Federal Judge Sanctions Gospel for Asia in Fraud Case

On June 4, federal Judge Timothy Brooks sanctioned mission giant Gospel for Asia in the ongoing fraud case of Murphy v. Gospel for Asia for failure to produce evidence as requested multiple times by the court. The court found that GFA “needlessly squandered the resources of the parties…and put an ‘extraordinary drain on the Court’s resources,” and that GFA’s “abusive conduct in this case since August constitutes a willful violation of its discovery orders.”

Judge Brook’s Order

In sanctioning GFA, Judge Brooks will require GFA to pay for a Special Master to oversee the gathering of evidence.  In the process, this attorney will have the ability to appoint a forensic accountant and will have access to all pertinent GFA records and communications.

Setback for Gospel for Asia

This is a major setback for GFA. For several years, GFA has been defending itself by saying that all funds are spent as donors intend. However, now after months of telling Judge Brooks that this can be proven, GFA is no closer to producing the evidence.

In his order, Judge Brooks accuses GFA of evasive tactics and warns them that discovery is not a shell game. Furthermore, he denied GFA’s claims that they have no control over entities in India. He pointed to documents demonstrating wire transfers between entities, the fact that Yohannan’s family members sit on many boards in common, Yohannan’s prominent status in Believers’ Church and prior ability to get financial documents from organizations they say don’t control.

Judge Brooks had strong words for GFA saying that they had failed to “obey clearly worded directives issued by this Court and to respond in good faith to Plaintiff’s discovery requests.” The federal judge has found GFA’s behavior in litigation to be far from what was promised by spokesman Johnnie Moore in 2016:

Gospel for Asia is 100% focused on continuing its work around the world while working very hard to put an end to the false accusations being continually made against the ministry. Gospel for Asia can document the legal and ethical use of funds donated and clearly answer every question…

As Judge Brooks pointed out in his order, GFA has had many chances to document their use of funds but has stalled all along the way. Now, they face sanctions in federal court and the appointment of a Special Master.

 

 

Jeff Breakfast Knows What Happened to My Blog

Comedian and CEO of Pathymnal Jeff Breakfast reveals the reasons for my recent demise.

Whatever it was, we know Warren did it, and that’s final. Okay—It’s not so much what he DID DO as what he DIDN’T DO. But hey, you didn’t hear it from me. Fine, you did—He DIDN’T SHUT HIS MOUTH is what. How dare he blow the whistle we gave him! Where I come from, If a “truthteller” keeps calling out fraud and injustice like some jackass, he’s bound to get a taste of fraud and injustice all right—homegrown style. Stings like a really large amount of bees, don’t it? All of this is of course invisible and uninteresting to the public and as such, neither he nor anybody else will think to “sing” about our dubious dismissal in public.

That seems clear.

Being from the Seattle area, the Rev. Breakfast has had things to say about Mark Driscoll before. And he has something to say about him here:

Say, speaking of which, how would you like to hear a spanking new hymn composed by Mark Driscoll? These sweet strains of praise from a former record company executive will fill your soul with the feeling that his new full-priced hymnal just might bridge the gap between you and God. We’ll just go ahead and start playing it three seconds ago and oops you are already listening to it so might as well not stop now. From his sharpie to your ears, don’t you just feel like it would be great if you tried to love it? After ten seconds you can click away it if you don’t have the faith of a mustard seed that your life or private parts could use an authoritarian man ordering them around.

So go read the rest of Rev. Breakfast’s explanation, it will bewilder and amuse.

 

People Say Nice Things About You When You Are Gone

At every funeral I can remember, almost everyone is cordial and says nice things. I have heard that it isn’t always that way for everyone but that has been my experience. When they passed many years ago, I heard so many nice things about my parents that I never knew before. Over the years, I have thought I should say more nice things to people while they are alive because it is nice to hear when you can enjoy it. I don’t think I live up to that aspiration like I should.

Reading the reaction of others to the near death of my blog at Patheos has been a little like being able to attend my own funeral, except thankfully it is my blog’s funeral.  Last week and yesterday, I posted links to bloggers who had nice things to say about me but less nice things to say about Patheos. In fact, they had questions which still require answers.

One blogger who almost always has nice things to say is Patheos blogger John Mark N. Reynolds. Today, he penned a kind and clever defense of my time at Patheos. 

It is for all these reasons that Patheos and Patheos Evangelical needs Warren Throckmorton. He is a scholar with a light touch, but one who sees the absurdity of the powerful. He has the temerity to keep telling the truth until the truth, absurd in our particular era, makes you laugh. It is obvious now that someone like David Barton was a fraud, but Throckmorton recognized it first.

His targets? They are many, but his humor and good will are true, start to finish. He is right again and again and when he is wrong he is sorry.

I wasn’t first but I was and am persistent.

He continues:

If you have ever been disillusioned by an abuse of power, Warren Throckmorton understands. He knows it is absurdity to marry Jesus to power.

Yes, I think I do. No matter what the reason for the decision to 410 the blog, how it is being handled is an abuse of power. I know John Mark is speaking about other people I have written about, but he could also be writing about the instant case.

John Mark would like Patheos to bring me back. Now he is the one with the sense of humor. Maybe he could carry the mantle over there; at least until he tells the wrong truth.

 

Anxious Bench Asks Patheos: What’s Going On?

Today, Anxious Bench, a group blog at Patheos, featured two posts which questioned the termination of my blog. I will take them in the order posted today.

So, what is going on at Patheos?

Written by Kristin Du Mez, she wonders who was behind the move to end my blog at Patheos.

With so little information, it wasn’t hard for Throckmorton—and many of the rest of us—to jump to some conclusions. Throckmorton, of course, is known for writing on some of the biggest scandals in the Christian subculture. “A Christian whistleblower,” he’s blogged about Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, K.P. Yohannan, and Gospel for Asia. Connecting the dots, Throckmorton explains: “Patheos was at the center of the Mars Hill Church and Gospel for Asia stories and now they host Mark Driscoll and K. P. Yohannan.” (Throckmorton has moved his blog to www.wthrockmorton.com, though Patheos has not responded to his request to migrate comments on his posts to his new site).

She then quotes Dan Wilkinson who provided an overview of BN Media’s connections. Go over and read the rest. I am not sure how long she will be there.

Can Patheos Continue to “Host the Conversation on Faith”?

I’m going to say, probably not.

It wasn’t always that way according to Chris Gehrz who wrote about his attraction to Patheos:

Perhaps most of all, I was impressed that Patheos recruited Warren Throckmorton in 2013. A psychology professor at a conservative Christian college who has publicly rethought his views on sexual identity therapy, Warren is even better known for his investigations of popular evangelical figures like David Barton and Mark Driscoll. That Patheos’ Evangelical channel would host someone as unflinchingly honest and potentially controversial as Warren spoke volumes to me as I considered the Anxious Bench offer. This was a “big tent” evangelicalism, open to self-criticism and dissent and not afraid to challenge readers.

So I was troubled to learn that Patheos abruptly endedWarren’s blog last month, for reasons that remain somewhat mysterious. Warren first reported that he was simply told that his blog no longer met the “strategic objectives” of Patheos…

Once you start getting rid of material because someone is offended or bothered by it, then it isn’t long before other bloggers bother someone else. Apparently, I bothered an investor, an owner, an advertiser, a potential writer or someone who wanted content erased. I still don’t know. Until it the “objectives” are made clear, the bloggers on the platform can’t feel secure that the conversation on faith will continue.

 

 

Revoice and Again I Say Revoice

Revoice is a new organization composed of people who seek “to encourage, support, and empower gay, lesbian, and other same-sex attracted Christians so they can experience the life-giving character of the historic, Christian sexual ethic.” The group encourages same-sex attracted people to be open about their orientation in traditional church but to remain celibate.

Despite the emphasis on celibacy, they are open about their experiences and they reject efforts to change orientation. They also openly describe themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.

Revoice has scheduled a conference in late July that has generated some controversy, especially among those restless reformed folk who brought us the Nashville Statement.

A quick critic of the conference has emerged in Owen Strachan. In a post at the Center for Public Theology, Strachan begins with a case study of a divorced couple who parted ways over the husband’s homosexuality. He suggests that Revoice will teach things that lead to such divorces. Strachan then offers his own answers which he claims lead to hope.

The Rest of Many Stories

Strachan tells us that a person dealing with same-sex attraction is “not a special case.” He adds that the “key to victory in this area” is “understanding this, and rejecting the now-common spirit of victimhood.” Strachan assures the reader that Jesus is bigger than “any attraction, any lust, any unbiblical identity. ”

Without contesting his theological rhetoric at this point, I think it is only fair to offer some contrasting vignettes to his story. In fact, I suspect Revoice has emerged because the approach that Strachan advocates hasn’t worked very well. This is the practical problem for those who criticize Revoice. Despite the theological precision, there is a long history of damage which  cannot be denied.

Ex-Gay History

I have been researching and counseling same-sex attracted evangelicals since 1998. Initially, I defended reorientation therapy and ex-gay ministries. Yet, after much clinical experience and a reevaluation of the evidence, I changed my views. Here are just a few vignettes and points which should make Rev. Strachan reconsider his confident critique of Revoice. The men below once advocated an approach to victory over what they once considered sin which is very much like what Strachan wrote about in his critique of Revoice.

Michael Bussee

One of the founders of Exodus International, Michael Bussee and his eventual lover Gary Cooper left Exodus when they admitted to each other that they hadn’t changed orientation. They had been advised by their Christian ministry to believe God was giving them victory over their temptations but the victory never came.

John Paulk

The founder of Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out program, John Paulk was described by Christianity Today as the “poster boy” for the ex-gay movement. He was photographed in a gay bar while leading the movement and then after he left FOTF in 2003, he later divorced his wife Anne in 2013 and came out again as gay.

John Smid

John Smid was the director of Love in Action in Memphis TN, one of the flagship ministries of Exodus International. LIA was very much geared toward avoiding temptation, the appearance of evil, mortification of the flesh and generally following the kind of advice articulated by Strachen. However, sometime after Exodus closed down in 2013, Smid and his wife divorced and he later married a man.

Randy Thomas

Randy Thomas was for many years a leader in Exodus International and was Vice-President at the time it closed. Exodus rejected identity labels like gay or lesbian. While with Exodua, Thomas spoke to groups and exhorted them to victory over the flesh with slogans like “the opposite of homosexuality is not heterosexuality but holiness.” Five years after the closing of Exodus, Randy is out as bisexual and in a same-sex relationship.

I could go on. There are many such stories. I also know people who manage to adhere to their traditional views. Some go along with Strachan’s views whereas more lean toward Revoice’s approach.

Get Real

Like so many from the Exodus International era, Strachan throws out theological language which sounds hopeful in theory but doesn’t work out so well in practice when applied to LGBT people.  Comparing sexual orientation to greed or anger just shows how little one understands about the subject and the real people involved.

Strachan has every right to advocate for his theological understanding of sexual orientation. However, my objection is the rhetoric which promises victory, without defining what that means. When I read that Jesus is “bigger” than something, I think He is going to conquer it or take it away. When I read victory, I think actual winning.

Strachan then promises that his way is better than Revoice’s way. Reality and experience say otherwise. This is a real problem which he doesn’t confront. Maybe he doesn’t know enough GLBT people to know it is a problem. But it is definitely is a problem because in actual practice, real people infrequently get the results promised by the rhetoric used in the article.

Instead of criticizing his brothers and sisters, perhaps Strachan should work on making his own message a little clearer. Tell his readers that people rarely change and that there are just as many failures as he defines them using his method as use the others he dislikes. That would at least be more honest.

People who want to remain traditional in their actions have a hard enough time without being severely criticized by those who are, in many ways, ideologically similar. Indeed, it might be that exclusionary attitude that makes progressives look attractive.