Monday, January 30, 2006
Ministers Gone Wild!
Bishop Earl Paulk of Atlanta's Chapel Hill Harvester Mega-Church is back in the news. Several female members of his congregation have accused him of coercing them into sexual relationships, many of which spanned years. Now, I’m not saying he raped them. Rather, he convinced them that it was God’s will for them to commit adultery with him.
According to an article in Sunday’s AJC, some of Paulk’s best pick-up lines include:
“You and I have a special gift of love outside holy matrimony.”
“You are a special handmaiden of the Lord who has been placed in (Paulk’s) life for a special cause – serving the kingdom of God.”
We’re going to have “special, Kingdom relationships not bound by earthly interpretations of morality.”
And it worked! Evidently, Earl (and his brother/fellow pastor Don and a couple of assorted Paulk nephews) scored big-time with the ladies at church.
If you are an ordinary person (i.e., not a member of a Charismatic Megachurch), you’re probably thinking, “what a bunch of stupid women. Who’d fall for lines like that?” Thing is, when you’ve been trained from birth – or at least from conversion – to obey male leadership without question, you can and probably will believe some shyster with a Bible and an erection.
Churches such as Chapel Hill Harvester, an independent Charismatic church, answer to no one – except the immediate church leadership (Bishop Paulk and Co.). Church members are taught to submit to the leadership of the church as a means of honoring – and submitting – to God. And if God wants you to bang the pastor, well you’d better start undressing.
Those of you who read my blog know I’m a sassy thing, but I’m not exaggerating the control that a minister has over a congregation, particularly if it’s one of those “the Bible is the absolute literal Word of God,” churches. These groups almost always push an agenda based upon submission. And what they mean by this is that women must submit to the men in their lives, whether it’s a father, husband, brother, or pastor.
Like extreme Muslims, Evangelical Christians don’t think much of women – unless they’re naked and submissive…and even then, these folks will turn around and blame the woman when the, ahem, “Kingdom relationship” becomes public, which is exactly what Paulk has done. He says those women initiated all the affairs and he, apparently, was powerless to say no. Sounds as if someone isn’t praying hard enough, Bishop.
At any rate, I have a solution to the larger problem. People should read the Bible for themselves and decide what they want to believe. Of course, that would require a certain amount of discipline (and reading ability), and God knows (really, God does!) how much Americans hate to read.
Also, we should leave submission where it belongs: in the S&M community. These people have chosen to be either Dominants or Submissives, and they know how to play the game. From what I hear, they also have special “safe” words that they use when the hi-jinks get to be too much. Those poor, deluded women (and men) at Chapel Hill Harvester didn’t even have that.
According to an article in Sunday’s AJC, some of Paulk’s best pick-up lines include:
“You and I have a special gift of love outside holy matrimony.”
“You are a special handmaiden of the Lord who has been placed in (Paulk’s) life for a special cause – serving the kingdom of God.”
We’re going to have “special, Kingdom relationships not bound by earthly interpretations of morality.”
And it worked! Evidently, Earl (and his brother/fellow pastor Don and a couple of assorted Paulk nephews) scored big-time with the ladies at church.
If you are an ordinary person (i.e., not a member of a Charismatic Megachurch), you’re probably thinking, “what a bunch of stupid women. Who’d fall for lines like that?” Thing is, when you’ve been trained from birth – or at least from conversion – to obey male leadership without question, you can and probably will believe some shyster with a Bible and an erection.
Churches such as Chapel Hill Harvester, an independent Charismatic church, answer to no one – except the immediate church leadership (Bishop Paulk and Co.). Church members are taught to submit to the leadership of the church as a means of honoring – and submitting – to God. And if God wants you to bang the pastor, well you’d better start undressing.
Those of you who read my blog know I’m a sassy thing, but I’m not exaggerating the control that a minister has over a congregation, particularly if it’s one of those “the Bible is the absolute literal Word of God,” churches. These groups almost always push an agenda based upon submission. And what they mean by this is that women must submit to the men in their lives, whether it’s a father, husband, brother, or pastor.
Like extreme Muslims, Evangelical Christians don’t think much of women – unless they’re naked and submissive…and even then, these folks will turn around and blame the woman when the, ahem, “Kingdom relationship” becomes public, which is exactly what Paulk has done. He says those women initiated all the affairs and he, apparently, was powerless to say no. Sounds as if someone isn’t praying hard enough, Bishop.
At any rate, I have a solution to the larger problem. People should read the Bible for themselves and decide what they want to believe. Of course, that would require a certain amount of discipline (and reading ability), and God knows (really, God does!) how much Americans hate to read.
Also, we should leave submission where it belongs: in the S&M community. These people have chosen to be either Dominants or Submissives, and they know how to play the game. From what I hear, they also have special “safe” words that they use when the hi-jinks get to be too much. Those poor, deluded women (and men) at Chapel Hill Harvester didn’t even have that.
