Healing the Church - After Bakker

Thanks to a North Carolina jury, a time of recovery can come to American Christians.

At first glance it seemed to have all the swagger of a Jim Bakker telethon: microphones and minicams; Tammy Faye responding to a reporter by singing, “On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand”; and Jim himself incantationally quoting, “All things work together for good,” fully expecting God’s good to match up with the PTL version.

But this was not television and the effect was not inspiring. This was the real world, a North Carolina courthouse where Bakker had just been found guilty on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy. The effect was pathetic.

Bakker’s trial and conviction on charges that he oversold “lifetime partnerships” in his Heritage USA theme park, guaranteeing free annual vacation lodging, was simply the end of a decade-long pattern of irresponsible use of over $500 million raised through televised appeals for ministry support. Investigations revealed that much of what was being supported was not legitimate ministry but lavish lifestyle. PTL ministries attempted to circumvent the already generous laws that govern nonprofit businesses and churches. Testimony showed that this end run was not done out of ignorance or incompetence, but willful disregard.

It does not take a thorough knowledge of the United States Penal Code to understand what Bakker did wrong. Try Matthew 19:18: Don’t lie. As prosecuter Deborah Smith said, “The message is you can’t lie to people and you can’t use television and the mails to lie to get people to send you money.” Bakker did just that.

In the past Bakker has preached and pled for forgiveness from his followers and the Christian community at large. But even Bakker’s unique theology—a kind of couch-potato orthodoxy—surely must demand that the potential forgivee recognize his wrong. Yet there was Bakker telling television reporters, “I went into this courtroom innocent of the charges against me, and I come out today still innocent of the charges against me.” Pathetic.

Bakker is part of the body of Christ, although most of us feel that for several years his ministry has been a painful swelling on the body. The court decision lances the boil, and healing now needs to take place. The focus of healing should be on financial accountability. Christian ministries have made some strides in this regard in the last ten years, thanks largely to the formation of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability and the National Religious Broadcasters’ Ethics and Financial Integrity Commission. But numerous ministries still do not subscribe to the standards of these organizations. After Bakker, these standards are the minimum we must demand.

Now we must put the whole episode in perspective. Jim Bakker is not the Christian church. A combination of our desire for heroes, our fascination with entertainment technology, and a naïveté about religious authority figures probably exaggerated his importance. Perhaps this will help us see that most of what the institutional church should represent is embodied in the hundreds of thousands of local churches in places like Ann Arbor, Springfield, and Gila Bend.

It is there we find fellowship with like-minded believers, it is there we weekly worship our God, and it is there we can look one another in the eye and say “Brother, I think you are getting out of line.”

If Jim Bakker had been able to open his eyes—and heart—to such counsel, then perhaps he would not have come to such a pathetic pass. May God use this experience to make that happen for him.

By Terry C. Muck

It takes a lot of courage to teach your children at home. And not just courage, but stamina, inventiveness, and steady nerves. In many ways, home schooling is uncharted territory, and like any frontier effort, there can be an atmosphere of fighting for survival about it.

But in Michigan and Iowa, it takes extra courage to educate your own children. In those states, parents who want to teach their own must be certified teachers. The Mark DeJonge family finds the Michigan law burdensome. DeJonge, a dairy farmer, and his wife are appealing the decision by the state’s appellate court that the authorities may require all children (including theirs) to be taught by certified teachers.

Mike Farris, president and founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association, finds the Michigan law not only burdensome, but unbiblical. Education is a responsibility given directly to parents, he argues, and the requirement that home schoolers be certified teachers is an infringement on the free exercise of religion. Farris’s organization is going to bat for the DeJonges, arguing that the Michigan requirements fail key constitutional tests. Like Farris, we would like to see home schooling minimally regulated, as it is in many states.

Home schooling is not for everybody, we believe. But it can be a desirable alternative in cases where peer influence is destructive, where inflexible schools are less able than the parents to meet the instructional needs of bright children, where the local school seems bent on teaching unbiblical values, where children with special needs cannot be properly accommodated by the schools, and where parental vision for education is potentially more broadening and less crushing than the standardized and routinized program available in local institutions.

We support the right of those with the personal resources and the family need to educate their own children. Michigan and Iowa need to find less restrictive means of insuring that home-schooled children get a good education.

By David Neff.

Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death has called the present era the “Entertainment Age.” We now judge all mediums of communication—news, literature, conversation, film, and so on—for their entertainment value. Presumably, this also applies to the preaching of the gospel.

And why not? If we are to communicate effectively with our generation, we must “contextualize” the gospel in order to get our market share. Therefore, we must make the gospel entertaining. But how?

Forbes magazine has provided some good church-growth strategy. In their October 2 issue, they listed the 40 top-grossing entertainers for 1988–89. By analyzing what people are willing to shell out for ($1.65 billion in total earnings for these 40 acts), we can then adjust accordingly our Sunday-morning regimen.

First, our preachers must learn to dance. Number one on the list for the second year in a row was Michael Jackson, who leaped and spun to the tune of $125 million in 1988–89. And while the pastor is moonwalking across the stage, he should also be singing, preferably a rock tune, and wearing long hair and black-leather vestments. Of the 40 acts, 20 used music as their vehicle to fortune—with the majority of these being hard rock or heavy metal groups.

That’s not all. Our preachers also need to be funny (Eddie Murphy, Johnny Carson, Steve Martin), scary (Stephen King), macho (Michael Tyson, Sylvester Stallone), and male. Based on the only three women who made the top 40, women should be able to lead discussions (Oprah Winfrey), sing in the choir (Madonna), and lead exercise class (Jane Fonda).

And what will happen if our pastors don’t become long-haired, leather-clad, muscle-pumping, hip-swinging screamers who can always punch out a good one-liner? Then it will all be left to God.

By Michael G. Maudlin.

The day after President Bush appeared on national television to launch his $7.9 billion strategy for the war on drugs, a well-known Christian leader called our editorial offices. “Bush forgot one thing,” our friend said; “he said nothing about prayer. That’s what Christians need to be about first and foremost—praying.”

Our colleague was onto something. Granted, national leaders cannot—and should not—dress everything they say in the pious clothing of Christian phrases. But it would also be folly to think that we can prevail against principalities and powers, against entrenched human evil, apart from God’s power and help. The church’s involvement in battling social evil, then, must include the resources of the Spirit.

While we should marshal the best of our human resources against homelessness, illiteracy, abortion, pornography, and violence, attacking the social ills of our time with the vehemence of a Wilberforce, we dare not forget from whence final authority and power come. Prayer is a key weapon in the battle, for by it we invite God into the fray and lay claim to his power.

Churches around the country have discovered this—such as one Southern California black Baptist church perched on the turf boundary of two rival gangs. When a ten-year-old girl in their youth choir was killed in a drive-by gang shooting, the mother of the slain girl spearheaded a two-pronged church and community effort, Keep Our Youth Alive (KOYA). Not only does KOYA work at tougher laws and improved police protection, it mobilizes church members in organized prayer for gang members and the neighborhood.

Churches and individual Christians should continue to launch such prayer offensives against the injustices and wrongdoing of their communities and our world. Prayer is not the only Christian response—just one of the most important.

By Timothy K. Jones.

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