Bishop Marvin Winans is breaking his silence after coming under fire on social media thanks to viral video from his recent Sunday service. And trust us when we say, his explanation still isn’t helping his case.
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As we previously told you, on Oct. 19, Winans — leader of Perfecting Church in Detroit — held a “Day of Giving” in an effort to raise enough funds to finish building the sanctuary. While that’s not something out of the ordinary, where things went all the way left was when a woman named Roberta McCoy got up to give her donation of $1,235 dollars.
That’s when Winans responded: “Now, that’s only $1,200…Y’all not listening to what I’m saying… If you have a thousand plus a thousand.”
His curt response was immediately met with backlash from folks online who felt like he openly rebuked the churchgoer and was rude. Some folks even said that if that were them in that scenario, they would’ve snatched their giving back instead.
Now, it looks like Bishop Winans and McCoy are speaking out about the incident in a new interview with local Detroit TV station ABC7 WYXZ on Wednesday. During the interview, McCoy made it abundantly clear that her pastor wasn’t in the wrong, and that he did not handle her rudely.
“He absolutely did not ‘rebuke’ me. Now there’s a difference, there was a correction. Because let me clearly state that: pastor gave instruction on the lines to get into,” she explained.
Winans himself also defended his actions, explaining that he was having members give in increments since it was their designated, church-wide day of giving in an attempt to bring some sort of organization to how the funds were received. He also shared that another person had previously given out of turn and he corrected that person as well — it just wasn’t caught on camera.
“I was calling because the whole church was giving, and it was our day of giving, and the whole church was coming, and we didn’t want people standing, the mothers and all that, so I was calling them by increments,” the bishop said. “And we had someone that had given out of before, and I corrected it, and I told everybody to listen and come when you’re called, and that’s all that was.”
McCoy later shared that Winans has since apologized to her, but that’s not stopping other people from still coming to his defense. Specifically, gospel singer Fred Hammond recently decided to add his two cents into the discourse by posting a longer clip of the service.
In that clip, Winans could be seen telling the congregation to get in separate lines for their giving. The first line was for those who were giving “$1,000 plus $1,000” and the following lines were for people who were giving $1,000 plus any extra amount under $1,000 and it dwindled down from there.
“I wonder if those who cut it up will play this version? I wonder who cut it in the first place? And what was the motive,” Hammond wrote in part.
He continued: “Organizations raise money all the time. It’s nothing wrong with the church taking care of its own.”
But here’s the deal: the problem isn’t about the money itself. It’s about the giving being turned into a public spectacle and the disrespectful way the bishop spoke to his congregant. If things are supposed to be done “with decency and in order” as the Bible says, what was so decent or orderly about talking to your church member in that way?
Pastors ought to be grateful that people can still give in those large amounts given the current economical state this country is. So what she gave in the wrong line? The instructions were confusing at best to begin with. But at least her heart was in the right place and she gave anyhow when she didn’t have to.
Hopefully, this will be a learning lesson for Bishop Winans and all other churches that operate like this to get a better grip on how they handle their offerings.
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