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.
The Wolf Is At The Door: Jim Bakker is desperate for donations, saying that networks will soon stop carrying his program if he can't come up with $1 million to pay his bills. pic.twitter.com/7q3oXfuTdS
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.]
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.]
Not a lot has been going on with these pages this past month, but there are a few pastors/evangelical superstars out there sporting some interesting items, courtesy of Preachers N Sneakers and Prophets N Watches.
Mike Todd of Transformation Church in Tulsa, OK with some $1990 Jordan shoes. You’ll recall last month he was wearing a $2720 jacket.
Pastor Ron Carpenter, who famously filed suit after being told he would receive $6.25 million dollars if he transitioned his Church to Pastor John Gray, wearing $850 Prada shoes.
Bethel Church’s Brian Johnson wearing that $10K Rolex
Last is money-grubbing heretic and prosperity preacher Guillermo Maldonado bringing up the rear, with a $162,995 Patek Watch.
The Episcopalian church took an enormous hit in 2020, with the heretical denomination losing nearly 12 percent of their congregation members in just one year, according to reports by the Office of the General Convention that also shows they’ve dropped 20 percent since 2016.
The story, brought to us by Juicy Ecumenism, should not surprise anyone, as this denomination is thoroughly depraved and ceased long being Christian decades ago, with perhaps only a fraction of a percent of real believers left. Abortion and LGBTQ have long since been lauded celebrated, and if you throw a stone into a group of Episcopalian priests, a third will be gay, another third will have they/them pronouns, and the rest will be a miracle-denying atheists who’d just as soon defecate on the bible than deliver it as God’s word.
The report reveals more startling information, such as 10 percent of their congregations have 20 people or less, 5 percent have 10 people or less, and the average congregation is around 50 people, the overwhelming number of them senior citizens. One diocese for example, the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan only has 385 members spread across 21 churches, and it just disappeared.
Diocesan statistics show seven baptisms in 2019, two confirmations, three received from other denominations and 13 marriages. In contrast, there were 35 burials that year – representing 9 percent of the entire diocesan attendance in a single year.
The last news item on its website was a directive in March of 2020 telling all churches “to cease all Sunday, Saturday, and weekday in-person gatherings.” and like that it was gone.
Even though Episcopalian finances took a hit over the pandemic, however, they have historically been an affluent denomination, being funded by the hordes of men and women who die and then leave the church in their will as a beneficiary to their estate. They are being kept running by the deaths of their deceived denizens, and likely have another decade or two left.
With the recently unearthed find that a prominent pastor has come out in support of the sermon factory that is “Ministry Pass,” describing the act of “borrowing” or “stealing sermons” as ‘just good stewardship” according to a post by Reformation Charlotte that brought this to our attention, we figured it was worth delving a bit more into this.
The comments were made by Mark Batterson, the lead pastor at National Community Church, a multisite megachurch in Washington DC. Batterson is perhaps best known for his mega-popular mystical/gnostic screed The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears. During a promo video he said the following:
Here’s the bottom line. Church ought to be the most creative place on the planet [which explains his creative theology]. I believe that. I also believe that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. You know, you can’t come up with an original idea every single week.
Sometimes, it’s just good stewardship to beg, borrow, and steal from someone else. There’s some incredible ideas and one of the things I appreciate is that Ministry Pass is really a clearinghouse where you can take an illustration or a graphic or an entire series, put your fingerprint on it, and leverage it in your church. And so a huge thanks to my friends at Ministry Pass.
As far as what it looks like, a company like Ministry Pass has over a thousand series available covering all the books of the bible, ranging from a 4-week trip through the book of Jude to a 50-week sermon series through the book of Acts.
If 50 weeks through Acts is too long and you don’t want to go through verse by verse, you can pick multiple 6-week sermons to preach, or perhaps pluck topical sermons within the book of Acts, each one with sermon illustrations, graphics, social media art, and points to consider.
Along with the sermon series, they have videos, countdowns, and other goodies. Unlike Docent, which is far more specialized, individualistic, and expensive, with services running into the tens of thousands of dollars, Ministry Pass, which was founded by Justin Trapp and Wade Bearden, can be yours for the low price of $69 a month, or $649 annually.
In this case, we’re going to review a one-week sermon on Samson, as part of the Heroes of the Faith series. We didn’t have to pick the Heroes of the Faith series, as there were different options with different slants/ perspectives.
Those were mostly standalone messages. We also could have discussed him within multiple sermon series on the book of Judges, where he makes an appearance in chapters 15 and 16.
The series includes a bunch of graphics and videos that can be shared on different social media sites.
Here is an example of a lesson we purchased:
The Story of Samson
Big Idea of the Series: This one-week sermon looks at the story of Samson. His story is a mix of great strength and great weakness, but it’s ultimately a story of God’s faithfulness and his ability to use us in spite of our shortcomings.
Big Idea of the Message: From conception, Samson had everything he needed to fulfill his calling, but because of compromise and rebellion, he faced failure. Even so, God was gracious and willing to restore Samson, even at his lowest point.
Application Point: Repentance does not remove all consequences of sin, but God stands ready to restore the penitent sinner to a full relationship with him.
Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:
Samson’s miraculous birth to a barren woman was foretold by the angel of the Lord, who left strict instructions concerning his upbringing as a Nazirite especially devoted to God. The Nazirite vow allowed for the consecration of any Israelite to a special time of devotion to the Lord. In addition to the laws that applied to all Israelites, a Nazirite “shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine” (Numbers 6:4), “shall let the locks of hair of his [or her] head grow long” (v. 5), and “shall not go near a dead body” (v. 6). These additional rules were necessary to prevent the Nazirite from becoming unclean and thereby unfit for the unfettered fellowship with God that the Nazirite vow represented (Webb, Book of Judges, 351). The Nazirite vow was usually temporary, but God’s special purpose for Samson’s life required him to serve as a lifelong Nazirite, even in his mother’s womb (Judges 13:3–5).
The story of Samson’s birth parallels the birth of the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai. Israel was also consecrated to God, heard his voice, and received special rules to live by and a calling to fulfill (Exodus 19:9–19). Like Manoah and his wife, God gave his children every advantage in life. But like Samson, Israel treated their blessings as curses, desiring instead to integrate with the surrounding nations.
Like Israel as a whole, Samson treated his special status with contempt. He completely ignored both his Nazirite vow and the regulations of the Sinaitic covenant. “Samson again goes to Timnah to complete the wedding plans and claim his bride. He decides to turn from the road to see the lion’s dead carcass. Now he is intentionally coming in contact with death, a clear volitional violation of his Nazirite vow [Numbers 6:6]. … Returning home, Samson becomes even more disruptive in his own family. Not only will he not accede to his parents’ wedding wishes. Not only does he hide from them the breaking of his Nazirite vow. Now he deliberately leads them to break their own commitments to Israel’s covenant laws by eating something that has come in contact with a dead animal [Leviticus 11:24–25, 39]. Samson has leadership ability, but it is directed for the wrong purposes and blinded by pure self-interest” (Trent C. Butler, Judges, Word Biblical Commentary 8 [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009], 335–36, Logos).
“Samson has always been in rebellion against his separation to God. He has never wanted to fight the Philistines as he was destined to do. He has wanted to mix with them, intermarry with them, and party with them. … But his separateness has always caught up with him, and turned his relationships with the Philistines sour. It is the Spirit that has propelled him into conflict with them. When he wanted to stop (15:7), he was not allowed to; the men of Judah took him out of hiding, and the Spirit had seized him and thrust him into battle with the Philistines again (15:14). And after that there had been no turning back. … He had to fight them, but it was never what he wanted” (Barry G. Webb, The Book of Judges, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament [Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2012], 405–6, Logos). God did not force Samson to rebel, but he did use Samson’s rebellion to advance his own purposes to deliver Israel from the Philistines.
Samson was not the only one in the story to reject God’s calling on his life. The entire tribe of Judah ignored the divine mandate to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan, instead betraying the very man God had called to lead and deliver them. “To fully grasp the significance of what is happening we need to reflect on how the book opened. There a united Israel inquired of Yahweh about how they should proceed in carrying out the mandate Joshua had given them to complete the conquest of Canaan. The answer was that the tribe of Judah should lead them, and that if it did so, victory was assured (1:1–2). Now here in chapter 15 there is no seeking direction from God and no victory. Israel’s subjection to the Philistines is accepted as an established fact. There is no cry for deliverance. The only person who fights the Philistines is Samson, and he does so only when his attempt to intermarry with them is thwarted. And although he is destined eventually to begin to save Israel, the men of Judah (yes, Judah!) see him only as a threat to the status quo, and arrest him in order to hand him over to their Philistine masters. What a fall there has been from the expectations with which the book began! The whole downward spiral of the central part of the book reaches rock bottom here. Surely only a remarkable act of God can save Israel now” (Webb, Book of Judges, 384).
“Can vital boundaries of the faith be violated with impunity? Does sin not have any consequences? Can one dance on the edge of unbelief and play with the power of God and remain safe? May one sin if one repents just in time? Apart from [Judges] 16, chapters 13–15 might seem to say ‘Yes.’ … The book of Judges has relentlessly linked Israel’s sin to consequent oppression by pagan powers, stressing that sin has consequences—a point so far absent from Samson’s story. He seems to violate divine boundaries with impunity, at least until chapter 16, which picks up this theme. The ambivalence of chapters 14–15 breaks down unambiguously in 16:1–31” (Lawson G. Stone, “Judges,” in Joshua, Judges & Ruth, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary 3 [Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2012], 422, Logos).
“Samson was fatally unwise in sharing his secret with Delilah. His willingness to do so seems traceable to his lack of appreciation of two things: One, he failed to appreciate his personal calling by God, and two, the fact that his strength lay solely in God’s power working through him as a holy instrument. These are the same failures that Israel manifested, and which resulted in her experiencing a fate similar to Samson’s, during the period of the judges. They have caused many other servants of God to fall since Samson’s day, too” (Thomas L. Constable, Notes on Judges [2020], 172, https://planobiblechapel.org/tcon/notes/pdf/judges.pdf).
Having hit rock bottom, Samson finally yielded to the Lord’s will. His hair began to grow back, but his strength did not return with his hair. His hair growing back symbolizes the restoration of his relationship with God, not the restoration of his strength. He remained blind and weak until he cried out to the Lord. His self-centered focus on revenge still served as his motivation. He wanted to avenge his gouged-out eyes, but the Lord wanted to free the Israelites from oppression. Still, Samson’s humiliation cured his prideful self-reliance and forced him to recognize that the Lord was and had always been the source of his strength. When he turned to Lord and learned to fully rely on him, his strength returned.
The story of Samson ends with a note of hope, both for apostate Israel and for all of God’s wayward children. God’s purposes cannot be thwarted by human sin. Our shame does not diminish his power. God is in control and will accomplish everything he says, through us or in spite of us. It may be a painful journey, but in the end God’s promises will prevail.
Following the message, there are also additional resources like Bible study questions and curricula.
At the beginning of each sermon series, there is a little disclaimer which states:
This is all well and good. However; many of the sermon plans are much longer, and suppose a pastor wanted to preach that 50 week Acts sermon series in 25 weeks, they could literally add 3-5 minutes of commentary and filler and be done. They could add a few personal observations on a point or two and have a wholly unoriginal sermon in a little under 15 minutes, yet one designed by experts to punch above its weight.
For men like Batterson and a thousand other pastors, this is about best thing ever.
Arch-heretic Jesse Duplantis, known for his love of filthy lucre and declaring that the Lord ‘flexes on him by ‘Giving’ him a Private Jet, had some theologically unsavory thing to say about health and wealth, explaining that if you don’t believe in the prosperity gospel as he does, one that has made him a multi-millionaire by savagely beating and twisting the scriptures for his own gain for decades, then, the Jesus will tell you to “go to hell”, as you seemingly can’t handle all the riches that will be inlaid in heaven.
Well you know I figured out something ladies and gentlemen. See, satan doesn’t want you to realize that every dime he’s got belongs to you and God has an economic world.. I mean if you think about it listen, I had a man so mad at me “oh you just believe that God will bless you.” I said ‘sir, you can’t go to heaven- you ain’t gonna like it.’
You’re not gonna like heaven- they got gold streets that make you mad. They got diamond, jasper, onyx, ruby. They got pearly gates. You need to go to hell because there’s gravel down there, you understand what i’m saying? Isn’t that the most assine thing you ever heard in yoruy life? What are you going to do when you get to ehaven and see all that that? I mean what are people going to say? (mimics petulan person with arms cross” “NO JESUS.”
He’s going to say “well then go to hell’…. because he will not have poverty in his kingdom.
The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board has approved a policy change affirming that any registered sex offenders would be permanently disqualified from ever holding a position of leadership within the church.
And while the committee also recommended a policy that states that any congregation allowing a sex-offender to serve in leadership ‘will be considered out of harmonious cooperation” they softened the language a bit, replacing “will be” with “may be” in order to have some flexibility and breathing room to consider edge cases on a case-by-case basis.” Still, the move is intended to be viewed as a hard line against sexual abuse.
For the Texas Baptists Board, convicted sex offenders are treated more harshly than convicted murderers.
With this new amendment, this is the fifth pillar that the BGCT has added in order to be considered in harmonious cooperation with them, with the other 4 being affirming biblical marriage, praying for the convention, supporting them financially, and participating in convention ministries.
And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees. 1 Kings 18:41-42
In the spirit of “Charismatics gonna charismatic,” pastor Matti Koopman of New Life Centre church in Kelowna, BC, has given a sermon where he demonstrates in stark and vivid detail (and sound) how the prophet Elijah allegedly “birthed” and “pushed out” his Spiritual Promise Baby.
The disturbing episode, along with the disturbing theology, was published on their Facebook page after the September 19 service, where he explains :
“After a period of drought, Elijah prays if you remember. There hadn’t been any rain in the land for seven years. And in 1 Kings 18: 41-42. It said, and “Elijah said to Ahab, go eat and drink for there’s a sound of heavy rain’ hadn’t rained for seven years in the land, and Elijah he is in the Spirit. He sees in the spirit what the potential is. There’s not a cloud in the sky, but he sees in the spirit the cloud. And so Ahab goes off to eat and drink, but Elijah we learn climbs up to the top of the mountain, and it says that he bends down to the ground, and he puts his face between his legs.
When Daniel pleaded with the Lord, it’s this kind of praying. Do you know what he’s doing? And he’s not having a poo, by the way. Excuse me, I’ve just offended some religious spirit.
(Groans LOUDLY) It’s how women in the Middle East gave birth. They put their heads between their knees and they push.
Sometimes when there’s a spiritual promise that is ripe, and pregnant in the spirit, they don’t just happen- you have to push them out. When Daniel saw the eggs in the spirit over Israel, he turns with God with all his force, and all his mind and all his being and all his presence, and he begins to push in the spirit. (More groaning)
Something about the arrival of babies in the natural that speak of the Spirit. You can’t plan them. Babies come early, they come late, but they very rarely come on time, don’t they? They just happen. They show up. And I want to suggest to you that there’s a baby about to be born, that there was an impregnation in another season that is due to be birthed in our day. And the Lord wants to know you’re going to push this baby out.
h/t to Brother John Elving, who also offered some good commentary on this below and has been following this guy for a while now.
Former ERLC President Rusell Moore released the inaugural episode from his podcast reboot “The Rusell Moore Show.” The show is part of Moore’s new Public Theology Project, which he’s doing in conjunction with Christianity Today, the progressive rag that he’s found his new home at. This particular show featured a conversation between him and his fellow ex-Southern Baptist Beth Moore, spending the time in light banter while reminiscing about all the times they felt ashamed to be associated with their denomination and why specifically Beth left.
During the conversation, Moore claims that she was unfairly targeted and made a scapegoat so SBC pastors had something to deal with and focus on other than the budding sexual abuse crisis. Moore claims that she never desired the pulpit, and that she’s never even heard of women wanting the pulpit in the SBC, despite 10% Of The Biggest Southern Baptist Churches Are Pastored By Women. She says:
I was very aware, in my young servanthood, of just your basic sexism, and accepted it because I truly believed until the autumn of 2016 that even though I found it very weird, and very off-putting and like, ‘why would you be in an elevator with me and not speak to me? Why would you be in the same automobile with me? And not speak to me? Why would you not acknowledge that I’m even there? We’re on the same team of speakers together’.
But I always thought, ‘well, you know what, it’s weird. But they, it’s because of Scripture’. And then suddenly all of that unraveled and that was part of the trauma of it.
And so I had not been aware of flat-out misogyny until I got into the larger evangelical world. That was a shock to me. And I began to see what I felt like was a hard pull, where women that hate- you have to understand and I love to be able to tell people this because I think they find it shocking- you’ve got to understand as controversial as I have been, because I’ve obviously been trying to steal someone’s pulpit, you need to understand that I’m telling you that 98% of my ministry has been to women.
I was called serve women. That’s what I’ve spent my life doing. But what happened when the end came from me? And this is really the question that you’re asking, I’m just taking a long way to get there. Two years ago May, I did something really, really foolish that I very, very much regret. And that is that I teased with someone on Twitter sometimes, you know, well, I’m a smart aleck. And so you know, I’ve kind of got a little sassy about something. And it was the late spring and Mother’s Day was coming up. And she, my friend who is a speaker said something about it, she baited me a little bit, which she would admit to, and we would both get a little bit tickled over it.
But I (bit?) that date with everything I had. And I said, “Shhhh But I’ll be speaking on Mother’s Day, at my church” and I’d spoken on Mother’s Day at my church for years. It exploded. To give you a little example, and for you to understand, for me, what is most injurious and what is less injurious is according to how personal it is.
For instance, when the big deal came out, where a very well-known figure (John MacArthur), in a very demeaning way, said that his reaction to my name to the name ‘Beth Moore’ would be go home. I mean, I didn’t even have a big reaction to it. I stayed at a three of the whole time. Because it wasn’t coming from my internal world. I was like, ‘you know what? I’m not going home. You can’t make me because you’re not my boss.”
But this one nearly killed me. It is the only thing in my denomination Russell that is ever nearly put me in the bed and caused me to pull the covers up over my head. I’m hard to put into that state because I’m buoyant. I am Tigger, I bounce back easy. But it absolutely exploded. And I’ve got hit so hard from my internal world, when I knew they knew better, and I felt like it was bearing false witness.
I knew that many of those pastors, there’s many, many exceptions ya’ll please understand that. I knew that most of those people that were spreading those rumors knew that it was not true.
I had never, ever been after a pastoral position in a church. Never. The most I would have ever spoken, In my church, it was when my pastor would ask me to which I, I felt you could find in the Scriptures for a woman to bring to be asked by her pastor to bring a word to the congregation, I’d only ever done it under those circumstances.
This was not someone trying to incite women to go take over the pulpit. This, I thought I have served your women for 35 years. You know, this is not true. And it’s not fair. And it nearly killed me.
And you know people like to say to you in a situation like this. ‘well, it was just a few’. This was not a few. There was nothing that was a few about this. This was not a loud few. No, it was like somebody blew a dog whistle. And it was like :attack. And it was explosive and almost nonstop.
And you need to understand it was at the peak of the biggest sexual abuse scandal in the history of our denomination. And suddenly, all anyone wanted to talk about was women trying to take over the pulpit of Southern Baptist churches. To this day, I do not know one. I saw again yesterday online ‘these are the biggest threats to the denomination’ and it was listed as one: “women coming after senior pastor roles”
Where? I need someone to turn me in a name. I need- I’m begging someone to turn me in a name. I don’t- Russ I don’t know one. Did I go too far?
So that, to bring that back around, that our inability to be able to look in the face of the sexual abuse situation, because we’re going to defer to something that’s much more palatable, where we can hold our heads up and have some dignity. So let’s go for this over here, women trying to take over the church. Women were not trying to, women are not trying to take over it, not in that denomination. Let’s mourn and grieve. James says it’s such an odd thing for him to say, when he says, ‘grieve and mourn.’ This is not when you have joy. This is when you grieve, and mourn over what is happening. And instead of doing that, we just deferred over here and let’s like ‘women are becoming a threat to the pulpit.’ No, no, no, no, no, forgive me. But the pulpit had become a threat to women. And it was terrifying.
Moore concludes by Asking Russell if she went too far, and he assures her that she did not.
The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee (EC) has voted 44-31 to waive attorney-client privilege and allow Guidepost Solutions, the firm charged with overseeing “any allegations of abuse, mishandling of abuse, mistreatment of victims, a pattern of intimidation of victims or advocates, and resistance to sexual abuse reform initiatives.” within the denomination, to have full access to what normally would be privileged communications between committee members and their lawyers.
SBC President Ed Litton, himself embroiled in a scandal involving his repeated plagiarism over a period of years, ironically prayed that the Lord would expose “what needs to be exposed” while adjuring that these events would not ‘divide and separate brothers and sisters.’
Last week, the motion failed 22-50 to waive attorney-client privileges, and since then a campaign was mounted to give the hard press to members who desire to address sexual abuse cases but were concerned that the decision would open the convention up to lawsuits and financially devastate the denomination to the point of insolvency. Over 1000 pastors signed a letter urging the convention to reconsider, resulting in a scrum that was being framed as between those advocating for fiduciary vs spiritual duties.
“Those supporting the waiving of attorney-client privilege were superb in their rhetoric so as to create a perception that those who had genuine concerns and believed other options were readily available to fulfill the desire of the messengers were guilty of seeking to cover up sex abuse, harm sex abuse survivors, and/or desired to reject the will of the messengers. Many conservatives were hesitant to speak up for fear of being labeled and due to the confusion surrounding the situation. We desire truth and integrity and believe both of those could be accomplished without waiving attorney-client privilege.”
Naturally, with all this talk of openness and access to information and records, some have pointed out the naked hypocrisy of the Executive Committee and other SBC entities with their selective insistence on full transparency when it comes to this matter, all the while keeping information like the salaries of their top people and leaders a secret, with no one knowing how much are being paid despite being corporately funded by the churches.
Rhett Burns (@rhiett_burns) offers up these somewhat dissenting thoughts about the waiving of privileges while Pastor Bill Kent expressed concern over whether or not every messenger fully understood all the ramifications of facing legal jeopardy without counsel. Burns writes:
Enough accusations have been made against the ExComm to warrant an investigation, & the messengers were right to direct such. That’s why it is so disappointing and frustrating that they’ve managed to botch this thing before it’s even started In a time where trust is lacking in every area of our convention, leaders have pushed for this investigation in ways that undermine trust and threaten the legitimacy of its findings.
What do I mean?
1)The presenting impetus for the investigation were two letters from Russell Moore that were obviously written to be leaked, which they were. That one of the letters implicates Moore and the ERLC in abuse coverup has been ignored, and we are supposed to just ignore that inconvenient fact.
2)The motion messengers passed actually directed the task force, not the Executive Committee, yet, that fact has also been ignored. Instead, the prevailing narrative is that the EC is flouting the direct will of the messengers by not waiving attorney-clicent privilege.
3)Even if you interpret the motion to direct the EC, it is not at all clear that the messengers have the authority to require the EC staff and members to waive basic legal rights. Rather, it seems to be an overstepping of authority to attempt to mandate such. To respond with indignation and outrage that someone did not comply with your directive that you did not have the authority to make, is itself an abusive tactic.
4)Saying things like “if you have nothing to hide you’ll waive privilege” or “if you don’t waive privilege you must be guilty” is to assume what you are trying to prove, & to treat someone as guilty until proven innocent. This is a perversion of justice in the name of justice.
5)Still, you may think, “why are they hiding behind a legal privilege? They have a moral duty to be transparent.” I largely agree. O, that we would have transparency and accountability in the SBC! (Any chance we can see salary structure for entity leaders?)
But the EC was not the first to lawyer up. Those pushing for the investigation came with lawyers. A motion was made from the floor to have qualified pastors/men in the church investigate the EC (in accordance with 1 Cor 6), but that was rejected out of hand, so we’re left with the lawyers and those pesky legal rights, like attorney-client privilege, that due process ensures.
6)The task force was given authority by the messengers to oversee this investigation (carried out by a third party) but we have a task force member on the speaker list of a strategy session discussing the removal of Ronnie Floyd and several trustees. Remember, the investigation has not even started yet, but they are guilty and must be removed! (and maybe they should be, but shouldn’t the investigation demonstrate this first?) Another task force member signed an open letter to the EC threatening to pull funding if they don’t waive privilege.
Further, the task force contracted, for a legal opinion in an investigation about sexual abuse, a law firm that boasts about promoting& defending sexual deviancy. There is not even a pretense of objectivity.
It’s all gaslighting.
If you notice any of this—and say something out loud about it—you are the baddie. Now, assuming the best of people, I’m sure many pushing hardest for waiving privilege just want the truth to come out. And some of them probably have some inside info that I don’t have that implicates some EC staff or members. I get it. But ask any grandmother teaching Sunday School and she’ll tell you: two wrongs don’t make a right.
*How* we do this investigation is important.
We must not jettison justice in the pursuit of justice. Doing so only adds to the number of victims rather than bringing healing and justice to any of the current victims. Thus far, this investigation appears to be operating according to the politics of power rather than the principles of justice.
That’s a shame.
And it further erodes what little trust remained. “You reap what you sow.”
Maybe this is just Patterson reaping what he sowed years ago. I don’t know.
But if so, it ought to make the current crop tremble.
“With the measure you use it shall be measured to you.”
May the Lord show mercy to all of us.
Executive Committee member Rod Martin, who voted ‘No’ was likewise concerned about the way this was being framed, explaining:
“It was perfectly possible to comply with the will of the messengers and still fulfill our fiduciary duties. The fact that the majority did not wish to do so will haunt the SBC, and not just the Executive Committee or its members: every entity, every state convention. But even were that not manifestly true, it remains true as I warned for weeks: by voiding the insurance, the Executive Committee has very limited ability to compensate any victims the investigation might find. This is grossly foolish and unjust: it is the ‘be warm and be filled’ motion. It is certainly not ‘caring well.’”
