-In 2008, just after coming within 25 km (15.6 miles) of the surface of Enceladus, NASA’s Cassini captured this stunning mosaic as the spacecraft sped away from this geologically active moon of Saturn. NASA
“People who have never sued anyone or been sued have missed a narcissistic pleasure that is not quite like any other.”― The Journalist and the Murderer
David Sills can continue discovery of SBC parties.
You may remember that Sills lost his job at Southern Baptist Seminary after admitting to a long-term sexual relationship with a former student, Jennifer Lyell which he claims was consensual. Christianity Today wrote:
In a complaint filed November 21 in the Circuit Court of Mobile, Alabama, David Sills, a former professor of missions and cultural anthropology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, admits he lost his job in 2018 due to what he called “morally inappropriate consensual intimate” conduct with a student.
Sills claims the situation was consensual and alleges that SBC leaders, including Southern’s president, Albert Mohler, turned his confession against him, labeling him as an abuser.
They did so, according to the complaint, as a public relations stunt, aimed at improving the SBC’s reputation during a national sexual abuse scandal. That public relations effort, according to the suit, included an investigation by Guidepost Solutions into SBC leaders’ handling of alleged abuse cases, which was made public earlier this year.
He is suing a number of people and the SBC, along with other institutions.
The complaint names Southern seminary and Mohler, as well as the SBC’s Executive Committee, SBC President Bart Barber, and his predecessor Ed Litton as defendants, along with several other leaders. Also named as a defendant is Lifeway Christian Resources, a research and publishing arm of the SBC, and Guidepost Solutions.
What is the legal definition of discovery?
According to the American Bar Association:
To begin preparing for trial, both sides engage in discovery . This is the formal process of exchanging information between the parties about the witnesses and evidence they ll present at trial. Discovery enables the parties to know before the trial begins what evidence may be presented.
…One of the most common methods of discovery is to take depositions. A deposition is an out-of-court statement given under oath by any person involved in the case. It is to be used at trial or in preparation for trial. It may be in the form of a written transcript, a videotape, or both. In most states, either of the parties may take the deposition of the other party, or of any other witness. Both sides have the right to be present during oral depositions.
So why would the involved parties being sued want to avoid discovery?
Again, from the ABA:
Usually depositions consist of an oral examination, followed by cross-examination by the opposing side. In addition to taking depositions, either party may submit written questions, called interrogatories , to the other party and require that they be answered in writing under oath. If one party chooses to use an interrogatory, written questions are sent to the lawyer representing the other side, and that party has a period of time in which to answer.
Other methods of discovery include
- subpoenaing or requiring the other side to produce books, records or other documents for inspection (a subpoena is a written order issued by a court compelling a person to testify or produce certain physical evidence such as records);
- having the other side submit to a physical examination; or
- asking that a document be submitted for examination to determine if it is genuine.
So why would the parties being sued want to avoid discovery? It’s against the law to lie or withhold evidence during this time. In other words, Sills gets to see a lot of stuff that the SBC and others do not want him or others to see.
The Baptist Press posted Judge rules discovery may continue in Sillses’ lawsuit against SBC parties.
Some of those defendants had asked the Tennessee court to stay all legal discovery on the case pending resolution of a separate motion to dismiss the case entirely.
Why are they in a dither? It’s simple. They don’t want anyone to see all the stuff that Sills’ lawyer is asking for in discovery. Being a cynic, I wonder what juicy stuff they don’t want everyone, including you, to see.
They argued: “Even if this case never makes it to trial, permitting discovery will expose the denomination’s internal investigation to secular scrutiny and conflicts with the separation of church and state principles at the core of the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine. Moreover, a stay is also appropriate due to the woefully deficient nature of plaintiffs’ complaint.”
What is the ecclesial abstention doctrine?
The ecclesial abstention doctrine is a key legal concept that says secular courts may not interfere in the internal disputes of religious bodies. Applying — or not applying — that doctrine is key to several other cases currently pending against the SBC or its entities.
The Sillses contend the case at hand does not involve religious doctrine and therefore should not be subject to the ecclesial abstention doctrine.
The judge agreed and also said that the claims of the Sills were not “frivolous” as was contended by the other side.
“Reviewing the pleadings and pending dispositive motions, ‘this is simply not one of the rare cases where a complaint patently lacks merit such that staying discovery pending’ resolution of the motions to dismiss is appropriate.”
So, discovery can continue. I wonder what will be discovered?
Did you know there are now 28 lawsuits involving the SBC?
Baptist News gave a link to the site that tracks these lawsuits. It is a Twitter (X) account @SBCLitigation tracking since March 2023. Who knew??? Here is one of the tweets.
Johnny Hunt has the right to unseal Guidepost documents.
Baptist News reported ‘Pastor Johnny’ wins a bid to unseal Guidepost documents.
That case, Hunt v. Southern Baptist Convention et al, was brought by former SBC President Johnny Hunt, who was named repeatedly in the 2022 Guidepost report and who was forced from his job as executive vice president of the SBC North American Mission Board by accusations he had sexually assaulted a woman at a beach condo. Hunt, a prominent pastor and conference speaker, has admitted the encounter but has disputed the way it was described in the Guidepost report and denies it was abusive.
His case is being handled in the same court(Middle Tennessee office of the U.S. District Court ) as the above Sills lawsuit.
a judge ruling that Guidepost must produce records of its interviews with Hunt’s alleged victim and that some currently redacted records may not be shielded from public view.Guidepost had asked the court to seal portions of the record involving the alleged victim and her husband.
The judge disagreed. Here are some documents Hunt wanted and will now apparently get. See the entire list in the Baptist News article.
Court documents describe the materials in question as:
- “Audio recordings that the husband of the alleged sexual abuse survivor made of his counseling sessions with his wife and a purported marriage counselor.”
- “The husband’s private journal.”
- “A summary document that contained information provided by the alleged survivor and her husband to Guidepost’s investigators.”
- “Text messages exchanged between the alleged sexual abuse survivor and a Guidepost investigator who interviewed her for the report prepared by Guidepost.
Apparently, accusations against Hunt were more graphic than those in the report.
The unsealed documents also recount how Hunt allegedly sought to “gaslight” the woman and her husband and initiated counseling for them with Roy Blankenship, the unlicensed staff counselor at Hunt’s church, Woodstock Baptist in Georgia.
This may be what Hunt is after. Hunt is not mentioned in some of the requested items.
Guidepost has redacted from its public filing the fact that the contemporaneous audio recordings and written journal entries provided by the couple to Guidepost and referenced in Guidepost’s report do not mention any alleged sexual assault by Hunt. Indeed, Guidepost admits in its redacted filings that Hunt’s name is not mentioned at all in the audio recordings and the ‘isolated references’ to Hunt in the husband’s journal do not reference the supposed assault or ‘grooming.’”
According to Baptist News, the woman has retained the services of Boz Tchividjian, which is a good move, in my opinion.
Finally, Will McRaney continues his fight.
The SBC claims it is not a denomination with a hierarchal structure but a loose organization of autonomous churches. I believe this claim will be disproven in one or more of these lawsuits. Will McRaney continues his fight to be heard. Baptist News posted that McRaney warns dismissal of his case against NAMB raises an urgent threat to Baptist’s autonomy.
Unless challenged, one judge’s ruling could have profound implications for Baptist autonomy, according to Will McRaney, whose defamation suit against the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board was dismissed Aug. 15.
“The judge’s ruling is built around the erroneous concept of ‘THE’ Baptist Church as a denomination like the Catholic or Methodist Church,” McRaney said in a statement to Baptist News Global late Aug. 16. “However, the First Amendment clearly declares that the government cannot create or establish a religion.
“Unless this court’s ruling is challenged, the SBC, Baptist ministers, along with Baptist autonomy, cooperation, financial health and missionaries will be under threat of loss and a form of hierarchy created,” he said.
Although the judge threw out his lawsuit, he plans to appeal. According to Baptist Message: McRaney to appeal ruling in lawsuit against NAMB.
The SBC has 28 cases, and I guess that number will rise. It looks like the money that should go to missionaries and churches will go to the lawyers. Tithers should consider diverting their funds to the intended recipients.
Where’s the popcorn?
It looks like allot embarrassing stuff is going to be exposed…
Jeffrey Chalmers,
And for the people that like to criticize TWW, and us posters, for getting “pleasure” from all of this, my comment above does not mean I “enjoy this stuff”, it just means it look like allot of drama is coming….. and it would not be if the “organization(s) would have “done the right thing” from the beginning…
My interpretation of the situation is that the expansive litigation targets and discovery process is intended to pressure the respondents to settle on terms satisfactory to the plaintiffs, in exchange for sealing of the records.
Samuel Conner,
the implication being that the results of discovery will probably not be made public. Also concealed, likely, would be the size of settlements. We would know that something happened to end the litigation, but we probably won’t know how much was paid, or precisely what was kept undisclosed at what cost.
Samuel Conner,
All on SBC donors dime!!
Dee, have you seen the posts made by Brent Detweiler regarding abuse and bullying by John MacArthur and his side kick, Paul Johnson? l know this is not relevant to the case in hand but someone mentioned MacArthur in response to the last post. These “leaders” are the opposite of how Scripture portrays the godly and humble and righteous men and women who are called to serve their fellow travelers.
“The SBC has 28 cases, and I guess that number will rise. It looks like the money that should go to missionaries and churches will go to the lawyers. Tithers should consider diverting their funds to the intended recipients.”
Every SBC church (there are 45,000+) designates a percentage of church tithes & offerings to be sent to the parent organization … for missions, evangelism, and to support various entities (seminaries, mission agencies, etc.). Along the way, millions of dollars are siphoned off to pay for this and that. I hope payment of legal fees for these God-awful cases is neither this or that, but I suspect it is.
Yep, individual churches might consider funding their own missionaries and evangelists. It seems to me that would be more faithful stewardship of pewsitter dollars, given that the national SBC has wandered off course in so many ways (for example, financing the New Calvinist rebellion by a denomination which had been distinctly non-Calvinist for 150 years until Al Mohler showed up). It appears that there are other missions driving SBC right now, rather than the Great Commission. Congregations support this mess when they blindly drop their money into the offering plate … it’s time for Southern Baptists to hold the higher-uppers accountable. They attempt to do that at the annual conference, but very few SBC churches send “messengers” to that meeting these days; the vast majority are not represented and thus have no say.
Grainne Mcdonald,
Amen
Jeffrey Chalmers,
There are 28 lawsuits! Buy megabowls of popcorcn.
Grainne Mcdonald,
I’ve been following this. It has been going on a very, very long time. I may try to do a post in the near future.
There’s been an outbreak of that in the American church. IMHO, very few church leaders are called by God into the sacred office of pastor … they went into the ministry on their own. Thus, just about anything can go wrong … and it does.
“The SBC has 28 cases, and I guess that number will rise.”
So, orange is replacing the traditional clerical black? As in “Orange is the New Black”?
Isn’t it Phil Johnson?
The guy who was so giddy he nearly wet himself when McA said “Go home!” to Beth Moore?
“TOUCH NOT MINE ANOINTED!”, remember.
…cannot be trusted with them.
That’s what it comes down to without the Christianese terminology:
The SBC Cannot Be Trusted.
Sounds like the SBC wants special consideration that would not be afforded to say, the Catholic Church, or the Lutheran Church.
(That is if the above main article can be boiled down into one sentence)
However, leaders gotta lead and followers gotta follow.
If it looks like a cult, walks like a cult, and quacks like a cult, maybe it’s a cult. D’ya think? Just maybe?
Definitions may tell:
-a system of religious devotion to a particular figure or object.
-a group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded as sinister or destructive.
-a network of excessive admiration for a particular person or thing.
-a group led by charismatic and self-appointed leader(s), who excessively control(s) its members, requiring unwavering devotion to beliefs and practices which are considered deviant (outside the norms of society).
The underbelly accepted in some churches is not only deviant, sinister, and destructive, it is criminal. There are practices that cross the line in terms of power (submission), vice (like CSA and DV), and money (the NT “tithe”).
Churches can be a community to practice DV, CSA, and extortion with impunity.
Let’s just acknowledge that I’ve been reading Sarah Stankorb’s articles on “Vice” and “Slate”. She’s zeroing in on a particular network that would pass in the above defs of a cult. Clearly this group operates “above the law” in a we-are-so-much-better than the law style. On so many levels.
Brava, writer Sarah Stankorb, for your research.
Now back to the Bible. Nothing about Jesus, his disciples, and the NT church in any way comes even close to qualifying as a cult in the above definitions.
Our devotion to Jesus is never deviant, self-destructive, sinister, or criminal. Our agency, both for men and women, thrives, unsuppressed, with Jesus. From day one, even children in Jesus’ care, daily acquire greater agency as they learn and grow, hopefully in a safe protected environment.
God creates both men and women with equal dignity and agency.
We are, both man and woman, created in the image of God. We are created with purpose for lives of flourishing. As friends with God in this day and age, we are each gifted with at least one gift of the HS (Rom 12, 1 Cor 12, Eph 4), for the benefit of others in the church. GIFTS, never transactional.
We run, don’t walk, fast and furious from any leader or community claiming to be spiritual that is LESS than how God has created us, how Jesus saves us, and how God’s Holy Spirit sustains us. Praise God.
Thanks Dee. MacArthur’s influence is huge. It is Phil Johnson – I think I was typing too fast!
According to: “Let Us Prey: A Ministry of Scandals” the 2023 doc exposing the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) Churches, orange is replacing the clerical black for some IFB clergy. We see this literally right in the doc, in Court. The DOJ and LE doing their jobs.
So, the SBC currently has 28 cases, with the possibility that that number will rise.
However, the Houston Chronicle’s “Abuse of Faith” database documents that already Orange is the New Black, OITNB, for hundreds of SBC clergy, as a matter of public record:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/abuse-of-faith/database/
A list of red flags regarding cult-type clergy characteristics is possible, without defaming anyone.
A list of red flags regarding cult-type communities is possible without defaming any community.
Data, public record, and the internet are tools worth using.
Simon Sinek notes the long game. A kumbaya weekend doesn’t tell the truth. 30 years is closer to reality. Many religious leaders and communities have been around for at least 3 decades.
You will know by their fruit, Jesus said. Love one another is the sign by which all know we are children of God, Who is love. 1 John.
Not taking seriously a violated child, a beaten wife, or a violated wife is never love.
How leaders and communities treat the least of the least (the anawim through no fault of their own, like widows, the displaced, orphans) is the window to our hearts. It’s what we are made of.
Are we, like God, made of love? The question. The codes and categories Christians, like the priest and Levite, walk on by the plundered so they can stay on schedule and in their lane as defined by their community.
But NOT defined by Jesus, nor on God’s schedule.
The Good Samaritan, like Jesus, lived love relationally with God first, and reached out to that plundered guy on the side of the road, as led by God’s Holy Spirit. Love.
Love is the question and the answer. God is love.
“Many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.”
Ava Aaronson,
. . . and boys and girls TOGETHER – when NOT “copulating”.
The figureheads bringing cases have found their basis betrayed by those who ought to have upheld it. Revs Sills, Hunt and the others similar, were given their template by the materialist dominionist / dispensationist Falwell Senior (more wartburgers should denounce him, more often) and by some non protestant lookalike; and religious authorities (YRR style or, in England, Nash-Stott style reinforced by new apostolic – to replace trust in Holy Spirit in us each *) were specifically given the task of upholding that very paradigm.
{ * Who had been sent by their “precious” Jesus on His Ascending – UNVETOED }
Body theology (sex obsession) and its totalist variant gender theology with identikit secular manifestations, building first on the Teddy Roosevelt / John Wayne look (K K Du Mez) and turning the minimums of the false top-down ecumenism of the “guaranteed pure” premium Fundamentals into the new maximums (Tim Gloege) by worldly arrangement (Lerone Martin) (to cite objective documenters): acted out by sorcerers’ apprentices. Seeking to strongarm re “birth control” instead of supplicating as advised (e.g in 1917) set the precedent.
My message to religion authorities which is where this counterpush must start: stay out of children’s body parts and supplicate instead. Daniel 9: 3-21. Religion has been turned into salad – with too much “iceberg” in it !!! It defies all Word !!!
There is something rotten in the state of Victoria.
And the Episcopalians
https://religionnews.com/2023/12/01/the-episcopal-church-reckons-with-tangled-protocol-on-clergy-abuse-and-accountability/?utm_source=pushly
I’ve just been reading her stuff, too. Talk about a coincidence!
This reply is offensive.
My understanding is that TWW came to be to expose the violation of children in the church.
Such a sentence in this reply comment, IMHO, violates children.
We do not go there, in churches, on blogs, in comments, do we?
A huge danger of exposing the violation of children is to sensationalize, to normalize, to be disrespectful, to be titillating, to be descriptive, to be cavalier, to talk/write “dirty” for the cause, etc. It is further violation.
One of the great qualities about the new doc, “Let Us Prey” about IFB church leaders, is the complete respect and integrity in exposing horrific acts.
Dee, if you see the reply to me with the comment that begins with the offending sentence, and deem it worthy to erase the above offending comment, please also erase this my reply and comment, too.
I’d rather never see that sentence again.
Michael in UK,
I think you’re going round the bend.
This is sounding more and more like a buzzword-filled kook rant.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
Because you appear to not trouble to study any facts or describe them you make yourself look like a reality denier. A sole value of such people is shoot the messenger just like the people they claim to hate (for their actions) do. The people they put up a thin pretence of criticising are the kooks with the buzzwords. You maybe don’t think anyone is vulnerable to them especially yourself? Have you heard of theology? Do you think we should confine ourselves to deploring bad manners? I know more about Californian religion (and elsewhere) than you do about religion in England, because we have had visiting “authorities” from there and their films and books, and I’m closer to some of the things that began in England and you may not know much about. Was it not the first job of those “authorities” to supplicate, instead of manoeuvre? If spiritual matters are important, what does distorting them look like? Here at Dee’s some of us thought we could exercise the call to show that for what it is. Is “going round the bend” supposed to have as denegatory a connotation before a world readership as “kook rant”? My presbyterian elder friend’s wife doesn’t think there is a chapter 14 in Genesis. If you are curious about some detailed allusion why not make neutral specific enquiry? It’s more than half a lifetime since you dropped out of whatever (and should be grateful for your move) which wasn’t supposed to imply non respect for those of us who interpret our own ideals in our own way. I’m not the only one that has left to you and continues to leave to you the room for yours. By the way some people have different pragmatic language ability than yours. By the way ruthless deceivers take wicked advantage of that. I am eyewitness to male authority on young male mass verbal poison aimed at causing male-female and male-male enmity in conjunction with religious distortion and I respect each one of our’s unique way of resisting that: please do too. I have valued Dee’s space for prayerful mutual assistance in problem solving by exchanging observations.
Ava Aaronson,
I’m alluding to the universal attitude of the body and gender theologians. I did word it badly. I need to stop commenting on them, but somebody should instead. In my young day we thought men, women, boys and girls, were “in it together”, pulling together, in this life. There was bad prejudice e.g unequal wages. Now though, the situation has become theological and I saw that start.
St Paul keeps saying, stop oppressing your wives and children which justified them in rebelling.
The SBC leaders, for virtue signaling purposes, wanted to be seen as a hive of sex abusers so they make a big deal of repenting publicly and then clean things up. But the leaders didn’t think things through clearly.
The Guidestone report found no sex abuse at the SBC office over a period of 20 to 30 years. The report rehashed the Houston Chronicle story of sex abuses in churches over a period of years. And the Guidestone report alleges bad abusive behavior or not addressing abusive behavior properly by 4 members of the Executive Committee over the 20 or 30 year period. And the report retold the story of a woman who claimed abuse by a Southern Seminary professor, Sills.
The Guidestone report, by any reading, is a political document, not an investigation.
The SBC ignored the counsel of its lawyers and used the Guidestone report as a sole basis of restructuring the denomination and for making statements and judgments about some of the people mentioned in the report.
The SBC also entered into a contract in which the SBC agreed to indemnify Guidestone for any of Guidestone’s acts. That makes the SBC liable not only for its own acts but also Guidestone’s acts.
The DOJ, now run by a President who neither understands or likes evangelicals, decided if a major religious denomination says they’re a hive of sex abuse, the DOJ will believe them and act accordingly.
Ordinarily, the SBC could push back on DOJ activity that has no predicate. But the SBC pledged full cooperation, probably thinking things would end soon. Knowing this DOJ, that was naive. And after the DOJ has finished with the SBC headquarters, it might move on to the agencies, one by one.
So, the SBC has to defend all of these lawsuits for the act of virtue signaling rather than using due care. Reports are that the SBC is burning through its cash reserves at a rate that its accountants have said is unsustainable. Rumors are that the SBC is considering selling its headquarters building to get cash – to pay lawyers. In most cases, insurance would pay many of these legal bills. In this case, who knows? The SBC leaders waived attorney client privilege to show how sincere they were in addressing sex abuse. People opposed to that move, including the SBC’s own lawyers, said it could jeopardize insurance relationships. Whether that has happened is not known.
What is known, is that the SBC executive committee, because of the decision to waive attorney client privilege and the jeopardy to having insurance coverage, lost most if not all of the professional laymen who served on that committee. The committee members employed by large secular employers do not allow their employees to serve on nonprofit boards that do not carry significant directors and officers insurance. I believe a couple dozen men and women who worked in the fields of law, finance, securities, or other areas of business, resigned from the executive committee. It left committee made up primarily of pastors. That was a couple of years ago. That situation may have been remedied with new insurance relationships and new appointments to the committee.
The picture is of a train moving along toward the end of the track with no one at the controls.
The 45,000 churches still want to do missions cooperatively. And they will. They will either work around the SBC and give directly to the missions agencies, or ultimately form new organizations such as the one reported on previously, ACME. Any new organizations may have some of the same SBC people involved or in charge, ironically. But they will not be set up to encourage virtue signaling by stampeding pastors at annual meetings to do unwise things.
As to whether any of these lawsuits have merit, it’s hard to say. Emails between major players might be interesting. As might financial arrangements between various persons, like Guidestone and SBC officers or executive committee members or consultants like Rachel Denhollander.
You have to be careful when making pronouncements and assertions about people in the public square, or smearing them privately to damage their reputation and employment opportunities, as McRaney alleges.
Failing to be careful and accurate can cost a lot of money.
I find this very interesting and a discussion that many people are having.
Ava Aaronson,
In some countries there is a move in some churches to rethink those churches’ youth ministry model. Some youth ministers had by their words (or under cover of senior pastors’ teachings) promulgated depravity talk as cover for their joining in (soften up the defences of the youth). At secondary school I witnessed simply a couple of variations on that:
– a former RE department converted by its teacher in charge, to “trendy” secular ethics (if you see what I mean) (once the spiritual climate allowed him to act under the rubric of “civics”)
– the same teacher who was supposed to supervise Christian Union but left hurriedly
Billions of people are lonely and in grief because historic customary prejudice got beefed up by theological guilt. Gender theology is body theology not spelled out. Body theology is “trendy” ethics in religious trappings; private matters made an issue of.
In most of these various cases I keep hearing the defense made that “It was consensual” or at least a sort of “I thought it was consensual.”
Hogwash. If you consider yourself called to preach, or called to lead in any capacity in the church, you have to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.
And that means no sex with anyone outside of your own heterosexual marriage. (That is offensive both to the lesbians and homosexuals AND to the straights that want to stray, but it is what it is.)
In the SBC, there is no wiggle room for any other form of sex being ok for either clergy or laity. There are other groups if you don’t like this, go hang out with them.
So these guys need to immediately voluntarily step down. Adultery and fornication render them unfit to serve whether it met legal standards for abuse or not.
But here is the problem: most SBC members have either had sex outside of heterosexual marriage, or have kids that did. Maybe they all cohabited. So they don’t want to “judge” and we all can quote what Jesus said about judging others. Thing is that same Jesus commanded us to judge actions. Not people, not souls, but actions.
But if you fire Pastor Bob for messing around with whoever he messed with, consensual or not, people might expect you to repent of your past or current messing around. And very few pew sitters want to walk the walk, either.
A corrupt laity supports corrupt clergy.
Sounds to me like we need a major revival.
I believe you have been badly hurt in the church, as have many on TWW. Still, I have never run into a body and gender theologian, let alone enough of them to form a universal attitude. Sure, I can imagine what you might mean, but my guess would differ from others’.
I don’t disagree with you. Rather, your experience of abuse is not mine. Your words sometimes suggest that all of us have experienced the same thing, or that it’s being ignored or denied.
That disturbs me. It causes me to stop and wonder if I am damaged in some way I cannot recognize. This thought process is not good for me.
You are one person with a unique story. You deserve healing and wholeness, and I hope you will seek what you need.
Thank you again, Ava. Your words reminding us of the character of God are like a spring of water in the desert.
Thank you, Ariel, for your encouragement. God bless. A hundredfold, no less.
Actors would have no stage if it weren’t for an audience willing to buy tickets to the show. In America, there are lots of pewsitters that love pulpiteers who live no differently than they do … it makes them feel better about themselves.
Without it, America will spiral deeper into moral and spiritual chaos. “IF My People … THEN Will I” … but will we? The prayerlessness of God’s people is deafening.
Friend,
When one mourns / rejoices, all mourn / rejoice, at first without noticing. Spiritual antinomianism was rolled out differently in the UK from in various districts of the US. Max has made the point (together with linda) at 10.25, and I touched on it in my last few segments under the thread “Thinking about … Repentance look like”.
I am hurt because all my generation and subsequent ones (and some before, who reportedly went to dubious camps or schools) are hurt. I watched it being done to them and it is why some people are lonely and some people are in fear.
Jerry Falwell Senior, of materialist “influencing” strategy, was a foremost body theologian on the protestant side (its label was promoted by non protestants). Strong complementarians (covert ESS propagandists) exemplify gender theology (my label).
(My parents believed in mere complementar-ITY of individuals, and struggled from unequal wages.)
Secular ideologies are reactions against bad spiritual theology not the other way round. Bad spiritual theology in turn was the cover for what went on in certain camps and schools. Was turning the Fundamentals (and Articles of Confessions) from minimums into maximums, was Bismarck’s interfering with German religion, was some denominations’ intruding into couple’s privacy over “birth control”, adequate against modern challenges? The unfashionably Arminian Spurgeon at least urged the teaching of prayer.