Dan Edelen is starting a series ([1] [[2]) on “Cleansing the Charismatic Crackup,” and I thought I’d interact a little. Part of his posts includes a list of problems and solutions, and this is the part I will take a look at — you’ll still need to read his posts to get the full thrust of his argument. Here’s what he’s got so far:

Problem: In our rush to regain a proper pneumatology, today’s charismatics abandoned a proper Christology.
Solution: We need to get the focus back on Jesus.

Before I left my (charismatic) CLB, my wife and I held a conversation with some good friends. The four of us had been leaders and more recently had been spending time talking about some of the ills we saw and attempting to encourage one another on a path of endurance. One of us finally said something like, “You know, I really miss Jesus.” The statement really resonated, and we began to spend time together in the gospels — particularly the Sermon on the Mount. My experience of the charismatic movement is that it acknowledges and tends to preach that the Holy Spirit (and “everything”) points to Jesus… but the preaching is more often from the epistles or select Old Testament passages. It stands to reason, though, that if “everything” points to Jesus, we ought to take as close a look at him as we can in the gospels so that we will more easily recognize what does and doesn’t point to or exhibit the characteristics of Jesus.

Problem: Too much of the charismatic movement is self-centered. People rush around looking for a spiritual fix for selfish reasons. Too many are obsessed with more power. Too many leaders lack even the most basic humility.
Solution: Get the cross back into the picture.

I’ve been uncomfortable with images of the cross in the charismatic movement, as it tends to get wrapped up in the idea of personal sacrifice and “laying it on the altar.” What we’re really talking about is selflessness, which is sorely needed. It is true that many (not all) charismatic leaders can exhibit an arrogance that is falsely taken as confidence or faith. I said in conversation essentially that power takes a second place to dialogue and relationship, which is outward-focused. There are a lot of “bless-me” charismatics running around looking for the latest word or prayer ministry from the latest prophet or evangelist or whoever. An outward focus is imperative as the movement needs to learn to bless others rather than merely those within the movement.

Problem: The movement is awash is Old Testament rituals or theology that were fulfilled in Jesus.
Solution: Get back to the New Testament and its New Covenant.

I’m not convinced by this, for two reasons. First, the Old Testament and the New Testament are not in conflict as though one can make an either/or choice between the two, but one need always remember the gracious incarnation of Christ in understanding the two. Second, the issue is really one of hermeneutics, where the Old Testament is inappropriately allegorized or spiritualized or somehow reinterpreted to mean something new and completely foreign to the original hearers. Rampant types and shadows interpretation has to go — you can theologize pretty much anything that way, and pass it off as scripture. It’s scripture all right, but it doesn’t say what is often being purported. We’ve already mentioned the necessity of the gospels, which would be a good corrective here as well.

Problems: Discernment of any kind is sorely lacking at all levels within the movement. Many charismatic teachers craft entire theologies from disconnected or lone passages of Scripture.
Solution: Build a holistic worldview by teaching the Bible from cover to cover, not from topic to topic.

Here again, this is more a problem of hermeneutics rather than discernment. Well, perhaps in a few cases there’s some attendant lack of common sense. The movement does have notable responsible scholars within it, but there are also a number of untrained pastors and teachers who attempt to take their teaching uncritically from dubious sources of all types and pass it along. Dipping into pet passages is an all too common practice (see above) which could be corrected by using the Lectionary, if they could understand that doing so does, in fact, not limit the Holy Spirit.

Problems: Too many charismatics are more interested in what they can get than what they can give. Also, we love to talk about taking dominion over the kingdom of darkness, but we forget the primary means by which we cripple the Enemy’s purposes.
Solution: We need to be drilled on the Great Commission.

This has been mentioned above as selflessness and being outward-focused. Bringing in the Great Commission is my segue to say that a missional approach to one’s neighbours would go a long way toward making the necessary adjustment.

Problem: The charismatic movement is a cult–of celebrity.
Solution: Time for the old guard, who failed to guard what they were entrusted with, to get off the stage.

There really is no place for celebrity and for pedestal-sitting by those who are the annointed vessel of the hour. Humility, please. These leaders should be more concerned with integrity and respect than with fame and glory.

Problem: We let the miraculous enthrall us.
Solution: We need to be more discerning and less surprised by the miraculous.

I wold love to be unsurprised by the miraculous because of its ubiquity… but we just aren’t there. On the other hand, a proper response would be to worship God rather than be excited about the miracle itself. The miracle is the testimony, not the object of which is being testified. Let it all point to God, and catch those who are not so oriented and redirect their gaze.

Problem: The charismatic movement is obsessed with novelty.
Solution: We must understand that there is nothing new under the sun.

This novelty seems to crop up in new teachings or in new methods which get copied. We haven’t seen the widespread adoption of drop-kicking people to bring them healing, but there are smaller quirks that are transferred or copied. I sat in a meeting one time where one person was shaking in a certain characteristic way — I leaned over to the leader beside me and said, “Let me guess, [noted leader] prayed for him, right?” His response was a smile and a happy nod. Things that seem to work for one person or are quirks of their own personality are no formula for healing or blessing. There’s no need to copy it word-for-word and gesture-for-gesture. The movement would do well to consider the tried-and-true non-formulaic rich heritage of the Christian church, rediscovering some of the habits and practices which have been spiritual disciplines for centuries.

Problem: We continue to tolerate the aberrations of the past, the worst excesses of the charismatic movement, digging them up repeatedly for each new generation after they were long buried.
Solution: It’s time to grow up and face today. In many cases, the good old days weren’t all that good. Wrong doesn’t get right over time.

It’s time to become post-charismatic… and there’s no better reason than the one Dan has given to take note of Robbymac’s book, Post-Charismatic? (US residents need to purchase through Amazon.ca). I know I’ve said a lot about this book, but I really believe in what Rob has written. His research provides a movement-by-movement discussion of charismatic lessons that should be heeded. Time and again some “corrective” or new emphasis that is good is sought, but goes into error at some point along the way. Understanding what has typically thrown charismatic movements off the rails will be instructive for creating boundaries to keep on the track now.

Considering the list of problems and correctives, it seems to me they boil down to three primary concerns:

(1) A lack of humility, coupled with a focus on the man and the miracle.

(2) A lack of balanced grounding in Scripture using standard hermeneutic methods.

(3) A weak understanding of the work of Christ and the purpose of the church.

I think I’ve hit my arbitrary word-limit for today, so I’ll have to expound upon these three tomorrow. Stay tuned for part two.

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The wind from the blogosphere in the last few days is all about Todd Bentley and the Lakeland …uh, whatever. And amid the fray are a few that are casting a glance at a much broader scope. Are Christians gullible? Lee Grady says so, and
Ed Stetzer backs up the question. I think this may be one of those, “I’m sorry, but if you have to ask…” questions. I almost inadvertently said something about this gullibility last week when I commented on what is one of Ed’s examples in his post.

Two of the biggest questions out there are why and how did this happen? Honestly, this caught everyone by surprise — so much so that God apparently didn’t know about it when he spoke through the card-carrying apostles who recently “aligned” Mr. Bentley. And more to the point, why did it take so long for this to come out? Consider that Bentley’s board members evidently knew he was “a pathological liar” and that he’d been lying to them all along. They knew that they couldn’t verify all these resurrections, but when they approached Todd, he increased rather than decreased the number claimed. They knew that Bently had claimed to have heard from God concerning a fundraising effort when he admitted he had not. But did they put their foot down? No. They waited, and they covered up.

And then Todd filed to separate from his wife. Now they’re “supportively distancing” themselves, talking about having known things weren’t right. So why now? I’m sorry, you don’t gain points by saying later that you had known earlier. Either you didn’t know or you’re partly to blame for the fallout. Either you were duped or you participated in the deception. So which is it?

Now, if you claim you were duped, why did you prophesy and support what went on? If you did see it, why did you prophesy and support what went on? Why didn’t you speak up and put a stop to it? I’ve been reading Clay Shirkey’s book, Here Comes Everybody, and in one part he talks about the sexual abuse cases against the Catholic church, and the way they were dealt with in a “localized” fashion by moving around the offending priests from one parish to another while (I guess) they hoped that “things would be different this time.” The local parishes might be scandalized for a time, but “major synchronized outrage” was averted. Shirky then makes a very insightful statement: “This was a strategy not for ending the abuse but for managing the fallout.” (p.147) Of course he’s right, and it’s the same thing that happened in Lakeland. Once the other leaders became aware of what we’ll politely call “improprieties” (at least for now), fallout was inevitable. The choice to be made was whether on the one hand, the leaders would accept the fallout themselves, withdraw their acts to hide it and make every effort to put right what’s been wrong, or on the other hand to keep it quiet and attempt to deal with it internally, continuing to hide it so that it doesn’t become a public scandal. The problem is in the the restated comparisons… are they concerned for God’s name, or their own? Are they concerned for difficult fallout in the lives of the people who come to Lakeland, or in their own lives?

And I wouldn’t let Peter Wagner and his card-carrying ilk off that easily either. Same questions to them as well… if, as Wagner says, they became involved in order to address improprieties, then why start by prophesying, condoning, and commissioning? Talk about improprieties, and they get laid at the feet of those who are supposed to be (by their claims) the apostles over all the church. I think that Barb’s assessment of what will be said about the events and how they’ll be interpreted is quite accurate. Unfortunately.

A quick Google search brought up a blog that I’m not familiar with, but it looks like one of those heresy-hunting sites of which I’m so un-fond. But this time I found myself agreeing with a good amount of what was being said about Stacey Campbell and Patricia King. With Patricia King it sounds like there may be finger-pointing going on… by her account, those Christians who have spoken against Todd Bentley and the Lakeland revival have unleashed a curse against him. I guess it’s not his fault, then… and it was all God up to the point where this stuff all came out? I think not. Ms. King, by the way, is the reinvented Pat Cocking, who changed her name based on some prophetic word about being a child of the King. Earlier she had said it had something to do with her name being… well, you figure it out. I don’t know, I just got it second-hand… but when you title your ministry “Extreme Prophetic,” I think something’s generally amiss.

As for Ms. Campbell, you’ll know her name from the “ecstatic prophecy” she’s been doing ever since the Toronto Blessing days. Her ‘word’ for Todd at the “alignment” is on YouTube, and one would somewhat suspect that either the word was wrong or God was taken totally by surprise. Of course, it may be that the prophetic promises are still a future thing for Todd, and they were given now in order to help sustain him through the ordeal that lies ahead. At least, that’s what I would have said when I was on the defense team — and I can’t entirely say that it’s not accurate. What I can say is that if this is the case, the words should have been given privately to encourage Todd and not publicly to confuse the body. You’d think God would have mentioned that when he gave these ‘words’, in case the card-carrying apostles weren’t wise and discerning enough to just know that.

Now, I believe in the prophetic ministry, I really do. I’ve seen stuff, heard stuff, and said stuff… enough to know that you don’t have to have your ducks all beak-to-tail in order to hear and give a prophetic word… but seriously, all this is just a huge mess at the moment. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: the only way to salvage whatever was going on is to shut it right down and go back to square one, and just wait on God to see what happens and why, and ask again what to do about it if he does pour something out akin to revival. God knows we need it — what we don’t need are counterfeits or mishandling of the real thing to the point where we can’t tell the difference.

And having said all that, there was a time when I was on the defense team, speaking positively about the Toronto Blessing. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. (I mean literally, it’s still in my drawer.) I found the weirdest of the folk in Toronto hanging around the back and had conversations about all the barking and what it meant. I went up front, fell down, got up, fell down… did the whole thing. Then I came home and did the whole praying for people so that they could come up, fall down, get up, and fall down again. And I remember when I decided things had gone too far. It was precisely when I heard that Stacey Campbell and some others had started with this “ecstatic prophecy” thing, and I heard people defend it. Yes folks, it really is in the Bible. But what nobody seemed to notice despite my saying so at the time was that whenever it occurred in the Bible (no more than twice, if memory serves), it was always with disobedient people being humbled, even humiliated in the act. There was more going on than just the prophecy, which evidently wasn’t worth writing down — just the manner in which they were humbled by the Holy Spirit falling on them. You can see Stacey prophesy in the video, and decide whether “the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet” only when they need to turn pages and read from the Bible, or at all times.

The pullquote on Grady’s article is rather telling: “Among those who jumped on the Lakeland bandwagon, discernment was discouraged. They were expected to swallow and follow. The message was clear: ‘This is God. Don’t question.’” Chilling, isn’t it? And Jared Wilson goes a step farther, telling the Lakeland supporters, “You Got the Hero You Deserved.” While he’s correct in much of his post, I think I’d stop short of that conclusion… people can easily get swept up in it all, especially if they truly are gullible.

For my money, we’re just beginning (and some have started writing about) the recognized need for a sweeping Charismatic reform. It goes in cycles, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen a good house-cleaning…. someone already mentioned hearing the sound of whips cracking and tables being overturned. I don’t doubt it: Jesus is back in the House, and the Post-Charismatic experience is coming of age.

And that’s all I have to say about that — in this post, at least.

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At just the age of ten, Audrey was influenced by Aimee Semple McPherson and music performed in her services. She began composing songs and conducting choirs, and in the early 1950’s she formed the renown Harmony Chorus. In the 60’s, she began concerts throughout the United States similar to the present-day Bill Gaither HomeComing Concerts. She was the music director during the early years of Rex Humbard’s Cathedral of Tomorrow and was a significant figure in the early careers of many gospel artists notably including Andrae Crouch. Besides her music, she was the catalyst for the founding of two orphanages in Korea, bringing orphans into the USA for adoption. She died in 1996.

In 1959, she was sitting in the annual Christmas program at Bethel Union Church in Duarte California. After the procession of angels, shepherds, Mary, and Joseph,”Sleep in Heavenly Peace” was sung. At the conclusion of the song, the pastor exclaimed, “His name is Wonderful!” Audrey quickly grabbed her Bible and began searching her concordance for the names of Jesus given in the Bible, and had soon composed this song.

Of course, “His Name is Wonderful” has been sung by almost everyone, and I remember it from many different eras of my own faith background… right back to my youth, of course — not to mention summer camp.

His Name is Wonderful

His name is Wonderful, His name is Wonderful,
His name is Wonderful, Jesus my Lord;
He is the mighty King, master of everything,
His name is Wonderful, Jesus, my Lord.

He’s the great Shepherd, the Rock of all ages,
Almighty God is He;
Bow down before Him, love and adore Him,
His name is Wonderful, Jesus, my Lord.

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I guess it’s the tradition now ;^) Gotta come up with some humour…

So an evangelist and a pastor are out hunting, when suddenly a grizzly bear comes at them out of nowhere. They both turn and sprint back to their hunting cabin as fast as they can move — with the bear in hot pursuit. The evangelist reaches the door first and hurridly pulls it open. The pastor is right behind him, and flings himself past the evangelist into the cabin. The bear is hot on his heels, and charges inside after him, whereupon the evangelist slams the door shut from the outside. An anguished cry rings out from behind the door as the pastor screams, “What are you doing?!” The evangelist replies, “Hey, I just bring ‘em in — once they’re inside, they’re your responsibility!”

Alright, then. Congrats to Robbymac, celebrating five years of blogging.

And on with the linkage….

1. Kevin Cawley links up some notes on The Death of Christian Bookstores — not everyone will mourn. Yes, Bill, I saw your ears perk up.
2. Makeesha Fisher reviews the Five Mindfulness Trainings of Buddhism and the Twelve commitments of Christian neo monasticism
3. Bill Reichart: Rick Warren on the cover of TIME
4. Lainie Petersen guarantees you’ll laugh at the Demon Squirrel Story. I know I did.
5. iMonk’s Recommendation and Review: The NLT Study Bible — sounds very worthwhile, perhaps the best new study Bible since the NIV Study? Dare we hope so highly?
6. Kathy Escobar visits her metaphorical Egypt — take special note, those of you that have a “CLB“
7. Jared Wilson spills all you need to know about the Osteens in court… and it’s all about entitlement. Jared is spot-on… and this is one of the reasons I left my last church. Not to mention that whole prophetic thing that Pam Hogeweide describes… and I never even bothered to subscribe to “that list.”
8. Scot McKnight is interviewed about his blog and other matters. Speaking of Scot and his blog, he’s got some great words for teachers
9. Craig Blomberg (now blogging) posts on Demystifying Bible Translation and Where Our Culture Is with Inclusive Language. The piece gives some good insight into what went into the making of different translations, like the ESV, NLT, and TNIV. I disagree about the supremacy of the TNIV, though. Crossway has released the book of Jonah in the ESV Study Bible, as a downloadable PDF.
10. Speaking of Bibles, I know some people like those editions that take you through the entire Bible in a given period. My youngest daughter just read her age-targeted Message Bible in two days, and informs me that she really needs a new one now. Still, it sounds like the shorter time-frames aren’t as popular: “The One Week Bible” [is] Not Catching On, so Tyndale “Two Lifetimes Bible”.
11. TSK says: GloboChrist: The Book to Read. The full title is GloboChrist: The Great Commission Takes a Postmodern Turn. Looks interesting.
12. Grace says we should practice less
13. This is a riot, from BW-III: Britain is Repossessing America— I’m John Cleese, and I approved this Message; I have to say, some of these are pretty good ideas… #2,3,5,11,15…
14. Darryl Dash says a mega-church is rediscovering the Gospel — from an article in Themelios, which is now being published in digital format (iPaper & PDF). Great move — I hope we see more theological journals moving this direction. Also from this issue:
    

    It must by now be questionable whether the word “mission” retains any residual value for missiology. Humpty Dumpty’s approach to language—“When use a word, it means just what choose it to mean, neither more nor less”—perhaps reflects his creator’s diagnosis of a degenerative disease that afflicts some words, a sort of linguistic entropy or inflation. If so, this pathological condition seems to have caught up with “mission,” and perhaps with terminal effect. The opening sentences of Bosch’s Transforming Mission point this way: “Since the 1950s there has been a remarkable escalation in the use of the word ‘mission’ among Christians. This went hand in hand with a significant broadening of the concept, at least in certain circles.”2 If words are defined by their use, then the variety and breadth with which “mission” is used suggest that Neill’s prophecy may have been fulfilled: “everything is mission, nothing is mission.

    Sound familiar?

15. More post-charismatic questions: Who’s to Blame for the Prosperity Gospel? (Dan Edelen; note it’s “blame” and not “credit”) Stripping Down To Christ Alone: Rethinking the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (Frank Viola) and Navigating New Moves of the Spirit (Jason Clark, on Mr. Bentley). In a related vein, Ed Stetzer is Thinking about Apostles and a “coalition” thereof (I guess they don’t travel in groups like a herd, a flock, a pride, a murder, or even a school). Not content, Ed has even More Thoughts on Apostles, where he links to Peter Wagner’s definitions of the various kinds of apostles. Hmm. Given enough categories, I guess everyone could be an apostle… which brings us to the notion that if it means everything, then it means nothing.
16. One of the most fascinating “disorders,” in my mind… Seeing is Hearing: New Type of Synesthesia Discovered
17. Ryan Bell quotes Sr. Joan Chittister’s telling of a story from the Desert Fathers that has all the goodness of a Zen koan (it’s a good thing).
18. Not much to say… images say it all. I want→→
19. Someone else noticed that People Can’t Talk to Pastors… I would include other leaders. When my wife and I stepped down from the leadership team at my CLB, we noticed people seemed to talk to us more, or had an easier time doing so once we weren’t formally in leadership positions. That ought to send out alarm bells.
20. Turns out that some types of media never really go away for one obscure not readily-apparent reason or another.
21. I’ve found out about an easy way to increase your IQ — sort of. I think I’m going to try this for about 18-20 hours a day for a full week….

Is this brilliant, or what? (HT: Scot McKnight) I could really use one of these…

This is hilarious: a song about Wayne Grudem that features not only the hand jive, but the lyrics,

Go Wayne Grudem with your intellectual writing style,
(Wayne Grudem go Wayne Grudem)
Go Wayne Grudem you make ha-rd doctrines less of a trial
(Wayne Grudem go Wayne Grudem)
You are extreme, but God’s supreme, oh Wayne Grudem

Classic. You can get the lyrics as well, in case you want to sing along.

Well, that’s a wrap for another fine Saturday of linkage.

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The reports he has given me are firsthand, not hearsay. I am deeply troubled, grieved and tormented at what I’m hearing. He attributes most of the anointing at Lakeland to Roy Fields (worship leader). I agree. Roy is nothing but clean and God shows up hugely when he leads worship. I can go into detail later about what is surfacing, but there are huge lapses of integrity going on… Much embellishment. Many claims have been made that simply are not true. The Charisma crew has researched it. I want to weep. My heart is breaking. For now, to be safe and for the sake of integrity, we need to stop speaking about the claimed resurrections. Three of them have been checked out with the doctors and EMTs involved and found never to have happened at all. Todd has been confronted with this and has not adjusted the numbers in his claims. Not a single one of the other claimed resurrections can be substantiated despite diligent effort to do so. Even after Stephen Strader brought it down to 13 (and even those couldn’t be substantiated) Todd ran it back up to 27 and more.
…
On the financial front, Todd recently told the crowd that God had told him that there were 1,000 people who would give $1,000 and that they would be blessed 1,000-fold. Robert [Ricciardelli] called Stephen Strader to confront the unbiblical nature of that appeal. It came out that Todd admitted he hadn’t heard that from God, that it was just an idea he had so that they could raise money to build a big stadium. Robert challenged them to issue an apology the following night based on that false claim of being told by God and they refused to do it on the excuse that it’s a different crowd every night.

And there’s more… so if I were the type to say “I told you so”…. well, you know. What was I saying about credibility?

As for Wagner’s “International Coalition of Apostles” (ICA), it looks like some of the members are starting to pull out — Robert Ricciardelli for one. He wrote,

The ICA leadership continues to adopt belief systems without seeking the advice and counsel of members. Many of the members do not, and will not support these beliefs, including the support of anti-biblical behavior and doctrine currently being expressed through Todd Bentley and Freshfire Ministries. In fact as ICA embraces this, they now have taken a stance that will indirectly have to embrace many of the same ministries, including “New Mystic” John Crowder and others. This escalating focus on angels, experiences, trances, etc is far from the focus of Jesus, His Kingdom, and His righteousness… Many of us who really enjoyed the ICA annual conferences are now forced to make a decision as to whether to continue our involvement with them.

“Robert has also stated that he personally was never into ‘Dominionist’ beliefs or the ‘hierarchical NAR agenda.’” Yeah, me neither.

And all this is coming from not-yet post-charismatics. Kinda gives you hope, doesn’t it?

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Alright, medals… NYT has the best-ever map of medal standings, including past games. But I guess it’s worth mentioning that Canada does have one athlete who has beat out all competition to take top of the podium — in the list of hottest athletes in Beijing, according to WebTVHub. Hey, it isn’t trashy — The Independent covered it, saying that we’ve reached the age when a gold medal in glamour does count for something. Turns out 21-year-old rhythmic gymnast Alexandria Orlando (just call her Alex) gets the honours.

But isn’t that “Water Cube” something else? What an amazing piece of architecture. I mean, even if all those aerial shots do turn out to be from a sound stage in Hong Kong.

I watched a bit of the NBC coverage of the women’s gymnastics… it’s different than the CBC coverage. When the Chinese gymnasts would pull off a good routine or execute some manoever beautifully, the anchors would say something like, “Oh, that’s not good!” (for the US-ian team, implied). The Canadian coverage in a similar situation would instead have comments like, “Oh, that’s beautiful execution! The Canadian team will be seeing their medal hoped flicker out, but this is such a good performance, they really deserve full credit.” Meanwhile, the US-ian cameraman was getting in the face of the near-tears gymnast who just came off the beam and was clearly blaming herself for a lost gold medal for the team, burying her face in her hands. I guess they didn’t get the hint? Lots of pressure on those young kids though. I’m starting to think that in Canada, a silver Olympic medal is a silver Olympic medal, whereas in the USA, a silver Olympic medal is not a gold Olympic medal.

On the other hand, the CBC coverage includes reports by Sook-Yin Lee, host of DNTO (which I’d say has pretty much sucked since she took it over from Nora Young). Now, I’m very happy for her finally being able to connect with her Chinese roots on this, her first trip to China. But when she began listing misconceptions of China and saying how they’re not true, she hit a new low in journalism. She provided filmed evidence that China is a clean place, showing images of people cleaning and sweeping up on the streets. Uh, yeah. Right. You’re filming the streets of Beijing and related tourist areas during the Olympics… and you figure it’s like that all the time? With 1.3 Billion people to employ, you can believe some were tasked to spruce the place up for the visiting Westerners. You can also believe they’ll be tasked elsewhere when the event is done and the Westerners go home. I just rolled my eyes. Then later, I told my friend who just got back from China a month ago. I think he rolled his eyes as well. I had the same reaction to her assessment that lack of freedom in China is a misconception… I don’t think she dug very deep for that one, particularly when praying gets you deported, activism on behalf of Darfur gets your visa revoked, and a Tibetan name will get you a revoked visa, a 16-hour interrogation, and then deportataion. And these examples are if you hold a Western passport. She probably knows nothing about China’s arms trade.

Oh, and I hear that Milli Vanilli has found a replacement for Rob Pilatus and is trying to book the opening ceremonies for the next Olympic Games. ;^)

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An organization has been granted a Federal Hearing on the same subject by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington, D.C. Their petition, Number 2493, would ultimately pave the way to stop the reading of the gospel of our Lord and Savior, on the airwaves of America. They got 287,000 signatures to back their stand! If this attempt is successful, all Sunday worship services being broadcast on the radio or by television will be stopped.

I thought about that for a moment. Joel Osteen off the air? You know, that might be a pretty good thing. The email evidently assumed I’d be appalled and want to take action against this petition so I could help keep Joel on the air. The answer? A counter-petition.

We are praying for at least 1 million signatures. This would defeat their effort and show that there are many Christians alive, well and concerned about our country. As Christians, we must unite on this. Please don’t take this lightly. We ignored one lady once and lost prayer in our schools and in offices across the nation. Please stand up for your religious freedom and let your voice be heard. Together we can make a difference in our country while creating an opportunity for the lost to know the Lord.

Instructions followed, directing me to “sign” (by which they mean type) my name at the bottom and forward it on. When it reaches 1,000 names, there’s a special address to forward it to, but the message only had 538 names as I received it. If I decide not to participate, I’m to send it back to the person who sent it to me so they can keep it going. “Dr. Dobson is going on CNBC to urge every Christian to get involved,” it continued. “I hope you will sign and forward to all your family and friends. …Please defeat this organization and keep the right of our freedom of religion.” The email warns that the same group is campaigning to remove Christmas programs and carols from public schools.

Unfortunately, the message failed to provide details on how to sign the other petition.

Now, this may be a shock to  some  none of you, but I tend to be a little cynical now and then. No, no, it’s true. Really. I rolled this around my brain for a few minutes, and I decided I honestly couldn’t tell if this would be a good thing or a bad one — but I’m leaning toward it being a good thing. Televangelists aren’t known for being the best representatives of the Kingdom of God, at least in my view. Or in anyone pretty much anyone else’s, as far as I can tell. Maybe all the money that goes into the televangelivortex could be diverted to something actually useful. Just to be sure, I tried to think of a positive example of a televangelist, and, well…. if you come up with any, let me know.

Of course I won’t be signing either petition… it’s a hoax, which the FCC formally denies, as though they didn’t know that there were still Christians living in America. As for “well and concerned,” I wonder if “misguided and gullible” might not be a fit. Although the version I received doesn’t mention her, others floating around make reference to Madalyn Murray O’Hair as the person behind it — despite her disappearance in 1995 and having been confirmed dead in 2001. Not only that, the intent of P.M. 2493 was simply to ensure channels reserved for educational purposes ended up being used for education and not by religious groups seeking to use them for other purposes. The petition was presented in December 1974 and defeated in August 1975, which means that in some form or other, Christians have been fighting a non-battle about a non-issue for about the same length of time that Christ is presumed to have walked the earth. I don’t want to even begin to interpret that… cynic that I am.

Still, maybe it is time for an all-out ban on religious programming… that way the other religions who broadcast better content at a lower cost with greater sincerity wouldn’t look as good by comparison. Or maybe I’m just being cynical again.

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The board of directors at Bentley’s Fresh Fire Ministries released a statement Tuesday afternoon that praised the “outpouring” in Lakeland led by Bentley, but also acknowledged “an atmosphere of fatigue and stress” that more than 100 daily meetings had created, which “exacerbated existing issues in [Bentley’s marriage].”

Though the “outpouring” came with the “blessing and the burden of exponential increases,” the board of directors stressed in the letter that the meetings were not to blame for the break up of Bentley’s marriage.

Hhhmmm. Well. It does bring to mind one of my first-ever posts here, which I recalled last fall with further developed thoughts on the importance of the ordinary. The power-laden hype-driven type of spirituality doesn’t seem to sustain the everyday challenges of life… for that, one needs the power of ordinary spirituality. The highs — and I speak from experience — really do put you out of touch with the ordinary or “normal” life of everyday people… and after a while, you actually start to believe you’re not one of those ordinary people. Danger, Will Robinson!

All along, there have been a litany of disturbing traits to Bentley’s involvement in this “revival” along with words of caution which don’t come right out against the goings-on, but don’t leave a lot of room for the interpretation of approval in what’s been written. My own posts on the subject had taken a stance along these lines, as do others, where reviewing the characteristics offered by which one might weigh the character and validity of what’s being reported leaves one with a strong cautionary note. Not everyone carried the same tone, but almost all of us opined upon the matter. I understand even my CLB has been cautious… I’m told that they’ve sent people down to the nexus, but that they’ve also got concerns about the whole thing. Good. Steven Strang seems to take this line in columns from May and June, which pointedly asks, “Why do we think that more bodies on the floor equals ‘more anointing’–especially when the evangelist shoves people to the ground or slaps them silly?” In July, Grady talked about a “Charismatic Civil War” and admonished people toward unity. I didn’t even realize Grady is an apostle, but there you go. I guess I’m out of the loop. Dan Edelen says “no”, by the way — we can’t avoid a charismatic civil war.

Whether it’s related or not, sometime between his June and July posts on the matter, a notable event in this drama occurred… and by “sometime,” I mean June 23^rd, when a group of apostles laid on hands and commissioned Bentley (video) as the evangelist to this “move” or “outpouring” or whatever they called it. Apparently this was at C. Peter Wagner’s instigation — Wagner hoped to bring Bentley into “alignment” under one of the “recognized” apostles (Che Ahn) so that the doctrinal issues could be dealt with. While I don’t at all fall in with Wagner’s idea of apostolic hierarchy and authority, I have to say that I’m glad he was attempting to deal with some of these issues… or at least starting to. Other than that, the whole picture of apostleship that those guys paint is erroneous to the point of being scary: it’s a disaster waiting to happen. The latest account from Wagner yesterday does sound a bit like he’s distancing himself from Bentley. Maybe they should have heeded the words of an earlier (dare I say “actual”?) apostle and not been so hasty to install the man before sorting out the mess that was going on… Wagner’s supposed attempt to not give the appearance of approval by not laying on hands or praying for Bentley during his “installation” is nothing but naive: “only” instigating and officiating the ceremony and standing on the platform with his wife and overseeing the commissioning is far too subtle a distinction for any thinking person.

As for all the antics in Lakeland, one ought to bear in mind the danger of emotionalism and the distortion of perception that it produces. Bentley’s claims of angelic experience just don’t sound credible — not that this is a sure sign one way or the other, but outlandish claims need to be backed up by fruit. And “fruit” would be that of the Spirit, which are clearly listed, in case we have any doubt. Maybe Bentley didn’t get the memo. Instead, he asks, “How can you be too focused on miracles?”

“Miracles and healings are evidence,” Bentley said. “They are signs of the Kingdom, and if we don’t have signs then all we have is a bunch of theology. How one individual wants to interpret Scripture and how another individual wants to interpret Scripture.”

It would be too easy and too obvious to quote Jesus here, but also somewhat trite and a bit misleading. You see, that’s the kind of thing you hold back on when “all you have” is theology — you tend not to want to do too much scriptural gymnastics for the sake of making your point. But excuse me a moment… “all we have” is theology? The earnest pursuit of the knowledge of God? Well. I don’t trust the perspective of the guy who couldn’t produce verifiable proof of the claimed healings for the AP, nor for Nightline’s investigative report. I mean, the verification offered was not just dubious, but in most cases completely void: “Not a single claim of Bentley’s healing powers could be independently verified.” Ask me if I’m likely to think that anyone has been raised from the dead, let alone the 22 that are claimed. This is what I mean by credibility. It isn’t that the angelic accounts are impossible, just that given the remainder of the evidence I would have to say that on balance, they must also be discounted.

Now, I’m not going to camp out on Bentley’s marital woes and say, “See? I told you so.” Sure, she’s been up on the platform with him (and the kids) during this “outpouring” thing (pictured at the commissioning), but that’s not the point, it’s not an adequate proof of anything, and it would simply be unkind… a marital separation is a painful and regrettable event no matter how you slice it. While it may prove evidence of something to some, I don’t think it necessary to enter into evidence. Without speculating about a private matter, there’s ample public evidence already, as I’ve laid some of it out. And in considering the fruit of the whole affair, I haven’t even said anything about the money, the accounts of which, for the record, just don’t seem entirely kosher to me either.

Is the “revival” or “outpouring” itself of God? I don’t know. I believe God was there, and something happened — at least in the beginning. I do think there are times and places and seasons where it is easier to experience (even “receive” from) God than at others — the Celts referred to them as thin places, particular places where the “veil between heaven and earth” was very thin. That recalled, together with my own experience (and perhaps yours as well, if you think about it) suggest to me that the idea of a geographically-centered revival is not impossible. History tells us of such things, even of strange manifestations and falling down in places where God is felt to be present. I simply can’t write all of this off.

On the other hand, I said before that if such a thing were to happen in my own context, I’d think I’d shut up about it until I figured out why and what to do about it. At least if wisdom prevailed, that’s what I would do. If you try and duplicate it too quickly, it’s a bit like attempting to distribute a half-baked cake… it might look “mostly-alright” on the surface, but it lacks inner substance and only gives the partakers a stomach ache. (I don’t think this is one of my best-ever metaphors, but you know what I mean.) The upshot is that whatever God began, I think it got so messed up in the handling that the only responsible thing now would be to shut it down and make an attempt at going back to square one.

Well, I think this all turned out a lot more gracious than I thought it would. Thanks be to God.

One more thing. I have to say it’s a horrible shame that Robbymac’s book won’t be released in the USA. If there was ever a time when such a wise and balanced treatment of charismatic hype were needed in the USA, it is now. It has been released in the UK and Canada, and I would urge anyone whose mind is in the least bit fuzzy on any of this to order Post-Charismatic? from Amazon.ca. You won’t get free shipping, but other than that it’s a straightforward matter, and Amazon.ca will “know” all of your Amazon.com account details already. You’ll probably even save 50¢ on the exchange.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

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Beware all who land on this site. This site may enable you to see truth for the first time. Seeing truth may be just what you are looking for but you need to be careful. Once you have tasted truth you will never be able to stomach lies. You are on dangerous ground if you ever want to fit into the established system. You may [lose] all your friends. You may not have anyone left to worship with. Your children may be left only to you to raise. God will not be controlled any longer. He will be good but no longer safe in that you will not be able to predict his every move. And as for many of your friends. You will need to be willing to loose them. They may (probably will) shun you, dismiss you and turn away from you despite what you now may think. You need to think long and hard about this because it will [affect] your life. Please be careful with this site. Only enter at your own risk.

I didn’t realize it was necessary to post something like this, but Barb says it is. If you’ve been reading this site by accident because you saw no such disclaimer and feel you need to stop immediately, you may leave your refund request in the comments and I’ll process them in due course.

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