it should be as an accessory, not as the main meat of your walk with [00:58:00] God. Your main meat is your personal time with him.
Period. Done in the story, not the pretty worship at churches, not. Not, you know, you know, not, not even the Bible, outside of your personal experiences with Lord. All those things have their place, and the Bible certainly has power in, and you can use those scriptures to, to do very powerful things in your life, to bring you peace.
There’s power in the word of God, but there is still nothing more important than how God deals with you directly, personally, in ways that only you know. So to sum this all up, stop letting preachers spoon feed you. You can go to God for yourself because the more you look at what those preachers like, you need them, the more that reinforces this big them and little you and baby that’s not good for your soul. All you ever needed was the Lord. [00:59:00] You get to know God for yourself.
Cause when you stand before him, ain’t no preacher or pastor gonna be able to stand with you. You gonna stand there alone, you know, with nothing but books open with all you know, with all of your history and works and life in it. So be sure that you make a priority out of following God, out of all the things you want to get in this life.
Sex, money, fortune, positions, promotion, travel, children. Be sure that you prefer God above your chief. Joy. I ain’t saying there’s nothing wrong with any of those things, but just be sure you put God above your chief joy
and I pray that you learn the proper position of, of things in your life like, like churches and preachers, you insist upon having them and if they’ve done something to hurt. , please don’t associate God with that, and don’t be angry at God. You know, separate those two things. I once made that mistake. It was a dire mistake, you know, in my life, to let there be [01:00:00] silence in between myself and heaven for as long as I did, because of what happened to me at Lakewood.
Please don’t make that mistake. Yes, we’ve seen our friends be damaged by churches. We’ve been damaged by churches. Our family’s been damaged by churches. But let’s let, let’s leave that to and just, just un understand that that was the church that wasn’t God. And and let’s, then let’s do what we can to reconcile ourselves to God while we can.
Again, my name is De’Vannon the website is Sex, drugs and jesus.com. This is a Sex Drugs and Jesus podcast. I thank you so much for listening. I hope y’all have a fabulous New Year. I hope it’s a year of truth. I hope it’s a year of genuineness. I hope it’s a year you find who you really are. And I hope it’s a year that you’re able to hear your own thoughts separated from the crowd, and you’re able to come into oneness with yourself and with your creator.
Thank [01:01:00] you all so much for taking time to listen to the Sex Drugs and Jesus podcast. It really means everything to me. Look, if you love the show, you can find more information and resources at Sex Drugs and jesus.com or wherever you listen to your podcast. Feel free to reach out to me directly at DeVannon@SexDrugsAndJesus.com and on Twitter and Facebook as well.
My name is De’Vannon, and it’s been wonderful being your host today. And just remember that everything is gonna be all right.
