@NASASolarSystem’s Cassini spacecraft looks across Saturn’s unlit ring plane as its moons appear side by side in this image captured in visible light on July 3, 2006. NASA
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” – Stephen King
When I was getting ready to review an old post, I was rudely interrupted by the following: Baptist News Global wrote An interview with James MacDonald. Now some might claim that BNG should ignore anything by James MacDonald. On the other hand, I believe this post reminds us of what we should never forget. MacDonald’s claims are so outrageous that they should cause anyone with a positive memory of this man and his ‘ministry’ to get cognitive testing from their internist.
The article by Maina Mwaura and Mikk Wingfield brought back many old memories for me. Sadly, I’m sure it brought back many memories for Julie Roys and The Elephant’s Debt people whom he sued. This blog participated in the goings-on by posting the audio of the infamous phone call. Here Is the Entire James MacDonald’s Hot Mic Transcript: “This Is a New Friendship With Christianity Today.”
Yep, ‘reviled’ is a pretty accurate word for those who have experienced his peculiar ways of spreading the Gospel.
Among evangelical pastors, MacDonald is both revered and reviled. Once a model for how to grow a huge church from scratch, he was fired by the very church he nurtured and now faces legal challenges, accusations of improper spending and bullying and more.
But enough of all that. Let’s look at what James MacDonald said when he had the chance.
He is a demonized man suffering from a diagnosis of PTSD.
I laughed at the following. I spoke with person after person who James MacDonald deeply wounded. He used his unlimited resources to attempt to sue some friends of mine.
He considers himself a broken man, struggling to make sense of the world he once preached about with certainty
…“According to counselors I’ve been to, I’ve been diagnosed as having symptoms of PTSD,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of counseling with Henry Cloud, and he’s helped me understand two very important sentences. … The first one is first they idolize you. And then they demonize you.”
Oh-its their fault, not his?
James MacDonald should pay for all the people he hurt to be evaluated by a celebrity like Henry Cloud. I bet it costs a bundle, but he has it. Did he spend too much money gifting his pals with cars, Rolexes, and jewelry? Oh, that’s right. He may have used the tithe money given to the church and ministry to fund his penchant for rewarding his friends. Ed Stetzer Confirms That James MacDonald Gave Him a Car, and Pastor Mohan Zachariah Confirms MacDonald Gave Him a Motorcycle, Both Paid for With Church Money.
It was all too much, and he did lose control, inside and out.
“It was way, way, way too much. And so, the two big tensions I was dealing with in the last 10 years was I just saw how size was mitigating against discipleship in me. I’m not ascribing that to anyone else. It’s not a universal principle.
Sorry, folks, he lost control.
What MacDonald experienced on the inside as “too much” appeared to those outside as a megachurch pastor losing control.
MacDonald says he was the “fall guy” when he was fired.
Wait a minute. Was it all too much, or wasn’t it? As always, he blames others. They were jealous of him. Jealous of what?
In 2019, he was fired from Harvest Chapel and “disqualified for ministry” due to what church leaders called a “substantial pattern of sinful behavior.”
Much of that appears related to the pastor’s confrontational leadership style, by the accounts of others. From MacDonald’s perspective, he was sidelined by jealousy and infighting in a complex organization that was unsustainable and where someone had to take the fall.
He blames Julie Roys for causing ‘mass hysteria.’
Once again, MacDonald claims it was someone else’s fault. Read carefully his critique of the number of Roys’s articles. What does he neglect to say?
At one point, MacDonald and the church sued Roys in an attempt to get her to stop writing about him. After the church fired MacDonald, it dropped the lawsuit and reimbursed Roys’ legal fees.
MacDonald believes Roys induced “mass hysteria” against him with relentless attacks.
MacDonald believes Roys induced “mass hysteria” against him with relentless attacks. “She wrote 85 articles about me in 2019,” he said.
The details of the history between MacDonald and Roys are lengthy and complicated. It is true that in the end, her writing did play a major role in MacDonald’s downfall.
I bet you caught it. He is mad that she wrote so many articles, but he does not say they were wrong! Julie Roys is a trained journalist. She knows the rules of the game. She would not knowingly lie about the details in her writings. I read everything Julie wrote on MacDonald and believe she was honest in her reporting. Publishing what one believes to be true is the gold standard.
In my opinion, MacDonald applied the much lower celebrity pastor standard to Roys. That is, “Anything that makes a celebrity pastor look bad is slander.” Slander means a lie, but some thin-skinned pastors don’t know this. James MacDonald is a victim of his own words and actions and has no one to blame but himself. He tried to sue Roys, as well as others. Why did the lawsuits go away? I guess that he knew that Roys was a competent journalist and he would eventually lose money going after her. He most likely would have proceeded if he knew he could get big bucks from the lawsuit.
Finally, his statement about ‘mass hysteria” shows his derogatory view of people who read the news and come to a conclusion. This wasn’t hysteria. It was a bunch of sane people who were furious about how James MacDonald hurt their church. Years ago, I thought James MacDonald was a great pastor, but now I see his feet of clay. If the information Julie provided wasn’t true, she could write a book and refute her or start a website and refute, point by point, her errors. That is what honest men do. They don’t sit on the sidelines and weep crocodile tears.
MacDonald says it was common to lose leaders/people who helped him throughout the years, and he got testy occasionally…
I think this may have been the root of the problem all along. He consistently lost good people. This is on him and him alone.
We went through the same early growth things that most churches grow through,” he said. Twelve of the 18 people we started the church with left. We grew to about 400 people in the first two years, and then 12 of the 18 people left in a huff. They wanted me to tell people they couldn’t raise their hands in worship. They wanted me to give a very baptistic gospel invitation every Sunday.”
Over time, those common problems multiplied as the church grew and MacDonald, by his own assessment, did not always respond well.
So he cried daily and thought people who brushed against him at the mall were ‘drawing a gun’?
I think this was building a case for why he didn’t do so well in the “parallel park” incident.
The building debt, questions about church finances, disgruntled staff and lay leaders, accusations of bullying and authoritarian leadership, a hot mic that caught him joking — he says — about placing child porn on the computer of a nemesis, internal church fights, jealousy, and on and on.
“All this broke me down, broke me down, broke me down to where I’m just like, I cry every day,” he said. “I can’t take anything. … My threat response is completely trashed. I have no ability. If somebody brushes past me in the mall, I have to literally stop and make myself know that’s not the same as someone drawing a gun on me.”
He thinks he blacked out, and it only looked like he attacked a lady.
This post built up to this moment and left me thinking that MacDonald, once again, has an excuse for why it happened. I don’t believe him.
And in that condition, he attempted to parallel park his truck in San Diego.
“I barely touched the lady in front of me. She jumped out of her car and came running at me. And I was so startled that I jumped out of my car and didn’t even put it in park,” he said. “And it rolled into the person behind me, and I reached toward this lady. … And what I think we’ve been able to piece together, there isn’t a video, but I think I blacked out and I fell. The reason I know is because I fell to the ground. I never put my hands underneath me.”
MacDonald should be sitting with the members of Rock Bottom Church, not preaching to them.
I’m beginning to think that megachurch celebrity pastors are afflicted with their own special kind of addiction. They need to talk at people in front of the microphone. They need to be the focus of attention while making it sound like they are sacrificially serving others. I think MacDonald continues to serve himself sacrificially. He should give up the microphone and sit in a pew with the addicts. He is his own worst enemy.
Every Saturday night, I preach my heart out to 40 or 50 addicts and their family members in a garage next to the house where we have our first sobriety house,” he said. “We call the property Rock Bottom because that’s where I’ve been and that’s where these men are. And I’m so happy in it. And that’s the good thing that’s going on.”
Update from Todd:
Here is further information:
Is James wasting away at Rock Bottom Church, sacrificially serving addicts and eschewing the celebrity pastor thing? Think again.
He spoke 8 times at Generation Church, a megachurch in Mesa, Az. where the pastor lauded him. Think we’re exaggerating?
The upcoming “parallel parking” trial.
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Histrionics. Can’t make this stuff up. Doubt Hollywood could do better. Seriously, is the guy in the entertainment business? Drama galore. Now a felon? Some folks laud felons as their leaders. Heck, they applauded Barabbas. So here we are, 2K yrs later, applauding felons in our churches and on public platforms.
Lord, have mercy. Your people are better than this. Truly.
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Every new “christian” leader who files a lawsuit, and there are so many it makes my head spin, I’m reminded of MacDonald. Even if there’s some revised slandered version of I Cor 6 where Paul commends them for all their super-spiritual lawsuits against one another — it still doesn’t tend to work out well practically for the “suing pastor”. They should all take practical warning from how well this turned out for MacDonald, when he found it necessary to sue not only the rascally reporter and pesky bloggers, but the pesky bloggers’ wives.
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Given MacDonald’s rather spectacular fall from grace, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if he’s showing symptoms of PTSD. Constantly being on one’s guard (aka paranoia), engaging in self-destructive behavior like too much drinking or reckless driving, easily startled, prone to outbursts, trouble sleeping, etc. (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20355967)
HOWEVER, unlike combat veterans or domestic violence survivors or the like, MacDonald’s PTSD is all (allegedly) a mess of his own making.
Hopefully he is also getting treatment for his narcissism from Henry Cloud.
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“According to counselors I’ve been to, I’ve been diagnosed as having symptoms of PTSD,”
There are quite a few extra words in that sentence. Is this different from actually getting a diagnosis of PTSD from a competent professional? Maybe one of his “symptoms” is being unable to make a simple fact statement without a bunch of qualifiers.
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His responses reek with the desperation of a full blown narcissist frantically trying to not have his idealized sense of self crumble to the ground. His manipulation and twisting of the facts echo the high level of self-deception that is present in people with personality disorders.
These statements are observations rooted in my opinion, not an official diagnosis or statement of fact. I have never met James MacDonald, nor am I his licensed mental health professional.
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“MacDonald believes Roys induced “mass hysteria” against him with relentless attacks. “She wrote 85 articles about me in 2019,” he said.” (Baptist News Global)
Julie Roys, along with various watchblogs, were informing, warning and screaming “Get this guy out of the pulpit before something happens!” The New Calvinist community that supported him no matter what would simply not to that; they would not hold their icon accountable – he was too important for their movement, too big to fail. Then lots of somethings happened and JMac’s ministry empire crumbled. Once applauded and adored, the dudebros began to distance themselves from him to protect their own skins.
New Calvinism has more than its share of narcissistic leaders (MacDonald, Driscoll, Chandler, etc.) … indeed, it attracts them. It’s a very sad chapter of the American church. I sincerely hope that MacDonald gets the help he needs, for both body and soul.
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I partially blame his New Calvinist fan-base for keeping him on the road as long as he was. It appears that many of the young reformers like bad-boys in their pulpits (think Driscoll). It seems like the more that “pastor” departs from purity and holiness, the more they are idolized. Rebellions like the New Calvinist movement need rebels to lead them, I suppose.
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Codswallop?
Aw c’mon dee, use the shortened word for bull-poo-poo, it would have way greater impact.
PTSD?
Puh-leez, John McCain did a stint in the Hanoi Hilton and didn’t turn out like MacDonald.
How come?
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PTSD symptoms, huh? I didn’t know that being exposed as a fake and a charlatan and the loss of popularity, power, and money could cause PTSD. I believe it could cause someone to have certain PTSD “symptoms”……. I’ve seen it happen, on a smaller scale.
Someone with the power and influence that MacDonald had loses it all….loses their position as grand puppet master…. it’s easy for them to develop an ‘everybody’s out to get me’ mindset.
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I think that’s fair.
Without trying to minimize the pain and trauma experienced by those hurt by MacDonald, Driscoll (another PTSD candidate with his “helicopters are circling my house” comments), etc, I think the evangelical industrial complex has set up scores of young men to fail both personally and professionally in the pastorate by always stoking their egos and never giving any meaningful systems of accountability. Double that in complementarian churches.
Was chatting with a gentleman recently who’d done a pastoral internship before deciding NOT to go into vocational ministry. He said he’d realized he’d started viewing people more as commodities for what they could do for the ministry, and less appreciating them for their own sakes. Valuable insight that certain pastors I know could also use a dose of.
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Do a simple search on his name, and “James MacDonald Ministries” comes up. The following link is still active:
https://jamesmacdonaldministries.org/controversy/
“The implications of this ruling = staggering. From Harvest Bible Chapel, to ECFA, Trinity Broadcast Network, the Christian Legal Society, Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, and online perpetuators (sp): All who reported HBC Elders’ defamation as fact, aided and abetted their defamation.“
Careful, online perpetuators…
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As far as the fan base, one may think of all of the potentially well-compensated professionals who had prosper motions and conferences, initiatives, etc. How many of them left a the word of warning to the winsomely-sheared sheep? Also, how many were scared off of doing so because of threats of lawsuits?
Add the consistent refusals to go out of one’s comfort zone and potentially jeopardize part of a gravy train, and what might the results of that be? When examining the fruits of some industry players versus the online perpetrators as it were who would dare to link to evidence and proof, which might hold up better?
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The Christian Industrial Complex cares not for the sheep … just give them what they want to keep the gravy train on the tracks. The dudebros within the NeoCal inner ring knew exactly who the real James MacDonald was behind his mask, but needed him to help draw a crowd to the NeoCal movement for a season.
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At least he had the wisdom and courage to not pursue ministry. American pulpits are full of rascals who view people as commodities and don’t care for their souls as they ought.
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Muff Potter,
Every person says BS on twitter. I aim to be different.
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Fair enough.
I can dig it.
All my life I’ve been a different drummer.
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dee,
balderdash, drivel dravel, gobbledygook, hogwash, poppycock, twiddle twaddle, claptrap, mumble jumble, flap a doodle, blither blather, applesauce.
(However, IMHO, this is not fair to applesauce. Some applesauce is legendary. The real deal.)
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I feel a call from the spirit to incorporate ‘balderdash’ more frequently. Thank you for reminding me!!
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Wait!!
I’m getting a word from the Lord too!!!
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There were 270 variations of codswallop listed. So many choices, so little time.
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My word is “mangelwurzel.”
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What is Mangelwurzel used for?
Mangelwurzel – Wikipedia
Contemporary use is primarily for cattle, pig and other stock fodder.
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You know, faking psych conditions (Tourettes, MPD/DID, and PTSD) is REAL trendy on TikTok these days.
“LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE!”
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JMac from Chicago.
Now he’s cosplaying bikers and getting in the news for Road Rage Assault.
Behold the Face of a Man Of GAWD, anointed by an Angel at a Wyoming gas station:
https://wonderingeagle.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/screenshot_20230121-164207_facebook.jpg
TOUCH NOT MINE ANOINTED!
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Perhaps cosplay, then getting in the news, is his vocation.
How many “pastors” are actually simply engaged in cosplay & getting in the news?
Is the megachurch stage actually a Hollywood set with cosplay? With a Hollywood-worthy green room? Broadcast live on mainstream media?
Bread and Spectacle were the two essential items to garner the loyalty of the public in the Roman Empire, under various Caesars. It seems almost irrational that the public can be pulled in or attracted, then manipulated and controlled, by providing coliseum spectacles, gladiators and chariot races and such. But that is the reality of history.
Is church just producing a weekly spectacle for the masses? We don’t see Christians torn to pieces by lions. Does the megachurch provide the experience of the tearing apart of the soul of shaded demographics, perhaps those who dissent against or have been assaulted by the religious industrial complex? When that church applauded Savage, were they cheering a leader who had assaulted a child? Coliseum sadism?
Jesus fed the 5,000 but the only Spectacle event in Jesus’ tenure was when he was very publicly condemned and executed by the religious leadership and the Roman governor. God, the Son of God, walked among us but did not produce spectacles. He had the power, but that is not how He used His power. He healed individuals like lepers, bleeding women, the disfigured and crippled, while resisting a display of these society cast-offs’ plights. He raised them up, completely without fanfare. No cosplay, no stage, no audience-seeking. Jesus was love in action. (Never ego in action. No cosplay. No getting in the news seeking.)
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This article is just the tip of the iceberg. James Macdonald is the perfect icon for “tip of the iceberg.” We only see what is caught on national news, video or photographs. How much more is going on that we cannot see. The reason Julie wrote so many articles was that there was more and more revealed as people began realizing that they were not the only ones seeing the monster behind the curtain. He is a dangerous man. He has absolutely no business being n any kind of ministry.
Story. 2014. My Dad’s only brother was living in Prescott Valley, AZ and an elder in his church. I visited on a side trip from work. I asked him about his church and he told this story. They had started as a small, about 25-30, person church. Somehow they heard of MacDonald and were enamored with his teaching ministry and so they joined his growing circle of churches that used his materials and supported his church planting efforts. This was early on. Somewhere in 2010-2012 they were contacted by someone in the church in Chicago who had a brother in the Prescott Valley church. He said there was a blow-up among the leadership over MacDonald’s handling of employees and his unwillingness to be accountable for finances. He was confronted over the berating he would regularly give employees, and he gave some wishy washy excuse where it was noticed that he used the passive voice the entire time. He never said “I did this or that.” It was all situational, misunderstood. They sent a letter asking for explanations and received a response that did not answer their questions. So they sent a contingent of 3 elders to Chicago to meet with elders there. By now the church is 300.
The elders refused to let the men from AZ speak to MacDonald, and they explained away all of the questions, in effect, as my uncle said “saying that we were inconsequential and not worth the time to give real answers to.”
That church dis-associated from Harvest in 2013. Far before it all became public.
I remember thinking, “Were they too pushy in their questioning?” But always had a question mark in my mind. And when JR wrote her article and the hot mic audio went public, I was not surprised. Not at all.
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There is a long conga line of such characters in New Calvinism; birds of a feather flock together you know. I fully expect to see other big dominoes falling soon in the NeoCal movement.
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Max,
Nice way of “putting it”.. a “long conga line”…
It just keeps turning my stomach… growing up in a fundamentalist background, they just pounded “us” about “holly living”.. ie. (I don’t drink, dance, or chew, or go with girls that do), yet the cover up of all of this “stuff” keeps coming out… notice, I said “cover up”… the idea that leaders “fall” is not the issue to me, the issue is “cover up”… or, as HUG like to say
“Do not touch my anoited”…. errrrr
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Bob M,
I wonder how his bid to start a new ‘church’ on Coronado Isle (San Diego) is going?
Mighty rich diggins’ on Coronado Isle if he can pull it off.
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The man lacks character and serious spiritual depth, if he is even a Christian. He can probably gather a crowd, but people will find out about his money grubbing and his anger and his lack of accountability. It will come back to bite him, either in being exposed and humbled before the Lord in repentance and confession (I know, the TWWers doubt that), or in just being exposed as a fake again. HIs track record is pretty clear, though.
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Jeff, don’t you know that holly living is what’s expected of a daughter of Stan? (Sorry, just couldn’t resist)
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Rage issues plus packing Emotional Support heat is not a good combination.
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James MacDonald is “Just like Andrew Tate, Except CHRISTIAN(TM)!”
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I remember Douggie ESQUIRE of Vision Forum was also heavily into cosplay but wouldn’t admit to it. Cosplay as in 18th-Century Nobleman, General Patton, and (to his Handmaid) High Commander of Holy Gilead.
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There’s a long line of such characters OUTSIDE of Calvinism, too.
Don’t get tunnel-visioned about one theology/shtick.
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i.e. Holiness defined in NEGATIVE terms – “Thou Shalt Nots”.
Perfect setup for Excessive Scrupulosity OCD; look how Kirk Cameron (Greatest CHRISTIAN Actor of All Time) ended up after that kind of catechism.
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Maybe he’s on TikTok.
Faking various disorders (especially Tourettes, DID/MPD, and PTSD) on TikTok shorts is VERY trendy these days for Likes and Subscribes and Followers. Instant Influencer!
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Agreed. This post deals with a one-time New Calvinist darling and the long NeoCal conga line of other such characters. Their theology certainly doesn’t have a corner the market when it comes to bad-boy preacher conga lines.
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Bob M,
The iceberg is that a great many people really DO know the inside track, already.
i – In 2011 I read about the bullying Ravi Z suffered in hospital aged 17 (and Sam Allberry had read that well before 2011) resulting in his sometimes deficient explanations (did a VP – OTUSA really involve himself in that theology?) I remember what it’s like to be 17 as if it was this morning.
ii – Lots of authorities and bystanders knew all along how M Pilavachi, who has whipped up hysteria, has been irregularly employed and ordained.
iii – And how my old senior elder’s mentor, whose books don’t make sense, would likely be mentally prone to the ensuing self-involvement in major clericalism scandals (through whom?)
iv – The influencer J Stott didn’t have honest enough logic about the subject of time.
Religion already didn’t add up – and we already admitted it TO ourselves. There was a rather clever TV sitcom set in a department store, “Grace Brothers”, titled “Are You Being Served” (sacred codependency references certainly intended in those days).
“Evangelicalism” (aside from its initial impulse in gin soaked times) a k a “muscular christianity” was to divert attention away FROM the whole of the teachings of Jesus for the whole of His people.
Beware of leaders who boast of relations with other leaders (like my animators with their hot lines) which is always a sign of a codependent system. I join a lot of churches and fellowships “in case”.