Marcus Lamb


Marcus Lamb is an American televangelist, prosperity theology, minister and Christian broadcaster. He is the co-founder, president, and CEO of the Daystar Television Network, the second-largest Christian television network in the world. The estimated value of the network is $230 million.

Early life

Marcus was born October 7, 1957 in Macon, Georgia. He grew up attending the East Macon Church of God. He became a Christian at the age of five and continued in church attendance and work as he grew older. He began to preach as an evangelist at age fifteen. He graduated from high school and enrolled at age sixteen in Lee University, Cleveland, Tennessee-based Christian university. He graduated three years later. In 1982, four years after graduation, he married Joni Trammell of Greenville, South Carolina. The couple spent their early years of marriage as traveling evangelists, visiting churches in the Southeast to teach the gospel. Marcus was ordained as a Bishop with the Church of God of Cleveland, Tennessee.

Media ministry

In 1980, the same year that Marcus met his wife Joni, he founded The Word of God Fellowship, the company that would eventually start the Daystar Television Network. In 1984 Lamb moved to Montgomery, Alabama to begin WMCF-TV. This was the first full power Christian station in the state. The Lambs sold the station to Trinity Broadcasting Network in 1990 and moved to Dallas, Texas. Lamb launched the Daystar network at the end of 1997.

Incident

In the nineties the Dutch satirist Rob Muntz came to his channel and he pretended to be a TV-pastor. When Lamb asked to bless the people in the Dutch language in a live broadcast while he stood next to him, Muntz said : Godverdomme mensen. Laten we nu ons geld storten en haal je zakken leeg. Stort het op het onderstaande banknummer, want Jezus is er ook voor u en ook voor mij en vooral voor hem. Hij word heel rijk over uw rug en dat willen we toch allemaal? Translated as: Goddamned people, let's send our money right away. Empty your pocket and donate at the number below. Cause Jesus is here for you, for me, but most of all for him. He's making big money over your sorrow, ain't that what we all want? Later when he again stood next to Lamb he said : Zou je ook zijn wijf kunnen neuken in de naam van Jezus? Which means: Could you go to bed with his wife too in Jesus's name?

Personal life

In November 2010, Lamb admitted on the Daystar Network that he had an extramarital affair that had ended several years before. In his admission, Lamb took "100 percent responsibility" for his actions. He and his wife were able to fully reconcile with the help of marriage counselors. Due to the advice of their marriage counselors, the decision was made to keep this matter private as long as they could, in order to heal adequately. The Lambs decided to publicly disclose the infidelity shortly after they claimed that three women asked for US $7.5 million in exchange for silence on the matter. The Lambs shared their story publicly on television and refused to pay anything. No criminal charges were filed, although Civil suits and counter-suits between Daystar and the three former employees were filed over the matter.
By December 2011, all three employee claims had either been dropped or thrown out. Daystar subsequently dismissed its countersuits against each of the women.
Marcus and his wife reside in Dallas, Texas with their three children.