The World According to a Suffering Mega Church Pastor: Mac Says He Never Wanted to Come, and "Only Jesus Can Take Me Outta Here"

"I don't do this because it's fun. You think it's fun to get beat up and made fun of all the time, and accused of this, that, and the other? You think that's fun? You think it's fun to watch your wife and children watch this stuff? You think it's fun, you think it's enjoyable? I'm here because of Jesus Christ, and He's the only one that can take me outta here. I'm here to preach His word, not your word. "
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"It ain't easy being green", Kermit the Frog used to sing. Apparently, it ain't easy being a mega church pastor, either. The sacrifices and suffering are almost too much to bear, according to Mac Brunson in his sermon a few weeks ago. Perhaps after preaching out of the book of Job for several months, Mac let the cat out of the bag, that HE is Job, having to endure the hardship of the life of a maligned mega church pastor.

In the video clip above you'll hear Brunson declare to the FBC Jax members:

- their pastor never really wanted to come to pastor FBC Jax, but God "drove him" to be the pastor at FBC Jax;

- the people of FBC Jax didn't "call" him, God called him, and thus only Jesus has the ability to remove him from his position;

- there are plenty of other things he could be doing besides pastoring - and presumably they are darned lucky he has decided to stick to the terrible job of being their "pastor";

- he has suffered tremendously as pastor and his "personhood" has been under constant attack for the past 4 years and thus it has been no fun at all to be their pastor.

Since he came here to FBC Jax Mac has played the role of martyr, starting when Paige Patterson had to ask his students to pray for Mac declaring that Mac never received a honeymoon at FBC Jax. In other instances Mac has seen fit to tell his congregation how terrible his life is as their pastor, telling his peeps "I have to endure more criticism in 30 minutes than you can handle in 6 months". Mac, speak to Jim Smyrl who has held a real job now for 5 months in the business world, about what criticism people deal with everyday.

The fact is the people and leadership of FBC Jax have treated the Brunsons extremely well. Must I recount how well? With jobs for three of the Brunsons, the new office suite, the $307k land gift, and many other perks...and Mac has the freedom to be away from the church to go to many speaking gigs. He really does have it nice here at FBC Jax.

But not everyone is going to love a mega church pastor. Vines and Lindsay knew that. Lindsay was often joked ridiculed in this town, and Vines was raked over the coals for his Mohammad remarks back in 2002.

Perhaps Mac's rant was the result of a Folio Weekly article that ran the week before this sermon that called Mac one of the scariest five people in Jacksonville, and blamed him alone for his church using the sheriff's office in identifying the Watchdog blogger and resulting lawsuit. The article included a cartoon caricature of Mac (at right), angry and foaming at the mouth, a ready-made cut-out Halloween mask. But the article was merely reflecting the disgust that this community has with a church that went to a member, deacon, and discipline committee member - who had investigative subpoena power - to investigate a blogger critical of their pastor. The criticism is understandable, and most people agree it is deserved.

But why tell his congregation that he didn't want to come here? Obviously there was something about FBC Jax that drew him here. He made a career change. People do it all the time. A person doesn't like the job they have, or they are ready for new challenges, or they see a move as beneficial to their family...or maybe there is more money and more perks to the new job. To tell his congregation that he was here only because "God drove me to this place" is not believable, but it helps him put himself on par with other biblical characters whom God spoke to directly.

And why the declaration that the people of FBC Jax "didn't call me here to preach"? That is not true. The people of FBC Jax did vote to have him come. And actually Jesus wouldn't be the one to take him out of FBC Jax. Jesus isn't here in bodily form, and thus he wouldn't be the one. It would be the trustees of the church who would do that. But it makes for great theatrics, and it shows his arrogance in making such a statement to the people who did indeed call him to be their pastor.

And boy, do the people of FBC Jax love it. They hooted and hollered as he wagged his finger in their faces. Why is it that smart people cheer such arrogance when it is on full display on a stage by a grown man?

And as a lay person I'm so sick and tired of hearing pastors pontificate about how their "calling" is so special and above everyone else's calling in life, using the word "surrendered" in terms of their calling. The fact is Mac and other ministers have chosen themselves to be professional, vocational ministers. They are called just like a Christian may be "called" to be a teacher or lawyer or doctor. But these men are trained in seminary to believe they are God's agents, appointed to save all of us from our ignorance, as Al Mohler preached at FBC Jax earlier this year.

Too bad that Mac views himself as a victim and martyr as the pastor of FBC Jax. He leads a blessed life. His wife and son work with him at church, he has a beautiful home in Jax, and beach home in St. Augustine. He probably will have the freedom to bring his son-in-law to FBC Jax in the near future on staff. He has a congregation that really has endured a lot in the past 4 years with the negative publicity that has come their way under Brunson's leadership - yet they still love and adore their pastor, they still give generously, and they responded to his call for acts of service in the Arms Around Jacksonville.

And they still applaud and hoot and holler when he preaches.

What more could a pastor want?

First Baptist Jacksonville "Arms Around Jacksonville" - Ministry for the Camera

"It's going to be great to see God's people in action. We've got camera crews set up at all the different locations." Damien, FBC Jax
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"Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your father who is in heaven." Jesus Christ, Matthew 6:1
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Today, First Baptist Jacksonville is implementing their "Arms Around Jacksonville" ministry effort. Each Sunday School class has been encouraged to select and plan a local missions project to help the citizens of Jacksonville - and then implement it on Saturday November 12th. Promotional videos have been recorded by Trey Brunson and John Herrett to rally the troops.

This is great - as a church they recognize their calling to actually serve the citizens of Jacksonville. Yes, Christians should be putting feet to their faith, and should serve and help others. Not just through ministry at church, but everyday at work and school and in their city.

But I think what is interesting is the way that FBC Jax, and other mega churches around the country, are using local ministry through the church performed by their church members, as a marketing tool. To do an act of kindness in your city through your church is now doing "missions". Instead of just quietly going about and serving Jacksonville, FBC Jax leadership wants to TELL everyone how great they are for serving. As Damien says in one of their AAJ promotional videos, FBC Jax media personnel will have camera crews all over Jax to film the ministry that they are doing on that one day. He explains they will produce a special video for everyone to see on Sunday morning and another special video for Sunday night - and you can bet they will see air time on their local TV broadcasts, and it will be featured on their web site.

Why not just go out and serve? Why film it all? Is that how ministry is to be done, with ministry brand names and t-shirts and film crews sent out to make videos of people serving? Isn't serving people and ministering to people what a church is SUPPOSED to be doing? Then why all the hoopla and cheerleading over what they SHOULD be doing anyways?

Truth is, long before the Brunson's came up with Arms Around Jacksonville, the people of FBC Jax HAVE been ministering in Jacksonville. Sure, no one gets any credit for it, but different Sunday School departments had and still have different projects all throughout the year. The difference now? Cameras to record it all, a brand name and logo, and t-shirts for everyone to wear and media professionals to produce slick videos.

Steve Gaines and Bellevue Baptist Church started a campaign several years ago called "Bellevue Loves Memphis" - same thing. They all got T-shirts, promotional items, they even purchased billboards to tell everyone just how much their church loves Memphis.

One other benefit to getting the peeps out for a day of "Arms Around Jax": FBC Jax wants to help their tarnished image over the past 4 years and combat the negative publicity of late. Said FBC Jax preacher Danny Crosby last month:

"If you took a survey and went door to door throughout the city of Jacksonville you won't always get a favorable response when you ask the question 'what do you think or know about the First Baptist Jax downtown?' They're not so excited as you are about this church. Why? 'Cause they read stuff that's not true [this blog?] They hear stuff that's not true. And they might have an occasional encounter with someone who says they represent our church. But you and I have the awesome opportunity to let others know what the real truth is: that we want to wrap our arms around this city for the glory of God. We want to be the arms of God to a lost and dying city. It's a dark place."

More whining from the pulpit of how everyone misunderstands FBC Jax. Poor FBC Jax, they and their pastor have gotten a bum rap all these years as Mac complained about last week. Not sure what "stuff" Danny is referring to - but people these days have a pretty good idea what most mega churches like FBC Jax are into: raising money for buildings and renovations to their auditorium, salaries and benefits for professional ministers that make very comfortable livings, and guilting people to give 10% of their money to the church to fund and maintain the system. That is what keeps many people away these days.

And now ministry is used as another marketing tool to aid the leadership to keep the big ship afloat.

So if you are ministered to in Jesus' name this weekend by FBC Jax, be sure to smile for the camera - you might be in their next video!

And please, whatever you do, don't criticize the pastor or the church, don't ask about any salaries, and do not tell them that you read the Watchdog. They don't take kindly to such folks.

Paterno Out: A Legendary Football Coach is Held Accountable for Turning Blind Eye Toward a Pervert

The state college trustees were right to fire Joe Paterno and the college president. They have acted to protect the integrity of their institution, and more importantly send a powerful message about how they expect their university leaders to always act to protect children and not the image of their institution.

The grand jury testimony was clear: Paterno turned a blind eye toward a pedophile coach that used the Penn State showers for multiple sexual assualts against minors. When he was told of a specific episode by a distraught graduate assistant, Joe didn't call the cops. His graduate assistant didn't. Joe didn't have the sense to use his influence on the graduate assistant to encourage him to call the police as an eye witness to a sexual assault.

And according to the grand jury report, more boys were needlessly assaulted after this.

We know the lesson of Sandusky: there are perverts everywhere posing as coaches, teachers, preachers, Sunday School teachers, mentors, and seemingly all-around good guys that want to prey on your children. This makes it incredibly difficult for us parents to know who really wants to help our kids. We didn't need Sandusky to teach us this, we already knew it.

But Paterno's firing teaches us three lessons:

- it tells us that in the secular realm, we hold our legends and heroes to much higher standards than we do our ordained "men of God" in Christianity. Look at the Catholic priest scandals all over the world, evidence that molesting priests were shuffled from parish to parish. Look at Baptist preachers who knew of sexual molestation in their church by preachers and ministers that didn't report the abuse to authorities - and in some cases even allowed the pedophile to simply move away to be someone else's problem.

- it tells us that even the most respected and revered coach in the history of college football is not so powerful as to be not accountable for a moral failure to protect children. Citizens in Pennsylvania - and Paterno himself - never envisioned a day that a group of trustees would deem him unfit to be the coach of the state university football team. It was not his God-given right to be the coach of Penn State...many pastors think they are appointed by God himself to their position as pastor, leading many to think they are above being held accountable for a moral failure to protect children from perverts in their church.

- there was an institutional arrogance within the Penn State university that led employees from the janitor all the way to the president of the university to not do all they could to protect children from a sexual predator posing as a powerful assistant coach. Thankfully, this arrogance may have come to an abrupt end by the actions of the state trustees yesterday and in the days to come. Question is: when will "trustees" of the Southern Baptist Convention realize they can do much, much more to protect children from predator ministers?

Thankfully, Paterno will not be on the sideline this weekend coaching Penn State for turning a blind eye toward a pedophile coach.

Sadly, there are many pastors and priests who this weekend will be in pulpits preaching who should have been fired for turning a blind eye toward molesters in their church.

The Ugly Truth About Joe Paterno and the Sandusky Rape of 10 Year Old - And What We Can Learn From It

"Here's what we do if someone comes to me with an accusation of sexual abuse: I pick up the phone and call the cops." William Thornton, SBC Plodder
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"I did what I was supposed to with the one charge brought to my attention", Joe Paterno
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If you are easily offended and grossed out, please don't read this post. I'm going to explain to you the cold, harsh reality of what took place at Penn State, and why Joe Paterno should be fired immediately for failing to report to authorities what his former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky did to a 10-year old boy in the showers of Penn State's locker room.

While Joe Paterno has escaped legal jeopardy for now because he did report the offense to his superior, is that really what we expect from a guy like Paterno? The man who IS Penn State football, the face of college football, the best he could do was to call his athletic director? Paterno is now saying he didn't know the details of what happened when he was told....DO WHAT??? All he needed to know was that a 59-year old man was naked in the shower with a 10 year old boy, and he should have been on the phone with the police. But he didn't do it.

If you're the janitor and you walk in and see Sandusky performing oral sex on an 11-year old (which did happen in the case of victim #8 in the grand jury report), ok, maybe the best we can expect is for you to report it to your supervisor...but Joe Pa, the best he could do was report it up the chain? It is ridiculous.

But let me tell you what Sandusky did to this 10-year old boy in the incident that is the focus of the allegations. From the grand jury report here is what was reported under oath concerning the rape of "Victim #2" (warning, the following indented material is graphic; do not read it unless you want to know the truth about what this deranged pervert actually did to this boy):

"As the graduate assistant entered the locker room, he was surprised to find the lights and showers on. He then heard rhythmic slapping sounds. He believed those to be the sound of sexual activity....He saw a naked boy, Victim 2, whose age he estimated to be ten years old, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky."

I'm sorry if that offended you. But sometimes the bland reports of "molestation" don't really do justice to the sinister nature of the actual act itself. This 59-year old man used his notoriety and wealth and his connection to Penn State football to gain access to this boy and others...so that he ultimately could hold a 10-year old boy against the wall of a shower and violently rape him in the Penn State football locker room.

Now, if you read the grand jury report, you will see that the graduate assistant who witnessed this violent rape called his father as he was understandably shaken by what he saw. Instead of calling the police, they called Paterno. Mistake #1. This graduate assistant witnessed a violent rape - what if it was the rape of a woman and not a boy? Would he go call his dad? Of course not, he would either intervene with force of his own, or he would immediately call 9-1-1 and not let the perpetrator get away.

Church members, let this be a lesson to you: don't ever, ever, report sexual abuse at your church or by a member or minister, to the pastor or to a minister or deacon or trustee. They cannot be trusted to do the right thing. Any person, whether it is a head football coach or a minister or a school administrator, who has a vested interest in the institution that is somehow connected to the victim or perpetrator, can't be trusted with the information!! As William Thornton wrote today about this, there is only one thing to do when you hear of sexual abuse: stop, pick up your cell phone, and call your local police department. Report what you saw or heard, and let THEM investigate. If they need to tell your pastor, they will.

Now, back to Paterno: you might say that he didn't know the nature of the offense that the graduate assistant saw. That is what Paterno basically said in his statement Sunday night. But that doesn't square with the grand jury report. From the grand jury report:

"Joseph V. Paterno testified to receiving the graduate assistant's report at his home on a Saturday morning. Paterno testified that the graduate assistant was very upset. Paterno called Tim Curley, Penn State Athletic Director and Paterno's immediate supervisor, to his home the very next day, and reported to him that the graduate assistant had seen Jerry Sandusky in the Lasch Building showers fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy."

Did you read that? Paterno knew of at least "fondling" or "something of a sexual nature" that Sandusky was doing to a young boy. What more evidence did he need to know a crime had occured against a helpless young boy in the showers of the Penn State football program?

But now Paterno defends his inaction by saying:

"It was obvious that the witness [the graduate assistant] was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the grand jury report."

What does "very specific" mean? The grand jury report says that he knew Sandusky was in the showers "fondling" or doing something sexual to a young boy. Do you see how twisted this is? Paterno is now saying he didn't know how bad it was...implying he WOULD HAVE reported it if he knew more details?

Here is perhaps the most shocking part of the grand jury report:

"Approximately one and a half weeks later, the graduate assistant was called to a meeting with Penn State Athletic Director Curley and Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz. The graduate assistant reported to Curley and Schultz that he had witnessed what he believed to be Sandusky having anal sex with a boy in the Lasch Building showers. Curley and Shultz assured the graduate assistant that they would look into it and determine what further action they would take. Paterno was not present for this meeting.

The graduate assistant heard back from Curley a couple of weeks later. He was told that Sandusky's keys to the locker room were taken away and that the incident had been reported to The Second Mile. The graduate assistant was never questioned by University Police and no other entity conducted an investigation until he testified in Grand Jury, December 2010."

Do you know who at Penn State University oversaw and had ultimate responsibility for the University Police department. Yep, Gary Schultz, one of the first men who was brought into this story by the Athletic Director. Like I said, don't ever report your abuse to people connected to the institution.

So yes, Joe Paterno should be fired. If Jim Tressel should be fired, if Woody Hayes should have been fired, so should Joe Pa for failing miserably to do the right thing. No one cared to even find out who the victim was. All they cared about was the reputation of their precious institution.

And so it is with the institutions of government, religion, and education.

Report sexual abuse to the police department, don't go to the coach, the preacher, the teacher, or your boss.

Go straight to the cops.

At Least in College Football, Failing to Report a Molester Is a Crime - But How Does Joe Paterno Still Have a Job?

In one of the most disgusting and disturbing cases of repeated child molestations I've heard of, former Penn State assistant coach and football legend Jerry Sandusky finally has been arrested and won't be able to molest boys any more.

And thank the Lord two Penn State officials have been indicted by a grand jury for lying to the grand jury about one of the cases of abuse, and for failing to report the abuse to authorities.

While many Baptists get away with not reporting possible molestations of their clergy, at least in this case those who did not report are going to be held accountable.

Says Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly:

"There is no indication that anyone from the university ever attempted to learn the identity of the child who was sexually assaulted on their campus or made any follow-up effort to obtain more information from the person who witnessed the attack first-hand."

The only question remains: how does Joe Paterno, the head coach still have a job? As recorded on pages 6 and 7 in the grand jury findings of fact (WARNING...the contents of the 23-page grand jury report are graphic and disturbing), a graduate assistant that observed Sandusky sexually assaulting a 10-year old in the Penn State locker room in 2002 reported the incident directly to Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno.

What did Paterno do? Well, he called his Athletic Director, Tim Curley. Curley was Paterno's immediate supervisor. Curley and another Penn State big-wig, Gary Schultz had a meeting with the graduate assistant and assured him it was being taken care of.

But Curley and Schultz both failed to report the incident to any authorities. In the grand jury report there was at least one young boy victimized by Sandusky AFTER the 2002 sexual assault - that would have been prevented had Curley and Schultz - or Paterno - done the right thing and gone immediately to the police.

Curley and Schultz are being charged with perjury as well, since the grand jury believes they may have lied to them, claiming the graduate assistant did not indicate that a crime had been committed or that the incident was of a sexual nature when he first reported the assault to Paterno. Read the grand jury report, and you'll see why the grand jury didn't believe their story.

Why am I writing about a football sexual molestation scandal on the Watchdog blog? I can't help but compare and contrast this report to similar cases of molestation involving "men of God" and how they are handled.

A few observations:

- Is it not amazing that all of these men that knew of the 2002 molestation never reported it to any authorities? Why not? The reason is obvious: they feared the negative consequences of a public scandal involving their beloved institution. Very smart men - a graduate assistant, the most beloved football coach in NCAA history, two administrators, even the graduate assistant's father - all made the wrong choice, and their inaction resulted in at least one more boy being needlessly victimized. We see the same in religious institutions - fear of negative publicity causing men to not report and letting the molester move on.

- the two men indicted for failing to report are now claiming they didn't know how terrible the actions were of Sandusky. Sound familiar? I think of the Trinity Baptist scandal with Bob Gray - what was the congregation told about the allegations? That whatever Gray was accused of was not of a "sexual nature". The fact is Bob Gray was a pedophile. He french-kissed boys and girls in his office, even molested a little girl during her baptism. Yet those in authority in the church who had the power to stop him failed to do it, and they conveniently mischaracterized his actions. He could have been stopped had one person made a phone call to the sheriff's office, but no one did.

- if you read the grand jury report you will see that Sandusky used his fame, his money, gifts and notoriety as a Penn State legend to befriend his victims. His legendary status gave him open access to young boys at Penn State, and at public schools. He took them to Penn State football games, had them stay at his house, took them on trips. Molesters are molesters - whether they are football coaches or pastors - and they will use their power and position to gain access to their victims.

Church leaders, pastors, ministers everywhere: take notice of this case. Nine years after these men at Penn State failed to report a sexual assault on a minor, and after their arrogance caused them to allegedly lie about it to the grand jury, they are going to be held accountable.

But it should come as no surprise: the Penn State University institution is standing behind Curley and Schultz, and they will pay for their legal defense.