In a thoroughly disgusting interview, Volz continues to try and protect the brand he says he would be willing to die for...

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"No one can convince me that the prayer and worship in that room is not pleasing to the Lord." So said Eric Volz about IHOPKC, who until recently was the crisis manager of Bicklegate. In that role, Mr. Volz has been trying his best to distract, blame the victims, and make disgusting allusions to protect IHOP and Bickle as best he can. As this is being written on February 8, 2024, a new accuser has now stepped forth, fully disclosing her name, who alleges Bickle began sexually abusing her at age 14. She had stayed quiet because she though she was the only one. There appears to be corroborating witnesses including her father who reportedly drove to Kansas City to tell Bickle to stay away from his daughter. Yet despite this and the other indisputable proofs so far, Eric Volz has maintained this public facing to protect the brand at all costs. Even after he stepped down last week, he felt compelled to give an hour-long softball interview from an adoring pastor-fan, linked above. While long, I want to only focus on the disinformation and outlandish garbage Volz is still selling. Please realize this gives me no pleasure. I do not know Mr. Volz and he seems like a fine fellow who has done a lot of good for the falsely accused. The problem here is Mike Bickle is not falsely accused. The story from the primary Jane Doe has been verified by multiple sources. Bickle himself has slowly started to admit more and more. I would say where there is smoke there is fire but Bicklegate is currently burning all of IHOP down, despite how much Eric Volz thinks God is somehow pleased by a 24-7 prayer concept that was founded upon false lies and false prophecies. He is not. Volz never should have agreed to defend the devil here. I hope the 30 pieces of IHOP silver were worth it. Let us reason once more beloved.

"I have been coming to IHOPKC for about seven years. I have dear friends there. My life and walk with the Lord was really affected by their night and day prayer model, the devotion of the singers and musicians, the maturity they had in the word." - Eric Volz

This, along with the opening quote, reveal how undiscerning Eric Volz is and why someone who is so ga-ga over IHOP should probably not been assigned as its crisis manager since his opinion is obviously not objective. The 24-7 prayer model is never required remotely in scripture. It became forced because students were required to attend for credit. They were harassed to keep journals mystifying their experience. Kundalini and eastern mysticism practices were reported by people who escaped the cult of IHOP. Recently, a 24-7 IHOPKC preacher was busted for soliciting sex. I understand that it "feels" pious but it is not. One other thing we know for certain is that IHOPKC was never mature in the word of God. They ascribed to dominionism and the bridal paradigm. The Charismaniacal powers that be are dead set on saving the concept of IHOP even though it is now proven to have been founded by a purely carnal predator. There is nothing "Christian" about IHOP. God is revealing these things because He will not be mocked. Merely changing the head of the snake does not solve the fact that at its root, IHOP was never of God.

"There has been so much unfair criticism of the way IHOP had handled the early days but they were completely blindsided. From my perspective, the crises started for the organization on October 24^th because that was when the full breadth of the allegations were presented to the ELT. The day after the allegations were presented he was asked to not come onto the property and he has not been back since. When I got to KC and I saw how vicious some of the adversaries were. From my perspective, IHOP has handled this very responsibly." - Eric Volz

Volz uses this tactic often - try and muddy the waters. Who cares if you say October 24^th and someone else says October 9^th. The larger point is that IHOP was not blindsided. The advocates had been communicating these problems for months. Even Volz admits the someone who knew the primary Jane Doe had contacted him five months earlier! So please, stop pretending the IHOP and the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) are the real victims here. They are not. Eric also never mentions that right after being given the 50-page confidential document from the advocates, they shared it with Bickle! Now Volz wants an attaboy for the fact that Bickle was told correctly to not come on the IHOP property, and he has not? Is the bar set so low? IHOPKC has handled this very responsibly? How can you say that with a straight face? They lied initially, they shared the report with the perpetrator, they smeared the victims, they promised to bring in an independent investigator, then recanted that decision. They refused an impartial outside investigator and still blame the victims for that! Oh, and they leaked the lie that Misty Edwards and two others were named as victims when they never were so that they could publicly refute it and they could then use the denial to cast doubt on all the victims. Even Volz does it in this very interview despite it being known for a fact now to have been a lie! Yeah, those pesky women who were damaged by Bickle have been so vicious. Please.

"They did not resist at all in bringing in an outside agency to investigate. Just because someone presents allegations doesn't mean an organization has to bring in an outside party to investigate. The first phase should be for the organization to do their own evaluation but IHOP was not even allowed to really do that. Even from the beginning there was a pre-planned solution from the advocate group for IHOP to bring in an outside group, GRACE, to investigate. I don't know if I really have an opinion on that. I know that early on, the leadership was just saying, hey give us the details of these allegations so we can actually arbitrate and handle this in the right way but the advocate group wasn't willing to do that. And that was puzzling. It was puzzling then and it is puzzling now. The organization should have been given the opportunity to evaluate the full extent of the allegations but they never were." - Eric Volz

Here we come to Eric the distorter. First of all, IHOPKC has consistently resisted bringing in an outside investigative source. They initially said they would, then reneged on that promise. Then they lawyered up by bring in a law firm to defend the interests of IHOPKC and brought Volz in as their public relations flack. Even today, Volz claims they had to move forward with their own investigation! Stop lying! This notion that there are some unwritten rules that say an organization should first investigate themselves is pure bovine excrement. It smacks of blatant stupidity that an organization should be the first line of investigating into itself. Gee, I wonder what they will find? Note here another trick Volz consistently relies on is floating a ridiculous premise and then stating that he may not agree with it or have an opinion on it. Then why say it at all! Does anyone truly find it odd that the victims spanning four decades would want someone objective to do the investigation? Volz consistently acts as if this was somehow unreasonable when anyone with any reason should conclude the opposite. These women allege decades of abuse. Why in the world should they trust the abusers friends and co workers to be in charge of the investigation? That is not the "right" way and Eric Volz knows this. It is not "puzzling." What is puzzling is why Volz would prostrate himself on the altar of a man so clearly wrong that his own friends just kicked him out of his own church! The organization needs to step back and let unbiased people investigate because there may well be fault within the organization! Were any of the allegations brought to them prior? How did no one know there was this ongoing problem. No one noticed the lock on the interior of Bickle's office? Please.

"Speaking about McNamara (the IHOP Investigator), - people were like how can she investigate if she is a member of the church? But she's a lawyer, she is bound by certain ethics. So there was no reason why she couldn't meet with victims. Another bizarre thing is this advocate group did present multiple names as victims of Mike Bickle and then they would say there were other names that were given, examples of inappropriate relationships. Three of those women, within ten days of the allegations being made public, issued public statements refuting that they were victims. One of them actually went as far to say that she felt victimized by the advocate group. I was shocked when I heard people in the community say these women did not have credibility. The advocate group said these women will never tell the truth because they are protecting Mike Bickle. There was so much rumors and hearsay that the only way for IHOP to responsibly navigate this was to say we need to see direct evidence. Eye-witness testimony, emails, text messages. So there were five women making allegations, three of them say they were not victims but felt victimized by the advocate group - I would say it was unique in terms of the level of false accusation coming against IHOPKC." - Eric Volz

Let's first deal with McNamara. If I was a victim of IHOP, and that's what these women are, I would not want the lead investigator pulled from the congregation. Are you kidding me? Even giving her the full benefit of seriously undertaking her ethical charge, there is no way she is not at least unconsciously biased! While on this matter, it is not appropriate for Eric Volz or IHOP to decide what the victims of sexual abuse are comfortable with. The entire premise is insulting. The second major point here is Volz recycling the exposed lie about Misty Edwards and the "leaked" three women. They were not leaked by the advocates because they have now publicly said that Edwards was never even listed as a Jane Doe. NEVER Eric - stop lying! After Misty's post two weeks ago, she has lost all credibility. She tried to paint herself as the victim, as Volz is trying to do here as well, and it is not just unseemly. It is disgusting. The actual victims have spent decades being lied to, coerced, manipulated, bullied spiritually, as well as have a man twice their age, in a position of spiritual authority sexually abuse them. When you add to this the new charges of another woman who says Bickle started abusing her when she was 14, and maybe Volz should spend more time in prayer than defending predators. The only rumors and hearsay in this case were the false leaks IHOP perpetrated regarding these three women, who were not listed as Jane Does. It allowed them to publicly refute it so the Bickle backers could point to them to dismiss the real victims. The fact that Volz is still doing this after it has been exposed only reveals the depth of his duplicity. There are no false allegations coming against IHOPKC. They are not the victims here Eric. Neither are the three women who were never Jane Does. Stop belittling the real victims.

"Even today there are people demanding saying the solution is to bring in a mutually agreed upon third party, which is essentially saying that victims have a right to accept whoever you are going to bring in to investigate and that is a made up process. I know it sounds good and it sounds fair, I can see a case for that maybe in some situations but IHOP is a sovereign organization. Most serious organizations will hire law firms to come in and do independent investigations or internal investigations. Lawyers know what the legal standards are. They are trained in the proper chain of custody things. They are trained on how to interview people. They know how to take depositions and statements." - Eric Volz

It is not a made-up process Eric. No one is saying IHOP KC must do anything. They have chosen an unrighteous path designed to protect themselves. If Mike Bickle and IHOP are so innocent, why all the resistance to an outside investigation? It's not like Jane Doe number one is insisting that her uncle do the investigation. Who cares that you think IHOP is sovereign. You want to know who is sovereign Eric? God is sovereign. Why all of a sudden is Volz now speaking about IHOP as if it not a church? The outside investigative sources all employ lawyers too. They understand things like legal standards, chain of custody things, and depositions. These were all red herring arguments and Volz knows it. This does reveal the heart of one of the deepest problems here about how IHOP has handled this. Instead of acting like a good faith broker as a member of the body of Christ they have withdrawn into their shell and played cover my butt games. Instead of wanting the truth they have lawyered up and hired PR men to try and gloss over this. God is not going to be mocked Eric and in the end, you will look very, very bad for your involvement in this attempted cover-up.

"I spent some time with Boz. Really enjoyed our conversation. I think he has done a lot of really important work. But he did effectively, I believe wrongly accuse IHOP of several things. He definitely made some public comments that maybe it was just lawyering but it felt unethical. At one point he tweeted saying IHOP needs to be investigated for financial discrepancies, I don't remember the exact wording. I was like, based on what? He was one of the people promoting this idea that an attorney cannot be independent yet later the person they wanted to represent them was an attorney. I think one of the reasons why the advocate group and Boz never agreed to IHOP investigators is they needed somebody from the clergy sexual abuse advocacy community. It's a pretty small community. There is only a couple of Christian investigative organizations. There are some individuals but they all know each other. They are either on each other's boards or have worked together. There is this sort of worldview. We did a lot of research on those groups in terms of what constitutes abuse. I think there is a certain number of practitioners that would only accept because it would increase the likelihood that there would be abuse found. For example there are people that would say anytime someone in ministry that has any form of sexual contact with someone that is subordinate to them that's automatically abuse. I don't know that I disagree with that but I also know where there can be instances of where someone who might be younger or subordinate can seduce a minister. That's why it is important to actually get the facts and question the people involved." - Eric Volz

Here we come to the attempts to discredit the advocate group and the victims. Volz and IHOP know they cannot stand on the ground they have set up if they do not smear the other side so people split the bill and think there are mistakes and problems on both sides. There are not. One side is filled with victims and the other side are people trying to continue their victimization. So, Volz makes a pretty stunning statement here accusing Boz Tchividjian with unethical behavior. I cannot speak to the tweet in question but Boz is a big boy and hopefully Eric will be hearing from them soon legally for making such a defamatory public statement. By the way, using church funds to pay congregants to pretend to do legal investigations? Yeah, I would ask for financial disclosure too if I attended IHOP. How much did they pay Volz?

Putting that aside, let us not lose sight of the horribly sickening charge Eric Volz makes here. He actually has to gall to claim that the reason the victims want an outside agency that specializes in clergy abuse is it would increase the likelihood of a finding of clergy abuse. Wow. Volz defames the professionals whose entire lives is devoted to helping victims as well as the actual victims of Mike Bickle. Disparaging their motive, I might add infers that they know they are lying. It is a sick form of projection as Volz knows full well what IHOP is engaging in is trying to NOT find any clergy abuse. Then look at the revolting example he gives. He does his trick first where he floats a repulsive notion and then immediately distances himself from the very idea he espoused. He is making the argument however, that there can be differing opinions regarding a minister who has sexual contact with a subordinate and whether that is abuse? What else should we call it? Let's play along with his revolting example. So, let's say Jane Doe number one, who was 19 at the time "seduced" the then 42-year-old married Mike Bickle. Is Eric Volz really suggesting that this let's Bickle off the hook? I understand temptation is difficult for all of us in our flesh, but don't we hold the 42-year-old minister to a higher standard than the 19-year-old sheep? Either way, Jane Doe number one did not seduce Mike Bickle. Volz is only floating this notion to again cast doubt on her as a victim. Maybe he would say the 14-year-old also seduced poor Mike. This is absurd in its naked transparency.

"IHOP had no choice but to proceed with its investigation. The report came out yesterday and from the advocate group's perspective it's incomplete but they chose not to participate and that's unfortunate because IHOP didn't have access to the information they claim to have. I don't think IHOP is in crisis mode anymore. The only real crisis anymore is coming from the constant bombardment of accusation from the outside." - Eric Volz

Are you catching what Volz is doing? It is now the victims that are to blame for any shortcomings with the sham report from McNamara. Volz even mocks that Boz had complained about some "unfortunate things" that were on the website of the Lathrop Group, lawyers employed by IHOP. What he fails to mention is that on their website they were bragging about three legal wins they had defending those charged with clergy abuse! That is what their business is! Gee, I wonder why the advocacy group said no to them? Not only is he casting the blame on the victims, but he is again casting IHOP as the victim! The only crisis is the constant bombardment from the outside? He recorded this before the new 14-year-old Jane Doe accusation, so these comments are sure not aging well. Maybe there is time now for Bickle's sister to head up that investigation. Ridiculous. As the interview is now winding down Eric Volz is asked if he thinks Bickle did anything wrong.

"For sure, he admitted it. He acknowledged it to us when we questioned him. The things he has acknowledged took place over 20 years ago. He denies the allegations of spiritual abuse. There's just a lot of confusing story points. One of the main ones being that he would use the same phrase about his wife dying. He gave a really believable explanation for that, privately. So that's not for me to share. That is something that would come out in an investigation if those people making that claim would participate with a future investigation. Again, without seeing evidence, he is innocent until proven guilty. So, I agree with the McNamara report that he engaged in inappropriate sexual contact, clergy misconduct but I don't think you can conclude there was abuse until an investigator is given the opportunity to question those women claiming they were abused. I just do not believe an accuser is automatically above an accused." - Eric Volz

No one is making the argument that the accusers were above the accused as a default position. We are beyond that point now. The Jane Doe number one story is verified and led to IHOP officially cutting all ties with Bickle. Mike has himself started to own up to somethings while trying to pretend others are somehow untrue. He denies abuse because he understands how damming those charges are and Volz is running cover for him by claiming inappropriate sexual contact and clergy misconduct do not somehow rise to the level of abuse. I am reminded of Bill Clinton's deposition when he tried to parse the definition of the word "is." Maybe the new charges involving the then 25-year-old Bickle and his 14-year-old victim will help clarify things for Volz regarding what constitutes abuse and what doesn't. Maybe then he will stop repeating the sorry talking point that the crimes were over 20 years ago, as if that matters to God. As if sexual abuse only counts if you get caught within a 20-year window. Eric Volz is simply not believable here at all. So Bickle gave a really believable explanation for why he was telling all of these young girls that he wanted to have sexual contact with that his wife was going to die. Really? You'd like to tell us but it's the advocate group's fault for why you can't? Please Eric, you are embarrassing yourself and bringing repudiation onto the name of Jesus Christ.

At one point, Volz speaks about a statistician who estimates half of the prayer in the past 25 years has come up out of IHOPKC. Putting aside the ludicrous nature of such a statement, what does that matter to whether or not Mike Bickle is a predator or not? You see, it supports their spiritual cover story that this is all spiritual warfare. That the real target is not Bickle but the unbiblical, 24-7 prayer movement that Bickle founded based on lies and false prophecies. As if God is somehow pleased with that. They refuse to see the judgement right in front of their own faces. Towards the end of the video, the fanboy interviewer gushes that Volz said he was prepared to die for the prayer movement. Well, it seems professionally and spiritually he has finally told the truth.

Reverend Anthony Wade - February 9, 2024

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.