Bishop Lamor Whitehead, recently robbed of $1 million in jewelry during a church livestream, showed off the walk-in closet where he keeps his Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Fendi clothing and also prays — referring to the huge multi-room space as his “prayer closet.”
In a video published to Instagram by HRTV, Whitehead can be seen walking through the closet while recording himself on his phone.
“Good afternoon. Good afternoon everybody. This is the bishop, Bishop Whitehead. And I’ll walk you into my prayer closet,” he says before holding the phone aloft to show bags of Fendi products sitting on the floor behind him.
“This is my prayer closet. And one would think that ‘wow look at your closet.’ Got all my priestly robes and more,” he says. “Designer coats, you name it. Gucci, Louis, you name it. Fendi, you name it….”
A prayer closet, referenced by Jesus in the Bible, is commonly a private area of a Christian’s home where they go to pray to God.
In the video clip, the Brooklyn preacher goes on to show his spacious shoe closet. The walls are lined with shelves holding dozens of designer footwear, “for days, for days, for days, for days…” Whitehead says as he pans along the walls.
Right before the video clip cuts off, however, Whitehead states: “But I didn’t come on to talk about design wear or wealth…”
It was unclear when the Brooklyn preacher originally recorded that video and published it online.
Whitehead recently appeared in the news after two armed men wearing masks and black clothing entered his Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries church while he was preaching live. The July 24 livestream shows the preacher being robbed of his jewelry, while his wife (off camera) also had her expensive items stolen. Initially, it was reported that the stolen bling was worth about $1 million. However, Whitehead has gone on to place their value at “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
It has also been reported that Whitehead allegedly stole $90,000 from an elderly parishioner, according to a lawsuit filed last year on the woman’s behalf.
As for the concept of a “prayer closet,” the idea was inspired by Jesus’ words about private versus self-serving public prayer in Matthew 6:5-6.
The Matthew 6 passage reads in part:
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Depending on the Bible translation, “room” sometimes appears as “inner room” or “closet.” In the fuller context of the passage, Jesus warns his followers to “[b]e careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.” Otherwise, “you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”
