“Brian Tamaki is given up to $500,000 every year in donations from Destiny Church members on top of his six-figure salary, according to a former employee.
The 7000-strong congregation is encouraged to donate money in an annual “First Fruits” offering in an October service, which is gifted to the self-appointed bishop for his own use, rather than funding church activities.
The practice was first introduced to Destiny Church by a visiting American pastor and is based on Old Testament scripture, in which the people of Israel would give the first produce of the land each year to the priests to eat.
Church-goers would give between $350,000 and $500,000 to Bishop Tamaki in the “First Fruits” offering each year, says a former Destiny Church insider.
Lynda Stewart, a former financial administrator for Bishop Tamaki and his wife Hannah, was a member of Destiny for seven years but left after he was appointed as a bishop in 2005.
She told the Weekend Herald that the “First Fruits” donation was spoken about between American minister Michael Pitts and Bishop Tamaki privately before the idea was discussed with other Destiny pastors at the Tamaki family home.
Soon after, the congregation were encouraged to give personally to Bishop Tamaki which was justified with scripture, which Ms Stewart says was taken out of historical context.
“The Bible was being used to manipulate people to give money for his personal use to fund his flashy lifestyle,” said Ms Stewart. “And the people blindly accept what Brian says.”
Dr James Harding, a lecturer of theology at Otago University and a Christian, said the “First Fruits” offering was given in the Old Testament era because the Levite priests had no land to make a living from.
“[The offering] was to give them a living wage, so to speak, it was in that context. Quite a different context to Auckland in 2009,” said Dr Harding.
“It is somewhat of a strain, quite a stretch I think, to use passages from the Old Testament to justify this. I’d be very interested to hear how they justify it theologically.”
Destiny Church spokeswoman Janine Cardno was unable to send an email response to Weekend Herald questions, as the church computer system crashed.
Instead, she sent a text suggesting to read Bishop Tamaki’s autobiography to answer questions about the church and money.
Mrs Cardno did not reply to subsequent phone messages.
The “First Fruits” offering is donated by churchgoers on top of money given in tithes – 10 per cent of income – and other financial donations to help fund the church.
Bishop Tamaki’s six-figure salary is paid from church revenue, through the Destiny International Trust. He also receives revenue raised by the church’s Proton Bookstore – where his messages can be bought on CD or DVD for between $10 and $20 – and Proton Gym.
Bishop Tamaki and Hannah are the sole shareholders in the Proton Trustee Company Ltd. The couple are also shareholders in Tamaki Productions Ltd and Tamaki Investments Ltd.
They own a $1.2 million clifftop home with views of the Hauraki Gulf, which is now for sale, and a $100,000 boat and expensive cars and motorcycles. The Herald this week revealed that 700 male members of Destiny Church swore a “covenant oath”of loyalty and obedience to Bishop Tamaki at the church’s annual conference in Auckland last weekend.
The oath requires them to stand when Bishop Tamaki and Hannah enter a room; surprise the couple with gifts; and when dining with Bishop Tamaki start eating only after he has started. A church document titled “Protocols and Requirements Between Spiritual Father & His Spiritual Sons” encourages the men to tell others of their love for Bishop Tamaki.”
“In requiring its men to swear an oath of loyalty and obedience to Brian Tamaki, the Destiny Church – having glorified the messenger above the message – has begun to transform itself into a cult.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines a cult as “a system of religious devotion directed towards a particular figure or object” and “a relatively small religious group regarded by others as strange or as imposing excessive control over members”.
This self-glorifying rule-making, in which Mr Tamaki has obviously been aided and abetted by other Destiny leaders, makes, for instance, Catholics’ deference to, and reverence for, their spiritual father, the Pope, look positively casual.
But what bothers me most about all this is that those who prepared and published the document Protocols and Requirements Between Spiritual Father & His Spiritual Sons actually believe what they wrote.
And how 700 Kiwi men could accept this nonsense and swear lifetime fealty to a mere fallible mortal is quite beyond me. It reeks, if not of spiritual blackmail, then of a deep spiritual sickness.
Things like honour, loyalty and obedience have to be earned and freely given, not appropriated and imposed, and when they are imposed, particularly under oath, they are fragile indeed.
Another enigma in this business is that no mention is anywhere made of the women of the church, apart, of course, from Mr Tamaki’s wife, known as Pastor Hannah.
I presume that Mr Tamaki and his church leaders take literally the three-verse passage in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians which says: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church … Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.”
And that the wives and children of the “spiritual sons” simply do what their husbands and fathers tell them.
That brief passage of scripture has, of course, been used by churchmen to keep women in their place ever since the apostles were cold in their graves. But, as has been rightly said, a text taken out of context is a pretext.
Such religious totalitarianism is not new. There are many churches in the United States, and quite a few in New Zealand – particularly in Auckland – that are led by pastors who operate in similar dictatorial fashion. But most of them are not nearly so blatant about it.
The American evangelist Paul Mershon puts it much better than I could.
He writes: “The abuse and misuse of pastoral authority in the case of those requiring an oath of loyalty to any degree is wholly without merit, and beyond the scope of any and all scriptural mandate …
“Certainly we all want to, and should, support our pastor, but in no way does this imply that we are to blindly follow any man with unquestioned loyalty when it is Christ, and Christ alone, to whom total fealty belongs …
“[A pastor's] role is that of a humble servant of the Lord, ordained of God to serve his people as a sheep-feeding pastor, not a heavy-handed despot.”
Mr Mershon questions the practice of signing, or giving verbal affirmation to, some sort of “covenant” whereby followers pledge to be loyal to one leader all the days of their lives, and follow him no matter what.
History is littered with evidence of the tragic results that can come to people bound up in religious cultism.
To Destiny Church members I simply say: “Be very afraid.”
“KERRY O’BRIEN, PRESENTER: Cults are a social phenomenon, probably as old as religion itself. The perennial question remains: how do otherwise intelligent people let a charismatic guru control all aspects of their lives, sometimes with catastrophic results?
Now, two Australian brothers have written a rare insight into life on the inside and on the outside of an extreme religious cult where the members worshipped a woman who claimed she was god. Rebecca Baillie reports.
REBECCA BAILLIE, REPORTER: David and Margaret Ayliffe are people of faith. While they’re now parishioners at a mainstream Anglican church on the outskirts of Melbourne, for nearly two decades they were members of an extreme religious cult.
DAVID AYLIFFE, FORMER CULT MEMBER: It was horrible. I can understand, with the doomsday cults where people commit suicide because the leader says to do so.
MARGARET AYLIFFE, FORMER CULT MEMBER: We got into the habit of living a whacky kind of life. I think we were so young and naive, I don’t think the warning bells really rung loud enough for us to sort of really – to get out.
REBECCA BAILLIE: David and Margaret Ayliffe met in the early 1970s when they joined an Anglican church in Sydney’s Surry Hills. This church had been disowned by the Sydney Archdiocese because it regularly performed exorcisms.
MARGARET AYLIFFE: People were lying on the floor and sort of coughing up into little ice cream buckets.
DAVID AYLIFFE: And suddenly, you know, they start shaking or quivering, all kinds of things are happening, and you’re think to yourself, “There’s a power here at work, and that power is God.”
REBECCA BAILLIE: It was at that Surry Hills church that David and Margaret Ayliffe first encountered Violet Prior, who went from casting out demons to leading a group she named Zion Full Salvation Ministry.
DAVID AYLIFFE: She claimed in the latter part of 1976 that she had the stigmata. She had marks in her hands and in her feet.
REBECCA BAILLIE: By 1977, Violet Prior had convinced her followers that she was God.
DAVID AYLIFFE: You know, I should have known better. I should have had my eyes really opened. But by that stage, I’d accepted everything along the way. And, to me, this was just, you know, it was just the next step.
REBECCA BAILLIE: Violet Prior controlled every facet of her devotees’ lives, striking the fear of God into them if they tried to leave.
DAVID AYLIFFE: Violet would say, “If you leave me, I will kill you, and I will kill your wife and children first, and you will see them die agonising deaths before your eyes. And I can do that because I’m God.”
MARGARET AYLIFFE: It was a time when I had the melanoma and she told me to put a banana skin on it. Finally, though, when it was a bit bad, we actually got – we were very fortunate to get into a specialist very quickly, and I was lucky to escape with my life. I really am lucky to be alive.
DAVID MILLIKAN, UNITING CHURCH MINISTER: Oh, she was a fully blown cult leader. There’s no question of that. She had no conscience about basically destroying people.
REBECCA BAILLIE: Violet Prior became increasingly more deluded and reclusive. She fleeced her followers of all their money and set up an impenetrable fortress in Sydney’s exclusive Palm Beach.
DAVID MILLIKAN: A group becomes destructive when it takes on a posture of extreme hostility to the world outside its doors, when it isolates its members from family, friends and from the surrounding culture.
REBECCA BAILLIE: Only her closest disciples were permitted to visit the inner sanctum. David Ayliffe was one, and he visited this house up to three times a week. His wife Margaret only ever came here once, to cook for Violet Prior and to do her washing.
In 1989, Violet Prior was arrested and charged with fraud. When she appeared at Manly Local Court, David Ayliffe was at her side. The charges were dropped because it was impossible to either prove or disprove her outrageous claims. Two years later, David Ayliffe discovered Violet Prior’s body in her Palm Beach fortress.
DAVID AYLIFFE: Yeah, the witch was dead. It’s weird: I lay there at night listening for noise. And she was dead, for Heaven’s sake! You know, so, yeah.
REBECCA BAILLIE: What were you thinking she might do?
DAVID AYLIFFE: Well, I mean, if she was God, then, you know, she might have come back again, you know.
JOHN AYLIFFE, BROTHER: His mind had been taken over. As I said, it doesn’t start out as mind control, you know. Good people aren’t gonna let themselves be taken over just like that. It’s a creeping thing.
REBECCA BAILLIE: John Ayliffe had to wait two decades for his younger brother to come to his senses. They’re now reconciled, but at the time, as David and Margaret Ayliffe got more and more deeply committed to the cult and its leader, they cut off their friends and family on the outside.
JOHN AYLIFFE: I think everybody was pretty devastated. It’s a devastating thing, you know, to be shunned.
DAVID AYLIFFE: It was just so wrong, but the fear was so great, this is what I was called to do. Absurd, isn’t it?
DAVID MILLIKAN: People who join cults are strong, creative, well-educated, middle class people.
REBECCA BAILLIE: Reverend David Millikan has dedicated a quarter of a century to infiltrating, understanding and busting cults.
DAVID MILLIKAN: I see a lot of Christian groups, but I also see a lot of New Agey sort of groups that go off in all sorts of directions. Really, I’ve come to the view that there’s nothing so mad in this life that someone doesn’t believe in it.
ADRIAN NORMAN, FORMER CULT MEMBER: There is pressure to behave in a certain way and there is a leader, then very, very dangerous things can happen.
REBECCA BAILLIE: Adrian Norman joined what he describes as a self-development cult when he was 19 and stayed for seven years. He won’t publicly identify the group for fear of being sued, but insists it’s leaders brainwashed him and took his money.
ADRIAN NORMAN: There are activities that dampen down the ability to think critically, and at that point you enter into a trance. In that altered state of consciousness, new beliefs can be implanted.
REBECCA BAILLIE: Adrian Norman has made a documentary for high school children which warns of the dangers of groups that apparently offer its members the world.
ADRIAN NORMAN: It’s really about what you can do to find out about groups that seem to be offering something too good to be true. ‘Cause usually they are.
REBECCA BAILLIE: The Ayliffe brothers are now catching up on many lost years. They’ve written a book together about surviving life on the inside and the outside of a cult.
JOHN AYLIFFE: If you lose somebody to a destructive cult, there are three things to remember. The first one is: don’t fight them. The second one is: give them love. And the third one is: be patient.
REBECCA BAILLIE: For David and Margaret Ayliffe, theirs is a cautionary tale which has ultimately had a happy ending, but it’s cost them and their family 20 years of their lives.
MARGARET AYLIFFE: When you get a bit lovey dovey and starry-eyed, you don’t see a lot of things that you should really see.
DAVID AYLIFFE: Never, never, no matter where you are let somebody else take over your – your ability to make decisions. It doesn’t matter who it is. Because the moment you do that, you’re on very dangerous territory.”
“I want to inform you of issues that have become increasingly clear in recent days, which have left me personally devastated.
Mercy Ministries Inc. have informed us that they are ceasing operations in Australia.
Some of you are aware of Mercy Ministries, an organisation set up to rehabilitate and reach out to young women in need. It has come to my attention in recent days, that investigations into Mercy Ministries Inc. have been ongoing, over what is essentially unclear or misguided communication in relation to their funding and services.
In the past, Hillsong Church has supported Mercy Ministries through financial donations. A number of individuals involved with our church have also served on the board and/or staff of this ministry.
Unfortunately, we believe that in the case of Mercy Ministries, concern about the way they delivered their message and services has unfairly affected Hillsong Church by association.
It is not my place to defend or try to explain what Mercy Ministries has or hasn’t done. Hillsong has done nothing wrong. Hillsong is not under investigation, but a number of key people from Hillsong Church over the years, have been involved in Mercy Ministries.
It is wrong that anything Mercy Ministries may or may not have done could overshadow so much of what we as a church stand for: Loving God and Helping People.
To ensure that this does not happen again it is important that we take immediate action to protect the reputation of our church moving forward.
We will undertake an internal audit of Hillsong staff to identify what organisations or boards they are currently associated with.
From there, we will be strongly recommending that our executive level staff no longer participate on other not-for-profit boards.
We will also examine some future guidelines and boundaries for Hillsong staff in regards to their involvement in external boards.
It is so important that we continue to support and work in cooperation with organisations doing great things in our community and around the world.
Despite the numerous positive achievements of Mercy Ministries, Hillsong Church will no longer support, or be associated with this ministry.
Further, we sever any affiliation with Mercy Ministries internationally, and would not be associated with any attempt by Mercy Ministries Inc or Mercy Ministries Ltd, to recommence within Australia, under that or any other name.
We would encourage those, that any investigation involves, to cooperate fully.
We will continue to keep the church informed as to any new developments with this situation, and would ask you to continue to keep this in your prayers. - Brian Houston, Senior Pastor, Hillsong Church”
Perhaps the ‘internal audit’ could start with this hearty endorsement of Mercy Ministries and its leaders by Brian Houston at Hill$ong about 4 months after the scandal surfaced.
“Allegations of widespread abuse at Mercy Ministries group homes appear finally to have caught up with the fundamentalist Christian group, which has announced it will close its Sydney home on October 31, citing ”extreme financial challenges and a steady drop in our support base”.
”We are no longer financially viable,” reads a statement from Margaret Stunt, a former Hillsong Church staff member from London appointed as executive director of Mercy Ministries in April.
The announcement came less than a week after the group said it had completed extensive renovations to its Sydney home, including a new kitchen, carpets, light fittings, staircase and deck, painting and landscaping – all funded with donations totalling more than $100,000.
Given that the organisation will close, it is unclear who will benefit from the renovations. A staff member at Mercy Ministries said she was unable to comment.
Targeting girls and women aged 16 to 28, Mercy Ministries claimed – on its website and in promotional material distributed in Gloria Jeans cafes around the country – that its programs included support from ”psychologists, general practitioners, dietitians, social workers, [and] career counsellors”.
Instead, the program prevented the residents gaining access to psychiatric care, choosing to focus on prayer, Christian counselling and exorcisms to ”expel demons” from the young women, many of whom had serious psychiatric conditions such as bipolar disorder, anxiety and anorexia.
A Herald investigation last year revealed the women who entered the program were required to sign over their Centrelink benefits and were virtually cut off from the outside world, except for a weekly trip to the local Hillsong Church for worship.
At the time, Mercy Ministries’ then chief executive, Peter Irvine, was quick to dismiss their claims, implying that the victims of the group’s unorthodox and dangerous treatments were not telling the truth.
Since then Mr Irvine has sent an apology to the women featured in the Herald’s articles. ”I would like to apologise for the statements that I made to the press in March 2008. I did not accurately reflect the situation and I regret my comments,” he wrote.
News of the closure was greeted with relief by its former victims, who cautioned that the group was still operating in New Zealand, the US and Britain.
”It is amazing that our little voices speaking out could make a dent against organisations as big as … Mercy Ministries,” said Naomi Johnson, one of the women who blew the whistle on the abuse.
”After all the lies they told about us, this is what we hoped – that Mercy Ministries would be closed so that other girls would not get hurt.”
In June last year, Mercy Ministries announced it had closed its Sunshine Coast home ”due to strategic and resourcing issues”.
Hillsong Church was quick to distance itself from the organisation it had supported – both financially and with key staff and executive officers – since its inception in 2001. ”Hillsong Church has cut ties with Mercy Ministries around the world following an [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] investigation into Mercy Ministries,” said a statement released by the church last night.
A spokeswoman for the ACCC, one of the many investigatory bodies to which the women complained, would not comment or confirm an investigation had taken place.”
“It is with deep regret and sadness we have to inform you that Mercy Ministries in Australia is no longer in operation. Due to internal circumstances and challenges, Mercy Ministries Incorporated will be dissolved as an entity. We have encountered extreme financial challenges and a steady drop in our support base to the point where we are no longer financially viable. Mercy Ministries has been proud to serve the young women of Australia for nine years and to help hundreds of young women find freedom from life controlling issues. Mercy Ministries is grateful to the many individuals, businesses, and churches who have sacrificed and given over the years to make this program possible.
“A major fraud in the handling of overseas aid that came for tsunami relief to the Church of South India (CSI) has been unearthed with the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Chennai police arresting two relatives of a former CSI general secretary, who has been accused of misappropriating Rs 7.5 crore funds.
The charge is that CSI former general secretary, Dr Pauline Sathiamurthy, had siphoned off Rs 7.5 crore aid from the Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), a US-based NGO, along with her husband Sathiyamurthy, daughter Benatikta and a relative Robert Sunil.
Police arrested Benatikta and Robert Sunil and seized a Ford Endeavour car from the duo, but Pauline Sathiamurthy and her husband Sathiamurthy are absconding. The arrested persons have been remanded and lodged in the Puzhal prison.
CCB started investigations on the basis of a complaint from the present CSI general secretary Rev Moses Jayakumar, and found that Pauline Sathiamurthy had appointed his daughter Dr Benatikta as officer in-charge of medical project and her relative Robert Sunil as liaison officer for Tsunami rehabilitation work carried out with the fund and paid a hefty salary of Rs 65,000 per month for the former and Rs 89,000 for the latter.
Her husband Sathiamurthy was also appointed as in-charge of housing project and he also received a hefty salary, said G Dilli Babu, investigating officer of the case. ERD allocated a total of Rs 17.63 crore as tsunami relief fund for rehabilitating victims by constructing houses, buying them boats, fishing nets and medical facilities in 2005.
The fund was allocated to 22 dioceses of the CSI in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh. When Jayakumar took charge as new general secretary of the CSI in 2007, the ERD asked for the account details and the scandal came to light.
Jayakumar formed a one-member enquiry committee under retired High Court Judge Kanagaraj and asked the former general secretary of CSI to submit the accounts. But she failed to submit the account. Moses Jayakumar then lodged a police complaint in December 2008….”
“A Vancouver church is stepping in to host a workshop by an Australian right-to-die doctor after the city’s public library cancelled the event over legal concerns.
Rev. Steven Epperson of the Unitarian Church of Vancouver said he believes Dr. Philip Nitschke, director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International, has the right to free speech, even if he’s telling people how to kill themselves.
“Historically, we have provided a forum, a space, for controversial, difficult ideas to be presented,” Epperson told the Vancouver Province.
Almost 40 years ago, Greenpeace held its inaugural meeting at the church, which is in its centenary year. And the church has a long tradition of allowing women and gays to speak out in their space.
“It does not mean, in any way, endorsement. We are not endorsing Exit International. We’re not necessarily endorsing their outlook, their philosophy,” he said.
Up to 100 people are expected for the Nov. 4 meeting and workshop, which will be held in two parts.
The first is a public discussion on the pro-euthanasia movement, and the second is a private presentation to over-55s outlining methods of committing suicide.
The event had been set for Sept. 10 at the main downtown library, but head librarian Paul Whitney said lawyers warned it could open up civil and criminal liability.
It’s a crime in Canada to counsel, aid or abet someone to commit suicide. Anyone who does so can face a 14-year jail sentence.
“This could well constitute an offence under the Criminal Code,” Whitney told the Province. “The issue is about aiding people to commit suicide.”
The library could also be sued by the family of a person who killed himself using information from the event.
Whitney said the library would have no problem hosting a general discussion on euthanasia, or stocking Nitschke’s book, The Peaceful Pill Handbook.
But for civil-liberties and right-to-die campaigners, that’s not enough.
“We were disappointed that they weren’t willing to push the envelope,” said David Eby, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, which tried unsuccessfully to get the ban lifted.
“Usually, librarians are our closest allies in this free-speech debate.”
The Unitarians don’t expect any legal fallout.
“I’m extremely doubtful the police are going to show up at this workshop and either shut it down or arrest everybody,” said Eby.
“It’s hard for me to imagine what the risks would be to the library. The risk of liability is so small.”
Eby also wants the library’s legal opinions released — Whitney says they’re confidential — to get libraries absolved from future liability.
Ruth von Fuchs, president of the Right To Die Association of Canada, figures the library buckled under the legal pressure.
“They got a legal opinion that buttressed the fears of whoever asked for the legal opinion,” she said. “Somebody wants to be frightened, so they oblige.”
It won’t stop people from attending the information workshop, because people want to know how to kill themselves, von Fuchs said.
“Information gets filed away, and used when the need arises. A lot of people are just trying to get prepared to do it without a doctor. There’s a tradition of learning how to take care of yourself, and this is what this is all about.”
Nitschke, 62, who carried out the world’s first legal assisted suicides in the 1990s, has held similar workshops in Australia, New Zealand, China and the U.K.
This year, a library in Cairns, Australia, cancelled his event. In July, a New Zealand church did the same.
Vancouver is the first date on his North American tour.
“We’re very disappointed about it,” Nitschke told The Age, an Australian newspaper.
“It’s a library. We can’t understand why they’re quite happy to have our book in their library, but we’re not allowed to talk about it.”
“Not only has the global financial crisis torn a hole in the finances of Australia’s wealthiest Anglican diocese: it has been burnt by a residential property development next to the home of the Archbishop of Sydney.
Against protests by locals, the church built a six-level, 10-apartment block with basement parking for 25 cars next door to its historic Darling Point estate of Bishopscourt.
The sale of the apartments, originally priced at between $2.5 million and $2.9 million, was an important part of the diocese’s property strategy. Proceeds were to be used by the Endowment of the See, the fund that supports the Archbishop and his five bishops.
Two years later only six apartments have been sold and the church has kept one and leased out the rest until market conditions improve. The land for the Greenoaks apartments was owned by the Anglican Church Property Trust, and the Glebe Administration Board, the diocese’s investment arm responsible for $160 million in sharemarket losses, was the development manager, borrowing to finance the project.
Greenoaks was designed by Architectus, which also worked on the Chifley Tower. The interior design was completed by Collins Vergnaud, which had worked for Hilton International and the Royal Sydney Golf Club.
All apartments boasted views and substantial balconies.
Unable to sell all the apartments, the church sold the four-bedroom home of the Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, and his wife Margaret, at 33 Fairfax Road, Bellevue Hill, for $3 million earlier this year.
In a report to the church synod this week, the church executive has confirmed that it was able to reduce borrowings by selling the house and other units in its property portfolio. Borrowings had fallen from $8 million in December 2008 to $1 million .
”It was a genuine case that these apartments came on line when the froth had gone out of the market,” Bishop Forsyth said. ”When it became clear that the archbishop had reduced income we all got smaller cars and Margaret and I thought, ‘why don’t we move’, since the apartment sales were moving slowly and so we offered to – there was no compulsion – to help reduce the exposure because they’d borrowed for the development and we were very happy to do so.”
Once the property market recovers, proceeds from the rest of the apartments will be allocated to help pay for restoration work in the archbishop’s residence, Bishopscourt.
Lane Brazel, of Ray White Real Estate in Double Bay, said the apartments had come on the market when the ”global financial crisis took hold”.
”We certainly had a lot of interest and offers but not at the level the church could make a profit or even break even.”
She did not expect a rebound in the top end of the market in the next 12 months.”
“Rocco Di Stefano, a former Pentecostal Church pastor, will be fined $414,000 on Nov. 2 for having illegally sold debt securities and illegally acted as a broker, the Autorité des marchés financiers said Friday – plus another $441,000 for two other pursuits pending for the same infractions.
Di Stefano pleaded guilty on 46 counts, 23 counts of having sold investments varying between $10,000 and $100,000, and 23 counts of having unlawfully acted a a licenced broker.
Most, if not all, of his victims – including a second cousin – were small investors in Montreal’s Italian community, where he was at one time an evangelical pastor.
On Oct. 5, Quebec Court judge Gilles Garneau fined Di Stefano $414,000 for those 46 counts in connection with three former companies, Zema Finances Inc., Vision Management Services Ltd. and Eurovision Financial Services Ltd.
AMF spokesperson Sylvain Théberge said that the $414,000 ruling against the former insurance broker is three times the minimal amount required by law.
A partial list of losses show that 15 Di Stefano clients lost about $1.5 million, or an average of $100,000 per person.
In 2007, the Bureau de décision et de révision en valeurs mobilières said it was “particularly worried about allegations that Mr. Di Stefano used his notoriety as a former pastor to solicit his investors, made illegal investments and acted illegally as a securities broker.”
He is barred from acting as an investment adviser, and Théberge said that “serious and sustained efforts” will be made to determine whether he has any funds available in any account.
The AMF has already disbursed $110,000 to three defrauded investors from its guaranteed fund for such scams, he said. Any money found in accounts held by Di Stefano would be doled out to investors on a pro rata basis.
Two other cases were filed last March for similar infractions in connection with two companies, Zema Finances Inc. and Sodexin.
The AMF reminded Quebecers to verify the credentials of anyone proposing investments, “even when it’s a relative.”
But Théberge denied the suggestion that the AMF has become more severe and vigilant since the two egregious recent fraud cases involving Vincent Lacroix and Earl Jones.
“This is due to tightening up of Quebec legislation on securities laws in 2007,” he said, including granting a court-appointed collector the power to search a defendant’s accounts – and failing that, of sentencing him to do community service, or go to jail.”
“Miraculous cures for cancer and AIDS, people in wheelchairs getting up and dancing. It’s business as usual for Benny Hinn, perhaps the world’s most famous, successful and controversial televangelist. Hinn is a faith-healer who almost never grants interviews — until now.
“I’ll try to explain it to you,” said Hinn in a wide-ranging interview with ABC’s “Nightline.” “The anointing, which is God’s power, comes on me. … I can actually feel it. And people start getting healed. ‘From the cancer, the pain is gone. … I was sitting on my wheelchair and I can walk now,’ such things like that.”
Hinn took questions about disillusioned followers and about the U.S. senator who is investigating him. The questions clearly dismayed Hinn’s handlers.
He was born Toukif Benedictus Hinn to a Greek Orthodox Christian family living in Israel. As a child, he moved with his family to Canada, where he became an extremely devout evangelical. In his 20’s, Hinn moved to Florida, where he married a preacher’s daughter — and then went into the family business.
Hinn said he realized early on that something extraordinary was happening.
“In fact, I was shocked, really I was, when people came up to me claiming they were healed back in the 70s,” he said. “And the crowds grew. Uh to, goodness, we would have 2,000 or 3,000 show up on Monday nights. And then the word spread.”
Hinn’s ministry exploded. Within a few years, he was traveling the world, preaching to millions of people. In the early ’90s, he started a television show, which now airs in more than 200 countries. Along the way, he has made a series of truly extraordinary claims.
In one video clip on YouTube, he said he had seen a dead man resurrected.
“Well, Ghana. It was in Akra, Ghana,” Hinn explained to “Nightline.” “I didn’t exactly … I had no proof he was dead. That’s what they told me. They laid him on the platform, and at one point he got up. But that’s not the question, the question is, can God raise the dead? Yes or no? And the answer is yes. He has. It’s in the Bible, so if God did it then, why shouldn’t he do it today?”
Benny Hinn now controls an empire. His ministry collects an estimated $100 million a year in donations from people whom Hinn has convinced that God heals through him.
“Nightline” asked Hinn directly if he isn’t taking advantage of people who are profoundly religious, and vulnerable because they’re in physical pain, for his own personal enrichment.
“I’m glad you’re asking,” Hinn said. “Let me tell you something. I would not do this for money. If people think I would do this for money, after all the misery I’ve had to go through…”
“What misery?” I asked Hinn.
“Oh dear God, what misery? You name it. You’re a human being like me, how would you like to be called all those names. Who wants that? What you’re asking is am I using the so-called lie, that healings really happen so I can make money?
“Of course not. You cannot fool all the people all the time, right? … “I will tell you this. I think that if I was fooling the people over 35 years of it now, I would be caught already fooling them.”
Hinn admits he doesn’t have medical verification of any of the healings. In fact, some of his supposed healings have turned out not to have been real.
At a 2001 Hinn crusade, William Vandenkolk, a 9-year-old with damaged vision, claimed that his eyesight had been restored.
Vandenkolk is now 17 — and he’s still legally blind. His uncle and legal guardian, Randy Melthratter, said that after the crusade no one from the ministry followed up to see how the 9-year-old was doing.
“I said, ‘Will, honey, does it still seem like your eyes are getting better? Is it getting better? Do you notice anything better at all?’ And he just kind of cocked his head to the side and said ‘I think God’s just taking a break,’” Melthratter said. “And that just tore, that just hurt. That hurt a lot … a little boy making excuses for God.”
“I got caught up in the moment,” Vandenkolk says now. “Being as young as I was, thinking this could actually be possible. … I just started feeling sad a little upset that this really didn’t happen.”
Hinn was at a loss.
“These are things that I cannot explain because I am not the healer,” Hinn said. “I am human like you. I make mistakes like anybody else.”
Hinn’s answer is that God heals people in their seats, and that he, Hinn, is not responsible for what people claim once they get onstage.
“Over the years, there’s been some cases where people did come up who said they were healed, but really they were not healed,” Hinn said. “I do believe it’s possible for individuals to mentally convince themselves they are, but that does not deny the real healings. That doesn’t dismiss the fact that a lot of people are really cured.”
Hinn Ministries told “Nightline” that they set up an account in Vandenkolk’s name that now holds more than $15,000, to provide for his “education and health.”
Hinn may be more confident than the team that surrounds him. Over the course of the “Nightline” interview with Hinn, his publicist started to interrupt, angrily.
The atmosphere got charged when talk turned to an ongoing probe of Hinn by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Two years ago, Grassley launched an investigation into six major televangelists, including Hinn. Grassley is asking whether Hinn and his colleagues are using tax-free donations from believers to fund lavish lifestyles.
Hinn, for example, flies on a private jet and has lived in a beautiful home on the Pacific Ocean.
Hinn had never before granted an interview on the topic of the investigation.
He said he was “absolutely” confident that he is using the money appropriately.
In response to criticism that he leads a lavish lifestyle, Hinn said, “it’s always been that by the way. That criticism is nothing new.”
He flies in a private plane, stays in fancy hotels, wears nice clothes and jewelry. Does he not have any misgivings about that?
“No. Look, you know there’s this idea supposedly that we preachers are supposed to walk about with sandals and ride bicycles. That’s nonsense.”
Jesus Christ may have lived in poverty, but Benny Hinn makes no apologies for living large.
“I mean look, every man of God that I know today has a nice house,” Hinn said. “And they drive cars, and they have BlackBerrys or iPhones or whatever. It’s what we need today to simply exist. … Absolutely I need a private plane. For the ministry it’s a necessity, not a luxury. … It’s a necessity for me to have my own private plane to fly so I can go and do what God called me to do around the world. If I should fly commercial I would wear out. With my schedule? It would be madness.”
What is his salary? I asked.
“I’m not gonna give you the exact amount, but it’s, uh, over a half-million.”
Hinn said he’d like to cut his salary to zero.
“Let me just tell you this, my aim in life is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, that’s all I care about,” said Hinn. “And if somebody comes along, or if there’s a way where I can be completely taken care of financially, I won’t let the ministry pay me a cent. I’ll make you a deal. Right here on camera. Let ‘em all see me do this with you. If somebody comes along and says, ‘OK Benny Hinn, I’m gonna help you financially so you can pay your own bills,’ or if I can do it on my own and get a job and do something on the side like I’m doing now, it would be a pleasure.”
“Nightline” asked Hinn whether he ever had moments, when people are writing out checks to him or filling out cards with their credit card information, that he thinks the people can’t afford it, they’re doing it because they’re desperate and that he shouldn’t take this money.
“If I was fake I would absolutely give them back their money,” said Hinn, “but I believe that God called me to preach the gospel which is very important.”
Grassley’s office said that Hinn has cooperated fully with the investigation into whether Hinn and other televangelist are using the tax-free donations they collect appropriately. The senator has not yet released the results of his investigation.
“The senator himself says we gave them more information than he thought we would,” said Hinn. But when “Nightline” asked for the same information, Hinn said the ministry could not turn it over because “we have an agreement with the senator to keep things confidential.” After the interview, Grassley’s office told ABC News that Hinn is free to release any information he wants. But the ministry said it didn’t have time to edit out personal information from its donors in time for “Nightline”’s broadcast. And therefore the ministry turned over nothing.
But Hinn said he was glad to get the chance to answer his skeptics.
“The questions [you] asked me, I’ve wanted someone to ask me for the last 20 years of my life,” Hinn told me. “I think what this man did is fantastic and thank you for doing it. No, really, I’m very pleased. … because it’s time for me to tell it all. I don’t want people talking for me. I want to talk for myself.”
“A drag show to help raise money to fight cancer is also raising eyebrows in the Mingo County community of Kermit.
Some churches are planning a spiritual protest — trying to stop some real divas from strutting their stuff, even though it’s for a good cause.
On Saturday night, female impersonator Lark Muncy will be in drag to help find a cure. He and his friends plan to hold a drag show — a first for the town of Kermit.
“I’ve had threats,” Muncy said. “People said they would beat me. Why do it? Because I believe in the cause.”
Muncy said he and three friends were asked to perform, and his mother Phyllis Messer supports his decision to entertain in his hometown, although she said she fears for her son’s safety.
Members of a Kermit area church and five others around town have planned a spiritual protest at the Kermit Community Center the night before the drag show.
“In my opinion, it’s dangerous,” said Charles Parseley, pastor of Jesus Name Tabernacle. “They might recruit others.”
Muncy and his family say they hope Saturday night is peaceful as they raise money for a cure.
Parseley said his church members haven’t issued any threats to Muncy or his friends, and he said his spiritual protest the night before the drag show will be peaceful.
There’s word, however, of another unrelated protest outside the Kermit Community Center as the drag show kicks off at 8 p.m. Saturday. All proceeds will go toward cancer research.”
“A federal grand jury has indicted a Kansas City man, alleging that he set fire to a Leavenworth church where he worked as music director.
His intent, the indictment said, was to collect insurance money for inflated repair bills.
The grand jury indicted Carva Lee White, 45, on three counts of mail fraud, two counts of using arson to commit a federal felony and one count of making a false statement to a federal investigator, authorities said.
The indictment, unsealed Friday, accused White of setting fires to the Sunflower Missionary Baptist Church while he worked as the church’s music director.
It was unclear whether White remains employed by the church. Officials at the church could not be reached for comment.
White is accused of setting fire to the church twice, on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31 last year. He had planned to persuade the pastor to file an insurance claim, collect the money, help inflate the repair bill and then embezzle the money, according to the indictment.
Later on Oct. 31, the church’s pastor left a phone message at the Church Mutual Insurance Co. in Merrill, Wis., in order to make a claim. The insurance company paid out about $109,000, according to the indictment.
The pastor was not charged in the indictment, and the indictment did not indicate whether White actually pocketed any money.
Federal authorities said White lied when he told them that he was in Fayetteville, Ark., at the time of the arson and told authorities he couldn’t imagine anyone torching the church.”
“The new wife of former Lakeland Revival leader Todd Bentley said she believes it was wrong to begin a relationship with the evangelist before his divorce was final.
In an interview with MorningStar Ministries founder Rick Joyner, who is overseeing Bentley’s restoration process, Jessa Bentley said her relationship with Todd Bentley began after he filed for divorce from his first wife, Shonnah. But she now believes they should have waited six months to a year after the divorce was final before beginning a relationship.
“Even though Todd was getting a divorce and Todd was already separated, it was still wrong for us to have anything romantic, regardless if anything physical happened or not,” Jessa Bentley said. “Even that emotional line that we crossed, I think is wrong. I think it was a sin. I think it was a mistake. I think we missed it.”
She said she doesn’t regret marrying Bentley, but repented for “being deceived” and “allowing things to happen that shouldn’t have happened.”
“We hurt a lot of people,” she said. “For that, there’s nothing we could say to take that away or to make it right or justify it. It was wrong, and it was sin. … We made a huge mess. I want to apologize, I want to repent for that.” (Watch video.)
Joyner’s interview is the latest in a series of videos he has created to update the public on Todd Bentley’s restoration process, which he has been overseeing since March. After leading popular revival meetings in Lakeland, Fla., for nearly four months, Bentley suddenly stepped down in August 2008 after announcing that he and his wife, Shonnah, were separating.
At the time, leaders of what is now known as Transform International, which is no longer affiliated with Bentley, expressed concern about the evangelist’s relationship with Jessa as well as his alcohol consumption, which a senior board member said had “crossed the line.”
Jessa Bentley, 26, said she met Todd Bentley, 33, two years ago when he visited California to lead a conference. She and other church members struck up a friendship with the evangelist, and a year later she moved to Canada, where Bentley’s Fresh Fire Ministries was based, to participate in their internship program.
After the Lakeland Revival began, she moved to Florida and helped Bentley’s first wife, Shonnah, with the couple’s three children. She later became part of the ministry’s staff.
Jessa said Fresh Fire staff knew Todd and Shonnah Bentley were having marital difficulties. But the problems grew worse after the revival began, and the couple eventually separated.
“When [the marriage] broke, he broke,” Jessa Bentley said. “He crumbled and fell apart.”
She said church and Fresh Fire leaders largely weren’t available when Todd needed someone to talk with, so he began confiding in a small group of ministry staff. Because she was often the only woman in the group, she would comfort him when he cried.
“He was crying a lot and weeping and crying out to God and praying,” she said. “And when there was a group of us, there were a lot of guys, so not a lot of them would be there to comfort him in the way that he needed.”
“I did hold him when he cried [when] there were other people there,” she continued. “No one else knew what to do. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t just going to walk away from that. There was no one there for him, really, except for the few of us.”
She said their relationship was sparked through those times but formally began after the Bentleys separated. Bentley married Jessa earlier this year.
Jessa Bentley said she believes she was deceived part of the time. “I did make up excuses,” she said. “I did try to justify it. I did try to say that this was right. But in hindsight, looking back, I realize, it was wrong-period.”
She said the couple wants to make things right, but they believe they will have to pay a price for their mistakes. “There are consequences we’re walking out, and there are going to be consequences that we’re going to have to live with, a price that we have to pay for the rest of our lives because now we’re married, and because we made mistakes, we created sins,” Jessa Bentley said.
Todd Bentley said Jessa did not break up his first marriage, but that their relationship “shouldn’t have happened the way it happened.”
He said he and Jessa are not trying to justify their actions. “I’m going to have to bear something the rest of my life, Jessa and I together are bearing something,” he said. “And that’s difficult. It’s cost me my family, ministry, reputation. And nobody did that to me. No anybody in Canada, not a leader. Me. My sin cost me. … But God’s grace, goodness and mercy far outweighs.”
Joyner said the Bentleys’ situation has been challenging to him personally, but believes Christians “need to find God’s grace and His purpose now.”
“If we want to receive God’s mercy ourselves we have to learn to sow mercy,” he said. “If we want to receive His grace, we have to learn to sow grace.”
Likening the Bentleys to the biblical King David, Joyner said Israel may have followed Absalom after David committed adultery with Bathsheba because they thought God could no longer be with him after what he did.
“But God was still with David,” Joyner said. “And I think there’s something in the lesson, in the challenges, of this situation. Nobody’s being challenged more than Jessa and Todd in this situation and will be from now on. But they’re overcoming it. And I believe the body of Christ is overcoming too.”
Bentley continues to minister through Fresh Fire USA Ministries based in Pineville, N.C.”
“The Sydney diocese of the Anglican Church is fighting for survival after a catastrophic loss of $160 million on its once bountiful share portfolio.
The $160m included about $120m lost when the church cashed out of its investments at the bottom of the market.
The diocese at one point had $200m invested in shares, with a ban on shares in tobacco or gambling products. The portfolio is now estimated at $44m.
In his annual address to the Sydney synod yesterday, Archbishop Peter Jensen acknowledged the scale of the problem, saying the church was “up against a large challenge and there is no guarantee whatever that we will survive except as a small but wealthy cult”.
“The cultural mood is not flowing with us,” he said. “Immigrant numbers are not in our favour.”
Dr Jensen said he had been asking himself what God was saying “to us, as a diocese, through these large losses? Are there signs of the times for us here?”
He wondered whether the faithful were being punished for unethical behaviour, including the gearing of their investments, or being rebuked for their arrogance in betting the endowment, or was God punishing their bishops for going to GAFCON (the global Anglican future meetings in Jerusalem, that declared that the Archbishop of Canterbury was wrong on gay priests).
“I have been thinking about these legitimate questions,” Dr Jensen said. “Can we read the mind of God from such events?”
If so, the message is not good: the losses, which total 60 per cent of the church’s endowment, will mean that five bishops will become four; all five archdeacons will be sacked; church programs will get the chop; and renovations to Sydney’s St Andrew’s Cathedral will be put on hold. In addition, the church will have to reorganise itself into a mission-style organisation with local leadership encouraged to more self-sufficiency.
The archbishop said it was not until last November that he “got the inkling of the magnitude of what had happened to our investments as they became exposed to the global financial crisis.
“Each successive month seemed to bring worse news,” he said.
“It has taken a long time to grasp, and begin to see the implications of it.”
He had reacted, he said, with disbelief, because he believed the church had been “careful and professional in our handling of our endowment”.
He felt responsible because it had “occurred on my watch and in part with funds in which I have a special interest”.
He wondered, too, whether the church had engaged in “ethically dubious practices” by gearing the endowment. However, after an “argument with himself” he concluded it had not.
He also felt grief “as the impact of these losses … on the jobs and personal lives of friends and colleagues has become clear”. Dr Jensen said the “move from five bishops and five archdeacons down to four bishops has not been without its anguish”.
On the question of what God had to do with it, he said: “It may be that he is chastising us for our sins. If so, it is only a further evidence of his fatherly love and care.”
Those who follow God cannot expect that “we would never suffer loss”.
In any case, Dr Jensen said he was not sure “that God is directly speaking to us through these large losses. When we ask what God may be teaching us, we can think of a number of reasons, and all of them may be quite wrong.
“It may not be our sins at all. Perhaps he is challenging our faith to rely on him more boldly for our finances.”
But, Dr Jensen said, the financial crisis had forced the church to “invent a good idea” of dividing Sydney into about 20 mission areas to “gather in the harvest”.
“…I went up Mt Ainslie to see the result of Danny Nalliah’s call to an “offensive spiritual warfare attack” against the witches who are having an influence over federal parliament.
It was an interesting experience, and a confronting one also, with my emotions being dragged all over the place. I went up the mountain praying for protection, because I didn’t know what was going to happen there. Danny and his team were mounting a spiritual attack against witches’ covens, so to me it was a possibility that that could cause some spiritual retaliation. So I went up being aware of this, but knowing I had to discover more about what Danny is doing and what’s behind it. (As an aside, an interesting situation with Christians mounting the spiritual attack – where are we called to go looking for trouble?).
When I got up there I found a large group of people gathered together at the highest point of the mountain. There were flags waving, horns blowing, drums sounding, and people praising, yelling in tongues and shouting words from the Bible.
There were also many people who were there to spectate (like me) or protest. Protesters were flying gay pride flags and banners, and in some cases trying to speak back in tongues to Danny and his team. Later on there was almost nudity, and they were laughing, watching, wondering and talking, but most of all they were enjoying it – this was their Saturday afternoon entertainment, watching the Christians make a fool of themselves.
At this point I started to get angry. The cause that I have given my life for was being turned into a show – into a ritual, a laughing stock. What was going through the minds of the spectators and protesters? “If this is what God does to people, I don’t want a bar of it, but it’s certainly quite amusing!”
Is this our response to a loving and just God, who put his Son through hell just so he could be with us for eternity? Is he calling us to make Him look like a fool so that those who don’t know Him – those who he created in his image, loves deeply, and desperately wants to be in communion with – decide they don’t want a bar of Him?
As Francis Chan puts it, “it’s crazy if you think about it. The God of the universe – the creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and e-minor – loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss.”
Francis continues, this from the blurb of his book Crazy Love: “Whether we’ve verbalised it yet or not… we all know something’s wrong.”
As teachers and leaders we are called to higher account (James 3:1) and that is why I’m not simply going to avoid speaking out about Danny directly. Danny’s supporters have said to me that they don’t like it how so many church leaders are against him. But when misinformation is being spread, and when people like Danny (who should know better) are encouraging Christians (who are leaving their brains at the door and blindly following anyone who is available), there needs to be speaking out against him.
People have said to me “Yeah, I heard about the Mt Ainslie prayer – what do you think about it?”. That is why I write this post. To give a public view on the issue. The people who asked me that were probably looking for an opinion to latch on to. Don’t do that, please. Take what I’ve said, take what others are saying, and use your brain to figure out what the answer is.
I spoke to Jason Golden, Danny’s right-hand-man, to find out whether what they were doing up there was considered successful. After hearing him talk, I think his heart is true. He honestly wants to see salvation come to people who don’t realise it’s there for them. He honestly wants to tell the world about the joy he has found since being saved from his own background of drinking, parties, drugs and sex.
But the problem is, although his heart may be in the right place, his head isn’t. And it’s a problem that many Christians have. It’s the “leaving the brain at the door of the church” syndrome. We’re happy to separate the physical from the spiritual, and elevate spiritual things to a whole new level because we believe it will stand up for itself there. Thoughts like “it’s spiritual warfare”, “we’re doing God’s work”, “the Holy Spirit will save them”, etc. etc. make the “head” part of the outpouring of our hearts completely redundant. We leave our brains and expect God to do the work.
Jason yells words from the Bible through a micro-megaphone and prays loudly in tongues for the salvation of the people protesting around him. I think he does deeply love these people and long for them to see the truth he proclaims. What Jason is doing seems ok to him because he knows where his heart is.
But let’s switch the camera angle around to these other people for a moment – the people Jason is praying for. The people holding up signs saying ‘keep religion out of politics’ and ‘I love my gay sister’. Their view of Jason is slightly different to his view of himself. To them, he looks like a crazy religious lunatic, drunk on the power that he gets from being closely associated with Danny and being allowed to use Danny’s micro-megaphone. He yells words from an out-of-date book that simply don’t make sense here and now. He’s talking about Israel, about it being God’s chosen land, yet here we are in Australia – never haven being to Israel and knowing only about the modern day turmoil there through the media.
Jason yells out babble – “la la la, uh la la la, ooh la” – which doesn’t mean a thing to these people. He’s crazy, he’s deluded, he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing and they’re having an entertaining afternoon watching him. At the same time though, they’re saying to each other “what I just don’t get, is how he honestly believes he’s right – it just doesn’t make sense”. They’re still questioning. Not dismissing completely, but certainly not anywhere near thinking that these people are normal.
Unfortunately, there are still Christians who are blindly following Danny, Jason and their team. I saw five Christians who I know personally on top of the mountain yesterday, and they were loyal followers uninterested in considering any other options.
Although I haven’t been able to confirm this on the Internet, a source which I consider credible tells me that Danny Nalliah is no longer a pastor – he has been kicked out of the AOG church and is now simply a self proclaimed pastor and nothing else. There were other things about Danny that this source couldn’t tell me – apart from urging me to be very careful about him. Why are so many following him without asking questions?
I spoke to a pagan, some atheists and an agnostic on top of the mountain. They were especially friendly people – in fact all of them had approached me just to say hi or ask what I was doing with my camera and voice recorder. They weren’t trying to “convert” me, but simply wanted to enjoy a good chat. They said that they feel they know the Bible better than most Christians (and unfortunately, I agree with them). After introducing myself to Dave Garland, president of the Pagan Awareness Network and explaining that although I was a Christian, I don’t follow Danny Nalliah, he said “well, I’m from the other side, but you and I agree about Danny Nalliah!”. I felt more comfortable with the ‘other side’ up there than those who I am supposedly on the same side as!
Now, don’t get me wrong: I am a Christian, I love Jesus, I believe that I am a sinner and having accepted His sacrificial gift of salvation I know I am not going to be eternally punished for everything I have done wrong. I accept God’s grace and want desperately to love and live like Jesus lived. I want to see God’s Kingdom brought to Earth in all ways that it can and see people all over the world – including pagans, atheists and agnostics – explore the claims of Jesus, become aware of the presence of God, understand his story of the world, and ultimately have the courage to put their faith in Christ.
But I know that to achieve that, Christ followers have to actually be a bunch worth being a part of. We have to accept other people, and be willing to be their friend. Not to “convert” them, but because we genuinely want to be in community and friendship with those around us.
I’d encourage Christians to look into this more. Go to the next pagan full moon ritual. It’s on November 3. I’ll be there. These people are friendly and welcoming. They’re people, just like you and me, and I want to know more about them. Not because I want to believe what they believe, but because they’re people made in God’s image who God loves and in who I may well find great friends. Through relationship with them, and deep conversing over our views of the world, if they come to agree with who I say Jesus is – then fantastic.
Remember, don’t let your devotion to Christianity make you too different from the world [edit] unaware of what’s going on in the world around you[/edit]. Don’t let it blind you into being so weird that people don’t want to know you. Love others, and spend your time on things that are worthwhile – that bring change and good to the world, not that divide it.”
“Scott Stone doesn’t remember the night he fell from the hands of a mosh-pit throng at a Seattle rock concert, but he bears its mark: a crescent-shaped scar that starts at his temple and disappears in his buzz-cut brown hair.
Stone had gone to see an all-ages show by the California band Rage Against the Machine. Leaving his seat to join the fans packed in front of the stage, the then 14-year-old suddenly found himself hoisted up in the arms of strangers, being passed back, over the heads of other concertgoers, until there was no one left to catch him. His fall to Mercer Arena’s cement floor left him with permanent brain damage.
Stone’s parents reached an out-of-court settlement last month with the band, city, concert promoter and security company contracted for the September 1996 event. The city’s share of the settlement, covered under the security company’s insurance policy, was $400,000, according to an assistant city attorney. The Stones, who signed nondisclosure agreements with the other parties, say they are satisfied with the settlement and want to move on with their lives.
But they are angry at what they characterize as an out-of-control concert industry with a propensity for putting profits over people. The Bothell family agreed to be interviewed because they say they want their experience to be a warning to other parents.
“We don’t want this to happen to any other kid,” said Scott’s mother, Cathy Stone.
“But it will — it’s a business,” his father, Randy Stone, said.
Most concerts do not result in injuries and deaths. But the increasing frequency of serious injuries — including broken bones, brain damage and paralysis — is shining a spotlight on what some critics see as fun and freedom pushed to irresponsible limits.
The injuries have prompted a handful of U.S. cities and some bands to ban crowd surfing and stage diving, but there are no national standards for concert safety, and no one has exact numbers on how many people are injured in mosh pits every year. One survey cites at least 10 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries resulting from just 15 U.S. concerts last year.
In the Seattle area, as in most other cities, bands and promoters decide whether to allow crowd surfing and stage diving. At a Marilyn Manson concert at Mercer Arena in March last year, signs were posted throughout the venue, prohibiting crowd surfing and stage diving. At the Tacoma Dome, stage diving is discouraged and signs are often posted warning of the dangers, said the venue’s director, Mike Combs.
However, at the concert where Stone and 30 others were injured, the security company was instructed to “let the crowd take care of themselves,” according to the Stones’ attorney, Ron Webb, referring to a security official’s testimony in a deposition. Webb sees the Stone settlement as a strong message to concert organizers of their responsibility to provide a safe environment.
“The concert industry is now on notice that these kinds of actions are unreasonably dangerous,” Webb said, referring to crowd surfing and stage diving. He said concert organizers “have a duty to warn of danger and take reasonable measures to correct that danger.”
The bands themselves often set the mood; while one may invite concertgoers to leap into the crowd from the stage, another will remind people to be safe and look out for their neighbor, Combs said.
Paul Wertheimer, a nationally recognized concert-safety expert, says the Stones’ settlement is symbolically important because it happened here, in the birthplace of grunge — arguably the most important rock movement since the punk explosion of the late ’70s. It was here that people learned to ride atop surging crowds and swan dive from stages long before MTV videos and TV commercials began marketing grunge’s crowd-surfing, stage-diving cool.
With the case of Scott Stone — who suffered Seattle’s most serious concert injury to date, according to Wertheimer — the debate that has pitted music and hipness against safety concerns and a growing roster of injured “has come home to roost.”
Life transformed
Before his injury, Scott Stone was the kind of kid who’d have his family in tears with his nightly dinner-table antics. Afterward, his personality changed from a gregarious teen into a moody, angry and often-frustrated young man, his parents said.
Now 20, he isn’t able to drive or move out of his parents’ home in Bothell. He graduated from Bothell High School last year and works at a local sandwich shop. He hopes to attend community college but knows he may not be able to handle the courses because his short-term-memory problems make retaining information especially difficult.
“Maybe he won’t be able to do college, and maybe he won’t get a fair shake at a good job,” said Randy Stone, as he sat at the head of the family’s dining-room table recently, flanked by his wife and son. “But I don’t think the medical bills or the doctors will ever totally go away.” It’s likely too that Scott’s depression and sleeping problems, which are common with his kind of brain injury, will continue for the rest of his life, his father said.
Scott, who has been featured in stories for the cable-TV music channel VH1, ABC’s television newsmagazine “20/20″ and in USA Today, Teen People and other publications, says he still goes to concerts. “I like the energy from the crowd and being with a bunch of people who are involved and into the music,” he said.
The 1996 concert was the first one he attended without his father. His parents say they trusted their son would be safe at an all-ages show at a city-run venue. “It just didn’t seem to be something to be concerned with,” said Randy Stone.
No one knows — and Scott does not remember — whether the boy purposefully thrust himself into the arms of the crowd or was forced up by older youths who, according to witnesses, “were throwing smaller kids and girls up onto the crowd, forcing them to crowd surf against their will,” said Webb, the family’s attorney. A couple of older youths who knew Scott from school saw him fall and fought through the crowd to drag him out, Webb said. “If it wasn’t for them, he probably would’ve died.”
But people who crowd surf and stage dive have to assume some of the risk, said assistant city attorney Sean Sheehan, who worked on the Stone case.
“It was the city’s position that Scott Stone attended concerts before, he crowd surfed before, he’d been warned not to do it by his father and he chose to do it repeatedly — so we believe Mr. Stone assumed the risk when he chose to crowd surf,” Sheehan said. “In my judgment, 14-year-olds are perfectly capable of understanding ‘What goes up must come down.’ “
The city, which owns Mercer Arena, “complies with the normal standards within the venue industry,” Sheehan said.
Sheehan declined to say whether new safety procedures are being considered for city-run facilities. Officials with Monqui and Starplex, the concert’s promoter and security company respectively, did not respond to requests for interviews. Attorneys representing Rage Against the Machine could not be reached.
Survey of concert injuries
Wertheimer, who has served as an expert witness in concert-related death and injury lawsuits around the world, compiles an annual survey of injuries and deaths from news and police reports, eyewitness accounts, lawsuits, industry sources and public-information documents.
It’s not a complete list because data are hard to get and there’s no national clearinghouse for information, he said. But last year in a sampling of the most dangerous events, Wertheimer surveyed 31 concerts in 11 countries and counted 55 deaths, more than 11,400 injuries, 418 arrests and more than $33,000 in property damage.
Of those 31 concerts, 14 were held in the United States and accounted for an estimated 10 deaths (which included drug, traffic and crime-related deaths), more than 1,000 injuries and nearly 400 arrests. Wertheimer estimates that at least 20,000 Americans receive first-aid at concerts in the United States every year.
Wertheimer said his figures are conservative and that in the 10 years he’s conducted the survey, no one has proved them false.
His biggest beef: general-admission tickets that allow promoters to pack venues and make people compete for a limited number of spots up front.
“Being in a pit can be a lot of fun with the camaraderie, the music, the touching, the chaos,” said Wertheimer, a music fan who has logged more than 100 hours in mosh pits from Seattle to Copenhagen, Denmark. “Early on, people looked out for each other. But chaos with etiquette turned into an all-out brawl when you had people who came in with the intent to hurt other people or take advantage of women under the cloak of darkness and the anonymity of the pit.”
Wertheimer founded Crowd Management Strategies, a Chicago-based consulting firm, in 1992 “because I didn’t think the concert industry should be allowing the same things to happen, the same missteps, time and time again.”
He believes mosh pits can be safe, citing the opening of Seattle’s Experience Music Project, when organizers limited the number of people allowed into the pit. And he celebrates the little evidence he sees of progress. A few U.S. cities and colleges — including New Orleans, Denver and the University of San Diego — have banned crowd surfing and stage diving. In Europe, many concert organizers have banned such activities since the deaths of nine Pearl Jam fans at the 2000 Roskilde Festival in Denmark.
But Wertheimer is frustrated by the lack of movement here: At a 1994 conference in Seattle for members of the International Association of Assembly Managers (IAAM), he introduced “mosher-friendly” safety guidelines which, he said, have since been adopted by a number of U.S. and European cities. They include restricting access to mosh pits, padding barricades, providing free water and banning crowd surfing, stage diving and steel-toe-boot-wearing fans — all recommendations the organization has since ignored, he said.
Julie Herrick, director of IAAM communications, said each venue has its own policies and IAAM only provides training, seminars and workshops on crowd safety. The bottom line, said Wertheimer, is that there’s no real pressure on the concert industry to change things — and it won’t change until insurance companies tire of paying for lawsuits filed on behalf of those killed or injured at concerts.
Which means there will be more Scott Stones.
“A serious head injury is a horrible thing to happen, especially when you went to a concert to have fun,” said Wertheimer. “It’s just a rock concert — so why should parents have to worry that their kids may be in some kind of mortal danger?”
“The nine-year-old boy lay on a bloodstained hospital sheet crawling with ants, staring blindly at the wall.
His family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to force acid down his throat as an exorcism. It spilled as he struggled, burning away his face and eyes. The emaciated boy barely had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him — Mount Zion Lighthouse.
A month later, he died.
Nwanaokwo Edet was one of an increasing number of children in Africa accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of “witch children” reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files.
Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international franchises. Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”
“It is an outrage what they are allowing to take place in the name of Christianity,” said Gary Foxcroft, head of nonprofit Stepping Stones Nigeria.
For their part, the families are often extremely poor, and sometimes even relieved to have one less mouth to feed. Poverty, conflict and poor education lay the foundation for accusations, which are then triggered by the death of a relative, the loss of a job or the denunciation of a pastor on the make, said Martin Dawes, a spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund.
“When communities come under pressure, they look for scapegoats,” he said. “It plays into traditional beliefs that someone is responsible for a negative change … and children are defenseless.”
____
The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria’s 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.
Nigeria is one of the heartlands of abuse, but hardly the only one: the United Nations Children’s Fund says tens of thousands of children have been targeted throughout Africa.
Church signs sprout around every twist of the road snaking through the jungle between Uyo, the capital of the southern Akwa Ibom state where Nwanaokwo lay, and Eket, home to many more rejected “witch children.” Churches outnumber schools, clinics and banks put together. Many promise to solve parishioner’s material worries as well as spiritual ones — eight out of ten Nigerians struggle by on less than $2 a day.
“Poverty must catch fire,” insists the Born 2 Rule Crusade on one of Uyo’s main streets.
“Where little shots become big shots in a short time,” promises the Winner’s Chapel down the road.
“Pray your way to riches,” advises Embassy of Christ a few blocks away.
It’s hard for churches to carve out a congregation with so much competition. So some pastors establish their credentials by accusing children of witchcraft.
Nwanaokwo said he knew the pastor who accused him only as Pastor King. Mount Zion Lighthouse in Nigeria at first confirmed that a Pastor King worked for them, then denied that they knew any such person.
Bishop A.D. Ayakndue, the head of the church in Nigeria, said pastors were encouraged to pray about witchcraft, but not to abuse children.
“We pray over that problem (of witchcraft) very powerfully,” he said. “But we can never hurt a child.”
The Nigerian church is a branch of a Californian church by the same name. But the California church says it lost touch with its Nigerian offshoots several years ago.
“I had no idea,” said church elder Carrie King by phone from Tracy, Calif. “I knew people believed in witchcraft over there but we believe in the power of prayer, not physically harming people.”
The Mount Zion Lighthouse — also named by three other families as the accuser of their children — is part of the powerful Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria. The Fellowship’s president, Ayo Oritsejafor, said the Fellowship was the fastest-growing religious group in Nigeria, with more than 30 million members.
“We have grown so much in the past few years we cannot keep an eye on everybody,” he explained.
But Foxcroft, the head of Stepping Stones, said if the organization was able to collect membership fees, it could also police its members better. He had already written to the organization twice to alert it to the abuse, he said. He suggested the fellowship ask members to sign forms denouncing abuse or hold meetings to educate pastors about the new child rights law in the state of Akwa Ibom, which makes it illegal to denounce children as witches. Similar laws and education were needed in other states, he said.
Sam Itauma of the Children’s Rights and Rehabilitation Network said it is the most vulnerable children — the orphaned, sick, disabled or poor — who are most often denounced. In Nwanaokwo’s case, his poor father and dead mother made him an easy target.
“Even churches who didn’t use to ‘find’ child witches are being forced into it by the competition,” said Itauma. “They are seen as spiritually powerful because they can detect witchcraft and the parents may even pay them money for an exorcism.”
That’s what Margaret Eyekang did when her 8-year-old daughter Abigail was accused by a “prophet” from the Apostolic Church, because the girl liked to sleep outside on hot nights — interpreted as meaning she might be flying off to join a coven. A series of exorcisms cost Eyekang eight months’ wages, or US$270. The payments bankrupted her.
Neighbors also attacked her daughter.
“They beat her with sticks and asked me why I was bringing them a witch child,” she said. A relative offered Eyekang floor space but Abigail was not welcome and had to sleep in the streets.
Members of two other families said pastors from the Apostolic Church had accused their children of witchcraft, but asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.
The Nigeria Apostolic Church refused repeated requests made by phone, e-mail and in person for comment.
___
At first glance, there’s nothing unusual about the laughing, grubby kids playing hopscotch or reading from a tattered Dick and Jane book by the graffiti-scrawled cinderblock house. But this is where children like Abigail end up after being labeled witches by churches and abandoned or tortured by their families.
There’s a scar above Jane’s shy smile: her mother tried to saw off the top of her skull after a pastor denounced her and repeated exorcisms costing a total of $60 didn’t cure her of witchcraft. Mary, 15, is just beginning to think about boys and how they will look at the scar tissue on her face caused when her mother doused her in caustic soda. Twelve-year-old Rachel dreamed of being a banker but instead was chained up by her pastor, starved and beaten with sticks repeatedly; her uncle paid him $60 for the exorcism.
Israel’s cousin tried to bury him alive, Nwaekwa’s father drove a nail through her head, and sweet-tempered Jerry — all knees, elbows and toothy grin — was beaten by his pastor, starved, made to eat cement and then set on fire by his father as his pastor’s wife cheered it on.
The children at the home run by Itauma’s organization have been mutilated as casually as the praying mantises they play with. Home officials asked for the children’s last names not to be used to protect them from retaliation.
The home was founded in 2003 with seven children; it now has 120 to 200 at any given time as children are reconciled with their families and new victims arrive.
Helen Ukpabio is one of the few evangelists publicly linked to the denunciation of child witches. She heads the enormous Liberty Gospel church in Calabar, where Nwanaokwo used to live. Ukpabio makes and distributes popular books and DVDs on witchcraft; in one film, a group of child witches pull out a man’s eyeballs. In another book, she advises that 60 percent of the inability to bear children is caused by witchcraft.
In an interview with the AP, Ukpabio is accompanied by her lawyer, church officials and personal film crew.
“Witchcraft is real,” Ukpabio insisted, before denouncing the physical abuse of children. Ukpabio says she performs non-abusive exorcisms for free and was not aware of or responsible for any misinterpretation of her materials.
“I don’t know about that,” she declared.
However, she then acknowledged that she had seen a pastor from the Apostolic Church break a girl’s jaw during an exorcism. Ukpabio said she prayed over her that night and cast out the demon. She did not respond to questions on whether she took the girl to hospital or complained about the injury to church authorities.
After activists publicly identified Liberty Gospel as denouncing “child witches,” armed police arrived at Itauma’s home accompanied by a church lawyer. Three children were injured in the fracas. Itauma asked that other churches identified by children not be named to protect their victims.
“We cannot afford to make enemies of all the churches around here,” he said. “But we know the vast majority of them are involved in the abuse even if their headquarters aren’t aware.”
Just mentioning the name of a church is enough to frighten a group of bubbly children at the home.
“Please stop the pastors who hurt us,” said Jerry quietly, touching the scars on his face. “I believe in God and God knows I am not a witch.”
“….From magazine maven to coffee queen, but is former Dolly and Elle editor Marina Go getting herself into hot water after signing on as a franchisee of Gloria Jean’s coffee in Bondi Junction?
The frothy chain once supported pro-life group Mercy Ministries, which has direct links to Hillsong. Last year, Mercy Ministries was accused of abusing young women wanting help with mental illness and eating disorders.
The charity denied all claims.
A spokesman for Gloria Jean’s said that the company has since severed all ties with Mercy Ministries.
“There is now the Gloria Jean’s International Foundation which is primarily focused on humanitarian and community programs,” she said. “The Foundation does not support Mercy Ministries.
The last major fundraising promotion with Mercy was in October, 2007.”
Getting right into the swing of things, Go, who is still online publisher for Michael Hannan’s Internet Digital Media company, ran Cappuccino For A Cause on Friday, with 50c from each cup donated to Opportunity International, to help people in Third World countries.
“We took the franchise on last April and I knew then Gloria Jean’s had nothing further to do with Mercy Ministries,”
Go told Hush. “As a franchisee, we can choose to opt out of charity initiatives but humanitarian aid is definitely something I agree with……””
“A church in Canton, North Carolina is marking Halloween this year by burning what it calls satanic books. Many of the books on the list are versions of the Bible.
Pastor Marc Grizzard wants to burn any Bible that is not the King James version. Grizzard and the congregation at Amazing Grace Baptist Church consider other interpretations of the Bible to be false.
They also plan to burn the books of well known Christian writers who have occasionally used other versions of the Bible.
“We’re burning versions of God’s word such as the NIV, the NASV, the ECV, the living bible,” Grizzard said. “There’s a lot of different authors that we consider heretics such as Billy Graham, Rick Warren, the list goes on and on.“
Brisbane Christian Radio 96five’s ‘urgent’ email asks…
“Hi Lance,
96Five has been given the opportunity to give away tickets plus meet & greets to Nickelback’s Brisbane concert. Is this something that you think 96Five should be involved in?
Yes or No? Would you like to go to the Nickelback concert?
Please respond today or ASAP. Just reply to this email or alternatively email music@96five.com
“The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, now approaching 90 and still one of the world’s most controversial religious figures, is handing over day-to-day control of his Unification Church to three U.S.-educated sons.
There are some changes afoot in fundraising and boosting membership, the sons say. But Moon — who will preside over another series of his trademark mass weddings on Wednesday — remains in charge as the church’s self-proclaimed “Messiah.”
Still, the sons are quietly assuming more responsibility in managing a church that has steadily expanded its business and charitable activities while trying to avoid the criticism that dogged it during the 1970s and 80s.
The youngest, 30-year-old Rev. Moon Hyung-jin, was tapped last year to take over as the church’s religious leader. Moon Kook-jin, 39, is in charge of business ventures in South Korea, while 40-year-old Moon Hyun-jin oversees international operations. The church said all the brothers have Harvard degrees.
Since founding the church in Seoul in 1954, the elder Moon has built a business empire with hundreds of ventures in more than a half-dozen countries, from hospitals and universities to newspapers and even a professional soccer team and ballet troupe.
These include the Washington Times newspaper and the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan, as well as an ad agency and ski resort in South Korea, and a seafood distribution firm that supplies sushi to Japanese restaurants across the U.S.
There are also ventures in North Korea, where Moon’s ties are strong enough that for his last birthday, the communist country’s leader Kim Jong Il sent roses, lilies and prized wild ginseng. The church’s interests include fledgling automaker Pyeonghwa Motors and the only foreign-owned luxury hotel in Pyongyang.
Among the most controversial of Moon’s legacies are the mass weddings he calls “blessing ceremonies” — arranged marriages often pairing followers from different countries that he says are aimed at building a multicultural religious world.
Critics maintain the weddings, involving people who usually don’t meet until shortly before the ceremony, are evidence the Unification Church brainwashes its followers.
Since the first weddings took place in Seoul in 1960 and 1961, mass weddings have been held at New York’s Madison Square Garden and at Seoul’s Olympic Stadium, where 42,000 people were married in 1999.
On Wednesday, Moon will wed or reaffirm the marriages of more than 40,000 people: 20,000 in South Korea and the rest in countries around the world, including the U.S., where church officials say ceremonies are planned in nearly every state, including at the church-owned New Yorker Hotel.
Moon Hyung-jin, the Rev. Moon’s hand-picked successor as religious director, was just 17 when he took a bride chosen by his father; the couple now have five children. In addition, three of the Rev. Moon’s grandchildren were set up with followers from Japan, the colonial ruler of Korea.
The younger Moon says he sees the unions as an opportunity for diplomacy.
“If people from Korea and Japan marry with this broad mindset, their children won’t see their parents’ countries as enemies and instead will come to love both countries,” he told The Associated Press in an interview at his Seoul office.
Baby-faced and soft-spoken, Moon Hyung-jin was born and raised in New York, where he was known as Sean. He admits he’s still growing into his new job.
“When my father asked me to take on this role, I told him this responsibility was a bit much for me,” he said. “He told me not to worry, that many people would help me.”
Since then, the younger Moon says he has carved out some areas of change, including making the church’s fundraising activities more transparent. The church has been accused of duping followers into handing over their life savings.
Membership is also a key concern. Though the church claims millions of members worldwide, experts say the figure is far lower — no more than 100,000. In South Korea, Unification Church members are far outnumbered by Catholics, Presbyterians and Buddhists.
“We’ve been weak on membership and on figuring out the church’s direction. We’ve been trying to resolve those issues,” Moon Hyung-jin said. “But the church is getting stronger, and church members are happier.”
Asked if his membership drive would include any 120-city world tours like the one his father undertook at age 85, Moon laughed and said he shouldn’t be seen as a successor to his father. “I can’t be compared to my father,” he said. “If people put so much importance in their titles, they become arrogant.”
The younger Moon’s anointment came despite a lapse of faith during his Harvard years, when he said he turned to Buddhism after a brother, Young-jin, died in Reno, Nevada, in 1999, in what authorities called a suicide.
He said his father ordered church members not to criticize him for donning Buddhist robes and shaving his head on campus. “I was hugely moved,” he said. “I had thought my father would kick me out of the church, but he protected me.”
While Moon Hyung-jin preaches in both Korean and fluent English, his style is distinctly American. At a service last month in Seoul broadcast on his Web site, there was more rock than gospel.
“Give it up! Let’s give it up for True Parents!” he proclaimed, using the church terms for the elder Rev. Moon and his wife.
Moon Kook-jin, who has headed the church’s South Korean business operations since 2005, praised his youngest brother. “I think he’s doing a good job,” he told the AP.
A Seoul businessman and owner of the New York-based gun manufacturer Kahr Arms, Moon Kook-jin says he sees no contradiction in owning a weapons factory. “To build a peaceful country, we need the police and an army,” he said, a black Kahr Arms baseball cap perched on his head.
Critics maintain the Rev. Moon is little more than a charismatic cult leader who brainwashes followers.
“What Rev. Moon says is the law,” said Lee Young-sun, a follower who left the church in 2001 after 31 years. Her family so revered Moon, she said, they hung his portrait on the wall and thanked him in their mealtime prayers. “The church’s brainwashing is exactly what North Korea does,” she said.
Still, some analysts say that by anointing a new generation, Moon may ensure the church endures after his death
“Some people say the Unification Church may perish after Moon’s death but I don’t think so,” said Tark Ji-il, a religion professor at Busan Presbyterian University. “It’s more accurate to view them now as a corporate organization uniting people with similar religious beliefs.”
“A former political running mate of Family First senator Steve Fielding says dark forces are casting spells on Federal Parliament.
Catch the Fire Ministries pastor Daniel Nalliah has organised a “prayer offensive” to combat evil forces including witchcraft, homosexuality and abortion.
The discovery of a “black mass altar” at Mount Ainslie in Canberra by a group of school students had inspired him to organise a prayer gathering at the area on Saturday.
“The type of altar discovered on Mount Ainslie pointed to a black mass and the work of dark forces wanting to cast spells on Australia and federal Parliament,” Mr Nalliah said.
“These days people don’t think the Devil is real but we have seen the bad effects of the spiritual being known as Satan and we believe there is a spiritual fight over the nation of Australia being fought in the heavens.”
Asked what evidence of Satan there was in Parliament, Mr Nalliah said: “The number of politicians who have serious marriage problems.”
Legislation supporting homosexuality, abortion and a push for a Bill of rights were other areas where Mr Nalliah said the devil was having influence.
“Me trying to explain it to you is like trying to teach a cricketer how to play soccer,” Mr Nalliah said.
He said 100 Christians from across Australia would be at Mount Ainslie this weekend.
“Our main reason for going to Mount Ainslie is to pull down the strongholds of the Devil to repent and pray against any evil done in our land including the adverse effects of witchcraft, homosexuality and, of course, the devastation of abortion, so that God will save our land.”
Senator Fielding and Mr Nalliah occupied the first and second spots on Family First’s Victorian Senate ticket in 2004.
But Senator Fielding, who was elected to the Senate with Labor preferences, said Mr Nalliah had been asked to leave the party in late 2004.
“Family First has had no connection with Danny Nalliah since he was asked to leave the party five years ago after he made demeaning comments about a minority group,” Senator Fielding said.
“He has no voice in Family First.”
Asked about Senator Fielding, Mr Nalliah said his former running mate did not have a long-term political career because of his failure to defend the nuclear family.
“He won’t get re-elected because the Christian vote won’t be there for him,” he said.
“Steve has not been standing up for the Christian cause.””
“Pastor Benny Hinn is being investigated by the Senate Finance Committee and was recently denied entry into the United Kingdom. The press has been bad, he says, because the media doesn’t understand him.
But the Texas-based faith healer, whose “Holy Spirit Miracle Crusades” pack sports arenas across the United States, is fielding questions about his controversies nonetheless. He says he needs to voice his concerns over the land of his birth, Israel, and the threat to it posed by a nuclear Iran — which he talks about in his new book “Blood in the Sand.”
“[The media] are never going to paint me as I want to be painted,” Hinn said in an exclusive interview. “But, really, it doesn’t matter as long as people give me the chance to talk.”
And talking he is … about the finance probe, his lavish lifestyle and accusations that his faith healings are fake because he offers no documentation or verification that he has, in fact, helped the blind see and the crippled walk.
“They question me on why I don’t verify,” Hinn says. “I answer, ‘God never called me to verify. I’m not a doctor.’
He says that after a tabloid news show aired an exposé on his worldwide Benny Hinn Ministries, he tried to make changes. The exposé reported that though thousands of people attending Hinn’s religious gatherings said they were healed, the ministry couldn’t prove they suffered from any infirmities in the first place, or that they actually had been miraculously healed.
So, Hinn says, his ministry created a department to handle verifications and follow up on the “miracles.”
“It was chaotic. It was a mess,” he says. “The staff would call and people would be mad and say, ‘Why are you questioning that I was lying up there?’”
“Then we would call the doctors. They wouldn’t talk to us most of the time … so it didn’t work.”
Last week Hinn was denied entry into the U.K. for a three-day rally at which, according to his Web site, thousands of evangelical Christians planned to hear him. New immigration rules that crack down on religious extremism required him to present a special certificate of sponsorship, which he didn’t have.
Hinn claims several Christian ministers before him also were denied entry, but his expulsion made headlines because he’s a well-known, charismatic pastor who preaches a prosperity gospel. Give generously to God, he preaches, and God will give even more generously in return.
Hinn has reaped great benefits from that philosophy.
Benny Hinn Ministries doesn’t publish its finances, but one report estimated it takes in $100 million a year. Hinn says only that the ministry pays him more than half a million dollars a year — but that income doesn’t include money from the sales of his books and his other private business ventures.
He says he plans to cut his salary in half, and eventually to receive no pay.
That decision comes amid an ongoing probe of six evangelical ministers and their megachurches by the Senate Finance Committee, headed by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). Benny Hinn Ministries is one of the six.
The committee is investigating whether the ministries are using their tax-exempt status to further God’s work — or to fund luxuries like mansions, expensive cars and private jets.
“We’ve answered every question … over 5,000 pages … and of course it’s not over yet,” Hinn says. “It’s still open. We’re still talking, still cooperating.”
Grassley’s office confirms this, saying Benny Hinn Ministries is one of only two that have cooperated completely with the Finance Committee’s requests.
But questions still loom about Hinn’s lavish lifestyle and his private plane, which he says his ministry owns.
The pastor defends both, saying that “in today’s world, there’s this idea that preachers are supposed to be poor, wearing sandals and riding bicycles, I guess … which is really nonsense.
“The Lord wants us to follow His righteous life, but yet we have to exist in the 21st century. You can’t be going about riding a bicycle and to travel the world … that is not smart.”
Hinn says “the plane is a necessity, not a luxury” because of his extensive travel.
Another necessity, according to Hinn, is to get evangelicals to understand the biblical importance of Israel, where he was born. Hinn was born to Christian parents in Jaffa, Israel, in 1952. So, for him, it’s personal.
“I am forced to view the Middle East as if I am looking in a mirror that has been shattered,” he writes in his book. “There’s a great threat against Israel from Iran, a threat from radical Islam from within and without.”
He says he’s concerned that President Obama doesn’t understand that the struggle for peace in the Middle East is a biblical struggle that politicians cannot solve by themselves.
Peace between Jews and Arabs can never be about a simple dividing of borders, according to Hinn. “Spiritually, it’s not about land, it’s about the promises of God. That’s the difference.”
“On one hand, you’ve got the Jewish people saying, ‘God gave us this land.’ You’ve got on the other hand Arabs saying, ‘God gave us this land,’ what they believe the Koran says.
“So it’s a very deep spiritual problem … and only God can solve it.”
Lofty theologians may scoff at Hinn’s style, but on this issue everyone agrees: Peace in the Middle East would indeed be a miracle.”
“….My trip to Australia was … very good. I thank God for the people who invited me, Pastor Ashley Evans and the Paradise Community Church in Adelaide. They put forth a lot of effort. They paid for my ticket and brought me first class, that was very good of them because it afforded me the opportunity to relax and bear the 20 plus hour flight with ease…..”
(Return first class airfare Kiev-Adelaide-Kiev = from $17,508 @ 2008 prices)
*And now the latest.
“A prominent Ukraine pastor alleged to be part of a $100 million fraud case is maintaining his innocence as a new investigation against him is initiated.
Pastor Sunday Adelaja, founder of The Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations in Kiev, one of the largest churches in Eastern Europe, said Ukraine authorities are looking for ways to charge him with treason for preaching that he wanted to see Ukraine become a Christian nation.
The Interior Ministry claims Adelaja preached that the main task of his church was to create a “Christian state” in Ukraine, which “ignores the obvious fact of the Ukrainian statehood,” the Ukrainian news site PolitInform.org reported.
Adelaja said the new accusation proves that the fraud charges linking him to the King’s Capital financial group are simply an attempt to attack his ministry.
The Nigeria-born pastor, whose congregation was one of several to protest government corruption and alleged election fraud during Ukraine’s Orange Revolution in 2004, said the treason accusation could be placed on any church that seeks to influence its nation’s government.
“Everything that has happened is not because of King’s Capital, but it’s because of the influence of our church that is seen as a threat,” Adelaja said. “It’s about political repression.”
Adelaja openly teaches that churches should influence government, business and society, and made it the theme of his book Church Shift.
No additional charges have been filed, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs, led by Yuriy Lutsenko, has held closed-door meetings with Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers and President Viktor Yushchenko, asking them to launch an investigation into the alleged treason, PolitInform.org reported.
Adelaja has repeatedly denied involvement in King’s Capital, an investment company co-founded by a member of his church. The organization promised returns as high as 60 percent, but last November stopped paying dividends to investors.
Investors, most of whom were church members, went to authorities last fall, claiming they had lost as much as $100 million.
Adelaja says the financial group was not a Ponzi scheme, as some alleged, but a legitimate business that failed as a result of the global economic crisis. In late August, King’s Capital was declared bankrupt.
Despite Adelaja’s claims, several Ukrainian church leaders, including a group of nine bishops representing thousands of congregations, denounced the pastor in a statement last December, saying he repeatedly endorsed King’s Capital. Some also alleged that he was involved in its leadership.
In March, Adelaja was charged with embezzling funds “in very large amounts via fraud,” which carries a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison.
Adelaja said his ministry is suing the Interior Ministry and the police for “unlawful accusation and libel.”
“After five court hearings they have still not presented any evidence to the judge who asked for it in the first court hearing,” Adelaja said. “We see that we will win, and because of this they are trying something new with this new accusation.”
Christian attorney Joel Thornton, general counsel of the International Human Rights Group, believes Adelaja’s legal battles are rooted in racism and religious oppression.
“This really is about his success,” said Thornton, who consults Adelaja and has been involved in religious liberty cases throughout Europe for more than a decade. “If he weren’t a Nigerian immigrant pastor having one of the largest most active groups of congregations in Europe, which are made up largely of non-Nigerian members, he wouldn’t have these problems.”
Thornton may get involved in Adelaja’s case in January if there is no resolution before then. He said the controversy over King’s Capital complicates what would otherwise be a clear case of religious persecution.
He believes Adelaja’s claims that King’s Capital was a legitimate organization that failed because most of its investments were in real estate. But he said it remains unclear whether Adelaja endorsed the business, one of dozens launched by church members, from the pulpit.
“He told me he talked about it some, but he said he never [told members to] make an investment,” Thornton said. “I don’t believe he’s profited from it from what I know from him.”
He said Christians should be concerned about the Interior Ministry’s attempt to charge Adelaja with treason. In Europe, he said government officials try to control the spread of evangelical groups by lumping Christians in with dangerous sects or forcing churches to meet rigid criteria to register with the government.
Although he thinks it is unlikely to happen, Thornton said if Ukraine were successful in charging Adelaja with treason, other nations may follow its lead.
“Attacking a pastor who says we want to make this a Christian nation, that kind of approach, if Ukraine has some success with it, it could spread in those Eastern European countries,” Thornton said.”
Sunday Adelaja (rear, 3rd from left), Ted Haggard (front, 2nd from left), Brian and Bobbie Houston (front, 2nd and 1st from right), with Israeli Prime Minister and other church leaders, May 10, 2005
“A Camarillo couple arrested last month in connection with a scheme that allegedly cost an elderly man his home pleaded not guilty to multiple felony charges in Ventura County Superior Court Sept. 21.
Alonzo Gene McCowan, 49, and his 45 year old wife, Kimberly Ann Oglesby McCowan, were arrested Sept. 17 on theft and money laundering charges brought against them by the Ventura County District Attorney’s office.
Alonzo Gene McCowan, more commonly known as Rev. Lonnie McCowan, is the pastor of Solid Rock Christian Center in Ventura.
According to court records, Lonnie McCowan convinced Leo Gilmond, a now-86-year-old Ventura resident, to sign over the deed of his $460,000 home to the church in October 2004 so it could be used by church visitors and students.
Lonnie McCowan apparently paid Gilmond only about $10,000 for the home, court records show. The house went into foreclosure early last year shortly before Gilmond tried to collect the remaining $450,000 owed him by McCowan.
Court records show the McCowans borrowed a home loan worth $420,000 by refinancing the house in his wife’s name.
McCowan admitted he took the loan and that he’d lost the money in the stock market, according to court documents. Investigators said they could not find records of the lost money.
Frank Huber, an investigator with the district attorney’s office, said in the affidavit he filed that Lonnie McCowan “used his position of trust as a religious representative to prey upon elderly victims in the county of Ventura.”
The two sides reportedly reached an agreement in civil court last year. Specific details on the settlement were not available.
“I’ve read through the discovery that I’ve been provided by the DA’s office, and I frankly don’t see where the crime is,” said Ron Bamieh, the attorney representing the McCowans. “There is literally no evidence against Kimberly McCowan. . . . These charges don’t reflect what actually happened.”
Investigators said that shortly after Lonnie McCowan reportedly withdrew the $420,000 home loan, he put a down payment on another home in Camarillo. He then took a $336,000 loan on the second home using another name, court records show.
In both instances, the McCowans reported false information on their loan applications., according to court records.
Court records indicate that the McCowans pocketed $756,000 between the two real estate transactions.
Investigators with the district attorney’s office said the second loan was discovered earlier this year during an investigation of a complicated Ponzi scheme that lasted from 2004 to 2008 in Palm Desert and resulted in the arrests of Terry Tucker and Cheri Tucker, who pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud in March 2009.
According to court records, McCowan borrowed money for the second down payment from the Tuckers, who owned a Thousand Oaks-based company.
To read about the Tuckers’ crimes, see the Oct. 1 article “T.O. man says his childhood is to blame for his financial crimes” at www.toacorn.com.
Lonnie McCowan was charged with two counts of theft from an elderly person and two counts of money laundering.
He faces enhancement charges because the money allegedly taken was more than $500,000.
Kimberly McCowan was charged with single counts each of grand theft and money laundering. She also faces enhancement charges.
During a press conference at the Ventura church last week, Lonnie McCowan said the case against him is racially motivated.
“We are saying that we are uncomfortable with investigators assuming facts to be true based on our race and not on the facts,” McCowan said. “We are uncomfortable with people making statements about ‘How does a man like that afford a nice car or a nice house?’ We are uncomfortable with the tone and attitude expressed, as if to say, if my race has nice things, they must be doing something wrong.”
“That allegation is outrageous and completely baseless,” said James Ellison, chief assistant district attorney.
Lonnie McCowan faces a maximum of 15 years and four months in prison and will be required to pay $1.74 million in fines and restitution if convicted of all charges.
His wife faces a maximum sentence of six years and four months and would have to pay $250,000 in fines and restitution………”
“An unemployed Limpopo man was allegedly assaulted by Pretoria detectives looking for Total Surrender Church pastor John Mthunzini, who is wanted for 17 cases of fraud.
Alpheus Matlwa of Bela Bela said on September 15 he was mistaken for the fugitive pastor .
“They kept on calling me ‘Mthunzini’ and would not listen when I told them that I was not Mthuzini,” he said.
“They said the Florsheim shoes I was wearing were similar to those of Mthunzini and started assaulting me.”
Matlwa said the cops “started arguing before letting me go”.
He opened a case of assault at the Bela Bela police station and also reported the matter to the Independent Complaints Directorate .
Police spokesperson Superintendent Abel Phetla confirmed that they were investigating a case of assault “
“A Limpopo pastor who doubles as a senior soccer official is being sought in connection with several cases of fraud.
The Modimolle police said yesterday they were looking for John Mathalela Mthunzini, who they believe could help them solve about 17 cases of fraud.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Malesela Ledwaba said Mthunzini disappeared two months ago when he heard that police were looking for him.
Mthunzini is the secretary of Safa in the Waterberg region. He allegedly defrauded the association of more than R50000 between October last year and April this year. He is a pastor at the Total Surrender Church.
A source claimed Mthunzini used Safa cheques to withdraw money by forging other officials’ signatures as he was not the only signatory to the association’s funds.”
“Mothers and their newborns in an Oregon City church that practices faith healing routinely died during or shortly after birth because medical help was not sought, one former member said Wednesday.
These revelations came to light after an infant boy died over the weekend. The mother, who is a member of the Followers of Christ church, allegedly had complications before giving birth. Church members prayed over her Friday night, and the baby was born Saturday afternoon. But it died early Sunday morning.
Myrna Cunningham, who was born without the aid of a doctor 68 years ago into the church, said that this was a common occurrence.
She also said her cousin’s daughter never went to a doctor even after her baby died inside her.
“Three days it took her to get toxic enough to die,” she said. “Can you imagine that? Gosh, that’s why I don’t see any of them.”
Dr. Larry Lewman, from the state medical examiner’s office, told of similar cases last year after 15-month-old Ava Worthington died. Her parents were arrested and her father Carl Worthington served 60 days in jail. Her mother, Raylene, was acquitted of a mistreatment charge.
Lewman studied the church in the late 1990s when three children died in a short amount of time.
“There were also during that period – it wasn’t publicized much – four perfectly healthy mothers, pregnant, who died during child birth from puerperal sepsis. That’s an infection that doesn’t even occur today,” Lewman said. “You read about it in the textbooks from the 1910s – the pre-antibiotic era. None of these women should have died – three of their children died. It was all perfectly treatable, and they literally suffered for days.”
Cunningham said there is hope. She said some members now go to doctors and educated midwives help with some births. But she said she still worries more children will needlessly die because their parents choose to only pray and not call doctors even when their children are gravely ill.
“Anybody who could just let their baby just die, don’t you just think that’s the worst thing?” she said.
As far as the most recent case, Clackamas County detectives are still trying to determine if Oregon’s spiritual-healing law was broken.
The baby in the current case was premature and multiple sources close to the family said the mother had complications several days before she gave birth.”
“The Good Book says “Touch not my anointed; and do my prophets no harm”. Owing to the foregoing injunction, many people have either tried to shy away from a raging feud between two of the country’s Men of God, who have lately been trading insults, invectives and plain vituperation at each other.
Would you believe that because of the seeming estrangement between these two men of God? They are not on talking terms? The beleaguered pastor/prophets are Rev. Ebenezer Adarkwa Yiadom a.k.a Prophet One or Kumasi Moses of the Ebenezer Miracle Worship Centre, Ahenema Kokoben, Kumasi and Bishop Daniel Obinim, General Overseer of the International Godsway Church, also based in Kumasi.
Ebenezer is aged just a little over 40, while Obinim is 32. Bishop Obinim as if delivering a benediction, has said that he has heard of plots to kill him by Ebenezer Adarkwah Yiadom and prayed that no one should arrest Adarkwa Yiadom, after, he Obinim has been shot dead. This is because he, Obinim, knows he would go to Heaven adding “as for Rev. Ebenezer Adarkwa Yiadom, I don’t know where his soul would go to”.
Hot FM, an Accra-based radio station also has a recording of Rev. Ebenezer Adarkwa Yiadom and his pastors cursing Obinim. On the tape, Ebenezer himself, is heard asking whether Bishop Obinim has got what it takes to challenge him spiritually. He does that in a din-dong exchange with Obinim who also stands his ground saying, he’s not afraid of Ebenezer and believes that what Ebenezer Adarkwa Yiadom does is not of God. Those exchanges believable took place on New Mercury FM, which Rev. Adarkwa Yiadom owns.
In a fit of exasperation, one of Adarkwa Yiadom’s pastors retorts by saying, ‘Wo Ni Twa ase seven hundred” – a vulgar Asante expression which means “the ashes of your mother’s vagina sticks seven hundred times”. As the exchanges between the two most celebrated pastors from Kumasi as of now rages, many people have been wondering what must be eating the two prophets up? as each appears to stand their grounds.
What Rev. Ebenezer Adarkwa Yiadom holds against Bishop Obinim is that Obinim had claimed that God has let him take dominion over the souls of the people of the Tema area. Obinim said this when he set camp in Tema recently.
Currently, Ebenezer also has set camp at the Spintex Road at Flower pot near the Lister hospital in Accra. The two are miracle pastors. Both of them have preaching slots on Metro TV on Saturdays. One thing they have in common is that in recent times, each one of them has been able to raise a man from the dead. Adarkwa goes further to claim that at the time when a fetish priest, Kweku Bonsam, rose against pastors in the country, he was the only man of God who called the bluff of Nana Kwaku Bonsah.
One Naana, a resident of Kumasi, who claimed to have befriended the two pastors at the same time was said to be the cause of the fight between the two pastors, but close allies of the men of God including their junior pastors have repudiated that. The Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) was said to be utterly shocked at the exchanges between the two prophets, with Dr. Fred Deegbe describing it as a shame to the name of God. Dr Fred Deegbe is the General Secretary of the CCG.”
(FAQ) “….Are there any employment opportunities at Hillsong Church Moscow?
As this is a brand new church plant, Hillsong Church Moscow will not be employing any staff. We will however be relying on passionate and committed volunteers to help get things established. We value raising up people from within our local church and should opportunities become available, we would look to employ those who are already serving in the church.”
“An American Christian preacher has been turned away from Britain, leaving thousands of people stranded at an evangelical rally in London this weekend.
Benny Hinn, from Texas, who draws large crowds to his Pentecostal revival rallies, was turned back at Stansted airport under new rules on visiting ministers of religion.
Many thousands of Pentecostal Christians travelled from across Britain and Europe and booked long weekend breaks in the capital’s hotels for his mission at the ExCeL exhibition centre in Docklands, East London, which had been due to begin on Thursday night.
They were left disappointed after Border Agency officials turned him back when he landed with his private jet because he had failed to obtain a “letter of sponsorship” from a church.
Instead, Mr Hinn flew on to Paris and tried to enter Britain at Luton airport but was again turned back. He was on his way back to France last night.
Jill Masefield, who lives in Bristol, said that she and thousands of other followers had been left waiting for Mr Hinn to appear at the free preaching event, not knowing why he had not appeared.Instead, another pastor preached and requested donations of up to £1,000.
“He’s been coming here for years and years,” she said. “I think it is very unfair that they have blocked him now. It has cost me a fortune in hotel bills and I feel we have been led up the garden path. It is extremely unfair.”
The Benny Hinn “fire conference and miracle service” was scheduled to last three days. Among the “miracles” the Texan preacher performs are those in which he instructs participants to “let the bodies hit the floor”. The routine is featured on YouTube videos that show the devout falling down backwards, “slain in the spirit”.
A spokeswoman for ExCeL said that Mr Hinn had been turned back at immigration and would not be coming. Staff at the exhibition centre were meeting last night to decide whether to provide another evangelical preacher in his place.
Mr Hinn has visited before without any problem but the Home Office has changed the rules for ministers of religion. He fell foul of tier five of the new points-based system for all visitors to Britain, which came into effect last November. One of the aims of the new rules was to combat extremism and prevent teachers of religious hate entering the country.
A Border Agency spokesman said: “Under the UK’s tough new points-based system, religious workers must obtain a valid certificate of sponsorship prior to arriving in the UK. These rules are designed to make sure that a legitimate sponsor is linked to each application to enter the UK for work purposes.
“These rules are applied objectively and clearly set out for travellers. People who arrive without the required documentation can be refused entry to the UK.”
“The Rev. Lawrence Adams teaches his flock at the Westside Bible Church to turn the other cheek. Just in case, though, the 54-year-old retired police lieutenant also wears a handgun under his robe.
Adams is one of several Detroit clergymen who have taken to packing heat in the pulpit. They have committed their lives to a man who preached nonviolence and told followers to love their enemies. But they also say it’s up to them to protect their parishioners in church.
“As a pastor, I’m referred to as a shepherd,” Adams said. “Shepherds have the responsibility of watching over their flock. Do I want to hurt somebody? Absolutely not!”
Responding to a break-in at his church Sunday evening, Adams surprised a burglar carrying out a bag of loot and shot the man in the abdomen after the man swung the bag at him.
The burglar survived — for which Adams is grateful — but the reverend said he could have been hurt or killed if he had not been armed.
Detroit had the nation’s highest homicide rate last year among cities of at least 500,000 residents. The city has been losing manufacturing jobs for decades, and these days about one in four working-age residents is without a job.
The northwest Detroit neighborhood surrounding Adams’ church isn’t one of the city’s most dangerous. But there have been many recent reports of crimes in the area, including four burglaries, three auto thefts, one armed robbery and four assaults, including one with intent to murder.
“It’s getting worse because of the economy,” Adams said. “People are out of work and feel they have to provide for their families.”
Prior to 2000, anyone who wanted to carry a concealed weapon in Michigan had to show a need to do so. Now, gun owners simply have to pass a stringent background check and complete eight hours of handgun training.
“I get people from all walks of life, including pastors,” said Rick Ector, owner of Rick’s Firearm Academy in Detroit. “But it’s not anything specific to pastors. Detroit is not a very safe place.”
Michigan allows pastors to decide if someone registered to carry a handgun can do so for protection inside churches.
The clergy in Detroit who arm themselves say they do so because of the high overall crime rate. But churchgoers elsewhere have been the target of violent attacks several times in recent years:
_ Last year in a New Jersey church, a man fatally shot his estranged wife and a man who intervened in the attack.
_ A pastor was found stabbed to death in August in an Oklahoma church.
_ A Maryville, Ill., preacher was gunned down during his Sunday sermon in March.
_ In December 2007, a gunman killed two people at a Christian youth mission center near Denver and two others at a megachurch in Colorado Springs.
_ Near Detroit, a man was shot to death in 2003 while worshipping in a Catholic church. And an attacker fatally shot a woman and wounded a child inside another Detroit church three years ago because of a domestic dispute.
“I don’t know what kind of issues people are bringing with them. You could be running from estranged husband, boyfriend,” said Bishop Charles Ellis III, pastor of the 6,500-member Greater Grace Temple in Detroit.
Ellis said he sometimes carries a gun, but never in the pulpit. His church has a “ministry of defense” for Sunday services made up of about 18 armed congregants who are off-duty law enforcement officers.
Clergy are adjusting to society, said the Rev. Kenneth J. Flowers, pastor of Greater New Mt. Moriah Baptist Church in Detroit.
“In addition to their faith, they are carrying weapons,” said Flowers, who does not carry a gun. “There used to be a time when everybody respected a pastor. Even a drunk would straighten up if a preacher came by.”
Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of an armed clergy, because Christ preached against violence and taught people they should love their enemies.
“But the scriptures also are clear that civil authority is part of God’s plan,” said Claude Wiggins, a former pastor and current assistant at the Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.
“In our country, it says in due process that you may bear arms to protect yourself. While we should be committed to trusting God, that doesn’t prevent us or command us to be totally passive,” Wiggins said.
Al Meredith, pastor of the Wedgwood church in Fort Worth, said some off-duty police officers who are deacons at his church carry guns, but he’s uncomfortable with the idea of an armed congregation.
“It discourages the crazies from acts of violence if they see uniforms around, but I don’t want everybody bringing guns,” Meredith said. “My ultimate conviction is what does the word of God say and what would Jesus do? Can you in your wildest imagination ever see Jesus packing a .38? I can’t imagine Peter and Paul carrying .45s.”
The Rev. William Revely, who sometimes wears his .357-caliber handgun while preaching at the Holy Hope Heritage Church in Detroit, does not worry whether it might be wrong for a man of God to carry a firearm in church.
“I’ve always felt that the only way to handle a bear in a bear meeting is to have something you can handle a bear with,” said the 68-year-old pastor, who practices at a gun range with another pastor. “We have to be realistic. I know too many people who’ve been shot, carjacked.”
Adams said most — if not all — of Westside’s 50 members have supported his actions after encountering the burglar.
“People want to look at Christians and the church as believers in God and ask ‘Why doesn’t God protect you?” Adams said. “The reality is God has given man free will. We have to use our God-given talents and protect ourselves.”
“Swedish family has asked for damages of nearly 30,000 euros after a Protestant pastor performed a funeral service apparently “drunk”, the influential Church of Sweden said Friday.
The pastor also raised eyebrows when he kissed the hand of the deceased’s daughter and gave an exaggerated hug to the 20-year-old granddaughter, the family said in a letter to the former state church which AFP saw.
“Everything seemed to go perfectly well until this pastor came in mumbling for 30 minutes,” the family said, complaining that he had alcohol on his breath. “Nobody, among his servers or in the audience, understood what he was saying.”
“The first thing we will now remember thinking about our loved one is the drunk pastor,” they added.
Apart from the 300,000 kronor (29,250 euros, 42,700 dollars) the family also asked for a refund of the funeral expenses.
The Church of Sweden which ceased to be a state church in 2000 confirmed to AFP that it had received the complaint, saying the issue was being investigated.”
Isn’t all Christianity exploitative?
That would be the view of many who’ve never had contact with this curious religion but as one who’s been on the inside, I can definitively say there are bright sides and darker sides to Christianity.
Some of the most wonderful people I have met and observed have ... Continue reading »
