Year: 2016

Upon Hearing of David Barton's New Television Venture…

Twitter said:


foundationsfreeTBNHere is the press release for Barton’s new TBN dramatization.
Oh and here’s the trailer:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfUvhqezBtE[/youtube]

Office of Personnel Management Sanctions Gospel for Asia, Bans GFA from Combined Federal Campaign

cfclogo
Used by permission, OPM, CFC website

Gospel for Asia, the second largest mission organization in the U.S., has been sanctioned by the Office of Personnel Management for lack of compliance with charity guidelines and banned from participation in the 2016 federal charity campaign.
In October 2015, the Office of Personnel Management received complaints from former donors and other observers regarding Gospel for Asia’s compliance with OPM guidelines for participation in the Combined Federal Campaign. The CFC involving federal workers is one of the largest workplace fund raising campaigns on the planet. At that point, OPM began an investigation that led to a December 2015 warning of possible sanctions on GFA’s ability to participate in the campaign.
Late yesterday, I learned that the OPM decided to sanction GFA for lack of compliance with OPM guidelines. According to a spokesperson from the OPM’s Office of Communications, “the Gospel of Asia charity has been sanctioned and will no longer be affiliated with the Combined Federal Campaign for the 2014 and 2015 campaigns.” 
Furthermore, according to the OPM spokesperson, “GFA is banned from the CFC for one year, then they will need to reapply.”
The sanctions appear to be the strongest allowed by law.
Not only will GFA not be allowed to participate in the 2016 campaign, they will not receive funds currently deducted from employee paychecks still outstanding from the 2015 and 2014 campaigns. Federal workers who pledged to GFA in 2015 will be contacted and allowed to redirect their pledges to other approved charities.
According to an OPM spokesperson, allotments to GFA were still coming out of employees pay checks in 2015 for pledges made at the end of 2014. Those funds have not yet been delivered to GFA. The OPM spokesperson said, “OPM directed campaigns and the federation to cease making further payments to them and discontinue processing pledges made to them at the end of 2015 that would have started being withheld from employees checks staring this pay period for the 2015 period that just closed.”
OPM told local and regional groups like Christian Charities USA to “cease making further payments” to GFA and to stop processing any employee pledges. Independent Charities of America and the related group Christian Charities USA had already denied membership to GFA for 2016 because GFA failed to provide an audited statement.
According to the most recent 990 form filed by Christian Charities USA, GFA received just over $150,000 from federal workers through CCUSA in 2013.
OPM guidelines require an independent board of directors, clean financial audit, and truthful communications about the use of donations. Upon scrutiny by the OPM, GFA did not comply.
In early October, GFA was terminated from membership in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability for similar violations of standards. The report issued by ECFA was made public by former board member Gayle Erwin in early December and contains numerous concerns and indications of financial mismanagement.

Ted Cruz and Christian Astroturf

From tedcruz.org, campaign website
From tedcruz.org, campaign website

World‘s J.C. Derrick has an interesting article out today on the reaction of some evangelicals to the growing media narrative that Ted Cruz has the evangelical vote locked up. Not so, says Sam Rodriguez, Rick Warren and Jim Daly.
What really caught my eye was Derrick’s citation of a National Review article which detailed how a group of evangelical leaders met behind closed doors and voted until over 75% voted for the same GOP candidate. Ted Cruz eventually won out over Marco Rubio. The group, led by Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, gave some thought to how to roll out the consensus. According to NR,

Cruz this week surged to the top of several polls in conservative-friendly Iowa, and a string of soon-to-come endorsements should only help to cement that standing. A decision was made before the vote that members would roll out their endorsements individually rather than issuing a collective statement. This approach, they decided, would help create a perception that the conservative movement was uniting behind a candidate organically while dispelling images of political horse-trading occurring inside smoke-filled rooms.

While there probably wasn’t smoke, there was political maneuvering behind closed doors. If this NR piece is accurate, the good Christians in the room decided to make up a reality so it wouldn’t look like what it was. The insiders decided to roll out the endorsements gradually as if they came via some natural and spontaneous groundswell of support and good will for Cruz. Sounds like astroturf to me.
Now, finally, other evangelicals are coming forward to say those endorsers don’t speak for all of us. This is good.
I am looking for a candidate who has ideas I can get behind about how to keep us safe, keep our economy healthy, protect our rights and work with Congress. We are going to elect a president not a pastor.
 

Dear Fred Clark: Thanks But I Think John Fea and I Are in Good Shape

Fellow Patheos blogger Fred Clark (Slacktivist) is worried for Messiah College prof John Fea and me. He says:

But I’m worried for both of them. Specifically, I’m worried because this is an election year and that means that the ever-shifting goalposts of the white evangelical tribal gatekeepers may well shift between now and November. Depending on the outcome of the upcoming Republican presidential primary races, the bounds of theological acceptability could shift in such a way that both of these fine professors may end up on the outside looking in.

I like Fred and appreciate his blog so his post deserves attention and I encourage you to read it. I appreciate his kind words and positive assessment of my work here.
He’s worried because Ted Cruz is doing well in the polls. Cruz is supported in no small way by David Barton. Barton appears to be Cruz’s evangelical endorsement broker and runs one of Cruz’s Super PACs. Both John and I have written in honest terms about Barton’s revisions of American history as well as his problems with more current events (e.g., Barton’s claim that Obama’s administration has not prosecuted child porn).
Fred thinks we may be in some jeopardy since we both teach at conservative Christian schools. I sincerely appreciate his concern. In a day when Wheaton College is moving against a tenured professor for her religious beliefs, I guess it looks like anything can happen.

SlacktivistLogo
From http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist

Fea thinks he is ok, and I suspect he is right. I feel pretty confident that I am in good shape as well. I am not a stranger to efforts to silence me by pressuring my employer, it has happened on more than one occasion before, coming from both the far right and the left. Grove City College’s leadership has leaned on academic freedom as a value and I keep on writing. While I take nothing for granted, I have appreciated GCC’s stance on these matters through the years.
Leaving aside our employers, I think Clark sees something real when he discusses “the ever-shifting goalposts of the white evangelical tribal gatekeepers.” A Cruz win would shift the party dramatically toward the Christian dominionist view of the world. Although I consider myself generally conservative, many in the far right consider me to be a moderate. I honestly think Ronald Reagan would be considered a moderate in today’s GOP.
Having said that, I think John and I are fine. I have already gone on record as saying Cruz isn’t a good choice for the GOP. I will say that even if he turns out to be the GOP’s choice.
And besides, if something does happen and I have to start another life, Clark says I have potential to make a switch:

Throckmorton can be a tenacious pitbull when he sniffs out a story. Check out his ongoing series examining financial irregularities at the mission agency Gospel for Asia — it’s an impressive, dogged pursuit of answers to important questions. In another life, Throckmorton would have made a fearsome investigative journalist.

I could start by investigating why Ted Cruz appeared at an event coordinated by his Super PAC, especially when the event seemed designed to collect and schedule candidate endorsements.
 

Ed Cash Plays Legos Up Front at the Young Life Conference; Families Still in the Dark

In mid-December, Christianity Today‘s Bob Smietana provided a feature length expose of cult-like practices and teachings of The Gathering and Wayne Jolley, the spiritual leader of the movement. Christian music producer Ed Cash, probably best known for being co-writer of How Great is Our God, figured prominently in the expose as one of Wayne Jolley’s insiders. On December 30, Cash posted a letter on his website saying that he had left The Gathering.
Reaction from family members of those still in The Gathering was hopeful. Those not in the Gathering hoped that Cash would help people leave the movement and restore relationships broken because of orders from Wayne Jolley and observed by Cash.
Since then Cash has not commented on his stance toward those he helped recruit into The Gathering. Currently, he is at the Young Life conference in FL. For some family members, the relationship between Young Life and Cash has been a source of discouragement. In fact, Young Life’s leadership issued a statement that Ed Cash would not have an “up front” role at the conference. Since Cash has led worship in the past, this lower profile would at least be a recognition that some business with The Gathering is unfinished. The full statement is at the end of the post.
However, earlier this evening, Ed Cash participated in a worship set/concert at Young Life. See the short video below. Ed Cash is playing the Legos.


Ryan also tweeted a shout out to Cash and the others who participated.


This seems to violate at least the spirit of the commitment from Young Life leaders.
In the mean time, family members who contacted me this evening are still wondering if Ed Cash is making any attempts to reconcile with families who lost children and other family to the Gathering.
A former member of The Gathering, Scott Hethcox, told me: “I am praying for healing and restoration for Ed and Scott Cash and their families. I also pray the statement from the Cash brothers about leaving the Gathering is truly genuine. I will be more assured it is genuine when I hear that Ed Cash has reconciled with people who were hurt by The Gathering.”
In response to concerns from some Young Life supporters who have family members in The Gathering, Young Life leaders issued the following statement to Young Life regional staff:

The Cashes will be at the conference as participants but not in any upfront leadership or “upfront” role. Since the publication of the Christianity Today article, we have been in dialogue with Scott and Ed both about their response as well as their role at the conference. It is certainly our desire to respond appropriately to this difficult situation, and I believe we have done so. As you may be aware, the Cashes have left The Gathering and severed ties with Wayne Jolley.
We are deeply disturbed by the article’s content, and we continue to affirm that Young Life has absolutely no relationship with Wayne Jolley or with The Gathering. Because we do have a relationship with the Cash family, we will continue to walk with Scott and Ed during this time, hoping and praying for God to accomplish His purposes in them…for healing and restoration and redemption. It is in that spirit that we welcome them to attend the conference.
We are grieved by the ways those in the Young Life family have been impacted by involvement with The Gathering, and we will continue to pray for and seek ways to foster healing for all involved.