New York pastor and award-winning gospel singer Donnie McClurkin said sexual assault allegations made against him are shameful, “contrived and untrue.” An attorney for McClurkin, founder of Perfecting Faith Church in Freeport, described claims made by Giuseppe Corletto, McClurkin’s former assistant, as “categorically false.”
In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, Corletto alleged that McClurkin groomed and preyed on him for more than a decade. Corletto, now 43, began working for McClurkin in 2004; about two years later, he said, McClurkin began groping and manipulating him.
McClurkin, 66, is known for bestselling songs such as “We Fall Down” and “Stand.” He has won three Grammy Awards, one Dove Award, and numerous other accolades. McClurkin’s 1996 self-titled debut LP captured the attention of talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, who named it one of her Favorite Things that year.
NY Pastor Donnie McClurkin Sued by Former Assistant
Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin founded Perfecting Faith Church in 2001. Since then, it has grown from 200 members to more than 3,000. Prior to that, McClurkin was assistant pastor to Bishop Marvin Winans at Perfecting Church in Detroit.
In his 2001 book “Eternal Victim, Eternal Victor,” McClurkin surmised that his homosexuality resulted from childhood sexual abuse he experienced. He also explained how his faith helped him defeat the “curse” of being gay.
McClurkin’s book and story “resonated with me, because that’s similar to my story,” Giuseppe Corletto recently told NBC News. Although his work relationship with McClurkin seemed to begin as mentoring, Corletto said, he now realizes the pastor was grooming him.
According to the lawsuit, McClurkin groped assistant Corletto during “pray the gay away” sessions, as well as before worship services. The molestation escalated to rape when the pair traveled for work, Corletto alleged.
The suit noted that McClurkin also “manipulated” his former assistant by blaming him for the abuse. That led to “intense shame and confusion,” Corletto claimed, as well as depression and suicidal ideation.
When the plaintiff tried to quit working for McClurkin, he said, the pastor used “biblical manipulation” to convince him to stay. “He would always compare me to people in the Bible like Elisha and Elijah,” said Corletto. McClurkin’s abuse and manipulation allegedly continued even after Corletto left that job in 2008.
Corletto said he recently found an email that McClurkin had sent him after a 2013 hotel incident in Niagara Falls. “I was horribly wrong trying to force you into something that you were consistently saying no to,” McClurkin allegedly wrote, describing himself as “the actual epitome of a desperate, dirty ‘old man.’”
New York pastor and award-winning gospel singer Donnie McClurkin said sexual assault allegations made against him are shameful, “contrived and untrue.”Click to Post
