Saturday, September 08, 2007

Another Reason Not To Go To Church? Hardly.


So much of the media has been abuzz over the Juanita Bynum/Thomas Weeks story. It's actually been one of the most blogged story since the story became national news a little over tow weeks ago . Bishop Weeks, who received his ministerial credentials in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World denomination. Bynum, referred to by some as a prophetess, came out of the independent New Greater Bethel Ministries church in Jamaica, New York, and became quite a sought-after speaker on the Charismatic preaching circuit since her breakthrough hit sermon "No More Sheets" . Mr. Weeks allegedly gave his wife a bit of a beatdown in a parking lot of an Atlanta area hotel on August 24th. He's facing charges, and she recently authorized her lawyers to file divorce papers although none seem to have been filed yet as of today.

No doubt, this is a black eye on the church. I've seen a lot of comments made on message boards and blogs all over the place, stating a wide range of opinions on this matter. What got my attention though, is how many people who look at this incident, and others like it, say "see, that's why I don't to to church".

Well, newsflash for anyone who thinks that way: that wont be a good enough excuse for you if you don't do your duty before God and live according to his will. Nobody's perfect, not even bishops and prophetesses. The imperfection of the messenger doesn't negate the truthfulness of the message. If we all waited for the clergy members of any particular religion to be perfect, then none of us would have any religion at all, since you won't find a perfect clergy member in any religion on earth.

The bottom line is though, people want to find excuses to justify them not submitting their lives to God's will. So any preacher that falls give them an excuse to to say "see, the church is full of hypocrites anyway". Well , my guess is, if it wasn't that excuse, they would find some other excuse for not doing what they should do - and simply because they just don't want to do it.

The fact is , there are literally tense of thousands of preachers all across America. None of them is perfect. Some of them will fail badly, and some very publicly. Anyone who thinks the failures of any particular preacher or preachers is justification for him not going to church, and not repenting of his sins like we're all supposed to , is kidding himself.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The first sensible post I've read on this subject matter methinks...
The devil is trying to kill two birds with one stone...helping to destroy marriages getting people to backslide and getting those outside to say it's not worth going to church...Thankfully not all of us are blind. I do pray for the lost though they are confused, may God rescue them from the dark despite our failings weaknesses, which He knew we would have...No matter what happened between Bynum and Weeks my heart goes out to them both...They are still children of God...Why o why do some of moon light for the devil and become accusers of the brethren...(We really need to look in our own closets we really do) The blood of Jesus covers all sin past present and future...Also if people get out of line, there is still hope God can redeem them...Look in the bible there are countless example where people messed up but God restored them...
Bynum and Weeks will survive together or apart my prayers are with them....Thank you for this post...