Scrabbling in the Mud By Derek Gilbert - May 17, 2010        Tweet

Some days it feels as though the country has fallen into a spiritual mud pit. It's the best way to describe the astounding examples of discernment-free doctrine in which so many of us are content to wallow.

Case in point: Todd Bentley, the tattooed bad boy of the New Apostolic Reformation, is still preaching. He single-handedly killed the so-called Lakeland Revival and humiliated nearly all the leaders of the NAR by admitting an affair with a staff member just weeks after they commissioned him to be a capital-A Apostle, proving that their apostolic discernment left something to be desired. It was natural to expect that he'd go into hiding until things blew over.

Apparently the wind blows pretty quick in South Carolina, where Bentley's been rehabilitating under the wing of Rick Joyner.  Now, just a year and a half later, Bentley's back, and he's hawking a course on how to preach with signs and wonders. As if laying out a hundred bucks can buy the power to produce miracles on demand!

Simon Magus wanted to do that, and it didn't end well for the Sorcerer of Samaria.  But Bentley is happily trying to sell what Simon Peter would not.

Not that he's alone. A certain mailing list devoted to the New Apostolic Revival advertises dozens of such courses a year. These false teachers are not entirely to blame, though; as with heroin, there would be no supply if there was no demand.

Up in Buffalo, New York, it looks like a hundred million dollars just might buy the world's biggest monument. Attorney Laurence Behr heads up a group that wants to build a 700-foot tall arch with a cross in the middle on the shore of Lake Erie to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe. It's hard to know whether this is a serious effort, but Behr has been chasing this dream for nearly ten years now.

Tens of millions of pilgrims visit shrines in Guadalupe, Medjugorje, and Fatima every year, so who knows? The prospect of drawing religious tourists to Buffalo might push this project forward. Money talks.

But before we Protestants get all righteous about the pagan origins of Mary-worship, let's remember that the world's largest obelisk, representing the phallus of Osiris, is called the Washington Monument, and many of our public buildings, including the U.S. Capitol, are topped by pagan goddesses.

While the group in Buffalo has been deceived, at least their motives were more noble than those of Dr. George Rekers, co-founder with Dr. James Dobson of the Family Research Council. Dr. Rekers had the bad luck to be caught in the airport at Miami last month returning from Europe with a 20-year-old male escort he met at RentBoy.com. Not having visited the website, I'll trust those who report that it's exactly what it sounds like.

Rekers, like Bentley, should have gone into hiding for a good long while. There is no defense for gallivanting around Europe with a 20-year-old male prostitute. Instead, however, Rekers has tried to talk his way out.

Rekers explained that his companion was hired to carry his luggage. Rekers recently had surgery, he said, and couldn't lift his bags. Too bad for Rekers that he was photographed at the Miami airport handling the baggage cart himself.

Especially embarrassing is that much of Rekers' ministry has been devoted to convincing homosexuals that they can go straight.

What can one say? Dr. Rekers dug his own hole in this mud pit, and he's only getting filthier by trying to claw his way out.

By comparison, Ted Haggard's excuse was perfectly rational. Still, the news that Haggard has incorporated a new church just four years after his own rent boy scandal was a surprise. The former president of the National Association of Evangelicals apparently needed a proper tax structure for the money he receives from speaking at churches around the country.

People deserve second chances. But Haggard's willingness to appear in the 2009 HBO documentary The Trials of Ted Haggard calls his sincerity into question. The sense one gets, as with Bentley, is an impatience to get this probationary period over with so he can get back on stage.

And finally comes word that Liberty University has launched an investigation into the growing number of questions about the background of Ergun Caner, president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. The claims are that Caner's story of growing up Muslim in Turkey and training as a terrorist before his conversion aren't quite accurate. Legal documents posted to the Internet indicate that Caner was actually raised by his Lutheran mother in Ohio.

If the allegations are true, how did Dr. Caner fool so many people—especially the administrators at Liberty University? And why on Earth did Dr. Caner apparently try to enhance his resume and reputation with a more exciting back story?

For that matter, why can't Haggard and Bentley just leave us alone? Why is there still a market for their stories?

And why in the world does anyone imagine God will be pleased with a 700-foot monument to Mary?

Is it simply that, to paraphrase the character Jayne Cobb from the TV series Firefly, we get stupid because the money's too good?

Remember Peter's response when Simon Magus offered silver for the Spirit: "May your money perish with you!"

Peter was right. We can't take it with us, and we'll be where we're going for a long, long time. Sadly, many of us are wasting the journey scrabbling for shiny things in the mud.

Derek P. Gilbert co-hosts a weekly Internet talk show, P.I.D. Radio, with his wife, author Sharon K. Gilbert, and hosts A View From the Bunker, a weekly interview program.  He previously hosted The Drive, the #1-rated afternoon radio talk show in Columbia/Jefferson City, Missouri.  His published novels are Iron Dragons and The God Conspiracy.

Email Derek at derek at peeringintodarkness dot com. His website is www.derekpgilbert.com.