Author: Staff Writer

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Joel Osteen Returns $4.4Mil in Pandemic Loans

Joel Osteen’s Texas-based megachurch has repaid all $4,400,000 of the stimulus money they were given nearly two years ago; the result of taking advantage of the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program, in order to help offset their several months of virtual services.

The program, which the federal government passed in response to the pandemic early this year in a big way, was a forgivable loan that companies don’t have to pay back so long as it is spent on wages and other related expenses. Despite the church not having to pay it back, they did so anyway, the result of months of sustained pressure and criticism at having accepted in the first place.

When reached out for comment as to why they would even apply for it, a church spokesman said that given the church shut down in-person services for over 7 months, that closure negatively impacted their ability to garner tithes, offerings, and other “substantial donations.” Lakewood spokesperson Don Illof explains:

“Believing the shutdown would only last a few weeks, Lakewood did not initially apply for PPP assistance during the first half of the program. However, as the shutdown persisted month after month, given the economic uncertainty, Lakewood finally applied for the PPP loan and has been able to provide full salaries and benefits including health insurance coverage to all of its employees and their families.”

The church, which has an annual budget of over $90 million dollars, received the money to retain 370 jobs.

The revelation of receiving such largess has many small business owners crying foul, as thousands of Texas business owners were denied claims, while Osteen got one of the largest in the State. In particular, critics were arguing:

  1. The entire time the church was shut down for in-person services they were still holding online services and were fundraising and receiving money.
  2. The decision to shut down their church for in-person services for 7 months was a decision that the church made, and was not mandated in any way. They would have opened up way sooner, but chose not to.
  3. Osteen is a multi-millionaire with a net worth of between $60-100M dollars. He lives in a 17,000 square foot mansion that is worth over $15,000,000. Were he so concerned, he could have easily paid for it out of pocket, rather than causing others to lose out.

Lakewood Church was one 60 churches in the state that received more than $1,000,000 in funds.

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Christian Meme Review

Pastor Chris Rosebrough of Fighting for the Faith did a meme-review on his program yesterday, and we figured we’d share the love.

You can watch the whole show here:

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News Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Pithy Sayings From JD’s Facebook Page For October

A collection of brief things our publisher posted on his personal Facebook page this week, bringing you some hard truths and prescient insights in the pithiest of forms.

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Evangelical Stuff Featured Heresies Money Grubbing Heretics

Todd Bentley Performs ‘Miracle’ in Voice of Irish Pirate at Ohio Revival

Charismatic “prophet” Todd Bentley, the only huckster in the whole of Christianity that Dr. Michael Brown has ever bothered to condemn (and that only slightly), is up to no good again—the result of a string of angelic encounters and personal visions from Jesus who gave him a new 25-year ministry mandate.

We have written extensively about Todd, chronicling his malfeasance from lauded anointed revivalist and miracle worker, to drunkard, adulterer, liar, and sheep-fleecer extraordinaire, all the while being lifted up by a cadre of ne’er-do-wells as a great and supernaturally gifted man of God.

Bentley, you will recall, went relatively radio silent in 2019, a year after being newly accused of drug use, adultery, and sexting, some of which he admitted. A “New Apostolic Reformation” (NAR) tribunal report was launched and they found that Bentley was guilty—a pointless summation, as Bentley had already checked out and declared the whole thing a scam and witch hunt anyway.

Despite these findings, Bentley was able to maintain a high level of ministry support, with the revelation of decades of grossly immoral behavior being viewed as “just a scratch” to his reputation. This should surprise no one, however, as charismatics and NAR adherents historically have enjoyed infinitesimally low levels of discernment when it comes to the sinful behavior of their leaders, and this case has sadly proved to be no different.

With an angel-filled, gospel-less message, Bentley has been putting on healing crusades up and down the East coast, claiming to be performing miracle after miracle after miracle, with Saturday evening service geared at removing metal rods and plates in people’s bodies.

During the service, people are “slain in the spirit” while Bentley does his schtick, twirling around, telling the congregation that the angels are everywhere, pointing them out left and right. “I’m burning up right now,” says Bentley, preparing to go spiritually “super-sayan,” and “man, my whole body’s on fire!”

He approaches a man who had some metal plates put into his ankle as a result of a skateboarding accident in his youth, resulting in pain and swelling, and tells him, his voice sounding like that of an Irish pirate in the last 10 seconds of the clip:

(You) look drunk a little bit to be honest, in the Holy Ghost by the way. My whole hand is on fire right now by the way. Look at it—you can see my hand—it’s tingling right now. This is the gift of healing. Oral Roberts would have the gift of healing, come he’d feel it in his shoulder or go all the way into his hand.

That happens to me only when the angel comes, and there’s burning here right now. You see it’s increasing. I don’t even have to touch him. You see whoever I get around, the angels start doing stuff. God’s doing this not us. So God, may he be released into a realm of creative miracles and visions of God, and know how to work with the miracle angels.

Boom! And take out the metal all the way. Never let it swell up again and let it never let it be in pain again, in Jesus name.

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A Gallery Of The Faithful Gathering For Church. Album 11

The eleveth 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 previous albums Album #1, Album #2, Album #3 Album #4 Album #5 Album #6 Album #7 Album #8 Album #9 Album #10

For our multi-volume series showing the progression of the Church worldwide experiencing the lockdown and pandemic, from March 2020- July 2021, click here.

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Conference of National Black Churches Leader: Majority of Black Churches Refuse to Gather on the Lord’s Day

The vast majority of black churches are down nearly 60 percent in attendance compared to pre-pandemic days, with no optimistic uptick on the horizon, according to the chairman of the Conference of National Black Churches (CNBC).

Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, the megachurch pastor of the 4000-member multisite Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, New York and the chair of the CNBC is pessimistic about the prospects for their congregation to return to pre-pandemic numbers anytime soon, according to RNS.

The CNBC is comprised of the national leadership of the seven largest historically Black denominations in America. The organization represents more than 80 percent of African American Christians across the nation and have a combined membership of over 20 million people and 30 thousand congregations*.

Richardson explains that trying to coax congregants off the internet and into the pews has by and large been unsuccessful, noting that several large churches are not planning to re-open for in-person services until 2022, nearly two years since they last had a corporate gathering. This includes his own, which has been all-virtual since March of 2020. According to RNS, Richardson is “not aware of any Black church that has more than 40 percent of its pre-pandemic in-person attendance.”

The issue is that, yes, you can open the church, but if the atmosphere, the climate, is not conducive for people to come back, you just open the door and they won’t be there.

Pastrix Leslie Callahan of the progressive St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Philadelphia agrees. They have been having outdoor services, capped at 75 people, all of whom must wear masks and social distance. She commented on the plight of black folk and suggests they have endured especially difficult travails and have disparately been impacted by the disease, which has necessitated greater caution in returning.

COVID has been harder on us. Black people know people who’ve died. Black people know people who are sick now.

In a study conducted by LifeWay Research back in February 2021, they noted that “Whites (38%) are more likely to select “In-person services stopped for a short period of time and then resumed” than African Americans (13%),” while also revealing that “African Americans are the most likely to select “In-person services stopped many months ago and have not resumed” (40%).” 

Our suggestion is that enough is enough. These churches need to cut off the live stream as soon as possible and call for the congregants to emerge from their disobedience and back to gathering as one.

*Given that these member denominations include African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ), Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME), Church of God In Christ (COGIC), National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., International (NBCA), National Baptist Convention, U. S. A. Inc. (NBC USA), and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. (PNBC)” it’s pretty safe to say there is a whole heck of a lot of false converts there.

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Canadian City Prohibits Marriage Unless Bride and Groom are Fully Vaccinated

Dahiana Waszaj on Unsplash

The city of Oakville, Ontario (technically a town, though it has over 210,000 people, and ironically called “Jokeville” by some of its residents) has enacted the harshest restrictions in the country in order to “prevent” the spread of COVID—by forcing anyone wanting to get a marriage license to show proof of full vaccination.

Both shots are required unless neither of them contains the mRNA vaccine, in which case “Three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine not authorized by Health Canada” will need to be provided in order to be considered fully vaccinated.

Mayor Rob Burton explains that this new law only applies to those who booked after September 22, and anyone who pre-booked prior will not have to require proof. [Editor’s note: How gracious!] He notes on the town’s bylaw page:

The alternative to these measures will be yet another lockdown as the fourth wave grows. The vast majority of Oakville has chosen to get vaccinated to prevent another lockdown. The town is not going to let the unvaccinated jeopardize the health and activity opportunities of the community.

Jane Clohecy, the town’s Chief Administrative Officer agrees, likewise noting:

We are 18 months into this global pandemic with a highly transmissible variant circulating in the community. This public health crisis requires extraordinary measures to keep our community safe. Implementing a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy will help protect the safety of our employees and members of our community who [sic] we serve.

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bad theology Evangelical Stuff Featured

Hillsong Says to Build Yourself on the Rock of Hillsong Church

Hillsong Youth Leader Jorden Bicknell had an interesting take on what it means to build one’s house on the rock, explaining during an episode of Hillson UK Kid’s church (after singing over and over these somewhat self-centered lyrics “You made me special. You made me precious. You made me wonderful. In Your image I am made.”) the rock that one ought to build their house and life upon is Hillsong Church. [Editor’s note: Has this guy even READ Matthew 16? That ROCK is CHRIST! Yeesh…]

God tells us that we need to build our life on the rock and not on the sand. I want you to take a minute to think about how strong a rock is. And I want you to take a minute to think about how weak and soft sand is. So you might be like, but how do I do that?

Well, one of the ways that we can do that is by getting involved in our church. We’re so blessed to be part of the church that we are, the kid’s church that you get to be in every single Sunday. You get to hang out with all of those incredible friends that you’ve got, and those kids leaders that love you and are for you and they just want to help you grow in your relationship with God. See I’ve got three things that we can do, to really be able to love my church and to be able to build your relationship with God.

He explains to do so, you have to love the people around you, listen to your kid’s leaders, and learn who God says you are, on account that he was a wonderful Jeremiah-esque plan for your life.

You see HSK, sometimes life can get a bit hard, whether it’s at school or at home with your friends. It’s not always easy, and that’s okay. But that’s why it’s so important that we build our life on God. We build our life on God’s rock. Because if we build our life on other stuff, that’s like putting our life on sand, and when the storm comes, they’re going to blow us over.

You see, that’s why in the Bible God says, like I said, about building your house on the rock. So I really want to encourage you to invest in your church, invest in your friends, invest in the kid’s leaders that are around you, and do your best to learn about how much God loves you. And that’s how I love my church.

h/t to Salt and Light

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News

Jim Bakker Makes Final Plea: ‘I Need $1M in Next Week or My Show is Done’

Televangelist Jim Bakker took the airwaves to claim that this really is the end of it, that he has less than a week to raise a million dollars in funds or else the network is going cancel his broadcast – a fund-raising endeavor unlikely to be achieved.

Bakker has long been struggling financially, particularly since last year when the credit card companies cut him off and reduced him to only taking checks to support his ever-dwindling ministry, the result of continued fallout and legal action after seeking to sell colloidal silver as a cure-all for the novel coronavirus in 2020.

A few months ago he was on air pleading with people to buy a $1000 miracle blanket, demonstrating that with this desperate new venture, his ministry is basically being held together by duct tape, chewing gum, and bottled demon tears at this point. His newest cry for help makes this even more clear.

I’ve been told that the network’s going to cancel my broadcast within another week. We’ve got to catch up on the bills, and that’s about a million dollars…We lost millions in finances due to the legal battles we have fought; losing our ability to receive donations by credit cards for over a year has left us in a desperate state. What the devil has tried to do is silence our voice! I’m asking you, as a friend and long-time supporter of this ministry, as valuable partners, will you help us turn this wolf away from our door? We’re not crying wolf, our door…would break down if the wolf comes in. Because he’s there. He’s at the door. He’s not near the door, he’s at the door.

At the same time, because he is a supreme huckster, he may have found his niche; modeling his business after stores that have had huge signs that had said “Going out of business! Everything 50% off!” for the last 30 years. If nothing else, this pitiful cry might be the new perpetual bait that serves to chum up the waters for his ignorant and ailing audience.

[Editor’s note: The only wolf involved in this story is Jim Bakker.]

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News

Pastor Sues Church over $6.25M Retirement Package He Alleges Was Promised – UPDATE!

Editor’s Note: This is an older story, but was not covered by us at the time it happened, and is worth writing about for posterity in a simplified version so we can use it as a reference. This is the saga from start to finish.

“Pastor” Ron Carpenter has resolved his legal dispute with his former church after years of public infighting with “Pastor” John Gray, the result of a successful arbitration that sees him returning to the state to plant a new church.

Carpenter was the pastor of Redemption Church in South Carolina for decades until he decided to move to California to take over as the lead pastor of a new church – the 14,000-member Jubilee Christian Center, which was to be rebranded as Redemption Church version 2.0.

As a part of this transition, he handed the reigns of his megachurch to John Gray, who rebranded it as “Relentless Church.” Gray is a former associate pastor at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church. He left there and took over the church in 2018, moving into a $1.8 million mansion “parsonage” paid for by the church. This is quite prescient, as ironically the only thing he has been “relentless” about is cheating on his wife while staying employed and wearing expensive clothing, making the news frequently for one scandal after another.

In taking over the church, the Grays agreed to take over all debts, which included nearly 9 million dollars on the church sanctuary and 4 million on the Imagine Center gym, with the church building carrying a monthly mortgage of nearly $70k dollars.

After some time, Carpenter was dissatisfied with how things were going both in his new church on the west coast as well as back home. He alleged that Gray was being “shady” and “dishonest” by missing mortgage payments and not paying his bills. As a result he initiated a suit to evict him from the property. Gray contests this, saying he was not being shady and has paid everything, including $500,000 in upgrades to the sanctuary.

One of the conditions for Gray taking over the church was that it had to be rebranded so that Carpenter could take his “Redemption Church” brand with him. Although this was done, Carpenter says that he was also promised a retirement package from the church he was leaving, which totaled $6.25 million dollars. If the transition was successful, he was to have received annual payouts of $250,000 for 25 years, along with being gifted a retirement property in an affluent neighborhood. This was not being done and he filed suit in order to be paid. [Editor’s Note: Have you ever heard of that happening? Being paid millions to hand over a church?]

As a result, they publicly bickered back and forth, as well as brought suit after suit against each other. [Gee, that’s not a violation of Christian ethics at all. See 1 Cor. 6:1… -Ed.]

In October of 2020, the two men finished the legal disputes between them and pledged to end the public feuding after undergoing a successful mediation process, settling their differences once and for all and bringing an end to the disturbing and shameful saga.

Carpenter moved back to South Carolina to establish a new church, one branded “Redemption Church” that is filled with ex-members of the now “Relentless Church,” which was dissolved in the botched transition. He had over 1000 people attend the first service and claims at this point he is interested in mending fences and putting everything behind them.

Gray for his part is happy that it is over, announcing plans to expand the “Relentless Church” brand with a couple of nearby church plants and has indicated that he wishes for reconciliation as well.

[Editor’s note: This is not a church, and these are not Christians. These men need to hear and respond to the real gospel of Jesus Christ, in which Christ died in the place of sinners according to the Scriptures to pay for our sins, and rose again to show that not only were they paid for, but that He had broken sin’s power in our lives. Until that happens, you have a nice, big, fat, comfy goat herd.]