What Men Do in the Name of God is Shameful
The other day, I was viewing pictures of Rev. Ike's palatal office/church/theater in New York city, and I marveled at how a known religious con artist could continue his con so long in the name of God and have poor souls aid him by giving him money. I think about all the other con artists in the church using the church to further their con, and I am just taken back with disappointment about these crooks, as I look at what men do under color of religion and still call themselves Christians.
Rev. Ike was one of the first modern-day religious frauds who made a mockery of Christianity for money and fame. Before him in the Black church was Father Divine and Daddy Grace, and I am sure a thousand other less conspicuous thieves and robbers.
Rev. Ike was raised early on as a boy preacher in a Holiness Church; he never worked, other than being a Chaplin in the Air Force. He received a Bachelor of Theology Degree from American Bible College, which seems to be a legitimate school, but other degrees are from non-accredited schools he created--Honorary Recognition, Doctor of the Science of Living (D. Sc. L.) conferred by United Church, Science of Living Institute, New York. He made himself a bishop and now about 73-years old, he is still receiving money from anyone willing to give it.
From a boy preacher, Ike knew the ways and easy acceptance he would find among Holiness people and others to his fairly good-looks and his smooth voice when he paraded a feigned holiness. Consequently, many Christians found it hard to believe that while using the name of Christ and seemingly still in the church, he would or could preach a gospel that went against so many truths of God. But he did just that, and they paid him to do so, as many are paying him and comparable ministers still.
But Ike is like so many ministers who are running scams today: he started his own church organization, gave himself titles and degrees of no real value, other than to his victims who do not know the difference between real, worked-for degrees from accredited universities and degrees from diploma mills; he has had money going directly to himself, without accountability, allowing him to evade income taxes; he defies the sound teachings of the church and has the ability to easily turn an apt phrase that would catch the attention of the unlearned. He has left the higher truths of God and morality for money. This is characteristic of Gospel of Wealth preachers, as he abuses and uses the poor to become wealthy.
There are many frauds in the church for more and sex: In Colorado Springs, Colorado, the Rev. Ted Haggard headed a 14,000 member church congregation of Evangelicals that supposedly was god-fearing and faithful to the teachings of Christ, yet he was doing acts that defied the teachings of that church--homosexuality and lies that he preached against until one of this sexual partners outed him as a homosexual. And only as the evidence became clear and overwhelming did he admit that he had engaged in such acts with the man who outed him. However, as the church investigated him more, they found that he had been doing similar things before this one man, and that other ministers under his administration had also been following his lead.
This same Ted Haggard had been one of George Bush's top supporters and would meet with the president on a regular basis to talk politics and "ethics." And even George Bush, with his deadly war against the Iraqi people, (having killed some 650,000 Iraqis, according to the Lancet Journal, and over 3,000 US soldiers) his repeated lies to the American people, and his high administration officials having also repeatedly lied to Congress and to grand juries, calls himself Christian.
Is this fad of "being a Christian," like the fad of hot pants or "over-the-top-patriotism?" Whatever it is, it vulgarly devastates the reputation and moral credibility of the Christian church. Such shameful actions that are so frequent done by high and low profile figures who call themselves Christians make if difficult to say "I am a Christian" for those who would claim a position in Christ. It can no longer be a declaration that makes sense anymore in the midst of the crude vulgarity of Bush, Haggard, Rev. Ike, Cleflo Dollar, and the host of religious charlatans who parade themselves like peacocks and seduce the unthinking minions who follow them blindly on their path to perdition. [See The Gospel of Wealth]
This current flavor of Christianity has loose morals, questionable characteristics, and an uncertain code of behavior that will make any moral ashamed of so aligning himself/herself with Christians, lest someone feels that "Christian" person means that he/she will engage in any reprehensible lifestyles as do other "Christians." The present form of Christianity blared by these high profile apostates (Bush included) is not any Christianity I recognize or understand from Bible teachings. Instead, it is a bastardized Christianity that is clearly an apostasy of all the teachings of Christ! It is a disgrace that needs rooting out of Christianity, but does not seem to be a course of action that American Christians will soon take. The currents of politics and power seem to have overrun the teachings of Christ in most churches.
There are deceptions, seductions, killings, and other forms of debauchery ongoing in all churches, from the very devout to the very liberal. We know of Jim Jones and the tragedy of his having seduced other men's wives and other women's husbands for his sexual gratification. We know of his having taken their homes, had their welfare and Social Security checks deposited directly into the church's bank account, which he controlled. We know of his having moved about 1000 of that church down the the South American nation of Guiana and eventually killing them. All in the name of Christian religion.
Just last week in Oakland, an angry husband killed his wife in the parking lot of a very fundamentalist mega-church that is emerging as a political church in California; we know the Catholic priests' widespread sexual abuse of their altar boys; now a parishioner in the Southern Baptist church organization came forth with claims of widespread sexual abuse that may be throughout that organization's churches; in Chicago, the IRS is investigating and indicting an Apostolic Faith Bishop for his theft of church funds for his own personal use; in Oakland, a Baptist pastor has been arrested several times for solicitation of prostitutes; in Los Angeles, an Apostolic Faith Bishop was arrested for DUIs and accidents under the influence of alcohol; the list goes on, and by now everyone knows of Marvin Gaye's Apostolic Faith preacher father having shot him to death. From very fundamentalist churches to very liberal churches, the very thing the church supposedly stood again seems to be the very thing is widespread in it--sin of every form.
The properly interpreted teachings of the church are sound, but what has happened is that corrupt men have made merchandise of the church and used Christianity as a cloak for their unrighteousness and wrong-doings. And since they will not clean up themselves, as they are suppose to do, an outside governmental force must now function as a moral guide for the church, which is suppose to be a moral guide to the world. How tragic.
