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Marvin Sapp is catching heat on social media after video showed him directing ushers to close the doors of a church until he received a $40,000 offering.
In the now-viral video, Sapp appeared to be onstage speaking to a crowd of at least 1,000 churchgoers, urging them all to "sow a seed" in their church.
Congregants providing an offering to their church during a service is a standard procedure. However, Sapp faced backlash after he insisted that ushers close the doors of the church until each person in the crowd made a donation.
“I said close them doors. Ushers close the doors, close the doors. Close the doors,” Sapp said. “We all gon’ leave together. Y’all ain’t going no place but to the restaurant.”
Sapp specifically asked the 1,000 congregants attending church along with the 1,000 people watching the service online to donate $20 each, so he could hit an offering of $40,000. The "Never Would've Made It Singer" also urged a group of people standing on stage with him to give $100 instead of $20, noting that it “costs to be up here.”
Social media users swiftly condemned Sapp for forcing churchgoers to make at least a $20 donation.
"Marvin Sapp is clearly HUSTLING his congregation for 40k— and using God’s name to do it. He’s calling for the doors to be locked? That’s not faith, that’s a shakedown and a false prophet. Someone had a bill to pay, and it wasn’t to the church," one X user tweeted alongside the video.
"Marvin Sapp was OUT OF ORDER. I would have immediately dialed 911 as I walked toward the exit. You gone open these doors, or you're catching a false imprisonment charge," another user wrote.
See more reactions to Sapp's $40,000 request below.
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