New BBC Open Forum

John Langworthy Update

2011-12-16T20:04:00.011-06:00

Update:

WLBT-TV >> Group spotlights sex offender's working at local drug store

For immediate release:

Admitted child molesting cleric gets state license

Group urges government agency to rescind it immediately

He was at Clinton church and now works at local pharmacy

Man currently faces eight felony counts of ‘gratification of lust’

WHAT:

Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, a man who was sexually assaulted by a priest will disclose that

-- An admitted child molester now works now at a local drug store, and

-- He was recently licensed by the state of Mississippi as a pharmacy technician

The victims group will also

-- Announce that his group is writing Mississippi officials urging that they revoke the predator’s license, and

-- Urge anyone who saw, suspected or suffered the predator’s crimes to come forward, get help, protect kids, call police and start healing.

WHEN:

SATURDAY, Dec. 17, 1:00 p.m.

WHERE:

Outside the Medicap pharmacy, 821 E. Northside Drive (corner of Live Oak) in Clinton, MS

WHO:

A Jackson man and clergy sex abuse victim who is the primary contact in Mississippi for an independent support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHY:

SNAP has learned that an admitted child molester, John Langworthy, has – within the last month – obtained his Pharmacy Technician license from the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy and now works at Medicap Pharmacy.

Langworthy was indicted last month on criminal charges of eight felony counts of gratification of lust stemming from allegations that he abused five different children while he worked as a youth music minister at Morrison Heights Baptist Church.

SNAP is concerned because in order to get his license, Langworthy would have needed to pass a background check in order to prove he is of “good moral character.”

While he may have passed the criminal background check because of the timing of his application, his indictment and crimes indicate that he is clearly not of “good moral character,” and SNAP wants the MS Board of Pharmacy to immediately revoke his license. SNAP is also concerned because this job could feasibly put Langworthy within access to drugs with which he could tempt young children today as he did in the 1980’s.

And the group believes that any time a predator is given a title or position of responsibility, he or she will try to use it to win the trust of parents and get close to kids.

Associated Baptist Press >> Former music minister indicted

CONTACT:

Mark Belenchia, msbelenchia@gmail.com, 601-953-2535

Amy Smith, spacecitysnap@gmail.com, 281 748 4050

David Clohessy, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, 314 566 9790 cell

Barbara Dorris

Outreach Director

314 862 7688

SNAPdorris@gmail.com

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Lifeway Recalls Pink Bibles

2011-12-15T22:27:00.008-06:00

And Southern Baptists wonder why they're sometimes the laughingstock of the country.

WFAA-TV >> Southern Baptist publisher recalls pink Bibles

The Tennessean >> Lifeway's Pink Bibles Scrapped

The Christian Post >> LifeWay Christian Resources Ending Sale of Pink Bibles After Uproar

Frankly, I think the whole "pink thing" has gotten out of hand. Pink bibles? Who thought up this idea in the first place? Breast cancer "awareness" does nothing unless there are actions and money (research, education, and screening availability) behind the sea of pink. I think the pink ribbon craze has certainly done a good job of increasing awareness, and no doubt lives have been saved, but I also think we're on the brink of becoming desensitized to the message because of "pink" overload.

Did anyone at Lifeway not realize the ties between Komen and Planned Parenthood? It's not exactly a secret. It's kind of ironic that "evil bloggers" seem to have been responsible for bringing this information to Lifeway's attention.

Are Southern Baptists going to stop buying soup and all the other pink-labeled products we see every fall? Because... as we all know, a portion of the price of every can of pink-labeled Campbells soup, every pink bottle of laundry detergent, and every pink-ribbon-adorned doodad sold goes to Komen.

And did you know that men with breast cancer -- about 1-2% of all diagnosed cases -- are discriminated against in the health care system?

I'm surprised the Southern Baptists aren't screaming about that. Except, of course, in their world "real" men probably don't get breast cancer. Can you imagine some "manly man" megachurch pastor like Steve Gaines or Mark Driscoll developing breast cancer? The humiliation!

So now I guess the problem becomes what to do with 25,000+ pink bibles.

Third Warrant Issued for Sammy Nuckolls

2011-12-15T22:05:00.003-06:00

This one in Waldron, Arkansas...

WMC-TV >> Charges in 3rd city filed against traveling preacher from Olive Branch

Al Mohler Wakes Up... Finally!

2011-11-10T09:10:00.021-06:00

R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the flagship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has written a good article about lessons Southern Baptists can learn from the firing of Penn State's Joe Paterno and president Graham Spanier and the arrest of former assistant coach and perpetrator, Jerry Sandusky, as well as the indictments of the former AD, Tim Curley, and Senior Vice President for Finance and Business, Gary Schultz. Heads have most certainly rolled at Penn State this week. The grand jury's findings can be read in full here.

Mohler concludes, "The detonation of the Penn State scandal must shake the entire nation into a new moral awareness. Any failure to report and to stop the sexual abuse of children must be made inconceivable."

Are you just now realizing this, Dr. Mohler? Or did the worldwide reporting of such a large scandal at a big-name university involving a legendary coach force you to no longer be able to remain silent?

Mohler continues: Sometimes Christians are reluctant to report suspected sexual abuse because they do not feel that they know enough about the situation. They are afraid of making a false accusation. This is the wrong instinct. We do not have the ability to conduct the kind of investigation that is needed, nor is this assigned to the church. This is the function of government as instituted by God (Romans 13). Waiting for further information allows a predator to continue and puts children at risk. This is itself an immoral act that needs to be seen for what it is.

There's a lot of truth in that paragraph, but actually, Dr. Mohler, it's an illegal act not to report. Let's stop sugar-coating premeditated crimes by calling them "moral failures" or "sins" or merely "mistakes." (See Sammy Nuckolls.) Many times, as with the Penn State story, they're a lot more concerned with protecting "the brand" or some good old boy's job or career than they are with making a false accusation or the protection of children.

A Christian hearing a report of sexual abuse within a church, Christian organization, or Christian school, needs to act in exactly the same manner called for if the abuse is reported in any other context. The church and Christian organizations must not become safe places for abusers.

News flash! That ship has sailed. The church and "Christian" organizations already are safe havens for abusers! It's the blatant lack of accountability, trust in "men of God" just because they say they're "called by God" and can quote scripture and toss out spiritual sound bites, and the unwillingness by church leadership to report abuse or suspicion thereof to the authorities and their congregations that have resulted in churches being safe havens for these perverts for years. (Another one from Bellevue's past has recently come to light, and a lot of people apparently knew about him. One former staffer was quoted as saying they knew this guy was a "pedophile" for years but no one was willing to contact authorities.) Will Mohler publicly (or privately) criticize church leaders who are guilty of covering for confessed child molesters? Or will he continue to speak at their churches and invite them to speak at SBTS chapel services? Mohler spoke at Bellevue as recently as June of this year.

Greg Belser, who covered for John Langworthy, spoke to SBTS students and faculty at their October 25th chapel service.

Any report of sexual abuse must lead immediately to action. That action cannot fall short of contacting law enforcement authorities. A clear lesson of the Penn State scandal is this: Internal reporting is simply not enough.

Again, it's taken the Penn State scandal to clarify this for you?

After law enforcement authorities have been notified, the church must conduct its own work of pastoral ministry, care, and church discipline. This is the church’s responsibility and charge. But these essential Christian ministries and responsibilities are not substitutes for the proper function of law enforcement authorities and the legal system. As Christians, we respect those authorities because we are commanded to do so.

Yes! Amen! GLO ree! Thank you! It's about time! But why is a man of Mohler's impressive credentials just now seeming to grasp this concept when most of the sheeple in the pews and, for that matter, "the world," haven't had to pause for one second to consider what to do in a situation like this?

The other day Mohler decided to crack open the policy handbook for the institution he's headed for almost 19 years and discovered that the seminary's policy on reporting of any sexual abuse, even that of a child, could have conceivably led to another Penn State situation. Oops! Dodged a bullet there, didn't we?

I discovered yesterday that the policy handbook of the institution I am proud to lead calls for any employee receiving a report of child abuse, including child sexual abuse, to contact his or her supervisor with that report. That changes today. The new policy statement will direct employees receiving such a report to contact law enforcement authorities without delay. Then, after acting in the interests of the child, they should contact their supervisor.

While I applaud Mohler for finally educating himself on his school's policies and changing the policy immediately... better late than never as they say, with all the publicity in recent years about the numerous cases of sexual abuse, often involving children, within Southern Baptist churches, I can only wonder why it took a story on the scale of the Penn State scandal to awaken Mohler.

Christa Brown, SNAP representatives, and others have been trying to get the attention of Southern Baptists for years only to be at best ignored and many times demonized, maybe not by Mohler himself (he seems to have remained silent) but by many of his peers. Frank Page described some who speak out against clergy sex abuse "opportunistic persons who are seeking to raise opportunities for personal gain." Did Dr. Mohler ever renounce Frank Page's statement? Paige Patterson called them evil-doers. Did Dr. Mohler call him out? All I heard was crickets.

FBC Jax Watchdog has written a good series of articles on the Penn State story:

At Least in College Football, Failing to Report a Molester Is a Crime - But How Does Joe Paterno Still Have a Job?

The Ugly Truth About Joe Paterno and the Sandusky Rape of 10 Year Old - And What We Can Learn From It

Paterno Out: A Legendary Football Coach is Held Accountable for Turning Blind Eye Toward a Pervert

Let's see what happens now.

1. Will Al Mohler have the courage to reintroduce the motion Wade Burleson proposed at the 2007 SBC?

2. Will he lead the rally to support Burleson or another messenger who proposes a similar motion in 2012?

3. Will Mohler now implement mandatory training for all seminary students in how to handle any knowledge or even suspicion of sexual abuse? (This shouldn't be "uncharted waters," but apparently it still is for many, including seasoned pastors.)

4. Will he publicly rebuke Southern Baptist "ministers" who are caught committing these crimes? Not to publicly humiliate them but to warn people about these wolves. Or will he continue merrily on with his CBMW agenda warning against the evils of women teaching men, not submitting to their husbands, and young people not getting married as soon as possible and popping out as many babies as nature allows?

5. Will he now begin to publicly rebuke Southern Baptist pastors who knowingly cover for confessed child molesters? Or will he continue to bring them in to speak in chapel services and fill the pulpits of their churches? The "elite" among the SBC seem to think they're "appointed by God." Someone needs to explain to them that while they may be called by God to preach, they are hired by people to perform a job. Otherwise they wouldn't be so concerned about their salaries (and keeping them a secret).

This 2006 BP article illustrates this point precisely. Translation: We are appointed by God, we are being "persecuted" because we are "God's men," and you are to overlook any wrongdoing by us "men of God" because we are... "appointed by God." You can't touch us. Just shut up, grab a broom, and help us sweep it all under the rug.

As David Clohessy, national director of SNAP said, "It's easy to say stuff; harder to do stuff." So will Mohler now "do stuff" or will a change to the handbook, which apparently even the president himself hadn't read until this week, be Mohler's only response? Come on, Al. Do the right thing! Don't just say stuff, DO STUFF!

November 18th update:

We're making progress...

AlbertMohler.com >> My Letter to the Southern Seminary Community: Our Duty to Report

Be Joyful! (But only when I say you can.)

2011-11-06T17:27:00.016-06:00

JOY. That was today's sermon topic. Well, actually the sermon was entitled "Are You a Friend of God?" I've always thought that whole "friend of God" thing borders on sacrilege or at the least seems somewhat simplistic and man-centered. (The song I Am a Friend of God has been described "like a song that a kindergartner would sing. It makes God seem like our pal Jake that we hang out with at McDonald's.")

Still, bear in mind that great emphasis was placed on the expression of "joy" in today's sermon.

Steve told the story (for about the hundredth time) about how he learned to "lift holy hands" while in college. He's not telling you that you have to lift your hands when you worship, but it is in the Bible, so draw your own conclusions about his feelings on the subject.

He then explained why Christians should be joyful and not go around with clouds over their heads.

Then he burst into song. This has become an almost weekly tradition.

Finally, nearing the end of his sermon... somewhere near the conclusion of point 6 of 7... there was a disturbance. During a pause a woman off camera began shouting. I don't believe it's racist to acknowledge that the woman was very likely black.

Watch what happened.

Steve is always trying to reach out to and attract all races of people to Bellevue. Then the cameras zero in on every black person they can find, but there still aren't that many. There's a reason for this. Those who attend predominantly black churches have a different worship style from those who attend predominantly white churches. That's not criticism of any style. It's just a fact. That's why Sunday mornings are still the most segregated hours of the week.

Last Sunday he ranted (again) about people who move because people with a different skin color than theirs move into the neighborhood, and he was all "how dare you!" about it while when he moved here, he didn't move his family to an inner city or "minority" neighborhood. Does he really think people moved out of, say, Frayser because people with a different skin color moved in? Or could it be because they got tired of hearing gunshots every night? Steve's neighborhood isn't gated (I'm surprised), but his house is on a quiet cul-de-sac in a very nice "white" neighborhood outside the Memphis city limits. (The significance of that, among other things, is he doesn't have to pay Memphis city taxes which account for about half the tax bill for people who live inside the city limits or in annexed areas.) If you think about it, moving Bellevue from inner-city Memphis to Cordova 20+ years ago was motivated in great part by "white flight."

And yet he wants to criticize city council for considering certain ordinances. If you're not paying Memphis city taxes, should you really have a say in how the city of Memphis does things? He criticized people for not wanting their kids to go to public school with "those people" while he sent his to private, lily-white ECS. When he got only a smattering of applause, he remarked that wasn't a very big hand. Maybe that's because most of the audience grasped the hypocrisy in what they'd just heard.

Things backfired this morning in the 11:00 service. After half an hour of being encouraged to be joyful(!), to praise God by "lifting holy hands," and a rousing rendition (solo by Steve) of What a Day That Will Be, a lady in the audience apparently could hold it in no longer and shouted, "GLO ree! GLO ree!! GLO ree!!! THANK YA, LORD! THANK YA!! THANK YA!!!" {then something muffled}

Steve stopped (you could practically hear the whir of the hamster wheel) and said, "Amen. If you will... just a second. Let me say this. I appreciate your... I appreciate your joy... but I'm speaking right now, and the Holy Spirit's speaking through me and He never interrupts Himself. So let me finish my sermon and then you can have joy, okay? Thank you.

"Number 7............. amen? Everybody okay? {muffled audience response} All right... we're all... everybody's all right. Everything's cool. Nobody's... that's fine."

"The Holy Spirit's speaking through me and He never interrupts Himself"? Thinks rather highly of himself, doesn't he? God spoke through a donkey, too. What's the point? Maybe the Holy Spirit was speaking through the lady!

What does he expect? That's how the people in most black churches worship! They're enthusiastic, they constantly respond to the preacher during the sermon, and they aren't by any stretch of the imagination, quiet. Steve rebukes people if they don't clap or say "amen" at the right time. Then he devotes an entire sermon to being joyful, lifting "holy" hands, and expressing that joy, encouraging "amens" and applause at just the right moments, but when one woman doesn't follow the script... bam! Sit down and shut up! After being publicly called out, do you think that woman will ever darken the door of Bellevue Baptist Church again? Not only will she not ever come back, she's going to tell ALL her friends what happened, too. Nice job lo♥ing Memphis, Steve.

If that woman today hadn't gotten wound up before then (it was near the end) she probably wasn't going to get any worse. Like one would try to tune out a crying child, he could have just ignored her and kept going and there probably wouldn't have been another outburst, but she didn't shout "Glory!" on cue, and we can't have that. Remember "Amen Kelly" and the dream? (Whatever happened to him anyway?) He had to be dealt with because he was interrupting Steve's train of thought.

Hey, I'm not unsympathetic here. I recall a lady (who shall remain nameless) whose "amens" used to interrupt my train of thought on a regular basis. Anyone who's heard her will likely know who it is. She was always so loud, so constant, and so predictable... two "amens" with the same emphasis on the syllables... "a MEN! A... men!" after almost every sentence that came out of the preacher's mouth. And yet... I don't recall Steve ever requesting she tone it down a few notches. Considering who she's married to, he wouldn't dare!

You could see "lifted hands" at the bottom of the screen during part of his sermon this morning. Why didn't he chastise them? Well, those did look like white hands. Maybe big tithers or children of big tithers? Hmmm.

Oh, and this seems to be the new Sunday 11:00 a.m. look now.

Lifeway Makes Statement Regarding Sammy Nuckolls

2011-11-02T21:44:00.006-05:00

Lifeway has issued a statement regarding Sammy Nuckolls. It took almost a week after all traces of their former relationship with him was scrubbed from the internet for them to issue this statement, but better late than never. I applaud Lifeway for finally addressing this issue.

On FBC Jax Watchdog's blog Jim pointed out the elephant in the room when he wrote, "Lifeway would have done an immense amount of good if they had added to the statement about no evidence of illicit activity by Nuckolls at FUGE camp: "However, we will contact every church or group that attended camp when Nuckolls was camp pastor and encourage campers and leaders who suspect they may have been victims, to come forward." Still, I'm glad Lifeway made a statement.

Olive Branch Southern Baptist Evangelist Charged with Video Voyeurism

2011-10-31T19:51:00.013-05:00

On Twitter Sammy Nuckolls listed his occupation as "itinerant pastor." Perhaps "professional peeping Tom" would have been more appropriate.

Now his Twitter account is gone... GONE!, just like all references to him on Lifeway's FUGE blog. (Articles on Nuckolls from 2-1-11 and 10-10-11 are still visible in Google Reader.) No public statement by Lifeway, just a clean sweep, much like we saw last year when Ergun Caner was caught... embellishing.

Last week Nuckolls was taken into custody by the Gosnell, Arkansas police after a woman whose family's home in which he was a guest while he conducted a revival at a local church discovered Nuckolls had used a "spy pen" to videotape her in her own bathroom. She retrieved the pen and turned it over to the police who questioned Nuckolls and transported him to the Mississippi County jail where he was booked on charges of video voyeurism. According to the Blytheville Courier News Nuckolls confessed to the crime in Gosnell and also admitted doing the same thing to two women in Mississippi. He was released on $50,000 bond. And continued to Twitter as if he didn't have a care in the world.

Today we learned that police confiscated his computers and video equipment and discovered videos of an unknown number of other women "dating back years" and that investigators are "still sifting through it all."

More Victims of Accused Olive Branch 'Peeping Preacher' Surface: MyFoxMEMPHIS.com

Olive Branch, MS police arrested Nuckolls at his home Saturday, charging him with one felony count of "photographing, taping, or filming persons in violation of expectation of privacy." He was later released on $10,000 bond.

Related articles:

WMC-TV >> Olive Branch evangelist charged with video voyeurism

WMC-TV >> Olive Branch police charge evangelist with voyeurism

WMC-TV >> Traveling evangelist faces new voyeurism charge in Arkansas

WREG-TV >> Preacher charged with voyeurism

FBC Jax Watchdog >> SBC Lifeway's 2011 Youth Camp Pastor Sammy Nuckolls Arrested for Filming Woman Showering in Her Own Home

Associated Baptist Press >> Evangelist charged with video voyeurism

Wade Burleson >> On Glass Windows and Curtains: The Psychology of Withdrawing from Public View

Apprising Ministries >> SBC LIFEWAY YOUTH CAMP PASTOR SAM NUCKOLLS ARRESTED FOR VIDEO PEEPING

Topix >> Blytheville Forum >> Sammy Nuckolls spends night in jail

rev.org >> Pastors and Porn

Not yet wiped (we saved 'em):

Morph Missions Board of Directors

Williams Baptist College >> Audio Archive >> 11/10/2010

Speaking at Mississippi College

FBC Jax Watchdog asks the glaring question:

FBC Jax Watchdog >> Video Voyeurism of Sammy Nuckolls - Were There Any Victims at Lifeway's FUGE Camps?

Updates:

WMC-TV >> Accused voyeur evangelist faces judge in Olive Branch

WMC-TV >> Evangelist charged with voyeurism could face even more charges

One question I have is why, if he just had to look at naked women besides his wife, he didn't do what at least 50% of his peers do and just go to the internet? Why did he feel the need to make his own videos? For the thrill of it? To humiliate his victims? I'm not sure I want to know.

Lawsuit in Baptistland

2011-10-23T11:24:00.009-05:00

The Tennessean >> Former Nashville councilman hits Baptists with lawsuit

Three years ago a former Nashville, Tennessee Metro Council member, Ron Nollner, was hired by the SBC's International Mission Board to oversee the construction of a New Dehli office building. He and his wife, Beverly, who was hired "to provide support, aid and comfort to her husband," sold their house and car and gave up his construction career and her job in the U.S. to work for the IMB and live in India for at least the next three years for a paltry $1200 a month.

When Nollner complained to IMB administration about unsafe building practices and the builder and architect bribing local officials to obtain construction approval along the way, the IMB responded by informing Nollner his position was "no longer necessary." In other words, they fired him.

On October 20, 2011 Nollner filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against the SBC in the Davidson County (TN) Circuit Court alleging "retaliatory discharge, breach of contract and detrimental reliance." In the lawsuit Nollner describes IMB officials' reactions to his concerns as "unbothered, if not complicit."

In a related case the Supreme Court is slated to consider the idea of "ministerial exception." The outcome could affect not only this case but many other cases, some legitimate, others frivolous.

Could a ruling by the Supreme Court in this case open the door to victims of sexual abuse by SBC ministers suing churches and the SBC for failing to protect them against serial abusers? Stay tuned.

Photo © The Tennessean

Scroll down for John Langworthy stuff.

2011-09-30T16:16:00.006-05:00

I'm keeping the John Langworthy story on the front page for now, but a couple of local stories are in the news now. More information will be available after JL's scheduled court date on October 5th or as soon as it develops.

Please, if you were a victim of JL or any other abuser or have information about this case or abuse of anyone, regardless of how insignificant the information may seem, contact the proper authorities and let them sort it out. In Clinton, that would be detective Josh Frazier at 601-924-5252.

If the abuse or suspicion of abuse occurred in Jackson, MS:

Jackson Police Sex Crimes:

601-960-1210

In addition to either of the two police departments listed above, to provide any information regarding the JL case or abuse in Hinds County, MS, contact Assistant D.A. Jamie McBride at 601-968-6568.

If the abuse or suspicion of abuse occurred at Prestonwood or in the Dallas area:

This is a great list of victim's services information.

Dallas Police non-emergency number:

214-744-4444

Child exploitation unit:

214-671-4211

Dallas Children's Advocacy Center

214-818-2600

DCAC victim assistant coordinator:

214-818-2613

DCAC will act as the go-between if you do not want to contact the police directly. Don't worry about any statute of limitations. What may seem to be an insignificant detail may be the missing puzzle piece the investigators need. Go to them and tell them what you know and let them determine if it's important! They will keep your identity confidential.

Scroll down for all the John Langworthy articles and comments or click on these links:

John Langworthy Arrested (Current JL thread. Comments are active.)

Comments are closed on these older articles, but the articles and previous comments are still available.

Church Leaders Lawyer Up In Sex Crime Investigation

Wolves in the Music Ministry - Part 2

Wolves in the Music Ministry

John Langworthy Indicted on Sex Counts

2011-09-29T01:49:00.005-05:00

Clarion Ledger >> Ex-minister indicted on sex counts: John Langworthy faces eight charges of gratification of lust

Associated Baptist Press >> Former music minister indicted

Previous articles:

John Langworthy Arrested

Wolves in the Music Ministry

Wolves in the Music Ministry - Part 2

Church Leaders Lawyer Up In Sex Crime Investigation

Photo © The Clarion-Ledger

Adrian Rogers 80th Birthday Celebration

2011-09-18T00:02:00.001-05:00

From the Baptist Press:

Adrian Rogers is turning 80 this year and we are going to celebrate!

BARTLETT, Tenn. (news release)--The Adrian Rogers Pastor Training Institute, the Adrian Rogers family, and Faith Baptist Church (Bartlett, TN) are hosting the Adrian Rogers 80th Birthday Celebration on Sunday evening, September 18 at 6:00pm. The event will be held in the Faith Baptist Church sanctuary. There are no tickets required; all are welcome.

This special event will commemorate the life and legacy of one of the greatest Christian leaders of the last 100 years, Dr. Adrian Rogers. In addition to commemorating his 50 plus years of public ministry, the event will celebrate the future extension of this legacy through the Pastor Training Institute and its deployment of the online Adrian Rogers School of Global Leadership. When finished, this state-of-the-art website will feature the training of Dr. Adrian Rogers which will educate and equip hundreds of thousands of global pastors, per month, that are unable to attend seminary due to cost and inaccessibility.

Leading the music portion of the event will be Dr. Jim Whitmire, who presently serves as minister of music as First Baptist Church, Jacksonville. Dr. Whitmire served as Dr. Rogers' ministry of music for 38 years, starting with First Baptist Merritt Island and moving onto Bellevue Baptist Church.

Whitmire recently noted, "I am honored to be able to participate in this event where we can truly celebrate the legacy of a very unique servant of the Lord. I'm so excited that the Pastor Training Institute continues to carry on Dr. Rogers' legacy. He loved preachers—especially young preachers. This was the genesis of the Pastor Training Institute. He saw himself growing older and transferring his wisdom and experience onto the next generation. I don't think he had any idea of how global it would go, as the ministry is committed to training 1,000,000 pastors in 100 countries by the year 2020."

Also joining in the festivities are musical guests Jamie and Dana Parker. Jamie presently serves as music minister for Dr. Ronnie Floyd at Cross Church (Springdale, Arkansas).

July 25, 2011

Yes, but did he tithe?

2011-09-18T00:01:00.004-05:00

It appears Rusty Hyneman's house of cards has finally collapsed.

Commercial Appeal >> Fast and loose: Sweetheart bank loans spur Rusty Hyneman’s financial collapse: Lenders call in their debts and crumble developer's empire of excess

Commercial Appeal >> Developers Hyneman, Bourne pulled 'scam' on bank, contractor says

Commercial Appeal >> 'Flip' on land flops as windfall profit blows ill: Bourne, Hyneman buy acreage, sell to selves

Rusty's father, John Hyneman, is a Bellevue deacon, and Rusty is a Bellevue member although no one seems to recall seeing him there in years. Rusty's defense that the court couldn't touch his McMansion and other property because his daddy co-owned them didn't impress the court.

Commercial Appeal >> Memphis-area developer Rusty Hyneman's 'daddy defense' headed to court

Of course, this wasn't Rusty Hyneman's first brush with the law. He served time in federal prison for drug trafficking charges.

Memphis Flyer >> The art of the deal

Then there was this bizarre incident:

Commercial Appeal >> Hyneman goes to court over fight: Developer faces assault charge in incident outside Beale bar

So is this really the end of the road for Rusty Hyneman or will he prove to be Teflon-coated yet again?

I suppose the most important question to ask is if Hyneman tithed to Bellevue on all those millions. If he didn't he was living in a stolen house, driving a stolen Rolls and Bentley, flying in stolen jets, riding stolen horses... oh, wait.

John Langworthy Arrested

2011-09-07T16:09:00.029-05:00

John Langworthy was arrested Wednesday, September 7th.

Newspaper articles:

Clarion Ledger >> Former Clinton music minister faces sex crime charges in 2 cities

Clarion Ledger >> Ex-minister facing sex charge

Associated Baptist Press >> Former music minister charged with sex crimes

Clarion Ledger >> Ex-minister faces Oct. 5 trial on sex counts

**NEW** Clarion Ledger >> Church should be a safe place for kids

Television:

WAPT-TV >> Former Clinton Minister Faces Sex Crime Charges

WJTV-TV >> Former Minister Arrested For Sex Crimes

WJTV-TV >> Ex-Minister's Arrest Sparks Reaction

WLBT-TV >> Former music minister faces 8 sex-related charges

FOX 40 >> UPDATE: John Langworthy Arrested

FOX 40 >> What's Next for John Langworthy

FOX 40 >> John Langworthy Arrest

WAPT-TV >> Former Minister Facing Sex Charges

WLBT-TV >> Clinton teacher out on bond for alleged sex crimes

Blogosphere:

Stop Baptist Predators >> Mississippi rep seeks secrecy for church

Stop Baptist Predators >> Admitted minister-molester: "I was not asked to resign"

Previous articles:

Wolves in the Music Ministry

Wolves in the Music Ministry - Part 2

Church Leaders Lawyer Up In Sex Crime Investigation

Church Leaders Lawyer Up In Sex Crime Investigation

2011-08-26T11:06:00.022-05:00

Well, this is just sad. Unfortunately, it was also predictable. I was really hoping Morrison Heights Baptist Church was going to be the exception and not the rule.

Read along and let this sink in:

According to his alleged victim, John Langworthy's sex crimes took place 22 years ago when the former minister of music at Morrison Heights Baptist Church was babysitting.

McBride: "And obviously it's a very serious allegation."

Prosecutors say the accusations against the 49-year-old husband and father include multiple acts of child molestation.

McBride: "I guess it really would fall under both sexual battery and gratification of lust, both lustful touching and penetration.

Assistant district attorney, Jamie McBride, wants to know what church leaders know about Langworthy's possible past sex crimes, but elders at Morrison Heights are now speaking through their attorney.

McBride: "The attorney for them has asked us to come up with some law to talk about whether or not that's privileged conversations or not."

Ross Adams, WJTV News, Channel 12

Could this be what all the "lawyering up" is about?

Who may report a suspected case of child abuse?

In accordance with Section 43-21-353 of the Mississippi Code of 1972, Annotated, "Any attorney, physician, dentist, intern, resident, nurse, psychologist, social worker, family protection worker, family protection specialist, child caregiver, minister, law enforcement officer, public or private school employee or any other person having reasonable cause to suspect that a child is a neglected child or an abused child, shall cause an oral report to be made immediately by telephone or otherwise and followed as soon thereafter as possible by a report in writing to the Department of Human Services, ..."

What will happen if you know of abuse and don't report it?

Upon being found guilty, the individual shall be punished by a fine not to exceed Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or by imprisonment in jail not to exceed one (1) year, or both. Mississippi Code of 1972, Annotated Section 43-21-353(7).

Related articles:

Clarion Ledger >> August 28th >> Abuse case talks called privileged

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services >> Clergy as Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect: Summary of State Laws

Wolves in the Music Ministry

Wolves in the Music Ministry - Part 2

Letter to the editor in the Clarion Ledger from David Clohessy, national director of SNAP.

WAPT-TV >> Grand Jury To Consider Case Against Former Clinton Minister

Associated Baptist Press >> Prosecutors want information from church about former minister suspected of child abuse

We saw the same stonewalling from Bellevue during the Paul Williams investigation.

Deny, Deny, Deny!

Wolves in the Music Ministry - Part 2

2011-08-25T22:38:00.005-05:00

This will be a continuation of the original Wolves in the Music Ministry post. The comment stream was getting pretty long.

The cover-up of John Langworthy's "indiscretions" and "mistakes" (his words) while at Prestonwood is coming back to bite as evidenced by the lead story by Brett Shipp on WFAA-TV's August 8th 10:00 p.m. broadcast. Thank you, Amy, for your advocacy for victims and for your persistence in bringing this story to light. If it were not for your efforts I have no doubt nothing would have changed.

WFAA-TV >> Disturbing revelations about former Prestonwood minister

Bob Allen has addressed this story:

Associated Baptist Press >> Abuse confession raises questions of cover-up by Baptist mega-church

Associated Baptist Press >> Pastor renews call for database of clergy credibly accused of sex abuse

Associated Baptist Press >> Christa Brown >> Opinion: Prestonwood saga shows clergy abuse database is overdue

It also made the newspapers:

August 9th:

Dallas Morning News >> Former Prestonwood minister admits to 'sexual indiscretions' with students more than 20 years ago

Clarion Ledger >> Clinton music minister confesses to 'sexual indiscretions'

Clarion Ledger >> Clinton minister quits over allegations

August 10th:

The Republic >> Recently resigned music minister admits long-ago sexual misconduct with teen boys

Hattiesburg American >> Ex-music minister admits past sexual misconduct

August 15th:

Clarion Ledger >> Man accuses former Clinton music minister of molestation

Clarion Ledger >> Ex-choir leader in sex probe

August 19th:

Clarion Ledger >> Hinds DA office probes molestation claims against former Clinton music minister

August 20th:

Clarion Ledger >> DA probing sex abuse allegations

The Oklahoman >> Enid pastor renews call for clergy sex abuse database

And Jackson, MS TV:

August 9th:

WAPT-TV >> Former Youth Minister, Teacher Makes Startling Admission

WLBT-TV >> Clinton music minister makes eye-opening confession

August 10th:

WAPT-TV >> No Criminal Complaints Filed Against Former Minister

WJTV-TV >> Former Music Minister Admits To Sexual Indiscretions

WJTV-TV >> Clinton Parents in Shock Over Former Minister's Confession

WJTV-TV >> Ex-Music Minister Admits Past Sexual Misconduct

August 11th:

FOX 40 >> Church Scandal

August 15th:

WAPT-TV >> Clinton Police Investigate Complaint Against Former Minister

WLBT-TV >> Former Clinton church music minister under investigation

WJTV-TV >> Police To Meet With Minister's Alleged Victim

August 16th:

WAPT-TV >> Former Minister's Accuser Expected To Speak To Police

August 19th:

WLBT-TV >> Questions about sexual misconduct continue for music minister

Around the Blogosphere:

Wade Burleson >> Full Circle: Why the SBC Child Predator Database Is Needed Now, Not Later (Comments have been reopened.)

FBC Jax Watchdog >> In the Langworthy/Prestonwood Story, Bloggers Once Again Show They are Sorely Needed to Get Truth Out

Zwinglius Redivivus >> The Catholics Aren’t The Only Ones Who Cover Up Their Clergy’s Evils

The Wartburg Watch >> Does the SBC Fear Women Pastors More Than The Molestation of Children?

Wade Burleson >> The Reason the SBC Will Not Create a Minister Sex Abuse Data Base Is Liability, Not Polity

A now-former teacher at Prestonwood Christian Academy was recently indicted for having an inproper relationship with a 17-year-old female student. Although the student went to his apartment willingly on several occasions, he was 26 at the time. In Texas it's a second-degree felony, regardless of the parties' ages, for an educator to have an improper relationship with a student.

Plano Star >> Former Prestonwood teacher indicted

Then there was Joe Barron.

Barron videos

Apparently Johnson and Barron's cases were handled swiftly by the administration at Prestonwood. However, Barron's story was plastered all over the national news at the time, and Johnson's was covered in the local news, so they really didn't have much choice. With Langworthy it's less clear about the timeline and who knew what when, but apparently the church and school district in Clinton were never warned about him.

If a database of convicted, confessed, and credibly accused sexual predators was available to Baptist churches, and if the churches would avail themselves of it, a lot of these cases could be prevented. When will Baptist leaders wake up, stop covering for their own, and establish some method of accountability within their ranks? I know, I know! Baptist churches are autonomous. Unless, of course, they do something really bad like call a woman preacher. Autonomy is such a relative term in "Baptistland."

TRANSCRIPT of John Langworthy's August 7, 2011 statement to Morrison Heights Baptist Church

VIDEO

A "Family of Friends"?

2011-08-25T11:24:00.007-05:00

This video clip is from the August 24, 2011 Wednesday night "Awesome August" service.

Watch closely. A picture's worth a thousand words.

This video is for noncommercial use only. Its use here is solely for critical commentary and/or parody which qualifies as fair use and is protected under Title 17, Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law, aka the "Fair Use Doctrine."

Do as I say, not as I do.

2011-08-21T16:05:00.004-05:00

From The Commercial Appeal...

Caption:

The week before the new school year started on Aug. 8, thousands of Memphis City Schools teachers, along with lots and lots of security personnel, attended a workshop for teachers that was held at Bellevue Baptist Church. Parking was at a premium. I asked a Bellevue security officer about this MCS security car that was parked in a space reserved for the handicapped and was told, "That's OK." Well it's not OK if you are a handicapped person looking for a spot to park. This is Memphis City Ordinance 11-40-16: "This section shall be enforceable on public property or on private property where a business, firm or other person transacting business with the public from a permanent location, has provided specially marked parking spaces for the exclusive use of handicapped drivers or passengers, as set forth in Tennessee Code Annotated, Sections 55-21-101 et seq., and Section 68-120-204." It's funny -- or maybe just pretty interesting -- that security officers for Bellevue and MCS think it's OK to park in a handicapped spot. "1,000 Words" is a pictorial commentary on events in Greater Memphis and around the world. Today's "1,000 Words" was written by Mike Maple, a photographer for The Commercial Appeal.

Photo by Mike Maple © The Commercial Appeal

Enlarging our borders, are we?

2011-08-04T20:06:00.002-05:00

Check out the speaker line-up (and disregard the obvious typos).

I have only one question. Why?

What We Believe

Okay, I have one more question. Do we agree on these Four Core Beliefs?

The "Four Core Beliefs" of the Assemblies of God:

1. Salvation
2. Baptism in the Holy Spirit
3. Divine Healing
4. the Second Coming of Christ.

Since most of us are Baptists here I assume we are pretty much in agreement with #1, and I don't think anyone would argue with #4. However, I think I can say with certainty that most of us, as Baptists, do not agree with #2 or for that matter #3 as it's taught and practiced in the AoG church.

Recently we've heard a lot about primary, secondary, and tertiary beliefs among Christians and more specifically Southern Baptists, and all but the most rabid of the Baptist Identity crowd have agreed to disagree on all the tertiary stuff and most of the secondary stuff. We have not agreed to disagree on the primary stuff. Some have tried to make secondary and tertiary issues primary issues, but that's a different subject.

By definition, "core beliefs" are primary beliefs, the very foundation of our faith. This is not to say that we cannot cooperate with AoG churches in some situations, but this is like the Tennessee Baptist Convention inviting the pastor of the largest Assembly of God church in Memphis to speak at their annual meeting. He's probably a really great guy, but he's not Baptist.

Therefore, what possible reason could the Tennessee District of the Assemblies of God have for inviting Steve Gaines to be their keynote speaker, and what reason could Steve Gaines possibly have for accepting their invitation?

I'm all ~~ears~~ eyes.

Wolves in the Music Ministry

2011-06-15T15:00:00.006-05:00

Update: After over 240 comments in this thread, discussion will be continued here.

Two posts back the comment stream began to veer off topic and onto a much more serious subject than the original post. It began with this comment:

Anonymous said...

I have been trying now for about 9 months to warn about a predator pedophile music minister. This man was my youth music minister at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas in the mid 80s. He became a close family friend, even living with my family for a while. I was on the church staff as a youth intern as a college student in 1989when this minister was fired abruptly due to credible accusations of sexual abuse by several boys in the church. He was confronted by church staff, including the head pastor at the time, who is still the head pastor today, Dr. Jack Graham. This offender admitted to the abuse. The church did not report his crimes to the police, which was mandated by law starting in 1971, just fired him and told him to leave. Church members were not informed.

He packed up that week and moved back to his home state of MS where he is on staff now as music minister of all ages at a church in Clinton, outside of Jackson, Morrison Heights Baptist Church. He also teaches choir at the local public high school. I have spoken with the school superintendent, head pastor, as well as local law enforcement. Both the school and church have confronted this man, and he admits to the abuse that occurred in Dallas, as well as to abusing a boy in MS that he babysat prior to his job in Dallas.

I know that local law enforcement is very concerned and has advised that this minister be fired, yet he remains on staff. The MS pastor and elders told me that they are concerned with protecting this minister’s reputation, as “everyone in the [town] knows [him.] and that “he has the largest church youth choir in the state.” I have even been contacted by this man’s attorney who is a church elder and has heard accounts of the abuse from victims and admission by his client. This attorney is also a MS state rep. The attorney asked if I would speak with him to “discuss a resolution.” I said no. The MS pastor has told me that they “feel my pain.” I expressed to them that I am not a victim, but I am doing this as a victims’ advocate to protect children.

I have also contacted Prestonwood Baptist to plead that they do the right thing and report these crimes against children that occurred on their watch. Silence has been the response. Recently Christa Brown who founded Stop Baptist Predators posted my story on her blog.

1:13 PM, May 27, 2011

I've reposted the subsequent comments in this thread, and the discussion can continue here.

Preaching to the Choir

2011-06-08T13:31:00.005-05:00

The Wartburg Watch has posted a good article on pedophiles in the ministry.

Pedophiles in the Ministry: Shame on the SBC and Warren Community Church

Bwahahahaha!!!

2011-05-10T22:49:00.010-05:00

Truth is often stranger than fiction, but this fiction is strangely true!

Click to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ34Nl-XZRQ

Paul Williams Update

2011-04-25T10:59:00.013-05:00

Does that photo send chills up your spine? Make you sick to your stomach? Well, it should!

The afternoon of April 7th someone contacted me to ask if a Paul Williams who wrote a paper for Union University back in 2002 was "the" Paul Williams. Judging from the photo and bio of the man, it was not.

However, that got me to wondering what the former Bellevue Paul Williams is up to. A quick Google search led straight to the Warren Community Church March 2011 newsletter. The story begins on page 2 and is continued on subsequent pages. I planned then to do an update, but within a few hours of forwarding this information to Christa Brown and others, Christa posted a very good article saying everything I could have said and more (and said it much better than I could have, too).

We knew he'd been hanging out at WCC several years ago, right after he left Bellevue. (He and his wife live in Somerville.) It was rumored back then that the pastor of WCC, Ken Culver, had even offered him a staff position. Several people were outraged at this news and at least one called the pastor, who eventually denied the rumor (after asking what business it was of the caller's), but he did reportedly say he wouldn't see any problem with Paul being on staff since it was all in the past (how does he know it's "all in the past"?) and how it's possible for people to be forgiven and restored. Yes. Yes, they certainly can, although that's generally preceded by repentance, confession, and asking for forgiveness, but there are consequences to our actions (ask Karla Faye Tucker), and one of the consequences of being a confessed child molester is that you are never, under any circumstances, allowed to be alone around children or, in the case of a minister or other church leader, ever be allowed to be in a position of leadership again. This is just common sense. Besides, I've never seen any evidence of repentance from Paul Williams. He never addressed the people of Bellevue and seems to have gone merrily on with his life as if nothing ever happened.

A few months later someone who lives in Somerville had taken her child to some kind of homeschooling activity they have at WCC, and she said Paul was "hanging out" there in the middle of the day during the week. Then he was spotted, alone, at a children's basketball game, just standing there watching.

Last I heard the victim still would not allow Paul to see his grandchildren, so those must be his daughter's children in the above photo.

So Paul is on the Board of Trustees of WCC now. That would be like... an "elder" or something, right? Remember what Steve Gaines said about elders?

What is an elder? It's a pastor. It's not some "super deacon." It's not some elevated lay person. An elder is a pastor is a bishop is a pastor is an elder is a bishop -- all the same stuff. There's only two offices in the New Testament -- pastor, which is also an elder and a bishop and deacons.

I realize the job of most trustees is merely to rubber-stamp whatever the pastor wants, but I'd be willing to bet there are no women on that BOT because, you know, women are excluded from "leadership" roles within the church (that don't involve only other women or young children). However, the bar must be set pretty low for men at WCC.

Paul Williams not only didn't go to jail, he was never charged with anything. (The statute of limitations in Tennessee, which has since been extended, had passed, and the victim was reportedly not willing to pursue any legal action.) Yet Paul Williams is a self-admitted pedophile! He should be listed on the sex offender registry, but he's not along with at least 95% of his fellow pedophiles.

And all this isn't even addressing what adult female victims of this man's lecherous comments (much more recent than any 17-21 years ago) have said his behavior has done to them, proving once again pedophilia and sexual abuse are rarely about "sex" but about exerting power over someone weaker. Make's 'em feel like real manly men, I guess. One of his female victims described his eyes, when he went into "pervert" mode, as "soulless."

In my opinion Paul Williams and that Hernando pastor, Eddie Prince, who was caught downloading child porn at the library should be sharing a prison cell. What would Eddie Prince's family's reaction be had it been one of their children exploited for child porn? And who knows if this guy has done more than "just look"? Besides, child porn is not a "victimless" crime. Someone's children were victimized to produce this perverted filth, and by seeking it out and watching it, you're just as guilty as the lowlife who produced it. If there wasn't a market they wouldn't do it.

Since Christa's article was published, several writers have published articles about this story, but it's no surprise we don't seem to find any mention of it in "conservative" SBC blogs or publications.

The Big Daddy Weave >> Southern Baptist church Selects Confessed Sex Offender as Trustee

Baptist Life >> SBC church names confessed sex offender as Trustee

Civil Commotion >> Pedophilia: Not a career impediment in the SBC

And shouldn't we all be ashamed that "the world" can see the problem, but so many in the church cannot?

Atheist Revolution >> Idiot of the Week: Warren Community Church, Somerville, TN

"Idiot of the Week," indeed.

Bellevue's in the Baby Convention Business Now?

2011-03-23T20:26:00.009-05:00

An attentive reader alerted me to the latest... gimmick?... money-making scheme?... new member drive?... at Bellevue. I'm not sure exactly how this fits into the grand scheme of things, but here it is.

Mid-South Baby Expo 2011

Bellevue isn't the main sponsor of this event (to my knowledge), but they are providing the facilities and will have a big presence. In the past this annual event, like most "conventions" of this type, has been held at the Agricenter International, but this year it's being held at Bellevue.

The question is... why? Mainly, I believe there's money in it for the church. I'm sure they get a percentage of the admission price. (Someone can correct me if I'm wrong about that.) Someone -- the sponsors, the attendees, the exhibitors -- someone is paying for the use of the facilities, the utilities, the clean-up, traffic control, extra staff, security, etc. I believe money is the driving force behind much of what they do. Not all, but much. In a charitable nod, the church is providing bus service for women in "underserved" areas.

If they can attract some new members with this thing -- with kids (future replacement giving units!) -- then all the better. However, those in the age bracket having babies generally aren't the big givers. If they were smart they wouldn't have run off so many of the older givers, but that ship sailed ages ago.

To date there are over 60 exhibitors (Bellevue has reserved ~~a booth~~ 3 booths), and sponsorship packages are available. In addition to being an exhibitor, Bellevue is one of the "anchor" sponsors (hence the 3 booths as opposed to just one). "Anchor" sponsors appear to be a step above "participating" sponsors. I'm reminded of the FBC Jacksonville Pastors' Conference silver, gold, and platinum sponsorships. I wonder how much it costs to be an "anchor" sponsor.

I see four radio station logos on the sponsors page. Generally when radio stations are present at an event they blare their music from vans. Will the church parking lot be filled with the sounds of "maximum rock," "Gen X music," "classic soul," and the sweet strains of "today's best country"? What, no K-LOVE or "The River"?

Some of the activities and seminars include a babies and children's fashion show, a maternity fashion show, breastfeeding seminars, pediatric consults, an "infant safety zone," spa treatments for mom, and a "Daddy Zone" complete with "daddy obstacle course" where dads will wear the "pregnancy belly." (I think some of those guys wear the pregnancy belly all the time.) Turner Dairy will be serving up pickles and ice cream. Yum! And there'll be door prizes! And... if you run short of cash and want to buy more stuff from the exhibitors' booths, why there's an ATM machine right there in the west lobby.

As the trendy bracelets remind us... WWJD? I think there'd be some serious table-turning-over going on at Bellevue on April 2nd. But again, on second thought....

Bellevue Lo♥es Soda Cans!

2011-02-06T13:31:00.015-06:00

This morning Steve Gaines announced that Bellevue has spent $3000 on a trailer to place on the church parking lot which will be used to collect aluminum cans. The proceeds from recycling the cans will be given to Life Choices, a local crisis pregnancy center. Now, that's a commendable goal which I cannot criticize.

However, did anyone really think this through before they dropped $3000 on what appears to be the type of flatbed, mesh-sided trailer landscaping companies use? Seriously? I mean, surely in those big outbuildings somewhere on the lush, manicured Bellevue "campus" there is already a fleet of trailers. We've seen the "Bellevue Lo♥es Memphis" trailer.

If nothing else and if you really want to recycle, tear down some of those old SCT, MPP, or VBS sets which will never be used again and have some volunteers build a big, secure recycling box.

Instead, the church, in their infinite lack of wisdom with their seemingly bottomless coffers, chose to spend $3000 on a brand new trailer. Oh, but wait! There's a catch. Life Choices will see no immediate benefit from this project. Rather, Steve says in the video clip that after the trailer is paid for all money collected from future recycling will be donated to Life Choices.

He did strongly hint that someone or perhaps a Sunday School class (or whatever they're calling SS now, I can't keep up) could dig into their own pockets and pay for the trailer immediately, but assuming that doesn't happen, let's consider just how many aluminum cans it's going to take simply to recoup the cost of the trailer.

A little research reveals that it takes about 32 of today's aluminum cans to equal one pound. It used to be around 24-25, but today's cans are lighter.

It varies, but from what I can tell, the going rate in this area for aluminum cans right now is about 30 cents a pound. Therefore, just to break even on the cost of the trailer and not factoring in the cost of getting the cans to the recycling center, it's going to take about 10,000 pounds (5 tons) of aluminum cans to recover $3000. That translates into 320,000 individual cans.

Put another way, the 13,333 cases of cans (24 cans/case) it takes to equal 320,000 cans would measure about 14,867 square feet or roughly 1/4 the size of a football field (if you include the end zones) if they were to be laid side by side in a single layer. Or if you were to stack all those cases in a single pile they'd reach a height of 5278 feet. One mile = 5280 feet.

Petty? Maybe. What's $3000 out of an annual budget of ~~almost~~ $20 million? If you're one of the many families that doesn't even make $3000 in a whole month, it might be very significant.

Today was "Prove the Tithe" Sunday at Bellevue. Yesterday every Bellevue family received an automated, pre-recorded phone call from Brother Steve saying (paraphrased but close), "Tomorrow is 'Prove the Tithe' Sunday at Bellevue Baptist Church. God says, 'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,' says the LORD of hosts, 'if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.' Whether you already tithe or not, we're asking you to take one-tenth of what you make in one week and give that to our church in the form of a tithe. Blah blah blah."

That sounds awfully Benny Hinnish to me. Proof-texting one verse of scripture from the Old Testament to convince people they must give "one-tenth of your income, undesignated, to the budget of the local church" if they want to be blessed by God is not the generous, cheerful (i.e. without compulsion) giving taught in the New Testament.

If you're giving a tenth or more to Bellevue Baptist Church in an undesignated fashion and doing so cheerfully believing it's all going to do the work of the Lord, that's great. Keep giving. Give even more! I would think, though, that a prudent person would expect the church to be good stewards of that money, and I'm not convinced this example is one of good stewardship.

I find it ironic that Bellevue continues to pressure people to give more while every few weeks Steve Gaines is gallivanting around the country and even overseas to speak at conferences, lead Holy Land trips, and I've lost track of the weeks of vacation. (Time off for recent knee surgery is certainly legitimate.)

Barely a year ago they extended the platform in the auditorium, and now they plan to tear all that out and completely redo the platform and choir loft. (See the Vision 2010 Plan and the Love Offering 2010 mailing for artist conceptions.) They bought an expensive new center IMAG screen and projector year before last. Now they plan to replace all three IMAG screens.

Later this month Steve and four staff members from the church, David Coombs, Drew Tucker, Steve Marcum, and Russ Quinn, will be traveling to Gardendale, Alabama to lead "sessions" at the 2011 Alabama State Evangelism Conference, funded by Alabama Baptists.

Does it strike anyone else as a bit ironic that David Coombs is leading a session called Adding Water to the Soup (Budgets, Buildings and Adjusting to a New Normal)? It's described as a "hard look at how to survive and adjust in this new economy." I guess that means "spending money today like it's water because you might not have it tomorrow." Reminds me of the federal government. In fact, "nickels and noses" seems to be the common thread throughout the session topics at what is being called an evangelism conference. In a 20-page PDF file the name of Jesus is mentioned twice.

So guzzle those Diet Cokes everybody, and Life Choices, y'all hang in there. The check will be in the mail as soon as the members of Bellevue have collectively drunk a mile-high stack of cases of Diet Coke and the trailer is paid for in full.

Will they accept Bud Light cans?

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-20T09:04:00.005-06:00

HD version

HD version

A Two-Day Oprah Show Event: 200 Adult Men Who Were Molested Come Forward

2010-11-04T22:07:00.008-05:00

On November 5th and 12th, a two-part Oprah Winfrey episode will air which deals with the subject of child sexual abuse of males.

Watch the preview.

Read the comments.

David Brown, who was in the audience for the taping, says...

When Oprah read our emails detailing our stories of our abuse she was moved to make two shows on the subject. Understand this is NOT just about clergy abuse but child sexual abuse of males. Tyler Perry (abuse victim himself and 2nd highest paid person in Hollywood) is co-host. This is a very emotional subject and the fact they could get 200 men to stand as one voice in speaking about child sexual abuse is so awesome.

I know many will not be interested but let me beg you to watch. Have you ever seen 200 men in tears? You will on the 5th and the 12th. If you know of anyone that was abused as child you must watch.

One in 3 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused in America TODAY!! There are 39 million victims of child sexual abuse in America. Those are very real numbers. There are over 600,000 convicted, admitted, credibly accused pedophiles in America. Over half that number swear, state, vow they attend church regularly.

This crime is not going away. And please do not think that it will never happen to your family. It may already have. The shows tell you how to look for those signs of abuse and how to deal with them.

This is not a crime in the past but of the present and future. Unfortunately there was so much shame that we have remained silent for way too long. It was 35 years before I began to deal with my abuse and yet another 9 years before I could really speak about it. Please watch these shows, not for me but for your families. And if you suspect someone you love or know is a victim call me at (901)569-4500. There is help available. They do not have to endure this crime alone.

Help is also available from any regional office of S.N.A.P.

Read the account of another man who was there for the taping.

In the Memphis market The Oprah Winfrey Show airs on WMC-TV Channel 5 at 4:00 p.m. In other areas please check your local listings for channel and time.

Calvary Chapel ®: Church or Cult?

2010-09-05T14:58:00.015-05:00

There has been a lot of talk in the blog world about the "cults" of Mormonism and Catholicism. I've not weighed in on those topics as I really have nothing to add to the discussion right now, but this got me to thinking about other churches that seem cult-like as well. One is the Calvary Chapel ® churches. (Yes, the name is copyrighted.) They don't call themselves a "denomination" but rather a "movement" or a "fellowship of churches."

Founded in Costa Mesa, California in 1965 by Chuck Smith, today there are well over 1000 CC churches around the world. Most have retained the name "Calvary Chapel," but some have adopted such names as "Calvary Fellowship" and other non-denominational-sounding monikers.

On the surface, their teachings seem somewhat in line with those of Baptists and other mainstream Protestant churches, but scratch below the surface and you will find more significant differences. Actually, their What We Believe page seems rather vague, almost like a "we'll make it up as we go" philosophy. To get a better understanding of what they believe it's necessary to delve into Chuck Smith's Calvary Chapel Distinctives.

Chuck Smith proved himself to be a false prophet when he predicted the world would end in 1981. This was documented in his 1978 book, End Times: A Report on Future Survival.

One of the most frequent criticisms of CC churches is the man-centered, authoritarian structure which places the pastor as THE large-and-in-charge, don't-question-my-authority boss.

In 2007 Christianity Today published this informative article about Calvary Chapel.

An earlier CT story chronicled the problems with an authoritarian CC pastor in New Mexico.

Nepotism is alive and well in the CC system, too. Chuck Smith, Jr. has had his own issues.

Los Angeles Times >> Father, Son and Holy Rift

There are tales of abuse, both physical and sexual, allegedly being covered up by the leaders of CC. Here is the story of two brothers' accusations of cover-up of physical abuse:

OC Weekly >> Is Calvary Chapel Head Chuck Smith Covering for a Child Beater?

The allegations of sexual abuse and cover-ups are numerous. For those readers who are interested, just Google the subject. Someone could start a new blog just to cover the stories coming out of this one denomination... uh... movement. People have asked Christa Brown of Stop Baptist Predators why she concentrates primarily on Southern Baptist offenders. The fact is, just keeping track of those in the SBC is a full-time job (which the SBC still refuses to do).

There are numerous discussion boards where people have told their stories of "escape" from what many describe as a cult or at least a cultish organization. Here are but a few:

F.A.C.T.net Discussion of the Christianity Today article.

Whore Church >> Calvary Chapel: How Long Before It's a Cult?

Destructive Churches >> Calvary Chapel Cult??

Other F.A.C.T.net Calvary Chapel "Cult" Links

On a personal note, I've personally known only a handful of people who were CC members. While some may have been a bit eccentric to begin with, most of the "nuttiness" stemmed from their association with CC. When they weren't talking about their church you wouldn't know they were different from anyone else, but they made it crystal clear that if you weren't part of "the" church (CC) you were somehow beneath them. Reading some of the comments on the above links about CC members being "cliquish" and thinking CC is the only "real" church certainly described my admittedly limited experiences with them.

Here is one more (long) article written by a now-reformed former CC member. I don't agree with all points of reformed theology, but I found it very informative.

Other than a few theological differences, I see little difference between CC churches and the SBC. In both, individual churches are considered autonomous. Baptism is by immersion. Nepotism lives. Abuse is covered up. And many of the pastors are authoritarian.

Yeehaw!

2010-08-07T16:09:00.010-05:00

Dr. Danny Akin, president of SEBTS, preached at Bellevue on August 4th, kicking off the first week of "Awesome August." Dr. Ergun Caner was originally scheduled to preach on the 4th, but with his recent issues he seems to be keeping a low profile.

Dr. Akin preached a very good sermon, seemingly without the need to "embellish" anything.

Zach Wamp, Tennessee Republican primary gubernatorial candidate, was in attendance, as was bluegrass and country singer and string player, Ricky Skaggs, who campaigned for Wamp. (Wamp lost in the August 5th primary. Ron Ramsey, another failed Republican gubernatorial candidate, attended a service at Bellevue Sunday morning.)

Ricky sang during the service, and at the end of the service, Steve got him up on stage to "sing with me." In the end Steve gets Ricky's guitar tuner... and a little something more!

This is what ensued. Enjoy!

The line blurs again...

2010-07-12T11:28:00.009-05:00

... between the church and crass commercialization. VeggieTales Live!, a quasi-religious version of stage shows such as the popular and profitable Sesame Street Live is coming to Bellevue Baptist Church on October 26, 2010. Showtimes will be at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. and tickets are $25 for "Gold Circle" seats or $15 for general admission.

Let the silliness ~~begin~~ continue!

Bellevue says 'you're out,' gay softball coach claims.

2010-06-17T16:29:00.014-05:00

Click on title for link to Commercial Appeal article.

I'm quickly throwing this together now so people can discuss it if they want. I want to finish reading through the comments on the Commercial Appeal's site and will post some links and further commentary later.

Update: Since I have neither the time nor the desire to read 2000+ comments, here is the follow-up article. Steve Gaines' public statement (the unedited version) is below.

Commercial Appeal >> June 23, 2010 >> Ousting gay coach necessary, Bellevue Baptist pastor says

Steve Gaines Speaks

I don't think this would have ever been an issue if someone hadn't, as indicated in the article, tipped off the church, perhaps someone who knows her or assumed she's gay based solely upon her appearance. The latter is a terribly slippery slope down which no one should be going. Besides, I saw her on the news, and her appearance didn't "scream" anything to me. She is simply, as she describes herself, athletic in appearance.

I've even wondered if there wasn't some threat against the church involved. For example, "You're letting this softball team with a gay coach play on your fields. If you don't tell her she's not welcome, we'll go public with this." If that was the case, how'd that work out, guys? Of course I don't know if that happened or not and am not suggesting it did, just wondering.

I don't think we've heard the whole story by any means. To say the "no PDA" rule prohibits gay people from playing on softball teams seems rather lame. As one CA commenter asked, "Were they having orgies on the mound when someone hit a home run?" It doesn't seem likely that was the issue, rather an excuse.

I can sort of see where the church was stuck in the middle on this one. It was a no-win situation if someone were threatening to "out" her (which apparently someone did).

However, Bellevue created these potential problems when they opened the fields up to outside teams. Just like they created the annual ~~"Celebrate America"~~ (excuse me) "Starlight Spectacular" monster when they invited the whole community, then wondered why they had to close the building after they found people making out inside and climbing onto the roof and had to spend the next day cleaning cigarette butts, beer bottles, cans, and trash off the grounds.

This certainly doesn't help Bellevue's witness to the Memphis they claim to "LO♥E" so much and their "God Loves You Just the Way You Are" campaign. I guess it's okay to come as long as you don't come out. But for heavens sake, they need to clean up their own house first! If a fraction of the stories I've heard are true, Bellevue has a LOT of housecleaning to do.

I'm not condoning homosexual behavior either, but apparently if you go to BBC and are "just" an adulterer, fornicator, child molester, drug addict, rapist, felon, liar, or stay in the closet, that's okay. Just don't touch alcohol or openly associate with a gay person.

Bellevue has forever blown any opportunity to be a witness not only to this woman but to her teammates and much of the rest of the community. Actually, based upon the comments I've read so far it seems the ridiculous mishandling of the Paul Williams situation already did irreparable damage to Bellevue's reputation in the eyes of many.

Oh, wait. I think I've got it! Maybe the church's defense can be this is what they meant by the "no smoking" rule.

Of Marathons, Imaginary Twins, Misquotes, and Embellishments

2010-05-03T13:11:00.027-05:00

When does a mistake of the mind become a mistake of the heart?

In both morning services Sunday, May 2nd, Steve Gaines used a sermon illustration about a sensational "church fight" he claimed occurred in a Wichita, Kansas church. Here are the links to the videos of both versions. Please watch both (transcripts provided below each link) before reading further. Be sure to listen to the part following the story if you want to hear his definition of "troublemakers" and what he thinks of them ("us"?).

9:30

A couple of years ago... I read a story about a church in Wichita, Kansas. It seemed that four of the church members wanted their pastor to resign. I had a guy ask me... years ago, "How... how in the... ," he... he was of another denomination... he said, "How is it that you Baptists change pastors?" I said, "One of two ways, the movement of the Spirit or the push of the brethren. Hahaha!" {laughter}

So these four people were tired of their pastor... and they wanted him to leave, but the pastor said, "I'm not gonna do it. God called me here. I'm gonna stay here as long as God wants me to." So they decided to take matters in their own hands. And they began to literally disrupt the worship services. One Sunday they literally ran... through the sanctuary shouting... while the preacher was trying to preach his sermon. They shut the pastor's Bible while he was preaching. You know, I'd be afraid to do... I'd be... I'd be afraid that God would... blow me up. They even took the pastor's microphone away from him and banged him on the head with it. They knocked the pianist off her bench and held her to the floor. They kept doing it week after week and nobody would stop them because they said... , "God's a God of love." They went from 600 in attendance to 50. The pastor finally resigned.

11:11

Several years ago I read about a church... true story... in Wichita, Kansas. Four of the church members wanted the pastor to resign, he didn't want to resign, and the battle began. Somebody asked me, years ago... and... they were... they were of a different denomination, "How do you Baptists change pastors? I mean, what... what's the procedure there? Is it... what... what... what's the process?" I said, "Well, Baptist pastors leave a church for one of two reasons... the movement of the Holy Spirit or the push of the brethren. Hahahaha. One of the two."

Well, these people wanted him to leave. The push of the brethren was goin' on here. And he said, "I'm not gonna do it," so they began literally to disrupt the church services. Can you imagine... being..... ? Can you imagine? I don't even know what word to say! One Sunday they literally... it got so bad... ran through the sanctuary shouting while the preacher was trying to preach his sermon. They went up on the pulpit and shut the pastor's Bible. They even took his microphone and banged him in the head with it! They knocked the pianist off her bench and held her on the floor and would not let her play... any more worship songs. And they kept doing this week after week, and nobody would do anything! And they went from 600 to 50, and finally the pastor resigned.

One would think after the Nashville marathon debaucle, the Joan Rivers' "twin" story, and just three days later attributing a quote to Abraham Lincoln which is well-documented as having not come from Abraham Lincoln, that Steve Gaines would be more careful about confirming the veracity of his sermon illustrations before delivering them from the pulpit/music stand. I suppose it really is true what they say. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

The problem is the stories in these two video clips contained only a tiny grain of truth. And I mean a very tiny grain. Namely, that the church is in Wichita, Kansas, and that "four members" were involved at one point. Beyond that, unless there is a story about a different Wichita, Kansas church with some eerily similar-sounding details, as far as I can tell this story was fabricated to illustrate a point about... taa daaaaa... "troublemakers in the church!" That's been a recurring theme in a number of SG's sermons over the past 3-4 years. Apparently the man thinks he and Bellevue Baptist Church are being persecuted and under attack. In fact, he recently wrote an article on his blog about how Christians "will be" persecuted.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:10-12) that we are "blessed" when people insult and persecute us. If we live Spirit-filled, separated, holy, prayerful lives, the devil will see to it that the world harasses us. If the world hated Jesus, it will hate us as well.

While not the subject of this post, I'm pretty sure neither Steve Gaines nor the vast majority of the rest of us has any idea whatsoever what "persecution" is. We sit in our air-conditioned and heated homes and offices, drive our cars and trucks on paved roads, have everything we need in the way of food, clean water, clothes, and a lot of other creature comforts. We're free to worship and demonstrate our faith openly, and few, if any of us, have ever been "persecuted," harrassed, arrested, tortured, or put in physical danger simply for being Christians in the U.S.A. So please excuse me a second while I finish playing my tiny violin.

I'm tired of hearing how we Christians in America are being "persecuted" because, in the words of the late former Texas governor, Ann Richards (fact-checked!), "that old dog won't hunt."

Gleaned from the sources I was able to find online, this seems to be the story that was the inspiration for Steve's story. The church in question is Reformation Lutheran Church. It is in Wichita, Kansas. And they've certainly had their share of problems. However, the "troublemakers" were not members of that church nor was it ever the troublemakers' goal, from any account I've read, to "get rid of the preacher."

You may recall the story of the death of Dr. George Tiller, one of the few (openly) late-term abortion doctors in the country. You can read more about Tiller here and here. Tiller was shot to death inside the church where he and his wife were members one Sunday morning in May 2009. The church was Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas. Members of Operation Rescue and others regularly protested outside RLC. Protesters entered the church on more than one occasion and tried to disrupt services. (Note: These were not necessarily members of Operation Rescue.)

Their point was that by allowing Tiller and his wife (who managed his clinic) to remain members, participate in communion, etc. without seeming to care what they were doing Monday through Friday and certainly without any public disapproval, the leadership of RLC was neglecting their duty to discipline and restore or, failing that, to "excommunicate" the Tillers. For the record, I agree, not with their means but certainly with their motives. If nothing else, the leadership was putting all the other members in physical danger by continuing to let him attend. I do not condone bombing buildings or shooting abortion doctors. It only steels the resolve of the "pro-choice" (an oxymoron if there ever was) people and makes reasonable pro-life people look like nuts. Now, is the world a better place without Tiller still doing his "work"? Absolutely! But that's not what this post is about either... although that's fodder for discussion if anyone's interested.

In spite of his clinic being bombed in 1986 and Tiller being shot in both arms in 1993, he was soon back on the job. And that is what the "troublemakers" were trying to change. They wanted Reformation Lutheran Church to practice some good old-fashioned church discipline on their member, Dr. George Tiller. If ever there was a case for church discipline, this was it, but for whatever reasons, the church chose not to "excommunicate" Tiller, and frankly, even if they did "excommunicate" him, I don't see how that would have saved the life of even one baby. After all, Tiller was not performing abortions at the church. Kicking him out of the church wouldn't have stopped him from continuing to perform abortions. Apparently he'd already been kicked out of another church (Holy Cross Lutheran). RLC continued to allow him and his wife to attend and participate. Tiller was an usher and was passing out bulletins outside the sanctuary the Sunday morning he was gunned down by Scott Roeder. His wife was in the choir.

According to trial testimony by RLC member and usher, Keith Martin, there had been several incidents of non-member, anti-abortion protesters disrupting services.

Church usher Keith Martin testified Monday that he saw Roeder at the church a half dozen times before the shooting. Unlike other churchgoers, Roeder always brought his own Bible and sat by himself, Martin said.

Martin also testified that anti-abortion protests at the church over the years made members suspicious of newcomers even before the shooting. Tiller, whose Wichita clinic closed after his death, championed abortion rights even after being shot in both arms by an activist in 1993.

At times, visitors had stood up in the congregation and started shouting, Martin said. Some even tried to take over the microphone, he said, and someone once tried to push a pianist off the stool.

Still, Martin said, he didn't closely watch Roeder the day Tiller was shot because he had seen Roeder at previous services and that he had behaved peacefully.

Kristin Neitzel, a pastor at the church, testified that Roeder briefly attended the church's special Saturday service the evening before the shooting, and that some church members had become suspicious of him because he had been asking a lot of questions.

So there's your attempt to take over the microphone (no mention of it being the preacher's mic or anyone being "banged" over the head with it) and someone attempting to push "a" pianist off a stool. Church members were not the "troublemakers." Remember, this was the report of sworn testimony in a court of law.

According to this article (and others) two men from Arizona, one an ordained minister of some stripe, Rev. Henry "Bud" Shaver, traveled to Wichita and "visited" Reformation Lutheran one Sunday morning in July 2007 (almost two years before Tiller was killed). Shaver found an open mic and disrupted the service by reading from a portion of Isaiah 1 written on a scrap of paper -- "Isaiah's warning to believers." The article didn't say if Shaver had written a personal statement on the paper from which he was reading. According to the article, several members of the church tried to shut off his mic (not the preacher's) and grab the piece of paper from his hand.

Remember, Steve said the troublemakers, whom we now know were not church members at all, grabbed the preacher's mic, "banged" him on the head with it, closed his Bible, and "knocked the pianist from her bench, held her on the floor, and wouldn't let her play any more worship songs." Whether this was the same day protesters merely "attempted" to push a pianist off the bench is unknown. It wasn't mentioned in any of the articles about this particular incident, only in Martin's testimony. Shaver apparently refused to be quiet and was then escorted from the building.

Shaver's associate, Joey Cox, when communion was given and the pastor, Thomas Hallstrom, said, "Receive the body of Christ," handed the bread back to Hallstrom saying that it did not represent the body of Christ but rather the bodies of babies killed by abortion doctor, George Tiller.

Four men (I guess that's where Steve got the number four) were said to have then escorted Cox from the building.

Hallstrom called the police (perhaps this was an overreaction unless the men were trying to reenter the building or had threatened to harm Hallstrom or someone else) and Shaver and Cox were apprehended at a nearby gas station and arrested. They were charged with "rude and indecent behavior in a place of worship" and spent 7 hours in jail. I've not found the outcome of the case.

According to Reformation's history, Hallstrom was pastor from October 2002 through October 2007. He is currently serving as interim pastor of another Lutheran church in Kansas. There's no indication I can find that the members were clamoring for him to leave. His wife is still listed as organist on Reformation's website (which could be old information). Believe it or not, preachers in all denominations do leave churches for reasons besides "the movement of the Holy Spirit or the push of the brethren."

Some retire or die, some leave churches or the ministry all together because of health or family situations, some head for greener pastures (i.e. more money and/or prestige), churches fold, churches merge, and in some denominations a governing board or other hierarchy appoints pastors/priests and moves them around frequently. Occasionally one even goes to prison. (See Darrell Gilyard and the rogues gallery here.) So let's not assume that the poor beleaguered pastor is always led by the Holy Spirit or forced out by troublemakers. That dog won't hunt either.

As for church attendance, I have no source for attendance numbers for RLC, nor at this point is it even relevant, but I can see how witnessing someone shot to death inside your church building could make some a bit squeamish about returning. So I imagine they did lose some members. Still, there's no indication, if attendance dropped, that it had anything to do with then-pastor, Thomas Hallstrom.

Look, I am as anti-abortion as they come, BUT this was neither the time nor the place for such a demonstration. That is NOT how you change people's hearts, and that's what is going to be necessary to end abortion in this country. You don't pound people and soften their hearts about spiritual matters by YELLING AT THEM AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS! (I'm looking at you, Steve.) You work to change their hearts. That doesn't mean you condone sin or indefinitely tolerate unrepentance, but what works for a drill sergeant or football coach isn't going to work on the average pew-warmer.

I've no doubt all this attention only caused the members of RLC to circle the wagons to support Tiller (much like the Baptist Identity bunch is circling the wagons to defend a certain Baptist seminary president right now). Many members of RLC may not have agreed with what Tiller was doing, but he was one of their own, and they must have thought they were under attack.

Now, I ask you, how different is that from the story Steve Gaines told? What are the chances that there just happen to be two churches, both in Wichita, Kansas, where "troublemakers" disrupted services and tried to take over the mic and knock a pianist off the bench?

Now, here is another story about a Wichita, Kansas church that made the news, this one Baptist, but I think it's obvious that Reformation Lutheran is the church around which Sunday morning's "yarns" were spun.

This from the man whose security guards will haul someone out of 2000 Appling for sneezing. (Okay, that's an exaggeration, but let us not forget the 15-year-old girl who was called out of a service at BBC, handcuffed, and cussed out by a BBC rent-a-cop who was fired from the Memphis Police Department for similar behavior.) I guarantee you if anyone, say a gay rights protester, so much as dared to interrupt a service at BBC, he'd find himself tackled, shackled, and hauled out before he knew what happened. And the cops would be called.

What if a prominent member of Bellevue was known to be engaging in blatant unChristian behavior (use your imagination) during the week, and protesters, whether they were Bellevue members or not, came into the church on a Sunday morning and interrupted the service to rebuke Steve Gaines for not disciplining or "excommunicating" this prominent member? I don't think it's a stretch to say that the protesters would be treated to the same (or worse) treatment that the anti-abortion protesters received at the hands of the members of RLC.

What is it with Baptist preachers and "embellishing" the last couple of decades? I suspect it's been going on since time began, but now we have the internet. (Praise the Lord, and thank you, Al Gore!) Dr. Ergun Caner, president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, is the most recent high-profile example who comes to mind. Several bloggers have done series of articles about his troubles:

Witness Unto Me > Ergun Caner's Secret Biography

FBC Jax Watchdog series

Ministry of Reconciliation series

Grace and Truth to You series

There was Darrell Gilyard and his story about living under a bridge during his youth. (Didn't happen.)

Mike Warnke (remember him?) stepped in it for years before being exposed as a fraud.

According to Ed Young (the younger) Fellowship Church doesn't "own" a private jet. They just "lease" it.

And Mac Brunson has been documented "embellishing" on more than one occasion.

Mac's Illustrations: Poor Sermon Prep or Intentional Fibs?

Mac a "historian"? More Evidence of His Difficulty Telling the Truth

There are 16 million members in the Southern Baptist Convention. We can't account for several million of them, but doggonit, that's our story and we're sticking to it.

And of course, "It was just an itty bitty fence."

It seems many preachers in the SBC are pragmatists. The ends justify the means, and if you have to "embellish" a little (or a lot) to make a story sound more interesting or cast yourself in a more favorable light, well... then so be it. Michael "Butch" Caner, the chubby kid who was raised with his two brothers by his mother in Columbus, Ohio apparently doesn't make for nearly as sensational a story as Ergun Mehmet Caner, the "towel-head" (his word) raised in Turkey as a devout Muslim and trained to "do that which was done on 11 September."

Fred, the Catholic mechanic, isn't nearly as inspiring as Fred, the evangelical Christian mechanic with the moving testimony. And when you can't find a good (and true) story about church members beating up on the pastor (there are plenty about pastors "beating up" on church members), you take a story about anti-abortion protesters disrupting a church service and rewrite it to suit your purposes.

How stupid does SG think people are? Especially after the Joan Rivers' "twin" story and the Nashville marathon winners, does he not wonder if someone is going to think, "Hey, I don't remember ever reading that story," and try to find it just to satisfy their own curiosity... and then figure out he's making the whole thing up? That's all I did. I thought surely with all the things I've read about abusive church situations in the past few years that I would have run across this one, and I likely would have remembered it. Even if I didn't remember it, I certainly should have been able to locate some mention of it somewhere -- a newspaper article, a TV report, a blog, something. But I came up empty.

I can't decide (1) if he's so arrogant or emboldened that he thinks he can say anything and the sheeple will swallow it (if this is the case, that actually seems to be working pretty well for him), (2) if he convinces himself he's telling the truth, or (3) if he's just that careless.

Let's assume the best case scenario, that it's simply carelessness. The man has a Ph.D. for pete's sake. How does one earn a Ph.D. if he's this lackadaisical about basic research? He's the pastor of what's still considered a large church. Doesn't such a prominent position demand more regard for truth and accuracy? I realize no one's perfect. We all make mistakes. (By the way, those are words I never want to hear a surgeon say.) But I don't see how there can be any excuse for being this fast and loose with well-documented facts. This is much more than just getting a detail or two wrong. If he's that careless about being truthful about details that really don't matter in the grand scheme of things -- marathon winners, Joan Rivers' "twin," this -- then just like Ergun Caner, why should anyone believe him when he talks about the things that really matter?

One of the few things I vividly remember from my days in the primary department of a Baptist Sunday School was the little song they drilled into us which was based on Luke 16:10. I can't find the song online now. It probably wouldn't be considered "cool" enough for today's children, but it made a lasting impression on me. Either this is all there was to it or I just can't remember the rest, but the tune and the line, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much," keeps running through my mind. (Read the rest of that verse for the corollary.)

If you aren't careful to be truthful about the little everyday details of things and not "embellish" a story to make it fit your purpose or make it more intersting to your audience, then why should we believe you're going to be truthful about the big things? Of much more eternal importance, why should a lost world believe you?

Holy Ghost Hokey Pokey

2010-04-24T16:27:00.003-05:00

You just couldn't make this stuff up.

Let's Do the Tithe Rap!

2010-02-21T22:58:00.009-06:00

This "rap" was performed in a Sunday service at First Baptist, Woodstock, Georgia where Johnny Hunt, current president of the SBC, is pastor. Not much I can think of to say about it. I think the latest commenter summed it up pretty well.

"Church today is a place to go for entertainment."

Update: I only thought it couldn't get worse. Now we have Ed Young, "Jr." rapping.

The Demand to "Tithe" vs. Willful, Cheerful Giving -- Are We Still Under the Law or Not?

2010-02-01T12:11:00.015-06:00

"The greatest measure of godly discipline is this... that thou givest 10% of thy gross wages, undesignated, to thy church's multi-million-dollar budget before thou givest one mite to the orphan, the widow, the poor, the hungry."

1st Hesitations 3:16

For at least the past three months, Steve Gaines has been emphasizing "tithing" and his definition of it.

On December 6th he had this to say.

On December 27th he said this.

For two Sundays in January he announced "Prove the Tithe Day" which was, incidentally, cancelled by the weather.

Then on January 31st he topped himself with this one.

The FBC Jax Watchdog has written a good series of articles on "tithing" today as defined or perhaps misdefined by Steve Gaines and others.

The latest concerns Steve Gaines' January 31st sermon.

Here are some previous articles:

A Look at the Doctrine of Storehouse Tithing

Ronnie and Johnny: Doggone It, How Can We Spread the Gospel If the Sheep Don't Tithe?

Takin' It Up With Da Book: The Truth on Tithing

Takin' It Up With Da Book: MacArthur on Tithing, Part 1

Bring Ye All the UNDESIGNATED Tithe to My Church....Now

'Twas the Sunday Before Christmas

Returning to the Topic of Storehouse Tithing

Circumcision Doesn't Raise Revenue

"10%....Undesignated....No Exceptions"

"Shake Down" or "Shake Up"?

What Ministry We Could Do if 90% Would Stop Robbing God

Adrian Rogers on the Tithe

Dr. Russell Kelly's book, Should the Church Teach Tithing? takes an indepth look at this topic.

So... are we still under Old Testament law or not? How does what preachers like Steve Gaines are demanding today... 10% of your pre-tax income given in an undesignated fashion to what has in some cases become a temple of greed... compare to the Old Testament tithe? Why do we not follow other OT laws, dietary laws, for example? Why "only" 10%? And how does this legalistic demand by men compare to the New Covenant concept of willful, cheerful giving to help spread the gospel and help care for those in need?

2010 Memphis Passion Play Cancelled

2010-01-21T20:49:00.016-06:00

Last week we learned that the annual Memphis Passion Play, the elaborate dramatic production depicting the last days of Christ on earth, a Bellevue tradition since 1991, is going "on hiatus" for a year. Of course, that's just a polite way of saying the Memphis Passion Play has been cancelled for 2010.

This is the explanation Steve Gaines and Mark Blair gave on Sunday evening, January 17th, for why this decision was made. My purpose is not to criticize or defend the Memphis Passion Play. Rather, it's to illustrate the flawed logic and seeming hypocrisy displayed by the Bellevue leadership Sunday evening when they tried to explain why the MPP is being cancelled this year.

Let's address in more detail some of the things that were said. Steve Gaines began by saying, "One of the best things we do at Bellevue... is the Passion Play. It's one of the greatest evangelistic tools we have. Thousands of people have been converted. And we have no intention of doing away with the... Passion Play. We're gonna... continue it."

Having said that, why would you ever want to not utilize, for even one year, "one of the greatest evangelistic tools we have"? If reaching people with the gospel really is our first priority, why would we not want to use that "tool" for a period of two years (from 2009 until 2011)? If Bellevue Lo♥es Memphis so much, why would they even consider cancelling the Memphis Passion Play? That makes no sense to me.

He went on to explain that the Memphis Passion Play began after the church moved to its present location. Prior to then the Easter presentation was called Living Pictures and was a much simpler production. That is all true. He said before the first MPP "they took a year off... in the spring... to get ready... for the new thing that was coming... that's the Passion Play." As if the circumstances in 1990 were the same as they are today. More about that in a minute, but first a little history.

From the book By His Grace and For His Glory: Celebrating a Century with Bellevue Baptist Church we read that the drama program at BBC goes back almost 60 years. Formed as a result of the "vision" of Dr. R.G. Lee, Bellevue's was the first drama ministry in the SBC. The first production in 1952 was "a three-act character drama directed by Mrs. H. Mahon Crawford entitled The Passing of the Third Floor Back." That was followed a few months later by "a light comedy." (I kid you not.) Four months later "a 25-scene pageant" entitled As I Remember depicting the life of Dr. Lee was presented. I was somewhat surprised that the early years of the "drama ministry" at Bellevue sounded more like a community playhouse than a church ministry, but I digress.

Simon the Leper was performed for Easter in 1953, and Esther was presented sometime in 1958. In 1961 they did Ben Hur, complete with "Broadway sound effects for the chariot race." Okay, I've seen the film version of Ben Hur. While I'm really trying to envision that on a church platform, even with Broadway sound effects, it's just not coming to me.

Two performances of The Robe were presented in 1957 with an "encore" performance in 1959. Not content even that long ago to do anything on a small scale, the church rented the costumes for the production from a Hollywood costume company. The author tells us that one of the rented military costumes was worn by Richard Burton in the film of the same name. Er... are we supposed to be impressed or something?

The auditorium built on Bellevue Boulevard in 1952 was outfitted with a stage fully equipped for dramatic performances, but the size of that stage was dwarfed by the one in the new sanctuary built in Cordova in 1989. I believe this is an important consideration when we compare the justification given for taking off a year to "retool" Living Pictures into the Memphis Passion Play in 1990 to what they're doing (or not doing) this year.

Here are photos of the Singing Christmas Tree in the old auditorium (oh, look, there's the infamous chandelier!) and in the new. Same tree but there's a whole lot more stage around it to fill now.

Then:

Now:

Beginning in 1981 Bellevue's annual Easter program was called Living Pictures. Here is a scene from that production:

Now, imagine that scene in the middle of this stage:

It would tend to get lost, would it not? So... the church had just moved to Cordova, and it is unlikely there was time to do all the preparation and build the large sets used in the MPP by Easter 1990. Therefore, the church took a year off from producing an Easter drama to prepare something new and on a much grander scale, and so the Memphis Passion Play began in 1991. Just as the church is doing this year, there was an Easter music program in 1990. We didn't just skip Easter that year!

According to this 2008 OneNewsNow article, "This year's Passion Play debuts February 29 when music, drama and message will fill Bellevue's huge auditorium in six presentations to a total of some 30,000 guests." That would have been the 2008 performance which was scheduled over the weekend of March 2nd, three full weeks before Easter (March 23rd). In 2009 the MPP was scheduled over the weekend of April 5th, just one week before Easter (April 12th). Could this have made any difference in the attendance numbers? Did the weather conditions any year play a role? In 2008 a Monday evening performance of the SCT was cancelled due to inclement weather. I don't know the answers to these questions regarding the MPP. I'm just wondering if there were unique factors in 2009 which negatively affected the attendance numbers. Perhaps the NCAA Final Four tournament which was scheduled for April 4th and 6th? (Basketball, even when the Tigers aren't playing, is big in Memphis. It probably wasn't a factor at all, but it makes as much sense as blaming the release of a movie.)

Steve Gaines said, "We... have come to a point... Brother Mark... has been talking to us about it... and you need to understand something... as much as we all love it.... " (The body language was very interesting during this monologue.)

He haltingly continued, "So... and I love the Passion Play... and... and we... we're... but here's the deal. The facts are the facts. For the last ten years it [the MPP] has steadily been going down in attendance... steadily. I'm not talkin' about a little bit. I'm talkin' about a lot. It's gone from 40,000 people watching it that first... that... in back in 2000... 2001... last year we only had 18,000. The biggest drop was around the year 2003, we believe... it was either 2003, 2004... it's before I ever came here, but the year they had The Passion of the Christ it dropped... about 10,000 in attendance... that one year. Brother Mark feels... and after... after he showed us the data and we've looked at it and... we feel like we're not in any way going to... do away with it, but we need... and we don't have the time... to do it... between now and Easter... we need... the time... to redo it to make it better."

"That first... that... in back in 2000... 2001.... " What? Spit it out! What are you talking about? Was that the "peak" attendance year? It wasn't the first year. We've already established the MPP began in 1991, not 2000 or 2001... or 1990.

So they're blaming a large decline in attendance at the MPP one year on the debut of a movie, The Passion of the Christ. Really? I find it difficult to believe that would cause an immediate 25% drop in attendance which lasted for the next five years. Actually, I would think the movie would increase interest, not decrease it.

The facts are always the facts, but are those really the facts? We don't know all the facts because, like detailed membership and SS and worship attendance numbers, those are well-guarded statistics. For example, is anyone privy to the total cost of the MPP or the SCT? Have they ever made enough on ticket sales and the ubiquitous "love offering" collected at every performance to cover the cost, or has the church always had to make up the difference from "undesignated tithes and offerings"? Who knows? All I see here is a man tripping over his tongue trying his best not to accept any responsibility for the declining attendance at Bellevue, not only at annual productions but in general.

This graph shows the decline in overall attendance in SS and worship services. These numbers were in the 2009 annual report which I dare say most members did not see. (And not because they were denied. They simply didn't care.) It has not been a "steady" decline. If the church's own numbers are to be believed, there was a sudden and precipitous decline in overall attendance beginning in 2006. That, combined with the recent practice of charging everyone, member and non-member alike, to attend these performances, has probably contributed the most to the decline in attendance at the MPP and SCT. Not to mention it's just plain tacky. I've said it before, and I'll say it again... if you can't afford to present the gospel without charging admission, scale down the production. Period.

In 2007, Alex Edward Plasschaert, a Hollywood choreographer hired by Bellevue, died while in Memphis for rehearsals for the 2007 MPP. Plasschaert "traveled here from his California home several times a year to be a choreographer at Bellevue, where he helped stage such annual productions as the Singing Christmas Tree, the 'Celebrate America!' Independence Day show and the Easter season Passion Play." Aside from the obvious -- why does a church need to hire a Hollywood choreographer in the first place? -- the Commercial Appeal article contained this quote:

Barnwell said 30,000 people will see the production this year [2007]. The even more popular Singing Christmas Tree is seen by about 49,600 people a year.

So in 2006-2007 about two-thirds more people attended the SCT than attended the MPP.

In 2008, on the day of the first performance, according to the OneNewsNow article above, they were expecting some 30,000 people to attend the MPP. (I assume this was based on ticket sales.) If I'm correctly deciphering what Steve Gaines was trying to say, if the peak was 40,000 in 2000 or 2001, and if attendance dropped about 10,000 after The Passion of the Christ was released (in February 2004), then it sounds as if attendance was steady between 2004 and 2008 -- at about 30,000, not "steadily declining." Either the press releases were inaccurate, or Brother Steve misread the data. Surely there's no "embellishing" here!

According to the May 2008 volume of The Messenger (BBC's bimonthly magazine), there were 855 people saved at the 2008 MPP, and there were 1496 rededications.

In the May 2009 Messenger, we read that 18,973 people attended the 2009 MPP. There were 1041 "decisions" which likely included POFs and rededications. I couldn't find a breakdown of the numbers, but let's assume for argument's sake the percentages were approximately the same as the year before. That would translate into approximately 379 POFs during the 2009 MPP. Or about 63 POFs per performance. Remember that number. There were about 63 POFs per performance during the 2009 MPP. Definitely a lower "return" than in 2008, but still pretty impressive.

Now, contrast that with the Singing Christmas Tree which has become more and more secularized with silly characters (to the point of pain), bad writing, corny schtick, unfamiliar music, and a bunch of disjointed dance routines by the youth while Mary, Joseph, and Jesus have been relegated to much shorter appearances near the end -- kind of like they're just an afterthought now. I've heard it referred to recently as the Dancing Christmas Tree. Several of the traditional songs have been dropped including No Room, Shine Down, and It Is Finished.

As an aside, I was appalled to read about the competitions that took place every year for the "plum" spots in the tree -- the top and the intersection of the cross -- the latter which has now been eliminated from the tree entirely, and the former doesn't matter either since the elimination of No Room. Can you say "pride"? I'm sorry to say Bellevue has had some major "pride" issues for many years.

In 2008 the SCT was advertised as follows: "A chill is in the air. The department store windows are decked out with imaginative displays capturing the excitement of the season. In Rockefeller Center, the biggest Christmas tree you’ve ever seen is glowing with lights. There’s no place like New York City at Christmas, and the 2008 Singing Christmas Tree will once again bring a New York City-sized celebration right here to Bellevue. Join Kate, Luigi, and the cast for an unforgettable musical celebration." I can't put my finger on it, but something seems to be missing there. Could it be the thing that has historically resulted in fewer POFs during the SCT than during the MPP?

On Sunday morning, December 20th, Steve Gaines stated that during the seven performances (he thinks there were seven) of the 2009 SCT which some 32,000 people attended, there were a total of 1100 "decisions" with 444 of those being POFs. That's about 63 POFs per performance.

Does that number ring a bell? There were about 63 POFs per performance during the 2009 MPP, too! So it sounds to me like they got exactly the same "return" (i.e. POFs) per performance of the MPP during 2009 as they got for the SCT. Exactly the same. That's the bottom line, right? And considering over 12,000 fewer people attended the MPP than the SCT, it was really a greater return! As in most, if not all previous years, a larger percentage of people in attendance at each performance of the MPP made POFs than those attending the SCT. Considering the content of the MPP versus that of the SCT, that's no surprise to me at all. Yet we haven't heard any announcements about taking a year off to "redo" the SCT.

In fact, according to this advertisement for the 2009 MPP, it had just been "completely reworked with dynamic new music and inspiring scenes."

Wow. Having to return to the drawing board so soon?

Another quote from the OneNewsNow article:

Blair said the church sees their seasonal dramatic productions as bridge builders to the community. "We very much see this as a step in an evangelistic process," he explained. "For people who become a part of the church, the top response [in surveys] is that their first time to attend Bellevue was one of our major productions."

Bellevue members believe the time and effort invested in such programs are worth the effort. They don't want to measure the "success" of a production in numbers alone, but the fact is, the harvest is impressive and abundant. The productions are unashamedly evangelistic and include a clear invitation to follow Christ. Blair said last year's Passion Play [2007] saw more than 1,100 people say they accepted Christ at the event, and almost 600 did so during the Christmas program.

Pretty impressive, I'd say! In 2007 there were almost twice as many POFs during the MPP as there were during the SCT. In 2009 there were, on average, the same number of POFs per performance during both productions.

I couldn't find attendance numbers for the SCT for the past few years (and didn't knock myself out trying), but if I recall, they've recently been in the 40,000/year range. When By His Grace and For His Glory was published in 2003, the average was said to have been 50,000/year, and Barnwell quoted right at 50,000 in 2007 (I assume based upon 2006 numbers). That's a drop from 50,000 to 40,000 to 32,000 in three years! In other words, those numbers have followed the same general rate of decline as overall church attendance, but if previously published numbers are to be believed, the MPP did not see a significant decline between 2004 and 2008, and there were just as many POFs per performance during the 2009 MPP as there were during the 2009 SCT.

In 2009 about two-thirds more people attended the SCT than attended the MPP. Exactly the same ratio as three years earlier. Therefore, the problem is not simply declining attendance at the MPP. Attendance has declined by about one-third over the past 3-4 years at both the SCT and the MPP and even more in SS and worship services.

So why take off a year to "retool" the MPP? Why now? Steve Gaines said, "You know, if you have a flat tire... it's kind of hard to change it if you keep the car going. Don't you have to pull the car over?" I'd say yes, unless the wheel is falling off the car. Then you pretty much have to stop in your tracks. There's been a drop of about 20,000 in attendance at the SCT but only about 11,000 at the MPP. Sounds to me like the flat tire is on the SCT.

"And so... we're losing momentum with it. It is not as effective as it's been."

Really? Looks to me like it's been more effective than the SCT has ever been. But, of course, that depends on one's definition of "effective."

"We feel like that it's time to retool it. And you have some... all that runway from July to uh... December to make changes with the Singing Christmas Tree. You don't have that with the Passion Play. You come right out of the Christmas Tree, and you've got three months... and there is no way anybody can change the whole set in three months."

You've had the "data" since April. If you're just now figuring out that changes need to be made, someone's been sleeping on the job.

So how is this year different from 1990? For one thing, we already have the sets. We didn't in 1990. If they're not going to start working on the new sets until July, what's stopping them from using the sets and costumes they've already got and letting the show go on as usual in March this year? We don't have to do six performances. Do three. Or two. Don't use the flying angels this year. (You know that's got to cost some money for what amounts to about 2 minutes of hang time.) Or live animals. There are ways to cut down on the expense without detracting from the "show."

The excuse, and I believe that's all it is, that you have all that "runway" from July to December to change the SCT and only the time between the SCT and Easter to make changes in the MPP is irrelevant. They've apparently known since April 2009 that they needed to make changes in the MPP. Why is this being presented as if Mark Blair just had some sort of epiphany?

"So, Brother Mark, tell us what your plans are, and I want you to know I... I support this man a hundred percent. I think he is God's gift to this church, and I believe with all my heart he is leading us the right way." {applause}

Mark Blair then explains his "dream" for the future. He seems sincere, and I believe he's only doing as he's been told -- fix it! I could be wrong, but I do not think Mark Blair initiated all this. The MPP was under his direction when it was "completely reworked" in 2009, so all I can think is, Mark had better get it right this time or he may become as expendable as Jamie Parker.

I propose there's one reason why they're cancelling the MPP this year, and that is indeed effectiveness. Cost effectiveness, that is. Money... or the lack thereof. It's the same reason they cancelled the "Family Fun Festival" on Halloween (which in its last incarnation needed to be cancelled as far as I'm concerned). Steve Gaines was overheard last fall telling someone they were cancelling that event because "the money pit is awfully shallow." (Here's some free advice. May I suggest not booking some overpaid CCM artist and blowing up thousands of dollars in a 20-minute fireworks show this summer? Thank you.) It's the same reason Steve Gaines has been harping on giving for the past two months. Thousands have left, and they took their money with them. The economy has tanked which hasn't helped, the people in the demographic they're now trying to attract are not generally the big givers, and the church appears to still be spending money like there's no tomorrow. The facts are the facts.

Until year before last members paid $10, and the church provided up to ten complimentary tickets to each member (more recently 8) for the SCT and the MPP to distribute to non-members and encouraged people to invite their friends, neighbors, and co-workers. They would let people without tickets line up an hour before each performance, and they were admitted before the program began to fill empty seats. I saw those lines at the SCT and will be the first to admit it was not the ideal setup, but at least it got people through the doors and into the seats.

If most of the complimentary tickets were handed out, probably no more than one or two people out of every 10 paid to get in. Then they changed the ticket structure to where everyone had to have a paid ticket to get in, and tickets cost $3, $6, or $12, depending on the location of the seat. That's an average of about $7 a ticket. Many of the people who used to receive complimentary tickets or who would line up at the door before the show and get in free can no longer do so. How many of those same people are going to be willing to go to the trouble and/or expense of buying tickets?

And what about advertising? How many thousands of dollars were spent on TV, radio, electronic billboard, and print media advertising for the SCT in 2009? It must have been a lot because I saw frequent commercials for it on TV during November and December. And still they managed to attract "only" 32,000 people this year. I don't ever remember seeing that volume of advertising for the MPP.

I would have so much more respect for the "leadership" if for once, just one time, they'd not go through all the mental gymnastics they seem to think are necessary to justify their decisions. Just say, "We're strapped for money this year and need to explore ways to reduce the cost of our programs." Or just, "We don't have enough volunteers this year, and everyone is pooped. We need to take this year off to recharge so we can come back strong next year." Whatever the real reason(s), just be honest. As someone once said, we didn't just fall off the cabbage truck.

Mark Blair mentioned Noah. Great Evan Almighty! Please tell me Bellevue doesn't have aspirations of competing with this!

Adult tickets cost $47!

I agree it's time to stop and "retool" something all right, but it's not necessarily the MPP. Here's a challenge to the leadership of Bellevue. Since money is apparently not the issue, why not take the funds that would have been spent producing the 2010 MPP plus what would have been collected on tickets plus what was projected to be collected in the six "love offerings" (last year's actual numbers will be fine) and write a check to the Haiti Relief Fund for that amount? It's just a thought.

Merry Christmas, Y'all!

2009-12-24T17:53:00.013-06:00

While I had planned something more personal and original in the way of a Christmas greeting, there is no way I could ever top this.

For your holiday viewing pleasure, SWBTS presents "Pecan Manor Christmas 2009." Dr. Dorothy Patterson narrates this tour of Pecan Manor, home of the president of SWBTS.

Won't you sit back and joi-in Mizz Dorothy, the President, and Noche for a spot of delightful tea in the parlah?

Watch larger version here for now.

Jerry Sutton Sues Accuser

2009-12-10T18:54:00.006-06:00

Just goes to show you can take the $314,000 and run, but you can't escape your past.

The Tennessean > Two Rivers' ex-pastor sues accuser

As one commenter said, "The great thing about this lawsuit is that this Harris guy will now be able to demand detailed info from Sutton and the church and maybe the truth will finally come out. Of course, any incriminating evidence has probably been thrown in the church dumpster by now."

FBC Jax Watchdog > Liberty and SWBTS: You're on the clock! What will you do with Sutton?

The original "Two Rivers Info" site no longer exists, but their Facebook Group is still up.

Photo © Associated Press

PRE zent... ALMS!

2009-11-21T21:38:00.014-06:00

It's that time of year again -- time for Bellevue's annual Love Offering Sunday. What started in 1934 as a means for the church to pay off their building debt has turned into an all-out dog and pony show during which all present in the worship service on Love Offering Sunday march to the front of the auditorium and parade past large boxes into which they drop their offering envelopes. Last year envelopes were available near each seat, and guests were encouraged to get into line and drop empty envelopes into the boxes so people wouldn't be stepping over each other and no one would feel left out. Of course, if a guest felt led to put a little something inside the envelope, I'm sure no one would have objected.

It's difficult to believe it's been four years since this simple one-page announcement was made regarding the 2005 Love Offering. The prayer chapel, a colossal waste of money when a portion of the existing facilities which sit unused 6 1/2 days a week could have simply been designated as a prayer room, was never built. Many who gave to the 2005 offering have been asking for the past four years what happened to those plans. (Remember the proposed labyrinth?) Now we're told that money, which was reportedly set aside in a separate account, will be plowed into the "Vision 2010" plan which includes... taa daa... designating a portion of the existing facilities as a prayer room.

This year they've been much less specific as to what the love offering is for. Steve Gaines writes:

"This year's Love Offering is the first step in a multi-year effort to develop our people, ministries, and programs, and, when necessary, to enhance our facilities for the purpose of fulfilling our mission. Will we do everything we've planned? Probably not, because situations and opportunities will likely change in the coming years and we will adjust our plans accordingly."

This way they can pretty much use the money however they wish.

Speaking of 2005, my, how things have changed since this photo was taken!

With giving down significantly in the past couple of years and according to one source, "the money pit is awfully shallow," this year they've pulled out all the stops. From reminders in the weekly bulletin for the past month to large postcards and a full-color, multi-page mailout printed on slick, heavyweight cardstock (what did it cost to design, print, and mail that to every family in the church?) to a video to "Love Offering Reminders" e-mailed to people who haven't set foot in Bellevue in years to automated phone calls from Brother Steve -- it's been an all-out media blitz. Here is the full brochure. The whole "Vision 2010" thing will be discussed in a future article.

This quote is printed in this week's bulletin:

"Lines that Linger" by Rev. Don Miller

"The church needs faithful members who are regular attenders, faithful members who know how to pray and do it, faithful members who bring others with them, faithful members who love God more than the world, and faithful members who know the tithe is the Lord's and give it."

Subtle, huh?

And this from page 18 of the brochure:

The Love Offering is primarily a love and thank offering to our Lord Jesus Christ who gave the ultimate love gift -- Himself -- and who loves us with a priceless love. As Bro. Steve has said, our gifts to the Love Offering are not tithes, but are gifts above and beyond our tithe. As you determine how much to give, prayerfully consider the following:

1. God knows the need.
2. God knows how much of the need He wants to meet through you.
3. What God desires to do through you He will provide to you.
4. When we give obediently as God has guided and provided, He gets the glory and we get the blessing!

The need this year is truly God-sized and will require us to increase our faith to reach our goals. Please prayerfully consider what God wants you to give, and obediently and sacrificially give as God directs you.

Do people really need to be goaded like this to give? After all, the Bible says, "God loveth a cheerful giver," not an intimidated giver.

There have been good articles on the subject of "tithing" on the FBC Jax Watchdog blog and The Wartburg Watch this week, and they and their readers have already covered the subject in much more depth than I ever could. So without further ado:

A Look at the Doctrine of Storehouse Tithing

Ronnie and Johnny: Doggone It, How Can We Spread the Gospel If the Sheep Don't Tithe?

Rethinking the Tithe: Part 1

Rethinking the Tithe: Part 2

Happy Birthday, O Purveyor of Baloney!

2009-11-03T10:27:00.016-06:00

With any blog come trolls. It's an inevitable fact of life. Often simply ignoring them will make them go away, but it's sometimes difficult to resist the temptation to respond and even more difficult persuading others not to respond. Give them a little attention, and they always return to the scene of the crime.

In the early days of this blog we were occasionally visited by "RM," aka Randy McDonald, who claimed to be a Ph.D. pastor from Texas (a graduate of SWBTS). It wasn't difficult to find Dr. McDonald. He advertised his little church (that he started) as well as his "Christian counseling" service.

RM's comments (a "collection" of the best is here should anyone be interested) were usually caustic and seemed to only be meant to taunt and hurl insults at me and others posting comments. After a while he seemed to grow tired of us and faded into the sunset.

Then we were joined by "Brady." "Brady" didn't claim to be anything. In fact, a pastor is about the last thing I would have expected this potty-mouthed character to be. (He sent an obviously fake photo of himself to someone once and claimed his name was "Brady Davis" while rebuking me and others for not revealing our "real" names.) Most of his early comments were published, but after a while they were so over the top I began rejecting them. However, as with all controversial comments, I directed them all to a special folder where I didn't have to see them. Here is a collection of "Brady's" rejected comments and some personal e-mails to me and others. (Where's that bar of Lifebuoy when you need it?) All I knew was the e-mails were coming from a suburb of Dallas, Texas and that we were getting frequent hits on the blog from someone in that same suburb. You never know when something that seems meaningless today might prove to be useful in the future, and so "the Brady collection" was stored away, largely forgotten, in the nether regions of my hard drive for all these months.

Back in the spring of this year, a new blog came on the scene. The Wartburg Watch, authored by "Dee" and "Deb," two women in North Carolina, deals with a variety of topics with the underlying theme being abuse in the church. A couple months ago a new commenter calling himself "Cooper" appeared on the WW (not to be confused with R.E. or Ralph Cooper, another occasional but friendly commenter on that blog). Immediately I knew I recognized "Cooper" from somewhere, and it didn't take me long to remember where.

"Brady" often resorted to certain unique phrases. One of his favorites for me was "o purveyor of filth" or "o purveyor of dirt." Not "oh," but "o". He harped on "why don't you request a meeting with Dr. Gaines" and sarcastically called people "spiritual giants." RM used the same tired arguments, using much the same wording, not only with me but with Tom Rich of the FBC Jax Watchdog blog. Now, "Cooper" was using some of those same catch phrases on The Wartburg Watch. His "pet name" for them was "o glorious wenches." Again, not "oh," but "o". Here is a collection of some of "Cooper's" work. More than once he claimed he is living on welfare.

It was evident from all these men's writings that they were especially angry towards women. Perhaps they had issues with their mothers. Or perhaps there was an ugly divorce in one or more of their backgrounds. Whatever the reason(s), the venom just dripped from "Brady's" comments and e-mails to me. And I just smiled, knowing that eventually he'd slip up.

Well, folks, it took a while, but a few weeks ago he slipped up.

Randy McDonald's "church" seems to be no more. In fact, the phone number in the ads for the church turned out to be his personal cell phone number, and the address for the "church" changed several times.

Dr. McDonald's main occupation seems to be refereeing tennis matches for high schools and small colleges, and he has a blog. Perusing the front page recently I discovered this gem:

"In order to fully enjoy all our blessings, I am taking my two children (Brady on the left, and Phoebe on the right) to the lake today so they can chase ducks and swim all they want... "

"Brady," huh? Coincidence?

Recently an anonymous poster calling himself "Plano Man" showed up on Christa Brown's blog. Want to guess where RM lives now that he's single again? Here are some of his comments. Note his use of the phrase "o glorious Pharisees."

If there was any doubt at that point, the pieces all came together when McDonald posted this collection of articles on his blog. (Or here should those articles mysteriously disappear.)

I suppose you've figured out where I'm going with this. If it isn't obvious by now, "RM," "Brady," "Cooper," and "Plano man" (and I strongly suspect some others who've recently posted on the WW -- "Maude," "Jeff," and "Silly Boy") are one and the same. The same man who claims to be a Southern Baptist pastor and a personal friend of Dr. Rogers.

Many more interesting tidbits were learned about Dr. Randy McDonald by simply perusing the internet and further evidence of his multiple personalities was uncovered, but I think you've gotten a good idea of the heart of the man. It seems "truth in advertising" is an area Dr. McDonald stuggles with. In this 2001 letter to the Baptist Standard he claimed to have been the president of the SBTC (Southern Baptists of Texas Convention) board of directors for two years and a board member for five years. He was promptly called out by two people the following week, one being the man who actually was the first president of the then-three-year-old organization. Talk about having egg on your face! Not a pretty sight, is it? This kind of behavior was bad enough coming from A CErtain 20-year-old kid. Coming from a 62-year-old Ph.D.'d "pastor" it's beyond belief.

Today is Randy McDonald's birthday. Maybe it's time to "man up" and start acting your age, RM/Brady/Cooper/Plano Man/et al.

Sister Pam's Homegoing

2009-10-27T16:23:00.013-05:00

Today I learned of the passing of Sister Pam Gremillion who used to post comments on this blog under the name "woundedandbleeding." Our deepest sympathy to Charles, the girls, and their family. May the Lord bring you peace and comfort during this difficult time.

Pamela G. Lovelace Gremillion

Pamela G. Lovelace Gremillion, 54, of Memphis passed away at her home on October 25, 2009. She was a member of Bellevue Baptist Church, a board member of West African Children Support Network and a published song writer. Pamela was preceded in death by her father, Walter L. Lovelace and brother, Richard L. Lovelace. She leaves her husband of 30 years, Charles Gremillion, four daughters, Princess Noel, Mary Gracious, Naomi Faith and Blessing Joy Gremillion; her mother, Dorothy Lovelace and brother, Steven L. Lovelace. Pam was dearly loved by her family and friends and will be truly missed. Visitation will be 12 noon to 1 p.m., Wednesday, October 28, with the service at 1 p.m., all being held at: Memorial Park Funeral Home (901)767-8930 http://www.memorialparkonline.com.

You may not have known that Sister Pam, as she always referred to herself, was nominated for a Dove Award for Bluegrass Recorded Song of the Year in 1999 for the song she wrote, The Old Love Letter. Here are the lyrics:

The Old Love Letter

I found an old love letter that was written just for me.
It told me how much I was loved so sweet and tenderly.
With a broken heart I read each line of God's love for me.
It was written by a nail-scarred hand at Calvary.

Oh how this old love letter spoke to my heart and soul.
I was captured by every word as I watched His love unfold.
With special care He wrote it down for all eternity.
It was written by a nail-scarred hand at Calvary.

I found an old love letter the pages stained with red.
I am yours eternally is what the post script said.
I treasure my letter that he nailed upon the tree
Like tears stained its pages every time I read.

Oh, how this old love letter spoke to my heart and soul.
I was captured by every word as I watched His love unfold.
With special care He wrote it down for all eternity.
It was written by a nail-scarred hand at Calvary.

Here is a video performance of The Old Love Letter by Larry Sparks.

Tributes:

A Hero's Welcome

Precious in the sight of the LORD are the death of HIS saints.

Just Stop Trying So Hard

2009-10-19T13:53:00.006-05:00

A young woman named Sarah posted the following comment in the last thread. Here is a young person (I'm guessing maybe mid to late 20s) who reminds me of the dog who's always chasing cars and one day when he finally catches one can't figure out what to do with it. Here she calmly and logically states what others have been trying say ever since all the changes were announced, but coming from the viewpoint of a young person whose eyes appear to have been opened, I hope her words carry more weight than those of her elders who have been accused of just wanting to live in the past.

Sarah said...

I used to be one of those proponents that believed churches had to become more entertainment-oriented in order to reach people. The reasoning is that people are saturated by entertainment, that they would be numb to a traditional style of worship, or if churches did productions, they would have to be big in order to compete with companies like Disney for people's attention. You had to make the Gospel look cool if people are going to listen to it.

Now, Bellevue has shifted in that direction, and many other churches around the world as well. As I begin to see it firsthand, I'm no longer a proponent of an entertainment-oriented church. It's funny, because everything I'd wanted Bellevue to become over the years is now taking place, and I don't want it anymore.

It's one thing if an unattached Christian group wanted to use entertainment to reach people. They exist - creative arts groups, comedians, bands, etc. that aren't associated with a church and are able to reach people in fun, unique ways - out there in the real world where people are. I'm all for such groups, but I think that so-called "Christian entertainment" should not be associated with churches. Churches don't exist for that reason, and they were never meant to, if you want to go back to the founding of the New Testament church.

There are several reasons for this, the first of which is one that was completely unexpected for me. It just feels weird and awkward for a church to try and entertain people. Bellevue's 11:11 service seems to be nothing more than a superficial vanity. It's overtly trying to be "cool" and draw people in, and it just rubs me the wrong way. People aren't stupid - they can see through such things, and it's not just Bellevue, it's any church that employs similar psychological devices.

Did it ever occur to churches that people might want a refuge from the entertainment-saturated world and find a spiritual escape from it all? Why do you have to make a worship service compete with Disney or a rock concert? Why do you have to add a stage extension and put up rather pathetic looking decorations in an attempt to create a clearly orchestrated effort to dangle a big, fat worm in front of people's faces so that they'll bite.

I don't think any of it is done for money. Bellevue's not about money, even though it may appear otherwise. I just think they don't "get it." And yes, the contemporary service is WAY behind the times if that's what they're aiming for. I'm sorry, but you don't have someone like Steve Gaines preach at a contemporary service. He's about as anti-contemporary as you can get, even without the tie. Bellevue, if you want to update your service, lose the hokey 11:11 title, lose the preacher, lose the ridiculous sails in the background that try to hide the choir loft, forget the unecessary stage extension that attempts to bring the pastor closer to the people, and just stop trying so hard.

I must respectfully disagree with Sarah's next to last point -- that none of this is done for money. I think much of what's driving all this is money. I think they're pulling out all the stops to bring in more money, but they're shooting themselves in the foot with this plan. The demographic they're targeting is not the demographic with the money. Those are the very groups they're alienating. However, we'll cover that in a future article.

In the "Vision Twenty-Ten" plan we read this:

Corporate worship that is honoring to God will always be a part of Bellevue Baptist Church. The style of service and music will vary to enable the church to reach our culture and encourage corporate worship.

This was a joke going around a couple years ago. But is it really that far from reality?

Sarah's comment raises some interesting questions.

1. Why is it the church's mission to "reach our culture"? Implied in "reaching the culture" is that you become more like "the culture." Has anyone noticed "the culture" lately? Rarely does "the culture" rise to your standards. Rather your standards are more often than not compromised to conform to "the culture's" standards (or lack thereof). We've already seen this in the "dressing down" for church and what appears to be a loss of respect (of self and for others) in behavior. Watch a Bellevue service from a few years ago and compare that to services there today. They may be more relevant to "the culture" now, but in my opinion the quality has suffered.

2. Should "Christian entertainment" such as "Christian rock concerts" or "hunting extravaganzas" or public school teacher in-service days (which have involved some rather un-Christian "entertainment") be brought into the church? I'm talking about a church the size of Bellevue that has the facilities to host large concerts and other events that ordinarily would be held in a secular venue.

3. "It just feels weird and awkward for a church to try and entertain people." I think they call that a slippery slope. Stick around long enough and you'll get used to it.

4. "Did it ever occur to churches that people might want a refuge from the entertainment-saturated world and find a spiritual escape from it all?" You mean like someplace... reverent? What a novel concept! Which begs the question -- what is the "purpose" of church?

5. "I'm sorry, but you don't have someone like Steve Gaines preach at a contemporary service. He's about as anti-contemporary as you can get, even without the tie." Well, he's no Rick Warren, that's for sure, but it's not age. Rick is four years older than Steve Gaines, and a lot of people think Rick's "cool."

I will end with an open letter to the pastor...

Dear Brother Steve,

That was a good sermon you preached Sunday morning. While I'm not necessarily a proponent of "scaring the hell" out of people, I'm encouraged to hear you preach on the subject of heaven and hell. A lot of preachers don't do that today. However, I must tell you, performances like this one during your sermon Sunday are not helping raise your "coolness score." Not to mention the theology of this particular song is not really biblical, but I digress. Please, pastor, just preach. Don't yell. Don't beat the sheep. Don't sing. Oh, please don't sing! Preach the Word (not your word, but THE Word) and people will respond. Or as Sarah so succinctly put it, "Just stop trying so hard."

Trouble Clef

2009-09-30T16:43:00.004-05:00

"Trouble Clef," a video on Facebook by Jonathan Cordell starring Jim Whitmire. Duplicated here only because there are still people in the world who don't have Facebook pages.

The reviews are in... "Bellevue Combines Bad Fashion AND Bad Music"

2009-09-14T09:34:00.010-05:00

For some inexplicable reason the much-hyped changes at BBC made the front page of the Commercial Appeal this morning (above the fold, no less). As someone said in the online comments section, "Front page news? Really? Memphis is indeed a backward little place, isn't it?"

A few select comments:

Hey Bellevue,

1997 called. It wants its contemporary service back. The Bellevue guy in the article says you are not embracing a fad. I would disgree, you have managed to adopt a fad from 15 years ago.

Come on guys, good preaching, discipleship, and targeted prolonged outreach go a long way towards the health of a church. And there is no doubt there are a lot good people and a lot of good things going on at Bellevue. So I suggest you just use those assets better to reach folks.

This whole 11:11 business seems a bit cheezy to me. If, as it appears to be the case, Steve Gaines is going to be around for a while, I recommend the follwing two changes instead.

1) Dr. Gaines, please stop referring to people of Far Eastern descent as "Orientals." I know you mean no harm but the proper term is Asian. Oriental=rug, Asian=People. Bless you, sir, but I've heard this several times from the pulpit. It just doesn't help your credibility to use outdated terms.

2) Let's get rid of all billboard ads, or if you don't want to do that, at least quit putting huge pictures of your pastor's head with Bible verses below it but no scripture reference, just the pastor's name. (I've seen this, I-55 S, just south of Riverside drive.) I know you don't mean to do it, but it looks like you are attributing scripture to your pastor rather than to the Bible.

Just an outsider trying to give the outside perspective.

This is food for thought:

I am all for branching out... if that is what a church wants to do. But didn't Comm. Brooks try to hold a Kwanzaa event in a county-owned facility and there was an issue about that due to it being a religious program? I thought the county said no religious events in any county-owned property (or something like that). If you pay... you can play?!? Comm. Brooks should offer to rent a county-run school for her upcoming event.

Are you listening, President Obama?

Churches should be taxed and exposed for what they are...businesses.

Ouch.

So Fort God loosens its dress code so it can rake in more donations... er... I mean souls.

Yep...

If you want to know what it's all about, just follow the money!

Er... see above.

Wingo is Gaines' son-in-law. Nothing like nepotism to keep food on the table.

Certainly the prednisone is a contributing factor, but don't brag about always ordering the "dessert sampler plate" and obsess over food in nearly every sermon.

Gaines harboring of a pedophile is but one shameful thing he's done. For instance, he had the locks changed on the office to prevent Adrian Rogers (who was rapidly dying of cancer) from entering. He was offered the same amount of money Adrian Rogers made, but Gaines told them he couldn't live on it. Yes, he had the unmitigated gall to expect more money than a man who had been the faithful pastor for 30+ years (and Adrian Rogers used to refuse pay raises). Gaines is a narcissist par excellence. He is as the scribes and Pharisees described by our Lord in Matthew 23. He ties up heavy burdens for the people. He demands honor, and the uppermost seats. He does his deeds to be seen by others. He makes his phylacteries broad and his fringes long. And his rich enablers at Bellevue can't see it. I don't know how anyone who knows anything about him can sit under his preaching.

All that said, Gaines has a serious disease called myasthenia gravis which requires a heavy daily dose of prednisone, a steroid. He has now been on it for years and it has impacted his appearance. Criticize him for his actions, but leave his appearance alone, particularly when you don't know the facts.

The impression...

JMO but when individual congregations get too big like BBC, the congregation itself becomes the focus of the church and not its religious message.

If I wanted to join an exclusive country club I would.

I've wondered if this wasn't part of the reason behind "Bellevue Lo♥es Memphis" crews sprucing up county schools, (isn't that what we pay taxes for?), last year's taped message during a morning worship service from county mayor, A.C. Wharton, and appearances by various city and county politicians at church services. A little quid pro quo goin' on here?

For those that are concerned about Bellevue using a county school, it should be pointed out the the county schools have been using Bellevue free of charge for many years. Several schools hold their graduation services at Bellevue and some schools hold football camps at Bellevue as well. I also believed that city and county wide teachers meetings have been held at Bellevue at the beginning of school years in the past.

Also, Bellevue sends out volunteers to clean, repair and spruce up county and city schools once a quarter as part of their Bellevue Loves Memphis program.

From the article:

"I was in the staff meeting when Adrian Rogers announced he was retiring (after 32 years in the pulpit)," said Jim Barnwell, director of communications. "He said it was time for a younger man to lead Bellevue Church, and I think music is one of the things implied in that."

Really, Jim? You think these extremes in "music" were what Dr. Rogers was "implying"? Personally, I think that whirring sound we've heard the past few years is coming from Memory Hill Gardens in Bartlett, but maybe I'm imagining things. I saw a clip from yesterday's "11:11" service, and all I could think was I'm glad Dr. Rogers isn't here to see this. Of course, if he were still here, we wouldn't be seeing this.

For all the hype leading up to this, from the clip I saw, it was all rather anti-climactic. Maybe they need to drag out the fog machines and funky lights from i2Memphis. Seeing Ryan Wingo dressed in a sloppy shirt and wrinkled khakis making goofy faces, strumming a guitar, and chewing on the mic is getting rather old.

Does anyone recognize the setting for this? Is it a rock concert at FedEx Forum? A Saturday night fun fest at Autozone Park? No? Watch the whole video for the answer. You know, there is a good reason it's called "the sanctuary"!

Your Tax and Tithe Dollars at Work

2009-09-04T13:01:00.012-05:00

For the second year (I suppose that establishes it as a "tradition" now) Bellevue has played host to at least two Shelby County and Memphis City School teacher in-service days in the church auditorium and fellowship hall. Last year's meetings were described here and in this comment from a teacher who attended:

I am a Shelby County teacher and former Bellevue member who attended our system-wide inservice at Bellevue on August 7. I was shocked that this inservice was allowed at Bellevue. A SCEA/TEA/NEA representative was allowed to speak and encourage membership from the pulpit! I never remember anyone from SCEA speaking at inservices in the past. But this year they were allowed and in a Baptist Church! I belong to the CEAI, Chrisian Educators Association International, and they are never allowed to openly encourage membership.

There was also a comic skit put on by a group of four (can't remember the group's name), paid for with our tax money. In the skit which lasted about 30 minutes, there was a joke about Chippendales, Sex Ed class, someone's rear end, and a slur against McCain, and all of this was from the pulpit!

And to top it off, there were merchants selling jewelry, clothing, purses, etc. in the lobby!

I can't believe this hasn't been discussed more, made the news, newspaper, etc. My heart was broken that Bellevue has veered so far from the conservative leadership of Dr. Rogers. Does anyone at Bellevue not remember the stance he took against the liberal NEA and what they stood for? This was just unbelievable!

August 16, 2008

More discussion followed here beginning with the above, about the 12th comment down. (Sorry, permalinks don't appear to be working for that page.)

One would think after receiving criticism such as this that the church administration would either suggest the schools find another place to meet or at the very least set down some guidelines. However, that doesn't appear to be the case. After all, we wouldn't want to insult our guests by expecting them to adhere to certain standards, would we?

I received the following letter from the same Shelby County teacher last week with a request that I post it on the blog.

I am a Shelby County teacher and this is our second year to meet at Bellevue Baptist Church. I am ashamed to say I was ever a member of Bellevue. Today Phil Newberry welcomed the teachers and staff to Bellevue. Instead of having prayer for the 2010-2011 teachers and staff, he had a "moment of silence" as he stood under a banner that says, "My house shall be a house of prayer." I had a lot of respect for Phil Newberry but after today, I have lost it. Was he too embarrassed to have prayer or did he succumb to pressure from the school board that he only have a moment of silence?

Once again the SCEA president stood behind the pulpit to drum up support for the SCEA. And to think that some of the members' dues go to support the liberal NEA. On many occasions Dr. Rogers stood behind the same pulpit and told the congregation about the NEA's liberal agenda. They are in support of legalized abortions and homosexual rights, just to mention a few. They are one of the largest and most powerful lobbyist groups in Washington, D.C.

And then the speaker. I could not believe that he was allowed to speak in Bellevue's pulpit. He made a joke that some students were so bad that teachers might be tempted to smoke crack! He joked that teachers smoking crack probably had not been talked about in a Baptist church before! His talk was full of sexual innuendoes and other conversation that should not have been spoken from the pulpit.

As I was walking through the parking lot to my car, I heard 4 men talking about the speaker. I overheard one of them say to one of the other men that the speaker wasn't boring but he was close to forgetting that he was in a church and not in a nightclub. I don't know whether these men were Christians or not but they knew that this man should not be allowed behind the pulpit of the church.

I was embarrassed, angry, and hurt that Bellevue has strayed so far from the principles of God's word. The leadership of Bellevue will have to answer to God for compromising the Word of God.

August 29, 2009

Before someone trots out Matthew 18 as an example of how this situation should have been handled (which would not apply in this case anyway), the teacher stated she did write Phil Newberry but got no response.

Is this an indirect, if inadvertent, endorsement of the NEA by Bellevue Baptist Church?

The following resolution was passed at this year's NEA convention:

In implementation of the foregoing policies, the Representative Assembly adopts the following action plan with regard to same-sex couples:

1. NEA will support its affiliates seeking to enact state legislation that guarantees to same-sex couples the right to enter into a legally recognized relationship pursuant to which they have the same rights and benefits as similarly-situated heterosexual couples, including, without limitation, rights and benefits with regard to medical decisions, taxes, inheritance, adoption, and immigration.

2. NEA does not believe that a single term must be used to designate this legally recognized "equal treatment" relationship, and recommends that each state decide for itself whether "marriage," "civil union," "domestic partnership," or some other term is most appropriate based upon the cultural, social, and religious values of its citizenry.

3. NEA will support its affiliates in opposing state constitutional and/or statutory provisions that could have the effect of prohibiting the state and its political subdivisions from providing the same rights and benefits to same-sex couples as are provided to similarly-situated heterosexual couples.

4. NEA will take such actions as may be appropriate to support efforts to (a) repeal any federal legislation and/or regulations that discriminate against same-sex couples, and (b) enact federal legislation and/or regulations that treat same-sex couples and similarly-situated heterosexual couples equally with regard to social security, health care, taxation, and other federal rights and benefits.

5. NEA recognizes that the term "marriage" has religious connotations and that same-sex marriages may not be compatible with the beliefs, values, and/or practices of certain religions. Because of its support for the separation of church and state and the right to religious freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, NEA supports the right of religious institutions to refuse to perform or recognize same-sex marriages.

Sounds an awful lot like the original form of the Shelby County Commission ordinance that Steve Gaines was so vocal in protesting, doesn't it?

Here is a list of NEA resolutions from 2007-2008. Even a cursory reading of this document will give you an idea of some of the agendas promoted by this organization which are contrary to what most Baptists believe. Here are but three examples:

1. Racism, Sexism, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identification Discrimination

The National Education Association believes in the equality of all individuals. Discrimination and stereotyping based on such factors as race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identification, disability, ethnicity, immigration status, occupation, and religion must be eliminated.

The Association also believes that these factors should not affect the legal rights and obligations of the partners in a legally recognized domestic partnership, civil union, or marriage in regard to matters involving the other partner, such as medical decisions, taxes, inheritance, adoption, and immigration.

The Association further believes that plans, activities, and programs for education employees, students, parents/guardians, and the community should be developed to identify and eliminate discrimination and stereotyping in all educational settings. Such plans, activities, and programs must:

a. Increase respect, understanding, acceptance, and sensitivity toward individuals and groups in a diverse society composed of such groups as American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asians, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders, Blacks, Hispanics, women, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered persons, and people with disabilities

b. Eliminate discrimination and stereotyping in curricula, textbooks, resource and instructional materials, activities, etc.

c. Foster the dissemination and use of nondiscriminatory and nonstereotypical language, resources, practices, and activities

d. Eliminate institutional discrimination

e. Integrate an accurate portrayal of the roles and contributions of all groups throughout history across curricula, particularly groups that have been underrepresented historically

f. Identify how prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination have limited the roles and contributions of individuals and groups, and how these limitations have challenged and continue to challenge our society

g. Eliminate subtle practices that favor the education of one student over another on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identification, disability, ethnicity, or religion

h. Encourage all members of the educational community to examine assumptions and prejudices, including, but not limited to, racism, sexism, and homophobia, that might limit the opportunities and growth of students and education employees

i. Offer positive and diverse role models in our society, including the recruitment, hiring, and promotion of diverse education employees in our public schools

j. Coordinate with organizations and concerned agencies that promote the contributions, heritage, culture, history, and special health and care needs of diverse population groups

k. Promote a safe and inclusive environment for all.

2. Diversity

The National Education Association believes that a diverse society enriches all individuals.

Similarities and differences among race, ethnicity, color, national origin, language, geographic location, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identification, age, physical ability, size, occupation, and marital, parental, or economic status form the fabric of a society.

The Association also believes that education should foster the values of appreciation and acceptance of the various qualities that pertain to people as individuals and as members of diverse populations.

The Association further believes in the importance of observances, programs, and curricula that accurately portray and recognize the roles, contributions, cultures, and history of these diverse groups and individuals.

The Association encourages affiliates and members to become part of programs and observances that may include cultural and heritage celebrations and/or history months.

3. Home Schooling

The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. When home schooling occurs, students enrolled must meet all state curricular requirements, including the taking and passing of assessments to ensure adequate academic progress. Home schooling should be limited to the children of the immediate family, with all expenses being borne by the parents/guardians. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used.

The Association also believes that home-schooled students should not participate in any extracurricular activities in the public schools.

The Association further believes that local public school systems should have the authority to determine grade placement and/or credits earned toward graduation for students entering or re-entering the public school setting from a home school setting.

I will leave it to the teacher above and others to show the NEA supports legalized abortion.

And I will ask the administration of Bellevue to prayerfully consider if this is the sort of program they think reflects favorably on the church and its mission.

Love God
Love People
Share Jesus
Make Disciples

Exactly how does lending your pulpit to a "nightclub act" accomplish that?

Troublemakers in the Church... or How to Throw a Tantrum!

2009-07-09T21:11:00.008-05:00

Sunday night's sermon by Steve Gaines was yet another sheep beater. Why is this man so angry? He loudly and angrily implores people to be "peacemakers," but his definition of a "peacemaker" seems to be someone who'll never question "Pastor" or his agenda, no matter how innocently or politely, and never express any sort of disagreement with "God's anointed and appointed authority," namely Steve Gaines. And if you dare question him or hesitate to swallow and follow like a lemming off a cliff, you're automatically labeled a "troublemaker."

Watch him in action.

It seems at least some of the staff is carrying the torch, too. See the June 29th and July 6th "Morning Mullings" articles. As someone who read both articles said, it's amazing how some use (and misuse) the Old Testament to support an agenda. "They write to please their king and because they are taught to think like him, they probably really believe it." Sadly, that's the only explanation I can think of.

Changes, Part Deux

2009-07-02T13:50:00.012-05:00

More staff shakeups were announced at BBC last night. Phil Newberry, current Student Minister, says Steve Gaines approached him six weeks ago yesterday (that would have been May 20th) about becoming the "campus pastor" for the Arlington satellite. He said, "Jeanne and I began to pray through that. It took several weeks to pray through that. And a few weeks ago we accepted." (Several weeks + a few weeks = 6?)

Watch the video of Phil Newberry addressing the adults here.

See Phil addressing the students here.

Phil answers questions about the "11:11" service.

Phil discusses the Arlington campus.

So Phil Newberry is resigning as "Minister, Students" August 1st to become "Campus Pastor" for the new Arlington campus. According to Phil, Steve and David Coombs "shared their vision" and said they "prayed through it" and felt Phil was "the one to lead it."

Gregg Hauss is resigning as "Minister, Senior High" August 1st to go to the Arlington campus as "Discipleship Pastor."

"Pastor and David" instructed Phil to begin a nationwide search for the next student and senior high pastors. (So Phil was instructed to find his own replacement?) Phil says, "In the same meeting within the same 60 seconds, I boldly... and... correctly... said... 'The search is over. Don't have to pray about it. Don't have to seek anyone. I believe the student pastor to lead us into the next generation... the next... he'll be here for 30 years... okay... is Jason Pyron.' Love this man, and I promise you this. Forty-three thousand Southern Baptist churches... no need to look beyond the gift that we have in Jason and Dorie."

So glad at least Phil appreciated Jason and saw the wisdom in promoting someone already on staff! (And seriously, who wants to have to conduct a nationwide search for his own successor unless he's being promoted to "senior pastor"?) Jason Pyron seems to be a worthy choice whom the kids already know and like. So he will be promoted from "Minister, Middle School" to "Minister, Students" on August 1st.

That leaves the middle school and high school positions open. Regarding that, Phil says, "Monday, Jason, Pastor, and David interviewed a young man, and today (Wednesday) Jason, Pastor, and David interviewed a second young man. We believe God is in it for these two to come in and join our staff."

Jeff Howard is reportedly staying put as "Director, Student Discipleship and 6th Grade."

Leslie (Hollowell) and Jennie (McKay) will also continue in their current positions.

Phil says, "Ben Cole will be on board with us." (This is NOT the Ben Cole of "SBC Outpost" fame.)

There are four others leaving the student ministry staff at the "main campus" to go to Arlington which will, according to Phil, leave four positions to be filled.

1. Part-time children's director at Arlington will be Lana Kimery.

2. Julie Jordan, who has worked with Phil for 7 years, will be going to Arlington to be a "coordinator/secretary."

3. Ryan Wingo will be leading the music at Arlington. (How's that going to work out with the "11:11" thing back at the "main campus"?)

4. The new "student pastor" for the Arlington campus will be Scott Griffin. You may recall Mr. Griffin from his co-starring role in the 2006 and 2007 Part 1 and 2007 Part 2 Bellevue Intern Christmas Videos.

And who can forget Playing Dodgeball aka "Slacking Off at Work and Making Fools of Ourselves." Phil plays a cameo role in this one. (Will he have to give up that cushy office with the private bath when he goes to Arlington?)

Phil says, "Because of the new church start, we did not feel financially justified to bring someone in full-time, but we thought let's bring someone in part-time to work because students... those students by the way... will be plugged in and they'll have their own student pastor (who has hopefully matured a lot in the past 1 1/2 years), but when it comes time for Disciple Now, they're plugged in here. When it comes time for going to Gatlinburg and winter camp, they go with this group, all right? We ARE Bellevue. And so we're still much a part of the whole, but we needed someone to be the face of the student ministry at Arlington. And once again, we didn't have to look far for this. So, Scott Griffin, would you stand? Brittany? {applause} Praise God. We are thrilled to death... uh... when I pulled Scott aside a couple of weeks ago and asked him for the two of them to consider this, uh... I... uh... it was an obvious fit."

On a side note, Grant Gaines has written a paper...

Exegetical Critique of Multi-Site: Disassembling the Church?

He concludes...

In view of the fact that multi-site churches are outside the bounds of Scripture, why not plant churches and maintain close cooperation with an associational type of model? This practice has the potential to preserve many of the "benefits" of the multi-site approach, while simultaneously respecting the biblical nature of the local church as assembly.

While I don't agree with all his reasoning or even that multi-site churches are necessarily unscriptural (what does "liberalism" or the "Conservative Resurgence" have to do with multi-site churches?), I agree with his conclusion. Surely this must make for some interesting conversations whenever the "Gaines boys" get together!

A summary of the changes previously announced can be read on pages 4 and 5 here.

Some of the areas the committee and staff are reviewing:

• Additional Bellevue campuses throughout the Mid-South area

• Evangelism opportunities and discipleship training

• Sunday worship and platform refurbishing and modernization

• Prayer Ministry/Center

• Student/College areas update and renovation

• West Foyer, Bookstore and Coffee Shop, with enhanced fellowship areas. (You forgot to mention the bistro.)

• Pastoral Care improvements for ministry and training

• Bellevue Woods’ alignment with the mission of the church

• Recreation/Fitness and enhanced senior adult activities. (Is this the water aerobics SG mentioned?)

• Enhanced use of the Appling Road campus by members and guests

• Student Building planning and development

And what, exactly, do they mean by "aligning" Bellevue Woods with the "ministry of the church"?

So for now, that's it. Who knows what the next phase will bring?

What's with all the yelling and anger?

2009-06-24T08:25:00.016-05:00

I saw this statement on another blog:

By the way, the theme for this year's Southern Baptist Convention: "Love Loud: Actions Speak Louder Than Words."

When I read that I laughed. "Loud" seems to be the operative word these days. Steve Gaines yells even when he doesn't seem to be emphasizing a point. He seems angry all the time now. Mac Brunson was criticized for preaching on Christian civility and love while yelling. Wade Burleson sums it up here:

"I couldn't help but have two thoughts reverberate in my head as Mac preached on Christian civility and love - (1) Why is he yelling so loud? Usually, loud preaching is not bothersome [obviously he hasn't listened to SG lately], but there seemed to be a disconnect between a preacher talking about Christian civility and love while yelling at the people who he says (those of us in the congregation) aren't showing it, and (2) I wonder what Mac's church member - the one who criticized Mac on his blog and then was issued a trespass warning without ever being personally contacted by Mac - was thinking?"

I know what he was thinking. The same thing Wade was thinking.

For the past 2-3 years, Bellevue has been about a year ahead of FBC Jacksonville in this whole "transitioning" process. Remember transitioning? Looks like Jacksonville is catching up.

I found this video of Mac Brunson addressing his congregation to be quite telling. At first one might think the comparisons to Robert Tilton and Benny Hinn to be comparing apples to oranges, but are they really? I mean, is there really any difference between the "prosperity gospel" preached by these charlatans and the preaching of Mac Brunson and Steve Gaines? And again we hear the yelling and arrogance dripping from his lips as he tells his congregants, in a word, "I told you so."

Changes

2009-06-14T22:38:00.024-05:00

Update: Audio from the Wednesday night leadership meeting is now up!

This is a 90-minute audio-only file which begins with an introduction from Steve Gaines, followed by a mini concert by Ryan Wingo, and a 70-minute monologue by SG. The real "meat" begins at 19:10 if you want to FF past the pre-preview of the "less traditional, acoustic-led service with a praise band." I highly recommend you listen to at least the first few minutes and the last 70 minutes of this tape. It's tedious and painful in places, and you may have to listen to it in small segments and go back and listen to parts of it several times to get it all. (This is why I recommend downloading it. No doubt at several points you'll find yourself thinking, "Did he really say that?") There are a lot more changes in the works, and only by listening to the entire tape will you be fully informed (or at least as "fully informed" as the leadership will allow you to be at this time). This will also help dispel inaccurate rumors, several of which I've already heard.

Remember over a year ago we heard rumors of plans for such things as a coffee shop, an escalator replacing the big staircase in the west lobby, sofas filling the west lobby, and removal of the big crosses because some people found them "offensive"? The detractors came out of the woodwork and denied any of those things had ever been considered. After hearing nothing further until last night, I had decided those things had simply been pushed to the back burner, but because of the integrity of my sources I always believed there had been discussions of all these things. Granted, discussions don't always mean plans are in the works, but we now know that plans for at least two of those four things are moving forward. (You'll have to listen to the audio to learn which two!)

Go here to download and listen at your leisure (preferred). The file is almost 42MB and may take a few minutes to download.

Go here to listen if you can't download such a large file.

It was announced Sunday morning that beginning Sunday, September 13th, Bellevue is going to a new Sunday morning worship service format.

9:30 Announcement

11:00 Announcement

A "preview" is planned for both the 9:30 and 11:00 services next Sunday, June 21st. The new format will reportedly include a "traditional" service at 9:30 a.m. which will include the choir and orchestra. ~~Whether "traditional" means traditional in the true sense of the word or if it just means the same "blended" service they already have is yet to be seen. I suspect the latter.~~ It will be the same "blended" format currently in use.

The second service is moving to 11:11 a.m. and will feature a "less traditional, acoustic-led service with a praise band." The word "contemporary" was never uttered, nor was the name Ryan Wingo, but both were clear. Bye bye, Jamie Parker. Hello, Ryan Wingo! I've predicted for over a year that RW would eventually replace JP. It was never a question of if but when. RW doesn't seem to do "traditional," so I've no doubt this is being done primarily to accommodate him, a move which seems more than a bit disingenuous after all the times Steve Gaines has insisted that Bellevue will not have separate services based on style. How many times have we heard him strongly emphasize that Bellevue will have a "blended" service at 9:30 and 11:00 and that we will all worship together?

Here was the answer from the "Communications Committee" about the music:

Why did the music change?

For years, Dr. Adrian Rogers sought to have a blended style of worship. When Dr. Rogers retired in March 2005, Dr. Jim Whitmire led us to update our music while continuing to have a blended style of traditional and non-traditional songs. When Dr. Gaines came in September 2005, he encouraged this process to continue. Dr. Gaines has said he wants all of us to worship together and to not divide the congregation over music with separate traditional and non-traditional music services. The objective is to have a blend of approximately 50 percent hymns and 50 percent new songs in each service.

I can't help but wonder how this is going to work for people who attend Sunday School. If you go to an 8:00 class but want to attend a "less traditional, acoustic-led service with a praise band," you have nearly two hours to kill in between. If you attend a 9:30 class and want to attend the "traditional" service, I guess you're out of luck. If you attend an 11:00 class and want to attend the 11:11 service, again, you're out of luck. It seems with the declining attendance and shrinking budget receipts the most logical thing to do would be to go to one "blended" worship service at 9:30 and move all SS classes to 8:00 and 11:00 (or 8:00 OR 11:00). It would save on utilities and on a really good Sunday they might even come close to filling the auditorium. Have all Sunday School classes meet at 8:00, and Steve can keep his watch on and preach as long as he wants!

Germantown Baptist used this format for a while. The 9:30 traditional service would be packed while the 11:00 contemporary service would be sparsely attended. Eventually they eliminated the 11:00 service. It seems first-time visitors would come to the 11:00 service and be so turned off by the whole thing they would never return.

Other than to stroke Steve's new son-in-law, I can't possibly understand why they think this is going to be any more successful at BBC than it was at GBC. Will they be bringing in the funky lights, backdrops, and smoke machines to add ambience?

The idea for a contemporary service at 11:11 isn't original. Second Baptist in Houston, Texas has been doing the same thing for some time. In searching for examples of other churches with 11:11 services, I came across thousands of hits for something called the "11:11 phenomenon." Here are but two:

The 11:11 Phenomenon

The Meaning of 11:11

I'd never heard of this, but apparently 11:11 has significant meanings in numerology. Whether the time 11:11 was chosen because it's easy to remember (easier than 11:00?), because it sounds cute, because Ed Young's megachurch does it, so SG will have time between services to change from a suit and tie to more casual attire, or for some other reason, considering the connotations which accompany "11:11," Bellevue might want to rethink this particular idea.

It wouldn't be the first time something appeared to be changed because of questionable associations. I'm sure anyone who's been inside Bellevue's auditorium or has seen TV or internet broadcasts of Bellevue's services has at one time or another noticed the large "JESUS" banner hung from the ceiling above the pulpit.

When that banner first went up (what year, anyone?) there was a large inverted triquetra symbol on the bottom of it.

Sometime in early 2006 the banner was removed, and the triquetra was replaced with a simple gold crown.

The question has always been why? Why go to the trouble of taking it down and having someone remove and replace the symbol and then rehang it? I'm willing to entertain the possibility there's an innocent explanation. Or perhaps the answer lies here. It seems the triquetra, traditionally a symbol for the Trinity, is sometimes also associated with the occult, especially when inverted. A couple of years ago I talked with a lady whose adult child visited BBC after being away a while who said her child was shocked to see the inverted triquetra symbol on the banner. It was a short time later she noticed it was changed. So, did someone else notice it, too, and clue them in?

Trinity Baptist Church in Cordova has made liberal use of the triquetra (non-inverted) in their church. The church happens to be on Trinity Road, and the symbol appears on everything from their sign to their website to their publications to their choir bibs. Even their bimonthly newsletter is called The Triquetra. If one was offended by a single appearance of the triquetra on a banner at Bellevue, then one might be advised to wear a garlic necklace and carry a crucifix to enter Trinity!

Look, I am not offended by the triquetra or the use of 11:11. When I see the triquetra I understand it represents the Trinity -- although the inverted version doesn't make much sense. I think "11:11" is at worst a bit gimmicky, but to me it's not offensive. All I'm saying is if the triquetra was obliterated because of its inferred association with the occult, then by the same logic, shouldn't "11:11" be ditched because of its association with numerology? It would be a shame to print "11:11" on all those publications only to find out later that it has sinister connotations.

This Little Light: Beyond a Baptist Preacher Predator and His Gang

2009-06-13T19:21:00.018-05:00

Christa Brown has written a new book entitled This Little Light: Beyond a Baptist Preacher Predator and His Gang. Since I haven't had a chance to read it, I can't yet offer a review; however, Christa introduces it here and here.

Associated Baptist Press > Book says SBC lacks system of preventing sexual abuse

Some of the responses have been interesting (albeit predictable) as illustrated in this subsequent blog article.

I said this article would have little to do with BBC, and that's true. It seems the PW story was one of so many that it was mentioned only in a footnote on page 165.

Christa says, "I think I've finally figured out how this all works. It's pretty simple really: Once you say that you were sexually abused by a Baptist minister, it doesn't really matter WHAT you do because, if you've opened your mouth, there will be plenty of stone-throwing no matter what. (I wish Baptist leaders would just post a sign somewhere and say this up-front. That would be easier -- at least we would know what to expect. You know... sort of like a no trespass sign: 'WARNING: No talking clergy abuse survivors allowed in Baptist-land.')"

Congratulations on your new book, Christa, and thank you for all you do to keep the spotlight on the problem of clergy sexual abuse and your support of the victims.

Caption Contest

2009-06-04T14:19:00.008-05:00

What was Steve Gaines really saying here?

Photo © Commercial Appeal 2009

Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows

2009-05-28T18:44:00.020-05:00

This week the Shelby County Board of Commissioners considered an ordinance that would prohibit discrimination against gay and transgender employees. The same rules would apply to contractors who do work for the county as well as private businesses in unincorporated areas of Shelby County. Alliances of disparate groups formed quickly, and their protests were loud.

County ordinance targets discrimination against gay, transgender people

On Tuesday, May 26th, a group of local pastors and protestors on both sides met for a news conference in front of the Shelby County administrative building.

Memphis pastors, county commissioner speak against anti-discrimination measure

Video

In a vote the following day the proposed ordinance did not receive a deciding vote with the vote split 5-5 with two abstentions. The proposal will be read before the full commission on Monday where it must pass three readings to become law.

Anti-discrimination policy fails to gain majority support in Shelby committee

In a ~~surprising~~ classic example of politics making strange bedfellows, Steve Gaines was a guest on Thaddeus Matthews' radio program Tuesday afternoon. Thaddeus Matthews, for the uninformed, hosts a talk radio program on AM 990 KWAM in Memphis. No stranger to controversy, the foul-mouthed, seemingly sex-obsessed Matthews does not mind taking on many controversial subjects. To his credit he's exposed a lot of the corruption in Memphis and Shelby County government some of the local black churches.

Then he made headlines last year when he posted autopsy photos of one of the victims of the Lester Street murders on his blog. (Warning: Content, particularly in the comment threads, is likely to be offensive!)

Postmortem photos draw ire

I had never listened to Matthews' radio show until reviewing Tuesday's broadcast. I listened to most of it live Wednesday. I can only describe the man as a cross between Rush Limbaugh, Mark Driscoll, Eddie Murphy, and Charles Barkley -- loud, obnoxious, opinionated, and, I have to admit, often right. He spent the better part of Wednesday's show talking with callers about rumors regarding the sexual orientation of a number of local black pastors and church musicians as well as a lively and graphic discussion of oral sex and homosexual acts. Then he preached a little in the last hour, actually making some good points -- interspersed with a few more expletives. That's why the guy is such a enigma. He's not stupid. He says what he thinks, and he sticks with his position and defends it well, but after listening to him you experience an overwhelming need to take a shower and wash your ears out with soap.

You can listen to Steve Gaines' interview with Thaddeus Matthews here. (May take a while to load. The interview begins at 4:50 if you want to skip ahead.) There's a rather disgusting conversation between Matthews and a female caller at the beginning (which will give you a good idea of the caliber of his program and many of his callers), then the interview with Pastor Gaines in which Gaines defends his position thoughtfully and clearly, followed by some closing commentary by Matthews and a commercial that I think you'll find worth the wait.

I'm going to assume Steve Gaines has never listened to Matthews' radio program or read his blog.

We great leaders have our critics!

2009-05-14T12:18:00.015-05:00

One would think after Sunday's "Joan Rivers' twin" blunder, Steve Gaines would be a little more careful to take a few minutes to research his sermon illustrations before stating them as fact. Yet just three days later we hear him attributing a quote to Abraham Lincoln that Abraham Lincoln didn't say.

In this clip he talks about great leaders and how great leaders always have their critics. He seems to be lumping himself in with some high company here -- Jesus, Paul, Peter, Spurgeon....

Enough with the "poor me, I'm so persecuted" schtick! Leaders lead by example, not by empty words. Great leaders don't need to tell everyone what great leaders they are. People will naturally follow a great leader.

Here's a quote often attributed to Abraham Lincoln for you, Brother Steve:

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time."

Joan Rivers' Twin?

2009-05-10T13:07:00.015-05:00

This morning Steve Gaines told a story, as factual, to illustrate a point about the worth of a woman's inner beauty versus her outer beauty. At least I think that was the point. Or maybe the point was attractive women can't cook. I wasn't entirely sure.

Here's a clip from the 9:30 service.

And a clip from the 11:00 service.

Note how emphatic he is in the second one. "Joan Rivers... has a twin sister! A twin... sister!"

A minimal amount of Googling would have revealed that Joan Rivers was born Joan Alexandra Molinsky in Brooklyn, New York, on June 8, 1933 (or '35, '37, or '39, depending on the source). She has one older sister named Barbara Molinsky, not a twin... although this person might understandably be mistaken for Joan's twin!

This is reminiscent of a sermon he preached two years ago where he told about attending a marathon in Nashville the day before. Photos of the winners were flashed on the IMAG, and it was stated the wheelchair winner was a man from Germantown. Only problem with all that was those were the winners from the year before.

Here we are two years later, and you think he would have learned, but alas there still seems to be a serious case of...

Jamie Parker Gone Going Still Going Gone

2009-05-02T09:02:00.032-05:00

Note: For those of you searching for information on Jamie Parker (and you are legion), Jamie was the minister of music at First Baptist Church, Dyersburg, TN for a little over a year after he left Bellevue. (Apparently they don't ever update their website.)

As of January 1, 2011 he's at Cross Church (Ronnie Floyd) in Springdale, Arkansas. Watch.

It was learned this week that Minister of Music Jamie Parker is among the latest casualties left in Steve Gaines' wake. Without going into great detail (because no one but the parties involved knows all the details and that is not the purpose of this post) Jamie was reportedly informed by Steve Gaines in late March that he needed to seek other employment, but apparently it was understood he would be allowed to remain for a while until he could find another position. It was thought Sunday would be his last day, but that apparently changed.

The only question I have is what happened to that "covenant relationship" that Steve has stated he has with Jamie... the assurance that wherever Steve is, Jamie will always have a place? Steve brought Jamie from Gardendale with the promise of a secure future here. Jamie and Dana bought a large, beautiful home on several acres of land in the country thinking Jamie would eventually retire from Bellevue. Now they're stuck during the worst economic times in decades with a big mortgage and an uncertain immediate future.

It's no secret a lot of people were disappointed at the way Jim Whitmire was forced to "retire" when Steve Gaines came. No doubt that situation could have been handled a lot differently and much better than it was. Some said Jim was tired and needed to take it easy. So tired, I suppose, that when he left Bellevue he spent several months flying back and forth to Dallas every weekend to serve as interim minister of music at FBC Dallas, then took the full-time minister of music position at GBC, and now serves as full-time minister of music at FBC Jax. But life goes on.

Jamie came in January 2006 amid much fanfare and immediately made some changes in the music program which were unpopular with some. However, he seemed to hit his stride after a while and seemed to hit a happy medium with most people. In my opinion, Jamie is now being thrown under the bus, just like many fine staff members before him.

I think a lot of people saw this coming when Mark Blair was brought on board to handle "special productions." Then Mark was given even more responsibilities as evidenced by this letter sent to the choir. I take no satisfaction in the fact I predicted this outcome six months ago. Almost two years ago we learned Steve Gaines was trying to blame the declining attendance numbers on the music. Then Jamie and the music department took the fall for the infamous dance routine. Ryan Wingo and his trademark guitar have been increasingly "front and center" in worship services.

There is no doubt Jamie Parker loves the Lord, is very talented, and God has a better place for him. Dana, with her beautiful voice and sweet spirit has been an asset to the church and choir and will no doubt be a source of strength and support to Jamie during these uncertain days.

To Jamie and Dana, I wish you all the best and want you to always remember that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." It probably doesn't feel like it right now, but God has bigger things for you than Bellevue. Take your talent, that winning smile, and those big dimples and go... serve... Him! Remember that men will always disappoint you but God never will. Stay strong and always stay faithful. God has great things in store for you both!

Who can forget this?

The purpose of this post is not to criticize Jamie Parker or this blog. Please use the comments section to express your appreciation for Jamie's years of service at Bellevue and your fond or funny memories of Jamie and Dana Parker.

We want to minister to everybody...

2009-04-26T23:58:00.013-05:00

... except those who ask questions we don't want to answer.

Read the latest Times-Union article.

Continue watching the previous post for new links.

FBC Jax Watchdog: Who's talking?

2009-04-22T00:41:00.037-05:00

Some current and past discussions taking place in the blogosphere on FBC Jax Watchdog:

On this blog:

We want to minister to everybody...

Who's really the sociopath here?

This is the "Biblical Pattern" for Church Discipline?

Some Thoughts on "Church Authority" and "Church Discipline"

Spending God's Money

Jacksonville, FL Church Cover-up - Déjà Vu, Bellevue?

Florida Times-Union:

Phil Fretz > Blogger in church tussle can't have it both ways

Mark Woods > First Baptist blogger case where it should be: In judge's hands

Jeff Brumley > Blogger sues after Jacksonville cops out him to First Baptist

Woman accepts her blog's role in church investigation

Jax News >Readers respond to detective's investigation of critical blogger

Jeff Brumley > FBC blogger feels privacy was violated: Law enforcement says his privacy rights weren't violated, but there are concerns about the investigation.

Mark Woods > Church's use of power is troubling.

Jeff Brumley > Unmasked blogger blames First Baptist, Sheriff's Office: A subpoena is used to obtain critic's identity from Google.

Television coverage:

News 4 Jax > Man Blogging About Church Says He Was "Outed"

First Coast News > Internet Blog on First Baptist Church Causes Stir

FOX 30 > Sheriff Rutherford Responds To Church Intelligence Investigation

Tiffany Croft's blog:

Here is the latest story regarding this blog and the investigation

JSO Explains Subpoena

Stop Baptist Predators:

Go Dog Go!

FBC-Jax: "Big Brother meets Big Church"

Bully Bylaws

Mac Brunson on Gilyard & Patterson

Baptist Life Forums:

FBCJax Watchdog's lawsuit

Blogger sues after Jacksonville cops out him to FBC Jax

The famous and the obscure comment on FBCJax/FBCJax Watchdog

FBC Jax & Sheriff's Dept: 'Troubling Issues'

Brunson re: blogger "sociopath...obsessive compulsive"

Making criticism criminal

Church discipline according to FBCJax

FBC Jax Calls for Sever of Ties to Lifeway Over The Shack

Wade Burleson's blog:

A Southern Baptist Religious "State of Play"

We Are As Healthy As The Secrets We Keep

Censure, Censorship, and Church Citizenship

Abuse of Authority: It Must Not Be Ignored

The High Cost of Stifling Criticism and Dissent

Your Honor, Please Help Us Understand

Anonymous Writing Is Not Intrinsically Evil

Lessons in Dealing with a Disgruntled Church Member

The Untouchables: Spiritually Elite Leaders and the Unwillingness to Be Held Accountable

From around the world:

ABP News > Authorities expose blogger who has been hounding FBC Jacksonville

Anonymous Blogger Gets Outed then Booted From His Church!

Anonymous Blogger Messes with Church... Church messes back...

at-Largely > Alert, press under attack: blogger critical of church pastor targeted by cop who is member of the church...

Baptist Planet > Fbc Jax posts

Bene Diction Blogs On > SBC Jax Watchblog update

Bene Diction Blogs On > Whereas... the FBC Jax Watchdog blog

Bene Diction Blogs On > Whereas, First Baptist Church Jacksonville and law enforcement

Business Week > FBC blogger feels privacy was violated: Law enforcement says his privacy rights weren't violated, but there are concerns about the investigation. [The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville]

Christian School Confidential > to the bloggers of Jacksonville

Daily Kos > FL megachurch security detail/sheriff's dept unmasks blogger's ID

Debbie Kaufman > Enough Is Enough

Deep Thoughts > Where is the love?

ExChristian.net > Church pulls strings in an attempt to muzzle a blogger critical of the leadership

Fighting Fundamental Forums > First Baptist Jax hit with lawsuit

First Baptist Church of Jacksonville Florida: Snakes and Vipers

First Baptist downtown votes out supposed blogger

Forums > Law enforcement exposes blogger for pastor after revealing salary

Google Helps Identify Anonymous Blogger

Hmmm... Looks Like Bob Hymers Isn't the Only Power-Crazy Pastor Out There

Holy Man of the Day: Pastor Mac Brunson

Jacksonville First Baptist Has Police Out Anonymous Blogger

JaxOutLoud Forum > First Baptist Church and the Internet

JONATHAN TURLEY > Baptist Church Accused of Using Florida Detective to Uncover and Identify Critical Blogger

Legal Schnauzer > Blogger Draws the Ire of a Southern Mega-Church

Mainline Disease and the Southern Baptists

Megachurch Uses Police to Out Critical Blogger's Identity

Metro Jacksonville > Unmasked blogger blames First Baptist, Sheriff's Office
my TPM blog > And yet again -- another blogger outing

On my soapbox RE: FBC Downtown

* Outed Blogger Sues Sheriff's Department

Photography is Not a Crime: It’s a First Amendment Right > Florida cop abuses subpoena authority against bloggers who criticize pastors

Science Blog > Pharyngula > Mac Brunson, Baptist tyrant and greedy Pharisee

Should FBC Jax Pastor Mac Brunson resign?

The Backbencher > Abuse of Pulpit

The Big Daddy Weave > Megachurch Passes Resolution Against Blogger

The Mudflats > Jacksonville Florida First Baptist Church Outs Anonymous Blogger!!

The People's Forum > Unmasked blogger blames First Baptist, Sheriff's Office - A subpoena is used to obtain critic's identity from Google.

The Writing on the Wall > Church Blogger Watchdog May Be Put to Sleep for Sniffing Around

Unmasked blogger blames First Baptist, Sheriff's Office

UPI > Blogger: Detective gave his ID to church

WebProNews > Google Helps Identify Anonymous Blogger

Women In Ministry > Reaching unity in the faith without authoritarian control

And of course the FBC Jax Watchdog blog itself.

* Recently added

Thanks to "Thy Peace" for this exhaustive list!

New links will continue to be added periodically.

Who's really the sociopath here?

2009-04-09T13:23:00.025-05:00

An article by reporter Jeff Brumley appeared on the front page of the Florida Times-Union this morning, April 9, 2009. It can be read in it's entirety here. Several pages of reader comments follow. I have reprinted the article here in black with my comments interspersed in blue.

Unmasked blogger blames First Baptist, Sheriff's Office

A subpoena is used to obtain critic's identity from Google

By JEFF BRUMLEY

jeff.brumley@jacksonville.com

(904) 359-4310

A blogger critical of First Baptist Church Pastor Mac Brunson wants to know why his Web site was investigated by a police detective who is also a member of the minister's security detail.

* Can you say "conflict of interest"?

Thomas A. Rich also wants the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office to explain what suspected crimes led Detective Robert Hinson to open the probe into his once-anonymous Web site.

* I would like to know that, too, since the URL for this blog was on one of those subpoenas!

Rich also wants to know why Hinson revealed his name to the church despite finding no wrongdoing. Hinson obtained a subpoena from the State Attorney's Office requiring Google Inc. to reveal the author of the blog.

* Actually, it resulted in Google providing an IP address and the e-mail address the blog was registered under. Then Comcast was subpoenaed to find out the identity of the Watchdog. I'm pretty sure the same information was obtained for this blog and Tiffany Croft's blog. Whether our respective ISPs were subpoenaed is unknown.

Rich's unmasking led to an eventual trespass warning banning the longtime member and his wife from First Baptist, despite the fact that Brunson and a top church administrator conceded the blog never threatened violence.

* So why the trespass orders??? Could it be to intimidate the Watchdog?

Rich said he mailed a complaint against Hinson to the Sheriff's Office on Tuesday. It had not been received as of Wednesday afternoon.

* It will be interesting to see their response, if any.

The intelligence detective opened the criminal investigation Sept. 29 into the identity and "possible criminal overtones" of the blog, fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com.

* And approximately 18 days after subpoenaing Google for FBC Jax Watchdog's records, they subpoenaed Google for records for Tiffany Croft (who has always blogged using her real name), the NBBCOF, and an e-mail address for SLyons45. The latter two were on the same subpoena which indicates to me for some reason there might have been some connection between the two in their minds.

My only connection to Watchdog is that he contacted me when he started his blog in 2007, and we've corresponded since. I have stored some of his documents on my server. Bellevue Baptist is similar to FBC Jax in that both had new pastors come in and basically immediately begin to hijack the churches. It's not about music or the color of the carpet as many would have you think. It's about openness, transparency, truthfulness, and integrity, all characteristics that seem to be sorely lacking in both Mac Brunson and Steve Gaines.

The Sheriff's Office and church officials defended the complaint and investigation into Rich's blog, which Hinson concluded Nov. 13.

* How can you defend the indefensible? Can you say "corruption"?

Undersheriff Frank Mackesy said Hinson's role posed no conflict of interest because his duties include handling possible threats against the city's large religious institutions.

* Can you say "crock"?

Rich said he was never contacted by Hinson. He learned of the investigation well after the church notified him Nov. 28 he had been identified as the blog's author.

* I learned that Google was subpoenaed for my information (namely the "owner" of the NBBCOF blog) when Watchdog contacted me on March 25th.

Two additional bloggers investigated by Hinson said they were also not contacted. They learned of the probe in middle or late March. Their blogs do not focus on First Baptist.

* No, I was never contacted, nor did this blog ever focus on FBC Jax. There have been two articles (until now) out of the 165+ articles published in the last 2 1/2 years that had anything to do with FBC Jax, and those simply rehashed things from the FBC Jax Watchdog blog.

Mackesy said the three bloggers didn't need to be contacted because Hinson uncovered nothing criminal. "The detective hasn't done anything wrong," he said.

* I was never contacted by JSO. However, I would just like to know what "crime" I was accused of for them to have reason to subpoena my personal information in the first place. I have never set foot inside the state of Florida, much less inside FBC Jax, the address given on the complaint as the location of said "suspected criminal activity."

It was also proper for Hinson to provide First Baptist's leadership with Rich's identity despite finding no criminal evidence, Mackesy said, so it could take whatever internal action it felt necessary for its own safety.

"I'd be disappointed in the detective if [he] didn't do it," he said.

* Okay, so let me get this straight. The JSO finds NO evidence of any criminal activity, but yet they thought it was appropriate to reveal Watchdog's personal information to FBC Jax's "leadership" so they could take whatever action necessary for their "safety." What "internal action" did they think was deemed necessary at that point? Trespass orders against the man and his wife? Why not go all the way and issue three little trespass orders against their children? Why did the announcement and reading of the infamous "whereas" resolution ~~which FBC Jax proudly displays on their website~~ (or here should it mysteriously disappear) never mention Thomas Rich's name? Were they concerned they might have targeted the wrong person? Did they have enough brain cells still working to realize that Thomas Rich could sue the pants off them?

The Rev. John Blount, executive pastor of administration, said he contacted Hinson directly regarding increased "vitriol" on the blog about the same time mail was stolen from the Brunson home and someone was surreptitiously photographing Brunson's wife. Also, someone had contacted vendors lined up for the church's annual pastors' conference and made critical remarks about Brunson to them, Blount said.

* Last I heard, "vitriol" (an exaggeration at best) on a blog isn't "criminal." As for mail being stolen "from the Brunson home," a Google maps search of the Brunsons' address shows there are no curbside mailboxes. Rather, there is a cluster of mailboxes at the end of the street which I would guess probably includes the Brunsons' mailbox. It's impossible to tell from the low-resolution street view photo, but often in communities with these types of mailboxes, they will be numbered say, 1 through 40 rather than with the owners' names or addresses. It would be interesting to know if that's the case in the Brunsons' neighborhood. If it is, how would anyone but the USPS and perhaps some of their neighbors know which box is theirs?

"We became concerned enough to ask law enforcement, 'Is there the ability to find out where this is coming from?'" Blount said. Police reports were not filed about the mail and photos, Blount said. The Sept. 29 police report launching the investigation quotes Blount telling police only about "an ongoing Internet incident that has possible criminal overtones."

* As I have stated, I've never set foot in the state of Florida, much less Jacksonville. How (or much more importantly, why) would I ever be suspected of any of these activities? What "internet incident" involving me (or Watchdog or Tiffany Croft) has "possible criminal overtones"?

At no time was the blogger accused of being behind the other incidents, Blount said.

* Oh, really? According to Watchdog's multiple sources, at the February 23rd deacons' meeting John Blount told the deacons that Thomas Rich was the person suspected of stealing the Brunsons' mail and stalking Deb Brunson.

Rich said he never stole mail, photographed Brunson's wife or contacted vendors. Rich said he wonders if those issues were raised simply to obtain a subpoena to uncover the identity of a blogger critical of Brunson.

* Ya think? I believe Mr. Rich when he says he did not contact any of the vendors. But I learned just this morning that at least one person did. Someone I know personally states that s/he sent e-mail messages to at least some of the sponsors and featured exhibitors listed on the Pastors' Conference website. This person merely suggested they go to the FBC Jax Watchdog site, read it for themselves, and make up their own minds. I can't think this person was the only one who did so. According to my source, four sponsors/exhibitors did drop out, including the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Whether this particular person's message had anything to do with their decisions is unknown, but if four silver, gold, or platinum sponsors dropped out, that represented a nice chunk of change.

That was not the case, Blount said. In an age of church shootings and other violence, he said, they simply wanted to determine if any of the events were related.

* I thought Mr. Blount just said "at no time was the blogger accused of being behind the other incidents."

Then why did they target him, his wife, Tiffany Croft, and me?

Brunson said police have interviewed him about the photos and stolen mail. He refused to elaborate.

* I bet. No doubt "police" = Robert Hinson. Why, if any man who's worth his salt even suspected someone was stalking his wife, would he not file a police report? If someone is stealing your mail, get a mailbox with a lock on it. And as someone in the comment stream observed, stealing mail is a federal offense, not something the local police would investigate. The USPS has its own investigators for that sort of thing.

Rich said he launched his blog in August 2007 — more than a year after Brunson became the pastor — because he was alarmed by what he described as Brunson's "abusive preaching," especially during fund-raising campaigns.

* Funny how "beauty shop gossip" could be deemed important enough to need to "shut 'em down." Could it be that the reason giving is down is because of the economy and people leaving the church because of Mac? Nahhh... it couldn't be!

The blog has included criticisms of Brunson's $300,000 salary, his plan to open a church school, his construction of a "lavish" office suite, accepting a $307,000 land gift from church members for his home and putting his wife on the payroll.

* He put his 22-year-old son on the payroll, too. I don't think he even has a title, nor is anyone really sure what his job entails.

Brunson declined to discuss his home and salary but maintained he is one of the lowest-paid mega-church pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention. He said people are welcome to criticize his preaching style and ministry goals, including the school, but usually do so openly, not anonymously.

* I suppose that depends on how one defines "mega-church," but I doubt Mac has any idea how his salary compares to those of other "mega-church" pastors. After all, this information is a highly guarded secret in most of these organizations, known only to a handful of rich, powerful men. Do these guys sit around at their conferences and the convention or when they preach at each others' churches (for big $$$ while being paid by their own churches -- i.e. double dipping) and compare their salaries and perks?

In a December 7, 2008 interview Brunson claims "he doesn't make anywhere near the $300,000 annual salary the blogger claims." The key word there is "salary." Does anyone believe that with his salary plus his housing (tax exempt, BTW) and car and other "allowances" and perks that Mac Brunson makes nowhere near $300,000? Of course, as Watchdog observed, maybe his salary isn't "anywhere near $300,000." Remember "nowhere near" could cover amounts much greater than $300,000 as well. Kind of like Bill Clinton arguing what the meaning of the word "is" is. Factor in Honey's salary (what does she do again?), and then Trey's, plus book sales and speaking fees, and I would conservatively guess the Brunson Gang is making close to seven figures in salaries, allowances, and perks.

Rich's letter from the church cited his anonymity and sharp criticism as "a violation of Scripture" and church bylaws. He said the trespass warning came after he refused to appear before a discipline committee without a representative.

* Errr... so anonymity and criticism are "a violation of Scripture"? Can anyone point me to that particular passage of Scripture?

But Brunson said Rich's persistent criticism over nearly two years indicates the writer has an "obsessive compulsive problem" and is "not very stable at all," Brunson said.

"What you're dealing with is a sociopath," Brunson said.

* I think this statement speaks much more about Brunson's own mental state than that of the Watchdog.

"The imbalance is him refusing to address the concerns of his congregation," Rich said of Brunson's comments. Rich said his blog gets about 1,000 hits a day and that he regularly hears from people who agree with his criticisms but are afraid to come forward.

* I've heard the same from Bellevue members (mostly former members). It's all about money and power, and if they even perceive a threat to either, they will try to destroy you.

"He's been trying to convince his administration that I am some kind of a nut," he said. "I am not a nut... and the things I have raised on the blog are valid concerns."

* Seriously, they are valid concerns, and if Mac Brunson had been halfway open and honest in the beginning, there would have been no blog, and Mac wouldn't have made an idiot out of himself on the front page of the Florida Times-Union today.

Blount said he had no idea why Hinson looked into two other blogs, tiffanycroft.blogspot.com and newbbcopenforum.blogspot.com.

* Was Hinson acting on his own, or was someone pulling his strings? Ask yourself, who at FBC Jax would most like to see Tiffany Croft's blog and the NBBCOF shut down? It makes no sense unless someone was simply on a phishing expedition to reveal the identity of Watchdog and me. As for Tiffany Croft, what possible motive could there be except to intimidate her? She's always blogged using her real name! While she doesn't seem to have been particularly critical of Brunson, she has been critical of FBC Jax and Jerry Vines for allowing Darrell Gilyard to preach at FBC Jax and for Vines preaching at Gilyard's church after Gilyard's long, sordid past became public knowledge. She has also been critical of Paige Patterson for covering for Gilyard, and we know Brunson and Patterson are buddies. Mac Brunson reportedly approached Ms. Croft's father, who is a member of FBC Jax, and pressured him to get her to take down her blog. It's my understanding Brunson now contends he's "not familiar" with Ms. Croft's blog.

Mackesy would say only that Hinson was obligated to look at those blogs if he felt it could help the initial investigation.

* Which brings us back to the question of why Tiffany or I would be included in the investigation at all.

Jacksonville resident Tiffany Croft said the aim of her blog is to be an online source of information about the accusations against the Rev. Darrell Gilyard, the former Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church pastor accused of sexual misconduct. Gilyard regularly preached at First Baptist in the early 1990s.

* Which is likely why she was targeted. Criticism of Jerry Vines and FBC Jax. Brunson and Vines were witnessed high-fiving each other over the "evils" of anonymous e-mails. No doubt neither of them wanted any attention over their direct or indirect association with Darrell Gilyard.

Croft said she also plans to file a complaint against Hinson demanding to know why her blog — which has never been anonymous — was the target of a subpoena to Google.

The Times-Union doesn't know the identity of the third blogger, critical of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis.

* I'm not convinced FBC Jax does either.

The subpoena requests that Hinson submitted to the State Attorney's Office may have listed the criminal activity the detective wanted to investigate, but those documents were destroyed after 90 days, according to the policy at the time, said Assistant State Attorney Stephen Siegel, who signed the subpoena. The actual subpoenas do not cite a reason for the request.

Rich said he will hire an attorney if necessary to get more information from the church and Sheriff's Office and to clear his name.

* Those fellas at FBC Jax may have opened a big can of worms with this one. "It's hardball," Rich said of the church's tactics in uncovering his identity. "It's hardball religion, is what it is."

* That's exactly what it is. Mac & Co. have stepped in it big time. As Rush Limbaugh says, "You put a bag of excrement in front of Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid, and they're gonna step in it." Seems like there are some guys in Jacksonville who need to be checking the bottoms of their shoes right now, too.

I've said all along that Bellevue is about a year ahead of FBC Jax in this whole process. Our "grievances" were similar in the beginning. I can't speak for Watchdog's motives, but the NBBCOF was started simply to give people a place to discuss the issues. I think we've both long since realized that nothing we say is going to change the outcome, but we may open a few eyes along the way. The best I think we can both hope for at this point is simply to keep shining the light on these charlatans and at least keep them a little more accountable. I believe interest in the Watchdog's blog would have faded, just as it has begun to fade in the NBBCOF if Mac and John Blount hadn't opened this can of worms by involving the JSO. That was really a stupid move IMO.

Watchdog asked me a long time ago if I had space to store a few audio files for him. Since I had plenty of space, I agreed to upload whatever he needed. Other than the similarity of our respective experiences, I really have no interest in FBC Jax or Mac Brunson, but I have watched with interest and in full support the efforts of the Watchdog.

The only reason I can think of that anyone at FBC Jax would go after my personal information is that the name of the site where I store files is newbbc.accura.net. Most of the files on that site are public. Therefore, from the names alone, one could reach the logical conclusion that the NBBCOF blog and the newbbc.accura.net site are somehow related. I'm thinking when they noticed some of Watchdog's files were stored on my server, perhaps they thought we were connected, perhaps even that the same person hosted both blogs.

If you look at the subpoenas, they first went after Watchdog's information. Then about 18 days later they went after SLyons45, the NBBCOF, and Tiffany Croft's information. The SLyons45 address was apparently the one Watchdog used to register his blog. What also makes me think they somehow connected us was that the SLyons45 address and the NBBCOF appear on the same subpoena. The request for Tiffany Croft's information was on a separate subpoena.

There's another less likely reason I thought of for them going after my information. I don't know how close Steve Gaines and Mac Brunson are. I do know that two years ago Steve was slated to speak at the 2007 Pastors' Conference. This was right after the Paul Williams story came out. (For our new readers, PW was the staff minister at Bellevue who confessed to Steve Gaines that he'd molested his own son 17 years earlier, and Steve kept it a secret for six months until the truth leaked out. Steve said it was "under the blood" and that he didn't see any reason to report it to the authorities or to remove PW from the staff. You can read about it in the December 2006 and January 2007 archives on this blog.) Just before the conference, Steve Gaines' name was removed from the program. I never knew if he voluntarily withdrew (not Steve's style really) or if he was "asked" to withdraw. I always figured the latter since there was some objection by the people in Jacksonville (and Memphis) to having someone who'd just harbored a confessed pedophile for six months speak at their conference, but I don't know.

Therefore, I don't know if Steve and Mac are on good terms or not, but they both often complain that they're "victims" of "lies, slander, and gossip." All people are asking for is some measure of accountability and integrity, and all they're met with is brick walls and silence. Or in the case of Steve and Mac, sheep-beating sermons (especially when funds are needed) and tactics (at least in Mac's case) to "shut 'em down" at all costs. If Steve and Mac are on the same page, perhaps Mac was getting the information for Steve. (Steve's "go to" guy who does a lot of his dirty work is Administrative Pastor, David Coombs.) I would think, however, if Steve had wanted to find out who I am he could have done so a long time ago. I don't for one second think this blog is that big a "threat" to him.

It will be very interesting to see where all this goes from here.

First Coast News Coverage with video.

FOX 30 Coverage with video.

Church's use of power is troubling

If we truly love them, they will come?

2009-04-07T22:53:00.014-05:00

RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM the VUE's website...

THURSDAY!!!

MAKING AN IMPACT ON YOUR CAMPUS - meet at the VUE at 1:15 or at the BCM at 1:30.

Sometimes its (sic) easier to share what we believe with people in other cities and other countries, however God put you exactly where you are to share with those people around you. If we truly love people, God will change their hearts. We will meet up with students at the BCM and together go out onto campus and share with students. Let God change your life & increase your faith by joining with us!

Is this what they're teaching the youth at Bellevue now?

Out of the mouths of babes...

2009-03-23T13:14:00.030-05:00

Someone sent me the following last night -- a recent post from "Solomon's" blog. You may recall "Solomon" was a frequent commenter on this blog until about a year ago when he began painting all who disagreed with him as racists (huh?) and accused me and others of lying and wishing him harm, even going so far as to say he wondered if some of us wouldn't like to see him and his family "hit by a bus." No one to my knowledge has ever wished any harm to "Sol" or his family, much less said anything remotely resembling that. I've honestly not paid any attention to anything he has written since then, but I have to admit this made me sit up and take notice.

Daddy, I want to hear about Jesus...

That link no longer works since the article has been deleted, but this was the full text:

That's what one of my daughters said to me after church. "Daddy, can we go to another church next week? I'm tired of hearing about money. I want to hear about Jesus."

Frankly, I've been wondering the same thing. I remember when Steve Gaines first came to Bellevue, he said that every January would be "stewardship month". I took that to mean that at the first of every year the sermons would be about faithfulness with one's time, talents, and giftedness. And yet here we are halfway through March, and all of the sermons have been about money, and how real Christians give at least 10% of their earnings to the church.

A lot of sermons (not just by Steve) have rubbed me the wrong way, but last Sunday's was the first time in my life I felt like getting up and walking out on one. The "lesson" began with images of Bernie Madoff on the imag screen, and a quick summary of his corruptions. A direct correlation was drawn between this corrupt financier and Christians who do not recognize tithing as a mandate for Christians (apparently, even those who give more than 10%). As I was wondering if the pastor truly meant that Christians who don't tithe deserved to spend their lives in jail, Steve quickly added that it was illegal to drive a stolen car, and many of the cars on the Bellevue lot were stolen since they had been bought with money that was stolen from God if their owners did not tithe.

My own views of tithing notwithstanding, is this really a proper way to treat the members of Bellevue? We've put up with an awful lot of unnecessary adversity over the last few years, so don't we deserve something better than to be equated with Bernie Madoff? Isn't the "per capita" giving higher than it's ever been? Aren't we supporting the ministries of the church like never before? Why in the world should we be subjected to a beatdown like that?

"No," I told my little girl. "Just because the pastor is in a slump we aren't going to abandon Bellevue. The church is bigger than one man, even the pastor. Even if he abandons the Bible from now on and lectures and derides us about giving money to Bellevue each and every week of the year instead of preaching the gospel, unless the Lord leads us elsewhere we will still attend this church. Sunday mornings aren't about us, and if it is our lot to share God's word with those who are also discouraged by hearing week after week about money instead of Jesus, then we should accept this role joyfully."

My little girl agreed with me. I wish I was as sure of my words as she was.

Well, I was with him... until the last paragraph. Here his child is crying out to go to a church where she can hear about Jesus, and daddy says, "No, dear. The pastor is just in a slump, and we are going to stay -- even if he abandons the Bible from now on and lectures and derides us about giving money to Bellevue each and every week of the year instead of preaching the gospel." Good grief, man! What's the matter with you? It seems as if you're so loyal to "Bellevue" (whatever that means in your mind) that you are letting your children suffer. You're letting loyalty to a man and an institution trump your command as the spiritual leader of your family to make sure your children are taught Scripture (which I've no doubt they are at home), not to force them to listen to their parents berated and belittled and beat over the head week after week with demands to "give."

You said you weren't as sure of your words to your daughter as she was. Good! You shouldn't be sure of your words in this case because you're misguided, and I sincerely hope this means you're being convicted. Your "role" when you experience this type of spiritual abuse in the church is not to "joyfully accept it." Your role is to warn others and get yourself and your family the heck out of there! I realize change is difficult, but believe me, there is life outside of and after Bellevue.

"Solomon" also wrote an interesting article about the now-defunct i2Memphis. (He has now deleted it. See here.)

He wrote, "My perspective [about i2Memphis] abruptly changed when my oldest daughter, recently turned 13, asked if she could go one night. I told her absolutely not, and asked why in the world she'd ever want to go to a meeting with college students and single adults. Her response was that lots of middle and high school students were going.

Errr... so you already knew about the drinking and sex in the restrooms, but it took your 13-year-old daughter asking to go to jolt you into reality?

He continues, "I was shocked, stunned, and I was scared to death. I couldn't believe that the church would actually allow children into an emotionally charged environment where they were possibly exposed to drinking and maybe even sex."

Why would a church create such an "emotionally charged" environment at all?

Then he asks, "Why on earth was this monster ever dreamed up in the first place?"

Good question. Why, indeed. An even better question might be, "Why would you allow your family to remain in an environment where such things would be allowed to happen in the first place?" Obviously the people who dream up these ridiculous programs are not the types of "spiritual leaders" I would want leading me or my children. Why would you stay in a church that could create that kind of environment and subject your children to it? After all, this isn't the only church event we've heard about where drinking was involved.

Not to dwell on "Solomon," but I can't help but be reminded of this exchange from a couple of years ago.

In a comment on this blog he wrote in response to seeing David Brown on the news discussing, not Bellevue, but the issue of the SBC's refusal to keep a database of convicted and credibly accused sexual predator "ministers."

Quotes from the above comment:

"For the record, I do not want Gaines to be pastor and I am not defending him. Frankly, as a father, such a crime [speaking of Paul Williams] is unimaginable and makes me sick to my stomach. Even though the minister came to him [Gaines] with his wife (the victim's own mother) and gave every appearance of peaceful resolution, it's beyond me how SG could even work alongside someone who'd do something like that, much less keep him on staff."

....

"I was at a circuit city, and the story came on the news about your [David Brown's] 'attack' on the SBC. My wife and daughter started crying to see our church on TV like that. My 10 year old asked if we'd have any more picnics there. My 9 year old asked who that awful man was who was mad at us (it was you). Is that what you want?"

I think people should have been a lot more concerned about Steve Gaines letting a confessed child molester/known sexual predator roam the halls of BBC for six months than the fact that David Brown was shedding light on the issue of sexual predators in the SBC and the leaders of the SBC (Steve Gaines included) turning a blind eye to it or having picnics at the church.

It's been interesting to me over the past three years what has been different people's "last straw." For some it was the way the pulpit committee "chose" Steve Gaines and basically shoved him down people's throats with no "trial period" or ever bringing in any other candidate. For some it was the reports of the new pastor's excessive salary and benefits. For some it was the fence-climbing "incident," the "information meeting" and SG's description of the "itty bitty fence," belittling his congregation at another church, the "communication committee" meetings, covering for Paul Williams for six months, SG's treatment of the victim, the 2007 "monkey business" meeting, the sheep-beating sermons, witnessing their 15-year-old daughter dragged out of a service, handcuffed, and cussed at by a church security guard, or yes, even the change in the music for some. It seems nearly everyone who left had a breaking point. A more recent group exited when they changed the church's mission statement. Amazing to me after everything else that would be the last straw for anyone, but to each his own.

"Solomon" seems like an intelligent man who cares deeply about his family and his church. I'm not trying to beat up on "Sol." He just made me think. The question I would pose to all of us is which is the most important? Hanging on to tradition and remaining "true" to an institution that will never be the same or getting off your blessed assurance and moving to a place where you and your family will be fed? If you can stay where you are and accomplish both, you are probably already in the right place. If not, it may be time to seek the Holy Spirit's guidance. Who knows? His guidance just may come through the voice of a little girl.

Become a megachurch pastor... see the world!

2009-03-08T12:31:00.009-05:00

When someone asked Steve Gaines why he doesn't preach on Wednesday nights this was his response. I suppose his reasons fly out the door when he's busy preaching at other churches.

This was the answer the "Communication Committee" gave:

Why doesn't Dr. Gaines preach on Wednesday nights?

"Because our congregation is quite large, Dr. Gaines has chosen Wednesday nights to attend committee meetings, meet various church groups, and attend a variety of church events in order to meet as many people as possible. Dr. Gaines also encourages us to hold all committee meetings on Wednesdays and Sundays to allow members to spend more time during the week with their families. Does Dr. Gaines preach any other time besides Sunday? Yes. Currently, he preaches to men at Morning Manna, Thursdays at 6:30 a.m., and to 18-29-year-olds at i2 Memphis, Thursdays at 7:00 p.m."

Morning Manna meets maybe 4 months out of the year -- one morning a week. I2Memphis is defunct.

I remember the ~~excuse~~ reason given 2 1/2 years ago was that those speaking engagements were already scheduled before he came to Bellevue. Fair enough. (So I guess it was okay with the people of Gardendale that they were being taken advantage of, too.) Now here we are 2 1/2 years later. Are you telling me all these speaking engagements for 2009 were scheduled that long ago?

Speaking of "meeting as many people as possible," do they even have visitation at Bellevue? It's a serious question. After all the times I visited Bellevue and filled out visitor's cards, not once was I ever contacted by the church in any way. Not before joining and not after, not by a Sunday School teacher or deacon, not by phone call, letter, or e-mail. (Which I'm sure begs the question, "Why did you join?" Let's just say it wasn't because of the friendliness of the people. But this isn't about me.)

Oh, did everyone receive their automated phone message from "Brother Steve" last night reminding everyone to set their clocks forward? I listened to the whole thing and about dropped the phone laughing when Steve said, "Donna and I love you very much." I've spoken with Steve Gaines face to face. As someone else said about his experience, the whole time it's as if he's looking over your head to see if someone more important is waiting. That was certainly the impression I got, too, but I digress.

Now you can add a Wednesday night this month to the list. Steve Gaines will be preaching at Valley View Church in Louisville, KY, a church with the reputation of being one of the most seeker-sensitive PD churches in the area.

He didn't preach at Bellevue this morning. The pulpit was filled by Russell Moore of SBTS, and there's another speaker tonight. So once again, Steve's being paid to be... where? Preaching at another church while your church pays another preacher to preach at yours? Can you say "double dipping"?

On another cruise? This was a recent cruise on which Steve Gaines was a speaker.

On another tour? Here is but one example.

Or is he on another "mission trip"? A few weeks ago the whole Gaines family was touring the Holy Land. Before that the oldest Gaines daughter and husband Ryan Wingo were in Morocco. Are you telling me Bellevue pays a music assistant who's barely out of college enough to afford a trip like that? There was the much-publicized India trip in 2007, the one the Commercial Appeal covered with an 8-page spread complete with photos of the Bellevue women yucking it up in their Indian finery. Someone commented to me recently that if one is not wealthy but desires to travel, one should become a Baptist minister, marry a Baptist minister, be born to a Baptist minister, or be friends with a Baptist minister so they can travel the world.

Recently the Gaines family traveled to Honduras, reportedly just so that Steve could preside at the ordination ceremony of a pastor there. Did the church pay his way for this trip? Did they pay his family's way?

Have you ever noticed how these Baptist men and women are always beautiful, well-groomed, and clean, often dressed in native costumes, in the photos of them on their "mission trips"? Then ask yourself, was Lottie Moon or Mother Teresa clean and pretty in her photos? Was anyone even there to take photos? Or did these women stop long enough to be photographed? Most Baptists don't know what the heck a "mission trip" is. They often stay in 4-star hotels at night or at least "in high style" compared to the people they're "ministering" to. They eat food specially prepared for them. Why should churches foot the bill for preachers and their families and friends to see the world just because they call it a "mission trip"? What is wrong with this picture?

There are plenty of faithful, loving pastors who do not fleece their congregations. They are right there in the trenches, preaching, visiting, caring for their people week in and week out. I salute them. Then there are the others, the ones who seem to view the pastorate as little more than a chance to enrich themselves (speaking at each others' churches and at the seminaries for thousands of $$$, book deals, selling sermons, making thousands in profits from tours, etc.) and to benefit their families and friends. It's not a pretty sight.

This is the "Biblical Pattern" for Church Discipline?

2009-02-26T20:26:00.013-06:00

Many of you have probably been following the events at FBC Jacksonville (FL) the past few months. While neither time nor space permits me to repeat the whole sordid story here, it's well-documented elsewhere.

Donald "Mac" Brunson has been their pastor for about three years, coming there from FBC Dallas where he'd just lead that church into an aggressive building program soon after which he went to Jax and left FBC Dallas millions of dollars in debt.

By most accounts, Dr. Brunson was welcomed with open arms at FBC Jax, but it didn't take long for the red flags to start flying. Here is a list of church members' concerns.

FBC Jax members, after being met by brick walls when they tried to approach the pastor with their questions (sound familiar?), started a blog to communicate their concerns. This is the second or third incarnation of their blog but by far the most long-lived and most read. Longtime members have been told, "If you don't like it, leave." (Hmmm... where have I heard that before?)

Mac Brunson has delivered a number of "sheep-beating" sermons that have rivaled some of Steve Gaines' beauties. In an audio interview last year he referred to bloggers as nothing more than "women gossiping in a beauty shop." (Note how these guys seem to think the ultimate insult they can hurl at someone is to compare him to a woman. Have you ever heard them compare people to "men gossiping in a barber shop"?) On the other hand, Mac has stated on other occasions that he doesn't read the blogs.

Apparently the FBC Jax Watchdog blog is being read by a lot of people and not just people from Jacksonville. It's attracting readers nationwide (and a few international). Attendance and giving are down at FBC Jax, much like at Bellevue. People are seeing the abuses of Mac Brunson, and many have left. Whether the blog has played much of a role in that is unknown, but Mac's not happy.

So... in an effort to intimidate the bloggers and other members, the leadership of the church somehow came to the dubious conclusion that a specific man owned and operated the blog, and they set their sights on him. According to an anonymous comment he posted on the Watchdog's blog, two men showed up at his door the day before Thanksgiving and presented him with a letter which listed his "transgressions" along with trespass warnings against the man and his wife. Her "transgression"? Apparently she committed the sin of "associating with" the accused blogger.

All the details can be read on the FBC Jax Watchdog blog in a series of articles beginning in early December 2008. The church's bylaws were covertly changed a year earlier to concentrate power in the hands of the pastor and trustees. A "discipline committee" appointed and controlled by the pastor was included.

The targeted man and his wife have since moved on to another church and want nothing more to do with FBC Jax, but did that stop Mac and his minions? After all, their stated purpose was to meet with the man and his wife for "reconciliation and restoration." If the couple has left the church, what's there to reconcile or restore?

Fast forward to Wednesday night, February 25th. FBC Jax was called into a business meeting, and a resolution was read to the few hundred people present. There was no discussion, and an immediate vote was called. Well, it wasn't really a vote per se as in "all in favor stand, now those opposed stand," but rather the moderator stated, "Ladies and gentlemen, you've heard the motion. Is there a second? {someone seconded the motion} I would appreciate it if you would approve this motion by standing. {pauses while most of congregation stands} Thank you very much. The motion carries. That will conclude our business meeting." Hello?!

Watch the video here.

There were clearly some people who remained seated. If they'd had a secret ballot I'm sure many more would have voted their consciences rather than going along with the crowd. You can bet the names of those courageous members who did remain seated were duly noted, and their invitations to meet with the "discipline committee" will likely be delivered to their doorsteps soon.

This whole fiasco raises a number of questions in my mind. I don't know Mr. Soud, chairman of the FBC Jax trustees, from Adam. Never heard of him until the recent chatter on the Watchdog's blog. He may very well be "well-respected" in the Jacksonville community, but I've come to realize that "well-respected" is often just a code word for "rich" -- regardless of how someone arrived. There are lots of "well-respected men in the community" at Bellevue who've exhibited similar behavior and worse. Bellevue was just a year or so ahead of Jacksonville in this process so we got to see it sooner. He did not appear to be comfortable up there and didn't impress me at all. It's been my observation that when these guys are, shall we say, "embellishing" something that they "uh" and "um" and "ah" and trip all over their tongues. You heard that with Mr. Soud in the video above. We've seen it with Steve Gaines and Paige Patterson. These guys are veteran public speakers, and when they're comfortable and being truthful they're smooth as silk, but when they're not they fall apart.

I know nothing of Mr. Soud's reputation as a judge, but if he will go along with this charade, if he will stand in the pulpit of a church and lie through his teeth, it makes me think there is more than meets the eye and that perhaps he could have sometimes been "influenced" in his role as a judge, too. Of course, that's just my impression.

The deacon chairman looked like a sad, beaten-down man who would rather not have been there, but by golly he's going to go along to keep his position and the "prestige" it carries with it. His humble demeanor while carrying out the "vote" only made him appear gutless. "I would appreciate it if you would approve this motion by standing. {pauses while most of congregation stands} Thank you very much. The motion carries." LOL! Hey, that's how they vote at Bellevue, too! No secret ballots, no call for "Nays," just "All in favor please stand. Thank you. The motion carries." Robert must be spinning in his grave. They know most of the sheeple aren't going to rock the boat though, and by having a standing vote, peer pressure alone and the desire not to stand out will bring people to their feet for anything. Every time they successfully ram through something like this they only become more emboldened.

What I cannot get over is Jim Whitmire's going along with all this. (You can see him clearly standing in the photo of the vote above. Dressed in brown, he's standing on the right side of the platform. That means he was voting for the resolution.) His story about the shepherd leaving the "ninety and nine" sheep and going after the one who was lost was quite ironic given the fact FBC Jax's shepherd and his shepherd boys had just figuratively shoved one of their sheep off the cliff. How can Jim stand at Mac Brunson's side, even call him the finest preacher he's ever heard (for a man who sat under Adrian Rogers for over 30 years, that's laughable), and go along with all this? Zipping up the bubble and insulating yourself doesn't cut it because by your silence and your remaining there and standing at Mac's side, you ARE tacitly going along with all of it. You would think after his deplorable treatment at the hands of Steve Gaines and Bellevue that Jim Whitmire, of all people, would see Mac Brunson for the abusive charlatan he is. Is an attractive salary and a bayfront condo really worth it?

Speaking of Mac, I noticed he was conspicuously absent from the meeting where the resolution was read. So typical. He lets other people do his dirty work.

Regardless of the fact that business meeting was a total sham, one thing I noticed was FBC Jax apparently still has monthly business meetings. Bellevue's bylaws (written in 1929, they're one page long and have never been changed) also call for monthly business meetings, but hey, bylaws schmylaws, we don't care! All they have now is an annual business meeting on a Sunday ~~morning~~ evening at the conclusion of a ~~very long~~ worship service. Last year over half the people walked out before it started. In 2007 they killed the mics and shut down the meeting when people were still lined up to speak. Last year only two people had the courage to ask questions, and both were quickly dismissed.

Something else that jumped out at me was that the trustees approved this thing on February 18th. According to the e-mails Watchdog posted on Monday, the accused man was still corresponding with John Blount (one of the FBC Jax staff ministers) two days after February 18th, trying to work out arrangements so he could speak to the deacons at their meeting on the 23rd and defend himself against what he claimed were false and baseless allegations. So it's obvious to me they'd already made up their minds and had no intention of meeting with him or letting him defend himself. This thing had been written, signed, sealed, and in the bag and was ready to be delivered to the deacons while Blount was still telling the man he could address the deacon body.

Oops! Busted!!! What a sham! These guys are like criminals. Sometimes they can be quite clever, but they're never very bright.

Also, why did they not mention the accused man's name? Fear of getting their collective pants sued off because they targeted the wrong person? If this weren't so pathetic it would almost be comical.

February 25, 2009 brought an absolutely disgusting display of deplorable (but not surprising) behavior by men who've lost their consciences. For anyone who attended Bellevue's 2007 "business meeting" this was déjà vu all over again. While I was watching it my first thought was I wouldn't want to be standing anywhere near Mr. Soud because there just might be a lightning bolt with his name on it. From the way his eyes were darting around while he was reading, I wondered if that thought hadn't crossed his mind as well.

Is this what is meant by the "biblical pattern of church discipline"? It's a pattern of something all right, but "biblical" it ain't!