A jet stream region in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere JPL/NASA
“You can’t dance at two weddings with one behind.” Yiddish idiom
I thought that I would be the only one to write about the Credentials Committee’s rejection of Jules Woodson’s request to consider disfellowshipping Stonebridge Church/Steve Bradley. You can see the ridiculous letter they sent her at Steve Bradley (Stonebridge Church) Who Didn’t Report Jules Woodson’s Abuse and Refuses to Speak With Her, Was Commended By the Credentialing Committee For Exemplifying SBC Faith and Practices
Here are three takeaway points.
- Steve Bradley, her former senior pastor who did not report Jules’ molestation, by Andy Savage, has refused her request to meet with him. Here is her letter to Bradley which I posted on this website.
- The SBC hierarchy believes that Bradley and the church are great examples of those who practice the Baptist Faith and Message
- The CC lied in their letter to Jules. They claimed they had read her blog. Jules doesn’t have a blog.
Can you imagine how this reflects on the SBC? One year after the vaunted *Caring Well *conference, the CC and SBC hierarchy ditched Greear’s promise to actually *do something* about recalcitrant churches. I now believe they never intended to do anything. They just needed to get the press of their backs. Case in point…I have been told the CJ Mahaney’s Sovereign Grace Church, Louisville, is still a member of the SBC in spite of Mohler’s supposed repentance for supporting him. Here is a screenshot from the SBC directory taken today.
Robert Downen and John Tedesco of the Houston Chronicle report of the Credential Committee’s rejection of Jules’ request
The Chronicle posted Church in The Woodlands where woman was abused will not face repercussions from SBC
“I don’t really know what else I can do at this point,” a heartbroken Woodson said this week.
Now carefully read this response from Mike Lawson of *the committee.*
Committee chairman Mike Lawson said he understands the frustrations, but that the committee’s current task is limited to deciding if churches are “currently operating with a faith and practices that closely identifies” with the broad standards required of churches for SBC affiliation.
“I can understand why discouragement can happen,” Lawson wrote. “ … Our work must meet SBC bylaw guidelines while also recognizing that we cannot exercise any authority over a church. While we understand this doesn’t always provide the remedy some survivors seek, we do our very best to fulfill the assignment given to us by the Convention.”
What do we learn from Lawson? They lied. They weren’t going to do anything,
- They believe that a pastor who doesn’t report sexual abuse and refuses to speak with a victim is demonstrating good Baptist faith and practices
- He claims they couldn’t have done anything, anyway. You know, the whole autonomy thing?
- I suspect the SBC lawyers are desperately trying to prove that all churches are autonomous since the ERLC made a mistake by being honest, See link at #2.
- Why didn’t they tell the truth from the start? It appears they never intended to do anything.
Frankly, folks, it is my opinion that Greear, the ERLC, and the Caring Well *initiative* was a big fat improvisational show and that they knowingly planned to allow victims to be sidelined.
Amy Moore said it best on Twitter. Stonebridge is a Mini-Me of the SBC.
The Credentialing Committee then felt obliged to show they did something but they really didn’t.
Folks, whenever you read something that the SBC says, read it carefully. Robert Downen/John Tedesco wrote Texas church cuts ties with SBC after scrutiny of pastor’s ‘outrageous’ prior conduct
A Texas church pastored by a man accused of “outrageous” misconduct has cut ties with Southern Baptist groups following an inquiry into its handling of sexual abuses and criticism for its recent decision to honor disgraced, ex-SBC leader Paige Patterson.
Victory Baptist Church, in the Dallas suburb of Rowlett, had avoided public scrutiny for years despite a civil court judge’s finding that its pastor, Terry Smith, had engaged in “improper and outrageous” conduct with multiple women at a non-SBC church decades earlier.
Yes, the church was led by a pastor who is downright despicable. You can read about it in the article. I still can’t believe they were allowed to join in the first place. The SBC will take anyone. Mike Lawson of the Credentialing Committee seemed to take credit for the fact the church left. Except, they didn’t do anything but *inquire.*
The church opted to leave the SBC “upon inquiry” from the committee earlier this year, chairman Mike Lawson wrote in an email that was provided to the Chronicle on Tuesday. Neither the church nor Smith could be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Lawson said Tuesday evening that the church’s main ties to the SBC were via the relatively small amount of money it has contributed to the Southern Baptist Convention of Texas. The church joined in 2007, SBTC officials said earlier this year. Smith became Victory’s lead pastor in 2012, according to his LinkedIn page.
It was known in certain circles that the church was getting out. To be frank, had they stuck it out, I would bet they would still be members of the SBC.
Last February they ousted a church, well sort of, not really…
This one was planned from the beginning. Oust one easy church and they won’t pay attention if we don’t do anything else. Texas church with sex offender pastor first to be ousted from SBC under abuse reforms. Once again, this was a church that was on the way out the door. It was an easy smokescreen. There was a referral but nothing has been done officially. And the CC held out hope to Jules when they knew they wouldn’t do anything.
Ranchland Heights Baptist Church in Midland has for years been pastored by Phillip Rutledge, who was convicted of sexual assaulting 11 and 12-year-old girls in 2003, according to court records and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
On Tuesday, the church was ousted from the SBC at the recommendation of a newly-formed committee that scrutinizes churches’ handling of sexual abuse.
n an interview, Stacy Bramlett, the chair of the credentials committee, urged those such as Woodson not to be discouraged by the committee’s first report. Since unveiling its tipline late last year, Bramlett said, the committee has been inundated with complaints. But as of this week, she said, only Ranchland Baptist had gone through enough of the inquiry process to merit a referral.
When all else fails, blame it on COVID.
This proves that nothing has been done about Ranchland since they couldn’t vote on it. Until that happens,
The committee began fielding complaints in December 2019 and, in February, recommended that one church — Ranchland Heights Baptist Church in Midland, which is pastored by a convicted sex offender — be removed from the convention. SBC church delegates were expected to vote on that and other recommendations at their annual meeting in June, which was canceled because of COVID-19.
As of today, they are not in the SBC Directory which means they might have left on their own accord or someone in the SBC removed the name which would be in violation of rules since a vote wasn’t taken. I’ll try to find out.
The SBC is now onto the problem of racism and it’s a big deal.
The writers over at SBC Voices are dedicated, supportive members of the SBC. David Miller wrote A Plea to Minority Brothers and Sisters in the SBC. He believes that there could be serious, racial problems coming to the SBC. David Miller is no liberal. In fact, he calls himself a conservative. That is why this post is surprising to me. I take him seriously.
Recent developments in the SBC have provoked a strongly negative reaction among many Black pastors and other minorities, and many who are currently affiliated with the SBC are considering leaving our fellowship. When they express their frustrations and lament the racial situations in the SBC, they are rebuked, chastised, corrected, and labeled by some.
Black professors have been hounded out of SBC seminaries.
…They have seen relentless attacks on Critical Race Theory, which many seem to interpret as an attack on racial reconciliation and racial justice. Many of those who attack CRT with such overweening passion also reject the idea that systemic racism exists in our nation and tend to oppose many of the attempts that have been made at racial inclusion in the SBC. When Black professors have been hounded out of SBC seminaries as a result of this conflict, some have concluded that the war against CRT is racially motivated.
…Many felt undermined by the recent capitulation of the six seminary presidents to those who are attacking CRT. It was seen as a last-straw betrayal.
…Joel Andrew Bowman, Sr. made three statements on Facebook yesterday (Tuesday, December 8) that I find jarring.
I’m done with the Southern Baptist Convention! It took them 150 years to condemn chattel slavery, but only 1 year to condemn Critical Race Theory. It has no credibility on the issue of racism! None!!!
Black pastors may well desert the SBC.
I am convinced this CRT/I war is actually a battle for power and control and it is going to cost us dearly. It risks hamstringing the SBC as we face the future and setting back our efforts at racial reconciliation back dramatically. The seminary presidents and Ronnie Floyd threw gasoline on the fire and now many wonderful Black pastors are considering looking for the door.
Miller expects to be attacked.
I am well aware that many will see my views as heinous and offensive. I will be called liberal and Marxist and all sorts of delicious things. I no longer care.
My final thoughts: The SBC is in trouble.
The hierarchy (they hate that word) appears unable to walk and chew gum at the same time. As they face the declining membership in their denomination, they go for the easy fix. “Let’s make us look good for the media.” They make promises they can’t or won’t keep. I’m sorry to say this but I believe the SBC lied about being interested in making significant changes in the way they handle abuse. I believe the same thing will happen in the area of racism.
I no longer trust the SBC. I know my fellow sex abuse advocates, as well as victims, feel the same way. It now appears that black pastors are beginning to think the very same thing. I believe they will treat people of color the same way they treated sex abuse victims. Try to find some quick things that look good to the media and then cross their fingers they won’t hold us to it.”
PS: If I seem a bit angry, I am.
1
The SBC is done … it just hasn’t quit yet.
After spending decades as a Southern Baptist, I bailed out before the train wrecked. Lots wrong with the denomination, but New Calvinism finished it off.
Instead of incompetent perhaps they are, as I heard Mohler call N.T. Wright once “too clever by half.” Mohler and his acolytes see themselves as shrewd, inerrant Theo-politicians, but perhaps they are not as shrewd or theologically pure as the think they are. They are arrogant and they laying the seed that will ultimately destroy what ever spiritual vitality remains in the SBC. It is quickly becoming becoming a pseudo-Christian organization.
The “iron law of institutions” comes to mind. The high officers of any large hierarchical institution will usually be more concerned about preserving or enhancing their own power within the institution than they are about promoting the mission of the institution.
It can take a long time for this to work out in terms of “down-the-road” consequences. To adapt a famous phrase from the history of economics, “there is a great deal of ruin in a denomination.”
impotent and incompetent
“Many felt undermined by the recent capitulation of the six seminary presidents to those who are attacking CRT.”
Yay, another political football and polarizing element while people carve up pieces of the financial pies on multiple sides. If they would spend a modicum of the effort on accountability, transparency, and oversight – – which includes down-up and horizontal constructs, maybe predators, grievous wolves, and hirelings wouldn’t romp so triumphantly.
Perhaps SBC’s new reformers are not that far from SBC’s pre-Civil War founders when it comes to race. IMO, there is still a hint of white supremacy in the denomination.
Dee, a church may be disfellowshipped from the SBC by the SBC Executive Committee itself (acting on behalf of the Convention between annual meetings, they have scheduled meetings in September and February). Even if a challenge to a church’s status were to first arise during the Annual Meeting itself, the Credentials Committee has the option to send the matter to the Executive Committee for a decision, rather than to the full Convention.
A church disfellowshipped from the SBC by the Executive Committee can appeal to the full Convention at the Annual Meeting.
see: SBC Bylaws, Credentials Committee pp. 12,13
http://media2.sbhla.org.s3.amazonaws.com/annuals/SBC_Annual_2020.pdf
Max,
Goons, graft or grab, & grift.
Power, vice, $$$.
Nothing changes, everything stays the same.
God, and human nature w/o God.
The same yesterday, today, & forever.
This is the way.
God has spoken. (Via His Word, the Bible.)
I definitely think there’s still open racism in the SBC, but I think this whole thing about CRT is about a narrow-minded power grab (by people that probably are racist).
The non-Calvinist conservative Baptists and Patterson’s followers are behind most of the attacks on the seminaries over CRT. This is a pattern that they follow that they are convinced will bring them back into power in the SBC. They think that if they just got on a soapbox, Southern Baptists would capitulate and give all the power in the denomination to them. They only perceived the Conservative Resurgence worked because of this pattern, but it really only worked because the New Calvinists backed them up with the purpose of taking over the SBC themselves.
I watched this happen at Liberty. I watched this happen at NAMB. I watched Patterson do this at SEBTS. Then I watched the New Calvinists, with their long-term takeover plan, use the conservatives to accomplish their own plan while the conservatives had no idea what was going on.
During the takeover, they did focus on larger issues of evangelicalism and political conservatism. But they didn’t have a plan beyond that, just a belief that if they had political superiority, then the SBC would be theirs and nobody could contest that.
If the conservatives really wanted power again, they need to focus on New Calvinism and how the actions of the New Calvinists have harmed the SBC and local churches, not politics. But they won’t, because they can’t get out of their box and see that is the real dividing issue in the SBC. They already kicked out the “liberals”, so they need a new strategy, but they can’t see that.
Y’all… I just saw an IMB commercial on a major news network begging for money for their “work around the world”.
Right…
I’m so disgusted.
Indeed. There would have been no resurge in SBC’s Conservative Resurgence without a Calvinist Resurgence behind it. Mohler was brilliant with his backroom strategies to fool millions of mainline Southern Baptists into surrendering their non-Calvinist belief and practice for 150 years. The CR leaders (Patterson et al.) swapped SBC’s birthright for a bowl of Calvinist stew.
Once traditional Southern Baptists saw through Mohler’s scheme, they offered too little too late to save the denomination from Calvinization … it’s a done deal at this point. The amazing thing to me is that a great multitude of folks in the pew still don’t have a clue and continue to finance the New Calvinist takeover of SBC, as their churches fall one-by-one to the movement. To this day, the pew seems willingly ignorant of this shift in theology as long they can still have their potluck dinners and fellowship. It’s the darnedest thing I’ve ever seen. A once-great evangelistic denomination is no more.
“Work around the world” = Calvinization of every tongue, tribe and nation.
Yes. The SBC Exec Com has long had this ad interim power & still does. This is why the current SBC excuse for do-nothingness on abuse — i.e., that they have to wait for the new constitutional amendment to be approved at an in-person annual meeting — is so utterly bogus.
… is the most powerful entity within SBC. Unfortunately, its members are more political than spiritual and act in favor of the party in control … which are the New Calvinists during this last chapter of the once-great SBC.
Has anyone else noted how little the SBC hierarchy talk about Jesus these days? The authority of Christ is waning in SBC; His influence is becoming less and less. Men are on the SBC throne now; the denomination has forfeited its denominational gifting in evangelism. Southern Baptists were once well known throughout the world for their passion to reach people with the Gospel … they are now known for infighting and clergy scandals.
There is a great need for humility and repentance in both pulpit and pew … but I don’t see much movement in that direction. In the meantime, there are thousands of faithful SBC pastors and congregations serving Christ … while the big boys trample the name of Jesus in the street through their maneuvering for personal power.
September 2014, Executive Committee disfellowships church “on behalf of the Convention” (issue: same-sex marriage)
https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/third-way-church-disfellowshipped-from-sbc/
June 2018, on day before SBC Annual Meeting the Executive Committee disfellowships church on behalf of the Convention (issue: racial discrimination):
https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/ec-disfellowships-ga-church-honors-mohler/
“In disfellowshiping Raleigh White Baptist Church of Albany, Ga., the EC acted ad interim on behalf of the Southern Baptist Convention”
2014
https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/ec-affirms-racial-diversity-report/
“Acting on behalf of the SBC, the EC voted…to withdraw fellowship from Weatherly Heights Baptist Church in Huntsville” [issue was same-sex marriage]
“Chairman Mike Routt told Baptist Press the EC took action on behalf of the convention rather than recommending that the convention take action during its June 16-17 annual meeting because ‘an issue this important would perhaps take a lot of discussion, a lot of explanation. And we don’t have time carved out to do that” at the annual meeting’.”
oops that one was 2015
Jerome,
What is it that you have a problem with in the report in the link in your post?
I’m guessing it’s the same as Jerome, but if the Executive Committee has no problem taking action to disfellowship churches over these issues, why not sexual abuse? They claimed abuse in their churches was of utmost importance, but they refuse to say that they will disfellowship churches over it.
I think it’s because they don’t really think it’s that bad of a thing to do. After all, in their theology peons are evil worms and women aren’t even human.
Because that has become a Privilege of Pastoral Rank.
Those in POWER have total sexual rights over all their Inferiors.
Sorry, the title of Baptist Press article pertains to first news item in the story. Please scroll down to heading “Alabama church disfellowshipped”:
https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/ec-affirms-racial-diversity-report/
“Acting on behalf of the SBC, the EC voted…to withdraw fellowship from Weatherly Heights Baptist Church in Huntsville” [issue was same-sex marriage]
“Chairman Mike Routt told Baptist Press the EC took action on behalf of the convention rather than recommending that the convention take action during its June 16-17 annual meeting because ‘an issue this important would perhaps take a lot of discussion, a lot of explanation. And we don’t have time carved out to do that’ at the annual meeting.”
In the news today:
https://newsadvance.com/news/local/liberty-university/jerry-falwell-jr-drops-defamation-suit-against-liberty-university/article_f3cbe1f2-5be0-5da0-871c-9b3a8f82af62.html
“Lawyers for Falwell notified Lynchburg Circuit Court on Wednesday that their client will not pursue his claim that the school damaged his reputation by repeating what he labeled as lies about his participation in an extramarital affair involving his wife and a former business partner. Judge James Watson granted the motion, terminating the suit without prejudice. Watson’s ruling leaves open the possibility of Falwell refiling a similar suit at a later date. Under Virginia law, a plaintiff is allowed one nonsuit.”
“‘I’ve decided to take a time out from my litigation against Liberty University, but I will continue to keep all options on the table for an appropriate resolution to the matter’, Falwell said in a brief statement Thursday.”
“A Liberty spokesperson said in a statement that Falwell’s decision to drop the suit ‘was not prompted by any payments, promises, or other consideration’ from the university.”
He probably realized that either more stuff would come out about him that he didn’t want, or that he would lose.
He keeps claiming the university damaged his reputation, but a bunch of the stuff that everyone found out about him came from his own Instagram.
Translation: “I’m not done suing you people. I could be back at any time. Nobody relax.”
Kudos to everyone who stopped giving him special treatment.
Unlike most folks, he got away with things for years, and the university did not dare to cross him, right? So he pushed and pushed, and got a rude awakening.
If you continue to go in the direction you are headed, you will end up there.
Friend,
I have real trouble how disgusted I am of the whole thing…..
Yep, the Christian Industrial Complex has been producing a lot of disgusting things of late. Falwell Jr. has given a lost world another opportunity to mock Christianity Lite and say “See, there’s nothing to it.”
In other words, Discovery will bite you. 😉
Bridget,
My thoughts too
Max,
You are exactly correct….. and, many of my fundy classmates from my past STILL go on and on about how the media is “out to get them”!! Well gee, with Liberty U acting so pious, and covers for a predator,, I wonder why…..
By any other name, are still:
Narcissists in cosplay to gain position & derail the church w/goons (enforcers), graft (vice), & grift (bleeding the working person, as in real jobs, for their elevated no-shame-evident lifestyle funded by donations; Paul himself was a tent-maker and rode coach on ships across the Mediterranean – or he walked).
Calvinistas are simply one example of the branding. This goes on throughout the history of the church, and in Jesus’ time, among the religious elite.
Biblical vigilance & the HS gift of discernment cuts to the chase. God help us all.
Friend,
On a break for a few Christmas cocktails. Chollywood.
Chollywood, like its namesake, is full of high priced, big money lawsuits. Between drinks.
What narcissists with liquid cash (via donations, in this case) & non-productive lifestyles (not working) do: engage in $$$’d lawsuits.
This is what happens when God’s word is essentially removed from church and man’s rules replace it. Where does the Word say everyone or most everyone should be married and have kids? Or that a person not marrying or delaying marriage or married without kids are sinning against God? Yet, Al Mohler has said all those things. Last year he even said to be a parent is to be human. So, nonparents aren’t even human now??
The SBC and most of the evangelical church is little more than a den of Pharisees now.
Well maybe if they didn’t give the media so much ammunition…..
Phoenix,
I think what “gets me the most” as I reflect on all the posts I have read and commented on here at TWW is the lack of repentance, heck, even a minor “apology” by ANY of these “ dear leaders”. I was trained by my fundy background that emotional repentance was VERY important… yet not a squeak from all these exposed leaders….
in fact, look at the inflammatory lawsuits that “Jr” and McDonnald put out, and all of the other “statements” that the other clowns put out before/after they are exposed/leave..
the lack of personal accountability of these leaders, just like so many of our current political leaders, is just breathtaking..
And given our COVID surge, the literal body count just continues to rise
The New Calvinists have basically kicked that out of their theology, so I can see where they can just ignore repentance entirely. The more traditional Baptists and charismatic leaders definitely still have repentance themes in their theology, so I agree.
I honestly don’t think Junior has ever been a Christian or even really wanted to be one. His dad was a big believer in children going forward and “accepting Christ” and “once saved, always saved”, which even if you do believe that, there has to be a sincere plea to start with. Junior’s always been pretty disinterested in church and Christianity, so I think everybody just went along with his name and not his beliefs.
It is really tragic that all of this is happening within the SBC, but even though it is tragic, it is not at all surprising. I speak from personal experience from back in the days when I used to go to church that the institution called “church” in this world cares far more about its own personal comfort than it does about victims of abuse. Confronting abuse is a very uncomfortable thing and the vast majority of professing churchgoing Christians DO NOT want to leave their comfort zones. Ever.
expreacherman.com
SoSickOfAbuseEnabling,
It is very interesting to look at current situations and Christ’s time, and Christ’s “conflicts”…. actually, quite scarry..
ishy,
I think you are correct… it does seem that repentance is not “important” with the new Calvanist… I guess it is a “logical” outcome when all that matters is if you are “in” or “out” which has nothing to to with YOU! As we repeatedly see, all that matters is that you spew the “party line” and kiss the ring of the latest “ in power” guru ..
From where I’m sitting it’s not just the SBC but Evangelicals in general, at least the reformed ones. Maybe not so much in charismatic circles? idk. Granted I’m currently very disenchanted with evangelicalism. I don’t do twitter or facebook but do try to keep up with things on youtube, and BLM is frequently referred to as as if it’s somehow demonic – and sympathy with it is enough to discredit anyone. I do understand that folks have trouble with some of the official BLM organization’s stances on homosexuality etc. but get the feeling that’s just convenient cover to dismiss the entire grassroots movement (which is a very different thing IMO) and hope black folks just hurry up and get back in their proper place.
Update on Grace Community Church ( John MacArthur’s church).
They are scheduled to have a communion service this Sunday, and make no mention of COVID. I also looked up LA County, and yesturday they reported 12,000 new cases in just LA County. Granted, big county, but 12,000 new cases in one day?
I wonder how they are passing around the communion plate?
Jeffrey Chalmers,
per this site
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=ad46e587a9134fcdb43ff54c16f8c39b
estimated present active CV-19 cases range from about 0.6% to 1.2% of the population in LA and adjacent counties — between 6 and 12 cases per 1000 population.
Granting these estimates, there are presumably dozens of active cases among GCC’s membership. Given the rhetoric from the top, it’s plausible that many of these people do not take the virus seriously. It seems just a matter of time before a significant outbreak takes place there that is attributable to a spreading event during church services.
It is not a happy thought to contemplate the state of the hospitals under a burgeoning case load.
Samuel Conner,
And do not forget: I watched a tape with my own eyes where Johnny Mac saying that he is obeying G4d rather than man by hold in person services and very few in the video had on masks.. The clear implication to me, and growing up in that type of oppressive church, you are a bad Christian, if one at all, if you do not have the ba$$s to stand up to the evil gov’t like Johnny Mac is!!! Many in the service cheered when he talked about how they were fighting the evil state that is trying to oppress Christians.. but good old Johnny Mac is willing to go to jail over it!!!
Unfortunately, almost everyone pays the consequences (sometimes even the people responsible for causing an outbreak).
… while countless millions of Christians obey God by wearing masks … figuring if God assigns government authorities over us, we would be obeying Him by honoring and respecting them. Johnny Mac operates in his own kingdom, which is not necessarily the Kingdom of God.
Grievous wolves take equal opportunities to devour:
https://patch.com/virginia/delray/s/hchf6/former-alexandria-pastors-wife-pleads-guilty-fraud-case
Today’s headline is an update on a story from 2017 where a “pastor” and his wife were found guilty of all sorts of financial issues:
https://www.christianpost.com/news/you-cant-do-good-and-be-poor-at-the-same-time-pastor-convicted-of-defrauding-flock-tells-court.html
What the guy told the jurors was quite something:
“Terry Millender, former senior pastor of Victorious Life Church in Alexandria, Virginia, who was found guilty along with his wife, Brenda, of defrauding members of his flock and friends of millions of dollars, told a local court Monday that he was just trying to make money to be generous because it “makes no sense” to “do good and be poor at the same time.”
“You can’t do good and be poor at the same time,” the pastor told jurors before he was found guilty of 31 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and false-tax-return filing, according to The Washington Post. “You can’t help the poor and be poor, it makes no sense.”“
And as far as accountability and oversight, this might inform that:
“Eric Brown, a former member of Millender’s church who said there were rumors for years about financial misconduct, told Fox 5, after the couple’s arrest in October 2016, that he wasn’t surprised. “It didn’t really come as a shock – it was more of a sigh of relief,” Brown, whose family invested thousands of dollars into the pastor’s “business,” said. “I asked him like, ‘Hey, that’s a nice car,'” Brown recalled. “He said, ‘Yeah, $100,000 car. If you save up your money, God’s going to bless you.’ Come to find out now, it was actually part of our money.”“
9Marksist Jonathan Leeman promoting his crooked minister father:
https://twitter.com/JonathanLeeman/status/1333782483326951425
sanctioned by the Securities & Exchange Commission:
https://rightsforinvestors.com/retirement-surety-crescendo-financial-fraud-sec/
“Retirement Surety LLC (“Retirement Surety”) is a Texas limited liability company formed on February 5, 2010 and based in Plano, Texas. According to its website, Retirement Surety is a “practicing Christian organization” comprised of a group of “state licensed partners,” all from “career[s] outside of the financial services industry” who provide investment advice for retirement planning. From at least 2013 through 2015, Retirement Surety was managed by Respondents David Leeman…”
https://web.archive.org/web/20170807211240/http://www.retiredfw.com/dave-leeman.html
“After a 32-year career as a full-time music minister in various churches in California, Oregon, Chicago, and Dallas…he discovered the ministerial gifts he had employed with music for so many years, could extend to encouraging and helping people with retirement planning and the employment of investment options that provide total security to their money.”
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/apdocuments/ap-3-18061.xml
April 18, 2018 decision
Judge: “commissions received by Rose, Leeman, and Featherstone from their illegal activities…Rose received $217,130 in commissions from his sales of unregistered Verto Notes, Leeman received $212,263, and Featherstone received $115,414…Respondents further admit that Rose received $80,230 in commissions from arranging for investors to enter into forbearance agreements, Leeman received $31,172, and Featherstone received $5,346.”
December 20, 2019 decision
Judge: “Leeman’s financial condition is precarious and unlikely to improve in the
future. Nevertheless, Leeman is not impecunious, and the seriousness of the
violations and his behavior requires that some monetary sanction be imposed…I reduce the disgorgement amount to $24,343.50, or 10% of the determined total, plus prejudgment interest.”
https://www.9marks.org/by-author/david-leeman/
not vetted by publisher?
https://www.moodypublishers.com/hosanna-in-excelsis/
Moody • New Releases • 2020 • Hosanna in Excelsis: Hymns and Devotions for the Christmas Season by David Leeman
“Endorsements
‘…What a terrific resource to help families and churches lift their voices to the King…” — Matt Smethurst, Managing editor, The Gospel Coalition”
Jerome,
The corruption knows no depth….. sigh
Power corrupts and attracts the corruptible. What “King” are they lifting their voices to really?
Max,
This situation reminds me of the one with Pastor John MacArthur, except son and father are reversed….. what is it with pastor families have issues with the Security and Exchange commission, and “issues” with advising customers (marks?).
I seemed to remember some NT verses about leaders should be “above reproach”? But them, this all probably some liberal, secular humanist, government persecuting Christains again..
“Men who are appointed to the ministry must be of the highest character … they are to be men of unquestioned integrity … with children brought up as Christians and not likely to be accused of loose living or law-breaking.” (Titus 1:6 Phillips)
Max,
:). Humm, I wonder if this applies to “Jr”?.
You know how a brain dead body can live as the heart continues to beat with no higher brain function involved? That’s the SBC at this point.
The constituent parts are alive, but the binding, guiding force is dead. The brain has rotted, but the rest is still carrying on.
I specifically chose this example because of the “autonomous” claims of the sbc.
I was one of those who hailed the Caring Well initiative. I was wrong. I own my errors. Always have, always will.
The SBC is rotten. And I am glad to be done with it.
Magistos, you will find kindred spirits at TWW. There are many Wartburgers who are done with SBC, but not done with Jesus. A once-great evangelistic denomination is no more.
I think this is commonly called “They’re Dead But They Don’t Know It.”
“I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITURE MY OWN!”
— Mythbusters intro (where it was said as a joke; Johnny Mac is dead serious)
Lots of gushing about the senior Leeman’s new book:
https://twitter.com/dandarling/status/1337591921502531584
[Daniel Darling = former PR guy at SBC’s ERLC, now with National Religious Broadcasters]
[Adrian Mathenia = music minister at church pastored by SBTS Dean of Theology Hershael York]
Jonathan Leeman replied to Darling: “You’re a man of good discernment.”
Samuel Conner,
Meanwhile in some areas of Cali ambulances have to wait 6 hours at hospitals to unload their patients!! It’s sickening to see how selfish people can be in the name of God.