Spiritual Blackmail
Over the last 25 years the most controversial articles I’ve written have had to do with allegations against Chuck Smith.
These researchers have come up with a transcript of a conversation between Smith and “prophet” Paul Cain…where Cain threatens Smith with blackmail unless Smith retracts allegations he made against Cain.
Smith complies…
The allegations against Smith are not defined…but they seem to have been effective.
The researchers also correctly describe how these men and others kept dirt on each other to control each other…another claim I’ve made from the beginning.
This…is interesting.
Yes Interesting.
My take is pretty simple;
The first is all of us have “skeletons in our closets.” From the day we actually become adults until the day there is a need for someone to wipe the spittle from our faces , evil and iniquity, (the twisting of what we think is true) is in our hearts and actions.
The second thing which comes to mind is how easily we can be manipulated.
It’s not just church and religious things, it’s everything. From marketing what kind of food or drink makes us healthy, popular or feel good to the latest cultural movements.
There are always humans who use the passions and desires of others to accomplish their personal goals. Paul pointed it out and appealed to others who use “gullible women” (2 Tim 3:6), but I submit say men, especially young men are also gullible. Young men need a place to become men and relevant in the world and are easily drawn by others into crazy schemes and ideas.
The men in this video are no different from those who get others to lay down in the road stopping traffic the name of saving us from big oil. They are the same people who encourage people to throw food on precious artwork or tear down statutes of past heroes.
This example, while pointed at religious personalities, goes to the heart of humanity and should be a warning to all of us. We should check our passions and spend some time meditating on the why’s before we act and follow the latest movement.
All too often we bring more harm than good to others in our quests.
It is so hard to not listen to the voices telling us how wise and good we will be.
Thank God for His loving kindness!
MIchael,
After just watching this I thought of two things: we shall all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, and the film “The Apostle” is truer than I ever thought it was.
I will confess that I ran with a charismatic crew in college in the mid-70s, but I was never able to buy in, especially after someone tried to teach me how to speak in tongues. I believed that if it was a gift I could have, God would just give it to me as that is what the Scriptures seemed to imply. I’ve always been the great skeptic (I stopped believing in Santa when I was 4), and exegetical Bible study and expository preaching have always made more sense to me.
Flip side-I think of how many people have been hurt because of sin in the camp. I tried to help a friend in my late 20s who had been taken advantage of by her “discipler” and ended up in the hospital with a miscarriage, but couldn’t resist returning to him. Several of my other friends left the faith when they realized that a lot of what went on in their charismatic church was pure deception, and others who continue (even in their 60s) to follow the next prophet or healer that might be able to help them make sense of things.
Anyway, such are my thoughts. And, I often confess that I don’t have a charismatic bone in my body. I believe God does miracles all the time, but not through charlatans found in some charismatic circles.
I’ll have to be brief…I had an emergency surgery yesterday, so I’m a mess.
I’ve already put forth the arguments I’d make dozens of times over the last two decades.
I think I posted this as vindication…
The whole celebrity cult inside Christianity is a shame…I just have to make sure I’m not one of them.
Michael, yes, this pretty much just provides another piece of evidence to what you’ve been saying all along.
I’m sorry you had to have emergency surgery. Lifting you to the Lord in prayer.
Michael,
I trust you are recovering at home with Liam and will be on the mend soon.
Most of the history in the video was totally unknown to me.
Michael,
I pray that you recover quickly.
Figures that the whole CC movement was corrupt from the get-go. The first gen followers of Chuck Smith used this as blackmail/MAD to ensure they would not go down for the sins and crimes, which of course, the 2nd gen CC leaders did the same with the first and so on.
Methinks the whole Jesus People “revival” was a crock of excrement.
Reminds me of the critics of the Cane Ridge Revival of the early 19th century who said that “More souls were begot rather than saved.”
I got reeled into the calvary chapel thing as a young Army vet back during the wind down of Vietnam.
It was strict authoritarianism and mind control.
Glad I got out.
If you run the church like a franchise business you can expect cutthroat business politics.
The bovine excrement that is Calvary Chapel, its leaders, and quite frankly most of the so-called “Christians” who go to Calvary Chapel (nationally and in a couple of local Calvary Chapels I have dealt with over the years) are yet more reasons why I walked away from the crock that is Christianity and why I am very much an atheist.