Making a Deal with the Devil: “The Spirit of Hophni and Phineas” – Prosperity Preachers, Self-Proclaimed Prophets, Sexual Deviants and the Proliferation of Religious Scandals in the Modern Church – Part II

Submitted by Terence Blackett

The prophets lie and the priest takes bribes and the people like it so – Jeremiah 5:30

 

The Moral Failures of the Ancient World destroyed by a Flood were as follows:

• Preoccupation with physical appetites (Luke 17:27)

• Rapid advances in technology (Gen. 4:22)

• Uniformitarian philosophies (Heb. 11:7; 2 Pet 3:4)

• Inordinate devotion to pleasure and comfort (Gen. 4:21)

• No concern for God in either belief or conduct (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 15)

• Disregard for the sacredness for the marriage relationship (Matt. 24:38)

• Rejection for the inspired Word of God (1 Pet. 3:19)

• Population explosion (Gen. 6:1,11)

• Corruption throughout society (Gen. 6:12)

• Preoccupation with illicit sexual activity (Gen. 4:19; 6:2)

• Widespread thoughts and words of blasphemy (Jude 1:15)

• Organized Satanic activity (Gen. 6:1-4)

• Promotion of systems and movements of abnormal depravity (Gen. 6:5,12)

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that these same moral failures are now pandemic in our own world. Could we be also on the cusp of a momentous fracturing of time which will bring out what has been prophesied so long ago by prophets, seers and messengers?

Below are a few (not even the tip of the iceberg) random examples of what we face as the people of God as we grapple with overwhelming sin and disgrace:

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Making A Deal With The Devil: “The Spirit of Hophni And Phineas” – Prosperity Preachers, Self-Proclaimed Prophets, Sexual Deviants And The Proliferation Of Religious Scandals In The Modern Church – Part I

Helena Smith living in Athens writing for the Associated Press, in an explosive article entitled “Sex and Fraud Woe for Greek Church” says that:

“The Greek Orthodox Church, buffeted by sex and corruption scandals, met in emergency session yesterday amid lurid claims that have included one newspaper publishing photographs of a 91-year-old bishop naked in bed with a nubile young woman. Scrambling to resolve the worst crisis in the Church’s modern history, the embattled spiritual leader, Archbishop Christodoulos, convened the rare meeting as allegations of skullduggery, sexual improprieties, trial rigging, drug and antiquities smuggling engulfed the institution.”

Another article reads:

Jason Berry in a Sunday, April 10, 2005 article said that the new (Pope Benedict) must forthrightly confront church sex scandal Bishops with a history of sheltering priests who molested children will forever taint John Paul II’s legacy as a great leader. As the world’s cardinals for the Vatican conclave elect a new pope, they owe it to the faithful to choose a man who will confront the crisis that stains Pope John Paul II’s legacy: bishops and religious order superiors who have a long history of sheltering priests for gross sexual misconduct.

This story was a bit of a shocker:

Jehovah’s Witness William Bowen, Attorney Jeff Anderson and plaintiff Heidi Meyer announce a civil lawsuit filed against the Jehovah’s Witness Organization headquarters on Tuesday, July 2, 2002. Heidi Meyer said that “basically any way that he could put his hands on me, he did,” she told CBS News Correspondent Jane Clayson. From the time she was 10, until she turned 13, Heidi, a Jehovah’s Witness, says she was molested by a member of her congregation. Finally, she turned to the leaders of her faith. And what did they say? “They asked me, do you think this could be a misunderstanding? And I said, no. No, I’m very sure of how his hands were on my body and there’s no way to misunderstand that,” Meyer said.

But the elders dismissed her plea for help and sent her away with a warning: “You need to keep quiet about this. You don’t want to drag his name through the mud. You don’t want to drag the name of Jehovah’s organization through the mud.”

Amongst the most damnable falls from grace is the following report: On November 4, 2006, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Rev. Ted Haggard agreed to resign as leader of the mega-church he started in his basement more than 20 years earlier after its independent investigative board said he was guilty of “sexually immoral conduct.”

Haggard admitted he had received a massage from a Denver man who claimed the prominent pastor had paid him for sex over three years. Haggard also admitted he had bought methamphetamine.

After the allegations were made public, Haggard resigned as president of the influential National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group representing more than 45,000 churches with 30 million members.

In the lurid, virtual undercover world of internet sex, this next episode exposes many sexual challenges both men and women face in cyberspace.

Police arrested Pastor Barron, 52, a Prestonwood Baptist Church minister Thursday morning after he drove from Plano to Bryan to meet with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl he had met online, authorities say. The girl turned out to be a Bryan police officer working in an ongoing Internet sex sting. Barron was one of about 40 ministers at the 26,000-member Plano mega church. He’d worked there for about 18 months, ministering to married adults, ages 42 to 58.

Most Christians are totally unaware of what goes on in the wider Church world. If it doesn’t happen within the hallowed confines of their sacred walls, then maybe all is well with the world…

On June 14, 2007, The Houston Chronicle posted an article by ROSE FRENCH from the Associated Press, entitled, “3 Insurers Shed Light On Protestant Church Sex Abuse”:

“The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members.”

Religious groups and victims’ supporters have been keenly interested in the figure ever since the Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis hit more than five years ago. The church has revealed that there have been 13,000 credible accusations against Catholic clerics since 1950.

There are about 224,000 cases in the U.S., according to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, although that number excludes most historically Black denominations and some other groups, which account for several thousand congregations.

One of the largest settlements to date in Protestant churches involved the case of former Lutheran minister Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. in Texas, where a jury several years ago awarded the minister’s victims nearly $37 million. Separate earlier settlements involving Thomas cost an additional $32 million.”

One of the worst scandals to hit the Church is this current story which is going to trial.

“Pastor admits stabbing lover’s husband“- A Northwest Georgia pastor who was part of a love triangle pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing his lover’s husband.

Richard Scott Harper, 37, made a deal with prosecutors that allow Harper and co-defendant Michelle Reynolds, 39, to avoid the death penalty. Reynolds’ husband, Thad Reynolds, was found stabbed multiple times in July 2004 outside a Frito-Lay distribution plant where he was a manager. Harper and Thad Reynolds were good friends, police said. Thad and Michelle Reynolds attended Hollywood Baptist Church, where Harper was the family pastor and Thad Reynolds was a marriage counselor and deacon.

This story is the tragedy facing the modern Church – where the problems stem from the “HEAD” downwards…

The Religious Right is a horrible culprit when it comes to not disciplining and not expelling grossly perverted ministers. The Religious Right cries out against these sins (same-sex marriage, homosexuality etc.) in the secular world but ignores the exact same sins that occur within its own pulpits.

For example, Daryl Gilyard was first investigated (and confessed to) sexual sins while in the pulpit at Victory Baptist Church in Richardson, TX. He then pastored Shiloh Baptist in Jacksonville and then faced criminal charges there for sending lewd messages to an underage girl, and yet he is now in the pulpit at First Timothy Baptist Church in Jacksonville.

Dave Hyles was expelled from the pulpit of Miller Road Baptist Church in Garland Texas for having affairs with 14 different married women and using them to film pornography. He then moved to Illinois where he became the prime suspect in the suspicious death of Brent Stevens, the son of his lover. He was then accepted onto church staff at Pinellas Park Baptist Church (now Crosspointe) in Pinellas Park, Florida, where he was abruptly expelled and left office. His former church secretary was later busted for prostitution. He then moved to Berean Baptist Church in Orange Park Florida, with no warning given to the congregation, and within a few months again left abruptly (with an unexplained black eye). He was admitted to the congregation of First Baptist of Jacksonville without any call for him to give account of what happened to Brent Stevens.

And yes, Pastor Jerry Vines was warned, because someone sent him Brent Steven’s autopsy and inquest reports, at which Dave Hyles pleaded the 5^th Amendment.

This is as I said the tip of the iceberg..

We can continue to hunker down in our cushy sofas, padded pews and lazy-boy armchairs while the Church and the world goes to HELL in a hand-basket while we do nothing or say nothing…

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