Blog on the Way

Pedophiles Vote Republican #2

On 9/11/2001, in the midst of the nation’s great tragedy, I realized that I was a very selfish, unproductive Christian. I was not at all imitating Jesus Christ. Instead, I was living the model of a white, educated, middle class conservative Presbyterian woman.

I did the church thing. I knew my theology and always won any church history quiz given in Sunday School. I had published Christian novels for young people. I’d never slept around, never had an affair. I dressed modestly, lived a temperate life, although an occasional indulgence in beer and a fondness for Doctor Who sometimes startled my previous colleagues from Bob Jones University (BJU), from which I had graduated.

But on that heartbreaking day, I resolved to start documenting clergy sex abuse of children in Christian Fundamentalism, the type of Fundamentalism produced by and funded by Bob Jones University, Hyles-Anderson, and Tennessee Temple (now defunct). If you want, you can read more about that here.

At that time, in the pre-Facebook era, internet forums were the watering holes of social groups. Fundamentalist colleges and churches had followed Independent Fundamental Baptist Megachurch pastor Jack Hyles in condemning use of the internet, apart from email. BJU was taking a cautious but less severe approach.

One enterprising pastor, Don Elbourne, started a forum called the Fightin’ Fundamentalist Forum. It was the only forum of its kind, and it hosted both current and fallen/former Fundamentalists. I started a blog to track cases, but I also picked the FFF as the main site where I would post my findings.

On September 12, 2001, I was thinking I would likely unearth about a dozen to two dozen cases. Definitely, there were plenty of rumors swirling around about one or two cases. And I was disgusted and angered that the likes of BJU and other churches and schools that call themselves the last bastion of faithfulness had all hidden these cases away. This was the point of my commitment to Christ. I would not let them be hidden away. These children are valued by Christ.

But I had no idea of the vast dark sea into which I had dived. Within a few weeks, I understood things a little better. I still didn’t think the total case number would surpass 25, with maybe one or two per year as time continued. But I learned really fast that Fundamentalists DON’T like their dirty laundry aired.

I followed the rules of journalism, requiring at least two witness accounts (documentation equaled a witness account), named witnesses, names of all the accused. Everything had to be done correctly because I was certain I would be sued. So certain, in fact, that I put all my earthly possessions into a blind trust that I signed over to my childhood best friend, Bruce. He managed everything in my life down to my paychecks for a few years. I was threatened with being sued a few times (though not as much as I had expected. It gradually dawned on me that these guys were terrified of going into a courtroom to discuss what I was reporting), but more frequently I was simply harassed.

The list is endless: a web page alleging I was a lesbian was put up. A web page alleging Don was gay was put up. Accusations of being gay are the H-bomb of Christian Fundamentalism. I received hang up calls. My email account at work was discovered, but as I was a contractor that was short lived.

The first person to threaten me was then IFB Pastor Marty Braemer, who used a fake account called OverIt. He was caught within days by several people who noted that he was making the exact same spelling mistakes under his fake name. I gathered up the names and addresses of all the newspapers (because we still had them back then) around Marty’s home town and told him on the forum that I was sending them a complete account of his threats, his deception, and his steadfast denials that went way beyond everybody knowing the game was up. It would be a full history of everything, with screenshots. How I wish I had actually done it! But he apologized, and I did not pursue.

He went on to hurt a lot of people. And he continued to try to hurt me. As my work grew to include a podcast, I created a lovable, hare-brained, gay preacher boy named Marty (and another named Guy, for Guy Beaumont, Marty’s real time ally) from Hyles-Anderson, and I would play both voices and do radio skits with them. The adventures of Guy and Marty, which were always rated G, became a staple of the show as they tripped their way through secret agent preachers, a kung fu chicken farmer, a stint as car mechanics, and other scenarios.

Marty’s threats didn’t pan out, but the question of real danger couldn’t be denied. Fundamentalist preachers have a history of breaking and entering into the homes of people who stand up to them. I changed my address to a post office box to keep my home address secret, a ploy that worked for years while I rented an apartment. Learning from previous security lapses, I became a lot better about keeping my personal details a secret.

But finally, two young men who were wild about Dave Hyles entered the FFF and went after me with a passion. They were crude, they were threatening, and they were relentless. It’s been about 16 years, so I no longer recall what exactly they said that frightened me, but Marty and Guy were egging them on, as were others, and I realized that nobody was going to protect me. I thought these young men were about 18-20 years old, and from what they said, Dave Hyles was recruiting his own personal elite to take care of me. Some of the men on the FFF did become offended with them and concerned for me. Since then, Phil Johnson has become a company man for John MacArthur, but back then he stood up to these two on my behalf. A final straw came, but now I do not remember exactly what it was. I think one of them alleged he knew where I lived. The turning point for me was that I knew if they came after me to hurt me, they would hurt others: women and children.

I had grown up with guns. I have been shooting several times and was certified by SCLED for a few years for law enforcement. Guns in and of themselves don’t intimidate me. I got a friend to vouch for me to the sheriff, got a permit, and bought my first gun. It was a Taurus five chambered revolver. My hands were shaking as I purchased it, paying cash, a whopping $600. I drove home with it, unloaded, in the little cloth case I had purchased for it. It was stowed in the trunk. But it seemed to take up the entire car. A gun. This wasn’t a gun that belonged to my Dad. It wasn’t a gun from the gun case at BJU for the Security people. It was a gun I had purchased because I might have to shoot somebody to protect my life and the life of anybody after me.

I went to my duplex apartment, brought it inside, loaded it with shaking hands, and sat on my bed with it, unhappy. I was about 42 back then and had always lived on my own since getting out of BJU. I had resolved early on to live trusting God. Fundamentalism is a gun crazy culture. I had deliberately chosen no guns.

But the dive into this sea of sexual perversions, lies, harassment, greed, entitlement, and all the rest had already worked changes in me, and it would work a lot more. I felt very sad. I didn’t want to shoot anybody. I didn’t want these two young men to come after me and get shot. In fact I felt anger at them. How could anybody go around crusading for Dave Hyles? But I couldn’t let it continue past me if it came to me.

I put the gun in my nightstand and I felt like it was taking up the whole room, the entire duplex. Everything now was this gun.

My life will never be the same, I realized. And I was sad. And I knew if I ever had to shoot anybody, it would be the end of me. I would never recover. My former friend from BJU, Betty, had a wonderful father, an old man when I first met him. He had served in WWII, and he topped out at about five foot five, maybe a 115 pounds. But some divine Providence had smiled upon him, and he had been made an MP almost upon setting foot in France. He had guarded prisoners, had participated in the arrest of American GIs who broke French law, had performed a hundred different tasks but had never actually gone into battle. MPs are police officers. They don’t go to the front lines.

“I thank God,” he told me. “That I never had to shoot another human being. It changed the fellers who did it.”

I knew exactly what he meant.

For a couple months, the gun dominated the entire apartment. I always new where it was, always knew it was loaded, always felt its presence. And then after a few months it faded and became more livable. As for the two young men, I found a strategy to deal with them. They were posting from AOL accounts, and AOL had a pretty comprehensive rule against harassment. I took screenshots of some of their posts and sent them to AOL. A few days later one of them wrote to me in a panic because his parents were going to find out what he had been doing. He wanted me to tell his parents it was all a misunderstanding. I said no. It turned out that these “young men” were high school boys who had never even met Dave Hyles. Their crazy Hyles-Anderson graduate youth pastor had put them up to this, or so they said. Don booted them off the forum because they were kids, and a few of the IFB preachers blamed me for bullying these two and going to AOL about them. (I decided it would be wisest to say nothing about the gun right at the point.)

By this time I was starting to see what a morass of evil Fundamentalism is. Plenty of shocks remained ahead for me, and at least one attempted assault on me that was no joke. But at that point, I wanted to make sure these IFB preachers knew I had a gun, but I didn’t want to come across like I was bragging. Fundies love guns, so eventually somebody started a gun thread, and I joined in and said something along the lines of my Taurus has only five chambers, and at first I thought it was defective because I had thought that all revolvers were six shooters, like in the movies.

A stunned, prolonged, dead silence followed my remark. All posting stopped for a while. Oh yes, the message had gotten across. I was reminded of the verse in Revelation 8:1b: “there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” But I decided that it was wrong to taunt, at least in this instance. I never wanted to brandish my gun, to wave it around, or to make threats with it. Human life, even human life lived wickedly, is sacred. Man is made in the image of God, and only God gives life. Right wing Christians can be very glib about killing, supporting war and executions and so on. Such glibness is sacrilegious.

All of this was part of my learning experience and realization that an awful lot of Fundamentalists don’t have a clue about what Jesus taught and what He requires. Granted, followers of Christ can disagree, but a lot of these people are not even in the ballpark of Christ’s teachings. They really think following Jesus is about killing Muslims, imprisoning refugees, and threatening to shoot anybody who takes their guns away. Just today the hysteria of a woman who professes to be a Christian who on Facbook is promising to shoot anybody who tries to confiscate her guns, WHEN NOBODY IS THREATENING TO CONFISCATE HER GUNS, prompted this essay. Christ was passionate to alleviate suffering and to call for peace and justice and charity. How did we get to a Christianity that wants to shoot people?

Still, I thought then, and still think now, that a gun was essential to my safety and to the safety of others. But I support background checks, cooling off periods, raising the minimum age to buy guns, and red flag laws. Since the Taurus, I’ve bought a few more guns, entirely because I did have one attempted assault against me that I want to write about. But I am too tired right now. Lord willing, more later. All the same, the prospect of having to harm another person should be one that weighs us down, not something that excites us. It’s nothing to glory in. I will say with my old friend Beauford, “I thank God that I never had to shoot another human being.”

In the time when the New Testament was taking place, there was no law enforcement as we know law enforcement. The governor of any region had soldiers who simply did his bidding, and he answered to Rome for what he had the soldiers do to keep the peace. But routine law enforcement was not their job. Keeping Rome in power was their job. Keeping the peace played a small role in that, but it usually involved quelling riots and capturing members of organized theft rings. Citizens could take other citizens to Rome appointed magistrates with accusations, but magistrates could hold and torture both plaintiff and accused in order to coerce answers from them, and such magistrates tended to favor wealthy and powerful people. The purpose of the magistrate, ultimately, was to ensure the power of Rome and keep the peace. A good magistrate would meticulously hold up Roman law, but he could do it any way he liked.

So Paul didn’t have the option of requiring that people go to law enforcement. Poor people would have been extremely reluctant, as they came before magistrates at a strong disadvantage. People with Roman citizenship were favored, and slaves didn’t have that option at all. They could not appeal to magistrates. This is why Paul scolds the church at Corinth for brother going to the law against brother. It was a dangerous and unjust system (which Paul says), and it could result in even more members of a Christian community being hauled in for “questioning” on a magistrate’s whim. Obviously, the New Testament does support a systematic and impartial law enforcement system, and that very system that was developed in the West has its foundation in the case law provided in the Torah.

This is why the New Testament lays out such meticulous rules for disciplining church officers. They didn’t have a code of civil laws designed to protect the poor and the rich equally, enforced by a professional law enforcement system.

It is clear from the New Testament that Paul issues reprimands (by name), orders excommunications, rebukes church elders, establishes rules of evidence, and limits the powers of elders. NONE of that happens today in churches. John identifies Diotrephes and his sin by name and alludes to a process already in place to remove him from office. We don’t even have the infrastructure to do that today. Yet all these so-called Bible believing churches claim 100 percent fidelity to the Bible. But they skip anything that has to do with the limits placed upon them.

Paul rebuked Peter openly before the church at large for shunning Gentile Christians, and we never see Peter exercise any church governmental power after that. In the early days he addressed the council of elders at Jerusalem. But after the public rebuke he never refers to himself as an elder. In his two brief epistles, he issues no orders nor sets down rules as Paul does. He lays his claim as an apostle and then consoles the suffering. But where Paul gives rules for orderly behavior, Peter relies on citing the Old Testament to offer guidance and comfort. He no longer has the authority he once had. And he doesn’t claim to.

In Romans, Paul establishes freedom of conscience for the individual believer, thus limiting the power of elders further in any church. He sets out rules for the appointment of elders in the epistles to Timothy and Titus, rules that most elders today do not fulfill. He also instituted multiple elders per church, which also doesn’t exist in the megachurch culture today. In Acts, the apostles and elders hear grievances openly and transparently and rectify a situation in public (the distribution of charity to the Greek widows) to the satisfaction of all parties, the very model of Christian eldership in action. They brought agreement to both sides. They allowed the plaintiffs to have a direct role in the solution (all of the deacons chosen were Greek). In today’s megachurch’s, the church officers meet in private and then produce a public statement. The congregation often has no say at all. They can stay or leave. Those are their options.

You can take the whole canon of the new Testament, see all the examples of church government taking action, read all the rules for church government, and develop a more accurate outlook on church government than is taught today in Evangelical churches. Then the recognition that Christian churches today are not only failing to obey the civil law (which Paul requires in several places) in handling clergy sex abuse cases, they’re also not obeying the Bible, even though they say they obey the Bible. But if you don’t read the Bible, and instead say it’s all just a matter of interpretation, you yourself give these bad guys the loophole they so badly want.

The truth is, the concept of a contract form of government, a cornerstone of personal rights and safety, is based on Scripture and was formulated by Samuel Rutherford in his book, LEX REX, for which he was sent to prison, where he died. The protections of the poor that we take for granted were established by the Puritans under their view that the Law itself, not a king, is the actual ruler of the population, and even the king must obey the law. And they derived this from the Old Testament.

The establishment of a public school system comes from the Purtians, who took it from the New Testament and the admonition to educate children. The unchaining of the insane also was done by the Puritans who recognized that basic human rights must be respected because God grants basic human rights to all of us because we are made in His image. The abolition of debtor’s prison was carried out because – ta da- there is on debtor’s prison in the Torah or allowed in the Church. That was the Puritans once again.

The American Church today is incredibly disobedient, corrupt, celebrity driven, prosperity driven, and very political. No argument there. It is quite often predatory. But when men selectively preach from the Bible and ignore what they don’t like, don’t take your cue from them. They would far rather you blame the Bible, so that then they can paint you as worthless atheists. No, hold them up to the Bible and blame them. You’ll be more accurate that way, and then they have no excuse.

I documented the clergy sex abuse of children in Independent Baptist and other Fundamentalist churches for 13 years. Most of my readers know that. If you were around back then, you were witness to numerous pastors and their pals calling me a drunk, a witch, a lesbian, a Buddhist, insane, etc. My health failed before I ever achieved any significant milestone in terms of churches changing. I was witness to many of the victims of these men and their bad churches changing. I saw both the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and I saw the astounding power of Christ..

The world, the flesh, and the devil
The power of the world is the power of the corporate strength of modern independent churches. Each church is a closed unit in and of itself. In spite of the numerous points in the New Testament where we are told that Christ’s Body is one body, a united church. And in spite of the fact that in the Book of Acts we see a play by play narrative of all of the elders coming together in Jerusalem to debate matters and make decisions on behalf of the entire church at large, each independent church today is its own separate government. The corporation structure of each church puts each church into the clamp of the grip of the power of the world. Churches want to be big. They want to be influential. They want to get their men into political office. They want to found colleges that host Bible conferences. They want to have books published and to become media savvy promoters of their package of Christianity.

And we have seen the power of the flesh in these churches: abusive behavior from church leaders is at first covered up, excused, endured, even accepted as the flip side of greatness. I recall the memoir of a young man who had grown up at Tabernacle Baptist Temple in Greenville SC. He gave his recollection of Dr Howard B Sightler, then pastor. Sightler, according to him, was mean spirited, verbally abusive, cold, demanding, with a wicked temper. He had also pioneered Tabernacle’s ministries to the poor and to children in need. The young man’s detailed description was greeted with a hail of agreement from other newsgroup readers of his age. The cheerful, sunny exterior of Sightler was a fraud, according to them. Outside of the pulpit he was horrible to deal with and a bully. As a student at BJU in the late 1970′s I had witnessed the behavior of “Tabernacle guys” (BJU students who attended Tabernacle) and agreed with the assessment. They had been bullies. But bullying behavior was not the only fleshpot indulged at Tabernacle. The brutal treatment in the Tabernacle Children’s Home suffered by may of its residents came out in news reports and books in the 1990′s – 2000′s, and eventually reports of the sexual abuse of children by workers at the home also came out: Power and sex, the drives of the flesh.

I regard the power of the world and the power of the flesh as greater dangers to us than the power of the devil. For one thing, Christ has defeated Satan. This is the great power of Christ. In His resurrection He undid Satan’s domination. That desn’t mean that Satan is dead, but it does mean that he cannot achieve his ultimate end. He will settle for wreaking havoc where he can.

The world thrusts upon us the chains of necessity and importance and validation of ourselves and getting lots and lots of stuff, and the opinion of others. The flesh thrusts upon us the snares of power and pleasure. Satan is actually the undoer of us in every other way. Christ warned Peter, “Satan has desired you, that he might sift you as wheat.” Catastrophe is associated with Satan. We know that Satan had to get permission from God to afflict Job, but when he got that permission, he struck Job with one great catastrophe after another. No whispers or suggestions or sneaky ideas to take the last piece of pie here. Thanks to medieval misunderstandings of Satan, most people think of Satan as the tempter. No, according to James we tempt ourselves, plain and simple (the flesh).

Satan’s domain is affliction
And while Satan did tempt Eve in order to undo her, he would just as likely have taken a baseball bat to her except that it wasn’t subtle enough. In his incarnation as the serpent, Satan was subtle. But Peter warns us that Satan paces around the Church like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (I Peter 5:8). And Peter is clear in associating Satan with affliction (I Peter 5:9) and suffering (I Peter 5:10). This is exactly how Satan played out his strategy in the book of Job. He bodily attacked Job. He took his children, his money, his servants, and his health. And his goal was to fill Job with despair and make him hate God, but Job persisted in his faith. This is the strategy that Peter is warning us about: affliction. We must not let it capture our minds and destroy our faith. We must suffer through in faith. It is by faith that we resist Satan.

So, we say that Christ defeated Satan, but we see that Satan still afflicts where he can. Sadly, in the business-corporation structure employed by so much of Christianity today, Satan has many a toe hold. In Peter’s day, the Church was united in love, and the Church’s different members supported those who suffered. This infrastructure of love and charity has suffered in today’s splintered Church.

The Satan Puppet
But Satan has another role in American Christianity. I was surprised when I saw it, but I recognized it for what it was as soon as I saw it. The first time was several years ago (2010), when Al Mohler of the Southern Baptist Convention released an article condemning Christians who did yoga, any type of yoga, as participating in false worship. Mohler wrote, “The bare fact is that yoga is a spiritual discipline by which the adherent is trained to use the body as a vehicle for achieving consciousness of the divine.” Except, no it isn’t. Some types of yoga are spiritual, but plenty of schools of yoga are purely physical, and have been for centuries. Bikram yoga is so secularized that it has trademarked its own postures. When confronted by an avalanche of email and snail mail from Christians who do commercial yoga, Mohler did two things: he accused them of being women, and he wrote, “if there is no meditation or direction of consciousness, you are not practicing yoga, you are simply performing a physical exercise. Don’t call it yoga.” So Mohler got slick in his definition of terms. It is all called yoga, but he redefined his terms to insist that if you are doing a form of yoga that doesn’t involve meditation, YOU are wrong in calling it yoga. Al Mohler is not wrong. YOU should not call it yoga. You’re lying, He’s not lying. And PS: you’re just a woman so what you say, think, and experience doesn’t count.

All of this tempest in a pot of tea occurred in 2010, when the Southern Baptist Convention was experiencing its first groundswell of repudiation from the news media and social media over its protection of SBC ministers who sexually abuse children. Christa Brown had published her memoir, This Little Light of Mine, and reviews on it were being published as far away as London. Jocelyn Zichterman had appeared on national television with Tina Anderson. Facebook groups of “survivors” were forming daily. The Baptists were getting a beating, both SBC and IFB, because most people cannot tell them apart.

Time to trot out the Satan puppet. And Mohler used it adroitly. With the media around him in an uproar over SBC ministers who had raped children going on to becoming music ministers and senior pastors, Mohler set his sites on yoga, because he could find a little Satan puppet there to pull out. Just wave the Satan puppet around, make him dance,and you can distract most people from the real issues.

Since then, I have noticed that the Satan puppet gets dangled around when ever a new surge of disapproval over the catastrophically bad handling of sex abuse cases starts to rise. No conservative church yet has changed anything, although these days the SBC has started making mewing noises of peace. With Paige Patterson and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary now being sued for their roles in alleged rape culture at the seminary, the denomination that brought you slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow is once again being forced to consider its image and possible loss of funds.

But I have also seen, in various and sundry blogs, the occasional rattling of the Satan puppet. Things are bad, the bad preachers are being identified, the independent churches are facing a loss of power/money/prestige/influence. The time is right to pull out the Satan puppet.

I respect and fear what Satan can do. But let’s not confuse which is which here. The world offers political power, affluence, prestige. The flesh craves power and pleasure. Satan is the one who brings affliction, pain, suffering, and then holds up the glass of despair before us. In permitting the horrible and gross sins that it has permitted, and in blaming victims and blaming those of us who have written and protested and recorded and videotaped the record of abuse in these churches, Al Mohler and his cronies have served the purposes of Satan far more than any pasty, lumpy lady in stretchy pants trying to do Warrior posture. So when you see the Satan puppet being dangled around, keep your eyes open and look around. It just may be that somebody is distracting you to look away and miss their subservience to the world and the flesh.

Al Mohler has issued an apology. Even he is not calling it repentance, because in the full length of it, he never calls his actions sin:
http://news.sbts.edu/2019/02/15/statement-r-albert-mohler-jr-sovereign-grace-churches/?fbclid=IwAR2YuQizUG6EcvxYKMacjohpRzFdav1IC8VnHdmpGnAJDrkwarmZEMJZgag

Mohler has not humbled himself. He has issued an apology. That’s not nearly repentance. He is simply following the flow of events and doing what he needs to do to maintain as much of his influence as he can. The SBC will conserve as much of its power as possible and will make as few concessions as possible., Wake up! If he were repentant he would call upon the SBC to institute the database of offenders. Remember, please, this is the denomination founded on slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation. Long before (or probably at the same time) it sheltered child molesters, it sheltered slave owners, slave traders, and later members and officers of the KKK.

How can I say he is not repentant?
Mohler never calls his actions sins, instead calling them mistakes and errors. B they were sins: actions openly defiant against what the Scripture requires in the investigation of grievances against an elder. And Mohler never will call his actions sins. In the culture of the SBC, sins are reserved for gay people and maybe liberal Democrats. Not Mohler. He’s a righteous man who made a mistake. But sin? Nah, not him. How was he to know that children deserve the full attention and respect of Christendom. I mean, apart from the fact that Jesus says they should? Yeah, there is that. The facts are, Mohler kne what the Bible requires and defiantly disobeyed it.

In his statement he never calls upon the authority of the Scripture as his point of direction in amending his behavior. the BIBLE orders him to launch a public hearing into the matter. ANY grievance against an elder, when brought by two or three witnesses, is to addressed in a public hearing. Mohler remains, essentially, disobedient to the Bible and is not going to cite it as his authority in righting these wrongs. Because the minute he does, the floodgates open, and then we would have all kinds of hearings on all of the abusers in the SBC.

So he will instead call upon Rachael Denhollander as his point of direction. Rachael Denhollander is a worthy and brave person, and Mohler knows that. So he can be pretty safe in assuring himself that nobody will press him any further. Remember, most people in the SBC don’t even know what the Bible teaches about handling fallen and grossly sinning elders. Ever since the SBC was founded as a lawless splinter of American Baptists, it quietly tucked away the epistles to Timothy and to Titus. And among the few who do know what the Bible says about the discipline of elders, most of them are going to keep their mouths shut in order to preserve their power and influence (and jobs).

But the reality is that his point of direction has to be the Scripture, which not only orders that hearings against elders be public and transparent, it also therefore requires hearings against Mohler himself as a vital part of the effort to protect Mahaney and malign victims. And such a hearing against Mohler himself could cause him to be removed from church office as a participant in such willful neglect of victims of abuse. I’m sure that in Mohler’s mind, such an action against him would be a gross miscarriage of justice. All of this uproar might have made it worthwhile for him to abandon Mahaney, but in his mind, subjecting himself to discipline is far more horrible than the sexual abuse of young people. I mean, in his mind. After all, self preservation is something Jesus totally understands and approves of. Oh wait, no He doesn’t.

Mohler and his cronies in power know full well that if the full weight of the New Testament rules on the discipline and purity of elders is brought against them, there will be such a sweeping out of the SBC that it might actually be converted to a genuinely Christian institution. And they can’t have that. It would certainly lead to giving away all their money and prestige. Ridiculous.

Surely Jesus would agree. Hey, where’d He go?

Rights leader Charles Evers has accused John MacArthur of outright lying.
http://noqreport.com/2019/02/04/exclusive-iconic-civil-rights-leader-tells-pastor-john-macarthur-stop-lying/

Evers’ accusation, which clearly he has made with deliberation and intent to call out John MacArthur, is clear about being offended with MacArthur (even if you quarrel over what exactly has offended him). His grievance is clear, and he presents a different version of the story that MacArthur has given.

And sadly, MacArthur is not answering, and numerous fans of his are trying to answer for him or to outright dismiss the grievance, which we are not allowed to do as Christians. Grievances are to be heard, and they are to be heard with a due process that includes letting the accusation be known and making sure that the details are public. Some weak and fallacious arguments have been raised to excuse MacArthur from his Christian duty, and here they are. (I may continue to add to this list)

The “He is too sound a man of God to fall into this type of sin” argument has been raised.

ANSWER: The Bible requires that pastors (elders) be held to a high standard. Don’t tell yourself that a man is beyond falling into sin. That is Gnosticism of the ancient school, and the New Testament vigorously rejects it. Even Paul lamented that he could end up fooling himself and becoming a castoff. Peter, after heading up the effort to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles, fell into the sin of the prideful Judaizers.

We know from the epistles to Timothy and Titus that an accusation against an elder is to be heard in public (implying that the elder makes an answer). But here we have MacArthur remaining pridefully silent while his lieutenants make answers for him. This is outright defiance of the accountability required for elders taught in the Bible.

With a few words, MacArthur could lay the matter to rest, even if it requires apology for confusion or repentance for false boasting. And peace could be re-established in the Christian community. But he has caved to the corporatization of the faith, and like a privileged CEO, he remains in his ivory tower and sends mouthpieces to speak for him. This is entirely disobedient to Scripture.

The “crybabies and headstrong women who are always finding fault are just doing the same thing with this” argument (Hat tip to Phil Johnson, MacArthur’s first lieutenant)

ANSWER: To see Phil Johnson heedlessly lump all critics of all wrongdoing among Evangelicals into one trash pile was very disheartening, as I remember when Phil was a more justly minded man. But a lifetime in service to the corporate machine known as Evangelicalsim will either drive you out or suck you in. And it’s clear which direction Phil took.

Phil’s initial strategy (captured in the title of his blog entry) was to stack up all of the merit of John MacArthur against the alleged bad intentions of his critics and show that, inevitably, MacArthur must be innocent. This is really just a rehash of the first argument: the idea that MacArthur is so good that he could not have done this and is not responsible to the requirements of Scripture to make an answer.

The reality is, the Bible requires that an elder make an answer, and no matter who takes the side of an accuser, a valid accusation, on its face (not influenced by who takes it up) must be answered. The article is sound, and it’s clear, and Charles Evers has given public voice to his grievance. The Bible does require that MacArthur make an answer before witnesses.

Phil goes on to try to pick apart the details of the NOQ report, but he fails. Numerous pieces of documentation from the investigation assert that the site of the assassination action itself was sealed. The timeline is unassailable.

Again, the Bible requires MacArthur to make an answer, and Phil and the other devoted followers of MacArthur need to urge him to make an answer and stop running interference for him. The glory of the Gospel is Jesus Christ, not John MacArthur, and it should be clear to him and everybody that he is fully capable of yielding to sin and pride, whether the pride of an embellishment to the truth or the pride of refusing to answer as an elder and a teacher of the Gospel.

SUGGESTION: For a more even handed and better moderated discussion of the MacArthur-Evers controversy, I suggest this blog:
https://www.wthrockmorton.com/2019/02/05/did-john-macarthur-visit-the-lorraine-motel-in-the-wake-of-the-assassination-of-martin-luther-king-jr/

From 2013:

I actively documented clergy abuse of children cases in Christian Fundamentalism from 2001 to 2013. And, obviously, the sins and crimes of First Baptist of Hammond and Hyles-Anderson graduates make up a huge percentage of that list.

If you need an index of only FBCH/HAC-related cases, here it is. This is similar to what I provided for Darrell Dow of Stuff Fundies Like, except this list also includes proteges of Jack Hyles, and not just former HAC students. Please note that, unless otherwise stated, all of these people are pastors:

Andy Beith, Hyles-Anderson graduate, sentenced for sex with an 11 year old girl, previous arrest for contributing to the delinquency of a minor:
http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=208

AV Ballenger, Former FBCH Deacon, convicted for molesting a child. Jack Hyles had the church give him a standing ovation and kept him in the bus ministry: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=219

Bob Olsen, Former faculty member at Hammond Baptist High School and former church maintenance staff at First Baptist Church of Hammond. And he molested boys. Up to the date of this writing, he has never faced criminal charges, but he has been outed by at least one victim, and – while never naming his sin/crime – Olsen has generated a lot of documentation on his own that amounts to an admission of guilt. And he didn’t stop at one victim. Even he acknowledges that there are others, but he will not name them. http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?p=12478

Charles Shifflett, Hyles protege and fanatical Hyles devotee, convicted for sexual indecency with children: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=127

Chester Mulligan, Hyles protege and fanatical Hyles devotee, accepted plea deal for felony stalking an underage girl, though the facts warranted more serious charges: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=211

Chris Settlemoir, Hyles-Anderson graduate, convicted for Criminal Sexual Conduct wth underage males, http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=51

Craig Sisson, Hyles-Anderson graduate, convicted of first degree child molestation: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=126

Dave Hyles, Hyles-Anderson student, former FBCH staff member, former heir to the Hyles throne, never been convicted, but attached to numerous scandals, pleaded the fifth amendment when questioned about the death of Brent Stevens: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=168

David Joseph Jorgensen, Hyles-Anderson graduate: has successfully gotten his criminal record expunged in Chico CA, but still part of a civil lawsuit for “committing lewd acts” on a female when she was 14. Now on staff at First Baptist of Hammond: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=349

Earl Reeves, Hyles protege and fanatical Hyles devotee, took a guilty plea for molesting four adolescent girls from his church, Lighthouse Baptist Church in San Diego California: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=375

Evangeline Combs, former Hyles-Anderson staff member, now serving sentence for multiple counts of child abuse against the woman formerly known as Esther Combs: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=216

Greg Neal, Hyles-Anderson graduate, escaped charges of sexual misconduct by hiding evidence of his crime until the statute of limitations had run out: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=118

Jack Schaap, Pastor of FBCH, Hyles-Anderson graduate, wife of the daughter of Jack Hyles, molested a teenage girl from his own church who came ot him for counseling. Took a guilty plea, then blamed his 15 year old victim: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=133

Jeffrey Jarrell, Hyles-Anderson graduate, took a guilty plea for molesting 11 girls from his church:
http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=220

Jeremiah Owen, former Hyles-Anderson student, convicted on various counts of burglary and sexual assault:
http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=129

Joe Combs, former faculty member at Hyles-Anderson College, now serving sentence for multiple counts of violent and sexual child abuse against the woman formerly known as Esther Combs: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=216

Kerry Martin, HAC/OBC former student, serving 205 Years for rape of a girl in his church: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=209

Matt Jarrell, former Hyles-Anderson student, arrested on suspicion of rape and sodomy. Committed suicide in his jail cell as the investigation closed in on him: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=89

Russell K Overla, Hyles-Anderson graduate, convicted for child molesting: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=210

Sheldon Stotmeister, Hyles-Anderson graduate, convicted for sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, now a registered sex offender: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=379

Ted Butler, Hyles-Anderson graduate, sentenced for Criminal Sexual Misconduct (two separate counties): http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=124

William Beith, Hyles-Anderson graduate, charged with solicitation for sex and for exposing himself in public: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?cat=208

Want More Research?
Here are some recordings to help you gt an overview of the culture and realities of just how corrupt First Baptist Church of Hammond and Hyles-Anderson College are:

Interview with Paula Hyles Polonco, first wife of Dave Hyles. Paula narrates her introduction to the inner circle of the royal house of Hyles: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?p=179

Preying from the Pulpit: a documentary produced in May 1993 by WJBK of Detroit, Michigan on the culture surrounding Jack Hyles and the number of sex abuse cases related to his ministry: http://jeriwho.net/lillypad2/?p=183

The Lambs of Culpeper, Episodes One and Two: Although this documentary is about Hyles protege Chuck Shifflett, the first two episodes include a lot of coverage of Jack Hyles, and some of the horrible things he said and did from his pulpit: http://www.jeriwho.net/tloc.html

Journalist Sarah Smith goes all the way back to Dave Hyles with this series on sexual abuse in the IFB and Fundamentalism.

Read Part 1 here:
https://www.star-telegram.com/living/religion/article222576310.html?fbclid=IwAR1plv635fb-UdgE8taTDqLdqahzFAZoFGxy5ZR_THPXpcAWA7D-ClCg4CM