Amongst my reading this morning, I ran across a video clip of Suzanne Hinn, wife of (infamous) pastor Benny Hinn. This video is apparently from 1999 but this was the first I had seen of it.
In the video clip, Mrs. Hinn runs from side to side on a stage, yelling into a microphone. She says that if you aren’t revved up like she is, “you need a Holy Ghost enema right up your rear end”.
From here, she goes on to call folks “butt-kissers”; takes off her shoe and waves it around; and then, in a screaming fit, falls on the floor.
I’m not sure what this ridiculous garbage is supposed to accomplish but I’m certain that it doesn’t bring any acclaim to Christ.
My subscription to Charisma magazine lapsed some time back. I wish it weren’t so. If for no other reason, Charisma makes for good reading because of the level-headed, critical look at the charismatic world that editor J. Lee Grady provides in his monthly editorial columns. And if that’s not enough to pay for a subscription, you can buy it to weep over the foolishness of the preposterous advertising.
Something I read this morning sent me off to read recent columns by Grady. Apparently, he posts one online each week.
The first column (select 11-04-05 article from archives) was about the alleged moral lapses of “Archbishop” Earl Paulk, Jr. Paulk is infamous now for at least twenty years worth (as I understand it) of alleged sexual harrassment and abuse–legal cases that usually end up being settled out of court. Apparently, his problems go back to 45 years ago when he was first accused of adultery. Imagine that! Grady writes:
Most pastors in the Atlanta area kept quiet, and national Christian leaders didn’t get involved in what they viewed as a local problem. No church court investigated the charges, mainly because Paulk’s ministry has been independent of denominational accountability since he left the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) more than 40 years ago.
But bishops in a loosely controlled network Paulk has led since 1982, the International Communion of Charismatic Churches (ICCC), asked Paulk to step down from his post as archbishop last month. And earlier this week a group of pastors in the Atlanta area broke their silence by issuing a statement of apology for alleged abuses of power at Paulk’s church.
Will someone please explain why it took forty years for discipline to be employed against this man? The leaders of the ICCC have had over twenty years now to examine his character. And why does the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) put this man on the air? (I don’t know if he has a show on TBN these days but I did see him on several months back with Juanita Bynum placing a tallit on his neck and “prophesying” over him. Juanita Bynum is another story of herself. And why I was even watching TBN is yet another story.)
Sadly, some people don’t care. Some time back, after I informed a lady of the horrible reputation of sexual misconduct that Paulk has, she stated that she couldn’t think bad about him because she loved his preaching so much. I wonder if she might care a little more if her daughter had been sexually abused by the preacher.
If Paulk is guilty of doing even one of the things that he has been accused of, he should be drummed out of the pulpit. Better yet, he should be tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. Forty years of abuse is too long! One case of abuse is too many! When will church leaders wake up? A couple is going ahead with a lawsuit against Paulk–he will finally be held responsible in the City of Man; if he is guilty of these things, a more severe judgement waits in the City of God.
Now that I’ve raised my blood pressure a few notches, let me move on to Grady’s other column (select 11-11-05 from archives). In this column, he discusses the wacko “revelations” and activities of some ministers. Included items:
At one charismatic megachurch, staff pastors successfully convinced all their wives and female staff members to get breast implants. (I wonder: Was this discussed at a staff meeting?)
A church in California (known for its revival meetings and prophetic ministry) recently imploded after members learned that several men in the church had been having homosexual affairs with the pastor, who was married.
A leader with an international following (who wears the label of “apostle”) recently informed his leaders that men of God who reach his level of anointing are allowed to have more than one sexual partner. Then his own son offered his wife to his father out of a sense of spiritual obligation.
It hasn’t been that long ago that Charisma ran the story that pastor Roberts Liardon had engaged in a homosexual “relationship” with his youth pastor. After three months, he was back in the pulpit (the youth pastor fled to Guatemala).
Another example of the collective idiocy of immorality:
In 2000 Charisma reported that charismatic preacher Clarence McClendon had divorced his wife of 16 years, Tammera McClendon, and married another woman after only seven days. The ceremony was performed by Bishop Earl Paulk, founder of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Atlanta. Several prominent ministers attended the wedding, lending their endorsement to McClendon’s actions.
Tammera McClendon later informed Charisma that Clarence had told her while they were married that God had already shown him the woman who would replace her as his wife.
McClendon left his denomination, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, after his divorce became public. He began a new church, Full Harvest International Church, which currently meets in Gardena, California. His preaching is aired on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and he was a featured guest on TBN’s “Praise the Lord” program last week.
In fact, McClendon collected the offering during the network’s annual telethon. When I turned on the program and saw him raising money, I stared in disbelief.
I think Grady gets it right when he writes the following:
When the apostle Paul learned that a man was living in an immoral relationship with his father’s wife, he tore into the situation with a vengeance. He said: “Are you not to judge those inside [the church]? Expel the wicked person from among you.”
Those are not politically correct words, but they were spoken by a true apostle. If we want a restoration of genuine, apostolic Christianity in our generation, we need to dispense with the craziness and initiate some apostolic confrontation.
We are all imperfect but if we let sexual abuse, harrassment, and abuse of power run rampant in the Church, we are violating the sacred trust of pastoral care God has placed in us. No amount of counselling and restoration processes can restore the trust of those who have been violated by reprobates in the pulpit.
Repentance is great–and will be more believeable if the contrite heart is seen.
In seminary, I received no ethical training. My former denomination provided no ethical training and no ethical guidelines. Numerous times when I have inquired about such policies, I was either ignored, told that unethical behavior will not occur in our denomination/diocese, or have been given ambiguous information that provides no real guidance. The general area of clergy ethics is of great interest to me.
I have been recently reflecting on the issue of clergy sexual abuse. Various sources on this subject estimate that 15-20% of clergy have sexually abused someone. Sadly, many cases of sexual abuse are unreported, ignored, allowed to continue, or hidden by church leadership. Many churches do not have established policies for handling sexual abuse allegations.
In the interest of ministerial accountability, I have drafted the following statement. This statement is offered as a model for Christian leaders in developing some fundamental approach to dealing with sexual abuse in the church. It does not cover all areas but is intended to address proven abuse by clergy. Any person or organization is free to use or adapt this text if it is found helpful.
If you have comments or suggestions on this issue, please reply with your comments.
Suggested policy on clergy sexual misconduct
When any secular court of law or any agency or committee of this church authorized to adjudge such matters shall find that any ordained minister of this church is guilty of sexual misconduct or sexual abuse of another person, such minister shall be immediately deprived of ministry in this church, shall retain no emoluments thereof, and shall not be restored to such ministry and emoluments unless proven innocent of the sexual misconduct or abuse in question upon proper appeal in the respective jurisdictions.
Sexual misconduct is defined as sexual touching or sexual relations with any person who is not the minister’s spouse. Sexual abuse is defined as (1) rape, or (2) attempt to coerce into sexual touching or sexual relations any person who is not the minister’s spouse.
Today is All Saints Day, when the Church remembers the saints, known and unknown. We thank God for the faithful lives of his people who have provided worthy examples of righteousness for our emulation.
One of my favorite hymns is “For All the Saints.” It provides adequate reflection on the focus of this day. This was the Communion hymn at my ordination to the diaconate.
For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
For the Apostles’ glorious company,
Who bearing forth the Cross o’er land and sea,
Shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee:
Alleluia, Alleluia!
For the Evangelists, by whose blest word,
Like fourfold streams, the garden of the Lord,
Is fair and fruitful, be Thy Name adored.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
For Martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye,
Saw the bright crown descending from the sky,
And seeing, grasped it, Thee we glorify.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
All are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
And singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!
As concerning rites and ceremonies of Christ’s Church, as to have such vestments in doing God’s service, as be and have been most part used, as sprinkling of holy water to put us in remembrance of our baptism, and the blood of Christ sprinkled for our redemption upon the Cross; giving of holy bread, to put us in remembrance of the sacrament of the altar, that all Christian men be one body mystical of Christ, as the bread is made of many grains, and yet but one loaf, and to put us in remembrance of the receiving of the holy sacrament and body of Christ, the which we ought to receive in right charity, which in the beginning of Christ’s Church men did more often receive than they use nowadays to do; bearing of candles on Candlemas Day, in memory of Christ the spiritual light, of whom Simeon did prophesy, as is read in the Church that day; giving of ashes on Ash Wednesday, to put in remembrance every Christian man in the beginning of Lent and penance, that he is but ashes and earth, and thereto shall return, which is right necessary to be uttered from henceforth in our mother tongue always on the same day; bearing of palms on Palm Sunday, in memory of the receiving of Christ into Jerusalem, a little before his death, that we may have the same desire to receive him into our hearts; creeping to the cross and humbling ourselves to Christ before the same, and kissing of it in memory of our redemption by Christ made upon the cross; setting up of the sepulture of Christ, whose body after his death was buried; the hallowing of the font and other like exorcisms and benedictions by the ministers of Christ’s Church; and all other like laudable customs, rites and ceremonies be not to be contemned and cast away, but to be used and continued as things good and laudable, to put us in remembrance of those spiritual things that they do signify; not suffering them to be forgot, or to be put in oblivion, but renewing them in our memories from time to time. But none of these ceremonies have power to remit sin, but only to stir and lift up our minds unto God, by whom only our sins be forgiven.
From the Ten Articles of 1536.
(Documents of the English Reformation, edited by Gerald Bray, 172-173.)
