When the Rev. Al Sharpton appeared at the “Stop the Violence & Cease the Killing” rally in Hartford, Connecticut, over the weekend, a local pastor stood up and boisterously challenged the controversial commentator and faith leader.
Just before Sharpton took the stage to speak — and after a group of more than 100 people marched with him from Mount Moriah Baptist Church to Shiloh Baptist Church — Pastor Marcus Mosiah Jarvis yelled over the crowd with a message for the civil rights leader: “Don’t you come up in here asking us for money.”
He reportedly also said, “How dare you ask the people of Hartford to give you their money? You’re nothing but a pimp!”
Jarvis was challenging Sharpton to explain how a call for money to be donated to his nonprofit the National Action Network would benefit the people of Hartford, WTIC-TV reported.
Sharpton responded by explaining that the collected funds will be used to build a memorial for victims of the violence in the community, and agreed to donate $1,000 of his own money to the cause.
Jarvis appeared on Fox News’ “On the Record” on Monday night, where he told host Greta Van Susteren why he felt the need to speak out at the event, Mediaite reported.
“There was a offering or a demand for money and I thought that was hypocritical and contradictory to the cause,” Jarvis said. “How are you going to ask a crime-riddled neighborhood that’s impoverished for $100 each donation and without cause? They didn’t say what the money was going to be used for.”
He continued, “And so I thought it was pimpism at its best.”
Despite his harsh critique, Jarvis was respectful when asked by Van Susteren why so many turn to Sharpton as a leader and representative.
“I coudn’t answer that question. It’s a question I have asked myself as well,” he said. “I think we can do better as far as representation of the African American community as a whole.”
That said, Jarvis added that he can’t say that Sharpton is “all bad.”
“The Bible says, ‘For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,’” he said. “I can just say in this one incident and — it’s something that’s prevalent in the church … is that we do have some charlatans and some pimps in the pulpit who want to feed off the sheep.”
Watch his comments below:

Jarvis called on pastors and churches to come together to help create employment opportunities, jobs and skills trainings that will help impoverished communities prosper.