Posted on 10/23/2003 2:20:46 PM PDT by newgeezer
This is true. However, I think the political benefits and educational benefits for the American voting public regarding what abortion actually is are worth the effort in passing this bill.
I don't know. But I DO know that Randall Terry never did ANYTHING that didn't somehow benefit Randall Terry.
This is news to me. So, I Googled it, and decided I've been living under a rock.
Curiously, I can find no mention of his family on his Web site, except that donations can be sent to The Terry Family Trust.
His radio show is scheduled to start up again, on Nov. 1. I'm sure the call screener and kill button will be ready for action.
Thanks for bringing me up to date.
OK, let's do just that.
I'm sure somewhere there is a link to the bill itself.
Link anyone?
World Magazine Exposes Randall Terry
Below is email communication between Brenda Spurlock and Randall concerning the World Magazine article. The article exposing Randall's fundraising ploy is included with a response from Flip. Our heart has always been that Randall repent and return to loving the Lord wholeheartedly. The sacrifices he made in the founding days of Rescue were instrumental in spurring so many of us on to fight the battle. We followed his example to willingly give everything for the Lord. It is as you lose your life that you truly find it. Randall, please lose yourself in Jesus and allow Him to be the lifter of your head.
This is Brenda's question to Randall:
Don't you feel guilty asking pro-life Christians, many of whom have large families and are barely covering expenses as it is, to sacrifice in order to buy you and your child-bride a new $432,000 home? You should.
Randall's first response was: "Grace and peace." An hour later he wrote:
"You have believed a false report. (They lied to you.) Check out the 9th commandment. Blessings"
Brenda writes:
I'm not sure Randall knows about the article. I can't fathom what motive World Mag. would have to lie about such a thing. The only one I can see with a motive for lying is Randall Terry.
This is World's Article:
Appalling appeal?
Pro-life activists question colleague's latest fundraising drive; Randall Terry's former wife says she doesn't want to see "donors misled"
By Lynn Vincent
A man once attacked largely by abortionists is now being criticized by some of his former colleagues for what they call an unethical fundraising campaign over the past half year.
"The purveyors of abortion on demand have stripped Randall Terry of everything he owned," said the Operation Rescue founder's website, randallterry.com, as of June 5. "The home was sold, and Randall's equity and assets were given to pro-abortion activists." The site then asks visitors to "help our brother.... Please give as generously as you can to restore what the enemy took," with donations to be sent to the Terry Family Trust. Hard-copy letters and e-mail solicitations with similar appeals have since November arrived in mailboxes around the country. (WORLD agreed to rent its mailing list for a Terry Family Trust solicitation in December 2002 and then a larger chunk of the list in February 2003; the proceeds from the rentals were donated to a pro-life charity this month.)
But neither the fundraising letters nor the website disclose that Mr. Terry is set to close on a new $432,000 home near St. Augustine, Fla., in South Ponte Vedra Beach. (Mr. Terry told WORLD he plans to close this month.) Nor do they reveal that Mr. Terry contracted to purchase the home eight months before he sent donors letters saying he'd lost everything to pro-abortion forces. Donations to the Terry Family Trust will go to pay for the house, Mr. Terry told WORLD in a February 2003 telephone interview.
Some of Mr. Terry's former allies say the fundraising appeal is unbiblical and disingenuous. "I don't think you should ask people to sort of 'pay you back' to cover your losses," Pro-life Action League President Joe Scheidler told WORLD. Minister and pro-life activist Pat Mahoney says Mr. Terry's lifestyle since filing for bankruptcy in 1998 has not been that of a man who lacks money.
Mr. Terry's critics also say many donors who receive the fundraising letters are likely to assume that the proceeds of the Terry Family Trust benefit Mr. Terry's four oldest children, along with Cindy Terry, his wife of 19 years. Instead, the Terry Family Trust is to help Mr. Terry get back into ministry and to benefit his infant son and his second wife, the former Andrea Kollmorgan. She was 22 and served as Mr. Terry's personal assistant during his failed 1998 New York congressional campaign. In August 1999, Mr. Terry left Cindy Terry, and obtained a divorce in November 2000. He married Miss Kollmorgan seven months later.
Mr. Terry told WORLD that he wanted a home where his family will be safe and where "we could entertain people of stature, people of importance. I have a lot of important people that come through my home. And I will have more important people come through my home."
Mr. Terry gained stature himself after he founded Operation Rescue in 1986. Cindy Terry told WORLD that her husband took only a $30,000 annual salary and sold used cars on the side: "Randall was a sacrificial person, the kind who would lift up the unlovely person. Money went where it was supposed to go. We lived normally, had used furniture, lived on a careful budget."
By 1988, pro-abortion groups such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) began striking back at Mr. Terry in court, piling up judgments against him that ultimately totaled more than $1.6 million. For 10 years pro-aborts were unable to collect any money from Mr. Terry because Cindy Terry held title to the family's property, including their home. In 1998, though, NOW began aggressive legal maneuvers in an attempt to get at Cindy Terry's assets. In November of that year, Mr. Terry filed for bankruptcy, and the Terry home was soon gone.
In March 2002, Mr. Terry and wife Andrea, speaking in churches, visited the Jacksonville/St. Augustine area, where the median home price was about $120,000. The couple had been looking to buy a house in a "homestead state," where creditors cannot seize a family's home, Mr. Terry said. (In varying degrees, such rights are recognized in several states, including Texas and Florida.) They considered the $432,000 house and "said, what the heck, let's do this," Mr. Terry explained.
To secure the purchase, they needed $20,000 by April 30, 2002. Mr. Terry began calling potential donors, offering in exchange for cash gifts quantities of a country music CD he had recorded in Nashville. His plan worked. By April 30, "We had $20,017.... We made the deposit."
But earlier that same month, Mr. Terry had submitted an affidavit to a New York State family court on his financial condition. The court had ordered him to account for his finances in response to a petition Cindy Terry had filed earlier, saying that Mr. Terry was not paying a fair share of child support. In the affidavit, Mr. Terry wrote, "The past two years have been difficult financially for me.... I am three months behind in my rent, in addition to my numerous other debts. Since June, in order to pay necessities, we have been selling many items...."
In a May 7, 2002, order, the court noted that "Mr. Terry is possessed of actual or income-producing ability significantly greater than that which is set forth in his financial disclosure affidavits or [2001] Income Tax Returns," and ordered him to pay $75 more each week in child support.
Mr. Terry sees no problems asking donors for money to buy the Florida house. He said Outlook Farm, the New York home he lost in bankruptcy, was worth more than the one he's purchasing now. Cindy Terry, who sold Outlook Farm in December 2001 to settle part of Mr. Terry's bankruptcy debts, said equity in the $307,000 property totaled only $201,000-at least $100,000 of which came directly from donors.
Until recently, Cindy Terry had not spoken with any journalist about the Terrys' divorce, or the financial straits in which the divorce left her. She spoke to WORLD, she said, because "I don't want to see any more donors misled."
This is Flip's response:
Dear Brenda,
Lynn Vincent's article, "Appalling Appeal," that appeared in World Magazine, June 14, 2003, is a Reader's Digest version (the original was over 3,000 words) of the sorry and sordid demise of a man that was greatly used by God to call many of us to the battle for the lives of little baby boys and girls. Randall Terry's story is not a new one. A man's gift and calling can get him anywhere, but it is only character that will keep him there. Yes, character counts in God's economy. I have found it to be the single most important thing in walking with God. We are, all of us, prone to give way here.
Do you remember these words in 2 Samuel 11:1? "In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab ... but David remained in Jerusalem." David had fought and won many battles for our Lord. He had suffered incredible hardships running from King Saul and God had placed in his hands the Kingdom of Israel. God had lifted the little shepherd boy up! When the shepherd boy grew into a man and then an older man, he began to lose his fire for God. Things were easier now that he was king, so instead of going out to battle, as he should have, he sent Joab! David stayed home, and while he was there - you know the rest of the story.
One need only read about the lives of the kings of Judah, even the good ones, to find that men who were greatly used by God can also fail miserably in their later years. Their names became a blight on the land. Why? They had taken their eyes off of the King of Kings. They felt that, because of the past great victories given by God, they could pretty much determine for themselves what was right and what was wrong, when to go to war and when to refrain. Though it wasn't intentional, they placed themselves above God's Law. Solomon, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Uzziah, Hezekiah, all began well, serving the Lord with great fervor. In their later years, however, they began living their lives for themselves. It is a sinful tendency that resides in all of us.
"Godly" King Hezekiah responded to the prophet Isaiah's warning that his very own children would become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon by saying, "The word of the Lord you have spoken is good...For he thought 'Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?'" 2 Kings 20:19. King Hezekiah no longer cared about the message he was sending to future generations. As a matter of fact, he didn't care about future generations at all, including his own son Manasseh (who, when he took over the kingdom for his father, shed so much innocent blood in Jerusalem that the Lord was not willing to forgive 2 Kings 24:4). Hezekiah cared only for himself. This is how Godly men go bad.
When one begins to live under the philosophy of Hakunna Mattata (check The Lion King), it isn't long before the ugly results of that lifestyle manifest. Randall Terry's brilliant mind has found a way to justify everything that his wicked heart conceives. It is too bad! He does not know himself well enough yet. He cannot fathom that he has violated Scripture, broken faith with the wife of his youth, broken faith with those he led into battle, broken faith with the voiceless children he was called to defend, and broken faith with God Himself. He has robbed Almighty God of the glory He could have received as a result of the multitudinous gifts God deposited in Randall's very person. Instead of using his gifts to feed our Lord's lambs, Randall Terry is using God's gifts to fleece them.
In Christian love,
Flip
BINGHAMPTON, NY (EP) -- Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry is being disciplined by his former church. The Landmark Church of Binghampton, N.Y., sent a letter to Terry Nov. 6, censuring him for his separation from his wife of 18 years and for his intention to divorce her, church leaders said. Terry rejected the charges in the letter.
Daniel Little, pastor of the church, joined seven elders and board members in signing the letter, which accuses Terry of a "pattern of repeated sinful relationships and conversations" with married and single women. The letter also mentions Terry's threat of legal action against the church.
Little said Terry began to show signs of "spiritual deterioration - chiefly anger and self-will" and a "lack of purity in speech and lifestyle" in 1997. The following year Terry was asked to resign as an elder in the church, and last year he was asked to resign from the church board.
Church leaders urged Terry to stop raising money for his ministry "until such time as his public persona and his true manner of living are known to be the same."
Little, who was Terry's pastor for 15 years, said the Operation Rescue founder is "an altogether different person than the one we knew and supported so many years ago."
According to Little, friends have tried to talk with Terry about the changes in his life, but "he has rejected their counsel and accused many long time friends and supporters of treachery for their attempts to speak correction into his life."
Flip Benham, Terry's longtime pro-life colleague, said Terry is "in desperate need right now of hearing and receiving the rebuke of our Lord." Benham added, "We are all praying for his repentance and return to the Church of Jesus Christ."
Terry dismissed the charges as "absolute nonsense, insanity," according to the Washington Post. Terry acknowledged that he and his wife are separated but called his marriage problems "personal, painful, and private."
(© 2000, Evangelical Press News Service)
(Post date: March 2, 2000)
To: The inquiring supporters of Randall Terry
From: Pastor Dan Little - The Church at Pierce Creek 1980-1998/ The Landmark Church to date
Because of the number of calls asking for my perspective on Randall Terry I have undertaken to write the following:
It is with great sadness that I write to inform you of recent events as regards Randall Terry. As many of you know I was his pastor for 15 years and I considered him to be one of my closest friends - a peer in the ministry.
Last August Randall left his wife of 18 years, set up an alternative residence in Windsor, and has told numbers of persons that he intends to divorce, annul or otherwise break covenant with his wife. This we earnestly pray he does not do. We have waited these many months to write in the sincere hope of seeing a change in his intentions. Many of his longtime friends (with whom he no longer associates) are shocked and bewildered that a man who has traveled the country pleading with Christian people to think and act biblically is now thinking and acting so anti-biblically on a number of fronts. When asked why he is doing what he is doing to his family, the reason that he gives is that he isn’t happy being married to Cindy.
It was in the Spring of 1997 when I noticed what to me were signs of Randall's spiritual deterioration - chiefly anger and self-will which manifested itself in what I would characterize as a lack of purity in speech and lifestyle. By August of 1998 I asked him to resign his long held position of Elder, and by August of 1999, having been told by him of his intentions to move out of his house and leave his wife, I asked him to resign as a member of the board altogether. In November of 1999 the church wrote a formal letter of censure (included below) and admonishment, calling him to repent, and dismissing him from the membership of the church as per his request to withdraw his membership.
Cindy (Randall's wife) and children are still with us. We are offering them as much emotional and spiritual support as we are able, but what they really need is for Randall to repent and return to loving his family. Splitting the children's time between two residences is certainly not an acceptable substitute for a Biblical patriarch-father, a father who trains his children by word and example to know what it means to think and act Biblically. Nowhere is such training more important than in showing them what it means to be a husband who loves his wife as Christ loved the Church and gave His life for her (see Ephesians 5:20 ff). It is through the fathers, more than through any other person, that children learn (or don't learn) about sacrificial love - love that dies to self, love that saves.
Most of Randall's former associates, while attempting for many months to be gracious and kind to him, have simply not been able to support him in what he is now doing. He has rejected their counsel and accused many long time friends and supporters of treachery for their attempts to speak correction into his life as regards his announced plans to break covenant with his wife, Cindy. Christ Himself assures us that biblical love is not the kind of love that supports or stands idly by sinful actions. Rev 3:19 "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." Where kindness and mercy fail, godly love will reprove, rebuke, correct and admonish. Many of Randall's longtime friends have made use of the full orb of godly counsel, from loving kindness to rebuke. This we have done as a church as well. This I have done as a pastor, and for my efforts on Randall's behalf I have been vilified, slandered, defamed, and denounced by him. His reviling remarks have failed to do anything but to bring further damage and shame to his own reputation.
Meanwhile it seems to many observers that Randall is altogether a different person than the one we knew and supported so many years ago. He still uses much of the old rhetoric, still attempts to fund raise as if he were the same man, but he himself does not appear to be the same man. The Psalmist wrote: "When with rebukes you correct a man for iniquity, you make his beauty melt away like a moth; surely every man is a vapor. Selah" I believe Randall is under the gracious but difficult dealings of God.
Please pray for Cindy and the children as they endure through this time. Please pray for Randall that God would change his heart toward his wife and toward the family over which God has called him to be the head.
God's grace abound toward you,
Dan Little
Letter of Church Censure: Randall Terry
The Landmark Church, 126 Court St., Binghamton, NY
November 6, 1999In keeping with the language and intent of chapter 30 of the Westminster Confession we write: "Church censures are necessary for the reclaiming and gaining of offending brethren, for the deterring of others of the like offenses, for purging out of that leaven which might infect the whole lump, for vindicating the honor of Christ and the holy profession of the Gospel, and for preventing the wrath of God which might justly fall upon the church if they should suffer His covenant and the seals thereof to be profaned by obstinate offenders."
Letter of Church Censure: Randall Terry, November 6, 1999
1. For leaving his wife in preparation to divorce, annul or otherwise dissolve their Christian marriage, and for his unwillingness to repent of this sin we do hereby censure him.
2. For a pattern of repeated sinful relationships and conversations with both single and married women we do hereby censure him.
3. For presenting a letter from his attorney threatening legal action against the Landmark Church, thus threatening to place the Church of Christ under civil authority for performing their Christian duty toward him we do hereby censure him.
4. In addition to those things mentioned above we are concerned that Randall's personal and theological transformation over the last three years has left him altogether a different Randall Terry than the one who now solicits funds from his donors. For example, in sending out a recent fund raising letter he wrote, "I know that you believe what I believe." This lacks integrity since the vast majority of his donors have no idea what he now believes nor the liberties and license in which he now walks, and in our opinion would hardly agree to support him if they did. For this we admonish him to cease soliciting funds until such time as his public persona and his true manner of living are known to be the same.
For all the reasons above, but not for any single one of these reasons, the undersigned Elders and Members of the Landmark Church Board do hereby censure and admonish Randall Terry, and further declare that for conduct far short of Christian standards of behavior he shall be kept from our communion table, and we further judge that he is not a fit candidate for communion in any true confessing Christian Church until such time as he repents of his sin. "For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." (1Corinthians 11:29 NKJ).
Finally, being fully aware that the Landmark Church exists not independently, but within the context of the entire body of Christ, should Randall Terry desire to appeal this our judgment we are willing to stand before such Board of Appeals as might be formed by selected and agreed upon Clergy of the area in which we and Randall Terry live and function. Reverend Doug Hill, a long time friend of Randall Terry's and a long time resident and pastor in this locale is agreeable to oversee this matter.
signed by:
Daniel J. Little Mark Leber Loretta Joseph Gary Leber Gary Little Mark Graham Chris Parker Seth Little
PT Barnum had nothing on Randall Terry.
He's got a lot of 'splain' to do. And that trust fund is for his house--and quite a nice house, indeed.
So his Christian followers have to pay now for his fancy home and his new honey.
A man living in perpetual adultery is such a great example for Christians.
[/s]
And having his picture taken with Jeb. That'll make at least one or two house payments.
Would he have upbraided William Wilberforce for fighting the slave trade because after all banning the slave trade wouldn't free one slave?
While I tire of those who see no chance of victory on the pro-life issue and have such a narrow vision that they can not even imagine a day when abortion will be illegal.
But I have much less patience for people who cannot accept a single step forward, a positive action taken by the Congress of the United State where a bipartisan majority agreed overwhelmingly that there is still enough respect for human life that there is a line to be drawn.
For what's probably the first time, I agree with you. This man has no moral credibility and I wish he would shut up.
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