KINGDOM PERSPECTIVE
with Remi Akano
E-mail: remiakanosr@believeandrepent.com
Paul Crouch Jr, chief of staff at the famous Trinity Broadcasting Network, TBN was the first to catch a whiff of persecution from a recent event in the United States of America, the Grassler Investigation. In a strongly worded rejoinder to an article by columnist and Charisma Editor, J. Lee Grady, he describe the requests for information sent to six famous ministries in the Pentecostal/charismatic wing of the Church as an “inquisition”.
The so-called Grassler Investigation, by the way, has its origins in the letter sent by a ranking member of the US Senate Committee on Finance, Chuck Grassler requesting detailed information on the finances of the ministries of the following men and women of God: Creflo & Taffi Dollar; Kenneth and Gloria Copeland; Randy and Paula White; David and Joyce Meyer; Benny Hinn; and Eddie Long.
The Republican Senator had rationalised his action in a press release which reads in part like this: "I’m following up on complaints from the public and news coverage regarding certain practices at six ministries…The allegations involve governing boards that aren’t independent and allow generous salaries and housing allowances and amenities such as private jets and Rolls Royces. I don’t want to conclude that there’s a problem, but I have an obligation to donors and the taxpayers to find out more. People who donated should have their money spent as intended and in adherence with the tax code."
The six were to have responded to the senator by December 6. Some did, some requested for more time while at least another one has bluntly refused to comply citing infringement on his ministry’s rights and privileges. We will bring you developments in what promises to be a long drawn battle.
In the mean time however, this columnist senses an increase in the feeling that the Grassler Investigation is simply the first tentative steps in an impending wave of persecution of the Church in America. For this writer, since there is really ONLY ONE CHURCH, that can only imply a creeping challenge to the church irrespective of its geographical location.
Speaking during the week in Lagos, one of my pastors, who runs an international ministry, made copious references to the Grassler investigation as nothing short of persecution, implying that if it could happen to those ministers and their ministries, it can happen to any one. He didn’t mince words: this simply is persecution!
But easily the one development that suggests to me that the suspicion of persecution may be reaching fever pitch is the announcement of the founding of a body styled as Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, headed as chairman and chief executive officer, by one Gary Cass. Cass, formerly the executive director of the Center for Reclaiming America at Coral Ridge Ministries in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA was touted as having “experienced firsthand what happens when Christians are marginalized and persecuted during his stint with Terry Law Ministries behind the Iron Curtain in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he was involved in music evangelism.”
A former pastor who was arrested three times for his pro-life activism, Cass, recalling his experience during those dark days said: "the state told the church what they could and couldn't preach and forced real believers to go underground, and then as a result, risk arrest and imprisonment for not complying with the state's mandated version of what Christianity could be." Persuaded that the same thing can happen in the US, he called for vigilance, quoting one of America’s founding fathers, he said: "It's as Thomas Jefferson said, ‘we have to be eternally vigilant to protect these rights’.”
But it is these words of his that, I believe, reveal the underlying fears of the founders and supporters of the group: “If we allow ourselves to be defamed then we are being set up to be marginalized. Once we're marginalized, then we can be treated differently. And that is the beginning of the cycle that leads to persecution."
If Gary Cass is to be believed then there is only one conclusion to be drawn from recent well-publicised events in the Church: we are at the defamation stage of his three-steps-to-persecution! This in turn would be followed by the marginalisation stage which will inexorably lead to the persecution stage.
The pattern is so clear, the enemy has been unveiled! Makes you want to call a church-wide fast; call out the prayer warriors, begin a series of mountain-top events to cast out persecution demons. But just hang on a moment. Who is defaming whom?
When Ted Haggard finally confessed to homosexual liaison with a male escort and had not only to leave the ministry that he founded but also the leadership of the umbrella body of evangelicals, National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in November 2006; who defamed whom?
When charismatic televangelists Randy and Paula White recently separated after years of a troubled marriage; when Thomas W. Weeks punched up his televangelist wife Juanita Bynum at a hotel parking lo,t and subsequently had to split; who defamed whom?
Who defamed whom when three former professors, John Swails, Tim Brooker and Paulita Brooker filed a suit against Oral Roberts University (ORU), its president and three administrators in October, stating they were wrongfully terminated or forced to leave after bringing alleged school secrets to light. According to these insiders, they lost their jobs as retaliation for pointing out possible financial and ethical indiscretions on the part of school officials, including President Richard Roberts, son of founder Oral Roberts. Also named in the suit are Mark Lewandowski, provost; Jeff Ogle, associate provost; and Wendy Shirk, dean of the College of Arts.
Who defamed whom when, in spite of the grave allegations against him and a no-confidence vote among tenured staff of the ORU, our dear Richard Roberts implied that it took God Himself to get him to resign his exalted position. A report quoting him said it was God who sealed his decision to submit his resignation as president of the university…. “Every ounce of my flesh said ‘no’ to the idea,” Roberts said after weeks of allegations surrounding his mishandling of school finances. After praying about the decision with his wife, he felt God was insisting that he step down. Earlier he said God had told him to deny the allegations leveled against him. Upon his resignation, Roberts said, “For the first time in 60 days, peace came into my heart.” He also claimed God had promised “something supernatural for the university” if he stepped down...
Still on the ORU debacle, these two quotes from the Ministry Report magazine might help answer the question, who is defaming whom: “I'm sure there is corruption everywhere. But if you're holding students to such a high standard, making them sign an honor code and live by these strict principles, I expect the administration to be living an even stricter set of principles. To see something like this, it feels empty, like an elaborate masquerade party.” (Ben Conner, ORU freshman).
“There was a time when the wagons would circle and we'd protect our own. But we don't know what our own is anymore. People are asking questions and questioning answers, and we're not used to it.” (Carlton Pearson, former member of the ORU board of regents and current United Church of Christ minister).
Need I add more? The Gary Cass theory might have been useful in the days behind the iron curtain; today it is seductive deception. What we have on our hands is a call to self-cleansing. Paranoia won’t do it; large bunches of hyssop applied with sobriety and humility will.
First published in a Nigerian Daily, the Sunday Independent, published in Lagos Nigeria.
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