Jim Bakker got away with his thievery for years and years. Others as well. As I recall it was U.S. Marshals who dragged him out from under his desk and handcuffed him, not “Christians.” Although the Marshals themselves may have been.
Point is, Bakker etal could not get away with all they did without support from others. Maybe they weren’t Christians? Muslims? Hindu?
What is it that you want?
Will it make you "feel better" to know that there are Christians who are scoundrels.
Does it make what Joseph Smith did somehow more acceptable to you?
On FR it has been made clear to you (or so I thought) that Christians will not deny there are scoundrels in their ranks, while lds do whatever they can to either cover up the actions of lds leaders or deny the severity of these actions or attack the poster and their motives.
So D where do you stand and what is it that you really want?
I do this for your benefit as you are deflecting and not responding to the questions I asked.
What is it that you really want?
Maybe they weren’t Christians?
- - - -
I believe many of the victims are Christians, but just as many, if not more, are lonely people trying to grasp on to anything.
They come to see these people as their ‘saviors’ rather than pursue a REAL relationship with Christ.
Part of why I got involved in the watchdog group was I briefly worked for a ‘pastor’ (at a school he ran) who I soon found out wasn’t a Christian, but a con man. He scammed and swindled his congregation, his student’s families, everyone. After he got kicked out of the Baptist church, he became a ‘Messianic rabbi’ and started the scam all over again.
And I have been working and doing battle on exposing him for several years. I dog him to the point that he has publicly said I am not a Christian.
His victims (and I would say this is true of televangelists and other con men as well - including J. Smith) fall/fell into several categories: True believers who can’t imagine that anyone would use Christ to ‘con’ them, those who put their faith in ‘religion’ rather than a relationship with Jesus, people who think he has ‘the magic answer’ to health and wealth, and those who think he is a ‘shortcut’ to God.
That there are wolves in sheep’s clothing (false prophets) should not surprise us. Christ told us there would be.
And it can be difficult to be a ‘cynical Christian’.