Update: changed from an “aside” to a full-blown post.
Do female church leaders of various kinds fall in groups of threes? Maybe. Today I’ve heard about Mother Teresa, Paula White, and Juanita Bynum. (I know, “fall” in the usual sense doesn’t apply to any of them, but it says something when divorce is seen as an option, when a marriage that has been claimed to be made in heaven falls apart because of domestic violence, or when it turns out that a mystic could identify with the Passion but not actually have any relationship with the Christ.) Hattips to James White and Patrick’s tip to Steve.
(Update: Thabiti Anyabwile has more to say about the Whites [Paula, not James].)
Update 2: This was an interesting quote from MSNBC:
Without Walls church board member Alick Clarke of Acton, Calif., a longtime friend, said the impending divorce is sad news.
“They were like my heroes. I really love them,” he said. “But I’m also a little p***ed off. I didn’t help them build their dream to have them throw it all away.”
An Australian-born businessman, Clarke said he’s given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the church since it was founded by the Whites in 1991 as the South Tampa Christian Center.
He partially blamed the couple’s breakup on their devotion to preaching a prosperity message, exhorting followers to give more money to the church in order to be blessed with greater wealth.
What in the world? First of all, I added the asterisks in the profanity used above; apparently this “church board member” used the actual word there. Is this a minor thing? Not to me; assuming that this is some sort of leader in the church there, he should know better than to speak in such a way, and he should definitely have enough self-control not to use such a word when speaking to the media. Wow.
Second, does he have any valid reason for disclosing that he has given so much money to the church? Are we not expressly forbidden to do that, by Jesus Himself?
Third, if he had problems with the prosperity message, why didn’t he take some action? What was he doing giving hundreds of thousands of dollars and his leadership skills to a place where what they preached was, in his eyes, wrong?
Do people really think that this is how church works? Obviously they do.
What’s really funny is, I guarantee that somebody will do a “reverse Campolo” on me, and totally focus on the fact that I criticized the man for using profanity.
Update 3: Get this:
No mention was made of Thursday’s announcement at the 9 a.m. service, where White preached for a few minutes before turning over the pulpit to Ralph Messer, a Messianic rabbi from Denver who teaches about the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith.
Messer preached about the Torah and Jewish entrepreneurship and spoke again at the 11 a.m. service, where he led the congregation in a prayer that ended emotionally for White.
“I declare today that my bishop has entered into a new season, a new season, a new season,” Messer intoned, prompting White’s followers. “Now, give him glory. Praise God.”
As emotions in the sanctuary reached a high point, Messer hugged White, telling him, “I love you. I love you so much.” White, a prayer shawl draped over his shoulders, stood clutching a Torah scroll, head bowed, with a pained expression on his face.
Can I claim Sebold’s Law for this? Messer is a “Two Houses” guy, after all.
