Bynum’s Battle is Over–Weeks and Bynum Divorce Final

If you live long enough, you will experience the best of times and the worst of times, all at the same time.  This holds true, for example, when a doting father watches his only daughter get married.  The ultra dad may be exuberant while witnessing his daughter take on the life of a wife, all while grieving because his baby girl is now looking to another  as her strong man, protector, provider and leader.  Divorce often has this ambivalent effect on couples that don’t make it.  While each partner may be looking forward to a permanent dissolution of the marriage, it is often a painstaking reminder of the end of life as usual.  Psychologically, it can be as traumatic as experiencing a death, or loss of a loved one.  So, this divorce cannot be an easy time for Bynum or Weeks.

The couple received a final divorce decree on June 20, 2008 at the Atlanta area Gwinnett County Superior Court.  Bynum and Weeks were a high-profile ministry couple who had an unprecedented media exposed take-by-take coverage of the demise of their marriage.  Their union had challenges like most.  The straw that broke the camel’s back was the August 21, 2007 parking lot incident where Bynum alleged that her then husband, Weeks, assaulted her by beating and repeatedly kicking her.  Weeks plead guilty to aggravated assault, after initially stating that he never put his hands on  Bynum.  He later changed his story and said he pushed Bynum away because she was attempting to assault him.  Bynum was the one with the documented bruises and the testimony of two black male hotel employees who had no prior relationship to Bynum other than seeing her frequent the hotel.  Even with Weeks’ alleged spousal abuse to his first wife, alleged physical altercations with a male and female church employee, a switch in stories before the world, and conviction, he still claims to be the victim. 

Had Michael Jackson, OJ Simpson, Marion Barry, Mike Tyson and most recently R. Kelly not been hailed as heros by a litany of supporters amidst alleged crimes against women and children, I might be alarmed.  This is the world we live in.  Where a prominent Baptist preacher petitioned for Mike Tyson, who has recently been linked to a murder plot in Bedford-Stuyvestant area of Brooklyn, New York, to have his prison sentence for raping Desiree Washington stayed.  Where were the church leaders petitioning for Bishop Weeks or other pastors with violent tendencies to have a stay from mounting a pulpit to lead people?  They couldn’t see past Bynum’s fiery personality, or whatever else became the focus.  I’m sure Desiree Washington understands.  Her commitment to dancing to win the competition for which she spent 6 months preparing, over 24 hour delay in reporting the crime, and willingness to visit the famous boxer’s hotel room–after having asked to re-schedule the date, after asking her roommate to go with her to Tyson’s hotel room (who declined)–made her a scorned girl who didn’t want to be treated like a one night stand.  Poor Mike, Poor OJ, Poor R.Kelly, Poor Weeks.  How dare anyone interrupt their lives and make them accountable for alleged criminal activity?

It will be a better day when the focus of crimes committed against women are on the actual criminal activity and not on all of the issues with which the women who were murdered, raped, beaten, and assaulted walk into the criminal activity . 

Should Bynum have stayed will always be a question.  I happen to think that Bynum is a woman responsible for her own life before the Lord and that calling is greater than her calling to influence what a world looking at this fiasco will think about Christians who divorce.  One thing is certain:  her decision to leave is between her and the Lord who knows whether she would have ended up in a coffin from the maniacal behavior of a man who a bellman had to pull off of his wife while stating, “I’m going to kill you”.  The same people with signs praying for their celebrity and religious icons to get off (who they tend to empathize with), would be the same dramazoids waiting to view her body and crying empty tears.  Bynum made the choice to live and I don’t believe God intended for her to part by death at her husband’s hands.

 

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/06/21/bynumgwx.html

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/03/14/weeks0314.html

Juanita Bynum on Divorce Court

In case you were wondering what her appearance was all about, check out the clips.

I have never seen divorce court spend so much air-time highlighting any special guests and their own lifestyles or issues.  So, this appearance is probably aimed at increasing the show’s ratings.

Whether or not Bynum’s appearance served ministerial purpose is really a question that only those who she spent time with can answer.  Nonetheless, I’m sure this won’t stop the philosophizers from philosphizing and waking up again tomorrow, having not demonstrated notable service outside of their own needs or interests to anyone else who has been substantially impacted by their lives.  Meanwhile, again Bynum has used her personal life experience to provide insight for someone else.

After being stomped by an unrepentant husband who still denies any real wrongdoing, it is easy for Bynum to identify with and tell another woman to love oneself enough to stop the domestic abuse before it cannot be curtailed.

 

BREAKING NEWS! Juanita Bynum-Weeks and Bishop Thomas Weeks’ Criminal Case Resolved

Alas!  Bishop Thomas Weeks III, the Senior Pastor of  Global Destiny plead guilty to the felony charge of aggravated assault against his wife, internationally known speaker, author and singer, Juanita Bynum.  With this plea, the Bishop took full accountability as he acknowledged grabbing, throwing down and kicking Juanita Bynum on August 21, 2007 in an Atlanta hotel parking lot.  He apologized to his wife and received  3 years probation, 200 hours of non-church related community service and mandatory anger management counseling.

Dr. Juanita Bynum did as many women  (and sometimes men) must who have suffered at the hands of their violent attackers in domestic situations–accepted Bishop Weeks’ apology.   Juanita Bynum said she forgave Bishop Thomas Weeks.  Despite withstanding a prolific media campaign of television, on-line and radio interviews and press releases with a pristine clean-cut imagery of the Bishop who intimated Dr. Bynum set him up and proffered himself as the one who had been habitually abused by his wife, Dr. Bynum was vindicated, as much as could be possible, with today’s admission and apology.  Unfortunately, Juanita experienced what many accusers suffer: a complete tirade against one’s character to deflect focusing on the relevant facts and real culpability.  Had Nicole Brown Simpson survived, she might have been able to fill in all of the blanks that occurred in her condo on that fateful night.  Just like OJ’s book deal on how I would have done it, if I would have done it was squashed, we hope that Bishop Weeks will pull his book off of the market since it is evident that he has not yet fully learned his lessons.  Moreso, he does not need to profit one more cent on the back of his wife. 

The presiding judge apparantly scolded both Bynum and Weeks regarding their behavior during this divorce before the public.  This blogger veers from those remarks and emphatically states that in completely reviewing every moment of public footage Juanita Bynum made in press conferences, television appearances and print media, she continually re-stated her agenda to deal with the subject incident and all immediate and ancillary information relating to the same.  When prodded to delve into other marital issues, Juanita maintained her commitment to talk about domestic violence and her new-found introduction into the world no one in their right or left mind ever wants to enter as a first-partaker.  Since when does a woman get scolded for being a public figure who stated the conditions of the assault and everyone else turned her statements and actions upside down to fit another account of the story.  The content and tone of Juanita’s press interviews was completely different than that of the Bishop.  And in case anyone may be a bit confused by the judge’s remarks, Juanita Bynum and Thomas Weeks was before the court as two individuals, a husband and a wife, not world leaders.  When Juanita was being attacked, she did not represent all of those people who would be influenced by her behavior in public during a tumultuous divorce.  She represented who got kicked, Juanita Bynum.  There is only one saviour of the world, Jesus Christ and He already died for our sins.  I am by no means suggesting that Dr. Bynum should not be mindful of her life choices and how she may influence the world.  But, I am by every means suggesting that she must be acknowledged as an individual for who she is in her very own persona, essence and countenance at some points in her life and this was one of them.  Kudos to Juanita Bynum for taking the lid off of the pressure cooker full of clergy gone wild who justify their behavior and vilify anyone who wants to hold them accountable.  Too many men, saved or not, clergy or not, beat their wives, de-humanize them, de-value them and eat away at their self-worth and want an offering and servitude in the process.  Domestic violence is real and must be dealt with in the church of all institutions, if we say we have the answer to a dying world.

As for the Bishop, I pray that one day soon he will enjoy full restoration.  This will only transpire if he continues down the path of repairing the breach, first and foremost to his wife, the very one he has been called and ordained to protect and cover. And what must the rest of us do?  Thank God that it was not us, and just as God forgives and restores us through His Grace, that we don’t hold a man for the rest of his life to what God has cast into the sea of forgetfulness, once he has sincerely repented to the one he offended and to God. 

 

For more info, click on link below:

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/03/11/bynum_0312.html