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Dr. Karri Turner Bryant and Pastor Jamal Bryant recently opened up about the controversy surrounding the nude-illusion gown Dr. Karri wore at the annual UNCF Atlanta Mayor’s Masked Ball during an appearance on The Tamron Hall Show, with Dr. Bryant reminding dress-dragging Christians that “there is no book” for the title of First Lady.
As previously reported, the drama started in late December when Dr. Karri attended the prestigious event wearing a lacy black gown that gave the illusion she was completely nude underneath. Social media and some members of the church community were quick to weigh in, arguing that the outfit was “too revealing.”
But as Dr. Karri explained to Tamron Hall, she wasn’t trying to start a fire; she was simply dressing for herself and her husband.
“People have said, ‘Oh, you know, she knew it would get this reaction.’ My ego is not that big. I don’t dress for people. I dress for myself and for my husband,” she said. “I am a wife? Yeah, I’m a wife. I’m a daughter. I have a doctorate. I’m a professor. There are plenty of things that I do, and the challenge is, we often want to see a woman be one-dimensional. ‘I am multi-dimensiona’l,” she continued. “I carry multiple titles.”
Conservative pastor Patrick Wooden likened the gown to a “$2 whore.”
Not everyone in the church agreed. Conservative Bishop Patrick Wooden of the Upper Room Church of God in Christ took aim during a recent sermon, calling Dr. Karri’s dress a “$2 whore” look and criticizing Pastor Jamal Bryant, who purchased the gown, for “demeaning” his wife.
“There is nothing classy about that. There’s nothing modest about that,” Bishop Wooden said.
Despite the harsh words, Dr. Karri remained unbothered. During her interview with Tamron Hall, she made it clear that she plans to continue being unapologetically herself.
“Now what you choose to call me on whatever day is fine for whatever that might be,” she said. “But I think that there is this idea that a woman can only be one thing, and once I happen to marry a pastor, I happen to fall in love with a man who is a pastor, right? And so with that came the title of First Lady. But there is no book for that. There is no manual for what that looks like. And I have decided that the title does not define me. I define what the title is.”
Pastor Jamal Bryant also addressed the backlash, calling the comments “painful.” At first, he debated whether to respond publicly.
“I don’t use my platform to preach against other preachers when there’s so much that’s going on in the world,” he told Hall. “It was very enraging and irritating, and at the end of the day, I had to think to myself to respond to that. Does that grow the church or does it diminish it? And so at that moment I had to separate my humanity and really deal with my divine call.”
In the end, Pastor Bryant did step in to defend his wife. As previously reported, he took to the pulpit on New Year’s Eve to set the record straight.
“The dress was not see-through, the dress was flesh-color,” he said. “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.”
The pastor also pointed out that critics were missing the bigger picture: the prestigious event they attended helped raise $4 million for the United Negro College Fund.
What do you think about Dr. Karri Turner Bryant’s dress uproar? Are people taking it too far?
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Shannon Dawson
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