The Bible and Religious Leaders

The warnings were many:

“Don’t lay your tongue on the man of God!”
“The she-bears ate the boys who talked against Elisha!”
“The land opened and swallowed Korah and his whole family!”
“The fire fell on the ones who spoke against Moses!”
“Miriam ended up with leprosy!”
“David wouldn’t even speak against Saul, and he tried to kill David!”

What does the Bible really say about talking against someone in leadership? The she-bears tore the kids who followed Elisha saying “Go up, baldhead.” What were they saying, really? What had they done that was so wrong? Commentators tend to agree that they were not cursed for saying Elisha was bald or for any other insult to him. Clarke’s Commentary, included in the link above says:

Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head – עלה קרח עלה קרח aleh kereach, aleh kereach. Does not this imply the grossest insult? Ascend, thou empty skull, to heaven, as it is pretended thy master did! This was blasphemy against God; and their punishment (for they were Beth-elite idolaters) was only proportioned to their guilt. Elisha cursed them, i.e., pronounced a curse upon them, in the name of the Lord, בשם יהוה beshem Yehovah, by the name or authority of Jehovah. The spirit of their offense lies in their ridiculing a miracle of the Lord: the offense was against Him, and He punished it. It was no petulant humor of the prophet that caused him to pronounce this curse; it was God alone: had it proceeded from a wrong disposition of the prophet, no miracle would have been wrought in order to gratify it.

The indication in most commentaries is that they were disbelieving of God’s miracle of taking Elijah up in a whirlwind, not merely making fun of a prophet.

What about Korah? Those swallowed up by the land or that fire fell on? Miriam and her leprosy? One thing to remember about the Israelite deliverance from Egypt, their forty years in the wilderness, and all that happened to them, the snake bites, the fire falling from Heaven, the land opening and swallowing some… all that took place didn’t take place because they complained against Moses. If Moses had acted on his own, God would not have blamed the people for questioning him. However, they were not complaining just against Moses. They were complaining against God, and more importantly, complaining about His deliverance. They had been brought out in a miraculous way from Egypt, but they wanted to go back. They weren’t really complaining about Moses, but about God. And saying that Moses did what God actually did. “Why did YOU bring us into this wilderness?”

Another thing to remember about Miriam is that she didn’t remain leprous. And the camp stopped for her during the time of her leprousy. God stopped the march of the whole Israelite camp to wait for one “rebel” to learn her lesson. That doesn’t sound so “punishing” to me.

The story about David and Saul irritates me. It is too often preached that David wouldn’t speak against Saul. Have those preachers who teach that never read Psalms? David definitely spoke against Saul, more than once.

Psalm 59
For the director of music. [To the tune of] “Do Not Destroy.” Of David. A miktam.^a When Saul had sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him
1Deliver me from my enemies, O God; protect me from those who rise up against me 2Deliver me from evildoers and save me from bloodthirsty men…

1Sam 20:1Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my
crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to take my life?”

1Sam23:9When David learned that Saul was plotting against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod.” 10David said,  “O Lord, God of Israel, your servant has heard  definitely that Saul plans to come to Keilah and destroy the town on account of me.

Not only that, but David gathered with the discontent:

1 Sam 22:1David left Gath and  escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household  heard about it, they went down to him there. 2All those who were  in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their  leader. About four hundred men were with him.

None of these things was mentioned when it was preached that God would destroy anyone who spoke against the “Man of God” or “God’s anointed.” Especially with David, the concept is baseless. David never resisted saying Saul was trying to kill him. He only refrained from killing Saul himself. Interestingly, David also left Israel for awhile due to Saul’s wickedness, and others gathered to him and led them while Saul was still king. Had we done the same, we would have been labeled as rebellious, bitter backsliders. But David wasn’t; he was the man after God’s own heart, and we have him for an example.

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Allegations from nine more boys

Nine more boys have come forward with allegations against Jordan Young at Faith Tabernacle Apostolic Church. I had hoped maybe we’d heard the end of the incidents. Apparently not.

Thirteen boys. How many young men attended Faith Tabernacle? My guess is that there would have been about 50 young men at Apostolic Academy (Faith Tabernacle’s private school) that would have been in Jordan’s “preferred” age range during the last four years. We don’t know that all of those who have come forward are from Faith Tabernacle or even Junction City. Some of these young men could be from other churches or even other states, since Jordan preached and sang in other places.

How could anyone, even with a sick, twisted mind, hurt so many others in such a cruel way? I don’t know the answer to that, and I’m really glad I don’t. It reminds me of something that happened while I was attending there though, something that disturbed me for a very long time. In my former church, the men were expected to be “manly”… to laugh and be tough if others or themselves were hurt. One of the first indications I had that something was dreadfully wrong with my former pastor was that he sat and laughed while a young man poked the eyes out of a live frog, then impaled the still living frog on a stick and continued playing with it. Both were laughing. There were other youth there. Some laughed, some cringed, but most just ignored what was happening.

The thought of it still turns my stomach. Blood doesn’t bother me. Cruelty does. If he’d killed the frog and disemboweled it, I wouldn’t have been surprised. It was that the frog was still alive while he continued to abuse it that disgusted me.

A frog on a stick. It may be an apt description of how many at one time felt, and many may still feel. For so many years I listened while my former pastor told me there was something wrong with me. I prayed that “something” would change, that whatever was wrong wouldn’t be anymore. And for years it seemed like I lived in fear that I would end up leaving or being kicked out and do my best to stay. It’s weird to wake up and realize that all the time you prayed for something, you fought the answer to the prayer. It’s strange to realize that I asked God to fix whatever was “wrong with me”, not realizing that the thing that was most wrong was that I would stay in that environment to begin with.

Today Jordan’s mother and wife sat in the courtroom at the hearing. Today Jordan’s bride of just over five years heard allegations that he had been messing with not one but thirteen young men at various times for most of their marriage. Today the mother who thought her children would be safe saw her son in a jumpsuit, and her own husband-his father-was not even there to support her.

Like a frog on a stick. Were we like that to Edwin and Jordan Young? Did they derive some pleasure from what they were doing? Did they never stop to think of the hurt they were inflicting?

I pray for their sakes they learn to have more compassion on those around them than what Edwin showed to that frog that night. The young man would let the frog go, but then would pick it back up and torture it more. The frog, when let go, would sit stunned, rather than hopping away. And Edwin Young, the pastor, laughed. He finally told the young man to let the frog go, but the frog was too far gone. It was defenseless and severely wounded. Letting it go didn’t help the frog, but instead ended up resulting in one final cruelty.

To me there is a very sad symbolism in that.

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http://counterthought.org/why-stay-in-an-abusive-church/

I came across this link last night. It is a very good statement of some reasons people choose to stay in an unhealthy group or church. It wasn’t written by someone from Faith Tabernacle, but as many who have left hurtful groups can attest, most unhealthy groups have similar characteristics.

http://counterthought.org/why-stay-in-an-abusive-church/

Interestingly and sadly, people stay in unhealthy churches for the same reasons that abused spouses stay with their spouses. “Where would I go?” “But it’s not right to leave.” “He (they) really didn’t mean it.” “Things will be better now.” “It’s really my fault.” “But this is my family.”

Do yourself a favor if you’re in an unhealthy situation. Leave.

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Spiritual Competition

The following is something I wrote within about a week of leaving my former church.

 

Maybe this is right. Maybe its a little off base. But I think there is more to it than a lot of people in my exchurch would like to admit. I really feel sorry for them. I remember what grace was like. I can find it again. I’m concerned that many of them never knew grace to start with, and don’t know what they are missing.

Falling from Grace
(spiritual competition)

On the way home tonight I was thinking…
The church I’m in is very conservative. They weren’t always this way. Several years after the church started, when it had started to grow fairly large, some people felt convicted over sleeve length. They went to the pastor and informed him of how they felt. He accepted this as their conviction. There was some stir after this about whether or not they should wear long sleeves at work if the dress code required otherwise (several of them were in the Army). The pastor said when he described this time that he’d told them they had the Holy Ghost, and as they walked closer to God they might develop stronger convictions. This, I’m sure, made them feel good about their convictions. Others began to follow suit, both to support those who were “fighting for their convictions” against their employer, and to show they were spiritual too. The employees won  their case after a long fight. Several had lost their jobs though, and were  seen as “persecuted for righteousness sake” because they lost their jobs “fighting for their (presumably God given) convictions.”

Over time, other “convictions” became established norms in this  church. The pastor felt a conviction against hair bows. Weren’t they decoration, after all? Some saints came close to (or did fall into) fornication. Wouldn’t they have been safer had they had a chaperone, or if someone had told the pastor that they were in trouble? The people loved the pastor, and the pastor loved them, or so they all believed. He was hard on them, but they were used to that. He pushed them to the limit spiritually. This was challenging and “worth the fight”. Competition grew, and gossip became more rampant.

A few people in the church became very “spiritual” as a result. They later “backslid”, but before they did, they were respected for a time. People emulated their “good” character. But it wasn’t good. Then they fell. The church lost about 30-40% of its members in a short time due to economic and political changes and people “backsliding”. This again increased the competition.

A Christian school was started, a new sanctuary built, and the church became better known. In the school, the same children saw each other six days a week for 14 years. The sanctuary was one of the best in the city, and was a source of pride. The members were often told the building would be filled to capacity someday. It was considered great faith to believe this and visualize it and reach others to help fill it. There was also a pride in the fact that the church and pastor were well known. The saints traveled to some of the meetings the pastor preached, and noticed that not everyone carried the convictions they had been taught. They began to think that they were especially blessed people who had something many other places didn’t have. Spiritual competition had just been taken to a new level.

By the time I arrived, spiritual competition had become common place and was not thought of as abnormal. The pride and the competition were so commonplace that most people didn’t recognize them, and since they were rarely taught against, no one realized they might be wrong. Third generation Pentecostals were now competing, much as their parents and grandparents had. There was a form of sibling rivalry amongst the saints, of who was most loved by the pastor and who spent the most time with him. Family member competed against family member, and group against group. People bragged about who was closest to the pastor and who had done what for him.

This was considered normal, but was it? What happened to grace? Where did “love your neighbor” go? These were virtually absent. People were disappointed if the message was on love or grace, and preferred the messages on hell and damnation! These were the tapes they bought, the messages they shouted to, the ones they rehashed later over coffee.
What happened to grace? Many of them traded it for spiritual competition. But spiritual competition can’t save. Only grace can do that, and they had forgotten where to find it.

Years later, I still see significance in this observation. Pride and competition-comparing ourselves among ourselves-are warned strongly against in the Bible for a reason. Love isn’t about condemning others, but about caring for them. Yes, people should be warned if they are in danger, but when they are warned, it should be with all the hope and promise that the cross has to offer. Where was our joy? Where was our peace? I found those after leaving, after learning something about grace… and seeing it in action.

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Why didn’t we leave?

We were often told just to wait on God and he would take care of whatever problems arose. If the pastor was acting immorally, we should just pray, and if he really was the problem, God would remove him. Notice the phraseology: “If he really was the problem.” Very often we were told that Faith Tabernacle wasn’t the problem, we were. We were told this separately in the office and collectively in service.

Surely though, we should have known something. We should have left. What outsiders don’t understand about Faith Tabernacle and churches like it is the members are convinced that God put them there, and that they MUST stay there in order to be saved. Those who left were considered “backslidden”; when they walked out of the church, they were said to have walked out on God. More than that, the teachings and doctrine of the church exclude all other churches from the “elite” knowledge of that particular church or group of churches. Faith Tabernacle teaches baptism only in the name of Jesus rather than in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They teach that tongues are the evidence of having the Holy Ghost. Edwin Young preached that Trinitarians were tritheists, believing in three gods, rather than in three expressions (persons) of one God. Faith Tabernacle also taught that there were standards that had to be lived by. These were not goodness, meekness, and gentleness. They didn’t include not bearing false witness against their neighbors or being jealous of each other. Rather, the standards were a unique and stringent set of rules directing how members should dress, where they should go, and what entertainment options they could enjoy.

Those who left Faith Tabernacle were usually shunned. Members were told in sermons that they couldn’t even return for a wedding or a funeral without Edwin Young’s permission. Some lost contact with family, and nearly all that I know of lost contact with friends.

Unlike most churches, those who leave Faith Tabernacle must have a letter of recommendation to attend another similar church. Even if they move due to a job relocation or for family. Before I left, I tried to go to a different church. I called churches in several states, asking “permission” to attend without the required letter. The best response was “As long as there was no trouble with your former church, I think it would be ok.” Another told me “we don’t want your spirit here!” One couple who left moved to another state and were told they could attend a church there, but were informed that they would need to call Edwin Young and “make things right” with the church. Edwin bragged later that he chewed them out and told them to come “home” if they really wanted to “make things right”, and then chewed the pastor out for letting them go to church. Leaving Faith Tabernacle means leaving an entire culture and belief system, not simply one group of believers. 

I didn’t leave until I felt there was no choice. I didn’t leave “bitter” as most people labeled backsliders, but very fearfully. Still today, years later, I am concerned to identify myself. After leaving, I changed my phone number and my address. I had gotten some horrific calls from people wailing and sobbing that I had to go back and be saved… at the same time as they begged me not to tell anyone they had called, not even their families and definitely not Edwin Young. One even mentioned that “backsliders” sometimes called and reported those members who tried to contact them.

When I left, I knew I had to leave. After I left, these things made me determined never to go back. Not everyone has that experience though. For some, the peer pressure and the desire to feel part of the group again can be too strong. The belief system and the fear of being “lost” (headed to hell) is too strong. Sometimes in spite of all that they have seen and all that has happened to them, they go back. For me, the opposite was true. Every phone call and every back turned away was one more indication that I had made the right choice.

I didn’t leave for a long time because I was afraid. I left because I was afraid, angry about what I was witnessing, and irritated that some might be using fear to manipulate me. I stayed out because I’m no longer afraid. The years since leaving have been the most joyful and peaceful of my life.

At least once I changed my phone number.

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“Backslidden”

Backsliding. A common term in some unhealthy groups. What does it mean?

2 Peter 2:20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”^f and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

In the dictionary, it’s defined as:

to lapse into bad habits or vices from a state of virtue,religious faith, etc
to revert to sin or wrongdoing, especially in religious practice.
to lapse morally or in the practice of religion
to revert to a worse condition : retrogress

Those who leave Faith Tabernacle, even if they go to a church that teaches the same things, are labeled “backsliders”, simply because they left that particular group of believers. So a person can leave, uphold the same teachings and maintain the same standards but still be called “backslid” by the group they left.  This is due in large part to a common misunderstanding among Oneness Pentecostals that a person should “bloom where they’re planted”, or that wherever a person first expressed faith in that particular doctrine is where they should stay, no matter what. If a person moves, they are “unfaithful,” “unstable,” and “backslid”.

Moral issues that arise in leadership or that are rampant on the pew beg the question: At what point is a person backslid for staying, rather than for going? For those within this unhealthy mindset, the answer is never. So they stay, no matter what. However, if we look at the definition of backsliding, it means to lapse morally in the practice of religion, to revert to a worse condition… and so forth. If we are influenced by those around us, it stands to reason that at some point we could lapse morally, as our “leaders” and those around us have. According to scripture, “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.” In an unhealthy group, especially one where wrongdoing is hidden, excused, praised, or practiced by those in leadership, a person doesn’t need to leave to become entangled and overcome in wrongdoing.

Think of it this way. A child goes out to play, and is told to stay out of the mud. It begins to rain. The child is not near the old mud puddles, but he does not come in. Instead, he waits for the mud to come to him. Has he obeyed? Is he less muddy for having stayed in one place, or not?

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A Call to Repentance

A preacher fails. A church falters. What is the biblical response in a time like that? Has “God cleaned out the church” as some claim has now happened in Faith Tabernacle? Should people be thankful that “God finally did something”? Sadly, with many unhealthy churches,  people are told not to do anything when they begin seeing wrongdoing, and then later are told to “move on” (as in to act like nothing happened) when they should really stop and think instead.

Faith Tabernacle has been told that now that “God’s removed the sin from the camp” that they will have revival. For starters, there are times we shouldn’t sit on our hands and wait for God to do something. He gave us brains for a reason, and we should use them. Even Edwin Young himself preached that if he was wrong, the members should leave. For seconds, this is about more than a preacher’s son messing with kids, though that’s bad enough. Every time we shouted while he blasted someone else from the pulpit, every time we shunned someone because he told us to, every time we gossiped or lied about someone else to protect ourselves, knowing that if we were the first in the office we’d be considered the ones who were right and “they’d get theirs”, we also sinned. Every time we ignored someone’s pain, took the word of one person over another’s without hearing the full story, told someone they “just needed to pray through” when they said they were struggling with a church related situation, made a joke out of someone’s pain, prided ourselves that we hadn’t sinned like someone else had, or looked down on someone else, we sinned, too.

Should Faith Tabernacle feel a call to repentance? It might be worth considering. I’m not saying we were all guilty of anything regarding the current allegations, but on the other hand, I hope that God is calling us all to a deep repentance. The kind that brings lasting change.

A few months after I left Faith Tabernacle, I was sitting in church during an altar call and the words of a song struck me hard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeAwBmb_x28

“When the music fades, and all is stripped away, and I simply come…
I’ll bring you more than a song, for a song in itself is not what you have required
you search much deeper within, through the way things appear, you’re looking into my heart
I’m coming back to the heart of worship and it’s all about you… I’m sorry Lord for the things I’ve made it… when it’s all about you, Jesus

That day brought a renewed repentance and a recommitment to my life that has had a far reaching impact. I was called to repentance not for what I was wearing or for the fact that I had left Faith Tabernacle, but that I had focused on others and on myself rather than God in my “worship”, trying to please people rather than God. And in doing so I’d missed the whole point. No, I didn’t run crying to an altar that evening to “pray through”. Rather, I sat in my pew, considered what I’d done wrong, and asked God to forgive me. And I determined not to ever again make worship the “thing I’d made it” as the song puts it.

I don’t know if “God cleaned out the church” as I’ve heard or not. But something deep in me reverberates with the thought that God would prefer to clean out peoples’ hearts rather than clean off his pews. My prayer is that others feel the same.

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