Steven Furtick is the Lead Pastor of Elevation Church, a Southern Baptist-associated, 25,000-member multisite campus with 17 locations. He is known for having the term “narcegesis” (narcissistic exegesis) named after him based on his inability to exegete scripture in a way that doesn’t make every story revolve around him, as well as his penchant to wear outfits that cost more than most mortgages and buddying up to Trinity-Denier T.D Jakes.
Ten months ago he replaced Kenneth Copeland at the always-heretical TBN, filling the role of the Innkeeper Monsieur Thénardier from the musical Les Miserables (TBN being the Inn), with these “Masters of the house” doing whatever is the theological equivalent of “Charge ’em for the lice/Extra for the mice/Two percent for looking in the mirror twice” in his efforts to promote his brand of prosperity preaching.
Now, from a recent sermon, Furtick explains that in the same way that the Billboard charts canned Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road on account of it being too different, so too did the Romans kill Jesus. He was just so “different”- you know?
That’s why they had to take the old town road off of the Billboard charts on country music because it was too different. They couldn’t find a category for it. And they said ‘it’s not country enough, but it’s not rap enough and we don’t know what it is. It’s different. “
Discovery + announced new details on their upcoming docuseries on the fall of Carl Lentz and the scandals that rocked Hillsong Church in 2020 and 2021, including the list of key participants who will play a big role in the narrative.
Claiming it will be an “explosive three-part documentary series” the new show is called HILLSONG: A MEGACHURCH EXPOSED, and will premiere, the show aims to:
“…Weigh in on Hillsong Church’s alleged exploitation, abuse and coverups are former Hillsong pastors, volunteers who witnessed the corruption and a student who was assaulted by a Hillsong employee. The series will also examine how the star-studded Hillsong was able to grow into a global brand that attracted high-profile celebrity attendees, unearth the truth behind headlines of recent scandals and shine a light on the fine line between culture, corporation and cult….(the show will also) profile numerous ex-members of the church who have come forward en masse, to share harrowing allegations of the trauma, abuse, financial and labor exploitation and homophobia that created a culture of chaos at Hillsong.
Key participants include:
Ranin Karim — Had a 5-month affair with Carl Lentz, which ultimately led to Lentz’s termination from Hillsong
Hannah Frishberg — New York Post reporter who has covered Hillsong’s scandals and alleged abuse in the aftermath of Carl Lentz’s firing
Jaclyn Hayes — Former volunteer at Wave Church in Virginia Beach, where Carl Lentz served as a pastor prior to joining Hillsong, who alleges he exhibited controlling behavior towards her
Janice Lagata — Former Hillsong student and volunteer who had close working relationships with Hillsong NYC’s church leadership, including Carl Lentz, and who frequently raised concerns about gender and racial inequality within the church
Ben Kirby — Author with expertise on megachurches and creator of the viral Instagram account PreachersNSneakers which chronicles the expensive wardrobe worn by some pastors.”
The upcoming film will surely be a bitter pill to swallow for Hillsong’s head honcho Brian Houston, whose American wing has been embroiled in several high-profile scandals all year, so much so that he had to disband and shut down one of them, and who likely isn’t happy to have the dirty laundry aired in public.
Hillsong HQ launched an internal investigation into the New York branch but never made the findings public. At the time, Houston said that the Church failed in “significant ways” to reflect the culture they wished to impart. Houston also said previously in a leaked phone recording that there was a “culture of dysfunction” at Hillsong and other officials confirmed that the misadventures of staffers using the church like a seedy dating service, “sleeping around” with volunteers and asking them to send nude pictures was “mostly true.”
The nineteenth album in our series showing our brothers and sisters in Christ gathering for church service as faithful believers. While going to church does not make one a believer, refusing to faithfully attend a local church should seriously call that faith into question. This is a glimpse of what the global church is up to, and will feature images in chronological order, week to week, of the men and women being obedient to the scriptures. As always, click to enlarge.
For our multi-volume series showing the progression of the Church worldwide experiencing the lockdown and pandemic, from March 2020- July 2021, click here.
Tim Keller gave an update on his ongoing health crisis and it is bleak. Keller was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June 2020 and thankfully was taking positive steps towards recovery, writing in November of 2020 that his recent CAT scans show continued improvement and the physician is “surprised” and “delighted” with the headway he is having as he burns through rounds of chemotherapy, calling his progress “incredible.”
This was great news, as the recovery rates are devastatingly low. According to John Hopkins Hospital, “The combined five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer—the percentage of all patients who are living five years after diagnosis—is very low at just 5 to 10 percent” on account of it typically being caught so late in the game.
In an update provided in mid-September Keller shared on social media that he was recently tested and the primary tumor had not progressed, but that they found a ‘mystery lump’ nearby that proved to likewise be cancerous. As a result, they cranked it up, which had more side effects and impact on his ability to teach.
Sadly, Keller announced on Twitter that his pancreatic cancer has progressed into stage IV, which is essentially regarded as incurable. The five-year survival rate is 1% with the vast majority of patients expected to live less than a year- usually around 6 months.
Though we generally regard Keller as imminently theologically dangerous, with links to why here, we pray that the Lord miraculously heals him.
Last year, a major so-called’ Christian’ organization revealed itself to be a treacherous two-fold son of hell after Bethany Christian Services, the largest Christian adoption and foster agency in the United States announced they would be offering their adoption services to homosexual, lesbian, and transgendered couples, with President and Chief executive Chris Palusky telling 1500 staff members in an email message, “We will now offer services with the love and compassion of Jesus to the many types of families who exist in our world today….”
With those cowards and traitors marked and avoided, we’re glad to say that there’s at least one Christian Adoption Agency that hasn’t bowed the knee to satan and the gay agenda.
The Holston United Methodist Home for Children, (HUMHC) a foster agency in Tennesee, is taking the Biden Administration to courts, filing a federal lawsuit and rightly claiming that their religious freedoms are being trampled and violated on account of their refusal to place children in homosexual homes or give prospective children to Shirley and Sandra to abuse by raising them with two mommies.
According to LGBTQ Nation, HUMHC is “alleging that the Department’s rules that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in foster programs that get federal money violate their rights.” They explain in their lawsuit:
“It would substantially burden Holston Home’s exercise of its religious beliefs to knowingly engage in child placing activities in connection with couples who may be romantically cohabitating but not married, or who are couples of the same biological sex,”
Yea and Amen! A surprising move by an organization that has “United Methodist” in their title, but one that is greatly admired.
Alliance Defending Freedom will be defending the foster agency.
A professor in Virginia who has launched an effort to de-stigmatize the term ‘pedophile’ in favor the more nuanced ‘MAP- ‘Minor Attracted People’ has come under fire from both conservatives and the woke left for her perspective, with her university placing her on a leave of absence following her remarks.
Protasia is an advocacy group based out of San Francisco that, among other things, promotes child sex doll usage for pedophiles as a ‘healthy’ outlet for them to unleash their dark imaginations on, in order to protect real children from their predations. She shares that rather than pedophiles being ostracized, they should be normalized, on account of them not being able to choose who they are attracted to.
The reason the woke left are outraged by this is the very reason we see the theoretical benefit because it shows the lie of the ‘LGBTQ*P*’ movement by arguing that in the same way that homosexuality is a sexual orientation that people are born with and cannot change, (and therefore is natural and normal and worthy of acceptance and social praise rather than disgust and that vomitous feeling that comes from seeing two men or women kissing), so too is a sexual attraction to children something that people are born with and cannot change, and therefore the parallel is deserved.
Homosexuals over the millennia have chosen to disregard society’s disapproval and have given in to their baser passions, to the point where once it was taboo, is now openly and widely celebrated. Yet just because you are born with an attraction, doesn’t mean it is normal, or that it must be acted upon.
She notes that we should address them using their preferred terminology- ‘maps’ rather than pedos, because “I think it’s important to use the terminology for groups that members of that group want others to use for them.”
Where have we seen this before?
‘A lot of people when they hear the word pedophile, they automatically assume that means sex offender. That isn’t true. And it leads to a lot of misconceptions about attractions toward minors.’…From my perspective, there is no morality or immorality attached to attraction to anyone because no one can control who they’re attracted to at all.
In other words, it’s not who we’re attracted to, that’s either okay or not, okay? It’s our behaviours and responding to that attraction that are either okay or not, okay. And I want to be extremely clear that child sexual abuse is never ever okay. But having an attraction to minors as long as it isn’t acted on, doesn’t mean that the person who has those attractions is doing something wrong.
I think we have a tendency to want to categorise people with these with these attractions as evil- excuse me- as as evil or morally corrupt. But when we’re talking about non- offending maps, these are people who have an attraction that they didn’t ask for. And one that is, frequently they would get anything to change, but they find that they’re unable to change those attractions.
Ie. ‘Minor Attracted People’ should not be seen as mere pedophiles, but rather pedosexuals who should have a place and voice in society.
Important in her discussion is like the group Virtuous Pedophiles (Virped), and unlike NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) she sees a clear, hard and fast delineation between pedophiles- those who are attracted to children but do not act on it, and child-molesters, those who do.
For this reason, they want to give them tools so they won’t offend. From the more benign therapy and letting family know for accountability purposes, to what Professor Walker and many of her ilk would allow for, such as the aforementioned child sex dolls, literature, virtual child pornography where either the movies and images are completely created using CGI, or adult actresses are digitally de-aged to appear prepubescent.
Where we have the theological acumen to put these ideas in their proper context, other groups like REVOICE would be left decimated. Revoice, led by Nate Collins, Preston Sprinkle, Tish Harrison Warren, among others, argue that it’s not the attraction that is a sin, but the act itself. It would not be a sin to be attracted to children, only if one acts out sexually with that wee one.
In fact, PCA Pastor Greg Johnson is on record as saying he would be open to hosting a Christian Pedophile Conference, designed to support, encourage and empower pedophile Christians – people who are attracted to children, sexually – so that they can ‘flourish while observing the historic Christian doctrine of marriage and sexuality.’
Several months ago, several conservative members of the 13,000-member multisite McLean Bible Church, where Pastor David Platt holds sway, filed a request with a Fairfax County in order to get an injunction that would force the pastor and the church to conduct their Elder Election via long-standing secret ballot, opposed to the open ballot they were trying to implement.
This unusual move was prompted by the fact that for the entire history of McLean Bible Church, elections like this were conducted by secret ballot. The plaintiffs believe the church is going ‘woke’ and have been fighting back by not confirming leadership appointments being foisted upon them by the church. In order to stop this, MBC leadership is allegedly purging members and staff who don’t vote the way they want to, removing their vote so they are unable to impact results, as well as insisting on changing the church bylaws to have open ballots.
The move to have an open ballot has made dissident members and staff all the more concerned it is an intimidation tactic that will lead to further negative consequences and repercussions. You can also read more about that below:
Platt and McLean are framing the open ballots as a necessary measure in order to stave off a hostile takeover of the church from disillusioned members and former members spreading misinformation and falsehoods in an effort to hurt the church, and likewise filed their own motion to have the case dismissed, arguing this is a church dispute and outside the realm of the government’s purview.
Now, in a new press release from Fairchild & Yoder, the lawyers for the plaintiffs suing the church, we read that the plaintiffs have secured an initial victory in what has so far proved to be an increasingly ugly scandal.
Judge Rules in Favor of Plaintiffs in Case Against McLean Bible Church Alleging Denial of Member Voting Rights FAIRFAX, Virginia.
Today, the Fairfax Circuit Court gave an opening-round victory to Plaintiffs suing McLean Bible Church for alleged illegal denial of voting rights to church members. Steve Gaskins and four other plaintiffs, all current or former members of McLean Bible Church (MBC) filed suit in July alleging that Pastor David Platt and the Board of Elders of McLean Bible Church were illegally removing members from the church membership rolls in an effort to predetermine the outcome of Elder elections at MBC.
Defendants include the church, Platt, and the other six members of the Board of Elders, the governing body of MBC. Plaintiffs noted that the MBC Constitution grants voting privileges at church business meetings to all active members over 16 years old.
Plaintiffs also allege that, after losing a June vote on their chosen candidates for Elder, Defendants ended a decades-long practice of secret ballots for Elder elections, forcing members to place their names on their ballots in order to vote, in an effort to intimidate members who worked on church staff into voting for candidates leadership supported. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the First Amendment bars courts from considering church disputes.
Judge Thomas P. Mann today denied the motion to dismiss.Judge Mann ruled that Plaintiffs have pleaded facts sufficient to state a case that Defendants denied voting rights to members in violation of the MBC Constitution.
The Court held that accordingly Plaintiffs had pleaded a valid case for breach of contract, and that disputes for violations of church constitutions can be adjudicated under “neutral principles of law” without reference to religious or doctrinal issues protected by the First Amendment. The matter now proceeds to Defendants’ demurrer hearing on December 17 in Fairfax Circuit Court.
Plaintiffs have also submitted discovery requests to Defendants pursuant to the Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia. Rick Boyer, lead attorney for the Plaintiffs, reacted to the court’s ruling. “We are pleased that the Court is allowing this case to move forward. Defendants have repeatedly violated MBC’s constitution, and trampled on the rights of their membership to have an honest vote to choose their leaders. We are pleased that the Court saw through the transparent efforts of Defendants to use Christianized language to cloak their most unchristian efforts to prevent a free and fair vote under the MBC Constitution.”
Plaintiff Steve Gaskins said, “We as members of McLean Bible Church are grateful for the Court’s ruling today. The fight to restore free and fair elections for all members of MBC will move forward. Today is a victory for truth and transparency.” Plaintiff Roland Smith said, “We thank God for today’s victory. Today’s ruling is a critical first step in restoring the rule of law and ensuring that critical voting rights protected by our church constitution will be preserved for all McLean Bible Church members.”
In 2014, Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church was in the news after a reported heist where thieves stole more than $600,000 in cash and checks from a church safe. The money was never recovered and even now, seven years later, Houston Police have an outstanding reward of $25,000 for anyone with information that leads to the arrest.
Naturally, many speculated (most tongue in cheek) that Osteen himself took the money, prompting him to tweet out at the time “If you believe the negative things people say about you, if you let circumstances name you, then you’re giving it the right to come to pass.” and
Trust is saying, “God I’m not going to let this upset me. I can’t make it work out my way, but I know you’re in control.”
On Thursday, a plumber who identified himself as ‘Justin’ called into a local morning show to reveal that last month he found a hidden wall compartment behind a loose toilet in one of the washrooms while doing maintenance at the church.
There was a loose toilet in the wall, and we removed the tile. We went to go remove the toilet, and I moved some insulation away and about 500 envelopes fell out of the wall. I was like, ‘Oh, wow,'”
Inside he found hundreds of envelopes full of cash and checks, with the checks dating back to 2014. Church officials immediately notified police, who later released a statement.
When asked if he was tempted to keep any of the loot himself, he told the show’s hosts. “No. I’m an honest man.” The church has not given Justin any sort of reward or compensation.
Lakewood Church is a 600,000-square-foot, 16,000-seat behemoth located in the former Compaq Center, where the NBA Rockets used to play. Led by impastor Joel Osteen and Impastorette Victoria Osteen, the church has amassed nearly 50,000 members goatlings, has an annual budget of nearly $90,000,000 and has 368 full-time and part-time staff, with the church spending nearly 1.7 million dollars each week on operations.
Despite being in the news recently for their recent anti-racism guide that is rife with critical race theory ideologies and which has resulted in them hemorrhaging money and funding, there is a larger reason why Christians ought not to support the Salvation Army: the Salvation Army is a pro-choice organization.
It is the height of hypocrisy. Publicly they claim to be pro-life, and because Christians make up a big part of their volunteer base one might be tempted to suppose that they must be against abortion in every form. But this is not the case at all.
In the Salvation Army’s Position Statements, we read that they allow for/ support rape if ‘reliable diagnostic procedures’ determine the child is *likely* not going to survive for very long after birth, or in cases of rape and incest.
This thought is reiterated by Dr. Aimee Patterson, a ‘Christian’ Ethics Consultant at The Salvation Army Ethics Centre, who writes in The Salvationist that Prochoice vs Prolife debates tend to…
portray women either as liberated heroes of reproductive rights or wicked witches out to destroy anything that gets in their way. Both are metaphors of power. It is rare that this debate turns us toward women who consider abortion from a place of vulnerability. Some are pressured by their sexual partner, whether a boyfriend or a spouse. Others are financially insecure or unable to care for a child on their own. Still others fear they will be shamed and shunned by their family or social community. In many cases, the motivating factors behind abortion are multiple, interconnected and complex.
None of this means that abortion is morally good or even morally neutral. The intention behind abortion is not merely to end a pregnancy but to end a life. Even when abortion is morally permissible—for instance, when conception is the result of rape—it doesn’t tie things up neatly. It is a tragic act.
No one ought to support the Salvation Army. There are better organizations to give to, ones that don’t compromise on basic Christian beliefs. More specifically, if you desire to give, give sacrificially to your local church, who ought to be engaged in works of mercy for those who need them.
Speaking to chief-enabler Steve Shultz on Episode 49 of Wednesdays with Kat and Steve, she reveals:
I do know that the Lord Himself can appear as different beings and people. He himself appears as anything he wants to. I think the father probably could really do that too. But the Holy Spirit operates (unintelligible) Holy Spirit are so different.
Now when it says ‘Let Us make man in our image after our likeness’, ‘their image’ is that they have a body, right? So we have a God and they all have a body, Father, Son, Holy Spirit they all, even though the Holy Spirit’s invisible, he totally has a body. He has a torso, he has arms, he has legs, he has a head. And some people try to make him something else, but he actually does. We were made in their image because we have bodies.
Steve Shultzs is LOVING this, and continues to download this word of knowledge.
Their likeness is how they operate. Now, he didn’t say it was just one kind of likeness, they each have different ways they operate individually. Their specialty, or the thing they manifest when they come to the earth or they operate in heaven, I have to say the strangest one would be Holy Spirit. Even his appearance, you never know how he’s going to appear.
You’re going to hear winds, electromagnetic winds coming, and then he’ll come whirling in your room, and you’ll see the outline of his being. But he’s got a fire coming up out of all the parts of his body. Or you see waves of light or the colors of God, the rainbow coming off of him, it can engulf you. It can feel like you’re going to melt sometimes, he’s about to invade this earth without permission. He’s going to touch all flesh. …That’s why they call (Jesus) the drama King in heaven.
