Let my people go

SOMETHING I POSTED today in response to a Dallas Observer blog entry about a demonic, sexually abusive pastor.

David says:

I'm the Johnny-come-latest, I guess -- I wonder if my comment will even be read. I was "led" to this story and this site, via a strangely winding path. What's more, it just so happens that earlier in the day, I was re-reading a book I received 12 years ago which talks about the very same sort of mind control/occultism/hypnotics/sex slavery going on (only in much more sophisticated form) in very high-ranking circles of business, government, the military, and the CIA. It appears that Allen is an amateur in using these techniques, but very powerful people in this country and worldwide do the same stuff and get away with it. Google "Franklin Cover-Up" if you have a strong stomach. (The book I'm reading, "Operation Mind Control," is out of print, but Google that too and see what information comes up.)

At one time, I was a member of a church with a sexually-abusive-yet-virtually-bulletproof leader. Surely all you folks down there in Dallas have heard of Garner Ted Armstrong? While Armstrong was never alleged to have gone to the sick and sadistic lengths as Allen, the shape of his story is similar.

His own dad tossed him out of the "family" church for sexual indiscretions, but Ted went on to found his own splinter group, attracting a whole new crop of followers who'd never heard of his prior problems. (And some old followers who were well aware of them.) Years later, more revelations surfaced. When his own handpicked church board of trustees refused to properly discipline him, I left, as did about half the membership. Some people continued to make the same excuses for Armstrong that I've seen made for Allen on this blog. Some of them quoted the same scriptures.

Sadly, these things happen all the time in any setting where the powerful have regular contact with the powerless. But especially in religious groups.

DATJ is right about the fundamental problem being the way the church is structured. It's not only Church of God in Christ, but COGIC is an extreme example. The "pyramid" form of church government -- where the leaders rule from the top down -- is unbiblical and imported from the false church (which in turn imported it from paganism). It leads to bondage to men rather than service to God.

The original church established at Pentecost did not have such a system. The early assemblies, like little villages, or perhaps more to the point, families, were conducted by a group of elders. The overseeing elders (presbuteros) could also be referred to as ministers (which means merely a servant -- Greek diakonos, waiter or manservant), "overseers" (episkopos), or "pastors" (poimen). These elders were not high-and-mighty, but humble and down to earth. Even Jesus himself humbled himself by washing his disciples' feet. Show me one man who is greater than Jesus? Yet many men calling themselves pastors, elders or bishops today men strut around like they were kings. Some even sit on thrones in their churches.

Those who put ministers on pedestals are in danger of idolatry. "Touch not mine anointed" refers to the whole people of Israel, not just its leaders. That verse would be more accurately applied as a warning to wicked false ministers not to touch God's previous saints -- the opposite of how these false ministers use it, as a shield for their own wickedness.

Through 23 years of study, I believe DATJ is also on to something when he speaks of the problem of the hierarchical pyramid structure of so many churches, and the resulting "scramble for position and power" (in Bible Girl's words) that inevitably results. To put "position and power" in front of men is like putting cheese in front of a mouse.

The truth is that the Reformation still is not complete. The Body of Christ at large is still in bondage to false ideas and systems which came out of Babylon, not out of the Bible. Because these systems are contrary to the will of God, they will continue to produced ungodly fruit.

"Where were the overseers of the overseers?" Cherrie Mackey wrote. Apparently, turning their heads -- or perhaps immersed in the same kind of behavior themselves. That is the problem with hierarchies, which allows a few men to wield power over many, without commensurate accountability. This in itself is an evil which cannot fail to lead to more evil.

Mackey asked rhetorically, "On the other hand ... how can you completely disregard and discount an institution with such an auspicious beginning and rich spiritual history?"

She is confusing the move of God with the institution -- two different things. God may move at a particular time and place, through particular men. That does not necessarily mean that God's sanction is forever upon any organization that those men create. The spirit and the gifts are of God. The organizational shell is created by men. The BIble nowhere tells us to build organizations. It tells us to gather together to worship him.

Mackey realized this truth. "I simply became sick of the whole patriarchal, bullying bunch of 'em and at that point started writing my own book of "Exodus." After many tears, much praying and not a little anxiety, I unceremoniously left the Church of God In Christ."

More of God's people -- not just in the COGIC but in other manmade institutions everywhere -- need to start coming out of Egypt. "Let my people go!"