Pastor Dwayne Dawkins is speaking publicly for the first time since the sex tape scandal with his male “sneaky link” went viral earlier this year. Find out what he had to say about it all and how his life has changed inside…
Pastor Dwayne Dawkins recently spoke out about the sex scandal that ruined his life and almost led him to suicide.
The husband, father of three, and 14-year pastor of Praise Tabernacle International in Plantation, Florida, was exposed in March 2022 when a video of him engaging in sexual acts with another man was leaked online.
Pastor Dawkins, who frequently condemned homosexuality from the pulpit, revealed at the Leaders in Training Conference in Atlanta that he had made contact with a “sneaky link.” Pastor Dawkins shared that he was aware his sexual partner was recording, but never thought the video would get leaked. He thought the video would be for the man’s personal use. Boy, was he wrong.
Click here to see a clip from a previous sermon where he talked about homosexuality not being “normal.”
Pastor Dawkins also addressed homosexuality on his podcast:
Turns out, his “sneaky leak” is a content creator, so he posted the video online. We’re not sharing the video here. A simple Twitter search pulls it right up.
”I had connected with an individual of the same gender and I’ve had, throughout my childhood up until even this moment, dealing with bisexual tendencies,” he shared. “It was not right. It was wrong.”
Once he found out the video had been leaked online, he said he contacted the person and begged them to take the video down. The person never replied and ended up blocking his number, and Pastor Dawkins claims he hasn’t spoken to the man since.
”That evening, you can imagine, I did not sleep. I have a wife and three beautiful sons. Pastor of a church in South Florida for 14 years at that point and family, loved ones, all of that. So the weight of that shame sat on me.”
Folks were quick to call Pastor Dawkins out for being a hypocrite. He admitted that the overwhelming shame led him to consider suicide.
”For the first time in my life, I pulled out my life insurance policy, and while church folk laughed at me, and friends distanced themselves from me, I’m thinking about killing myself,” he said.
He continued, “There’s usually grace for heterosexual falls, but when it comes to the same gender, homosexual, most folks have their prefaces about how you’re allowed to fall. “I fell in a way that most people think you can’t come back from,” he said.
Pastor Dawkins revealed that the thought of his three sons caused him to reconsider ending his life.
”That night, I decided I had to live for my sons. ‘Which is worse: a dead father or a bisexual struggling father?’ I made the decision to live.”
Despite the controversy, Pastor Dawkins is “still in the process of healing.” He now lives in Atlanta and is teaching in the classroom, which was his original profession.
The former pastor said he’s also doing side hustles to “make up the difference from going from full time ministry of a growing church to now being the poster boy for what goes wrong when you think you’re secure and you’re not.”
Watch his full speech of accountability below:
Thoughts?
Photo: @dhdawkinssr
