Hezekiah Walker has come out as a homosexual-Fiction!

Pastor-Singer Hezekiah Walker is Homosexual and Leaving the Pulpit-Fiction!

Summary of the eRumor: The forwarded email says that minister and musician Hezekiah Walker, known at "The Hip-Hop Pastor," has come out of the closet as a homosexual, is divorcing his wife, Monique Walker, will step down from his position at his church, and is living with a homosexual lover.

The Truth: The site that published this story now says it is a hoax. The eRumor is a copy of an article that was originally released by Music News Weekly at www.musicnewsweekly.com in 2/20/06. On 2/24/06, the Founder of Music News Weekly, Tim Hunter, published an open apology to Walker, his family, and his congregation saying that he allowed himself and his staff to be "pawns of a totally false story." Walker is the pastor of Love Fellowship Tabernacle with locations in Brooklyn, New York and Bensalem PA. He and his Love Fellowship Choir have seen 20 years of success in concerts and recordings, won two Grammys and many more nominations, and appeared with Maria Carey on the 2006 Grammy Awards program. The eRumor claimed that the revelations about Walker had come to light in the middle of a divorce against his wife and was the result of her having discovered that she had a sexually transmitted disease. TruthOrFiction.com contacted Walker's church and was told that the staff is not wasting its time responding to the allegations. When asked whether it was true that a divorce was taking place between Walker and his wife, the response was "no comment." Walker's management company has issued a statement describing the allegations as "...propaganda that has no truth to it. Its all lies, it ' s completely false and not even remotely true." Hunter said the original news about Walker's alleged homosexuality had appeared on www.mediatakeout.com, a celebrity gossip and news site, which still has the story posted. The article does not name any sources saying only that the information came from "sources close to the divorce." Copies of the story began circulating on the Internet through emails, blogs, and websites that reprinted the story from Music News Weekly. Last updated 2/28/06

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:
Hezekiah Comes out of the Closet Hezekiah Walker, a minister of the Pentecostal faith and one of the most renowned Black ministers in America, has left his cloth in dramatic fashion. Due to a controversial life of secret homosexuality, Walker has come out of the closet during an extremely bitter divorce from his longtime wife Monique Walker. According to affiliates close to the family, Monique had long feared there was another side to her husbands sexuality and suspected that her thoughts were confirmed when her husband infected her with a sexually transmitted disease. After confronting Hezekiah about the disease, he fessed up and admitted to carrying on an affair with a man who lives as a transvestite. Sources also said that Walker forced his wife and children from their home so that he could live together with his gay lover. Walker’s Down-Low lifestyle even more unbelievable because he is one of the biggest Pastors that is totally against gay life. The Grammy Winning Pastor is expected to step down from his post officially next month.