Clean Up in the Pastor’s Aisle

Back in 1992 Elizabeth and I were part of confronting the senior pastor of one of the fastest growing churches in America. He had been involved in many perversions and we had sworn affidavits from 10 women as to how the seduction process would take place. There was suspected pedophilia as well—proven later when a child came of age and reported it. This had been our home church in Atlanta, Georgia where we were in leadership positions (volunteer) that had us overseeing/serving about 3,000 people. My pointing out to the pastor that he needed to repent resulted in getting sued for 24 million dollars:)

This pastor had been praised by many of the leading ministers of the nation as the “cutting edge” man of God. We too had been impressed with him and is why we had been there for many years. This is where I met Elizabeth, where we were married, and had our first daughter. The discovery of our pastor’s gross sin and those on staff who also were involved was a huge shock to the system. It created an initial cognitive dissonance of denial even after first-hand confirmation. In the discovery process we also found out about many of the “famous” pastors that associated with this leader and the fact that most of them also had mistresses and more. It all became part of our distancing from church life for about 3 years, which changed once I was touched by the Lord in the Toronto Renewal in 1995. God healed our perspective (among other things I realized I had been judging all pastors and churches by the mega churches). Our own international ministry was ignited and three years later we began our own unexpected call to be lead pastors which we did for about 14 years. It was very hard to accept the call as “pastor” because it had practically been a bad name at that point in our home.

The most frustrating aspect of that period of our life was the immense sense of injustice. The women risked much and couldn’t get leaders from that church or the church world in general to believe them. Every imperfection of theirs was used to cover the fact that this mega church pastor had sexually abused many women of a wide variety of ages. Our daughter, Justice Hope, was born during that season of our lives and it is the reason she carries her name. She was born on the 24th of February which coincided with the 24 million I was sued for—because we dared to confront and reveal truth. The judge did verbally chastise this pastor and the church for the lawsuit and the lawsuit was quickly dropped when it began to greatly backfire on them in every way imaginable.

I was an unknown at the time so “the man of God” (yet a deviant) was the one believed by many even though his three daughters and son-in-laws (all pastors) left the church when we confronted it all. The story is much longer and much more sordid than I am laying out here, but I am bringing it up now because it is relevant. We are presently in a day of great exposure of mega church leaders/famous Christian artists being involved in every kind of sexual perversion including human trafficking and pedophilia. Pastors/Ministers/Artists who are even part of the deep state. I don’t know if every accusation will bear out to be true, but if it sounds credible— and especially so if there are more than one accuser—don’t switch off into cognitive dissonance. One of the sure ways you know it is true is if "main stream" media doesn’t cover it and if “big tech” is censoring it. Use your discernment as well— but know it doesn’t really work if you idolize the individual.

God is cleaning His house and it is not going to be pretty, but it is necessary. It is exposure time for every deep state, corrupt, vile behavior and if it is unfolding in government be sure He will not back off until it has had its way in the church. If you are involved in any kind of cover-up of this type of behavior, become fearless and courageous and stop doing that. This is not the time to be worried about “the world” stumbling by what is getting exposed. It is not your job to care more for church reputation than victims and the needed cleanup. I am writing this post both as a support for those who have endured clergy abuse as well as a word to be courageous to all those who have been part of the coverup mechanism. Jumpstart your soul by doing the right thing.

The purpose in me telling some of our story from many years ago is so you know we are conditioned to believe and not disbelieve what sounds unbelievable to some We know the abusers count on that. We know the rich and famous even (or especially) in the Church cover for each other. When they are wicked it is even worse than normal wicked. Not sure what I am starting here, but it is full cleanup time. Time for zero tolerance for evil and perversion done in the name of God.