The Trial of Skip Heitzig
The Judge was nowhere to be found, the jury only heard from the prosecution, the defense was silent and the defendant pleaded nolo contendre to the charge of guilt by association.
He hopes that he is sentenced to wrath already served.
The land Heitzig lives in is not a geographical location, but a mental one…a place where beliefs and thoughts are constrained and family members are few.
A place where suspicion thrives, fear rules, and grace died without a proper funeral.
My guess is that he hopes his capitulation to the ODM’s will stop the calls and the emails that call his orthodoxy into question and keep the already thin support for his radio broadcasts coming in.
What Skip doesn’t understand is that it doesn’t work that way.
Once you’ve been smeared, the stain never comes out.
Once you relinquish the freedom to think and act independently to people who claim the moral and spiritual high ground you have become their slave…and they are demanding task masters.
You’ll always be guilty, always be suspect and nothing that you say, do, or preach will ever change that.
You should have fought the charges, Skip…you should have stood up for yourself and for your friends like Gayle Erwin and Greg Laurie…and Len.
You should have…because in the place you dwell you’re always going to be guilty anyway.
I know this place well. It is the same place the Pharisees and Judaizers live.
Linnea,
You have spoken well…
seems our leadership today is a little unsure as to what the “wisdom of the serpent” is…
Amen!!! I stood up to LHT’s once. The minute you tell tell them they’re wrong, and prove it, the silence is deafening, and, the damage lingers on.
I just hope Bryson never finds out CCFTL sells Piper, Keller, Driscoll, Luther, Packer, Grudem, etc…in their bookstore, and, that Bob Coy quotes Piper often these days.
Oh, wait….
Sorry I just do not believe the ODMs had a factor in this…SH makes up his own mind and acts out of his own beliefs. The whole thing was an oversight. Nothing more.
C H Spurgeon “What we wish to see, we shall see or think we see. Faults are always thick where love is thin. A white cow is all black if your eye chooses to make it so. If we sniff long enough at rose water, we shall find out that it has a bad smell. “
An oversight that has gone on for almost a year and still hasn’t received a clear statement…right…
They missed the fact that Skips picture was next to Lens in the color brochure on their website too…
http://www.nationalworshipleaderconference.com/resources/files/2010%20NWLC%20Brochure.pdf
When I started out in the ministry I never thought I would see the day that I was no longer in the ministry and would be glad about it. But I must admit that I am glad to not be in the pulpit today.
With the ODMs hunting for anything and everything they don’t happen to like and the total lack of any attempt at discipline and now we have George as the representative CC theologian hunting for those Calvinist that are hiding in our closets — I mean this is a good time to not be a CC Senior Pastor. I’m sure I would be in someone’s crosshairs.
Never before have we had such easy access to knowledge but more that ever before this is a time when people are always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
We do need on guard as never before, The deceptions are many people need to be warned but everyone is shooting at the wrong targets.
2 Tim3:1* ¶ But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2* People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3* without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4* treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God– 5* having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 6* They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7* always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
well, Buddy Owens, who is speaking at Cof A is on staff at Saddleback…… no one connected that dot? No doubt they all stumbled over themselves at the ideal of a skewered Sweet.
I tend to think Michael is right here …. and if there was ever a time that I would have liked to see the Skippy come out swinging, this would have been it.. The reason I say that is it looks to me that this was all decide on over a year ago….. Psalm 15 says “…He [who] swears to his own hurt and does not change;” is the one who may dwell on His Holy Hill .
I wonder if the Skippy didn’t get some strong pressure within the movement on this.
DMW,
” I mean this is a good time to not be a CC Senior Pastor. I’m sure I would be in someone’s crosshairs. ”
I’m beginning to think you’re right. At least I am off of the radar most of the time.
“Never before have we had such easy access to knowledge but more that ever before this is a time when people are always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.”
Very true. There needs to be a unisen popping sound that seems very unlikely to happen.
I was very careful not to mention the Saddleback guy…I’m surprised the crack research teams from the ODM’s haven’t nailed him for that too.
I have a hard time buying the internal pressure theory…there aren’t enough satellites in his orbit that would care.
I agree with Dread this time. The ODMs are overestimated and are given too much value for their own self-importance. I don’t believe Skip does anything other than what benefits Skip. Why would Skip want to die on a hill this insignificant? He’s much too pragmatic to fight for virtue.
Sir Lancelot he ain’t.
I don’t understand the workings of my own mind. I still surprise myself once in a while, have you ever done something then afterwards ask yourself why you did it and couldn’t come up with a good answer, or am I the only nut here that still surprises himself. Mostly I surprise myself by a sin I do. I can think I didn’t have it in me any more, them poof there it is in living color. I do know this, I don’t want the know our understand the interworking of Skip’s mind.
Michael, I think if you think about it, you really don’t want to get inside Skip’s head do you.
We are left to speculate as to why people do what they do. If the do a certain type of thing consistent enough I suppose we have a petty good idea as to what going on inside them. But even then if they are like me they probably don’t know their own minds well enough to give a clear and concise answer as to why they do what they do.
DMW…God bless you– great insight into our shared condition.
Michael wrote,
“Once you’ve been smeared, the stain never comes out.
Once you relinquish the freedom to think and act independently to people who claim the moral and spiritual high ground you have become their slave…and they are demanding task masters.
You’ll always be guilty, always be suspect and nothing that you say, do, or preach will ever change that.
You should have fought the charges”
———————————————————————————————————————————
“the stain that never comes out”, that is a very true statement. In our truth telling here in Visalia, we are seeing the same effect with Calvary Chapel Visalia’s Pastor. He refuses to answer to anything and remains in his position of power, but without some of his public benefits he used to enjoy…An event he would normally MC called the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, has had a name change and is no longer connected to CCV, it seems.
Although this has very little to do with Skip, I thought that some of you would like to see a small victory in this fight against a very bad man, who could stop it all by just sitting down with his accusers and being humble enough to talk it out. Like Skip, he has had many opportunities to right these wrongs, but makes no attempt to do so.
Thank you Michael for your continued efforts to stand for the truth. It is an inspiration.
“Ambition is the mother of hypocrisy and prefers to skulk in corners and dark places. It cannot endure the light of day. It is an unclean vice wallowing in the depths, always hidden, but ever with an eye to advancement.”
Bernard of Clairvaux
Michael, I think you are sensationalizing a story without reason. Are there no other CC news stories? Hasn’t GB posted anything new?
No one here has any idea of what it’s like to be at the helm of CoA. Why don’t we give them a break? Calling him skippy? Uncool.
Jim,
I’m sorry you feel that way and I obviously disagree.
First, we have a situation where another brother is being shunned and basically disfellowshipped after being invited to speak.
Sweet has been scheduled for almost a year, then when the ODM’s raise hell he’s disinvited.
That’s wrong, it’s sets a horrible precedent for others, and it’s a story that needs to be told .
Skip is human. Stained. Like all of us. But some say it should his mission to serve the flock, while they have greater vision worthy of Herodium. It’s Cain inviting Able. Look what a great temple our hands have wrought. The Spirit is not deceived, allayed, “slow” for darkness is as light. Carry on. Humbled! Beautiful, inside. Alive. Forever. Amen.