Controversial leader of the Naked Truth Liberation and Empowerment Ministries in Memphis, Tennessee, Thaddeus Matthews, popularly known as the “Cussing Pastor,” has died.
Matthews, 67, died at a hospital on Monday, according to his estranged wife, Melanie Matthews.
“No more sickness and no more worries. You said you were tired and wanted to rest. On today at 2:25pm, you transitioned peacefully surrounded by family and friends!” she announced on Facebook.
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“We want to thank those of you who have been praying for him and us during these trying times. We ask that you continue to keep us in your prayers as we process our loss. Peace and blessings to all!” she added.
Matthews, who defended hosting a twerking contest at his church in 2019, has attracted millions of viewers from all over the world with his messages punctuated by profanity online.
In an interview with The Christian Post in 2018, he said he didn’t really “give a da-n” what traditional Christians thought of his choice of words.
“I find no reason to try to justify that. I’m a fisher of men. I go to people on their level. And you have to get past the cussing to get the message. The cussing has drawn the attention of millions around the country. Apparently, it’s drawn yours because you’re calling me,” the late pastor told CP.
“There is a difference in ‘cussing’ and ‘cursing’ as people say. The words that we use today like motherf—–, s—, damn, were not words that were used in biblical times.
“So I don’t have an issue with the cussing. And the people that listen to me don’t have an issue with the cussing, and I’m not trying to justify it to the traditional churchgoer,” the preacher, who started his ministry in 2015, explained.
As he battled illness and came face-to-face with his mortality, the pastor’s wife told Fox13 that her husband yearned for the public to see him beyond his irreverent personality.
“I know that a lot of people thought he was playing with God because of his choice of vocabulary, but I know that he loved God,” Melanie Matthews said.
She noted that he had recently decided he no longer wanted to be known as the “Cussing Pastor” and had started to repent and making amends with people he impacted.
“Repenting and basically saying, ‘You know, I’m tired of this particular lifestyle. I want people to truly know who I am,’” Melanie Matthews said.
She told the news outlet that her husband, who wrote the 2021 book, The Cussing Pastor: Bullsh*t from the Pulpit, had been at a rehabilitation facility for the last five months of his life where he was re-learning to walk and ultimately died from heart failure.
Less than a year ago, the pastor went viral for dishing out a profanity-laced rebuke to comedian D.L. Hughley after Hughley’s social media team asked his more than 3 million followers on Facebook whether it was appropriate for Matthews to swear in his church. Matthews insisted in his rebuke of Hughley that he never cussed on Sundays.
“There is no viral or any video of me preaching and cussing. For the last three years, I’ve been doing my Sunday morning right here where I’m sitting — virtually. And those that watch me on Sunday mornings would tell you I don’t cuss on Sunday mornings,” he explained.
“I make a post, but I don’t preach and cuss. Not that I find anything wrong with the words. Words are just words. And simple [expletive], you don’t know the difference in cussing and cursing. When you say that I curse, you are saying that I am dealing in witchcraft. The curse and cussing is different. I don’t apologize for cussing. I’m not putting a spell on anyone,” he added before claiming that Jesus was also a “cusser” like him, but he just used different words.
While admitting that her husband was a polarizing figure that people usually just loved or hated, Melania Matthews said the man she knew in private was much different than the bombastic character the world knew.
“I got to truly know him as an individual and Thaddeus as a person was very loving, very thoughtful, and if he said that he was your friend, he was your friend. And he would go to war about those that he loved. And that’s who I fell in love with 10 years ago,” she told FOX13.
The pastor’s daughter, Domonique Matthews, said despite what people might have to say about her father, she believes he died at peace.
“I’m not going to say he didn’t have a lot of enemies, but who meant the most he made sure that he apologized, he repented,” she told Fox13. “I heard this out of his own mouth, and I feel he went the way he was supposed to.”
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