In the short time they were a couple, Yovonka Bryant and Rudy Eugene often talked about God, watched Creflo Dollar Ministries every morning and had Bible studies together, she says. The Rev. Richard Dunn, the pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church in north Miami-Dade, gives his insights on Dr. Dollar and Eugene.
They were a couple only since March, but in that short time Yovonka Bryant says that she and Rudy Eugene often talked about God.
“We watched Creflo Dollar Ministries every morning. We also had private Bible studies together,” she said at a news conference Wednesday.
Creflo Dollar Ministries and its dynamic television pastor are popular in the African-American community. He’s known for preaching a gospel of prosperity, which differs from what the Rev. Richard Dunn preaches.
“My gospel is to reach the lost, the least and the left out, because that’s what I see on a day to day basis. I do believe God intends for us to be the best we can be and for us to prosper, but I don’t know it necessarily means us being rich,” said Dunn, who is the pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church in north Miami-Dade.
Dr. Dollar is rich, has a private plane and drives a Rolls-Royce. His was one of six media-based ministries that were the focus of a Senate Finance Committee review. It found that World Changers Church International, the umbrella organization for Creflo Dollar Ministries, “did not provide responses to any of the questions and was, therefore, the least cooperative.”
World Changers Church International is based in Atlanta, Georgia. There are dozens of satellite churches across the country, but none in Miami.
Creflo Dollar Ministries did not respond to a request for comment.
At the Wednesday news conference, celebrity attorney Gloria Allred said that her client Bryant and Eugene read the Bible together. Much has been made of Eugene’s Bible studies, which raise the question of how a man of faith turns into a face-chewing attacker.
“Many times people can read the Word, and many times people can hear the Word, but the litmus test for all of us is to do the Word,” Dunn said.
He added about Eugene, “It is clear to me that he had a substance abuse problem and there was something deeper, and sometimes if we’re not careful we can tend to mask our problems with religion.”
