Juanita Bynum appeared on Star Jones' new show yesterday, speaking to Star exclusively about her life and failed marriage to Bishop Weeks. This now makes two national platforms that Bynum has used to air out her side of the story. The other one being the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner morning show. She also made her divorce public on Atlanta's Fox 5 local news broadcast. Bishop Thomas Weeks stands accused of beating his wife outside of an Atlanta hotel. Last Friday, weeks finally broke his silence holding a press conference, which painted an in depth picture of how the relationship went sour. Bishop Weeks looked calm, and hardly the type to stomp and kick a woman to the ground.
Juanita tells Star Jones that her appearance on the show was not to incite or slander the Bishop. Bynum quoted many scriptures throughout the interview, one of them being “The Lord shall uphold me and my integrity.” Shortly after that she states, “That vengeance is the Lords.” Bynum says she does forgive Weeks, and still loves him.
Star Jones asks Juanita about her Teach Me to Love Conference. How could you do the conference knowing your marriage was in trouble?
Juanita says, “I didn't attend the conference because I am true to myself.” When prompted, Juanita says, “This wasn't the first instance of violence.” She didn't come out then because she was following spiritual protocol by attempting to reconcile. Citing the biblical passage, “A wise man guards his affairs with discretion.” Juanita Bynum says she first sought the counsel of Bishop Weeks father for 12 weeks. Then counseled with an outside counselor.
Star Jones got the most emotion out of Juanita when she asked Juanita, “How do you guard against the Jezebel spirit?" Star explained the biblical parable of Jezebel as being a woman who was the wife of a weak king, who then uses her own ambition to show up his weakness. Juanita acknowledges that she has faced that accusation, but denies what it implies. Bynum says, “I new who I was before I met him, I didn't have to go into the marriage trying to be the bigger evangelist or speaker.” Star countered by saying, “But you are the biggest.” Juanita admits yes, but “I didn't have to prove that by causing him to look small.”
Star Jones asks Juanita if she will get married again? Juanita somberly says, “At this time it's too painful to think about falling in love again.” “I'm still in love.”
Question after question Juanita seemed to later go into defense mode. Star mentioned Juanita's movie, singing, entertainment, and asked if she was moving more into the secular world, and loosing her spiritual focus. Juanita say's, “The world is the world, I am doing what the bible commissioned, and that is to go into all the world.”
Juanita maintains a busy schedule amidst her very public personal problems. When asked what keeps her going? Juanita simply says, “My purpose keeps me going.”
With this appearance on the Star Jones show, many fear and hope that the Weeks & Bynum case, doesn't turn into a nasty battle of two prominent preachers fighting to save there reputations by tearing each other down. The two finely tuned speakers know how to say the right things, but it's still too soon to tell the amount of damage this will have on the minister's images. One things for sure, it has not put the body of Christ in a good light, and it could continue to get worse as the trial nears.
Reported By: Kris "KP" Patrick
