"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. - Amos 5:21-24 (ESV)
The great Charismaniacal machine's primary function is to protect the brand. Churchianity is now a billion-dollar industry when you factor all things in. There are people who enjoy great levels of power and greed and comfort from their position within this hierarchy. That is why they naturally gravitate to dominionism and the worship of this country. Because they like the excess this country allows them. They like the sin this country encourages. That is why they are always chasing this fictional "revival," even though the bible promises no such thing. One role that the machine assigns is in rehabilitating those that are exposed as fallen leaders through their own expression of the sin excess, they idolize. We saw just recently the collective debacles of Mike Bickle, Robert Morris and now Dr. Michael Brown. Before them we saw the likes of Ravi Zacharias, Brian Houston, Carl Lentz, and Mark Driscoll, just to name a few. Part of the rehabilitation of these wolves is the notion that the focus in these cases should be on their restoration, as opposed to their victims. Ironically, Dr. Brown was a primary deliverer of propaganda such as this and he was very good at it because he always had a certain level of gravitas, but apparently not anymore. As such, the task this week fell to Shane Idleman, dominionist extraordinaire from California. The above link is to an article that he ran on Crosswalk, which was designed to provide cover for fallen leaders and smear the discernment ministries that expose them. So, let us reason once more together through this article.
"Over the years, we've seen many failures and fallings in the evangelical church. And it begs the question: WHAT IS GOING ON? In my article, Why Do Leaders Fall? I wrote: "They fall for the same reason that all Christians fall. Each of us is drawn away by our own evil desires and enticed. When these desires are acted upon, they lead to sin (cf. James 1:14-15). Sin has a life cycle " it either grows or withers depending on whether we feed or starve it. John Owen, the prolific Puritan author, wrote, 'Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you'." A quick word to those whose faith is faltering because of fallen leaders: Never look to man, they will let you down " look to God, He never will." - Shane Idleman
It is easy to quote trite sayings like this because they are obviously true. The problem of course is that the NAR apostate church, which Shane is a leader in, spends every day reinforcing and teaching the opposite. Spiritual dependency is bred for the cult of personality pastors. That is the Purpose Driven Model that Rick Warren has taught this generation of church leaders. Instead of Jesus being the vision caster, that responsibility falls to the pastor. Instead of trying to save people, which would be God's responsibility, they have learned to try and church people, which is their responsibility. The result is the compromise of the gospel of course but it also breeds dependency upon man instead of God. So, it is a little rich to then simply wave your hand and say, oh you should never look to man! Yes, leaders fall for the same reasons any of us do. The issue remains of what we are to do with such fallen leaders. When a congregant falls, we seek to restore them with love but that restoration is to their walk with Jesus Christ. What Shane and the NAR tries to do with fallen leaders is shift that restoration process to their job, not their walk. You see, these folks are big earners. Mike Bickle, Robert Morris, Dr. Michael Brown made millions of dollars for the Charismaniacal Industrial Complex. Not just money for their own personal enrichment but for all of the ancillary monies that are leeched off of their success. There are forces who are solely invested in getting those earners back into the ring to earn again. Jesus? Yeah, they will pay the necessary lip service but at the end of the day it is about the power and money that is on the line. That may sound cynical but just we have decades of data to draw from. Tangible real-life examples. In 2006 Ted Haggard was the head of the National Association of Evangelicals. He used to rail against homosexuality every week from his pulpit in Colorado where he had 14000 congregants. Then it was revealed that he was engaged in a 20-year relationship with a male prostitute that he liked to do crystal meth with. Oops. Within six months Haggard declared that he was repented and ready to be restored, hallelujah! Even though he would not return to his church, he did become a pastor again of another church in the same state, where he served for many years until a more recent scandal where children were sexually abused. Perhaps God knew what He was talking about when He established pastoral qualifications? Perhaps if people had been more worried about restoring Haggard's walk rather than his employment, children would not have been hurt, the cause of Christ not further damaged and even Haggard might have been genuinely repentant.
"Because of the Internet's ability to spread massive amounts of information, it's not surprising that so much is coming out. With this HUGE tidal wave of information being shared on countless social media outlets, it's easier than ever before to expose sin. On the one hand, exposure is sorely needed and long overdue, but on the other hand, it becomes very destructive when it is used as a weapon by arrogant and judgemental people. To truly change lives, truth must be seasoned with grace and watered with hope. Instead of pointing people to hope and restoration, we often rush to premature judgment: "Guilty Until Proven Innocent." Many outlets that profit from click-bait are eager to drag someone through the mud again, and again, and again." - Shane Idleman
What? The destructive factors are within the behavior of the fallen leaders, NOT in the reporting of such. Shane is reflexively trying to share the blame. The advocate group in Kansas City does not share ONE iota of the blame for Mike Bickle. People correctly commenting on the despicable nature of Robert Morris do not share ONE iota of the blame. Truth needs to be seasoned with truth, because there is no grace in a lie. The issue that people like Shane always miss is that our position should be about protecting the sheep, not the wolves. The sheep need the grace. The sheep need the consideration. Notice here that Shane is whining about hope and restoration. That should NOT be our focus as church leaders. Our focus should be helping victims, spreading sound doctrine, and restoring the walk, assuming the fallen leader was actually saved. That is not however, what he is advocating here. Everything is always couched to help his fellow church leaders, regardless of what they may have done. I do not recall any instances of accusations of guilt that were not born out in reality far, far worse than even initially reported. The original Mike Bickle accusations paled in comparison to the reality of his multiple child victims. Originally, Morris tried to pretend that he had a lapse of judgment with a "young lady" but it turned out she was 12 years old at the time. What Morris and Bickle backers tried to do, which we also just saw in the Dr. Michael Brown case, is control the flow of information to lessen the severity of the backlash. That is all Shane is advocating for here. People like Bickle, Brown, Morris or Ravi Zacharias were not dragged through the mud. They secretly lived in the mud while pretending they were squeaky clean in the name of Jesus. Someone correctly saying that Mike Bickle and Robert Morris were child predators are not being "judgmental." That is absurd.
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