This pastor is not stepping down despite being caught red-handed having an affair with the wife of one of his parishioners.
Just days after he was forced to flee naked from the parishioner's home in Tallahassee, Florida, after the woman's husband caught them in bed together, Rev. O. Jermaine Simmons Sr. spoke to his congregation at the Jacob Chapel Baptist Church, saying he will not resign from his post because God has already forgiven him and that his wife is standing by him.
A video of his address to his congregation was posted on YouTube on Jan. 22.
"What I want from God I've already received it and that's his forgiveness. What I am asking of our members is something I may or may not get and that is your prayers. And I'm asking for your forgiveness," Simmons said.
The congregants responded with "amen," giving him a standing ovation.
"I was reminded that I can't run through this. And I got somebody who said, and I believe her, that she's gonna walk with me," Simmons said, apparently referring to his wife.
The pastor admitted to his flock that he had sinned and urged them to stop defending him in public.
"I'm hurting because I have hurt you ... It hurts me that you have to defend my actions because when you love somebody you want to fight for 'em. You want to defend them, but let me be very clear, you cannot defend sin," he said.
Simmons said nobody can stop him from doing God's work regardless of what other people think of him.
"If I stop preaching, if I stop doing what the Lord called me to do over this, it presupposes that I was qualified to do it in the first place. If I quit, if I walk away over this, it presupposes that I deserved to preach last Sunday when there was no scandal. I was wretch [inaudible] I'm a work in progress now but what the Lord allows. We will move forward," he said.
"I'll never be sorry enough for some people ... I don't have the energy for that right now. But I have to be clear that God is pushing us forward. Pushing us forward," he stressed.
The Christian Post earlier reported that Simmons was caught in bed with Claynisha Stephens by the latter's husband, Benjamin Stephens III, on Jan. 17.
Claynisha admitted to the police that she and the pastor began their "relationship" in October 2016.
Her husband nearly killed the pastor but was prevented from shooting him when Claynisha implored him not do so.
