Predators, Pimps and Pedophiles in the Pulpit

Cynthia Cummings-Walker, http://www.lifeandbibleblog.com

Let’s begin with definitions for the title of this Blog

Predator – Someone who systematically hunts and exploits vulnerable individuals for personal gain through coercion, rather than through mutual consent, often seeking power and control over victims.

Pimp – To use someone dishonorably for personal gain, even in non-sexual contexts. Living off of or receiving financial support from victims through manipulation.

Pedophile – An adult who is sexually attracted to children, criminally abuses and exploits them.

This Blog would be too lengthy to cite all of the research, investigations, guilty pleadings, convictions, and those serving prison terms when there are so many pastor predators, pimps and pedophiles using their pulpit as a grooming center. However, I have included researchers and statistics below.

True Stories

Over the years I have counselled women who have been abused by pastors in different ways. A lot of stories begins the same. A vulnerable woman gets a lot of attention from a so-called caring pastor, counselling and sexual abuse.

A church that initially functioned as a Christian church, then devolved into a cult of pastor worship and blind obedience. I don’t know if that was the original intent of the pastor. Or, the corrupting influence of absolute power can corrupt absolutely when there is no accountability.
I know personally of a young woman who was not only sexually abused in a Christian school, the Church pastor was aware and did nothing. The pastor wanted a winning girl’s basketball team.
The Christian school hired a female coach who happened to be gay. The female coach sexually abused the girls and enjoyed seeing them form homosexual relationships with each other. I suppose winning a state championship was worth it for the pastor. Nothing for the girls accept a life of pain, struggle and anger with a God they believed had forsaken them.

The Predator Pastor

Pastors who are predators have different motivations, and ways to manipulate and control people. Spiritual abuse of authority is the basic foundation from which to demand obedience and submission as something God ordained.

Some predator pastors want wealth, so they fleece the flock by using tithing, or offerings, as a necessary component of Christianity and church membership.

Many promise health and wealth based on the amount of money a person gives. Some call it planting a seed. Others know it as fraud.

The sexual predator pastor can manipulate a person they desire by making them feel special, create guilt, or fear that God will punish them if they do not obey the pastor.

Any pastor’s self-exaltation, or enforcing dependency on themselves rather than on God should be a red flag.

Whether the pastor’s behavior is fraud, adultery, theft, sexual assault, homosexuality or pedophilia, there seems to be quiet coverups or the pastor going to another church or ministry.

The Pimping Pastor

The pastor who is a pimp lives off of the money he gets by requiring people to give their hard-earned money to the church through all types of schemes.

Pimp Pastors abuse their authority by claiming that financial blessing is tied to obedience to them. This forces their members to fund their lavish lifestyles. There are exorbitant pastor’s salaries, his anniversary, church anniversaries, birthdays, and special offerings,

Many congregants give sacrificially to support the pimp, receiving nothing for their services except empty handed promises that sacrificing and struggling here on earth will reap a greater reward in heaven.

Have you ever noticed that if the Pastor has a need, he can just ask the church to provide it? On the other hand if a member has a need, they are told to pray. If God doesn’t provide, the person is told to go to government agencies for assistance.

I’ve seen and heard of this happening so many times, especially in mega churches.

The Pedophile Pastor

Many years ago the Catholic Church was proven to have covered up a lot of pedophilia going on in parishes. It all appeared to be within the Catholic church until investigations were conducted and discovered that the Protestant churches have also been guilty of pedophilia for years.

Here are a few examples of actions that may signal a pedophile pastor’s attempt at grooming a child.

Pedophile pastor having an unnatural, excessive interest in a child.
Inappropriate boundaries (requiring hugs or kisses).
Grooming behaviors like excessive gifts or special attention.
Requiring a child’s isolation for counselling or other activities.

Of course, these are very general actions. I would encourage you to be educated on what to look for, and preventative measures so that our children will be protected.

What Can Be Done?

Know the Signs:

Any pastor who requires blind obedience, and submission to the pastor without question, should be questioned. If that is not allowed, exit.

Take Personal Responsibility:

False pastors do not encourage their congregants to read and study the bible for themselves. If Christians don’t know what the bible says, they will have to solely rely on what the pastor teaches, whether bible-inspired or the fulfilment of their desires.

Christians are responsible for developing a personal relationship with the Lord so that you will be able to discern good from evil and truth from error. Be a student of the Bible, read, study, memorize scripture and pray, pray and pray some more.

If you see something, say something, do something. If Church leadership is unresponsive or asks you to keep anything a secret, it would probably be wise to exit that ministry. Law enforcement probably needs to know if there is a criminal act being committed.

Church Leadership Responsibilities:

Churches should have strong governance and accountability, so that pastors cannot act without oversight.

This seems to be lacking in many churches. Even when misconduct by a pastor is disclosed, without accountability, the pastor simply goes to another church, or begins their own ministry.

Because there are widespread cover-ups, you may learn that it has happened or been happening in the church you are attending. If something seems suspicious, ask questions and be equipped to take things further if necessary.

Resources

Here are just a few organizations with invaluable information and tools to assist when vulnerable adults and children have been abused.

Baylor University is a nationally recognized research and advocacy center on clergy abuse.
Praesidium, Inc. are nationwide experts researching and providing tools for preventing the sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults.
Guidepost Solutions is a national association of Evangelicals providing resources, ethical codes, and promoting confidential reporting.
Womenslaw.org specializes in Spiritual Abuses.

Questions to Ponder

Have you ever experienced Spiritual Abuse? What happened? How did you get free?

Have you ever been deceived by a promise of health and wealth if you gave lots of money in planting a financal seed?

Have you ever struggled financially after faithfully paying tithes, and received no assistance from Church the one time you needed it?

Have you had abuse, interactions, or knowledge of a Pedophile pastor? What was the outcome?

Dual Christianity: One for Blacks and One for Whites

Lifeandbibleblog.com

Blog by Cynthia Cummings-Walker

Christianity certainly is prominent in the fabric of the American experience. However, the experiences of Black Americans and White Americans, in terms of Christianity, have been vastly different. There appears to be a dual Christianity, one for African Americans to live by, and another for White people.

How the differences are manifested depends on how Christianity is taught, who teaches it and how it is experienced by the person receiving instruction. In general, the Bible is used to convert and teach biblical principles for all Christians to live by. However, there was a dual Christianity at play.

White people were taught all of the benefits that they were entitled to as a child of God. They were told about a relationship with God, a transformed life, answered prayer, and a prosperous, abundant life on earth. When they died, heaven would be their eternal home.

Historically, on the other hand, the Christianity presented to enslaved Africans was a religion where they were told that God destined them to be enslaved, toil and suffer on earth. Slaves would just have to be patient. After death, heaven would be their reward, and they would live there happily ever after.

Slavery and Christianity

The purpose of converting enslaved Africans to Christianity was not so that they would have the same advantages of their owner’s Christianity. That form of Christianity was for Whites only. The purpose for converting slaves to Christianity had a more sinister motivation. A dual Christianity – One for the owner and one for the owned.

The beginning of slavery in American began in 1619 when the first slave ship departed the coast of West Africa headed for the British colony Jamestown, Virginia. From the small beginning of 20 slaves on the first ship, and others that followed, the slave population rapidly grew. Soon slaves would outnumber their masters.

This was a concern for slave owners. Their fears were validated on August 22, 1831, when a slave named Nat Turner led a rebellion against slave holders in Southhampton, Virginia and killed 60 White people. Although the rebellion was over within 24 hours, panic spread across the region.

Slave owners knew that some kind of action had to be taken to prevent this from ever happening again. A strategy was needed to enable masters to be able to totally control enslaved Africans through subservience, obedience, and loyalty to their masters.

Missionaries, many of them who owned slaves, came up with a diabolical plan that would solve this potential problem: Convert slaves to Christianity. However, there was a caveat. Some slave owners feared converting their slaves to Christianity, worrying it could lead to the slaves demands for freedom if they knew all that Christianity offered.

Their anxiety soon dissipated when masters realized that the Christianity for slaves would not be the same Christianity that owners practiced. Enslaved people would be promised salvation, eternal life, and rewards in heaven if they converted to Christianity.

This Christianity for the enslaved would accomplish two purposes: Conversion would offer a semblance of hope and comfort amidst slaves’ unimaginable suffering. At the same time masters could assert unchallenged authority and brutality without fear of a slave uprising or rebellion.

Because a bible had to be used in order to teach Christianity, a different bible was created for this dual Christianity.

The Negro Slave Bible

In 1807 the Negro Slave Bible was published in London, printed by Law and Gilbert. It had “Select Parts of the Holy bible for the use of the Negro Slaves in the British West-India Islands.” The differences in the slave bible were:

The King James Bible has 1,189 Chapters. The Negro Slave Bible has 232 Chapters.

90 percent of the Old Testament was eliminated. Exodus and Jeremiah were left out because owners didn’t want the enslaved to know about Moses leading slaves to freedom.

50 percent of the New Testament was not included. Especially, Galatians was left out because of the reference to slaves and masters being equal.

Owners needed to emphasize servitude and obedience as a divine mandate from God. Being a good Christian would rise and fall on these two scriptures:

Ephesians 6:5–6 (NASB)

“Slaves be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eyeservice as men pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”

Colossians 3:22-24 (NASB)

“Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

How to Make a Negro Christian

In 1831 Dr. Reverend Charles Colcock Jones, a missionary and slave owner, began making a speech throughout the southern states, about why and how to teach enslaved Africans about Christianity.

In 1832 Dr. Reverend Jones published a book entitled “The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States.” It was a biproduct of the popularity of Jones’ speeches the prior year.

In the book, Reverend Jones’ extensive dehumanization of Africans was traumatizing in my just reading it. The culmination of all of the degrading vitriolic propaganda was that slaves were no good for anything except working the fields and making babies for sale.

As a result of that depiction, owners would not have to feel any guilt about the unspeakable atrocities they would commit against their “property.”

Needless to say, the Negro Slave Bible and Reverend Jones’ book, worked like a charm. This form of dual Christianity would ensure unchallenged authority over enslaved Africans into perpetuity.

Although slavery would be legally abolished on December 18, 1865, a slave mentality continues to exist. Bodily freedom did not free some formally enslaved people’s mind, nor the minds of some of their descendants. To me, much of this propaganda of the inferiority of Black people continues within the dual forms of Christianity that exists even now.

Dual Christianity in America

We’ve already seen how the “two” bible concept represents two ways of seeing and serving God. One according to scripture and one through unmitigated tyranny.

Black people and White people may basically use the same bible; however, interpretation of scriptures may differ radically. The Bible teaches that God created all humans in His image and are deeply loved and valued equally by Him.

The White Christianity’s interpretation of scripture is the superiority of White people and the enslavement of Black people due to the curse of Noah’s son Ham (an absurd motive, devoid of biblical sanction).

Because of the level of pain and trauma associated with the dual Christianity in America, many African Americans continue to believe in God, just not Christianity. They have left the traditional church to seek inclusive spiritual spaces to heal from past traumas and to find meaning and fulfillment in spaces that offer equality, less judgment and inclusion.

Generally, African American’s interpretation of scripture is based on love, freedom and equality. Not to imply here that African American churches are perfect because they are not. The issue here is a dual Christianity, based on dual perspectives.

Dual Christian Organizations

Klu Klux Klan – a Protestant Christian Organization

On December 24, 1865, the KKK was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee. They were white Protestants who formed an organization to terrorize, lynch, bomb churches, schools, businesses, and homes of African Americans, murdering countless men, women and children in the process.

The KKK had huge red crosses embroidered on the front of their white robes, as they burned crosses amidst their crimes, as symbols of their Christian faith.

Segregation of Christian Denominations

Beginning around 1870 former slaves were forced to start their own Christian churches because they were not permitted in White churches or denominations.

For instance: The White Church would be Methodist Episcopal; for former enslaved Africans, their Methodist church would be (AME) African Methodist Episcopal. This was the description for whatever denomination Black people were a part of because of segregation.

Present Day Church Segregation

Most people know that Sunday mornings are the most segregated times of the week. Even though Christians are supposed to be unified through a shared faith in Christ, it isn’t happening.

The Church is more segregated and divided in beliefs than ever. The White church has embraced the radicalized former republican party as divinely appointed by God. Generally, the White church continues to condone the demonization of minorities, immigrants and the poor.

They rail against abortion and homosexuality. Yet, when it comes to racism, and oppression, many pastors say those are social issues against which they will not preach. Both are sin and social. Interestingly, abortion is not specifically addressed in the bible. However, Jesus spoke often about the poor, oppressed and to love everyone.

America continues to operate under a dual Christianity. Segregation in so many areas whereas the Lord stressed love for one another and unity. It is as though so many Christians are living by the infamous statement Alabama Governor George Wallace made in his inaugural address on January 14, 1963, that resonates even today:

“Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!”

In Conclusion

I believe that dual Christianity in America has forsaken the teachings of scripture for warped self-actualization and promoting a religion based on tyranny, oppression of the poor and marginalized; and is only committed to the White and wealthy.

The far-right evangelical Christians, both Black and White, have bastardized the good news of the gospel into something totally antithetical to biblical Christianity, the republican party. The exchange of the wooden cross for a shiny gold elephant is evident through all of the hate and vitriol spewed everywhere.

For this, there has been a price to pay. The overt hypocrisy of Christianity leaves a bad taste in mouths and a stench in nostrils of many unbelievers. Where there use to be respect for God, His Name and that of Jeus Christ, they are now used as curse words.

This is not because unbelievers have gotten worse, it is because so-called Christians have rejected the True and Living God, exchanging Him for a god created in their own image and an earthly savior supposedly to make America great.

I no longer self-identify as a Christian. I am a person who believes the Bible. I have read, studied it in the Hebrew and Greek, memorized, taught and tried to live according to it for many years. I am a Bible-believer, period.