The Lunatics Are In Charge Of The Asylum
Or Perhaps Sexual Predators Are In Charge Of YOUR Local Church
Introduction
The “Church” at large is in a state of rapid decline and decay, more so than it has ever been. An ever increasing number of people think they are Christians when they are not. And along with them, are people who think they are qualified to lead Christian churches when nothing could be further from the truth.
Welcome to the asylum
The following is a true story: Welcome to the church of the pastor who is also a rock-n-roll band leader, body-piercing specialist, and who loves to cover his body with “Christian” tattoos. Oh, and lest I forget, he also loves the admiration and adoration of young girls, who seem to be easily infatuated with this wanna-be rock star. My wife and I visited this guy’s small church in our little rural town and we could not believe what we encountered. We tried to tolerate the fact that the music was extremely loud, including the amplified guitars. For me, it was just as hard to tolerate the fact that all the songs were “contemporary” (which translated to a lot of vain simplistic repetitions that proclaimed little if any biblical truth), only to find out from the young pastor that he viewed hymns as if they were from some old-fashioned bygone era that this modern world and modern church has no use for. This person running the church was someone who would not have a congregation if he needed the blessing of godly Christian elders.
The “hip” pastor of this “modern” church was a rock and roll band member of his own small rock band (at the same time as being a pastor). He was covered in what he called “Christian” tattoos and he made a living working at a tattoo parlor doing body piercings.
From the testimony of people I know who attended that church for a while, the pastor’s wife was also a pastor there (conveniently ordained by her husband). She had some “fun” ideas for getting people to come to church. For example, she would dress up as the Easter bunny and go downtown to invite people to the Easter service. When Halloween rolled around, she would dress up as a witch and walk around the church entertaining the kids. Fortunately this church did close down – after operating for less than 2 years, but how much damage did they do?
From what I could see and from my own conversations with that so-called pastor, their philosophy of church was to do whatever it takes to please people (primarily please the young people) and to make church as “fun” and entertaining as possible. They did what they did because they really believed that if they did not, they would be a stumbling block to all sorts of young people who would otherwise be flocking to Christ – if it were not for all the “stick in the mud” Christians (who have the nerve to expect converted sinners to start acting like sheep instead of like goats). The only problem with that philosophy is: which Christ are you leading them to? An imaginary Christ who accepts sinners “just as they are” – not caring if they stay “just as they are”? Sanctification is meaningless in these kinds of churches. The gospel is also meaningless, because it is always a false “free-will” gospel that puts the sinner in charge of his own salvation and puts Christ at the mercy of the sinner, hoping the sinner will find it in his wicked sinful heart to “accept” Christ. But the real Jesus Christ has mercy on whom HE wills and doesn’t save the ungodly so they can be ungodly still.
The lunatic is also a sexual-predator
The young pastor of that church is now dead. Soon after my wife and I left, the church closed down, the guy divorced his wife and moved to another town to become a youth ministry leader at another church and soon after, married the daughter of that church’s pastor. His next major accomplishment was to get arrested for molesting a 13 year old girl [1] which happened while he had been a youth leader prior to where my wife and I had met him. While out on bail awaiting trial he committed suicide [2].
More sexual-predator church leaders
A couple of years later, my wife and I moved to western Pennsylvania (to be near her family in her declining years, although those “declining years” turned out to be just two months) and we started visiting the church her brother was attending, only to discover that his church had just recently said goodbye to a youth pastor who had been arrested for being a child sexual predator [3].
As if those two prior churches and their leaders were not depraved enough, after my wife passed away of cancer, I moved to western New York state and started attending a small country church there, only to discover that one of the men in a leadership role reporting to the pastor had been arrested at age 39 for having sex with a seven year old girl [4]. And that man had a wife and children and was the pastor’s son-in-law.
I realize that if not for the grace of God more of us would be in jail for such acts of depravity, myself included. My main concern in writing this article is to point out how the moral decay and corruption in our society is heavily entrenched in local churches also. If you have children, you really should never entrust them to people who you don’t know the history of in great detail. You should also do your own searches and background checks on the leaders in your church and on the people your children are going to come into contact with, especially when you might not be around to oversee their safety.
References:
1. Reaction on arrest of ex-youth pastor for child sex charges
2. Rock-n-Roll Pastor Adam T. D’Albero’s Obituary
3. Western PA Youth Pastor Charged Over Alleged Sexual Activity With Teen Girl
4. New York State Church Leader & Former Child Sex Offender