Standing Up to the Fundamentalist Bullies - Social Media Has Evened the Field - A Few Thoughts for Chris Peterman from the Watchdog

Readers, here is another post on the Chris Peterman, Bob Jones University, Chuck Phelps story. The old FBC Jax Watchdog - who has been through a few dog fights himself - has a few things to say to Chris, and about how social media has helped expose the tactics of the fundamentalist bullies - and about how it has leveled the playing field.

- I know this entire episode has to be incredibly painful, Chris. Not only did you not get your degree, not only do you have to figure out now where to go that you have been kicked out of your college, but you likely now are coming to grips now with how ugly religious fundamentalism actually is. I don't know your circumstances, Chris, but perhaps you were a religious fundamentalist and now are coming to grips that you WERE part of that system that through your recent circumstances you are beginning to understand how ugly and anti-Christian it actually is. A person who incurs the wrath and the lies and the scorn from powerful religious leaders that he/she once trusted - simply because they stood for what they believed was right and wouldn't shut up - causes a myriad of conflicting emotions that takes years to process. I know. The good news is there is incredible freedom at the end of the process.

- But do get ready, Chris, for the lies. I'm sure you've experienced it already since this story broke 5 months ago. You know, the whispers. The accusations that powerful religious men will make about you and your family and friends, comments that their underlings will take and repeat to others about you. People who you thought were your friends who won't call you, or who avoid making eye contact at the store. You might even have religious relatives in your own family that will tell you that you were wrong and should have shut up. Some will accuse you of hurting the cause of Christ and hampering BJU's ability to do God's work. Nope. You are helping the cause of Christ, you are doing the will of God, and you are actually doing BJU a huge favor but those in power right now can't see that. But know that you did the right thing, the Christian thing, and hold your head up high.

- People will say you got what you deserved. I've heard that for years. This is part of the zaniness of religious fundamentalism: the pronouncements by the pious holy men that the lowly abused somehow get what they had coming to them - you know, that God is sovereign so just take your lumps like a good soldier. In fact, how ironic is it that people on my blog and elsewhere are saying that you deserved this abuse from BJU, when part of your protest over Chuck Phelps being put on the BJU board was how as pastor he made Tina Anderson feel that she was somehow to blame for being raped. This is how the twisted minds of religious zealots operate: Tina was made to feel that she was to blame for her abuse, and now you are made to feel that you are to blame for the abuse perpetrated by BJU. This is religious fundamentalism at its worse: damn the individual who is abused if it means protection for  the religious leaders and the religious institution.

- You are the enemy now, Chris, of the powerful religious zealots at BJU and those that love BJU, so there is probably more dirt and mud coming your way. You have helped to expose what has been there all along at BJU, and you have and will continue to incur their wrath. There likely will be no true reconciliation in the matter, as religious zealots can't compromise with the devil, and you, in their eyes, are forever the devil. And the zealots must defeat the devil.

- But the good news for you, Chris: your struggle has done much good for Christianity and will continue to do so. Stick with it, Chris. Keep shining the light. Sometimes just enduring the scorn of religious zealots, and then daring to turn the tables on the zealots by using social media to expose their abuses and lies in REAL TIME is the best response to stop the abuses in the future.

- Chris, I hope you have sought out legal advice, and that if you believe you have been wronged, or that your rights have been violated by these zealots, that you will fully consider your legal options and see it through. Oh, they won't like it, and BJU supporters will say you are "lawyering up" and claim you are out to make money. But make no mistake, the pious and religious men you're dealing with understand two things: money and power. BJU did what they did because they believed you were the little guy, someone with no power at all. And you were only the next in line of a long list of people who they have successfully bullied. They thought they could bring you harm with little or no ramifications, because they've done it before. You were a pest they thought they could just brush aside, a coward that if a little pressure were applied to, would cave in to their demands. But the beauty of our legal system is that the little guy like yourself, with little money and almost no power at all in their eyes, can stand toe-to-toe with the powerful and hold the powerful accountable if you have a lawyer standing with you who believes in you.

Lastly:  how sweet is the irony that they viewed you, Chris, as someone they could bully, someone with no power or voice - yet it is precisely their own actions that has helped give you the voice that you now have on these issues. This is one of the amazing aspects of social media. For so long the bullies just squished whoever they wanted. Consider what started this entire fiasco fifteen years ago. When Chuck Phelps at Trinity Baptist made Tina Anderson confess to her "sin" of being raped and then shipped her out of state, while the perpetrator was protected - the zealots got what they wanted: the pastor and the religious institution was spared the embarrassment of scandal and police involvement.

But fifteen years had to pass until the technology would be available to set things in motion for justice to be served.

You see, when Tina was made to stand and apologize for being raped, there was no Twitter, there was no YouTube or "blogs" or Facebook. What prompted Tina to come forward more than a decade later to seek justice was information shared in an online discussion group! Then, when Tina's story came to light, blogs like this one and Christa Brown picked up on it, and people knew about it, and you found out about it and decided to stand against Chuck Phelps being placed on the board at your college.

Social media helped bring about justice in Tina Anderson's case, and it is social media helping to expose the actions BJU has taken to harm you for you standing against the pastor involved in Tina Anderson's case.

So Chris, I hope you continue to use social media to tell your story, whatever the next chapters might be. When you do it, you will be doing God's will in taking a stand against the abusive religious leaders of your day....just as Jesus did.

Bob Jones University Student Receives Demerits for Watching "Glee" - Retaliation for Speaking "Against My Authority"

Readers - I don't ordinarily make two posts in one day, but wanted to get this video up on my blog this morning. [Don't overlook my post below on WFAA and Brett Shipp and Ed Young].

Below is a 10-minute video of Christopher Peterman, senior at Bob Jones University, telling how just days before he was to graduate he was expelled from school.

This video, and the events leading up to it at Bob Jones University, demonstrate just how powerful a force social media, including blogs and Facebook and YouTube, have become in exposing fundamentalist abuse and just plain old nonsensical actions of religious leaders of our day.

Chris Peterman is a hero. He has been kicked out of school days before graduation for daring to speak against his "leadership" and calling on them to do the right thing.

Chris is the student who started the Facebook page "DoRightBJU" late in 2011 in response to pastor Chuck Phelps being nominated for the board of trustees at Bob Jones University. Who is Chuck Phelps? He was the pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Concorde, New Hamphsire when Tina Anderson was raped by a member of the church. Read about it on the Watchdog here, here, here, and here.

The interviewer asks Chris how the BJU responded to Chris when he came back to school for the current semester after all the media exposure over the holidays regarding Chuck Phelps and Chris' public statements against Phelps as a trustee:

Chris:  "When I cam back, I began having weekly meetings with the Dean of Men, I was required to attend these meetings."

Interviewer:  "What was their reason?"

Chris: "That I needed spiritual help because I was not a good Christian. I had talked against my authority and I had brought shame to Bob Jones."

Interviewer:  "What were they wanting to accomplish with these meetings?"

Chris: "They were hoping to accomplish a change in me. They wanted me to become exactly like them and to not speak out and to not have a voice. They wanted me to have their beliefs."

Chris goes on to explain how BJU put a resident assistant in his dorm to monitor his every action. He received demerits for watching the TV show Glee because of its "morally reprehensible" content.

Chris was called into a final meeting with the "Dean of Men", and while they deliberated the fate of Chris' appeal, Chris decided to contact several news agencies and the Department of Education and the national accrediting agency for BJU.

While BJU thinks they are doing the will of God, the very work of Jesus in taking these actions against Chris, they don't even realize the mockery of their own faith that they are producing.

Below is a quote from Bob Felton's "Civil Commotion" website on this matter of Chris being expelled in part for watching Glee. - Bob is a skeptic of the Christian faith who regularly comments on nonsense he sees in churches that confirms his distaste for organized religion:

"I’m not kidding y’all: You really can’t make up how stupid and vicious fundamentalists actually are. They look just like everybody else, and are usually well-groomed and -mannered — but they are not part of the decent, educated world."

This is why powerful Christian leaders today can't stand blogs and other social media - it exposes to the people they are trying to market - er, I mean reach for Jesus - of how nutty they can be. Sure, they love to use social media to promote themselves and their churches and their personal brands, but when it is used to express dissent and to criticize their ministries, they try to use their power to punish those who speak out.

Thank you, Chris, for standing strong. You stood for right in the Chuck Phelps matter, and when they tried to bully you and silence you, you didn't back down. I'm sure you have a bright future, and consider it a blessing that BJU decided not to grant you a degree.

H/T:  Bob Felton and Jeri Massey

Brett Shipp and WFAA Expose Abuse at Waco Church - And Watchdog's View of Shipp's Work Versus Ed Young's View

Brett Shipp of WFAA in Dallas has spent months investigating a church compound just outside of Waco, TX, known as "Homestead Heritage". He has documented the physical and sexual abuse of people at the church, including the sexual abuse of children that was not reported to authorities in a timely manner as required by law. Last night the first of a two-part series on Heritage aired on WFAA:

As you watch this video, you will see the common threads that are observed over and over again in abusive Christian environments: authoritarian pastors and church leaders who tell their church members that they are appointed and anointed as messengers from God, church covenants prohibiting believers from having disputes settled outside of the church, labeling of church members who challenge leaders as being bitter, and a failure to adequately protect children and putting the concern of adult male members as being a primary concern.

Readers, as you watch this video, look for similar abusive traits in your own church. Does your church display these traits, or have a history of any of these traits? If they have had abuse problems in the past, have adequate corrective steps been taken AND has the church leadership been open and honest with members about past problems and explained the steps taken to correct it? Or do the current church leaders deny or downplay the severity of the past problems?

An expose like this is not just important in warning others about that particular abusive system in the story. It is important to getting people to awaken to the possibility that they're current church might be capable of the same acts. Brett makes the point early in the video that Homestead Heritage portrays itself as a bastion of old-fashioned, wholesome values, while behind the scenes they are actually worse than the outside world they rail against. Church members beware - especially if you are part of a church system that has had an authoritarian leader in the past and where sexual sins have been covered up in the past yet leaders to this day are still denying or downplaying the severity of past sins.We have several of these kinds of churches right here in Jacksonville, Florida that have been featured on this blog.

Lastly, I want to say a word about Brett Shipp and WFAA. This expose reminds me so much of the work that Jeannie Blaylock of WTLV-Jacksonville did back in 2005 and 2006 in exposing the deeds of Bob Gray and the cover-up at Trinity Baptist Church here in Jacksonville. It takes guts for reporters and news agencies to tear off the pious masks of churches in their own communities and expose the ugliness of churches and pastors that are revered by the faithful. Today it is mostly up to bloggers like the Wartburg Watch and Christa Brown who are shining a bright spotlight on abusive pastors and church systems, but Brett Shipp is one member of the media who is not afraid to do the dirty work in Christianity.

Brett Shipp is the most courageous news reporter I know in this regard. He and WFAA were not afraid of taking on Ed Young and Fellowship Church to expose the lavish spending and fund raising tactics of Ed Young. Brett even dared to do an expose on Ergun Caner last year when Caner moved to Arlington Baptist College from Liberty University. Brett's piece on the "Caner Mystique" as he called it, was absolutely the finest work done by a prominent news outlet in concisely showing the truth about Ergun Caner's decade of deception.

Sadly, while Brett is doing God's work in exposing the ugliness in modern Christianity, there are those people like Ed Young who actually portray WFAA and Brett Shipp as being "haters", as trying to thwart the work of God and being anti-church. In a recent video posted by Ed Young, Young blasted WFAA by saying the following:

"When you're doing great, people hate...there's always some [in the news media] who are negative. And I think about WFAA - a station here in Dallas that CONTINUES to attack the local church, and CONTINUES to be negative...WFAA continues to exaggerate, to falsify, to deal in fiction rather than fact....it's time for the church to stand and say 'you know what, we're not going to take it anymore, you guys aren't telling the truth'.."

Sorry, Ed. You can rail all you want against WFAA, but they are doing God's work in exposing corruption and abuse in the modern church. How ironic that Young claims WFAA deals in "fiction rather than fact" when Young is the one who stands up and misuses scripture to get people to fork over 10% of their income to his church. Shipp deals with facts and eyewitness accounts to warn people of abusive churches - while Young deals with fiction and fairy tales to get people to fork over large sums of money.

Way to go Brett Shipp and WFAA. Keep standing for the truth, keep doing the work of God even in the face of angry, bitter pastors who can't stand to have a light shone on their church and ministries.

"Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another." Eph 4:25

Ed Young Warns of the Heretical "Poverty Vibe" in Christianity - While Mary Ann the Camel Takes a Big Ol' Dump Right on Cue

Ed Young rides in on camel for 4/22/12 sermon.

God definitely has a sense of humor. This Sunday Ed Young started his sermon by riding in on the animal prop of the day, Mary Ann the Camel.  But Mary Ann the Camel stole the show, taking a big ol' dump on the stage at the precise moment that Ed himself was using the Bible to justify his own wealth, and mock poverty and sacrifice.

Way to go, Mary Ann! You have given us all a fitting visual image of what happens most Sundays when Ed Young teaches on finances; poop comes forth and is strewn all over the Fellowship Church stage.

Camel lifts tail, takes dump at 11:59 mark.

At the moment Mary Ann the Camel let loose of her bowels, at the 11:59 mark of the video below, Ed was mocking what he called the "poverty vibe" in modern Christianity. Here is what Ed was saying as Mary Ann defecated on cue:

"God's blessed us, we hold it [money] loosely, he's going to give us more and more and more. We have it tightly grasped, we're not going to have as much.

There's a whole vibe out there these days in Christianity, it's been around for a long, long time. It goes back to the Catholic Church, it goes back to self-deprecation [cue Mary Ann the Camel, now taking a big ole dump], there's this whole 'poverty vibe' out there. A lot of books have been written about it, it sounds so sexy and cool and biblical. Fact: they're not biblical. Fact: they're heretical. No where in the Bible does it tell me as a follower of Christ I'm to take an oath to poverty. Where's that in the Bible? Where's that in the Bible that I should feel guilty if I'm blessed of God? You cannot make that argument. Think about the patriarchs and matriarchs of our faith, many of these men and women were LOADED financially."

What is he talking about?  A "poverty vibe" in Christianity? Who out there is calling for vows of poverty in modern Christianity? No, the only "poverty vibe" out there is the vibe from mega church pastors misusing scripture to guilt even the very poorest of Christians into forking over 1/10th of their income to the church which pays the pastor a six-figure salary. No one is calling for vows of poverty - although some recalcitrant bloggers are calling for a little transparency on how the money is spent in churches like Ed's, and for mega church preachers to stop using their churches as ATM's and marketing machines for their own personal brands.

In my view Ed's jab at a "poverty vibe" and "books" written about it, is Ed taking a shot at David Platt's views in the book "Radical", and perhaps even Francis Chan's recent lifestyle conversion. Platt is troubled by the materialism of most Christians while the gospel is not going forth to the nations and while many people are starving.

I suppose for Ed Young to disavow his own materialism and live a more modest lifestyle closer to that of the average pew sitter - for him that would be taking a vow of poverty, relatively speaking.

Ed asks if he should be guilty if he is "blessed of God". Yes, Ed, you should, especially given your propensity to beat people up to give more and more money to your church as you did on October 10, 2010. You should feel guilty, Ed, about the lack of financial transparency at your church while you demand allegiance from your followers to the tune of 10% of their income.

At least this time Ed didn't pull the "get out your checkbook and give me your account and routing number" routine....but at the conclusion of the service Ed did give a text number for people who prayed to receive Jesus - or more importantly, who decided to start giving money to the church - should send a text message to.

So again, thank you, Mary Ann the Camel, for putting your dung right there on the stage to provide the stench that surely Ed's money sermons are to the nostrils of God. 

Yes, God can use even a jackass to get his message across.

This time God used a camel to trump the jackass.

William Thornton: "Blogging When There is a Personal Cost"

Readers - enjoying some down time from blogging this week, and thought as I rest a bit I would provide an article from William Thornton about myself and another blogger named David Montoya.

William Thornton is an SBC pastor, recently retired, who blogs as the "SBC Plodder". I became acquainted with William during the early days of my blogging when I was a regular reader of the Baptist Life forums, where William moderated the SBC News and Trends forum at Baptist Life. In the early days of my blogging, it was at the BL Forums, along with the New BBC Open Forum blog and Wade Burleson's blog, where I for the first time saw Christians engaging in honest discussions of problems in the SBC and evangelicalism.

I enjoy William's blog and recommend it to my readers. William is a conservative, but he doesn't worry about parroting the CR party-line on SBC matters. Behind Wade, William is my favorite SBC-pastor blogger.

I will resume my regular schedule of posting very soon, with an important announcement just around the corner. As I move beyond the legal battles of the last three years, I have quite a bit more to share of my experiences that will be of great interest to my readers. The Watchdog will be joining forces with another prominent SBC blogger, helping to ensure the FBC Jax Watchdog keeps going strong in being a watchdog of the powerful mega church pastors and their churches. Sorry, pastors, the FBC Jax Watchdog is about to go plural.

Below is William's article from his blog. He is right about the personal cost. I don't blog about that, but those close to me know the personal cost I and my family have paid in me not backing down when the screws were applied in 2008 and 2009. I am proud of what has been accomplished through this blog, and intend on it being an even greater force in the future.

Blogging When There is a Personal Cost, by William Thornton

There are hacker and plodder bloggers like me, folks who sometimes foolishly think everyone else might like to drink from their incredibly deep wells of wisdom, wit, and insight. Take these with a bit of skepticism and not always seriously.

Then there are a few bloggers who feel compelled to address what they see as genuine wrongs and serious issues in their churches or in denominational life and who do so at a considerable personal cost.

While I appreciate a number of others, I can only think of two whom I would classify as the latter: David Montoya and Tom Rich.

David Montoya is a pastor and is (or was) the Spiritual Samurai, an odd name for a Baptist blogger in Texas. I've written about him in the past. His ire and indignation over wrongs in the Baptist General Convention of Texas led to the open knowledge of an appalling scandal with BGCT missions money and also led to his being sued. He says he is quitting. I hope not.

David hasn't always been right about things and sometimes says things he has to retract but if not for him I doubt the BGCT valleygate scandal would have been uncovered. I'm not so sure that many SBCers in my lifetime have successfully brought to light such an important matter.

I admire him.

Tom Rich is a layman, the FBCJax Watchdog, one of the early church/pastor critic blogs and to date the most well-known of this genre.

Tom got stirred up by a pastor change at his church and some of the things associated with it and started blogging about it. As is well known, the church played hardball with him and his family, law enforcement got involved, lawsuits were filed and, only recently, finally settled.

I don't buy all of his stuff but his bull-doggedness probably changed the way high profile pastors (those with an ounce of sense which would be most but not all of them) look at some of their church critics. I admire him for not shutting up and going away when his former church ratcheted up the pressure on him.

Any yahoo can belt out their opinions on stuff but there are a few people who do so at considerable personal cost.