Posted on 06/10/2019 8:35:08 AM PDT by Morgana
FULL TITLE: Her Evangelical Megachurch Was Her World. Then Her Daughter Said She Was Molested by a Minister.
HURST, Tex. — Christi Bragg listened in disbelief. It was a Sunday in February, and her popular evangelical pastor, Matt Chandler, was preaching on the evil of leaders who sexually abuse those they are called to protect. But at the Village Church, he assured his listeners, victims of assault would be heard, and healed: “We see you.”
Ms. Bragg nearly vomited. She stood up and walked out.
Exactly one year before that day, on Feb. 17, 2018, Ms. Bragg and her husband, Matt, reported to the Village that their daughter, at about age 11, had been sexually abused at the church’s summer camp for children.
Since then, Matthew Tonne, who was the church’s associate children’s minister, had been investigated by the police, indicted and arrested on charges of sexually molesting Ms. Bragg’s daughter.
Ms. Bragg waited for church leaders to explain what had happened and thoroughly inform other families in the congregation. She waited for the Village to take responsibility and apologize. She waited to have even one conversation with Mr. Chandler, a leader she had long admired.
But none of that ever came.
“You can’t even take care of the family you know,” she remembered thinking as she walked out of the large auditorium. “Don’t tell more victims to come to you, because you’re just going to cause more hurt.”
Evangelical churches have long distanced themselves from the sexual abuse crisis that has consumed the Catholic Church. Many Southern Baptists have dismissed sexual abuse as a problem caused by “corrupt Hollywood” or “liberal theology.” But a reckoning has arrived.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
There’s an old Hebrew saying, and I paraphrase, to know the mind of God, it’s not the writing of His Word, but the spaces in between. You have a brain, use it.
Here’s what you claimed...
“Jesus says to come out of theses whitened sephulcres and join the True Church, which isn’t found in a building or denomination.”
I asked for chapter and verse of where “Jesus” said this.
You responded..
“There’s an old Hebrew saying...”
Meaning...
Jesus never said it.
That’s what I thought. OK then.
He did say it, in so many words, your just too invested in traditional “church” dogma to figure it out. When His words are taken in total context, that is exactly what He is saying. The Thing that is commonly referred to as the Church, today, is not the Bride of Christ, and is but a corrupt counterfeit. But you go ahead and keep believing in it.
So what He said, which you know He said, but can’t find,
doesn’t mean what He said, because of the context which you ignored,
to an audience of Jews not Christians, was really about His true church,
because despite His specific words the Holy Spirit inspired, And His specific non-Christian audience, only you understand the hidden meanings... and it’s my fault I believe His specific words.
OK then!
Ping: Gnosticism rises again.
And my understanding is that the SBC is just a confederation of churches where individual sites can come and go more or less at will? That sounds to me like it would be easier to hide and shuffle creeps than in a centralized, bureaucratic monolith like the RC. where everyone’s assignments and movements can be traced back to the central office, as it were. And this all says nothing about even more decentralized churches and other denominations.
People should be well past feeling any level of defensiveness when their brand comes up in this sort of situation. It’s disgusting what has gone on and all signs point to this being systemic throughout organized Christianity. RICO laws will probably be used to rip out into the light what went on in the RC in the near future. Once they get the ball rolling, groups like the SBC will be next. Can’t say I’m sorry about it either. The foxes have been hiding what happened in the henhouse for decades, now the wolves are on them. Too bad, too sad.
If Hillary had become president, Christians would have been forced out of their jobs by now and would be facing being put in camps. But they are still trying whatever way they can.
Look in the Book of Revelation which speaks
about coming out of the Whore of Babylon. And I might add that throughout the Bible believers are reminded with example after example to set themselves apart and refrain from participating in the cultural and moral destruction of the heathen.
I am willing to live with the guitars and praise bands. What bothers me is that worship has become entertainment. One big gripe is when pastors intersperse their sermons with various video clips, especially from secular movies.
As I stated, it is sinful and repugnant every time everywhere.
These people should be fired immediately and never given a reference again.
Before anyone serves, in addition to exploring references, there should be a full criminal background check.
You may recall the first mega-church was in Jerusalem.
41So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
Acts 2:41 NASB
Liberals never generalize when it comes to bad things done by people of their tribe. But they never fail to generalize when it comes to bad things done by people not part of the liberal tribe. All conservatives are responsible for the crimes of a single white conservative. But liberals are never responsible for the crimes of multiple liberals.
In fact, conservatives are also responsible for the crimes of liberals. That is how Lee Harvey Oswald, an actual communist who defected to the Soviet Union and came back when he overstayed his welcome, had his assassination of JFK transmogrified into the result of a climate of hate in Dallas, a narrative driven by his ugly-on-the-inside-and-outside wife Jackie Onassis.
Why?
Because there were organs and traditional hymns in the original NT church?
I'm not a fan of the praise music in churches today. To me the main problem is it's watered down theology designed to play on the feelings of people. And there isn't much creativity to the lyrics either.
Any Christian church that is not Catholic is considered ‘Protestant’ as in Protesting against the Catholic version of Christian worship.
Most formally (versus functionally: lower-case “a”) Anabaptist denominations are not Protestant. They trace their history as always having been separate from the Catholic and Orthodox factions.
I am not Anabaptist, but I have been in ministry, and have studied Church History (at a private Christian school). Calling all non-Catholics Protestants is simply inaccurate. (Would you call Greek Orthodox Protestant?)
I have personally known knowledgeable Anabaptists who were incensed by that false characterization. They wanted no more association with Luther or Calvin than with Erasmus.
Modern “praise” music is insipid, designed to make people feel good without possibly offending anyone.
CCM that challenged and enlightened people is almost entirely a thing of the distant past.
I was once casually acquainted with a nationally famous megachurch pastor and author. I attended school with his son, and my mother used to have lengthy (one- or two-hour) theological debates with him.
He committed adultery - once, apparently, after the time that we knew him - and ten years later he was exposed, and his ministry was destroyed.
The tragic thing is that I know he wanted to publicly confess and repent to his congregation at the time, but was persuaded by the Church Board to keep it secret. A resentful opponent eventually exposed the secret.
(My mother’s relationship with him was limited, and mostly done by long telephone conversations. As a teenaged boy who knew the son, I actually found it all rather embarrassing, but I knew it was innocent.)
I was joking, if it’s a Catholic priest, they always say it’s because of celibacy disciplines, lol!
She reported it to the church, the guy was arrested and indicted.
Doesn’t sound like a cover up to me.
Here’s more:
They also made public postings:
https://www.thevillagechurch.net/2012-kids-camp-update
and it has been covered in the news.
It’s not all bad. I would consider “In Christ Alone” to be up there with the classic old time hymns.
The fact the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. banned it because it was too scriptural is a plus mark in my book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENtL_li4GbE
We sang it all the time in my church to show what we thought of our PCUSA denomination.
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