Bishop Noel Jones is one of the preachers in Preachers of L.A. the controversial reality show that explores the lives of some of Los Angeles’ most popular religious leaders. Critics of the show, including Pastor Donnie McClurkin and others have said that its intimate look at the personal lives of the men in the pulpit undermines their mission to provide spiritual service to their congregations. Jones has come under fire for his relationship with a long-time girlfriend, Loretta, who he has yet to marry.
“I’m the victim in this situation,” Jones told the Tom Joyner Morning Show. “We’ve been friends for a long time. It’s funny that man cannot be friends with a woman and not marry her as though she’s some kind of inanimate object who you just simple decide I’m marrying you and she has to fall in line. It seems to me that if she has he own mind and she decides not to, then that’s up to her. If she intimates that she wants to, when we started out not intending to, then now I have to make a decision.”
Considering that Jones is a pastor, you would think there would be some Biblical instruction that would be relevant to Jones’ situation. He says nor necessarily.
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“The Bible has nothing to do with it in that sense. Some of the greatest people in the Bible were never married. Paul was never married and he talked more about marriage than anybody there was. Of course, Jesus was too much for any one woman so he couldn’t get married.”
Jones says that this new push to marriage has come as a surprise and that perhaps Loretta is being influenced by the other pastors, including Bishop Ron Gibson, who is happily married.
“I think everyone in the whole wide world is getting to her,” says Jones. “Land the plane, bishop, land the plane! At the end of the day, marriage is mutual. Marriage is something that two people have to do. If you want to marry me and I don’t want to marry you, what happens in that relationship?”
So whether or not there’s going to be wedding on Preachers of L.A. or not, one not that Jones officiates, but is a direct participant in is still unclear. Jones will neither confirm nor deny any upcoming nuptials, but he will say that viewers can expect more drama all around.
Whether it’s from within the individual challenges of relationships and ministries to strife between the preachers themselves you’ll just have to watch to see what happens.
Preachers of L.A. airs on Oxygen on Wednesdays at 10 p.m.
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