Beautiful prominence eruption shot off the east limb (left side) of the Sun. SDO/NASA
A politician who enters public life may as well face the fact that the best way of not being found out is not to do anything, which, if found out, will cause his ruin. Lord Hailsham
It is hard for me to describe how grateful I am for this decision. When I first started blogging, I received an anonymous email from someone who alleged that Paul Pressler had molested him when he was an underage teen. I asked him if he had made a police report. At the time, he claimed he had not. That worried me. I knew I would be up against a giant in the SBC who was a well-known attorney. At that time, I didn’t have the connections I have now. I suggested he make a police report and get back to me. I never heard from him again, but I often wondered about him. I have always felt guilty that I could not do more for him at that time.
Who is Paul Pressler?
Wikipedia states:
Herman Paul Pressler, III (born June 4, 1930), is a retired justice of the Texas 14th Circuit Court of Appeals in his native Houston, Texas. Pressler was a key figure in the conservative resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention, which he initiated in 1979.
Paul Pressler, along with Paige Patterson, is considered the mastermind of the “take no prisoners” conservative resurgence in the SBC.
However, he was dogged by controversy for years. Many people were aware that there were allegations of unwelcome sexual misconduct with underage and those who had reached their majority. In fact, Amy Smith and I believe that it is alleged that when people discussed the Pressler situation, they wouldn’t use his name. Instead, they would refer to having an “Eddie Struble situation.” Eddie Struble was a Baptist minister, Second Baptist Houston, who was accused of abuse. Amy Smith wrote about him in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professor expresses concern that other kids are at risk for sexual abuse: Eddie Struble update.
Wikipedia goes on to state that Pressler had paid one victim $450,000 in 2004. Please note: Pressler was ousted from his job as youth pastor at Bethel Church. The church apparently did nothing about this issue. I bet, back then, the police were never involved. In fact, if many in the SBC had the power to do so today, police would never be involved.
In April 2018, the Houston Chronicle reported that Paul Pressler was accused by Toby Twining and Brooks Schott of sexual misconduct in separate court affidavits.[26] Both men said Pressler molested or solicited them for sex. The accusations were filed as part of a lawsuit filed in 2017 by Gareld Duane Rollins Jr. claiming he was regularly raped by the Conservative leader. Rollins met Pressler in high school and was part of a Bible study Pressler led. Rollins claims he was raped two to three times a month while at Pressler’s home.[27] According to the Chronicle, Pressler agreed in 2004 to pay $450,000 to Rollins for physical assault.[28] Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson is also named in the suit, for helping Pressler cover up the abuse.[29]
In the 2018 Chronicle report, Toby Twining was a teenager in 1977 when Pressler grabbed his penis in a sauna at Houston’s River Oaks Country Club. Pressler was a youth pastor at Bethel Church in Houston but was ousted in 1978 after church officials received information about “an alleged incident.” Attorney Brooks Schott also stated in an affidavit that he resigned his position at Pressler’s former law firm after Pressler invited him to get into a hot tub with him naked. Brooks also accused Jared Woodfill, Pressler’s longtime law partner who from 2002 to 2014 was chairman of the Harris County Republican Party, of failing to prevent Pressler’s sexual advances toward him and others claiming his indiscretions were well-known at the firm.
Does this agreement make Pressleer look guilty? In my opinion, it does.
The one correction that needs to be made is that, according to Baptist News Global, Pressler agreed to pay Rollins $1500/month as long as the agreement remained confidential.
By college age, Rollins was a full-blown addict with habits financed by a life of petty crime. Pressler stayed in contact with Rollins while he was in prison and twice intervened with the parole board seeking his release. The second time Pressler offered Rollins a job as a personal assistant and invited him to come along for a religious pilgrimage overseas paid for by Pressler.
Later, after filing a civil claim for assault against Pressler, Rollins received a settlement in which Pressler agreed to pay Rollins $1,500 a month as “long as the confidentiality of this agreement is maintained.”
Paul Pressler was supposed to be Presidents George H.W. Bush’s appointment to head the Office of Government Ethics.
There is this cryptic note on Wikipedia:
In 1989, the first President Bush proposed to nominate Judge Pressler as the director of the Office of Government Ethics, but opposition from theologically liberal opponents in the Southern Baptist Convention persuaded Pressler not to pursue the appointment.
I have a different thought on the matter. I don’t believe that it was “theological liberals” who “convinced” Pressler not to pursue the appointment. The Washington Post reported on this incident in 1989: ‘ETHICS PROBLEMS’ DERAIL BUSH CHOICE TO HEAD OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS”
A background investigation has found evidence of “ethics problems” involving President Bush’s choice to head the Office of Government Ethics and he now is out of the running for the post, senior officials said yesterday. Paul Pressler of Houston, a national leader of the fundamentalist movement within the Southern Baptist Convention and a Texas civil court judge, was the administration’s candidate to head the office. His name was sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in July for the routine background check on candidates in advance of formal nomination. Officials would not detail the FBI findings except to say they did not involve allegations of crimes or financial improprieties. A senior official said, “Information was uncovered that we felt was disqualifying.” Pressler could not be reached for comment,
Hmmm- no one was talking back then but I believe they found out information about the abuse allegations. In the meantime, the SBC, in the form of Paige Patterson, used Pressler’s help for the Conservative Resurgence. Patterson even memorialized Pressler in a stained glass window at the SWBTS chapel. Thankfully, these windows were removed after Patterson got the boot. You can see them in this post.
New Ruling: Sexual abuse lawsuit against Paul Pressler may continue
This is an important ruling by the Texas Supreme Court regarding the statute of limitations. According to Robert Downen in the Houston Chronicle: Texas Supreme Court rules against Southern Baptist leader accused of rape, a win for survivors:
- In 2017, Rollins sued Pressler, claiming Pressler molested him several times in the early 1980s.
- Pressler and his lawyers denied the allegations and moved to have the case thrown out of court, claimming that it was beyond the statute of limitations
- Rollins, however, said in court papers that trauma from the assaults led him to develop drug and alcohol addictions and suppress those memories until 2016,
- He argued that the statute of limitations should begin from when he realized he was the victim of the alleged sexual assault, not from when the alleged assault took place.
- The Texas Supreme agreed and sent the case back to the Harris District Court.
Why is this ruling so important for victims of abuse?
According to the Houston Chronicle’s Robert Downen:
“(The ruling) opens the door in Texas for people who were sexually abused as children to sue both attackers and institutions that mishandled or concealed the abuses years or decades later.”
I hope that others will now come forward to find justice
1
“Paul Pressler, along with Paige Patterson, is considered the mastermind of the ‘take no prisoners’ conservative resurgence in the SBC.”
1. Take no prisoners except the predator preying on young boys.
2. The “take no prisoners” conservatives claim “opposition from theologically liberal opponents” is the problem? Liberals are the problem for predators? Maybe we need more liberals. (Whatever… the real battle here is good vs evil.)
3. The predator as head of the Office of Ethics?
The contradictions here parallel the history of our recent holiday: religious elite executing their/our Messiah. Stark. Evil.
I’m convinced that SBC elite during the Conservative (aka Calvinist) Resurgence knew about Judge Pressler and turned their heads – he was too important to the CR movement, too big to fail. The whole thing is just so slimy. It’s no wonder that SBC is in the mess it’s in. These folks don’t know Jesus … they have hidden behind His precious name for personal agendas … they have used and abused God’s children.
“There is nothing covered up which is not going to be exposed, nor anything private which is not going to be made public” (Luke 12:2)
Amen Max, unsavory characters can only perfume their real stink for only so long.
So throw the kids under the bus and run over them a few times until their lives are completely in ruin. Sick.
And the $upporter$ are complicit. $upporter$ drive the getaway car for these criminals.
Why did it take the Houston Chronicle? Guess the Christian Media walks by on the other side of the road. CT, World, Charisma… useless except for complicity.
Along came Dee with TWW. Thank God.
Then we have the question marks hanging over all the administrative, professional and commercial preferment and contracts in the UK too. Evidence given by Iannopoulos (connections on quangoes), Dawkins (publicist), Blunt and Khan junior politicians who don’t matter, a lot of senior Anglicans and / or Evangelicals, obviously the tip of the iceberg.
Rewards for keeping quiet or wooden spoon prizes.
I met a traumatised BBC (studio) cameraman. When I was 14 teachers said we should “have” sex before marriage, this wasn’t our lighthearted tittletattle, this was authority. A teacher disappeared after some carry on with a boy, and there were things a boy said also. Fortunately, the children of Highgate School have rebelled. Church retreat authorities and church group leaders, including RC ones, promote demoralising salaciousness.
Predation in the church (and religious institutions) is the elephant in the room that Christian media does NOT cover.
Courageous individuals, Dee, Todd et al, volunteer, using Social Media to expose the truth.
Jimmy Savile was exposed and apprehended by the UK DOJ when the internet blossomed. His hundreds of victims from decades of Savile’s vile evil found each other and came forward, no never mind the BBC, etc. The BBC & the Crown protected the vile Savile.
Christian Media + Christian Celebrity + religious predation march lockstep. The bigger the name (women, too), the louder the lockstep, the more they are complicit.
Christians who have a public platform and neglect exposing this elephant in the room, outright, are complicit. Writers, speakers, conferences, television, music, news outlets, webzines & magazines, seminaries, professors, Bible studies, workshops, vids & tapes, blah, blah, blah.
Instead of tippy toeing around this elephant in the room, there should be headlines, floodlights, and microphones with grand amps to expose the truth regarding predation in the church, setting the victims free and evicting predators from their hunting ground, the church.
I have refrained from a “knee junk” comment…. But…. The range of emotions that this “whole story” illicit just makes me ill….. maybe the best comment was made by Max, I think, a number of years ago…. This story brings a whole new meaning to “stained glass”……
Dee, Way back when, I actually did do a short blog posting about the 2004 Pressler case, and as I recall, I left it up for about 1 day before I pulled it, because I too was too afraid of the power behind the man. I had gone to the trouble of getting copies from the courthouse of legal filings from that 2004 case.
In that 2004 case, Pressler had filed a motion to quash the taking of his deposition. So, he was trying to avoid giving sworn testimony, which could subject him to the possible penalty of perjury. There was also a non-party witness who had come forward — i.e., someone else who had pertinent information & who was willing to give sworn testimony about it. Pressler had also filed a motion to quash the taking of that deposition as well. That 2004 case against Pressler settled during the time when Plaintiff was trying to schedule a judicial hearing to obtain a court order for the taking of those two depositions. To me, the appearance of it was that Pressler likely settled because he wanted to avoid the taking of those depositions (his included) so as to avoid having anything recorded and to avoid the risk of perjury for himself.
There were so very many people in Southern Baptist life who knew about Pressler and/or should have known. And for so very long. I’m so thankful to finally, finally, finally see more of the truth coming to light.
“what religion are you?”, asked Johnny, as his dad drove Sam back home after little league practice.
“i don’t know. I like karma”, replied Sam.
“I’m Christian”, said Johnny.
Sam thought for a few moments.
“I think karma works for Jesus.”
.
.
Nothing like succinct coming from a 6-year old.
can’t tell you how much peace karma gives me.
This was one of the incidents that drove me to TWW initially. I was a student at SEBTS under Patterson when this started coming out. I had an acquaintance who knew Pressler and vehemently denied it all. This person had bought into the whole machine and nearly deified Patterson and Presler. I questioned a number of things he said, so I started paying attention to the Pressler case.
Celebrity evangelicals overwhelmingly seem to turn out to not only be not worth the hype, but absolutely terrible people. The average Christian is probably a lot more moral than celebrity preachers who are always talking about how everybody else is immoral.
This has gone for so long and his enablers have protected him. He is so old that even if he is found guilty, he will receive very little punishment in this life.
elastigirl on Tue Apr 19, 2022 at 10:35 AM said:
“Nothing like succinct coming from a 6-year old.
can’t tell you how much peace karma gives me.”
Karma is just another word for what you sow is what you reap.
Works for me too elastigirl.
I suppose there are “stained” glass images of Pressler, Patterson, and assorted other SBC bad boys hanging in a Hall of Shame somewhere, following their removal from the SWBTS chapel.
You will find no celebrity Christians recorded in the Gospels. They were heroes of the faith, martyrs, and faithful-to-the-end Christians, but none would want “celebrity” attached to their name. Today’s celebrity evangelicals don’t have Jesus in the audience … He only shows up where He alone is worshiped.
“Sure, the last ten minutes of my life may not be great, but that’ll be after an Unbroken 40-year Winning Streak!”
— Dark Lord villain speech from some stick-figure Fantasy-milieu online comic strip
Make an Example of one and a hundred will fall right into line bleating Praises.
The SBC “mafia” during the Conservative (aka Calvinist) Resurgence ran off a lot of good and faithful Southern Baptists because they (the axemen) considered them “liberal” … seminaries were purged of the “wrong kind” of administrators and professors, pressure was applied to SBC pulpits to be “conservative” or else, only those who walked and talked like a duck were promoted up the CR leadership pyramid. Yep, there was a LOT wrong with SBC before the New Calvinists moved in to finish it off.
As a psychotherapist (and a student at SEBTS in 1980) you have to think about the psychological perspective of a major conservative leader trying to “lead the SBC back to truth” while victimizing others.
Just a bit of reaction formation here . . .
Also, as we consider the topic of this posting, there is the obituary of another victim of the “conservative resurgence.” Dr. Lolley was a great man who was unfairly scrutinized. I attended the “open meetings” at Southeastern when the “conservative” board members were so terribly and needlessly ugly to Dr. Lolley and other “alleged liberal” faculty members.
Randall Lolley, 90, died March 21 in Raleigh, N.C. While serving as pastor of First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, N.C., he was called as president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., a position that he held for 14 years before resigning in protest of the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention. He later served as pastor of First Baptist Church, Raleigh, N.C. and First Baptist Church, Greensboro, N.C. In retirement he served as interim pastor of a dozen churches from Washington, D.C., to Jacksonville, Fla. He is survived by his wife, Clara Lou; and two daughters, Charlotte Murphy and Pamela Frey.
AVA,
you wrote:
” The predator as head of the Office of Ethics?
The contradictions here parallel the history of our recent holiday: religious elite executing their/our Messiah. Stark. Evil.”
That parallel repeats throughout history on so many levels. . . .
as even these days, the people who follow the dark ‘annointed one’ seek to foster support for Russian aggression against Ukraine, claiming that Ukraine harbors evil and Russia supports ‘family life’. Even in the face of the bombing of civilians and childrens’ hospitals, and maternity wards . . . even still, Putin is supported by the followers of their ‘annointed’ one and his media supporters. Even in gatherings of ‘christian’ groups, come ‘pastors’ preaching Putin as supportive of socially conservative family life. It makes no sense, this ‘parallel’ of the crucifixion of the innocent by evil. No sense at all.
Good observation, AVA.
The CR mafia did the same thing to Dr. Russell Dilday, President, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary … a good man who considered himself a moderate conservative, but was labeled as a liberal by the CR mafia and abruptly dismissed when he wouldn’t bow a knee to the Pressler/Patterson thugs. The CR mafia were an ugly bunch who would never be accused of being Christlike in their scorched-earth approach to ridding the SBC of anyone who wasn’t like them.
Given all of this “stuff”, and all of the other disgusting stuff reported here at TWW, and in the press, we are still supposed to respect our “religious leaders”..??
For too many DECADES there was a part of me that felt “disrespectful”, or some other “negative thought” because I questioned actions/behavior/statements made by “religious leaders”… I am growing to respect that “quite voice” that told me something is not “right”, and that the other “voice” that was trying to make me feel bad about myself, and what I believe is from the “evil one”….. guess which side I now think so many of these “religious leaders” are on….
Jeffrey Chalmers,
Critical thinking and questioning is, IMHO, endowed from our Lord Himself, our Creator God. Anything less is idolatry.
I’ll refrain from qualifying your comment (i.e., the best comment here so far), however, IMHO, most of us have felt exactly as you eloquently describe… guilt for questioning a beloved leader, albeit actually a fellow pilgrim on the same journey.
Pastors, leaders, et al, are fellow pilgrims trekking the same path. Elevating anyone is idolatry.
Chalmers, you know stuff I don’t and vice versa, with no oneupmanship. Plus we can all question each other without shame or malice.
Churchgoers perhaps need to get over their pastor as dad, autocrat, or boss. Grow up. Question. Maintain agency.
Jesus is our only spiritual boss. Church leaders perhaps keep things organized, like the leader of the book club I attend. However, when church leaders pose as boss, OR when they do NOT follow the Boss, time to run – away.
God bless you.
According to the Savile documentary, this is what was going on with his victims until the internet came along and they found each other.
With the internet in play, there were no more gatekeepers from the Media (Savile worked for the BBC), the DOJ (his friends), LE (more buds), the Crown (his friends), and Social Services (colleagues as Savile volunteered). Savile covered all the bases.
Where was a victim to go? To whom would a victim report to? Impossible situation for victims for decades, until along came the Web.
The Pharisees rejected Jesus in favor of doing church their way. Things haven’t changed much. The authority and influence of Jesus are waning in the American church … religious leaders are making sure of that.
In Matthew 23, Jesus pronounced “Seven Woes” on the Pharisees, including “You appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” Many TWW posts have dealt with these same “Woes” about current religious leaders.
There should have been no room for a man like Paul Pressler to gain a foothold of power in the SBC. His sad end and the demise of a once-great evangelistic denomination under such religious leaders were predictable.
ishy on Tue Apr 19, 2022 at 10:52 AM said:
“The average Christian is probably a lot more moral than celebrity preachers who are always talking about how everybody else is immoral.”
++++++++++++
Good to see you, ishy.
indeed.
the average human being, I’d say.
i am continually moved by the integrity, honesty, and genuine kindness I observe in ‘my neighbor’ — my fellow human beings of all faiths and no faith.
there is no more moral person than my agnotic cousins, atheist friends, and moslem, hindu, and buddhist friends.
(those whom much of christian culture assigns to the goblin pile)
including catholic (he was close to Keith O’Brien who molested seminarians and new priests and in turn was lauded by prelates south of the border) and evangelical churches
When was the SBC a “great evangelistic denomination”?
How far back were there predators (including slave owners) embedded with the evangelistic efforts?
Ava Aaronson,
I really do like this analogy.. and it is consistent with so much of scripture… think of so many examples of “bad boys” discussed here on TWW, and how many of them want to be your “Prophet, Preist, King”!!!
1940s-60s … I lived it … you could hear the Gospel preached and see lost souls brought to Christ in just about every SBC church. Hasn’t been that way for decades … heck, the New Calvinists hardly mention the name of Jesus!
Following the Civil War, Southern Baptists distanced themselves from SBC slave-holding Founders’ Calvinistic theology and remained distinctly non-Calvinist and evangelistic for over 100 years. SBC had missions around the world, with real-deal foreign missionaries preaching the Gospel. Thousands/millions were brought to Christ through whosoever-will-may-come evangelism.
Everything changed when the Conservative (aka Calvinist) Resurgence swept through SBC. In one sweep of the pen, David Platt (then President of SBC’s International Mission Board) recalled over 1,000 veteran missionaries and their families from foreign fields. At the same time, his colleague Kevin Ezell (President of SBC’s North American Mission Board) stopped planting Gospel churches and began planting reformed theology in church plants across North America (1,000 per year).
Oh, I suspect racists and sexual predators have always been embedded in SBC, as they have been in every denomination. The devil goes to church too.
Fact.
Same problem in Jesus’ day. You can read all about them in Matthew 23. Bad-boy religious leaders have always wanted to draw you into their world, to follow them, to worship them. They have kept countless souls from knowing only their religion and preventing them from having a relationship with Christ. Jesus put it this way: “You shut off the kingdom of heaven in front of people; for you do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow those who are [in the process of] entering to do so … you travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte to yourselves, and when he becomes a convert, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.”
The Greek word “logos” in the first chapter of John has a lot of depth that’s lacking in English translations of “Word.” It includes the concept of reasoning and logic, as well. God gave us brains. It’s not a bad thing to utilize His gifts. The opposite, actually, if we consider the parable of the talents.
In the beginning was the Word [reasoning, logic, brains] and the Word [reasoning, logic, brains] was with God, and the Word [reasoning, logic, brains] was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Thoughts regarding John 1.
Darkness, it seems, is without light, as well as without reasoning, logic, and brains.
The devil may go to church, but he is not in the Body of Christ.
Since predators “have always been embedded” & “have been in every denom” – victims should just take one for the team? Fortunately, Jesus doesn’t seem to think so, since he leaves the 99 to rescue 1. Numbers and orgs are not His deal.
The Great Org Myth keeps predators in the church as a Hunting Ground, with or without Ole’ Cal-boy. The BFF Network is also useful, to predators.
Is any Org the Body of Christ?
We served with SBC missionaries. Our impression was 50/50. 50% belonged there. Even on the mission field the other 50% were plagued with patriarchy, complementarian issues, etc. Now we learn there were predators lurking, too, – back in the grand ole’ days of the great org. Myth. However, working with the 50% who belonged there was, yes, a great experience. Not because of the Org but because these were truly faithful individuals following Jesus. They would be so, with or without the Org.
IMHO, God calls and uses individuals in His work; orgs are a mixed bag, nothing more, never great. The Body of Christ is not represented by any human org. I ditch orgs and BFFs for our Savior, and to participate in the Body of Christ.
Hillsong was a great org back in the good ole’ days? Some music folks probably feel the same way you feel about the great evangelical missionary deal. Glory days. Whose glory?
After attending institutional church for 70+ years, I’m convinced that only a small percentage of church members are in the Body of Christ. The 80:20 rule might apply here. Indeed, the greatest enemy of the Church is the church … wolves in shepherd’s clothing, religious traditions of men, aberrant theology, predators in both pulpit and pew. Finding the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the real deal Church of the Living God is becoming increasingly difficult in the American church. As you note, the devil cannot penetrate the Body of Christ only the “church.”
No. No organization crafted by the hands of men could ever be the Body of Christ! Oh, there may be members of the Body of Christ embedded in it, but no 501(c)(3) organization in itself is the Body of Christ. A denomination is not the Church, a church building is not the Church, membership in a church does not necessarily mean membership in ‘the’ Church.
Amen! And you will find those are the folks praying most earnestly for the condition of the church … they are the souls agonizing over the use and abuse of God’s people by “the Org” … they are in anguish as they witness multitudes doing church without God, not realizing that Ichabod has been written over the door.
In my long journey of doing church in America, I’ve witnessed both the genuine and the counterfeit. But, praise God for the genuine!
Most churches are a mixture of tares among the wheat. Jesus instructed us that they will grow together until the final harvest (Matthew 13). Occasionally, we see some of the weeds pulled on this side of Heaven (e.g., Paul Pressler and a host of other impostors who have been subjects of TWW posts).
Ava Aaronson,
Max,
To lift up an org is to provide camouflage for predators. Moreover, its idolatry. Only God knows the hearts of men (and women).
Orgs exist. God uses individuals. And the godly individual will also not be lifted up; the ground at the foot of the Cross is level, every knee bowed before Jesus, only.
That last statement clears the air with regard to a lot of issues. (For example, a prayer lady at my church answers Patriarchy with, “I bend my knees for Jesus only.” Her theology, in 7 words.)
Michael in UK,
Evil rich.
Ava Aaronson on Fri Apr 22, 2022 at 01:17 AM said:
That last statement clears the air with regard to a lot of issues. (For example, a prayer lady at my church answers Patriarchy with, “I bend my knees for Jesus only.” Her theology, in 7 words.)
The problem is that these guys claim to speak for Jesus.
And the even worse problem is that too many people believe them.
Yah, well, anyone can say anything. Free speech. Listeners need to read the room.
Church requires a double dose of critical thinking instead of leaving it at the door when walking in. Oh, and wear the complete Ephesians 6 armor, too. In church. Armor. Armour (UK).
Jesus obviously used critical thinking and wore armor as he flipped tables in the House.
Pulpit actors would have no stage if it weren’t for a gullible audience in the pews which finance the unholy mess.
Jesus came to redeem individuals, not institutions.
Critical thinking and the armor of God apparently don’t go to church these days.
The internet, like little Toto, has pulled back the curtain to reveal the scammers that project themselves as men (or women) of god on the big screen. The same scammers that bellow, “Don’t look behind that curtain!” IOW: “Don’t look at the internet! Especially stay away from the blogwatchers!”
Today, the $upporter$ of religious vice have no excuses. Complicit. Driving the getaway cars for the criminals so, by law, equally criminal.
Each time the scammer at the top, in the spotlight, the big name, is called out, the $upporter$ should also be called out.
Like, who in God’s name is bankrolling this s@#&, this stuff, this scam!
With the internet, the duped are no longer duped. They are all in. Full partners in criminality. They LOVE Barabbas and execute Jesus, with their every dime and dollar.
But will the American church ever get back to Kansas? It’s going to take more than clicking red slippers together to get back home. I recommend genuine widespread prayer and repentance by God’s people, but I don’t see much movement in that direction.
Upward and onward. Forward to a future better than racism, misogyny, exceptionalism, elitism, classism, supremacy, dominionism, ageism, nationalism, tribalism.
Did anyone else come of age under a lifetime of the leadership of all old white guy preachers?
Demographics in and of itself solves nothing. Which is kind of the point.
My own experience is dominated pretty much by one demographic of leadership. Not exclusively but definitely overwhelming dominant.
Somehow it would seem that the Holy Spirit’s selection of leadership would not be so narrow and limited.
Hebrews 11: By faith, with their eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of their faith, never looking back, they were looking for a City yet to come.
The Church within the church, the Body of Christ, have always had their eyes on Jesus … not church leaders, not denominations, not the teachings and traditions of mere men. While the multitudes of church folks have lost their way, the faithful will find that City.
There’s a huge difference between “the Holy Spirit’s selection of leadership” and the appointment of leaders by men. The former equips the Body of Christ for the Kingdom of God; the latter molds followers in the kingdoms of men.
I had to look up “equip” and found three NT references with three different sources of equipping the saints: yes, leaders such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, & teachers (Eph. 4); also the Word of God (2 Timothy 3.17); finally, God Himself via His Holy Spirit (Hebrews 13.21).
The real ones are appointed by God Himself (Ephesians 4:11) to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. Whose job is the ministry? Every believer has a part! (without distinction of race, class or gender)
IMO, most church leaders in the institutional American church have not been appointed by God Himself … they went into the ministry on their own.