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Home > 2007 > March (Web-only)Christianity Today, March (Web-only), 2007  |   |  
Weblog: Pastors Off the Hook in Sex Cases
Earl Paulk case dropped, Lonnie Latham not guilty, Md. pastor gets mistrial. Plus: Calling Akinola out on Nigeria's anti-gay law, W&M's cross returns, Jars of Clay's un-Dixie Chicks moment, and other stories from online sources around the world.



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1. Accusers lose in sexual misconduct cases against prominent pastors
Several sexual misconduct cases we've been watching ended this week—all in favor of the accused pastors. In a surprising turn, Mona Brewer and her husband dropped their sexual misconduct suit against Atlanta megachurch pastor Earl Paulk. "We were having difficulty even at this point getting witnesses to speak out against the acts of Bishop Paulk and the church," their lawyer told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Sometimes you just have to do this." The trial was to begin April 2.

In another prominent case, Lonnie Latham, who was pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church and a former member of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee before his arrest on a misdemeanor charge of lewdness, was found not guilty. Latham had been accused of inviting an undercover male police officer to engage in oral sex. His lawyer appealed to Lawrence v. Texas, a Supreme Court decision throwing out Texas's anti-sodomy law, saying, "If it's not illegal to engage in that conduct, then it shouldn't be illegal to talk about it." The judge did not rule on the constitutionality of Oklahoma's anti-lewdness law.

And finally, Gerald Griffith is not a name that many evangelicals know, but the pastor and founder of Baltimore's Redemption Christian Fellowship Church apparently has an international following. He has also been charged with sexually abusing three different teenagers during counseling sessions. The first of his trials was declared a mistrial Tuesday when one of the witnesses referred to another of the cases. A deacon at the church was acquitted in November in a separate abuse case.

2. Time's David van Biema: What does Akinola really think about Nigeria's anti-gay bill?

Apparently as part of Time's retooling, David van Biema has been doing a bit more opinion writing lately. This week, he calls Church of Nigeria head Peter Akinola to take a stance on his country's anti-homosexuality bill. Homosexuality is already illegal in Nigeria, but this bill would put a five-year prison term on anyone who:

  • "goes through the ceremony of marriage with a person of the same sex,"

  • "performs, witnesses, aids, or abets the ceremony of same-sex marriage" (including clergy)

  • or "is involved in the registration of gay clubs, societies, and organizations, sustenance, procession or meetings, publicity and public show of same-sex amorous relationship directly or indirectly in public and in private."

"Akinola either needs to publicly renounce, in strong terms, his early support of the bill's punitive clauses and to amplify the rather tepid concern he later expressed about them, or else he needs to explain why he's not doing so to the dozen or so churches in Virginia whose congregants were largely ignorant of the legislation when they voted to join Akinola's archdiocese in December," van Biema writes.

Many commenters on the conservative Anglican blogs accuse van Biema of a kind of neo-colonialism. One writes, "Too bad that these folks who call for this don't really care about Nigeria or they would understand the context of this law, instead of imposing American cultural thinking onto this country. And we wonder why internationals despise Americans so much. We think the entire world revolves around us—and so it does."

3. William and Mary puts the cross back in Wren Chapel
It's under a glass case away from the altar, so it won't hurt anybody. A disclaimer plaque explaining the college's historical Anglican roots (it's now a public university) will help reassure anyone who thinks it might actually mean something to the institution in this day and age.





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[Reader Reviews]
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 11 comments.See all comments
Mike   Posted: March 13, 2007 11:03 AM
As of today, I take about as much stock in "Christianity Today" as I do in "The Onion," a fake news site.

Ted Olsen   (Registered User)Posted: March 15, 2007 7:56 AM
I'm somewhat surprised by the comments here. Could some of you Jars fans explain what's so great about Haseltine complaining that the Christian music world is too fake, and then saying that the band hasn't recorded its protest songs because it's "much afraid" it would hurt album sales? If Haseltine had said the band hadn't recorded and released the songs because, for example, it felt that it wasn't called to political statements, or that the songs didn't fit thematically with its Monsters album, for some artistic or "higher" reason, I could see the beef here. But what Haseltine said was, "If you rock the boat too much, your records won't appear in certain Christian record stores anymore." I like Jars of Clay. But I found Haseltine's comments disappointing, and I found Morast's remark that he respected the band because of them surprising. You didn't?

anon   Posted: March 12, 2007 10:37 PM
I think Dan is more concerned that he speak at the proper time, when people will listen. Rather than spouting off at the wrong time and everyone simply closing their ears and refusing to listen. Tact, love, and proper timing, rather than beating people over the head. Seems rather Christ-like to me.

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