J. Lee Grady has an excellent article today on the lack of morality in much of church leadership today. In particular he aims his guns at Paula White, Juanita Bynum and Thomas Weeks:
Take Paula White, for example. The high-powered preacher announced last August that her marriage to Randy White was over, with no clear explanation why, and she continued on her whirlwind ministry circuit without skipping a beat. The Whites said adultery was not the reason for their breakup, although Randy said the whole mess was his fault. We were all left scratching our heads.
...Then we have Bishop Thomas Weeks III, the estranged husband of celebrity preacher Juanita Bynum. Their marriage crashed and burned last August when she accused him of beating her in an Atlanta hotel parking lot. Weeks and Bynum have continued preaching since they announced plans to divorce, and Weeks told Gospel Today magazine last month that he’s looking forward to finding wife No. 3 while he continues to oversee several churches. When asked what he needed to change, the bow-tied preacher replied: “I have to take vacations.”
What is missing in both the Weeks-Bynum fiasco and the White’s breakup is a clear admission that biblical principles have been violated. For the Whites, we are left feeling that if you drift apart from your spouse because of the demands of ministry, you just move on and keep preaching. (After all, as Paula says, “Your best days are ahead.”) For Bynum and Weeks, the message is also muddled: If your marriage doesn’t work out, it’s probably because your partner didn’t realize how powerful God’s calling is on your life. (In other words, it’s all about you.)
Did you know that there's one safe room in your house where you can swear all you like? Apparently so, according to Thomas Weeks III, Juanita Bynum's estranged husband:
In light of the recent Juanita Bynum stories, Charisma's J. Lee Grady has posted some interesting comments:
There’s no question that we need more advocates for battered women. Domestic violence is an ugly issue that has been ignored by the church, mostly because so many pastors don’t know how to counsel abused women or how to confront the men who hurt them.
But I have another concern. Before Bynum starts her campaign, I hope she will examine her own spitfire preaching style. I’m all for rousing sermons, but what Bynum often offers her audiences is downright mean.
Eleven days before the Atlanta incident, Bynum told women at a large conference that they needed to learn to become harsh. Shocking clips of her comments were then posted on YouTube. Bynum told of how she corrected an unnamed assistant for being too nice when carrying out her orders. “I’m trying to teach you to be a bulldog!” she declared with gritted teeth and a hateful expression.
When women did not shout loud enough after her comments, Bynum threatened them too. “If somebody don’t start praising God right here, I’m gonna have to hit somebody with this microphone,” she said. She also implied that women who treat others with polite restraint are “too suburb” and need to learn the street-wise tactics of the ghetto.
Is this the new face of domestic violence? An angry woman preacher who threatens to hit people? A “bulldog” who barks orders and treats subordinates rudely? Please. I agree that people need to learn to be assertive, but Bynum seems to think the fruit of the Holy Spirit is no longer necessary.
"To the Scribes, the Pharisees and the hypocrites, the heresy hunters that want to find a little mote of illegal doctrine in some Christian's eye and poke that little mote out of their eye when they've got the whole forest in their own lives and in their own eyes, I say to hell with you!" Paul Crouch.
continued on her whirlwind ministry circuit without skipping a beat. The Whites said adultery was not the reason for their breakup, although Randy said the whole mess was his fault. We were all left scratching our heads.
Atlanta hotel parking lot. Weeks and Bynum have continued preaching since they announced plans to divorce, and Weeks told Gospel Today magazine last month that he’s looking forward to finding wife No. 3 while he continues to oversee several churches. When asked what he needed to change, the bow-tied preacher replied: “I have to take vacations.”
