GRRR

So I love the church.  When it is doing what Jesus told us to do and living how Jesus directs us to live then it’s truly a beautiful thing.  But below are some stories that I found on  MondayMorningInsights:  It’s just tragic to see such public figures making the church look like a joke.  Read at your own risk.

Wife Beating, Divorce, and Money Pleas…
Sounds like Hollywood, but it’s really the church.  This has not been a good week for church news in the mainstream media.  First, Megachurch pastors Randy and Paula White announce that they’ll be getting a divorce.  Randy will stay on and pastor the church in Florida, and Paula will take off for NYC and other places to work on her own ministry (including a pretty sizable TV gig).  You can read more here. Both blamed the two different directions their lives are going.

Meanwhile yesterday, Global Destiny Ministries members on Sunday circled their spiritual wagons around their pastor, Bishop Thomas Weeks III, now charged with beating his estranged wife, the nationally known evangelist Juanita Bynum.  According to one congregant there yesterday, “”There are three sides to every story.  Nobody has the right to judge anybody. God is in the midst of that and will work it out.” Come on… they guy beat his wife.  What’s the other side of the story?  That she deserved it?!  He has been charged with aggravated assault for allegedly choking, kicking and hitting his wife in a parking lot and making threats to kill her.  Yesterday, he told the GDM audience that it was the devil’s fault.

And finally, we have Ted Haggard’s ‘fundraising’ letter.  Haggard needs some support money for his new life stage helping the down and out; even though he’s made at least $338k since January of 2006; and still owns a house in Colorado Springs worth over $700k.

Here are three examples (in the past week alone) that show why so many people we are trying to reach have no respect for the church.  They think leaders like this are fake, and, quite frankly, a joke.  And, they think the people who blindly follow (and send money); in other words, “The Christians” are so blind and deluded, that they actually feel sorry for them.  No wonder we have such a hard time reaching people.  They think we’re naive at best, stupid at worst; and they literally want nothing to do with us.  Go figure.