Pastor Jamal Bryant isn’t here for the internet’s conversation about the dress his wife, Dr. Karri Turner Bryant, wore to the annual UNCF Atlanta Mayor’s Masked Ball on Dec. 20.
The internet was in a frenzy over the nude illusion element of the dress, bringing into question the appropriateness for a woman holding the highest rank in the church alongside her husband. Pastor Bryant took to the pulpit on NYE to let the people know that we’ve got bigger fish to fry than policing the modesty barometer of First Ladies.
Source: Paras Griffin / Getty
“I needed to get this straight. I needed to deal with it head on,” he began in a video uploaded to his personal IG account as well as the one for their church. “Because the other day, the internet went crazy about a dress my wife had on. Now they didn’t say anything about the $4 million dollars that was raised for the United Negro College Fund. They never mentioned that she prayed until Heaven came down. They never said anything about how this was the largest fundraiser for HBCUs in the country. But insecure, jealous, petty small-minded people got in their feelings and set up a false barometer of holiness based off of a dress.”
Source: Paras Griffin / Getty
He continued,
“Now you got to help some people, because some people are going to embrace the full knowledge of ignorance without any assistance for understanding. The dress was not see-through, the dress was flesh-color. I needed to set the record straight: I bought the dress! And I like it. I don’t care whether you like it or not, she ain’t married to y’all. She married to me.”
Dr. Bryant rushed to the comments to thank her hubby for publicly coming to her defense.
“I Love You Baby! Thank you! Not just for me, but for every woman who has experienced what I continue to walk through,” she wrote. “Your words have been like a healing salve to my heart and your arms like a warm bath. Not a day passes that you don’t affirm who I am and how much you love. YOU ARE HIM! Thank you for always covering me.”
Pastor Bryant’s pulpit clapback reminded many of how Devon Franklin came to the defense of his then-wife, Meagan Good, when a churchgoer called into question whether or not she was fit to be married to a man of God due to the way she dressed. In the viral clip, widely shared in 2020, Franklin interrupted the judgmental Bible thumper by saying,
“She’s not gonna cover up. She is gonna wear what she wants to wear in the name of Jesus, amen,” he said. “I love you dearly, but she has been as Christian as she is right now. She wore whatever she wanted to wear. So no, we ain’t doing that.”
The church girlies seem to have a hard time understanding that the Baddies for Christ also deserve a seat at his right hand. They also seem to think that their opinions on what other women are doing are more than just recycled misogynistic talking points. A tale as old as time.
In the latest twist of the story, Jamal and Karri Christianly cackled at the dress debacle by sharing an AI photo of the First Lady dressed “appropriately” in a denim dress and sneakers at the Mayor’s Ball.
“Saints yall win… come on @mzkarribaby we now are church approved!” wrote the couple on a shared IG post. “Thanks to our new stylist @mannie_35 …..Let God ARISE. Happy new years everybody 😎 Let’s move forward with the whole armor of God . The kingdom has bigger fish to fry !
What do YOU think about the Dr. Karri Bryant dress debacle?
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