Everyone has their own opinion on whether “age is just a number” in marriages and relationships. A lot of those opinions came hot toward an Iowa Bishop following the announcement of his third marriage — to a 19-year-old woman.
Suggested Reading
“That’s my wife. And she grown. She don’t need nobody to sign no paperwork for her. If this was out in the streets, y’all would be saying she made a come up. But you’re a hypocrite. Don’t you forget the Bible says marriage is honorable,” crooned 63-year-old Bishop Dwight Reed from the pulpit of Christ Apostolic Temple in a 2022 video recording.
Reed was referencing comments and concerns regarding his third marriage to then-19-year-old Jordan Goodlett. The two-year old clip is making new rounds on social media, sparking a debate (once again) on whether this marriage was appropriate.
“So if yr 63 year old Bishop married an 18 year old congregant & says he has had his eye on her since she was 14, would y’all [be] alright with that? As a [preacher’s kid] I gots a plenty of questions,” wrote one X user.
“Everyone needs to mind their own business. This is nothing new, men been doing this since the beginning of time, all races, all cultures, all socioeconomic levels...” wrote another X user.
“Jail. And the members need to leave that church because they are witnessing a groomer and pedophile,” wrote another.
Former church members also weighed in on the controversy of the age gap between the Bishop and his new love.
Read more from Rekha Basu’s opinion in The Des Moines Register:
Though the wedding was in November, many people affiliated with the church were prompted to speak up after a former church member, Jazmn Napier, took to Facebook, using a pseudonym, to call Reed “a predator masking himself as a man of God.” She accused him of using his power and privilege as a pastor to groom a teenager for marriage.
Napier was among several people who told me that, a few years earlier, Reed told the congregation he’d be taking Goodlett under his wing for special attention as she was struggling with the impending divorce of her parents. They also said that she spent time in his home and on outings with him from about age 16 and that he bought her a car as a graduation gift.
Technically, in the state of Iowa, the legal age of consent to marry is a mere 16 years of age. However, Demetrius Sinegal of Texas’ Kingdom Church spearheaded investigative measures into Reed and his wife upon the announcement of their union, per the Des Moines Register.
Sinegal has publicly called Reed a “child predator” and “groomer” while demanding the police open a criminal probe into his marriage. However, in response, Reed filed a libel suit in 2023 for unspecified damages, claiming Sinegal and his church led a so-called smear campaign against him, painting his wife as a victim deprived of her free will and depicting him as a villain, per the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
According to a dated Facebook post, Reed confirmed the marriage was her decision and that she was “moving forward in what God has lead her to do.” It’s unclear if Sinegal filed a response to the lawsuit.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.