There have been so many sexual abuse scandals that have come to light within the last few years that it’s hard to keep up with them all. One of the most recent scandals involves the International House of Prayer, Kansas City (IHOPKC). IHOPKC has been one of the better-known organizations within the Charismatic wing of American Christianity. IHOPKC is known for its prayer ministry that is carried on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Mike Bickle was the senior pastor up until December 2023. He allegedly has sexually abused several women over the years. If you want to obtain a detailed account of what has been happening I recommend you watch this video podcast “Wake Up and Win” by husband and wife team of Blaise and Christina Foret. Alternatively, you can read the ground-breaking story by Julie Roys here.
In an attempt to get a handle on the burgeoning crisis within the IHOPKC organization, leaders hired two men – Retired Major General Kurt Fuller and Eric Volz. Volz serves as the “point man” – the official spokesman for IHOPKC.
I understand the appointment of Fuller – by all appearances, he is a strong Christian and has two daughters who went through 3 years of school at IHOPKC. After they graduated, one became the administrative assistant to Stewart Greaves, the other to Daniel Lim.
Why Volz was appointed, and who was responsible for the appointment is not clear to me. Volz claims he has visited IHOPKC on several occasions, but I know of no other connections.
I started to research who Eric Volz is, but it wasn’t easy to determine much about his past. The best source I found was this book authored by Volz. The book is available on Kindle.
Volz doesn’t deal with specific dates as he writes about his early life. He was born in 1979. We learn his mom and dad were divorced and his mom’s parents had immigrated to the USA from Mexico. In his younger years, Volz wasn’t interested in his heritage, but as he grew older his interest grew and he learned to speak Spanish. He was a solitary type. He took to rock climbing and was very proficient. After three years in an unspecified Community College, he was accepted to the University of California, San Diego. He became interested in political science and he made some “interesting’ friends. In his words, Volz:
“had the good fortune to meet a number of politically engaged teachers who strongly influenced developing perspectives in their fields. First, I met Ignacio Ochoa—“Nacho”—a young Guatemalan dissident. Nacho and I became close enough that, years later, when he needed a safe place to lay low after his activism in Guatemala put his life in danger, I arranged for his protection in Nicaragua. After he left the university, I ran into him again when we both enrolled in a San Diego State course taught by the Mexican human-rights activist Victor Clark Alfaro. Victor’s class actually met in Tijuana, and, although it was officially sanctioned, he kept the class under low profile and always had one or two armed men standing guard over our meetings. Victor was constantly receiving death threats and had had some close calls. I bonded with Victor in much the same way I had with Nacho, and I remember riding in his car through the backstreets of TJ with all my senses on fire, alert to the danger. This was the first of many times I would be in a group that would use car swapping as a safety precaution.
Through Nacho, I met Julio Cesar Montes, the notorious Guatemalan revolutionary and activist with whom I developed an equally close relationship. Known as El Comandante, Montes had founded the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR) in the early 1960s, later commanded the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP) during Guatemala’s thirty-six-year civil war, and served the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador and even fought alongside my future captors—the Sandinistas of Nicaragua. Montes knew that I had also become interested in filmmaking, and about a half a year after our meeting, I found myself in Guatemala with him, shooting video for a documentary. Cesar Montes was the real deal, a modern revolutionary, grassroots activist, and soldier, a man who lived in shadows, except when he would give a speech at an event. In Cesar’s world, you had to stay sharp and alert. Everybody had a gun, and everybody had a secret. It was an intense existence, and while the possibility of violence constantly hung in the air, you learned that letting the fear get the better of you endangered the lives of everyone around you, not to mention the cause for which they were making so many sacrifices. As in climbing, I had to learn to channel fear into focus, and also as in climbing, we all had to be light and fast and sure of every step. Seeing the world through Cesar Montes’s eyes changed my understanding on many levels. I saw the painful past and present of Central America up close, in the kind of detail that most North Americans never see. I saw people risking everything, including their own lives, for something larger. Following Montes around the mountains and jungles of Guatemala was at times a little sketchy, but it was always inspirational. Together, people like Nacho and Victor and Montes woke me up to a different kind of life.
I made a special arrangement with UCSD to finish my undergraduate degree and senior thesis abroad, in the Dominican Republic. The United States and Mexico aren’t the only countries with border issues. The dynamics between the peoples of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, two tiny countries sharing a small Caribbean island, were as fragile and volatile and relevant as anything I could study in the United States. My experience there allowed me to see how easily and quickly random trouble can flare up around innocent people. When I returned to California my life had come to be more about the world south of the border. I spoke as much Spanish as I did English. I found myself immersed in all these underworlds of the immigrant experience, such as that of my Mexican friends who would paddle their boards up from south of the border and surf into the United States on the morning tide.”
Source:”Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare (pp. 8-10). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition
It appears Volz had become radical in his political views. He later traveled to Iraq as a photojournalist. I am unsure where he obtained his training to shoot videos of revolutionaries and become a photojournalist in Iraq, nor do I know how he financed his globe-hopping expeditions. In his book, Volz stated neither of his parents or step-dad were wealthy. Eventually, Volz moved to Nicaragua to surf and start a monthly magazine with a friend. While there he began a relationship with Doris Jimenez, a beautiful Nicaraguan woman.
In reading Volz’s book I started thinking Volz must have, at some point, become an “asset” for the U.S. government. I am not the only person thinking this because Volz wrote:
“Eric, your government has been very involved in your case and there is speculation that you are an agent from the CIA. Tell me, is this true?” Though the assertion has not one shred of truth, it would be repeated many times over in the coming months.”
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare (p. 190). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
I will explain my reasoning for thinking Volz was an intelligence agent further down in the article. For now, suffice it to say that Volz was being honest when he denied being an agent for the CIA. You should know, however, that the CIA is just one of approximately 17 U.S. government agencies that have intelligence agents on their payrolls. One of the other agencies is the State Department.
“The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) is an intelligence agency in the United States Department of State.[1] Its central mission is to provide all-source intelligence and analysis in support of U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy.[2] INR is the oldest civilian element of the U.S. Intelligence Community and among the smallest, with roughly 300 personnel.[3] Though lacking the resources and technology of other U.S. intelligence agencies,[4] it is “one of the most highly regarded” for the quality of its work.” -Wickepedia
Volz and Doris Jimenez eventually broke up, although they remained in contact. On November 21, 2006 Jimenez was brutally raped and murdered. One day later the U.S. State Department calls Volz to check up on him! No suspects had yet been named. How many of you think the State Department would check in with you if you were in a situation like this? Here is what Volz says about the phone call:
“My cell phone rang again while I was in Reyes’s office. The thing hadn’t stopped ringing since I’d left Managua. This time, the caller identified himself as Mike Poehlitz, the RSO—regional security officer—of the American embassy in Nicaragua. The RSO is responsible not only for the safety and security of the diplomatic personnel but also serves as official liaison between the United States and the host country’s law-enforcement or other agencies. Doris’s murder in San Juan del Sur was already making news. Poehlitz needed some eyes and ears “on the ground,” someone who could tell him exactly what was happening in San Juan so he could anticipate if there would be fallout for Americans there. It’s not a big country, so you can imagine how small the community of Americans there is. If Poehlitz asked around, as I’m sure he did, any number of sources would have given him my name. In fact, the American embassy already knew me; I had been meeting regularly with the economic officer there with updates on the progress of EP. Poehlitz mostly just listened to what I knew of the murder and the current situation in San Juan. He said little, except to tell me, “Be careful and keep me updated.”
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare (p. 47). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
I don’t want to get too involved in all that went on in this case other than to say I believe Volz was innocent of the murder. He was set up and individuals high in the Nicaraguan government appear to be responsible for the sham ruling of the Judge who claimed Volz was guilty and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. The State Department was involved in helping him every step of the way. I will cite some examples below.
“On Feb. 16, 2007, Eric Volz was found guilty of murdering his Nicaraguan ex-girlfriend Doris Ivania Jimenez. She had been found hogtied, raped and strangled to death in the back of her clothing boutique in the touristy beach town of San Juan del Sur on Nicaragua’s Pacific coast. However, a second man, Julio Martin Chamorro, a small-town bully with the reputation of being a “tourist leech,” stood trial alongside Volz and was also found guilty of the murder. Both he and Volz were sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Then, after nearly 10 months in jail, Volz was vindicated on Dec. 14 by an Appeals Court in Granada, which ruled in a 2-1 split decision to absolve him of all charges, while upholding the sentence against Chamorro. Yet before Volz’s release papers could be signed, his voluminous case file was mysteriously “lost,” prompting his lawyers to cry foul. In the meantime, even though his passport has been ordered returned to him, he has not been allowed out of jail and cannot leave Nicaragua because the judge at his original trial has not signed off on the release order.
“There are some dark forces at play here,” defense counsel Fabbrith Gomez told TIME, adding that his client is now being detained illegally — an opinion shared by appellate judge Roberto Rodriguez. The U.S. Embassy has weighed in with a letter asking the authorities to “implement a decision as quickly as possible” and assure for Volz’s well-being and security while under state custody.
The decision to free Volz sent a shockwave around the country this week and revived a old debate on whether justice is applied equally to foreigners and Nicaraguans, and to rich and poor. The decision to free Volz and not Chamorro seems to have divided people along class lines, with most expatriates and wealthier Nicaraguans applauding the decision. The vast majority of poor Nicaraguans, however, complain that it is another case of the rich getting away with murder.
Time – Gringo Justice in Nicaragua By Tim Rogers/Granada Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007
According to the recording, the response that the expert gave police is: “Look, he said he could say everything, past and how he could help us, but then refused to sign his statement and said no, that he, the Ambassador told him to say nothing,” was the response of the police officer.”
Source: Nuevo Diario Newspaper Jan 24th, 2007, Doris Ivania Jimenez blog.
Below we read that the State Department was instrumental in helping Volz get a private security force armed with military rifles to protect Volz. Again, I am sure the State Department would do the same for you or me were we in similar circumstances.
“The third morning of the trial brought a flood of new press, including one of the most damaging articles published about me throughout this ordeal. Again, El Nuevo Diario was the culprit. “Que Corona Tiene Volz?” (What Crown Does Volz Have?) the front page screamed. The article described a squadron of mercenaries armed with AR-15 machine guns with an accompanying photograph (only one member of the security team carried such a weapon) and decried the presence of what was depicted as a private army on Nicaraguan soil. Other papers picked up the story, all asking how such an insult to the competency of their own police and security people, not to mention to Nicaraguan sovereignty and national security, could have ever been allowed. The papers’ only intention was to fan the flames of anti-Volz sentiment across the country.”
“All the advance planning and efforts at cooperation; all the high-level government meetings, phone calls from no less important a person than the U.S. ambassador, and approvals; all the hoops the team had jumped through—they all blew up in our faces. It seemed that we’d never be able to undo the damage caused.”
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua (pp. 143-144). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
*There were indications that Hollmann resented my defense effort. Tim Rogers reported on the Time.com Web site on January 24, 2007, that “San Juan del Sur’s Sandinista Mayor, Eduardo Hollmann, had a heated phone exchange with U.S. Ambassador Paul Trivelli” regarding the lynch-mob incident. Rogers quotes Hollmann as saying, “He (Trivelli) told me ‘You don’t have lynch mobs in a civilized country?’ and I told him, ‘Yeah, didn’t you used to lynch blacks in the United States?’ ”
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare (pp.130-131, 149). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.“It was a bad sign when Toruño ordered the police not to allow the U.S. Embassy personnel into the courtroom for the reading of the verdict. Something was about to go down if she was prepared to implement that kind of diplomatic insult.”
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare (p. 147). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.The first step—and in the end the most important step we ever took—was adding a new member to the team, a fixer, a consultant who brought knowledge, experience, and sheer heroic commitment to the job of helping me. This man was Bob Lady, a former CIA operative who came recommended by Simon Strong, the investigator hired by Green-burg Traurig.
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare (p. 153). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.The next day, Madeleine Albright visited Nicaragua. The former secretary of state met with Arnoldo Alemán and his wife, and she probably met with Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, as well. We have reason to believe that she acted on our request to raise the issue of my case and appeal.
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua (pp. 238-239). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.By that time, even the staffers at the U.S. Embassy had begun referring to me as a “political prisoner.”Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua (p. 239). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
The hospital seemed to be buzzing. The hospital director came by and repeated the news about the verdict, and before long guards started poking their heads into my room, telling me of the verdict, letting me know that things were going to start happening, that I was going to be released, but nobody was sure when. Shortly after, I could hear someone arguing in a non-native Spanish accent outside my door. Two U.S. Embassy officials had come to get my signature in order to get me a passport.
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua (p. 243). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.A Nica government official named Omar Cabezas went on television to condemn the appeals verdict. He called it “repugnante”—repugnant—and repeated all the lies about me: I’d offered a million dollars to Mercedes, I’d paid off the appellate judges with cash, and so on. He claimed that “in order for Eric Volz to be able to move U.S. congressman, thousands of supporters, and Condoleezza Rice from the State Department, and the U.S. Embassy, he must be very powerful . . . and it proves that he is related to a senator very close to President Bush in the Republican party.”
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua (pp. 247-248). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Finally, I have listed below every statement I could find in Volz’s book having to do with his Christian faith. I wasn’t impressed, but in an attempt to be charitable, I note that his book was written in 2009. In 14 years, I expect he has grown in his faith and knowledge.
One guy in particular made a deeper, spiritual contribution. That was Pastor Mario, a true agent of grace. Once a kidnapper and a drug pilot, Pastor Mario held a daily Bible-study gathering at the end of our hallway. I realize that stories of men turning to God in prison go back as far as written history will take us. The phenomenon turns up so often in memoirs that some have even called it cliché. But there is a reason why. Prison is a journey to the furthest reaches of suffering, loneliness, and danger. When you face the reality of death, you are forced to ask big questions. Inevitably, you arrive at the issue of what happens when your life ends. For me personally, I started to feel like there has to be more to this than I’m just screwed. In the Bible study I came to understand that the possibility of life after death allows one to maintain hope even in the depths of pain. For my part, I was raised with a Christian faith. Not in-your-face fundamentalism but a simple, everyday Christian consciousness and lifestyle. My family felt comfortable with a Christianity that made room for all kinds of people and all shades of believers. In La Modelo, where I was thrust into emotional and psychological solitude, my relationship with God took on much more significance and so played a greater role in my life. The daily sessions with Pastor Mario did not “bring me to God,” but they certainly gave me a map. Study, writing, and prayer gave structure to my previously vague feelings of faith and provided logical purpose and direction for the battle I was fighting.
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua (pp. 179-180). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.In the first months of my sentence, I occupied myself with the practicalities of survival—learning the ropes, setting up my systems, mentally lining up my allies and enemies, establishing my rank, and so on. I had not yet arrived at the understanding that my spiritual faith would itself become the most significant practical element of survival, that God would make it possible to survive, but I was starting to get small indications. I had never in my life felt so completely alone, but really I hadn’t even glimpsed the far reaches of despair I would experience later. I still hadn’t gotten used to the complete absence of all the things in life that provided the feedback one uses to define oneself. Magazines, job, Internet, clothing style, friends, lovers, family, community—all the stuff we use to help us manufacture our illusion of joy, importance, success—it was all gone, so far out of reach. The human resources had run out. It was like being stripped bare, with no one even there to see you exposed. In those studies with Pastor Mario I began to grasp what it meant to be saved and to feel the fullness of God’s grace rushing in to fill the void. Very soon after I came to dos alta I began receiving letters of support written to the Web site, which were printed and brought to me. I can’t count the times some letter, even just a quick note of encouragement from a complete stranger, brought me back from the edge of desperation. People I knew I’d never meet would take the time to write down their prayers, share with me their stories, tell me of their love or even of their own pain. The letters became my own private epistles, almost like a bible edited just for my situation. Some letters had practical advice—“chew your food until it is like soup to extract the maximum amount of nutrients possible”—others held spiritual insight: “God is kind but not soft.” Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare (pp. 180-181). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
I refused to let my story end that way. I had no choice but to lean on faith—faith in God, whose presence I felt in the letters that came to me from around the world; faith in my parents, whose love was reason enough to keep going; faith in Tio Bob and in Fabbrith and in all the others who in different ways and in different places around Nicaragua and the world were turning over every last rock until they found the key to my release.
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua (p. 205). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.Two days later, the twenty-third, I marked the end of one full year in captivity. It would turn out to be a day full of new twists and developments, but for me it began as a day of spiritual reflection. My eyes were opening after a year in captivity, and I was able now to see some hint of purpose in this whole ordeal. I saw with great clarity the flawed priorities of the life I had led. I had been reaching for money; telling myself that money begets power, that power begets mobility, that mobility makes positive social change possible. I had believed that ideas without resources would not get you very far. I had seen so many passionate initiatives fail for lack of competitive drive, even ambition. It made sense to me that if you want see results, you needed to infect the system like a virus and then effect change from the inside out. The plan looked good on paper, but it didn’t take into account that there were moments when it had to be about me. I had to be the one on the mic and to have my name on the checks. I had to be promoted. I even started to buy myself expensive things. I had become Don Eric. Now, removed from that material world, I could strive for something beyond myself. All that remained was a pursuit for true survival, which I could see now as a quest for a life in God’s kingdom, through fulfillment of his purpose for me. My life was still about building bridges, but not just bridges between people and resources or between one culture and another but between the madness of the fallen world we inhabit and the inheritance of an eternal kingdom. What had been missing all along in my life was the quest for holiness.
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua (p. 235). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.As the day wore on, I found it harder and harder to even breathe. I retreated into scripture, trying to focus every scrap of consciousness on the words in front of me. The passage in the modern translation I read seemed written for only me, to be read precisely in that moment: Like barbarians desecrating a shrine, they destroyed my reputation. . . . God, how long are you going to stand there doing nothing? . . . those who hate me for no reason. . . . Don’t you see what they’re doing? . . . Please get up, wake up! Tend to my case, my God, my Lord. My life is on the line. . . . And, as though timed perfectly, just as I finished reading and closed my Bible, the door of my room opened and three friendly nurses burst in. “Have you heard the news? They just said on the TV that you have been found innocent.”
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua (pp. 242-243). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.I went to bed Thursday night as I did every night, with my only companion, my Bible.
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare (p. 255). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.At the gate, the guards all jumped out and ordered me not to move. I sat alone with my thoughts for another half a minute. Part of me had imagined this moment, just as I had imagined so many other possible closing scenes of this ordeal. I knew for sure that there was a reason I was here, and that knowledge centered me as I waited alone. I felt great honor and privilege to have been chosen to play such a role in God’s works. As I remembered his promise to keep and protect me, I was infused with greater strength than I had ever felt. I took in a deep breath and released it. Out loud, I said, “Okay. Just give me the strength, Lord.”
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare (p. 262). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.Sitting in a deli on Lexington Avenue, just a couple of blocks from Grand Central Station, the very heart of that great, rumbling city, an elegant and beautiful black woman stopped and stared at me through the glass. She came in and walked to our table. “Are you Eric?” “I am,” I said, and the woman threw her arms around me and broke down, sobbing, telling me how much she had prayed for me and my family and how it was a miracle that I was standing in front of her. She did not—she could not—let me go. I thought to myself, This is it! This is the bridge I had once imagined. It might not look like I thought it would, and I hadn’t built it with my own hands as I had once planned, but here it was, nonetheless. A bridge that brought strangers together, a bridge built on and strengthened by injustice and the triumph of good over evil. Since that day, I have read a lot about and meditated often on the human connections that give meaning to our experiences. One passage from a close friend’s letter that I read in my cell remains very present in my thoughts: If the true measure of our life is the depth of love that our friends and family have for us in their heart, then Eric, you are indeed a very rich man. Know that you are deeply loved by men and women of great character and personal integrity. ’Cause you see, in the end of our life, that is all that we can take with us.
Volz, Eric. Gringo Nightmare (p. 271). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
I was involved with IHOP for 12 years, 7 in Kansas City. It is still a mystery to me who hired Volz and why. Volz seems like he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. Seriously. I don’t think he’s ever done PR work before. He makes contradictory statements and seems to think he’s in a battle against a shadowy advocate group trying to take down IHOP. His twitter feed doesn’t extend past the IHOP scandal. He has newsclippings on his site that purport to show his cases and clients, but at least one article doesn’t even mention him or his company, The David House Agency.
All I’ve seen from him so far is this weird misinformation campaign where he tries to take the tiniest bits of nonconsequential information about possible missteps from Jane Doe, the advocate group, or Boz, and turn them into really big problems. But he’s not even very good at that and most times is immediately repudiated by better information.
Strangely enough, I kind of admire him. When I was at IHOP, all I did was give away my money and work to prop up the machine. Volz found a way to do very little work and is presumably going to walk away with bags of cash after all this is said and done.
Maybe he knows exactly what he’s doing.
Maybe, maybe not.
Sometimes people who purport to “know what they are doing” but are really in over their head in a particular context (where for some odd reason they have inserted themselves), end up in quite an unenviable situation. Just sayin’.
One person, mentioned in the post, who really does know what he is doing in the context of church crimes and misdemeanors, is Boz. He is highly trained, experienced, and he has seen a lot, up close and personal with victims, survivors, LE, the DOJ, criminals, clergy (sometimes criminals & clergy being one and the same), and bystanders. These are complex situations with many sorts of players, and many shades of gray (though good and evil are black and white).
IMHO, good is simple while evil is twisted, knotted, convoluted, and complicated. These evil situations lurking in Christian orgs are highly complex and never suited for the simpleminded chasing a fast buck and/or a quick name for themselves. Just ask Boz. He knows.
Incredible research, Todd. Thank you.
That was a really interesting story. Mr. Volz is a vivid writer.
Just when I thought the IHOP story couldn’t get any weirder …
Maybe his whole story is made up, a la Ergun Caner.
Mr. Volz sure knows how to spin a story … and the IHOP mess is quite the whopper for him to work on! I always found Bickle and the KC Prophets tale to be on the fringe of being authentic, with leaders in that movement Bob Jones and Paul Cain having their own scandalous end to ministry.
Any attempt to discredit Boz Tchividjian and GRACE would not be wise.
Our experience with one IHOP guy who “invaded” the little town we lived in back when in North Dakota was not a good experience. My personal opinion is that the group is very odd.
And off topic but another prayer request, perhaps weather related: we lost cell service last evening about the time very dense fog rolled in. Our ice storm relented and the temps are warming creating a huge fog blanket over the center of the USA. My cell phone cannot find a tower now from our home, and dense fog has us not going anywhere. DH’s phone will occasionally connect but mostly is toast also. Carrier is not reporting any outages that I can find online. So I am wondering if dense fog can tank our connection. Here at the house I never have more than one bar on a good day, hubby two. My prayer request is that we get them working by Monday when I need one for grocery curbside pickup. Been almost a month since weather let us shop. We are still in a CDC red zone so with our age and health not going inside any stores. Thankfully our land line phone is up, and so is internet and satellite tv. The tv surprises me as we lose it in heavy fog, rain, snow, ice, etc. In fact, heavy storms away from our area can tank that.
Dee, hoping you are feeling well today!
I’ve never had anything to do with IHOP, KC or otherwise.
IHTIH
ION: Cricket
England opener Ben Duckett told the BBC that the visitors were in a “strong position” at stumps on Day 1 of the First Test between India and England in Hyderabad.
England batted first and were all out for 246 – after winning the toss. India closed on 119-1. I think very few regular Wartburgers would concur that England are in a strong position here.
Cell phones are back for the moment as fog has lifted due to rain, yay!
The prophet that came to our little village in ND was quite the lulu. Asking people to sell their homes and give him the money so he could buy one. Only, sometimes, the people he had that word of knowledge for? Renters.
At one point he asked if someone would read a certain passage from the Amplified Bible. Someone did. I did not usually carry that one but for some reason did that day. They read it perfectly. He got angry when it did not say what he “quoted” and would not back down. Don’t think he liked me corroborating their reading. This was before it was updated.
But long story short you don’t need a middle man giving you a “word from the Lord.” Jesus wants you to know something, He can get the message to you.
Nick Bulbeck,
congratulations
Nick Bulbeck,
nice to see you! I’ve been watching things filmed in Scotland lately. Such a beautiful place!
I’ll get there someday – hopefully sooner than later.
Nick Bulbeck,
Same here.
Nick Bulbeck,
Keep us apprised of fitba.
I was involved at the corporate HQ of the better-known IHOP for four years back in the Seventies.
Their top management was nothing to brag about either.
Ever notice these “Words from The LORD” are always to the Prophet’s personal benefit?
Seneca
Cut out the nonsense. No one is worshiping anyone. However, we can appreciate someone like Boz, who has done more to help abuse victims than many people. This type of comment is not appreciated.
The fundamentalists’ brand named Fundamentals (so the oppressed can get less for more) caught on (flopped) because it’s a meme.
Then IHOP’s patented 24 / 7 prayer didn’t catch on (flopped) because it is work (so the oppressed will get less for more) except for the meme.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
With the emotional wringer that you would be letting them down because they are in the place of God because you would be letting them down?
elastigirl,
I wanna be in your prayer group . . .
. . . and visit your landscape!
He must be a “muscular Christian”!
One of their prophets invaded our former church (in a small town also) about 30 years ago. We’d moved away but still had close ties. We started getting strange letters from friends saying we needed to believe/claim for healings, didn’t have enough faith etc. When we went to visit, I guessed oops had a word of knowledge that the pastor would want to pray for our family during the church service. I decided oops god told me “Do not be ‘prayed over’ by this people”. The KC prophet guy was not in attendance, but sure enough in the middle of the service the pastor said “Brother, I feel we should pray for your family.” “No, thank you. You can all remember us when you pray at home.” Then about 15 minutes later, and thoroughly embarrassing, the pastor came over to us and was going to lay hands on us. “I really feel the looord wants us to do this”. Again I refused, and wanted to melt away into my chair. A couple days later I talked with him and explained our reasons and that something didn’t seem right. It was if he’d been mesmerized, and was not himself. A few months later we found out that the prophet guy had been naming and claiming the pastor’s wife. A few years later I learned the KC pancake guy’s name, which sadly I can’t remember. Could very be one of the itinerant wolves we’ve been reading about recently. Maybe the same one who invaded ND!
Ava Aaronson,
Don’t underestimate the skill of the NAR and its lookalikes in pursuing three goals at once. Most religion operatives were just “programmed” to perform this.
Is NAR / EIC / ESS / YRR – stretching beyond their nominal organisations – a slow-burn melodrama in search of extras? Around 1964, belief went. Around 1994, prayer went. Now, it’s doctrine, and the talk.
I keep hearing God “is shaking” things, that’s in fact Him ironically pretending to take blame for what’s inherent. “Vibrant” = shaky.
What a shame your elbow got jogged! What a marvel that you are surrounded by sinners! Is hand wringing related to hand washing (the inevitable result of brain washing)?
I think cricket score numbers were invented by bingo callers or calculus teachers but shall happily accept inclusion in your enhanced definition of “regular”.
I used to regularly attend IHOP.
Breakfast was good and the coffee not bad either.
Don’t know if the wait staff were agents of the US state department.
That’s what I’m thinking.
Praying.
No middle man. Just agreeing in prayer together.
Dave A A,
That’s a horrible meme taking over that man’s personality. Dominionism has real spiritual power. As reaction churches and most christians now won’t pray at all in any style about anything or anybody.
The close parallels with Park Street’s gloomy enneagrams and with so many ministers’ college and on-job training, is in the sheer usage of people including themselves as means and no respect for themselves or others as worthy ends.
Maybe Eric can make his clients seem like adventurers once again.
Collateral damage.
> Why Volz was appointed, …is not clear to me.
Volz was, per the story, falsely accused of a grievous crime, convicted and punished, but later exonerated and restored. (It mirrors in outline the story of Jesus; I wonder if that connection was made in his book.)
If one thinks prophetically, I think this is not a bad back-story for someone who represents one’s religious organization to the public. Hopefully the organization itself is not corrupted and it will be able to purge from itself the individual(s) responsible for the alleged crimes.
> we needed to believe/claim for healings, didn’t have enough faith
This sounds like “Jesus mode” prayer, in which one asks the Father “in Jesus’ name” and the Father does what one asks, whatever it may be (Jn 16:23).
I’ve come to suspect that we moderns, nearly 2000 years after Jesus made this famous pledge to his closest associates, are most of the time obliged to pray in “Nehemiah mode”, in which our prayer, fasting and lamentation does not directly change God or the world, but rather changes us to involve us, through the work of our own hands, in the solution to the problems that hold our attention (Nehemiah ch. 1 and much of the rest of the book).
I suspect that this view of the matter is not highly compatible with the prayer theology of IHOP.
Dave A A,
Bob Jones and Paul Cain were the most infamous of the KC “prophets.” Jones had several affairs and fell from ministry. Cain had his own moral problems and also fell from ministry. Both were mentors to Mike Bickle.
(not the same Bob Jones of Bob Jones University)
dee,
Perhaps TWW posts have touched some of his anointed.
None of this made any sense to me, so I googled “Eric Volz”.
He founded and directs a Los Angeles based international crisis resource agency…. specializing in political and legal issues abroad.
Just my curiosity running wild, but……
I can’t help but wonder if there is some connection between Volz’s agency and some sort of “crisis” with IHOP. Could Volz have been brought in maybe because IHOP has some issues in another country???
If it is something like that, IMHO, Volz is definitely fighting for the Dark Side!
Ava–thank you for praying! At the moment we are just cloudy, and everything is working fine. Rain due in tonight, then due about 5 days of blissful sunshine and above average temps. Of course all the rain snow and ice have been wonderful for helping lift the drought.
The so called prophet we had invade us was also into issuing bejeweled shepherd’s crooks to others he anointed.
We learned later he made a trip to Africa to spread his beliefs and did not survive the trip.
The overriding crisis at IHOP is that Bickle = IHOP … no Bickle, no IHOP. Oh, they will hold on for awhile post-Bickle, but this is largely a personality cult which depended on Bickle, the prophet.
Seneca
Your claim is nonsense, saying we have set up Boz as an icon.
Here’s the deal. We appreciate Boz for starting GRACE, which he has left to represent victims and give them the justice they so deserve. He is vital to victims and those who care about them. Appreciation is not setting up someone as an icon. I am not approving your comment. If you want to make an argument of the times we support unjustified legal action, please carefully document your concerns.
The game plan by Bickle/IHOP supporters is as old as the hills. As we’ve seen time and time again on TWW posts, there are always faithful followers of failed ministers and ministries who attempt, as a first step, to discredit victims and whistleblowers who come forward, as well as their advocates.
We don’t really have them over here. There’s a Pancake Place restaurant in Dundee, a city we’ve often visited (it’s only an hour away and has cool stuff), but AFAIK it’s independent. My daughter did work briefly for a Tim Hortons manifestation here in the Stirling area. It was kind of the food equivalent of Amazon.
My thought exactly. It read like a page-turner novel.
elastigirl,
It’s a great privilege to be an immigrant here (I emigrated from Englandshire, as it’s known north of The Border, some 30-odd years ago the noo). I came for the landscape and stayed for the people! Well, and the landscape. If indeed you make it hither, give us a shout! You would be the second Wartburger, after Dee Herself, I’ve met up with IRL!
Funny you should ask, because there’s some major news from the world of fitba’ today – namely, that Jurgen Klopp has announced that he’ll be leaving Liverpool Fitba’ Club at the end of the season. In the same way that cricket is the national sport of Wartburg, Liverpool FC are its national fitba’ club, and although Klopp – a longtime devout Christian – is stepping down for long-term health reasons, and following what has so far been a good season, this is bittersweet news for Wartburgers the world over.
But that is Seneca’s Part Line, AKA “GAWD’S TRVTH!”
As well as pcalling us Idolaters worshipping a False Christ (Boz), unlike Seneca the Faithful.
With full “I Never Said That! LIARS!” plausible deniability.
(This is an old, old shtick, always speaking indirectly so you can claim Total Innocence. Growing up with a Sociopath teaches you such things.)
“Perhaps”?
I’d say DEFINITELY.
Linda
I’m glad everything is working fine. 🙂 And that the rain, snow, and ice you’ve been getting has been helping to lift the drought. 🙂
Hopefully things continue in a positive for you (and the area in which you live). 🙂
Typo. 🙂 I meant to to write: Hopefully things continue in a positive direction for you (and the area in which you live).
No offence intended to you, Dee, in my changing the word “icon” to the word “idol”. 🙂
That.
That.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
The timing of your comment was perfect. 🙂 I picked the following article, Denver Pastor Says ‘the Lord Told Him’ to Steal $1.3 M from Christians to Remodel Home (by Clare Fisher, People magazine, January 24, 2024) from Dee’s Twitter (I still don’t call it X. 🙂 ).
I’m not copying-and-pasting anything from the article, because (paraphrasing), “the Lord told / said” to this pastor quite a few times. 🙂
https://web.archive.org/web/20240125062904/https://people.com/denver-pastor-says-the-lord-told-us-to-steal-from-christians-8548486
Said Denver pastor should not be surprised then when he is charged and tried for larceny.
The court should tell him that ‘the Lord’ told them to.
No, that connection was never made in the book. I included every quote from the book that was even remotely connected to Volz’s Christian faith. The pickings were pretty slim.
researcher,
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me
A Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches
I must make amends
I worked hard all my lifetime
No help from my friends
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me
A Mercedes Benz?
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me
A color tv?
Dialing For Dollars
Is trying to find me
I wait for delivery
Each day until three
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me
A color tv?
This is a quote from Volz concerning another man wrongly convicted in Nicaragua about five years after Volz. His case was similar to Volz’s except he was accused of being a drug dealer. Volz’s statement about his biggest source of strength and hope is telling – no mention of God.
“Knowing the frustration and despair of what Puracal is going through, Volz shed light on what kept him going. “Prison is really the farthest of loneliness and despair. Your mind can cave in on yourself.” said Volz. “I know that for me, the biggest source of strength and hope was that there was a movement to free me. I heard from the [American] embassy and received letters from supporters.”
Source: https://nwasianweekly.com/2012/04/family-asks-for-help-to-free-tacoma-resident-imprisoned-in-nicaragua/
Has anyone considered starting a take-a-number system?
A CRYPTO Scam?
“Just like FTX, Except CHRISTIAN(TM)!”
“Oh, God said to Abraham, ‘Kill me a son’
Abe say, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No”, Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe
But the next time you see me comin’, you better run!
“Well, Abe said, “Where you want this killin’ done?”
God said, “Out on Highway 61″…
— Bob Dylan, “Highway 61 Revisited”, 1965
I hope he and his wife are doing well now. As for the church— it never recovered.
There’s great wisdom in this suspicion.
There is reliable contemporary evidence at the time of arrest, trial, conviction, and release.
Chuck,
I’d rather listen to Janis Joplin than Volz any day of the week and six-ways-to-Sunday.
🙂 🙂 🙂
“My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus Christ, my righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.”
“Naming and Claiming” as in “Stick it in the slot and pump away — Huhhhh Huhhhh Huhhhhhh Huhhhhhhhh”?
Max,
Max, have you ever herd the filk of that which was going around sometime around Y2K?
“My hope is built on nothing less than
Freexe-dried foods and Smith & Wesson.”
(CHRISTIAN freeze-dried foods from Jim Bakker, no less!)
Commonly called “Jesus Weejus prayer”?
With the incantation “In Jesus Name, Amen” at the end (like QAnon Shaman and the Proud Boys on Jan 6) to empower and cast the spell?
As in the Francis Drake Estate Scam, a classic large-scale con job between the two world wars:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Hartzell#Sir_Francis_Drake_estate_scam
TL; DR: This was a large-scale con job between the wars, where the con man convinced anyone with the family name of “Drake” that there was this vast inheritance from Sir Francis Drake that was being kept from his heirs (anyone with the name “Drake”) by a Vast Conspiracy. These Drakes who got sucked in became so fanatically loyal to the con man that they defended him to the death, even sending him their life savings after his conviction (by The Vast Conspiracy).
Another example of “get the suckers so emotionally involved in the con that they cannot back out, only double down over and over and over, even when they know they’re being taken to the cleaners”.
Researcher–thank you! You might pray for the Ozarks in general. We have a large amount of people that distrust science, so do not social distance, stay home when ill, get vaccines, or wear masks. And according to our cdc our county along with about 5 or 6 others have been in the red zone for a while now. I received word yesterday of a church with a surge of many cases, sending many to the hospital and killing several. People who know they are exposed are still going to school, work, church isn’t shutting down, etc. So you know where this is going to go and it isn’t going to go well. If you are in the praying mood, pray for the older couple in the hospital with covid that just lost one of their siblings and sibling’s spouse to it. Family is in a dither as everyone is too sick to plan the funerals, make the arrangements, etc.
My daddy always said ignorance is expensive. In this case many have paid, and many will likely pay, the highest price for willful ignorance.
When it comes to Covid, at this point in America, it’s not a matter of those Ozarkers being uninformed or misinformed … they are indeed willfully ignorant. Church folks ought to have more sense, but they don’t. Public health laws are trying to protect them and prevent a surge of the disease as you noted in the church near you.
My wife wore a mask to the grocery store and had one of those rebellious goobers cough intentionally in her face. It’s crazy! Well over 1 million Americans have died from Covid in the last 3 years. To put it into perspective … since the Revolutionary War ended, 700,000 American troops have died in battle. Covid is not a hoax … vaccines don’t have microchips in them to track your movements.
Speaking of … IHOPKC members should have more sense, too!
Praying….
Same with the province in which I live, and which is rapidly becoming more and more dominated by a white supremacist attitude. Very big sigh.
(The bold was done by me.)
That.
Praying….
That. Very big sigh.
Max,
I’m intentionally taking part of your comment out of the context you meant. 🙂
I wouldn’t use the word crazy….as I so often say to the TV, my computer, whatever I’m reading when I hear (or read) of this kind of thing (paraphrasing): “Sometimes people are so stupid!”
And I hope your wife stays well! 🙂
Thank you for identifying the singer / song writer, Muff Potter. 🙂 Earlier, I’d planned on commenting myself, asking Chuck about what he wrote. 🙂
Thank you, Todd Wilhelm, for the link to the Northwest Asian Weekly article, Family asks for help to free Tacoma resident imprisoned in Nicaragua, by Jason Cruz, April 26, 2012.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230331120416/https://nwasianweekly.com/2012/04/family-asks-for-help-to-free-tacoma-resident-imprisoned-in-nicaragua/
After reading the article, I thought about the many differences between Eric Volz and the Tacoma resident, Jason Puracal.
Jason Puracal’s story is far more realistic of the average person in, or visiting, Nicaragua than Eric Volz’s.
Comparing Jason Puracal’s story (as written in the article) to your OP, as well as what I’ve written and quoted below….
Besides all the big name people on Eric Volz’s team, and perhaps making use of all his past connections — based on what you quoted from Eric Volz’s book (if it is indeed a true story):
From your OP (quoting from Eric Volz’s book):
I believe Jason Puracal’s story FAR more than I believe Eric Volz’s.
Let me guess – They are Protected By The Holy Spirit, and only Heathens fear Homegoing to Judgment?
Welcome to the Bible Belt – a Preview of the future CHRISTIAN Nation.
“What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”
i.e.
“As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
“And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!”
— Rudyard Kipling, 1919
Max–praying for ya’ll re the rebellious goober. That is the reason we do NOT shop in person anywhere. Curbside or deliver it or we don’t need it. Or we need it but do without it. We generally see our docs once a year, dentist the same, eye doc the same, and this year have to get our driver’s licenses renewed. We do travel by personal vehicle to a state where they take covid seriously and act accordingly. So we are not 365 isolated. Phones, texts, and outdoor distanced visits are how we see friends and neighbors.
And yes, it is mainly about white supremacy and fear. Fear of 5g phones, fear of science, and the belief that only the old, the sick, the fat, and ahem, the less than pure white, die of this new “flu”. Add in decades of drilling into them the young earth belief. Science denies young earth, so deny science. Reject it every time you can. The stupidity is that when they do get sick with covid they tie up the hospital wanting science to heal them.
I am reminded that when we do evil, the consequences may redound for generations. And I wonder how much of this is reaping the consequences of slavery.
don’t schedule those annual visits during cold & flu season … I contracted Covid during an eye appointment in January 2022 – learned my lesson
We schedule ours in the spring for that very reason. Still some risk, but usually here in March, April, and May the numbers are at their lowest for the year.
If it’s of any comfort to you, so do I.
Who will need ghost writers when artificial unintelligence can ghost ghost write for the ghost writers? Then, page turning will be like, “is this thing ever going to start making sense!”
I used to think peddlers of weird religion had just got something a bit wrong and that we would dilute it and get them onto a better track if we joined; that was in fact just us pew goers: the top nobs had in fact a motive all along.
Put down everyone different (from the elite) (they might have a gift, like cowherd and shepherd children I’ve read about). My Bible says don’t follow evil “men”, literally literally! Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Weekly “clarifyings” and micro managing of correctness and every new iteration or download of theology (or so called “scripture”) leave the emotional charge WORSE every time (because the dominionists seized control of heaven and earth).
All the effects of the previous iterations are still there, conveniently ignored, for latest generations (wouldbe believers and agnostics of goodwill alike) who hadn’t dug it to fall into. Daniel recommends to us ch 9 vv 3-21.
That is REPENTANCE BY PROXY for the derelictions of our forebears and betters who set their store by nothing less than megaphoning and bamboozling by flickering lines on a screen; and not modelling Holy Trinity in their living; for whom the “Gospel” was no longer that God made the more ordinary people able to intercede and supplicate.
The problem with deception is that you (generic you) don’t know you are deceived because you are deceived.
Max,
They act faux gormless on purpose to make us feel purpose-driven.
The new martial art: tick boxing. Keep that environment hostile!
With what”s been coming out of Hollywood and the streaming services for the past several years, I’ve been hearing AI bots would actually be an improvement over today’s scriptwriters and authors.
linda,
Our government claimed to abolish the 6 ft rule (indoor distancing); this together with handrail cleaning was the biggest help so far to limiting the epidemics (deaths so far have been below the mid January 2020 estimates but complications are often very serious). Result: everybody walks straight into my space in the street (even though almost deserted), it wasn’t me getting too near to them, and meantime there has been stalking.
This week was the first time I’ve had a visitor for years (in leasehold) because there was a thing on the door to apparently match their phones with, and everyone was afraid of being stopped from earning and their children thrown out of school. For years I couldn’t go to the library, doctor, shops, a bank or post office, or catch a bus, because a mask stops me breathing and I’m actually a normal person.
(How many people washed theirs in 4 years or wore three extra layers underneath?)
Lots of small businesses and services have been wiped out. My bank have stopped answering the phone just when they blocked me from getting household equipment delivered. I sincerely hope subcontract management is more honest in your district than my country.
In other locations there may be specific concerns about sensible organisation but the self-appointed gurus don’t own those concerns, they are usurping them to discredit them. Who taught your neighbours to package deal their ideas? Who neglected to equip them with decent articulacy or logical prioritising? Who taught them not to read the real signs of the times themselves instead of outsourcing that to whichever guru was “in” (J H Newman, McLuhan and Baudrillard refer)? Who taught them not to pray but to cast the world adrift from any spiritual anchor?
Jerry Falwell Senior IS THE SAME THING AS Jim Jones (a Carter-Vance associate) (and his ally Harvey Milk). William James who taught them, decreed that to know the essence of some position, one should draw solely on an extreme, and dumbed down, case. Faux insurrection is aimed to lead to less critical theory on any subject while factions of wealthy usurpers trademark language. While your enemy’s enemy is not your friend, “anyone that is not against us is for us”.
Don’t believe everything you “hear”; those, like the sermon pre-producers, have been parodying it.
Have you actually SEEN the crap coming out of the Disney Death Spiral?
And they’re NOT parodies.
They may as well have “IMPORTANT MESSAGE… IMPORTANT MESSAGE… IMPORTANT MESSAGE…” scrolling at the bottom of the screen. Reminds me of CHRISTIAN movies more than anything else.
I hadn’t even heard of it. My surmisal is that, while those writers don’t think they are parodying (because they themselves are nothing more more than unconscious parodies, possessing no personalities but only artificial unintelligence themselves) or don’t think there is anything “better”, the future (de) generative programs will be an ever worse case of sewerage in, sewerage out. Similarly as the Fundamentals of the evangicartel went from skeletal minimums, to more than maximums to not even be reached.
I meant of course, outside hospitals!
You have a genuine medical reason?
You got submerged in the ocean of Anti-Maskers falsely claiming the same?
So much noise in the channel your signal got drowned out.
Did the UK get the equivalent of our bogus “Freedom to Breathe Agency” and its bogus Face Diaper Exemption Cards? (Like the Ministry of Silly Walks, except nobody was laughing.) They were everywhere out here during 2020-2021, then Anti-Mask got superseded by Anti-Vaxx.
It all depends on who defines “Faith” and “Sin”, My Dear Wormwood.
Was the goober in question wearing a red hat and either a Second Amendment or JESUS T-shirt?
I have not heard the term “Dialing for Dollars” in 50 years.
“Dialing for Dollars” was a 1960s daytime TV show (either a local or syndicated) in my area, a predecessor of Reality Shows. The format/premise was a type of lottery: They chopped up a phone book into little slips, put them all in a jar, pulled a slip out at random and called one of the numbers on the slip – “X from the top!” or “X from the bottom!”
If they got an answer and the answerer was able to answer “X from the top/bottom” correctly, they (allegedly) sent a sum of money (somewhere in the three-figure range) to the winner.
That was it.
Got most of Greater Los Angeles to tune in and stay tuned in for that whole hour every weekday, waiting on their phones, enhancing the ratings and raking in advertiser bucks for the hosting station.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
I can’t breathe through one because my nose is narrow on the inside. I don’t think anyone “medical” ever noticed the fact – except an old GP who told me not to get an operation for it (too dangerous and gruesome) and he probably didn’t put that in the notes – but we were allowed not to consult one.
At the time my pal (a then church minister who since joined a parachurch in good repute) got hold of a “lanyard” for me. I carry it everywhere.
And no, we don’t have those movements here.
Michael in UK,
(addendum) that I’ve noticed.