TGIF
Today is the fifth anniversary of the last time that Charles Bowden’s hands grew cold.
I would like to say that the day of his departure is being noted by people all over the world, but that would be a lie.
There is one gathering happening tonight with friends and family at a bookstore, but that’s about it.
Bowden didn’t write things that warmed the cockles of your heart, indeed, he wrote to make everyone as uncomfortable as possible.
He was very good at that…few mourn the passing of someone who excels at making them squirm.
He made us uncomfortable by telling us the truth about who we really are and what we do… and we are not lovers of the truth despite owning many copies of holy writ.
He wrote about people in power, but he wrote as much about the victims of those powerful people and we prefer not to hear of them if the power in place suits our needs.
I’ve been working on the Potters Field story for months…it started with rumors, then some of the the rumors proved true, and then all hell broke loose.
We gave much more space here to the victims than we did the power that made them such.
Now, the story is fading…the powers that be are silent and one assumes they are taking care of themselves.
The victims are not a factor, indeed, they have not even been publicly addressed by those who hurt them.
The financial details will be resolved by those in control of the money and this whole mess (and the people crushed by it) will be forgotten.
Nothing remotely “biblical” (whatever the hell that means) will occur because for something holy to transpire, victims would have to be more important than power.
There would have to be transparency and brokenness and hard truths would have to be told.
That is a bridge too far for all our institutions, including the church.
It’s also a bridge too far for those individuals who make up the institutions.
Bowden will be remembered (by those few who do remember) as a great wordsmith and iconoclast and for the fact that he he failed miserably in his goal…taken from “Death Of A salesman” by Arthur Miller.
“His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.”
Chuck wanted us to pay attention, especially when it would make us uncomfortable.
That’s a bridge too far for most of us.
Make your own application…
Do you think any of the victims will file civil lawsuits?
I see all kinds of obstacles to criminal charges.
Do you think 1 Corinthians 6 keeps such victims from suing PF? The burger joints?
SHOULD it?
I’ve considered these things and wondered what tou’d think?
Ohhh and which bookstore?
JTK,
Ken Sanders bookstore in Utah…I would love to be there tonight.
Most of the victims in this case are up against really short statutes of limitations in Montana…it’s hard for me to see anything legal happening here unless the state initiates it.
Should they sue if they can prove injury?
Hell, yes.
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal haters of good, treacherous reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; …” 2Timothy 3:1-5a, NASB
“For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” I Peter 4:17, NASB
Part of the “judgment” is exposing the perps. In that, Michael, you have done a greater service than probably anyone knows. If these perps who are in leadership do not repent after being exposed for being excrement–God will surely take are of them in His time. They will wish they repented.
If one goes further and decides that , though the PFM pretenders seemed to adhere to some kind of surface orthodoxy, if they still led people astray with a false orthopraxy, they may qualify for other types of judgement. (There’s the famous “millstone” line from one of Jesus’ discourses.) Then there is this:
“and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” 2 Peter 2:3, NASB
These pieces of dung may seem to get away with things now and may even delude themselves that they did it all for God (the god of their belly?), but God will not be mocked. They will reap what they have sown and so will all those who enabled.
I for one am praying that all the cockroaches at PFM will be forced out into the light as well as other leaders who were too lazy to do their due diligence.
My first reaction is to say a hearty “Amen!” But then I realize how utterly horrified I would be if the truth about me was laid bare for all to see, or even just fully revealed to my own heart. So I’ll just shut up.
Kevin–
I see the dividing line as repentance.
If you were to repent and diligently try to make up for your deeds, there would be no need to “out” you.
This is a great interview, and in its brevity cuts to the point. Bowden was a man of deep, sharp conviction. Whether such commitment is universal, or a mantle that the individual dawns, I do not know.
There is some truth to the idea that if they can’t kill you, they learn to accept you, even if such acceptance is confined to the realm of the eccentric.
Michael, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to you for a ridiculous comment I made a few years ago about one of Bowden’s books. I think I said it was more of a “tone poem” than the kind of history I enjoy reading. That was a ridiculous thing for me to have said and I’ve cringed ever since when his name comes up.
Xenia,
No offense taken.
He’s not for everyone…but was a beacon for me…
I’m still pondering, and finishing, my first exposure to Bowden, “Down by the River”. I can’t even comprehend the sacrifices he made to obtain such minute details of the truth and corruption on our Mexican border. I am not a cynic, and even lived in a Mexican border city for a short time, but this book has enabled me to view the world with less naivete’, and gratitude that God is sovereign.
Kat,
Took him seven years and bankrupted him…
In this interview, it is clear to me that Bowden understood the framework and accountability of charismata much better than many Christian leaders. The church has turned charismata into enterprise.