World leaders, evangelical celebrities and the daughters of Daystar TV co-founder Joni Lamb honored the recently passed Christian broadcaster as “courageous,” “a lamb and lioness” and a devoted mother at her memorial service Monday.
However, one glaring omission in the program at Dallas-area Gateway Church was the Lamb’s oldest son and former Daystar vice president, Jonathan Lamb. Jonathan and his wife Suzy were seated in the front row on the far right, hidden from cameras and separated from the rest of the family. Jonathan was the only child of Joni Lamb who did not speak on stage.
Jonathan’s younger siblings, Rebecca Lamb Weiss and Rachel Lamb Brown eulogized their mother, but neither mentioned nor acknowledged their older brother’s presence.
“One of the things Mom was best at was making others feel valued and loved,” Rebecca Lamb Weiss told those attending. “She had a way of connecting with people and making them feel like family. But what’s amazing is that she was able to translate that through a (television) screen.”
Rachel Lamb Brown — whose husband Josh has denied accusations by Jonathan and Suzy Lamb that he behaved inappropriately with their daughter — lauded her mother for supporting her.
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“I will never forget the way she covered me during the hardest season of my life,” Rachel said. “She walked with me. She spoke life over me. She prayed with me. And she held me together when it felt like my whole world was falling apart. When my heart wanted to become hard, she would continually remind me to keep it soft.”
It fell to President Donald J. Trump to first mention Jonathan by name during the 90-minute service, released last night by the Christian network on YouTube.
“To the entire Lamb family, and to all Christians all over this world, but especially Joni’s husband, Doug, and her children, Rachel, Rebecca, Jonathan, today we honor Joni,” Trump said in a recorded message from the Oval Office. “We celebrate her incredible life, and we know that she is looking down on us right now, filled with love and joy.”
Trump remembered the Lamb matriarch as “strong and courageous, never afraid to stand boldly for truth and for the Word of God.”
Also speaking by video, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded Joni as a builder of bridges between evangelicals and Israel.
“Through the important platforms she built, she brought millions of people closer to God and closer to faith, while placing a strong focus on fighting anti-Semitism and combating the spread of lies against the Jewish community and the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., also addressed the gathering in a recorded message. He lauded Joni Lamb and her late husband Marcus for allowing him to speak on-air about issues surrounding COVID-19 and vaccinations in 2020, after Instagram pulled his account. Marcus Lamb’s 2021 death was attributed to complications of COVID-19.
Also speaking by video was prosperity preacher and Senior Advisor to the White House Faith Office Paula White-Cain. Cain remembered Lamb as someone who “truly was and will always be one of my closest friends. She believed in me when I had a hard time believing in myself. She stood with me always, and vice-versa. She’s one of the kindest, funniest, smartest, wisest, loyal people.”
Joel Osteen also honored Lamb, calling her “a strong woman” with “courage and the resiliency.” Despite a major exodus of programmers from Daystar TV since Jonathan’s dismissal and the scandal involving alleged sex abuse and cover-up, Osteen, senior pastor of Lakewood Church, is one of the biggest to remain.
Another is Jentezen Franklin, senior pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia. Franklin was one of the few to acknowledged Jonathan, while also seemingly confronting him.
“I want to say to Rebecca, and I want to say to Rachel, and I want to say to Jonathan, we love you,” he said. Then, he pivoted to a full-throated defense of Joni Lamb and confrontation of critics like Jonathan.
“Joni Lamb was a velvet brick, she was the kindest, the sweetest, the lovingest person, and loyalist friend a human being could have,” Franklin said. “But boy, if you wanted a fight, she was a fighter too, and especially if it was for the gospel of Jesus Christ going out and changing lives, and God knew what He put in her when He called her.”
Franklin then said Lamb ultimately triumphed over her critics, without naming any specifically.
“To criticize is the smallest size, especially when somebody’s touching the world, especially when somebody’s preaching Jesus in the city, Jesus in the streets, Jesus to the nations,” he said. “Who do we think we are? At some point we will give an account of every idle word. I’m not mad, I’m happy, but the Lord told me to preach this at Joni’s funeral. She lived a life worth remembering, but she had to deal with criticism always. always there will be haters.”
Relations between Joni Lamb, who died May 7, and Jonathan, clearly were strained in recent years. In 2024, The Roys Report (TRR) exclusively reported Jonathan’s accusations that Joni Lamb covered up accusations that a male relative had sexually abused their 5-year-old daughter.
Shortly before that story appeared, the network fired Jonathan, citing alleged “deficiencies” in his “job performance,” claims Jonathan denied.
According to Jonathan and Suzy, no one told them their mother was dying, and they found out after the fact.
The slights against the Lambs at the funeral did not go unnoticed by former Dallas Cowboys defensive end Kenyon Coleman and his wife, Katie Coleman, who are close friends of the couple.
The Colemans told The Roys Report (TRR) that Jonathan and Suzy had invited them to attend the service together. But shortly before it began, Jonathan and Suzy texted the Colemans, saying they had just received word that their friends would not be able to sit with them.
The Colemans sat in a different section of the auditorium, far removed from Jonathan and Suzy. The Colemans told TRR that they were so offended by Franklin’s “passive-aggressive” eulogy that they walked out during it. When they did, security personnel followed them out, the Colemans said.
The Colemans added that Jonathan and Suzy told them that their family did not invite them to Joni Lamb’s burial.
Afterwards, Katie Coleman posted on Instagram, “I’ve never seen a man and his family more disrespected than what I witnessed today in the House of God!
“Shame on you @jentzen, @rachelbrown @Daystar
“You stood on that platform not to truthfully honor the dead or comfort the living, but to stir the pot in a moment that should have been marked by dignity, grief, and respect.”
— Julie Roys contributed to this story.
Mark A. Kellner is a reporter based in Mesquite, Nevada. He most recently covered statewide elections for the New York Post and was for three years the Faith & Family Reporter for The Washington Times. Mark is a graduate of the University of the Cumberlands and also attended Boston University’s College of Communication.
