Christian ministry scion accuses mother of covering up sexual abuse
Jonathan Lamb and his wife Suzy, formerly of Daystar TV, spoke to reporters after their own ministry refused to take action
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Late Tuesday night, Jonathan and Suzy Lamb, who were part of the massive Daystar TV Christian ministry, posted a cryptic video on their YouTube channel. They announced that they were no longer working at Daystar and that they had been holding onto a secret that was on the verge of coming out:
JONATHAN LAMB: A lot has been going on over the last couple of years that we just couldn't talk about. But we've given over all of our evidence over to multiple reporters, including the police department. Daystar was contacted for a comment by the journalist Friday, November 15th, and then I was subsequently fired the following day, November 16th.
SUZY LAMB: Some scary things happened: Being followed, private investigators, intimidation, threats. Even through all of that, things don't stop, so we started… We felt like we had no other option but to reach out to a journalist. When you bring things to the light, things, you know, get better. So that's what we did.
They added that they were filming that video at an “undisclosed location because we
simply do not feel safe at our home now.”
So… yikes. But also, what?! What the hell was this secret that everyone around the Lambs wanted to prevent from becoming public?! What was so damning that these two people had to seek out secular help because they knew the Christian world in which they were raised was incapable of policing itself?
The Lambs said one of the journalists they contacted was Julie Roys, who has covered the Christian world for years, and last night, she published the article in question. The secret was as troubling as people feared: Someone in the family-run ministry was accused of sexually abusing the Lambs’ little girl and the ministry’s leaders, including Jonathan’s own mother, had gone to great lengths to cover it up.
Among the revelations:
In 2020, Jonathan and Suzy’s little girl told them she had been touched inappropriately by a man. He had allegedly used his fingers to rape her vaginally and anally. She couldn’t identify him, but the Lambs soon came to suspect one of their relatives.
In 2021, that same relative followed the five-year-old girl to her bedroom when she was changing to go swimming—she wasn’t wearing any clothes—only to be caught by Jonathan.
Around that time, the girl “became terrified” to visit Daystar offices because the man was there. She would run and hide whenever he walked into the room. When the Lambs were filming their show “The Green Room,” the relative was often with the kids in a separate area. (Other family members told the Lambs they saw the man “putting his hands all over the child and kissing her.”
Once, the Lambs’ kids slept over at that relative’s house, an event that led to a complete change in their daughter’s demeanor. She went from being “the most affectionate, loud, fun child” to a quiet girl who avoided most touch, especially from men, including her own father.
And yet despite all of those concerns, Jonathan’s parents, Marcus and Joni, refused to take any action against the relative, who is given the pseudonym “Pete” in the article. They were more interested, it seemed, in protecting their ministry from bad publicity than kicking out one of their own.
They told Jonathan and Suzy not to talk to police and that the relative sitting in a room with their naked daughter wasn’t that big of a deal. And in true conservative Christian fashion, Joni blamed the little girl for that incident:
Suzy added that when she strongly objected, saying that didn’t explain why Pete was in the room with her naked daughter, Joni blamed the couple’s daughter, saying she was the one who took her clothes off. At this, Suzy said she began screaming at her mother-in-law, but Joni was adamant and reiterated her claim several times over the next 24 hours.
It didn’t stop there. After that blowup, the Lambs had their children sleep near them in the beach house they were all staying at during a ministry retreat, instead of in a separate room on a different floor. Joni didn’t handle that well either:
… Joni confronted her, saying, “‘Look at what you’re doing to this family! What about (Pete’s wife and Pete)? What about their feelings?” Suzy said.
Why won’t you think about feelings of the man who allegedly molested your daughter?!
Joni followed that up by announcing to the family that God spoke to her and told her that “Pete” was innocent. In other words, everyone else needed to shut the hell up.
It didn’t take long before the repercussions of all that impacted the Lambs directly. Jonathan revealed that he was demoted from his job earlier this year for refusing to sign a non-disclosure agreement. And then, as he said in the video, he was fired this past weekend for not addressing “the deficiencies in [his] judgment and performance.” Whatever those were. (Joni’s judgment, of course, is never in question.)
This is a shocking move because, as recently as 2021, Jonathan believed he would be taking over the ministry after his father died. But after these events occurred, his father announced a succession plan that handed control of the ministry to his wife Joni instead of his eldest son.
In response to questions from Julie Roys, the ministry said “the facts are quite different than what appears to have been reported to you” and that the Lambs were lying. The relative’s lawyer also said his client denies the allegations. He added that “Pete” passed a polygraph test… without mentioning that Joni Lamb’s new husband owns a polygraph company. (Whether those two things are connected is unclear.) Both of them claimed the accusations were an act of revenge for Jonathan not being named his father’s successor.
The entire story is a disturbing look at how this real-life version of The Righteous Gemstones operates when confronted with serious internal problems. They’re willing to destroy their own family rather than publicly admit that someone within their own ranks might be capable of such heinous acts.
It’s hardly the first controversy involving this ministry either.
Consider the COVID misinformation they all spread. Daystar Television was one of the worst anti-vaccination media outlets during the pandemic. As Right Wing Watch pointed out, there were over 80 episodes’ worth of misinformation about the virus and vaccine at one point on Daystar’s website. Marcus himself told his viewing audience that they had alternatives to vaccines: “We can pray, we can get ivermectin and budesonide and hydroxychloroquine.” (Those were obviously not proven remedies.)
Lamb, along with the American Family Association, then sued the Biden administration claiming that vaccine mandates were a sin against Gods Holy Word.” Despite being large companies whose employees would be subject to either vaccinations or weekly testing, the Christian groups claimed the mandate would “wound the consciences of their employees and potentially cause them to sin.” That lawsuit was filed shortly before Marcus Lamb was diagnosed with the COVID that would later take his life. He died of a virus that his ministry routinely downplayed and whose cure he rejected.
Daystar TV also applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan to pay employees who couldn’t work because of the pandemic, and the company received nearly $4 million of taxpayer money. That in itself wasn’t necessarily a problem since religious groups were allowed to receive PPP money to cover salaries for their staffers.
But Inside Edition‘s Lisa Guerrero found out that Lamb, shortly after getting that money, purchased a multi-million dollar private jet
That segment showed how Lamb used his plane to go on family vacations—hardly ministry purposes—though Lamb told Inside Edition they were working vacations even if he was seen golfing on those trips, and even if his family posted pictures of their trips on social media.
It was only after Guerrero’s inquiries that the church paid back the entire $3.9 million it received from the government, with interest.
That’s who Marcus Lamb was: A guy who used Christianity to enrich himself and his family. He knew that fighting culture war battles—and pretending to be persecuted—was an easy path to wealth and he never gave a damn who he was hurting in the process.
And even without him in the picture, the ministry’s legacy continues to be one that protects its image over its own employees—even when those employees are family members with legitimate concerns about their safety.
When people live in a bubble dominated by magical thinking and special pleading, it doesn't take long to convince themselves they're operating under divine sanction. Especially when there is no one to set you straight, and the people they surround themselves with have a vested interested in not setting things straight. Pedophiles go where the kids are. Where better than a religious setting where children are essentially being held hostage, and people are often afraid to speak out.
𝐼𝑛 2020, 𝐽𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝑢𝑧𝑦’𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑠ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜𝑢𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑦 𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑛
First thought: it's 2024. Why TF are you just getting out/away now?
Second thought: ah, family owned business. Job. Money is a hell of a drug.
*
𝐽𝑜𝑛𝑖 𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑒’𝑠 𝑑𝑎𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑟, 𝑠𝑎𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑘 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓𝑓.
You disgusting excuse for a human being, the kid was five. As the saying goes, "I can't even..."
That kid demonstrated TRUST and INNOCENCE. That's all.
And by the way, not even with an adult woman is taking ones clothes off to change into a bathing suit any sort of invitation or consent to sex. It's only, maybe, an invitation to go swimming.