Daystar televangelists leave Christian TV network amid child sex abuse scandal
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On Sunday, Dallas-based Christian leader Lance Wallnau–a self-described prophet who once claimed that President-elect Donald Trump was chosen by God, defended the Jan. 6 attack, and described Vice President Kamala Harris’s debate performance as “witchcraft”–told his 120,000 X followers in a recorded rant that he has decided to remove The Lance Wallnau Show from Daystar Television Network.
The Roys Report, a Christian media outlet, published a story the very next day revealing that Wallnau is the latest among an increasing number of televangelists who are leaving Daystar TV, as a child sexual abuse scandal continues to divide the family behind the evangelical programming in North Texas. Evangelical pastor Jesse Duplantis of New Orleans as well as Christian leaders Hank and Brenda Kunneman of Nebraska have recently announced they were exiting Daystar. The story also noted that PowerPoint Ministries, the program featuring Pastor Jack Graham of Prestonwood Church in Plano, Texas, has been removed from the Daystar site.
These high-profile departures come after Daystar, which has more than 100 TV stations across the country, denied a sexual assault allegation from the granddaughter of the family company’s founder, Joni Lamb.
Daystar confirmed that the televangelists mentioned were not returning to the network this year, though the statement made no mention the scandal.
“The Daystar Network carries approximately 100 third party programmers,” Daystar told Chron via email on Tuesday. “Historically, every year Daystar has experienced a turnover of a small percentage of its programmers for business and economic reasons unique to their ministries. This year is consistent with past years. As a rule, Daystar does not comment on its internal dealings with programmers. Nonetheless, Daystar can confirm that Jack Graham, Jesse Duplantis, Lance Wallnau, Hank and Brenda Kunneman did not renew for 2025. Our information indicates these non-renewals were made for reasons totally unrelated to Daystar. Most of them have confirmed this publicly.”
Marcus and Joni Lamb co-founded Daystar in the 1990s. Marcus served as the CEO until his death in 2021 at age 64, just weeks after contracting COVID-19. (He apparently opposed vaccinations, and Daystar famously ran interviews with anti-vaccine skeptics at the height of the pandemic.) Their son Jonathan has cited religious objections against his mother’s 2023 remarriage to Dr. Doug Weiss. Joni is now the CEO of Daystar, which is registered as a church with the IRS and continues to run shows from popular pastors including Houston’s Joel Osteen and Dallas-based Bishop T.D. Jakes.
Content retrieved from: https://www.chron.com/culture/religion/article/televangelists-exit-daystar-network-20020759.php.
