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“People are always fascinated by infidelity because, in the end – whether we’ve had direct experience or not – there’s part of you that knows there’s absolutely no more piercing betrayal. People are undone by it”. Junot Diaz
Jerry Falwell Jr. was the head of Liberty University and was also considered one of the “go-to” evangelicals by politicians. We all know how that turned out. On November 1st, Hulu will release God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty, featuring the “tell-all” Miami pool boy. I had a good laugh when I saw it featured the “Pool Boy.” I wrote about the mess when Politico interviewed him. Here is the trailer, but I warn you. It contains a significant “yuck” factor with rather explicit behavior on the part of the Falwells. More on that in November.
Liberty University in the aftermath of the fall of the Falwells.
Special thanks to Jeffrey Chalmers, who alerted us to this story. Call me naive, but I would expect that Liberty would attempt to steer clear of hiring those with accusations of improper sexual activity. After all, the University claims they are training “Champions for Christ.”
Join us at Liberty University where you’ll prepare for a successful career while we prepare you for life. With over 700 programs of study, state-of-the-art technology, and a gifted faculty, Liberty will equip you to enter a competitive job market. Learn, develop, and grow at Liberty so you can impact your culture as a Champion for Christ.
This University has an incredibly lengthy doctrinal statement. Here is a link.
When I clicked on the category of “Vision and Leadership,” I found a strategic plan, a list of the school’s senior and executive leadership and the school’s founder and a reminder that the University is currently searching for a new President.
Jerry Prevo is the interim President of the University.
An entrepreneur and Baptist minister, Jerry Prevo has been a member of the Liberty University Board of Trustees since 1996 and filled the role of Board Chairman since 2003. He recently retired as the senior pastor of Anchorage Baptist Temple in Anchorage, Alaska, where he served for 47 years.
In accepting this role, he stepped down as Board Chairman and officially began his new duties in August 2020. Since then, he has led the university with a renewed focus on Liberty’s foundational Christian mission.
I decided to look at the Board of Trustees, keeping in mind the great controversy swirling around the Falwells. Although I didn’t have time to investigate all the members (something I plan to do when I have a moment), one name jumped out at me- Jerry Vines.
Dr. Jerry Vines
Pastor
Canton, GA
(Term expires Nov. 8, 2022)
I wrote about him in Part 2: Tiffany Thigpen Responds to Sharayah Colter: Jerry Vines Told Tiffany to Stay Quiet About Darrell Gilyard.
After Darrell attacked me during my Senior Year of high school, I wanted to hold him accountable so I went to Dr. Vines, to report what he had done to me because I assumed that he would want to know and would do something about it. After all, it was Dr. Vines who wanted Darrell Gilyard to come and travel with our youth group to be the evangelist for our singing revival tours, he needed to know that he was a predator so he wasn’t used any longer. Also, Jerry Vines was the President of the SBC that year and had the means and power to do something.
But he didn’t, he never reported the crime committed against me to the authorities or anyone for that matter. He asked whom I had already told (he and my Mom and Dad, and my friend the Music Minister of Darrell’s church) and he said good, it is probably best that others don’t know and then words I’ll never forget, “it would be embarrassing for you if others knew” and as we left his office, “you know, given a little time these things tend to just blow over.” No outrage, no sorrow for me, no help offered, secrecy, shame and silence. Now, all of these years later, I know due to the video evidence, that he went to Texas and he and Patterson met with Gilyard and spoke for him on the stage at his church about the need for his restoration and again blamed victims (as seen on video).
This well-known incident was recorded on Wikipedia.
Jerry Vines was found to have covered up allegations of abuse by Darrell Gilyard towards young women with Paige Patterson from 1991. [8] One of several young women, abused by Gilyard, said she reported her abuse to Vines, who was reported to have responded by asking her to stay silent as “it may be embarrassing for her [the abused]”. He allegedly spoke to Paige Patterson and no police action was undertaken into the claims. [9]
If anyone has information on other board members, please let us know.
Is Brian Mentzer just another “who cares?” appointment to LU’s Senior Leadership?
Brian Mentzer was recently named VP of Development at Liberty University. He was fired from Riverdale Baptist Church, Upper Marlboro, MD, in 2016 for inappropriate behavior. I could not find Riverdale in the SBC Directory. Mentzer was then based in Alaska and was assumedly hired because of his connections to LU President Jerry Prevo. Here is his LinkedIn profile.
The following is a sermon in which a Riverdale leader mentions the “disbelief, hurt, sadness” Mentzer brought to the church. It ends with a warning about being “slow to anger,” which seems a little misplaced admonition this early in the game. The previous Sunday’s sermon, which is not online, addressed Mentzer’s behavior more directly, according to people who were there: https://t.co/gHRWbrJAAq. Mentzer’s name comes up early in the sermon.
The week before, the church membership was informed of his inappropriate behavior, which led to his exit from Riverdale, and they took it hard. This man’s alleged behavior hurt and angered his entire large congregation. It caused him to be allegedly fired. Yet, despite this, Mentzer is considered to be part of the Senior Leadership at the school. Huh?
I don’t have much to say about this except that LU seems to have little problem with these two men; one who has a history of inappropriate behavior, and the other who allegedly did not report a sexual abuser and hurt an abuse victim by his callous behavior. Why do I get the feeling that there are more men of this ilk hiding out at this University which has pledged to produce “Champions for Christ?”
The power kept going on and off in my house all afternoon. Unfortunately, so did our internet service and the generator could not take care of that since it was a Spectrum problem. I think I fixed all of the errors, but some may have slipped through. Why are we losing power? Duke Power says it was a “transformer issue” that has caused this problem every day for the last three days!
I
I was wrong
II and III
dee,
Well, God bless you, Dee, for all of your wonderful work while dealing with power challenges.
A note about this post. Today at work during lunch someone mentioned that a staffperson in another company is serving time for predation. Then another person having lunch at our table noted that another professional is ALSO in jail, different division but the same company as the first guy. Furthermore, she said there was a pod at that company, across divisions, of men who prey on younger women.
A pod of predators. A nest of rats.
The reason this is important is that there is a myth in churches that if someone with vice or issues comes into the church community, the community will simply absorb and “heal” or bring about positive change in the deviant individual. Love the predator into a better place. FALSE. A predator uses an innocent community as a hunting ground.
there is something particularly evil about the almost casual victim-blaming that goes on in so many of these reports . . . I guess it’s a way the boyz club tries to shore up their fallen buddies,
but if these ‘pastors’ had a conscience about it, surely they would see that THEY are a part of the attack on the victims and THERE IS NOTHING SUBTLE ABOUT IT …. ‘victim-blaming’ seems an accepted part of a culture where patriarchy and misogyny have long held a seat at the table – like ‘ganging up’ against the victims
if anything, I have also learned how COMPLICIT some pastor’s wives are in turning a blind eye and ‘standing by their man’ even when it might put their own children in danger as in the case of Josh Duggar, one of the worst most unimaginable situations in the fundamentalist/evangelical scene
I guess though Becky and the Pool Boy take the cake for scandal and OF COURSE politicians go flocking to her spouse for support, of course . . . why not? doesn’t it fit into their whole ‘grab ’em by the …..’ misogynistic political leadership???
at some point, the evil destroys those who stand by it and a sign is that they continue to do so even as the stench rises from the pulpits that harbor them what preaches the worship of the ‘Orange Jesus’ . . .
May God have mercy on the victims and their families. The whole Church suffers with them.
Despite all their promises, the Board seems to be planning to keep the same strategy they always have, which is to protect nepotism. This has failed over and over for LU and most of the Baptist elite, but they hold onto it like a kid with a blankie. And it’s the reason the SBC and IFB are dying. It’s going to be hard to be an “elite” when you’re the only one in the group.
When I was a student at LU, it was common when meeting someone for the first time to be asked “Who are you related to?” I, being related to no one important in evangelical-land, even had a roommate move out because her mom thought I was not good enough for her daughter.
James Borland, theology professor at LU and one of the founders of CBMW, once told my class that “good Christians come from well-knwon Christian families”. I didn’t know about New Calvinism at the time, but he was my first exposure to that as well. I believe New Calvinism sprang from the belief that we should reinstate strict social classes and even slavery (hence the references back to the founders).
ishy,
sigh…..
Dudebros within the Christian Industrial Complex cover and protect each other, until a bad potato becomes too hot to handle … then it becomes Driscoll who?, McDonald who?, Mahaney who? … Mentzer who?
ishy,
A Christian family that is visible in the community and develops a reputation, is easier to examine for its healthiness rather than a family that tends to hide or seeks a bit of secrecy. The Apostle Paul says our lives should be transparent. And all Christians should try to work towards that idea.
But, my daughter attended Patrick Henry College and got to know Michael Farris’ children (president of HSLDA). While smart, she was not impressed. I guess their father wasn’t home a lot. And the community was clicky. We were nobodies in that school, and when I tried to find out what had happened to my daughter at that school (she went off the deep end), the parents that I contacted iced me out. I had to call the provost, who didn’t help too much.
Christians can be clicky. Maybe it’s just human nature. But I think it ought to be called out. It takes courage though, and you risk being made the scapegoat. I know you all are Protestants, but I believe one way to rectify that kind of mean behavior is to have the obligation of weekly confession of sin before a priest. Having to think about how I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God makes me much more conscious about how I treat the people around me. It makes me conscientious of my witness. It doesn’t always work, even in Catholicism, but the system of accountability was established by the Catholic church. 🙂
Deviants seldom get “healed” … there is a wide gulf between deviants and normal people in sexual, moral and social behavior. Churches far too often get burned when they step unprepared into this gap … trust is betrayed, church members become victims. I once thought that such folks could be transformed by a dose of Christianity, but no longer feel that way, believing that their “consciences are as dead as seared flesh” (1 Timothy 4).
freemarketmises,
I would be interested in learning more about your experience. I don’t have to write about it. I’m merely curious. I know one family who had a similar experience at Hillsdale College. If you would be willing to speak with me, confidentially, please send me a note dee@thewartburgwatch.com
Darn-wish I had said that.
Jeffrey Chalmers,
Thank you for letting me know about this.
This “who are you related to” is a big thing in evangelical circles. I saw it at my kids’ Christian school in Dallas. Much less so in Raleigh. I did not hear about this sort o thing so much at Samford University where two of my kids attended. I did see at at Wheaton College.
Did you know that James Dobson said your kids shouldn’t marry anyone who comes from a broken family? Looks like God can’t work in such circumstances.
if it’s local, yes, but that’s not what he meant. He went on to make it very clear that not only did he think that Christian celebrities are only in he “well known” category, but they were literally the only ones who could be “good” Christians. If you were not a famous Christian, you were not following God well enough.
They associate being a Christian celebrity and having power with being the only ones able to be approved by God. That’s a really problematic theology to hold for a theology professor at the “largest Christian university”.
I saw so much bad behavior from pastors and celebrity kids that I think it might be wise to be very careful about marrying into a family like that. Many of those people are so emotionally damaged by what the church and money or power has done to them and their families.
With all the scandals that have come out, some which have shocked even me, sometimes I wonder if it’s possible to have that much influence, money, or power and stay a good person.
Nah. Celebrities become celebrities because they elevate themselves into that position … they become their own god. God has little or nothing to do with America’s Christian Industrial Complex, its cult of personality, and Celebrity Christianity, which is not Christianity at all.
Borland got some serious flack in that class for his assertion, but I’ve seen that belief turn into New Calvinism and I think it’s at the root of it. Predestination and election are used as excuses to rule and claim control over the church.
I think it’s at the root of a lot of the mishandling of church scandals. “We don’t have to care about what peons think, because we’re the only ones God cares about”
A brood of vipers . . . . they are the children of their father, the Devil
Is there a God for us Lowborns, too?
Christ is God of the Rich, Powerful, and Pious only.
Again, is there a God for the rest of us?
Clericalism: The heresy that only Clergy (Priests, Monks, Nuns, Megapastors, Theologians, Full-Time Christian Ministry) count in the sight of God; all the rest of us can go to Hell.
Christ is God of the Rich, Powerful, and Pious only.
Again, is there a God for the rest of us?
Clericalism: The heresy that only Clergy (Priests, Monks, Nuns, Megapastors, Theologians, Full-Time Christian Ministry) count in the sight of God; all the rest of us can go to Hell.
“A Celebrity is someone who is Famous entirely for Being Famous.”
Ishy, you and I have SBC backgrounds … it continues to amaze me that the great multitude of mainline (non-Calvinist) Southern Baptists still don’t see this, even as they finance the New Calvinist takeover of the SBC!
Latest episode of the CHRISTIAN Cuck & Cougar Show is that Pool Boy could do anything with CHRISTIAN Cougar (while CHRISTIAN Cuck watched) as long as he DIDN’T insert his Tab A into her Slot B. This has sparked speculation as to which Alternative Orifice was permitted – Driscoll’s two favorites?
Just like Slick Willie Clinton and Douggie ESQUIRE, if there’s NO Tab A in Slot B it isn’t REALLY sex, it isn’t REALLY adultery. Alternative Orifices = “I Did Not Know That Woman in the Biblical Sense” = LOOPHOLE! LOOPHOLE! LOOPHOLE!
Good point, but those uber-protestant guys (east of the Miss and below the Mason-Dixon line) hate anything even remotely Roman Catholic.
Even out here in Southern Cali when I was a Calvary Chapel bot, Papa Chuck (founder of Calvary Chapel) never missed a cue to diss the Catholic Church.
As you yourself have said many times:
“They Kept the Potlucks.”
(And the gossip sessions.)
sold their birthright for a pot of soup
Mentzer a ‘Community Group’ [Sunday School] teacher at Jerry Prevo’s Anchorage Baptist Temple:
https://abt.church/community-groups
Jerry Prevo on the LU Board of Trustees for years and years with Herb Fitzpatrick, who was pastor of Riverdale Baptist before Mentzer:
https://www.liberty.edu/news/2012/02/13/longtime-board-of-trustees-member-dies/
All these guys Independent Fundamental Baptist, not SBC.
Mentzer graduated from Bob Jones University 1986.
With God’s Elect (guess who?) on top Holding the Whip.
Better than a cheap red hat.
This is what I noted here on the trustees back when stories were breaking in August 2020:
A quick glance:
https://www.liberty.edu/trustees/
One trustee appears to be Jerry Vines, who has been discussed on TWW previously. Note some repeat last names, with brothers and a married couple on the board. Some of the latter’s bio comes from a 2014 press release:
https://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/01/prweb11461746.htm
Jeffrey and Gaye Benson (’83) (’82), Chesapeake, Va.
Jeffrey and Gaye (Overton) Benson met when they were students at Liberty. Jeff was a quarterback on the football team and earned a degree in business administration. Gaye graduated with a degree in political science. Her parents, William and Norma Overton, and grandparents, Alton (“A.W.”) and Lois Overton, were consistent financial supporters of Liberty; the Graduate School of Business was named in her grandparents’ honor. Jeff is a partner in the Overton Family Partnership, which develops and manages commercial real estate, residential development, and home construction in the Tidewater region.
Another pair of brothers were also on the board per that presser:
Glen Thomas, Lynchburg, Va.
Jimmy Thomas, Jr. (’84), Lynchburg, Va.
Brothers Glen Thomas (left) and Jimmy Thomas, Jr. have been faithful supporters of Liberty University. Jimmy Thomas, Jr. is a 1984 Liberty graduate and Glen Thomas also attended Liberty. In 2009, Glen’s generous donation made it possible to open the Thomas Indoor Soccer Center, which is in wide use by Liberty Athletics, intramurals, and large community youth leagues year-round. The brothers also donated the former Lynchburg Inn and Conference Center (now the Residential Annex I) and have donated land on Young Place in Lynchburg for a new transportation center now being planned. The Thomases are the owners of RST Marketing in Forest, Va. They have been involved in real estate developments in the Lynchburg area, including apartment complexes where many Liberty students live.
Per that release, one of Franklin Graham’s sons who graduated from there in 1997 rolled onto the board: “The Graham family has remained close friends with President Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his family for many years.” It also shares details on a current board member and attorney Steven A. Snyder who “worked with Dr. Jerry Falwell’s Old Time Gospel Hour in the 1980s and was executive director of the Old Time Gospel Hour Radio”. Also, “His parents were among Liberty’s first faculty members; they taught for 18 years.” Another interesting note was that “he was the second Liberty student to attend a top 10 law school, after President Falwell”.
Speaking of memory lane, there’s this list of trustees from what looks to be the previous term:
https://www.liberty.edu/media/11090/undergraduatecatalog20132014%5barchivedcatalog%5d/Liberty%20University%20Board%20of%20Trustees.pdf
Note the number of repeat names from the current edition. It’s worthwhile to again consider if people get onto the board because of family connections, donations, or other reasons and then are just moved around to one spot after another over time, are accountability, oversight, and transparency likely to follow?
dee,
Liberty U has, and continues, to make a mockery of “Christian” education…
Widdle Chrsitian Wifey – “What is Thy will, My Lord Husband? How might I better Sugmit?”
Or Queen Bee – Serena Joy lecturing all the Handmaids.
(And you know how many Queens a Beehive can have.)
I found it interesting that a number of the trustees hailed from the same area in Michigan near Grand Rapids. There’s Gilbert “Bud” Tinney, Jr., who is listed not only as a member of Liberty’s Board of Trustees and Executive Committee Member but is reportedly chairman of the search committee for a new university president:
https://www.christianpost.com/news/liberty-u-names-executive-search-firm-to-hire-next-president.html
Also of note, “The search will be led by Harding and CarterBaldwin partner Bill Peterson.”
Will Tinney — who appears to be associated with Tinney Chevrolet in Michigan — is also currently on Liberty’s Board of Trustees, is from the same area as Bud Tinney, and like Bud is listed on the page as Businessman. It caught my eye that another listed there — Angela Jordan, Businesswoman, Grand Rapids, MI — is from the same area. With the slightest bit of digging, it appears that she may be the daughter of another person who had been a trustee,
https://www.liberty.edu/news/2021/11/30/liberty-trustee-remembered-for-his-dedication-to-the-christian-mission/
“Liberty University is mourning the loss of longtime Board of Trustees member Harvey Gainey, who died on Sunday, Nov. 28, at age 79. Gainey, a businessman from Grand Haven, Mich., served on Liberty’s board for 26 years. For the last six years, he faithfully served as Chairman of the Executive Committee, a role he held at the time of his passing.”
“Gainey first joined the board in 1994. He was elected Vice Chairman in 1996 and served as Chairman from September 1999 to 2003 before again serving as Vice Chairman through 2013.”
In addition to the two Bensons, there are two pastors named Rhodenhizer. One would’ve thought as part of a proactive way to handle what had occurred, the university’s powers that might have sought to engage in conflict of interest policies that extended to the board population. One would’ve thought that addressing ties by blood or marriage on the board might’ve been one place to start.
My old Scientology picketing buddy Mark Ebner is the ghostwriter on Giancarlo Granda’s book, “Off the Deep End,” which came out at the end of September. You can find excerpts of the book at various outlets, such as Rolling Stone. He’s also the guy with the foul mouth (beeped out) at the beginning of the trailer above. I haven’t read the book yet (something about having to study for exams on two different trainings at work that I gotta take before the end of the year).
What gets me is that the search team is really dragging its feet on selecting a new president. Junior resigned as of August 25, 2020. We’re over two years later, yet, according to LU press releases CarterBaldwin was selected in April 2022 to start the search, but the qualifications weren’t posted to the LU website until September 7, 2022.
By comparison (and not going to get into any controversy over what happened), when Sen. Ben Sasse was announced last week as the sole final candidate for the presidency of the University of Florida, the search had been going on for six months. It’s not like LU and U of F are so different. LU has a $1.71 billion endowment; U of F’s is $2.25 billion. U of F enrolls ~52,000 students, while LU enrolls ~130,000. I would suspect that most of U of F’s students attend on campus, while LU’s most of LU’s students are online. But there’s not a whole lot of difference when you start getting into these very large universities.
So why did it take so long to select a search firm, so long to just get the requirements posted, and how much longer is it going to take to find Junior’s successor? Perhaps they’ve put feelers out and the persons they contacted decided they weren’t interested. *waves hands* These are just observations and questions, I know nothing about what’s going on behind the scenes.
And they of course will swear up and down that it’s all ‘Biblical’.
They all find each other.
Muff Potter,
Reminds me of a funny story.
Pastor of my (now former) Harvest Bible Chapel church was doing a sermon on the Lord’s Prayer. He was bashing on Catholics for “adding to scripture” because they use a longer version of the Lord’s Prayer, the last couple of lines of which are not included in the oldest manuscripts and were likely added at some point.
To make a long story short, turns out the longer version is actually in the KJV and used in traditional Protestant denominations.
Not Catholic.
Whoops…. All that righteous indignation gone to waste.
Liberty U has, and continues, to make a mockery of “Christian” “education”
FTFY…
I think that restoring disqualified guys is actually part of the system: you can be sure of their loyalty, and when – not if – you will need “restoration” in the future, they will have your back.
It’s almost like in organised crime – they only trust you after you have committed your first crime.
Like those Catholic boys from Covington.
Interesting! Over here the irregularly spaced obligation of confession is touted by clergy as pretext for readmitting oneself to the (sort of) Smarties queue, seeing as “communion” has been made compulsory in recent years (depriving politicians of the tactful cover they had when most of us didn’t “go up” most weeks).
In several of the protestant churches I’ve been going to on and off, everybody got very anxious when I sat out, as if I was undermining them (same attitude as the RCC’s recent one). I think Jesus didn’t intend the bread & wine / juice ceremony to last beyond 130 AD.
But how would a penitent at a RCC square their own personal accountability with its representatives being part of a foreign government? Isn’t that on a par with megaprotestants and teleprotestants being “counseled” by sanctified commerce?
$$$ in the name of the dad, son, and wholly special are we.
It is …
There, fixed it fer ya.
Tight group, descendants of those who carried out a plan regarding Jesus. Same group. Beware come the day they carry out their plan versus Jesus’ remnant.
There’s probably more truth to that than we would like to believe.
The dudebro network in the Christian Industrial Complex is alive and well … covering for each other, protecting, promoting. They only distance themselves from a bad actor when his liabilities exceed his assets.
That’s confirmation that you are just as bad as they are … and won’t squeal when you discover dirt on them. And these are leaders of Christian institutions?!!
You expect anything else from the CHRISTIAN Cuck & Cougar Show?
Not just “your first crime”, it HAS to be a Biggie before you’re a Made Man.
Smart comment of the day.
dee,
Unfortunately, it probably is….
Re the Lord’s Prayer: my mom in law was RCC. I am not. She would attend church with me when she visited, and we would giggle when she figured we were done but we continued with “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” Or as some Lutherans say, Forever and ever.” Or as other Lutherans say, “Forever and ever and ever.”
Then she died. At the viewing, a priest came to speak and ended with the Lord’s Prayer. Only he got just a few words into it, could not remember it, and was extremely embarrassed. He apologized profusely and said nothing remotely like that ever happened before. I was trying not to laugh outloud, figuring “Ma” was messing with him. After the viewing I told her kids about how she was in church with me. Tension reducing laughter. At her funeral there was a different priest, a higher up one. And it happened to him. I bet the good Monsignor is still trying to figure out his memory lapse, and why the bereaved family burst out in whoops hollers and laughter that could not be quelled. We got in the limo to go to the cemetery and one of her girls was still having laughing fits and loudly asking Ma to “knock it off Ma!” Even the limo driver thought we were nuts.
For a time I was a state denominational executive that worked with troubled ministers/churches/difficult situations. When things “hit the fan” and I would try to intercede to bring health and wholeness, so often the “good ole boy” network beat me to the punch to “take care of the minister.”
Putting lipstick on a pig might make the pig look better for a time, but at the end of the day, it’s still a pig . . .
Too many shepherds are wolves in sheeps’ clothing. Even worse than that (much worse imo), other shepherds are aware of the wolves in sheeps’ clothing, and they feed the sheep to the wolves…….
Gilyard was all but spoon fed and burped for years.
Who’s worse? ……. the predators, or the shepherd’s who sacrifice the sheep and protect the predators?
……wonder what Jesus would say/do…..
Muff Potter,
“I believe New Calvinism sprang from the belief that we should reinstate strict social classes and even slavery”
+++++++++++++++
i don’t doubt you, but why would they sincerely hold this belief?
i can’t come up with any reason that is good, laudable, praiseworthy,…only self-serving ones.
ishy,
in reply ishy’s original comment. but all are welcome to chime in.
linda,
I love this! Thanks for sharing.
Wolves in sheeps’ clothing? Nah, the wolves have found it more profitable to dress in shepherd’s clothing.
This codependency, in our experience, extends to church leaders’ relationships with their big donors.
Good one Max.
~ Describes em’ to a T ~
Dan Allender, in Bold Love says that this kind of generalised “lust” of the class of “fools” to enter into others’ wrongs of whatever “flavour” is based on unresolved anger. In pastors’ cases, unconscious anger at having been brought up in / parachuted into authority in false religion, which the public are in turn subliminally half hearted about espousing.
As soon as these religious authorities face the intuition they tried not to have, and do like Josh Harris, they will begin to know healing. This is why we must not content ourselves with eye rolling at their mediocre / indifferent conduct, but uphold their inner man / woman with our supplications.
Sounds like stuff from David Barton, which has been thoroughly de-bunked.
I read something awhile back about why some folks pine for a return to ‘the good old days’.
“Supplications”? Really?
Why should GOD’s Anointed listen to their Lowborn Inferiors?
“YOU WERE BORN IN UTTER SIN AND YOU DARE TO TEACH US?????”
The Golden Rule: He Who Has the Most Gold Gets to Make The Rules.
Bought and Paid For, and Churches can come Cheap.
I can:
“I GET TO HOLD THE WHIP!!!!! GOD HATH PREDESTINED ME TO!!!!!”
“The only Goal of Power is POWER. And POWER consists of inflicting maximum suffering upon your Inferiors.”
— George Orwell, 1984 scene where the Party justifies their Dystopia
(All that’s missing is “BECAUSE I CAN!”)
There’s probably more truth to that than NeoCal Southern Baptists would admit. The SBC founders were Calvinist slave-holders (including pastors and deacons), believing that Sovereign God was on their side in the Civil War until early Confederate victories turned to defeat. After the War, Southern Baptists distanced themselves from the founders’ theology and remained distinctly non-Calvinist for 150 years until Al Mohler and his band of New Calvinists began to drag the SBC back to its roots … without asking millions of non-Calvinist members if they wanted to go there!
IMO, NeoCal complementarity is a form of female bondage … when Paul declared that, in Christ, there should be no distinction in race, class or gender. And it was only in recent years that the SBC repented of its racial sins in times past. Not to mention that subordinating Jesus by their rotten theology is heresy. There’s more to New Calvinism than meets the eye; it’s just not a silly dudebro network playing with the theology of old dead men.
Do you know what sort of secret society Dodeka is/was? Al Mohler was a member of it at Southern Seminary. He has been tight-lipped about it, saying it was simply a dinner club.
“The only goal of Power is POWER.”
Well, “Dodeka” means “Twelve”.
Maybe they saw themselves as the REAL Twelve Apostles?
Never underestimate the Arrogance of GOD’s Speshul Pets, chosen before the Creation of the World.
Muff Potter,
Max,
This meshes with the commentaries of Foucault and Nussbaum on the influence of institutions and ideology in dominating individuals.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
Yes. I meant, out of their hearing! (Conventional prayers got turned into a weapon, hence average sick people refusing them these days.) And they might prove to not want to be invisibly upheld.
elastigirl,
I watched people in seminary turn from decent God followers to power-hungry, ambitious manipulators. I wish I could answer in any other way than “They want power” (as HUG said), but not sure if I can.
I believe they envision a theocracy not unlike the one in the Handmaid’s Tale, where they hold all power and everyone else is beholden to them. They are so narrow-sighted, though, that I do not believe they could maintain it for very long. Most of them talk incessantly about themselves and can’t seem to see anything outside of their egos.
Just wanted to remind everyone of Bruce Ware’s theology on women being not completely human. The language is very similar to the language used to enslave and keep human beings from voting and having autonomy: http://powerscourt.blogspot.com/2008/04/bruce-ware-on-constitutional-inequality.html
I don’t know anything more than anyone else. Being a woman without connections, I was not the type of person they catered to. But I wouldn’t be surprised if SEBTS had one, too.
Be realistic: the materialist resurgents have shut up heaven like brass and thrown away the key which is why legitimate secular authorities manned by agnostics of good will are permanently constrained and corrupted. Look at the recent actions diplomatic and otherwise, of Holy former Eastern Bloc and middle eastern regimes, and Holy Vatican. Was the dominionism that resurged in the 20 th century really something that should have been so welcomed? Because as trendy SBC elements rush into whatever the “other” camp is in recent months, all politics gets superficially sanctified and not only one party. Gregory the Overlander suddenly realised the overland is just as dicey as the underland after all. The dominionists / resurgents taught us their heresies about prayer which makes us dominionists / resurgents as well unless we stop being content to confine our grouches to their superficial behaviour. Scripture advocates prayer, the real not the fake version.
Michael in UK,
I believe that theology is just another tool for power and dominionism is nothing more than an attempt to legitimize power to naive followers. I went to school with many of these guys and they made up theology on the spot when it was convenient. They also change their message depending on who they are talking to and cherry pick verses to support their arguments. Nobody agrees on what Scripture says.
ishy,
Except that they all agree that it doesn’t have meanings: doesn’t mean we should supplicate for everyone co tinually, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t moralise, doesn’t mean we should shun power grabbers and manipulators, doesn’t mean Holy Spirit is Jesus’ twin. Doesn’t mean that we should reprove those who steal the bread of life from the mouths of orphans, doesn’t mean defending the integrity of the orphans which is the only way they will survive. Doesn’t mean there is a present eschaton since Ascension, doesn’t mean our God is provident, doesn’t mean the life of humanity is intended additively and not subtractively.
Only a few congregations have held fast. In the days I remember, women ministers had belief. In designer outlet religion for the current boom years, just favouring women ministers as a decoy headline issue won’t bring back belief from the vacuum where it went.