Friday, January 09, 2009
The Church/Cult - Christ/Pharisee Line
From the Washington Post:
What we learn form this is that the line between being a church and being a "cult," in the pejorative sense of that word, is a thin one. The line between representing Christ and being a Pharisee is a thin one as well. This is legalism run amok, which tends, in my book, to define the lines we are discussing here.
As everyone should know by now, I tend to be pretty "big tent" when it comes to people doing things in the name of Jesus - but this is one place where I would draw a hard line. I see only ruined lives coming from a situation like this. Some may temporarily think their lives blessed, but someday this house of cards will fall and those people will be set adrift, not merely confused, but likely with animosity to Christ. For me the key question is, "How do situations like this develop and how do we prevent it?"
This, frankly, is why I believe in denominations. Hierarchy is necessary to bring this pastor to heel. It is as simple as that. He is victimizing his congregation in such a fashion that they lack the ability to call him to account on their own. There needs to be an outside influence that can do so.
This phenomena happens in so many ways and to so many degrees. Not all of them end up really ugly like this. Some end up ugly only in dark corners, some end up where the personal peccadilloes of some pastor, with limited and hidden victims are just allowed to continue "unnoticed." Only a formal accountability structure, that comes from the outside of the congregation can provide the kinds of checks and balances to situations like these. Only such a structure can detect them before they get out of hand and stop them from growing into a major problem. People in the congregation often suffer from the frog in boiling water thing.
We need to know when we are walking towards the line, not when we have crossed it.
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Rob Foster was 16 when his family unraveled. He had told his parents that he wanted to leave Calvary Temple, the Pentecostal church in Sterling the family had attended for decades. But church leaders were blunt with his parents: Throw your son out of the house, or you will be excommunicated. And so that December two years ago, Gary and Marsha Foster told Rob that he had to leave. They would not see him or talk to him.OK, for starters, a Washington Post piece does not amount to sufficient evidence to make a judgment on this particular congregation. But let's take these representations at face value for purposes of this discussion. If not this congregation, I bet most of us know of one that really is like this.
[...]
But for hundreds of members who have left the church during the past decade, Calvary is a place of spiritual warfare, where ministers urged them to divorce spouses and shun children who resisted the teachings. Scott is twisting the Bible's message, they say, and members who challenged the theology were accused of hating God.
They had joined eagerly, drawn to Scott's energy as a new religious broadcaster and his commitment to living by the literal word of the Bible. He defined the church. But just as he built Calvary, they say, Scott transformed it, taking it from a vibrant, open church to a rigidly insular community over which he has almost total control.
What we learn form this is that the line between being a church and being a "cult," in the pejorative sense of that word, is a thin one. The line between representing Christ and being a Pharisee is a thin one as well. This is legalism run amok, which tends, in my book, to define the lines we are discussing here.
As everyone should know by now, I tend to be pretty "big tent" when it comes to people doing things in the name of Jesus - but this is one place where I would draw a hard line. I see only ruined lives coming from a situation like this. Some may temporarily think their lives blessed, but someday this house of cards will fall and those people will be set adrift, not merely confused, but likely with animosity to Christ. For me the key question is, "How do situations like this develop and how do we prevent it?"
This, frankly, is why I believe in denominations. Hierarchy is necessary to bring this pastor to heel. It is as simple as that. He is victimizing his congregation in such a fashion that they lack the ability to call him to account on their own. There needs to be an outside influence that can do so.
This phenomena happens in so many ways and to so many degrees. Not all of them end up really ugly like this. Some end up ugly only in dark corners, some end up where the personal peccadilloes of some pastor, with limited and hidden victims are just allowed to continue "unnoticed." Only a formal accountability structure, that comes from the outside of the congregation can provide the kinds of checks and balances to situations like these. Only such a structure can detect them before they get out of hand and stop them from growing into a major problem. People in the congregation often suffer from the frog in boiling water thing.
We need to know when we are walking towards the line, not when we have crossed it.
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