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by Kevin Pauley
Remember your leaders who have spoken God's word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith. - Hebrews 13:7 HCSB
Amee Semple McPherson was the founder of the Foursquare Gospel denomination. She abandoned her second husband, had affairs, faked her own kidnapping in order to gain $500,000 and live with her lover and finally died of an overdose of Seconal.
Jim Bakker, an Assemblies of God minister and the co-host of the popular PTL club, ended his ministry with a sex scandal and divorce which resulted in revelations of accounting fraud which brought about his imprisonment. He claimed his show was popular because he “accepted all denominations, and refused no one regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation or criminal record” as worthy of speaking or teaching in his ministry.
Jimmy Swaggart was an Assemblies of God Pentecostal preacher. In 1986, Swaggart exposed fellow Assemblies of God minister Marvin Gorman, who was having an affair with one of his parishioners. The following year, Swaggart exposed fellow Assemblies Of God televangelist Jim Bakker’s sexual indiscretions. Meanwhile, Swaggart was frequenting a prostitute by the name of Debra Murphree. On October 11,1991, Swaggart was found in the company of another prostitute, Rosemary Garcia.
On and on the morbid lists goes: Lonnie Frisbee, Oral Roberts, Peter Popoff, Mike Warnke, Robert Tilton, Frank Houston, John Paulk, Douglas Goodman, Kent Hovind, Ted Haggard, Paul Barnes, Richard Roberts, Bishop Thomas Wesley Weeks, Bishop Earl Paulk, Phil Driscoll, Benny Hinn, Bishop TD Jakes… These names are synonymous with hypocritical greed. It is a morbid tale of power hunger, sexual abuse, drug addiction, and misappropriation of funds.
Small wonder Evangelical Christians are held in such low esteem in America that they rated tenth out of eleven groups evaluated, beating out only the prostitutes.[1] But while these shenanigans were going on, tens of thousands of good pastors toiled in obscurity, bringing comfort to the spiritually wounded, raising the fallen and encouraging the weak.
America, I humbly ask that you consider those leaders that have not only spoken God’s Word to you but have exemplified all that is good and lovely in their quiet and gentle lives. I ask you to not gaze in morbid fascination at these fallen men and women but that you also take the fact that they are in such a minority in consideration. For every high profile scandal-ridden preacher, there are tens of thousands of solid, honest men out there who have harmed no one and done much good.
Pastors – I beg you. Do no harm to the cause of Christ. Do not, as Jimmy Swaggart did, inspire a music video in which Christ’s church is compared to a pig-sty. Do your best to live moral, ethical lives; lives that will cause others who carefully observe them to want to imitate your pursuit of Christ.
[1]http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=127
Kevin Pauley is a pastor and writer. He lives in Illinois with his wife, Lynn, their five children and two dogs. His internet address is Berea.
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