TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2022

I copied the main text of this from a guy on Facebook, and I give my conclusion at the end

“ William Gothard of Hinsdale, IL; Dr. Doty Murphy of Arkansas (now deceased); Ravi Zacharias of Atlanta, GA (now deceased); Benjamin T Mather of Montrose, PA; Dr William Flynn Walker of Birmingham, AL; Donn Ketcham of ABWE missions in Africa; Robert Welch of Bulverde, TX; Chad Robison of Lecanto, FL and so many more religious leaders that I have admired over the years all share the common theme of being caught taking sexual advantage of or abusing the vulnerable for their own pleasure. More often than not these men were defended by their friends and fellow Christians as “sinners saved by grace” or misunderstood counselors. In fact, a few of these individuals were relocated to avoid trouble or to be otherwise hedged by protectors from exposure because the work of the Gospel was too important too be sullied by unkind allegations. Most of these men were parents taking advantage of their own children in various ways, and others took advantage of other’s children or vulnerable adult women (such as their employees) to meet their own desires 

We can list off all the men outside the church that also took advantage of vulnerable people to fulfill their own sexual desires, but my point here is not to play “whataboutism”, but to go deeper. The point of the Gospel is to change hearts. The point of the Word of God is “to be a light to my path” and yet these men who had committed books of the Bible to memory and used scripture to guide others to reform lived their ministry lives as predators themselves

What failed? Is the Gospel ineffective? Can God’s word not be the light? I really believe the failure is in the culture of the Evangelical church. Rather than help men lead pure lives, purity culture fetishizes sexual fulfillment to the point of intense distraction. When the evangelical church focuses on Paul’s exhortations in 1Corinthians 7, they firstly forget that much of the passage was Paul’s opinion- “this I say and not the Lord”, and the point of getting married “if one burns” is not to justify using marriage to treat excessive sexual hunger or porn addiction (and they certainly had porn back then), but to explain that marriage and sex had a place in a spiritually rich life

Rather than focus on the rich spiritual experience available in following the example of Jesus my experience in the evangelical church is that much of Paul’s writings on sex and marriage are used as ways to create “holy porn”. Sex is the carrot that is supposed to keep men active in the church in their younger years as they anticipate married sex as a virgin with their virginal wives, and keep older men active in the church as they get to brag on their wives’ “submission in all things”. Interestingly consent is not a big topic here as it is assumed that the man is establishes parameters in the family. As Josh Love recently posted on his social media- “‘I do’ is consent”. It’s as if “trapping” a woman into marriage (my words, not theirs) provides justification to demand behavior desired by the husband. In fact much of evangelical practical theology focuses on formulae to achieve various desired results- “use this prayer to ‘get saved’”, “recite this memory verse to control your thoughts”, “give this percentage of income to achieve economic success”, and “do and say these things to convince your wife to have sex with you the way you want it”. Another way to see it is that most of evangelical theology in practice focuses on how to manipulate God and others in order to achieve our desired outcomes more than on how to experience God

Early evangelic writings did focus on experiencing God, so what caused the change? Could it be that the insecurity of American Evangelical Christians drove them to find ways to stand out and attract the economically successful and driven capitalist to their ranks? Or did the capitalists see a vulnerable group to use to their advantage? Whatever the cause, it is clear that modern American Evangelicalism is not using ancient theology as a guide, but as a tool to get what they want no matter who is harmed in the process”

Note just about each one of these men were raised in the evangelical culture. In my opinion, this culture is the cause of the disease, and not the contributor