Charles H. Ellis III

[AmazonGrace]

This Man of God has come to my attention due to Aretha Franklin's funeral in which he groped Ariana Grande's breast. He made a  "sorry if you got offended" nonapology and said it wasn't his intention to grope her breast. But he's on video squeezing her breast and he's a grown adult male, he knows where a woman's breasts are.

http://time.com/5384940/bishop-apologizes-ariana-grande-aretha-franklin-funeral/

This is his twitter. https://twitter.com/bishopche3
 

Quote

 

Charles H. Ellis III (born July 8, 1958) is an American Apostolic Pentecostal preacher and the former Presiding Bishop of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. He is the pastor of the Greater Grace Temple, a megachurch in Detroit, Michigan. He is also the son of Michigan preacher and civic leader, Bishop David L. Ellis, Sr.

Ellis graduated from Wayne State University in 1983.[1] In 1996, Ellis assumed leadership of Greater Grace Temple upon the death of his father, David L. Ellis.[2][3]

In 2002 the church opened “The City of David,” a 19-acre complex first envisioned by his father.[4]

In 2010, Ellis was elected as the 10th Presiding Bishop of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World.[5]

Under Ellis, the Greater Grace Temple has become known for its illustrated sermons, which dramatize the gospel. At presentations of “The Whip, Hammer & Cross” and “To Hell and Back”[6] as many as 500 people attend the congregation.[7]

 

According to wiki he's a Pentecostal.

Just wondering if there's any more dirt about him or his church because there's no way some light little sexual assault in front of TV cameras to enliven a funeral is anyone's first foray into perversion and misogyny.

here's him either preaching or suffocating in 2013

[AmazonGrace]

He made a Taco Bell joke about Ariana Grande's name too.

According to http://greatergrace.org/events/bishop-ellis-speaking-engagements/

his degree is in business administration and accounting.

Which is no doubt great for the golf course his church owns.

[AmazonGrace]

No, wait the church site says,

Quote

Under his visionary leadership, Greater Grace Temple in 2007 purchased the 120-acre New Rogell Golf Course in Detroit across from the church, making it at that time the only African-American owned and operated 18-hole golf facility in the state of Michigan. This property is now poised for a multi-million dollar development consisting of recreation, housing, and veterans interests.

This makes it sound like they're making busloads of money and helping people thanks to his visionary leadership.

But in fact the golf course went bust and now the city is offering to buy it for developments less than they bought it for.

 

Quote

 

The city’s Housing and Revitalization Department submitted a request to City Council seeking authorization to purchase the former Rogell golf course for $1.94 million. The site is at the southwest corner of Lahser and 7 Mile.

City officials said in a news release that the acquisition would allow the city to transform the property into a “naturalized public park” and also improve stormwater management in an area that has frequently experienced flooding near the Rouge River.

...

The golf course was owned by the city from 1946 until 2007, when it was sold for $2.1 million to the Greater Grace Temple of the Apostolic Faith, whose main campus is located across 7 Mile Road from the course.

According to the city, Greater Grace operated the golf course until 2013 but closed it when it was no longer profitable.

 

https://eu.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2018/03/13/golf-course-rogell-detroit-park/419416002/

[Shiny]

It was seriously so uncomfortable. I've never felt so horrible watching a public interaction, and usually think these things are  little overblown, but not in this case at all. He was CLEARLY touching her breast, on purpose. She should honestly file charges. 

[ViolaSebastian]

I can't get over this. He groped a woman, which is terrible, but he groped a woman while acting in a professional capacity on a highly televised funeral. That's a serious, serious lack of judgment. 

[apandaaries]

The Root covered this with an excellent article, but I'd highly recommend reading the comments. 

Here's the article: https://www.theroot.com/detroit-bishop-apologizes-for-comparing-ariana-grandes-1828761926

These first two comments from that article are amazing: 

Dadvillain

When are we going to have the conversation about how predatory and perverted preachers are? Son is only apologizing because of the backlash, not because he felt as though he was personally out of line.

Reply

LorraineMargooooooooooooool

Yup. This stuff happens all the time, especially in churches that are built and revolve around a single man (or man and his daddy in this case). My husband and I concluded that he probably acts this way in his own mega-church all the time and no one bats an eye because he’s the ‘Bishop’ and because of who his father was. He just wasn’t astute enough to realize an international audience most of which, Christian or not, don’t have a clue who he is, was not going to give him the same leeway. But I doubt he, or most of the people in his church honestly think there’s anything wrong with him acting like that... “Ah, it’s just Bishop Ellis, you know he didn’t mean it like that...” etc, etc.

I absolutely agree with these commenters. This dude was doing what came very naturally to him, and is only bothered that folks noticed. He probably has a lot of people downplaying his way too friendly mannerisms in church...wonder what he's like when the cameras and crowd aren't around. I suspect he's not a paragon of virtue.

[Imaginary_Wonderland]

I saw this on twitter earlier. Someone had a zoomed in shot of the video, and you could see that his fingers looked like they were clenching and gripping at her too. What a creep. Couldn't believe someone would use a funeral as a chance to grope someone, in public while being recorded too. Poor Ariana looked so uncomfortable and uneasy, leaning  as far away from him as she could. I felt so uncomfortable and uneasy too watching it.

Has Ariana spoken out or mentioned anything publicly since it happened?