March 2015 – Page 6 – Warren Throckmorton

Creflo Dollar's Gulfstream Jet Project 650 Grounded For Now (VIDEO)

UPDATE: According to the Christian Post, the campaign is off indefinitely. A spokesperson says, “It’s a moot point.” Before, this was a light thing and a done deal: “Heavenly Father, this is but a light thing for You, and You will deliver this debt free G650 into the hangar on Fulton Industrial Boulevard with highly skilled technicians and pilots.” Creflo ordered a plane but now all he gets is “a moot point.”
Probably, you have heard that megamegapastor Creflo Dollar launched a project Friday to raise $60 million to buy a Gulfstream 650 business jet (retail price reported to be an affordable $65 million). The project didn’t last long. The promo video was taken down Friday night, and the website was soon to follow (the Google cache is here, and a pdf of the page is here) The video is at the end of the post.
Here is a sample of Creflo’s soaring prayer for this necessary ministry tool:

Heavenly Father, as the righteousness of God by faith we come boldly, confidently, and fearlessly to Your throne of great grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us obtain this Gulfstream G650. This G650 will serve as a ministry tool for Pastor Creflo Dollar to carry the Good News—too good to be true—revelation of Your love and grace around the world.

He closes his prayer for the jet with the Prayer of Jabez (in bold which was in the original):

Heavenly Father, we thank You that we have the abundance of Your wisdom, undeserved favor, and the cooperation of all that is needed and necessary for the “and suddenly” manifestation of the G650.
FAVOR US! FAVOR US! FAVOR US! ENLARGE AND EXPAND OUR TERRITORIES, COASTS, AND BORDERS. KEEP YOUR MIGHTY HAND UPON US AND YOUR STRONG ARM AROUND US; SO THAT NO EVIL, GRIEF, OR SICKNESS WILL COME NEAR US! Thank You that this prayer is granted, because of the finished works of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Now the website is grounded; or perhaps it went underground. Perhaps he went into his closet to pray.
The fund raising video was removed by Creflo Dollar but it has landed on another account.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/UIobdRNLNek[/youtube]
The original ministry page is archived here.
The Gulfstream 650 is a pretty nice ministry tool. Note the question from the interviewer, “Why is this plane so coveted?”
[youtube]https://youtu.be/ZmgDgfGWwiQ[/youtube]
Check out the interior of the plane.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/lnHuZaxj38o[/youtube]
I think I would just live there. I bet Creflo could find some other way to get the Gospel out.
Remember Creflo Dollar Ministries didn’t cooperate with Senator Grassley’s examination of televangelists.

WWII Posters on Display at Grove City College This Week

It is a cool story: A public historian finds historically significant WWII posters in a drawer, probably untouched since they were first stored there in 1954.
Grove City College is displaying a newly found collection of WWII posters this week in the Pew Fine Arts building. Read the Tribune’s article about the find and the display.
I know I will be there.
Check out some of the posters…

Here's What David Barton Calls Vindication of His Historical Claims

Recently, I questioned the way World Net Daily writer John Aman characterized David Barton’s defamation suit against W.S. Smith, a writer for Examiner.com who criticized Barton’s historical claims. Aman wrote:

Barton also won in court against W.S. Smith, a self-described atheist who published an online article in 2010 calling Barton “an admitted liar” whose “books have been picked apart time and again and exposed as fallacious.”

Smith was a no-show throughout the lawsuit, disappearing shortly after Barton sued him in September 2011. Barton’s legal team hired a private detective and published notices in Texas newspapers statewide in an unsuccessful attempt to find the elusive writer.

Smith disappeared after he boasted, in an email to Huffington Post columnist Chris Rodda that he was “happy to meet” Barton in court “because the truth in [sic] on my side.”

“If this is what you want, Mr. Barton, then let’s do it,” Smith said. “Bring it on. Bring it on. Bring it on. The path you’ve chosen will lead only to your embarrassment and ruin.”

Three years later, a Texas court found Smith’s assertions about David Barton both false and defamatory.

It is true that a W.S. Smith was dismissed from the suit via the filing of a notice of non-suit. However, the reason the man was dismissed was because he was the wrong W.S. Smith. The W. S. Smith served with the defamation complaint was not the Examiner.com writer. See this explanation from a letter to the Parker County TX judge.

Thus, the W.S. Smith of Keller, TX was released from the suit. I am sorry for the error in my original reporting and have made a correction in that post. The Parker County TX records I had access to at the time did not provide that information.

So what happened to the writer of the Examiner.com article? Apparently, he disappeared and did not answer any communications from the court. Mr. Aman’s description is accurate until the last sentence in the block quote above: “Three years later, a Texas court found Smith’s assertions about David Barton both false and defamatory.”

W.S. Smith never turned up. In a case where a defendant doesn’t appear, Texas law provides that a judge can appoint an attorney to defend an absent defendant. However, Barton’s lawyers had another idea. They filed a motion for default judgment instead. Essentially, Barton asked the judge to find in Barton’s favor without the benefit of a trial. As you can see from the documents linked below, that is what the judge did.

First, read the argument Barton’s attorney made to Judge Quisenberry in the Motion for Final Default Judgment. It is too long to reproduce fully but the main requests and rationale are below.

Continue reading “Here's What David Barton Calls Vindication of His Historical Claims”

Hillsong Founder Brian Houston Issues Statement On Mark Driscoll at the Hillsong 2015 Conference

I just received this information from Mark DeMoss via email:

Statement by Brian Houston on Mark Driscoll at Hillsong 2015 Conference
March 2015
For years, Hillsong has invited pastors and Christian leaders from around the world to speak at our annual conferences in Sydney, Australia and London, England. Well in advance of his resignation as senior pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, we invited Mark Driscoll to be one of our speakers this summer. Rather than having Mark preach or teach, I am excited about interviewing Mark and his wife, Grace from our main platform during our Hillsong Conference 2015.
I am looking forward to having this opportunity to speak openly with the Driscolls about life and ministry, as well as recent events and lessons they’ve learned through personal and ministry trials during the past year. My aim is to have an in-depth conversation that gives insight into their hearts.
Mark has been candid about mistakes he has made, and if we can, through our conference, help others through his life experiences, we think that will prove valuable.

This exclusive statement comes from Brian Houston in response to my post last week noting that Mark Driscoll was slated to speak at the conferences. Instead of having a speaking position, he will be interviewed by Houston.
The description of Driscoll on the conference websites (Sydney, Europe) has not changed to reflect this news or the dissolution of Mars Hill Church. The description lists him as “founding pastor” rather than co-founder of the former Mars Hill Church.
Discuss.

Former Members: Faith Christian Church (Tucson, AZ) Coerced Donations

Earlier today, Arizona Daily Star writers Carol Ann Alaimo and Emily Bregel reported that the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability is now investigating the Faith Christian Church to determine whether or not ECFA guidelines are being met by the church. From the article:

Dan Busby, president of the Virginia-based Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, expressed support for Faith Christian’s financial practices last week. In an email Tuesday, Busby said, “Since the issues were raised last week, we have had a senior ECFA executive on the ground in Arizona to confirm the Church’s compliance with our standards.”

I wrote Busby and ECFA counsel Michael Martin to find out if the “senior ECFA executive” would meet with former members of FCC. I have received no answer. Thus far, no former members I have interviewed have spoken with the ECFA about their experiences. In addition to the allegations about bizarre teachings on spanking infants, former members have described feeling forced to give money to the church. The level of coercion described by members would certainly violate one tenet of the ECFA’s Donor’s Bill of Rights:

Give cheerfully without being pressured by the organization.

The ECFA lists the following rights:

Donor’s Bill of Rights
You have the right to:
Know how the funds of an organization are being spent.
Know what the programs you support are accomplishing.
Know that the organization complies with federal, state, and municipal laws.
Restrict or designate your gifts to a particular project within the organization’s mission objectives.
A timely and courteous response to your inquiries about finances and programs.
Visit office and program sites of an organization to talk personally with the staff.
Give cheerfully without being pressured by the organization.
Obtain a copy of the organization’s most recent audited financial statements
Know that there is a responsible governing board providing oversight to the organization’s mission.
Know that all appeals for funds are truthful and accurate.

The former members of FCC and sister churches describe coercive tactics by church pastors and elders to gain contributions. Aaron Marley was a bookkeeper at sister church Hope Christian Church in Tempe, AZ. He told me that the giving history of members is reviewed by the ministers. Marley said a minister, who was not part of the church administration, interrogated him about his giving because it didn’t meet expectations. Marley assumed a church would keep giving records for tax purposes but not for the purpose of coercing donations.
Former staff minister Jeff Phillips told me that “tithing is strictly enforced. We were taught that if we did not tithe, we were cursed.” Phillips said he remembered FCC pastor Steve Hall say, “‘I WILL NOT pastor cursed people.'”
Phillips related the following account:

There was one occasion when some of the staff, including me, were caught not tithing soon enough. We were waiting until we had deposited our checks into the bank to tithe to the church. Steve found a verse in the OT about paying late fees for late tithes, so we were forced to pay extra for our lateness. So, essentially the ministers raised their own salaries and gave 13% of that and beyond to the church, which went to pay Steve’s salary along with the other members’ tithes.

A thorough investigation by the ECFA should take into account testimony from former members.