A Christmas Eve candlelight service at Lakewood Church in Houston was interrupted by a bomb threat, which authorities later determined to be fake. More than 5,000 people were worshiping at Pastor Joel Osteen’s megachurch Tuesday evening (Dec. 24) when a man threatened to “blow up the church.”

The suspect, later identified as 33-year-old Aaron Suppes, called police to say he was planning to attack Lakewood using sarin nerve gas. Soon after authorities arrived at the church, they located and arrested Suppes.

Police were able to use security camera footage to find the suspect. They also connected him to another suspicious call that had been placed earlier in the day.

Bomb Threat at Lakewood Church Was Fake

When members of Houston’s police and fire departments arrived at Lakewood Tuesday evening, they briefed the church’s security team about the situation. Bomb experts and a hazmat team examined duffel bags that Suppes allegedly brought to Lakewood. The bags, left at the church’s entrance, contained some clothes and electronic devices but no dangerous materials.

On Christmas Day, Suppes appeared in probable cause court, where he argued with an officer. He was charged with third-degree felony terroristic threat, and his bond was set for $15,000. According to court documents, Suppes is unemployed and has been unhoused for at least six months.

In court on Dec. 25, the judge said, “Defendant called the FBI tip line and said he would go to release sarin gas at Lakewood Church, defendant was located at Lakewood Church and had left his bags at the door.”

A police spokesperson told reporters that Suppes called to say “that him and his sister were being microwaved from overseas, whatever that means, so obviously having some mental issues.”

KHOU news reported that Suppes has a criminal history in Colorado but no previous charges in Harris County, Texas. The suspect is due back in court in January.

Lakewood Church Had a Shooting Earlier This Year

As ChurchLeaders reported, in February a woman opened fire inside Lakewood Church during a Spanish-language service. She said she had a bomb, but officials later determined that threat to be false.

During that incident, the suspect—wearing a trench coat and a backpack—shot and wounded a 7-year-old boy and a 57-year-old man with a long rifle. Two off-duty officers who were serving on Lakewood’s security team returned fire, leaving the suspect dead.

Two men have been arrested and are facing charges of criminal solicitation and conspiracy to commit homicide after a murder-for-hire plot was uncovered during a confession to a pastor. 

David Vanatta, 49, of Wilcox, Pennsylvania, was apprehended after he told his pastor that he paid Colton Baird, 32, of Ridgway, Pennsylvania, $2,000 to kill Vanatta’s estranged wife. 

The pastor contacted authorities on Dec. 22 immediately after the conversation, according to WTAJ.

After receiving the report, Pennsylvania State Police interviewed Vanatta, and police said that Vanatta confirmed what he had told the pastor. 

RELATED: Colorado Minister Sleeps Outside To Raise Funds for Unhoused People

The police then interviewed Baird, who also reportedly confirmed that the transaction of $2,000 had occurred and that he had already spent the money.

Police said that Baird visited Vanatta’s home sometime during the previous week to make the “hand-to-hand transaction.”

Police also reported that Vanatta’s wife was not harmed. A family member told ChurchLeaders in an email that so long as Vanatta and Baird are in custody, the family is confident that Vanatta’s wife and her children are safe. 

The identity of the pastor or the church where he serves has not been publicly disclosed. 

RELATED: Pastor, Retired Police Officer Charged With Child Sex Crime

Vanatta and Baird are being held at the Elk County Prison and have been denied bail. They are scheduled to appear in court for preliminary hearings on Jan. 8, 2025. 

This article has been updated to include a correction about David Vanatta’s age and a correction clarifying that Vanatta and his wife are estranged, not divorced. This article has also been updated to include information given to ChurchLeaders by a close family member. 

(RNS) — President-elect Donald Trump‘s transition team is reportedly planning an interfaith prayer service the day before his inauguration, where participants can worship alongside the businessman and his wife, Melania.

But those who want to join need to weigh the price of prayer: Tickets to the service will be awarded only to those who donate at least $100,000 to Trump’s inaugural ceremonies, or who raise $200,000.

Earlier this month, Axios cited a seven-page prospectus that listed the service alongside several other donor-only events, such as a “cabinet reception” with Trump’s nominees and “candlelight dinner” with Trump and Melania.

According to the report, if a donor gives $1 million or raises $2 million, they’ll earn six tickets to the suite of inauguration events.

Officials for Trump’s transition team did not respond to requests to confirm the service. No details about where the event will occur or who will be involved were specified in the prospectus.

The morning of Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, the president-elect sat for a prayer service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, a historic location across Lafayette Square from the White House. The church, often referred to as the “Church of the Presidents,” later became known as the site where Trump posed with a Bible during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations on June 1, 2020.

Among the racial justice demonstrators forcibly removed from Lafayette Square and the surrounding area just before Trump’s Bible photo op were a seminarian and an Episcopal priest who, at the behest of the local Episcopal diocese, were handing out water to protesters from St. John’s patio. At the time, the incident prompted outrage from the Rt. Rev. Marianne Budde, who oversees the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, telling Religion News Service she was “horrified” by the events of the day.

A representative for St. John’s declined to confirm whether they plan to host another inaugural service for Trump. Texas Pastor Robert Jeffress, a longtime Trump supporter who preached the sermon titled “When God Chooses a Leader” during Trump’s 2017 inaugural service, told RNS last month he had not yet been asked to do the same this go-round, though he noted he is very “enthusiastic about his election.”

Trump may well hear from Budde again this year, this time in a worship service at the Washington National Cathedral, which traditionally holds an inaugural prayer service, usually in close partnership with whichever presidential candidate won the election. In 2017, Trump sat for a 70-minute service at the cathedral that featured Budde, as well as a Catholic archbishop of Washington and a local imam, among other religious leaders.

The decision to host the event in 2017 drew criticism from Episcopalians, including the Rev. Gary Hall, the cathedral’s former dean, who said Trump “violates any possible norm of Christian faith and practice.”

The Cathedral announced earlier this year it would be holding a “Service for the Nation” on Jan. 21 and that Budde will be preaching, irrespective of who won.

“This will not be a service for a new administration,” the Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, the Cathedral’s current dean, said in a statement released in October. “Rather, whichever party wins, this will be a service for all Americans, for the well-being of our nation, for our democracy and the importance of the core values that must undergird our democracy.”

After a year of enduring what he says are false claims about him on YouTube, Bishop T.D. Jakes is asking a court to intervene. On Dec. 19, an attorney for the Dallas-area megachurch pastor filed a motion for a subpoena against Google, YouTube’s parent company. The goal is to identify owners of four YouTube accounts that churn out disparaging content falsely linking Jakes to disgraced hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.

The motion, filed in the Northern District of California, is a groundbreaking effort to fight misinformation generated by artificial intelligence. Dustin Pusch, a lawyer for Jakes, alleges that YouTube isn’t abiding by its own community guidelines about lewd, misleading, and AI-generated content.

Videos posted about Jakes are “false and absurd,” according to the motion. It states:

These YouTubers are purportedly using the sordid and sensational allegations revolving around Sean “Diddy” Combs to attack, humiliate, degrade, and defame Bishop Jakes—and many other prominent black celebrities—with manufactured claims that he is guilty of the same crimes and other lewd and repulsive conduct as Mr. Combs. In other words, YouTubers are using Bishop Jakes’s prominence as clickbait to attract unwitting users to view their knowingly false videos for their (and possibly other foreign companies’) financial gain.

Combs, 55, is in prison awaiting trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

YouTube Videos Make ‘Lurid Claims’ About Jakes

In their “About” sections on YouTube, the four accounts listed in the motion indicate they are based in Pakistan, South Africa, the Philippines, and Kenya. If Jakes’ subpoena effort succeeds, he could obtain IP addresses and email addresses from YouTube. Then, according to the motion, the pastor could sue the responsible parties for defamation.

NBC News, which broke the story of Jakes’ latest legal move, has been investigating AI-generated misinformation. It identified YouTube clips that feature “false information, doctored photos, and lurid claims about Jakes.” Some videos, monetized through advertising, have more than 1 million views.

Other Black celebrities—including Denzel Washington and Steve Harvey—also have been targeted by misinformation, according to NBC News. When the network contacted YouTube about some of the questionable content, the platform took action against some of the offending videos and channels.

But Jakes’ attorney said he’s tried for a year, with few results, to get YouTube to remove misinformation about his client. Despite the controversy, YouTube has been embracing the “potential” of AI-generated content, while admitting that the technology introduces “new risks.”

TD Jakes Denies Rumors About Wrongdoing

During a Christmas Eve sermon last year, Jakes addressed rumors that he had participated in one of Combs’ alleged sex parties. The devil is behind all those “lies,” he told worshipers, adding that he wanted to focus on preaching God’s truth.

RELATED: MinistryWatch Tells Donors Not To Give to TD Jakes Ministries, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Joel Osteen

Jakes, 67, is senior pastor of The Potter’s House. For the past three years, he has hosted a sermon series on Revolt, a media company that Combs launched but no longer owns.