(RNS) — Deluged by online debate, gospel singer and pastor Marvin Sapp defended his fundraising style on a radio talk show Monday (March 31), after a nine-month-old recording of his call to raise $40,000 for a Pentecostal organization went viral.
“Ushers, close the doors. Close the doors,” Sapp is heard saying in the video, which was made at a conference of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., meeting in Baltimore in July 2024, where he sought $20 donations. “There’s 1,000 of you tonight and those that are watching,” he continued, pointing at the camera. “It’s a 1,000 that’s watching online. This is a small seed. If I get a 1,000 online to give this, if I get a 1,000 in the sanctuary to give this, that’s 40,000 dollars tonight.”
Sapp, a Grammy nominee and Stellar Awards winner for his song “Never Would Have Made It,” appeared on fellow gospel music star Erica Campbell’s “Get Up Mornings” radio talk show on Monday (March 31) to counter the short clip that prompted discussions on giving culture in the Black church and inspired TikTok trends.
“People said that I literally locked my people into my church until they gave me $40,000 and that’s not true,” he told Campbell. “It didn’t happen at my church, number one. We didn’t lock any doors, because you can’t lock doors in the convention center — that’s number two. And the $40,000 that I was trying to raise, which I don’t know if I raised it or not, went directly to the organization to take care of the expense of that conference.”
The Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. issued a statement on Facebook on Saturday, saying leaders of the denomination asked Sapp to seek a “free-will offering” to help pay for expenses of its International Summer Convention, and other P.A.W. expenses.
“Months later, a short clip from our convention has now gone viral and unduly misrepresented not only Bishop Marvin Sapp, but the P.A.W., and churches worldwide,” the denomination said. “Closing doors during giving is an internal security protocol that was, unfortunately, taken out of context. No doors were locked, and no one was held in the room against their will. We do not force or coerce anyone into supporting the operations of our organization, and we never will. We apologize to those who may have been offended by the manner of receiving donations.”
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In a Wednesday statement on Facebook, Sapp, the senior pastor of Chosen Vessel Cathedral in Fort Worth, Texas, said his instruction to the ushers was “not manipulation” but “stewardship.”
“To those unfamiliar with the church context or who may not regularly attend worship gatherings this has been misinterpreted as holding people hostage as well as offensive,” he said. “That was never my intent.”
In his conversation with Campbell, Sapp said he has been receiving death threats, his “church staff is frazzled” and his children feared for his safety.
“Daddy, you’re the last parent we got,” Sapp, whose wife MaLinda died of cancer in 2012, said his children told him. “The reality is, I’m a widower, and I’m trying to calm down my church. I’m trying to calm down my children, trying to calm down people that love me.”
On Thursday, the Shade Room, a celebrity news platform popular with Black audiences, posted an Instagram compilation of reactions of users shocked by Sapp’s clip.
“Marvin Sapp is clearly HUSTLING his congregation for 40k — and using God’s name to do it. He’s calling for the doors to be locked? That’s not faith, that’s a shakedown and a false prophet …,” read one X post included in the Instagram publication. “That’s been happening in the Black church. I remember visiting pastors doing that same thing when I was younger and attending church regularly,” read another.
Pastor Marvin Sapp preaches during a Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., convention in Baltimore, Md., in July 2024. (Video screen grab)
The Rev. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, a scholar who teaches at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, said, based on a description of the clip, it could distort the understanding of the African American churches she studies.
“I recognize that the richness of this small apostolic denomination is so great and complex that it should not be dragged by one tiny social media clip,” said Gilkes, professor emerita of African American studies and sociology at Colby College. “That clip basically distorts the history and complexity of Pentecostal Assemblies of the World and people need to let it rest.”
The clip became a popular comedic meme, including a video captioned “POV: you finally tried out your friend’s church.” On X users imagined ushers and attendees trying to leave the church while Sapp made his announcement.
Pastors in many churches across the country referred to the moment during Sunday’s service.
At the Freedom Temple Ministry in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Bishop Herbert C. Crump joked he wouldn’t close the doors for offerings: “I don’t want to go viral like my friend. We’re not going to close no door, shut no doors. I ain’t even talking about doors. Anything, we’re going to open doors,” he said, prompting laughter in the congregation.
At The Dallas Project, a Seventh-day Adventist congregation in Texas, elder James Johnson mentioned Sapp’s viral clip as he took the stage to bless offerings. “This is the part of the service where we ask ushers to close the doors. I’m just kidding, I’m just kidding. We don’t do that here, we don’t do that here. God wants a cheerful giver.”
At the end of his radio interview, Sapp admitted finding some of the memes amusing, pronouncing “hilarious” a photo of him on X decorated with the Capital One logo and the tagline from the bank’s credit card commercials: “What’s in your wallet?”
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