JUANITA BYNUM NETWORK LINKS

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Juanita Bynum: I've Come This Far by Faith



In case you haven�t heard, Black female spiritual leader Juanita Bynum is divorcing her husband, Thomas W. Weeks III, pastor of Global Destiny Church. Weeks has been charged with aggravated assault after allegedly stomping and kicking her in an Atlanta hotel parking lot on August 21. [Weeks has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges stemming from the alleged attack.] Now, after a media baptism by fire in which her spirit and credibility have been put to the test, Prophetess Bynum tells what happened that night and how she�s trying to move forward with a new ministry and message about domestic violence that may change the Black church, forever. Read excerpts from the first of her two-part exclusive interview in the December issue of ESSENCE.
By Denene Millner

Juanita Bynum
Credit: Matthew Jordan Smith
Prophetess Juanita Bynum

On Breaking Her Silence:
�All of what I�m going through right now has to do with the loss of my marriage, the love of my husband, and the jeopardizing of my integrity at the hands of my husband. I don�t want anyone to think that my silence meant consent. My silence was meant to wait for the cool of the day. This is not about anger or retaliation but integrity and truth on behalf of my name.�

On Why She Stayed in the Marriage:
�I don�t want anybody to think I was stupid for staying; I stayed because of who I was�I had to be careful. My thoughts were, I can�t get a divorce. What would people say? How would they view me? I just felt like I needed to pray more. And I did, and it did get better. We went three years without him getting physical, but then the verbal rage would still be there.�

On What She Says Happened With their Million Dollar Home:
�I came back from a trip and was getting ready to tape for television when he walked in and said he had already moved us out and all of our furniture was in the church warehouse. I cried for two days. My sisters said, �Nita, you�ll get another house,� and I said, �It�s not about the house.� This was the place where I had the presence of God. That�s the one thing I had. And I felt like that�s what [my husband] took.�

On What She Says Happened on August 21:
�He just grabbed me, and he grabbed me around my throat and threw me to the ground. I said, �Oh, my God, my head!� because the whole sky was spinning. And when I turned around, that�s when I got the first kick. I screamed out, �Please don�t kill me!� That�s when the bellman grabbed him, and they were going at it. I don�t know what was happening, but the bellman was going into his pocket, and I grabbed his arm and got between them and said, �Please don�t hurt my husband,� and that�s when the bellman let him go. And I took maybe two or three steps over and I collapsed on the ground.�

On Previous Incidents of Alleged Abuse:
�He pulled off on the side of the road to a gas station, and there were a lot of people out there, and he pulled the van up and told me to get out. He went in the back of the van and threw my Louis Vuitton luggage out in front of the people. I was sitting in the car and looked back to see what he was doing. When he started throwing my luggage out, I said, �Wait!� He was snatching the other door open to get the rest of my luggage out and the door knocked me to the ground. And he left me there. He had my purse, my phone, my money. I had nothing.�

On Her Marriage:
�People will say, �If you love your husband and you forgive him, why can�t you just reconcile and go to counseling?� And I wish with all my heart that it could be as simple as that. I have faith that God is a miracle worker, because I�ve seen him work miracles. But I�m not sure, not 150 percent sure that the person I saw in the parking lot that night won�t ever show up again.�

On Her New Mission:
�When people can see where you came from and see what you are today and know looking at where you came from and know that there is no real legal reason why you should even be left standing and you�re still standing, that is when God gets the glory. That�s when people say there must be a God somewhere. That�s where my stand is right now.�

Read part one of our entire interview with Juanita Bynum in the December issue of ESSENCE.