Christian Conversation
All of the following posts are worthy of your time.
• On the heels of the alleged sexual abuse of a megachurch pastor, Ann Voskamp’s amygdala is addressed clearly and biblically at A Better Country.
• A repost from Persis at Tried with Fire lifts the veil on abuse in the church.
• In whom is your trust? A needful post from Pastor Sam Powell.
On 15 January, 2018 Ann Voskamp wrote a post on her blog entitled, “The Church’s Weinstein Moment: Nailing Some Theses for Assault to the Door of the Church”, which addressed the allegations of sexual abuse against High Point Memphis Pastor Andy Savage. Click here to download a PDF of the original, cached post.
In the post, Ms. Voskamp plagiarized material written by Wade Mullen, Director of M.Div. program and professor at Capital Seminary & Graduate School, without citation.
Ms. Voskamp subsequently corrected the post, which has now also been removed.
On 20 January, 2018 she issued a retraction. See below or click here.
In Ms. Voskamp’s Instagram post dated 1 November, 2016 she writes,
“…people who love the Cross — are people who will die to things they love. . To carry a cross means you come to an intersection, and you choose Him and never look back. . To become cross-centered, cross-shaped means — Choosing Christ in the midst of everything else — may mean losing everything else. . But gaining everything that lasts forever. . Spiritual formation — is ultimately cruciformation. . And this cultural moment is begging for a new way, a different way, a broken way of living broken and given like bread into a starving world. . Reformation and transformation happens in places where there is cruciformation. . Cruciformation — it’s is a a scientific definition, a term in molecular biology referring to the transformation from lineform DNA to cruciform (cross-shaped) DNA. . And this cultural moment is begging the DNA of all things to transform from a linear worldview, from a flat-line view of the world, to a cross-shaped view of everything. . From flat screens, from flat faith, from flat-line living — to cross-shaped thinking, cross-shaped seeing, cross-shaped choosing, cross-shaped living, to cruciformation. . The way a life transforms is to become cruciform. . #NewBlogPost #LinkInProfile #TheBrokenWay””.
She took the word “cruciformation” and references to DNA from Kevin Sheehan, using his writing almost word-for-word.
In Ms. Voskamp’s Twitter post dated 3 February, 2017 she writes,
“Esther Generation, live upsidedown kingdom and get into formation to transform the nations by our selfgiving cruciformation #IFGathering2017”
She took the phrase “upside down kingdom” from Timothy Keller, who coined the term in 1999.
I confess that I’ve never been a big fan of “watch blogs”. I think they’re often more gossip than fact. Many of them frequent in hearsay and conjecture rather than truth. They have a standard operating procedure whenever news of alleged sexual abuse makes its way to social media.
First, announce that you believe the victim! Second, the guilt of the pastor and complicity of church leadership is presupposed. Third, skip the trial and proceed immediately to sentencing in the court of public opinion.
However, while they can be rather slipshod in their approach, some watch bloggers have correctly identified a predictable pattern of behavior by church leadership when allegations of sexual abuse are made public. The initial social media response, especially from well-known evangelicals with a platform, is often, “Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law! Stop your malicious gossiping!” These responses sometimes appear “canned” and include deflection and ignoring known facts.
But, what puzzles me most is that these well-known Christian leaders, often authors, conference speakers and pastors with a substantial social media presence, defer to the judgment of manmade courts. In essence, they abdicate their biblical responsibility to the state.
In what other situation would the church do this? Would the church defer to the courts in the case of adultery? Abortion? Of course not. These are considered worthy of church discipline, though not illegal in our nation.
But, when a pastor sexually abuses a child, suddenly church leadership abdicates biblical judgment and authority to the state. “Let justice take it’s course!”
Is this truly indicative of what’s often referred to as the pastoral “good ol’ boys club”? One individual tweeted, “When it’s Matt Lauer, it’s despicable. When it’s a favorite pastor, it’s a mistake.”
It is quite an unpopular opinion to say that you think both sides are wrong. I believe that the watch bloggers are wrong, the leadership who cover up sexual abuse are wrong, and leadership with influence and a platform who provide cover and deflection are wrong. At the end of the day, they all resort to extremes. They overcorrect and land in opposite ditches, missing the truth which is often found somewhere in the middle of the road.
If I may share a few observations…Having followed several of the more welI-known men in this klatch since 2007, I believe that we’re seeing the American Civic Religion on display in these tweets. By this I mean a blending of American political conservatism with the church.
In too many cases the church has been pickled with the idea of conservative politics. BTWN and Fred Butler’s mockery and scorn is directed toward politically liberal women. They’ve failed to recognize the actual sin issue which is prevalent in both our culture and some of the church today…the very real abuse of women. Instead, they practice mockery, scorn and derision. This seems to indicate, at the very least, an abject insensitivity or the sin of misogyny. It also demonstrates the sin of scoffing, something which is clearly addressed in Psalm 1:1.
As Christians, this should lead us directly back to the Scriptural standard, a bar which is set very high, for men in church leadership.
“…namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion. For the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.” – Titus 1:6-9
Some of these men have clearly disqualified themselves and we should have nothing to do with them.
In rethinking our way of living, and transitioning from consumers to producers, we’ve adopted the motto made popular during World War II.
Use it Up
Wear it Out
Make it Do
Do Without!
With the continuing poor economy, have you made any changes in your lifestyle? What type of things are you doing to save money?
Jules Diner 