The premiere of Oxygen’s new show Preachers of L.A. follows the lives of six ministers, bishops, and pastors as they deal with the pressures of life, being men of God, their own shortcomings and each other, with the world watching.
Minister Deitrick Haddon is a preacher, pastor and well known gospel entertainer. He grew up in the church and from a young age knew that gospel was his calling, “I was a very gifted from a young age.” However, Haddon is no stranger to scandals when him and his wife of 25 years divorced and he got into a relationship with a woman and produced a child before his divorce was finalized. Seeing as how he is looked at as a Christian figure he had to deal with the backlash of people judging him and his fiancé for having a child out of wedlock.
Bishop Ron Gibson has pastored at Life Church of God in Christ for 25 years. On the outside one would see his wealth and incorrectly infer that his past much of been an easy one. However, Gibson past contains drug use, drug addiction, and gang activity. He joined a gang when he was 16-years-old, which lead him to use the drug PCP and before he knew it he had become addicted to the drug. He didn’t change his life around until he overdosed on the drug and heard his mother praying for God to save him. Something about that moment changed him for the better. Due to his past as a gang member, he constantly goes back to Compton to talk and minister to gang members because he doesn’t want them to go down the path he went, “Guys who are in gangs they just don’t know any better. So I got to go back to Compton and help my lost brothers and sisters.”
Bishop Noel Jones is a bishop of City of Refugee Church in Gardena Ca. He stands out from the rest of the men of the show because he is single. He has been divorced for over 20 years. As a single pastor he has had women come on to him or slip them his number. Others that see a man his age thinks that he needs to be married; however, Jones seems to not be in a rush for marriage, maybe he is marriage to his job, “I love what I do.”
Pastor Jay Haizlip is a pastor of the Sanctuary Church and also has a past of drug use and addiction. He did coke and became addicted to the drug during his youth. There isn’t much depth given on Haizlip other than him and his wife both do ministry.
Pastor Wayne Chaney is a pastor of Antioch Church, a church his grandfather founded over 50 years ago. His wife is a singer. Not much focus was given to Chaney so far, but we do know that him and his wife are very much in love and do not believe in the thought that Christians are not supposed to show public displays of affection.
Bishop Clarence McClendon is the bishop of Full Harvest Int’l church and he has two sons, both who want to go into some form of ministry due to his influence, his oldest son is his personal assistant. McClendon began preaching at the age of 15, due to the influence of his father, so he can understand his sons wanting to slightly follow in his footsteps. We don’t know much about McClendon other than the fact that him, his wife, and his children have been threatened before and are still currently being threatened. Not much focus was given to what the threats are about or why.
The first episode was a good segue into the season and I can’t wait for how the season will pan out. Tune in next week Wednesday night at 10/9c!
Image: Oxygen