Footage of a 63-year-old Bishop attempting to defend his marriage to a 19-year-old congregant has gone viral two years after the couple first made headlines in their home state of Iowa.
In the footage shared by several platforms, Bishop Dwight Reed, 63, is seen standing in the pulpit while addressing anyone who attended church that morning with the intention of starting some mess over his wife, Jordan Goodlett, who was 19 when she wed the church leader, as per The Des Moines Register.
“And I wish some of ya’ll would mess with my wife, Jordan. Talking about, ‘what you gonna do if you see her?’ Well, you will see me on the news!” Reed proclaimed. “You better walk by and say ‘praise the lord!’ that’s what you better do, because that’s my wife! And she grown! She didn’t need nobody to sign no paper work for her. If this was out in the streets, ya’ll would be saying she made a come-up, but you a hypocrite.”
He went on to quote scripture praising the value of marriage while insisting he and his wife have no problem with their actions
“And we sleeping good at night! Ain’t nobody up all night worried about these crooks.” Check out the clip below.
The Des Moines Register reports that Jordan is Reed’s third wife, and that they tied the knot in November 2021. He was reportedly “offering special guidance” to the teen before their relationship as Dean of the Church School.
It was also noted that the legal age of consent in the state of Iowa is 16, so there is no legal reason the couple shouldn’t be together. Still, the over 40-year age gap between them has led many to deem the relationship inappropriate.
“PREDATOR! He probably was looking at her when she was a kid just waiting on her to turn 18,” wrote one critic within TNT‘s comment section, with another adding, “It’s the fact that he still got members for me! Like none of yall got sense?”
“I’m sorry but this is sick and disgusting,” added another naysayer. “This is why we need our parents and grandparents in our lives. My grandmother always told me never get with a man that’s way older than me.”
In 2022, Christ Apostolic Temple, Reed’s church, filed a lawsuit against Texas’ Kingdom Church and one of its leaders, Demetrius Sinegal, after he launched a Change.org petition calling for a criminal investigation of Reed by police.
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