‘Cussing Pastor’ Thaddeus Matthews dies at 67; wife says he repented, made amends

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Controversial chief of the Bare Reality Liberation and Empowerment Ministries in Memphis, Tennessee, Thaddeus Matthews, popularly often known as the “Cussing Pastor,” has died.

Matthews, 67, died at a hospital on Monday, in response to his estranged spouse, Melanie Matthews.

“No extra illness and no extra worries. You mentioned you had been drained and wished to relaxation. On at this time at 2:25pm, you transitioned peacefully surrounded by household and pals!” she introduced on Fb.

“We need to thank these of you who’ve been praying for him and us throughout these attempting instances. We ask that you just proceed to maintain us in your prayers as we course of our loss. Peace and blessings to all!” she added.

Matthews, who defended internet hosting a twerking contest at his church in 2019, has attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers from everywhere in the world along with his messages punctuated by profanity on-line.

In an interview with The Christian Publish in 2018, he mentioned he didn’t actually “give a da-n” what conventional Christians considered his selection of phrases.

“I discover no purpose to attempt to justify that. I am a fisher of males. I am going to folks on their degree. And it’s important to get previous the cussing to get the message. The cussing has drawn the eye of hundreds of thousands across the nation. Apparently, it is drawn yours since you’re calling me,” the late pastor informed CP.

“There’s a distinction in ‘cussing’ and ‘cursing’ as folks say. The phrases that we use at this time like motherf—–, s—, rattling, weren’t phrases that had been utilized in biblical instances.

“So I haven’t got a problem with the cussing. And the those that hearken to me haven’t got a problem with the cussing, and I am not attempting to justify it to the normal churchgoer,” the preacher, who began his ministry in 2015, defined.

As he battled sickness and got here face-to-face along with his mortality, the pastor’s spouse informed Fox13 that her husband yearned for the general public to see him past his irreverent character.

“I do know that lots of people thought he was enjoying with God due to his selection of vocabulary, however I do know that he beloved God,” Melanie Matthews mentioned.

She famous that he had just lately determined he not wished to be often known as the “Cussing Pastor” and had began to repent and making amends with folks he impacted.

“Repenting and mainly saying, ‘You recognize, I’m bored with this specific life-style. I need folks to actually know who I’m,’” Melanie Matthews mentioned.

She informed the information outlet that her husband, who wrote the 2021 e book, The Cussing Pastor: Bullsh*t from the Pulpit, had been at a rehabilitation facility for the final 5 months of his life the place he was re-learning to stroll and in the end died from coronary heart failure.

Lower than a yr in the past, the pastor went viral for allotting a profanity-laced rebuke to comic D.L. Hughley after Hughley’s social media group requested his greater than 3 million followers on Fb whether or not it was applicable for Matthews to swear in his church. Matthews insisted in his rebuke of Hughley that he by no means stubborn on Sundays.

“There isn’t any viral or any video of me preaching and cussing. For the final three years, I’ve been doing my Sunday morning proper right here the place I’m sitting — just about. And those who watch me on Sunday mornings would let you know I don’t cuss on Sunday mornings,” he defined.

“I make a put up, however I don’t preach and cuss. Not that I discover something mistaken with the phrases. Phrases are simply phrases. And easy [expletive], you don’t know the distinction in cussing and cursing. If you say that I curse, you’re saying that I’m dealing in witchcraft. The curse and cussing is completely different. I don’t apologize for cussing. I’m not placing a spell on anybody,” he added earlier than claiming that Jesus was additionally a “cusser” like him, however he simply used completely different phrases.

Whereas admitting that her husband was a polarizing determine that folks often simply beloved or hated, Melania Matthews mentioned the person she knew in personal was a lot completely different than the bombastic character the world knew.

“I received to actually know him as a person and Thaddeus as an individual was very loving, very considerate, and if he mentioned that he was your pal, he was your pal. And he would go to conflict about those who he beloved. And that’s who I fell in love with 10 years in the past,” she informed FOX13.

The pastor’s daughter, Domonique Matthews, mentioned regardless of what folks may need to say about her father, she believes he died at peace.

“I’m not going to say he didn’t have plenty of enemies, however who meant probably the most he made positive that he apologized, he repented,” she informed Fox13. “I heard this out of his personal mouth, and I really feel he went the way in which he was purported to.”