First, before we get into the details here, I need to give you a quick background brief on who the players are within this sordid little saga of yet another tale of religious abuse and coverup.
It concerns Daystar TV and those that run it.
Daystar TV is a massive evangelical setup that was founded in 1993 by Marcus Lamb, and is based out of Dallas/Fort Worth. While this is a story that does also involve Mr Lamb, he no longer participates because he managed to kill himself back in 2021. Cause of death – gross stupidity. During the pandemic he preached a very staunch anti-vaccine message, and of course he himself got COVID. At the time this was announced to all as “a spiritual attack from the enemy.“. The one obvious flaw there is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus does not audit the beliefs of those that it infects and go “Oh no, not prayer, I better skip this guy“, it just does its thing.
Yes, you can see where this side-story is going.
Mr Lamb did the usual crazy stuff, he avoided proper medical guidance and simply self medicated a course of Ivermectin, the antiparasitic drug that by that time had already been confirmed to be ineffective for treating COVID. The inevitable happened, “faith” splattered ineffectively into the brick wall of reality and so COVID killed him in Nov 2021.
One other noteworthy item is that if you are into Daystar, have lapped up the PR, and so consider him to be a saint, then yes like many of these TV evangelists, he was caught in an affair with his Daystar director of marketing, so you may wish to reconsider things.
Jonathan Lamb was supposedly the heir apparent, but that did not happen for reasons we will get into shortly, instead Marcus Lamb’s wife Joni Lamb gained control of the Daystar empire and very quickly married Dr. Doug Weiss, a licensed psychologist.
Why oh why would Dr. Doug Weiss dump his wife of 30 years two months after Marcus died and quickly shack up with the now ultra wealthy Joni Lamb … it’s a complete mystery. That by itself caused a great deal of friction between Joni and the rest of the family, but it is also not the core issue.
What happened to Jonathan Lamb?
Recently something very odd happened. On Nov 22 it went public that Daystar had fired him …
A former vice president of the Daystar Television Network has been accused of launching a smear campaign against the company’s leadership after he was fired last week for failing to meet performance improvement goals.
Jonathan Lamb, whose parents Joni and Marcus Lamb founded the Bedford-based Christian television network, posted a video on X and YouTube stating that he and his wife Suzy are no longer at Daystar.
The Lambs did not return messages from the Star-Telegram seeking comment.
“I really felt from the Lord, that even though a lot of wrong had been done to me that I was to stand firm in the position that God had called me to and to not walk away,” Jonathan Lamb said in the video.
A spokesperson from Daystar wrote in an email to the Star-Telegram that Lamb was fired on Nov. 16, a day after the deadline he was given to comply with his performance improvement plan.
Lamb has since engaged in a smear campaign by spreading false allegations against Daystar and its leadership, the spokesperson said.
Is he the villain here?
Actually no, so let’s begin to peel back the layers and start to reveal all.
Daystar are claiming he is bitter about being passed over, hence he has been saying bad things.
However …
Yes, this is where we begin to learn that something deeply weird has been going on.
Jonathan Lamb, along with his wife Suzy, put out a YouTube video, and so here is that roughly 3 min clip …
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 were doing the above from a secret location because they were … “Being followed, private investigators, intimidation, threats.”
They also reveal that Christian Journalist Julie Roys has all the details and will soon be publishing it.
“Soon” was indeed the word of the day here. More or less the next day the Roys Report article went public.
The reveal via the Roys Report
The Roys report published it under the title “EXCLUSIVE: Former Daystar Executive & Wife Accuse Joni Lamb of Covering Up Daughter’s Sexual Abuse“.
Briefly: Jonathan Lamb, who had previously been a Daystar executive was accusing his mother, Joni Lamb, of covering up the sexual abuse of his young daughter. She had been finger raped vaginally and anally by another unnamed relative who also works at Daystar.
What we learn is that the abuse happened in 2020. Jonathan’s mum and dad, Joni and Marcas (before he died), insisted at the time that the guy who did this was innocent. Jonathan and Suzi refused to roll over and accept this for the good of Daystar, so his dad Marcas took the stance of “Fine, when I go then Joni will run Daystar, not you“.
Permit me to now mine a few extracts from the Roys Report article.
(Side Note: The name Pete below is a pseudonym, the name of the actual individual is not disclosed).
…The day their daughter disclosed the alleged abuse, Suzy said she immediately called Joni, who urged Suzy not to go to police but instead to bring the girl to her. After meeting one on one with Joni, the girl stopped talking about what had happened...
… Texas law requires anyone suspecting a child has been abused to report it to authorities…
Jonathan and Suzy reported their suspicions to police but said they kept it secret from their family. Because their daughter wouldn’t talk about it, police closed the case. (Later, it was re-opened.)
Then, on Aug. 3, 2021, when Jonathan caught Pete alone in a room with his naked daughter, the couple went to Marcus and Joni, hoping they’d do something. But almost immediately, the elder Lambs declared Pete innocent, Jonathan and Suzy said.
When they pushed back, then the “Blame the victim” card gets played …
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
To be clear, their young daughter, just a kid, went to her room to get changed for swimming, and this guy then follower her in.
The Roys Article contains a lot more detail. As you wade through it all, it becomes very clear that Jonathan and Suzi are being open and transparent, and that Joni is being deeply deeply evasive.
A few more notable points
- In Nov 2023 the DayStar board pressured Jonathan to sign an NDA or be removed from his Daystar VP position – he refused. So they removed him from his position as vice president and got him to work in their cafe instead.
- More recently, the day after Julie Roys reached out to Daystar for a comment on the story that was about to go out, Daystar fired Jonathan.
Daystar claim that Jonathan Lamb “has since engaged in a smear campaign using false allegations against Daystar and its leadership,” referring to the allegations in Roys’ report. They go on to state … “Based on a clear and documented pattern, it is clear this smear campaign is the result of Jonathan not being designated as the future President of Daystar following the untimely death of Daystar’s founder, Marcus Lamb.“
One flaw with their claim is that the timeline of events reveals it to have been the other way around. He got passed over because he and his wife refused to roll over and play nice when told to do so after the abuse surfaced.
He would not bend to their culture of submission and so he has been tossed out by his own mother who is far more interested in protecting Daystar than her own grandchild.
Daystar also claim that there had been an internal investigation of the abuse that concluded that Pete was innocent. It has since been revealed that this “investigation” was deeply flawed.
So how did Daystar determine “Pete” was innocent?
It was apparently like this …
...while Jonathan, Suzy, Rebecca, JW, Marcus, and Joni were gathered in the kitchen, Joni claimed that God had told her while she was praying that Pete was innocent, Jonathan and Suzy said. At this, Marcus reportedly clapped his hands in joy, and the rest stood dumbfounded.
So yes, WTF! is indeed the correct reaction to that BS.
Now what?
The Daystar stance has been deny deny deny.
There was also a lie detector test given to Pete …
… Pete’s lawyer also claimed in his letter that his client had “volunteered to sit for a clinical polygraph examination. He was found to be truthful in the polygraph examination wherein he denied and refuted these baseless claims.
For those unaware, polygraph tests are deeply dubious, hence are banned from being used in courts as evidence. If you understand how they work then it is very easy to fool them. Here is a link that explain how to do it. Also, it should be noted that if you are a psychopath and immune to stress then it can’t work.
There is also this twist…
When asked about the polygraph, Jonathan wrote in a statement to TRR that Joni Lamb’s new husband, sex therapist and Daystar host Doug Weiss, owns a polygraph company.
“Given (Weiss’) extensive knowledge of polygraphs, I believe these findings can be easily manipulated,” Jonathan wrote.
A polygraph company linked at Weiss’ counseling webpage is Honest to Pete Polygraph. The company states on its FAQ page that it does not conduct polygraphs centered on sex offenses.
Also, according to LawInfo.com, “Lie detector tests have questionable reliability and are generally not admissible as evidence in court.”
There was also the claim made by both Daystar and Pete’s lawyer that Jonathan and Suzy continued to spend time with Pete.
Jonathan responds to that as follows:
Ever since the executive retreat on Aug. 3, 2021, “Suzy and I have had a strict boundary to keep (Pete and his wife) from ever being alone with (our daughter), nor has he stepped foot into our home.”
Jonathan said his family took one beach vacation in June 2022 because Joni “was adamant that we go as a family for her sake since she was a new widow.” Suzy added that she felt sorry for Joni and agreed to go, stipulating that the children would sleep in the basement near her and Jonathan.
I get it, I honestly do. Jonathan was still struggling to keep a relationship with his mother, and yet still took very careful and wholly appropriate cautions.
There is a bit more here – Why all the delay until now?
It turns out that the gaslighting by the family worked for a time …
Jonathan also noted that in 2022, both he and Suzy still believed that Debbie Leonhardt had cleared Pete. In 2023, when the couple learned otherwise, they took their daughter to a counselor, who then reported the suspected abuse to Texas Child Protective Services (CPS).
According to Jonathan and Suzy, CPS then reported the suspected abuse to Colleyville Police, who have since re-activated their previous investigation.
Police records obtained by TRR show a “pending investigation” into alleged “sexual abuse” involving Jonathan and Suzy’s daughter.
The Roys journalist did also reach out to Debbie Leonhardt and get this insight …
Leonhardt spoke with TRR and said the couple’s daughter had already shut down by the time she saw her and wouldn’t talk. Leonhardt told TRR that this response is “very common” among child sex abuse victims, “especially if they’ve been sworn to secrecy.”
No that’s not it, there is more, and that came with a promise of even more.
Another Roys Report Article dropped with more details
Just when I thought I had reached the end of all the insights, last Mon Nov 25, the Roys Report published “‘She’s the Voice of God to You’: Joni Lamb, Jimmy Evans Accused of Bullying, Spiritual Abuse“
It is long and detailed, and I’ll leave it up to you to read and digest if you wish, as it documents the inner workings of Gateway. However, I will pull out just one bit. This is not from what somebody described, but comes from an actual recording kept by Jonathan, so we don’t just need to take his word on this, it is what actually happened as they attempt to verbally beat Jonathan into submission …
On the recording of the meeting, Evans asks Jonathan, “If God came to you right now—and He is—saying you made a mistake, would you correct it? And that’s exactly what’s happening.”
“Of course, without question,” Jonathan replies.
“But you’re not!” Evans says.
“No, but God didn’t appear. He didn’t speak (inaudible),” Jonathan says.
“God has spoken to you,” Joni interrupts. “He spoke to you through me. He spoke to you through Jimmy.”
“You’re not God,” Jonathan says.
“But we’re God’s representatives,” Evans says.
“We’re God’s representatives,” Joni repeats.
Joni and Evans also appeal to their ministry experience as a basis of their authority over Jonathan and Suzy.
“You’ve got 80 years of experience sitting right here talking to you,” Evans says. “It’s a spirit, Jonathan. It’s a spirit that you won’t listen—not just to authority, but to experience.”
“Did you pastor for 41 years and work with marriages?” Joni adds. “I don’t think so. You have about a thumbnail of experience compared to us.”
Elsewhere in the meeting, Jonathan inquires who has authority over Joni.
“What accountability does she have if she’s off?” he asks.
“Well, she has a husband. She has a board,” Evans says.
“I’m on the board,” Jonathan replies.
At the time, the only people on Daystar’s board were Jonathan, Joni, and Tom Calender, a lawyer and Joni’s longtime friend, Jonathan told TRR.
“Yeah, but individually, you’re not her accountability. Individually, you’re her employee,” Evans insists. “. . . She’s the voice of God in Daystar.”
“There’s no other accountability at Daystar,” Jonathan complains.
Then, Evans appeals to Scripture, saying, “Romans 13 tells us to submit to authority, all authority, because it’s established by God . . .”
Jonathan again objects, “No, but I’m saying, who . . . is her accountability at Daystar?”
“But that’s not your concern,” Evans asserts. “Your concern is to do what she says. And if you can’t, you can’t be here.”
Then, Joni interjects: “Tell him what the Lord told you about stubbornness, what it leads to.”
“What the Bible says, this was related to Saul, . . . that rebellion is the sin of witchcraft,” Evans says. “And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. And so, it equates stubbornness with being an idol worshiper. And the reason it does is because stubbornness is the worship of your own opinion. And that’s what y’all are doing. You’re being stubborn. You’re, you’re making an idol out of your own opinion, related to Doug (Weiss).”
Very clearly both Joni and her sidekick for this farcical bit of religious theatre are maliciously deploying religion to manipulate, bully, and bend Jonathan to conform to their will for their own devious ends.
It is all deeply dark malicious stuff. These are not good people.
Final Thoughts
Do I believe Jonathan and Suzi?
Yes I do, they have the receipts, the recordings, and an independent team of journalists who are fact checking what gets written.
Do I believe the rebuttals being offered by Daystar?
No I don’t.
I have no idea who “Pete” is, but it does appear to be rather clear that Marcus and also Joni were vigorously striving to protect their cash cow from all scandal, even if it meant throwing their own close family under the bus.
Why?
The answer is basically money – raw greed.
Daystar Television was established as a money making machine by Markus Lamb who vigorously promoted what is known as the prosperity gospel (which basically means conning people into sending them money in exchange for supposed blessings) and so he built it up into a billion $$ media empire that enabled him and his family to live a rather lavish lifestyle.
Even during COVID they got a $4 million PPI loan to supposedly keep staff on the payroll and then spent it buying a private jet to use for family holidays. When that got revealed, they were forced to pay it all back. That story even made Newsweek.
A sex abuse scandal involving somebody important inside Daystar abusing Jonathan’s very young daughter threatened the stability of that empire and the flow of money, so they needed it to all go away, hence it got swept under the rug.
Joni may indeed continue to wallow in her cesspit of grifted wealth that has been conned out of vulnerable and gullible people, but she has lost her son and grandchild forever. There really is no coming back from her deeply abhorrent behaviour.
Ref Notes:
- Initial Roys Report article: Nov 20th “EXCLUSIVE: Former Daystar Executive & Wife Accuse Joni Lamb of Covering Up Daughter’s Sexual Abuse“.
- Second Roys Report article: Nov 25th – ‘She’s the Voice of God to You’: Joni Lamb, Jimmy Evans Accused of Bullying, Spiritual Abuse“
The Roys Report has indicated that they have more to publish on all of this, the above is just be beginning.