PassingThru wrote:
I think the answer is in the nickname of the post just before yours : "Rev_Enue" !Actors impersonate for a living. Pop Christianity is a very easy, gullible market.
With all due respect, but I think this might be a little out of line. My question would echo the one you had quoted, "what drives a person to do this"? This is a real flesh and blood person, who is bound in such deception, that they felt the need to pursue acceptance in this highly destructive manner. He was deceived to the point that he even hid it from his family.
I think the greater attrocity is that the church, by and large, held this man in such high esteem, even before he became "cancerous". Where were the men of God to come around this lad, and show him that he was loved? What does it say about an institution that is meant to be defined by its love for each other.
This event betrays the cancer (mind the pun)of the "prosperity gospel", which has replaced the "fruit of the Spirit" with "enthusiasm" and "positivity", and forsakes "brokeness", like few others. Mike was the son of a well known pastor, over here, and as much as I would like to criticise him, I have been astounded at the brokeness that has been produced in him, as he struggled with his faith, in the face of his son's cancer (remember that all this was hidden from his family members).
Ironically, it was Mike's preaching that began the process of my leaving the only church I had ever known, before awakening to truth (thanks greatly to frequent visits to this place :-)). The thing that I feared, was listening to a sermon, by a man who was paraded as a "mighty man of God", which was full of "self exertion" (and all this years before the cancer episode began. My peers would not hear my concerns, labelling me as "fanatic", a kind of Christian version of "Chicken Little".
As this was going on, a found myself meeting countless young atheist, who were "on fire Christians" in their youth. As a former youth leader, I began to fear seeing my kids raised in that "Charismatic Youth Culture", which discards all but the openly enthusiastic, while the hurting are branded backsliders. I know in my days in youth ministry, I bought into this lie. I promoted the loudest pray-ers, the ones who saw the "visions", phophecied with "greatest accuracy", and of course, those with exceptional musical ability (and yes it grieves me to say so now). Ministry was one of efficiency, and utilitarianism.
We had the best of intentions, but [b]no one to tell us any different[/b]. Even if we did, we were indoctrinated to resist those who would bring such a message, by those who were indoctrinated likewise. To be honest, I spent a good six months dealing with my own pent up rage, after hearing the likes of Ravenhill and Wilkerson, because I had to face the fact that I had been lied to, by people that I loved like parents, and that I had lied to people who I loved with parental affection. Many of those who served under me, are now well and truly in the world, most flatly denying Christ.
Mikes only crime was [b]believing the lie presented to him[/b], and but for the grace of God, so go I. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to water down the seriousness of his sin, only highlighting my respusledness at a mentality that seeks to have us see his sin as worse than ours. Please hear me friend, I don't mean this as a personal slight on your character. I only suggest that there is another lie which can be bought into, that suggests that presenting slanderous theories, based on half the facts, is to be called discernment.
I am reminded of the words of Isaiah's messianic prophecy
And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and [u]he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth[/u]: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
[b]Isaiah 11:3-4[/b]
