Iowa’s largest predominantly African American church is suing a Texas church for allegedly libelous claims about the marriage of a 63-year-old bishop to a woman in her late teens.
The lawsuit pits Iowa’s Christ Apostolic Temple, and its leader, Bishop Dwight Reed, against Texas’ Kingdom Church and one of its leaders, Demetrius Sinegal.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa after an initial filing in state court, Dwight Reed is a bishop consecrated in the Apostolic faith, selected to serve as the Iowa church’s pastor in 2017 after the death of his father, the church’s founder.
Jeremiah Reed founded Christ Apostolic Temple in 1969, initially as Calvary Church of God. The church now claims to have grown to be the largest predominately African American church in Iowa, with roughly 800 members.
According to the lawsuit, last November, Bishop Dwight Reed, then 63, married his current wife, Jordan Goodlett, then 19. The two married without ever engaging in premarital sex, the lawsuit states. A short time later, in early 2022, Sinegal allegedly launched a campaign to smear the couple and the Christ Apostolic Temple over the purported nature of the marriage.
Through Facebook posts, YouTube videos, podcasts and a social media called Clubhouse, Sinegal allegedly disparaged Reed while providing followers with “multiple convenient ways to financially contribute to him and Kingdom Church.” Sinegal also is...
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