Innocent until proven guilty, but this does not have a pretty look:

Michael Winans Jr. told investors they could double their money in 60 days. Detroit police identified and interviewed at least 180 investors, but state regulators say the actual number is higher.

“Our investigation found that Michael Winans Jr. orchestrated a scheme that resulted in hundreds of Detroit residents losing millions of hard-earned dollars,” Ross said in a release. “Promising sky-high, guaranteed returns, these scammers unscrupulously fleeced unsuspecting churchgoers who let their financial guard down.”

SOURCE

Thanks to Greg for story lead

The Vatican has been thrown into chaos by reports that one of the Pope’s ceremonial ushers, as well as a member of the elite Vatican choir, were involved in a homosexual prostitution ring.

The allegations came to light after Italian newspapers published transcripts of phone calls recorded by police, who had been conducting an unrelated corruption investigation.

The tapes appear to record Angelo Balducci, a Gentleman of His Holiness, negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old Nigerian Vatican chorister, about men he wanted brought to him for sexual purposes. Balducci was allegedly paying 2,000 euros ($2,714) for each man he met, according to the Irish Times.

Prostitution ring aside, would someone mind explaining why the pope is referred to as “His Holiness”?  Only God should be referred to that way.

Regarding the freak ring, I am not at all surprised.  I believe that 98% of them (at least) in the Vatican, are engaged in eyebrow lifting activities. Why are people pretending to be shocked?

SOURCE

There is a whole lot that I could say but….no comment.

Link regarding Mrs. Hinn HERE

And PRESS HERE to hear this classy gal “preaching” about Christians needing a “Holy Ghost enema right up your rear end”. Unreal!

Can you imagine having such a dark and wicked soul that you’d feel comfortable walking into God’s House and opening fire?  It’s happening more and more often.

Check this out:

Police are seeking a pair of suspects in a Sunday church service shooting in Richmond, California, that left two teenagers injured, though authorities are still looking for a motive in what they say was a targeted operation.

Police believe they have identified at least two of the three hooded men who entered New Gethsemane Church of God in Christ about 12:30 p.m. Sunday. Amid a congregation of about 100, one of them opened fire.

“We’re hoping we can make an arrest sometime in the near future,” Richmond police spokeswoman Sgt. Bisa French told CNN.

Police are withholding the suspects’ names. French said they’re in their late teens or early 20s and live in Richmond, about 12 miles north of Oakland.

Church officials say the two congregants injured on Sunday, age 14 and 19, are brothers. “We’re not sure if those two victims were targeted, but someone definitely in that general area where the victims were was targeted,” French said.

Gang related?  I cannot help but wonder!

LINK

I cover rogue “ministers” all the time. But one of the most disturbing cases of a demonic and wicked false minister was none other than child molester, Gerald Griffith who had a church in Baltimore.

Griffith presently is sitting his sick behind in jail. But he left behind a trail of victims and a devastated group of “church” members who continued supporting him even after he admitted that he was guilty of abusing children.

My list of articles about him may be found by going to the search function and typing in his name.

In too many churches you have “pastors” who have set the church up as a cult. One of the features of a cult is that the members are to make the leader of the church the “star” of the church. All the attention goes to the leader. The compliments and the worship go to the “pastor” and not to Jesus Christ. Jesus receives very little mention.

I remember about a year before Griffith was busted for sodomizing people’s children. One of his magazines was on my parents’ kitchen table. I picked it up and began to read it, as it was clearly a local magazine about a local pastor and I was curious.

From beginning to end there was one “minister, pastor, apostle, preacher” etc. praising “Apostle Gerald Griffith”. I was struck by the fact that they never mentioned Jesus Christ. The “star” of the Christian magazine was Griffith. Jesus was no place to be found.

My spirit rejected it. I inquired to my mother as to who this person was that was being worshipped. She told me that a local “bishop” who was a friend of hers had given her the magazine to read but she had not read it. I advised her not to waste her time and she threw it out.

Griffith had elevated himself to the level of an “Apostle”. God does not need any more Apostles. What He needs is somebody with the balls to stand flat footed and uplift HIS WORD and keep Him the focus! The focus is on Jesus. And if it’s not, you are in a cult, not a church.

Look at what Jesus thinks of the self appointed bishops and apostles out there who care more about titles than they do about Him:

Matthew 23: 8-12: But be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are breathren. And call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

 
Notice that those words are in red. That was Jesus speaking!  Jesus is advising folks not to get caught up in titles.  And He was leading us back to HIM. He’s the star and the focus.

Look at what one of Griffith’s former members said about him—and check out how at the end of the letter he was holding on to the thought of the “apostle” I later discovered that he himself has a church now where he has elevated himself to “apostle”:

I want to put it out there that as Gerald Griffith is guilty and he has very disturbing doctrines that should have raised the flag to the members of RCF. But do know that as far as I remember the members I knew did not know their bible and the ones I heard preach, preached how great Gerald Griffith was. This disturbed me and I could not bear it. I did however preach in his church and in my messages I tried to reach them and I know I reached some but Gerald managed to stir them right back to him… I know first hand who this man is and he is someone who has warped theology and desires to be worshiped and I tried to talk to him but he would have none of it and turned the people against me because I approached him on his behavior. He knew I knew something was not right about him so he did what all of those who are cultists do and that is manipulate the people and manage the perception he wants those who were foolish enough to still follow him.

Everyone of his members if they are reading this blog know who I am and know the love I had shown all of them but when I left there they treated me light a plague. What they did not know and I knew first hand was that Gerald Griffith was a homosexual. Not what any rumor-mill might have said,,, No… I knew first hand and I came home and told my wife and family that it was over, we would never step foot back in that church again. I feel for those lovely people over there that are so mislead and have no discernment concerning this man.

However, the host of this site should know, that just because he is correct in the Gerald Griffith situation is not correct in what he said when he makes the statement that God does not need anymore Apostles. That is ludicrous and secular humanistic theology and out right bold to say the least. The fact that we are still in the church age and that Christ is still building His Church that God still has Apostles. I have heard this non-sense for years and not one who holds that position can stand on any scripture to prove that. To know the truth everybody I know that holds that position has a strange spirit about them and their theology serves the devil more than Christ.

I will say this about whether God has Apostles today or not and that is this: The early Apostles served the purpose in their day and that was lay the foundation of what is known as the Apostolic Foundation… The Apostles of today fulfill other purposes and there are many. The word Apostle simply means “sent one”… And God still has “sent-ones”. To try and under mined that because their are those who will exploit others with lofty titles and men would use them to exhort themselves does not mean that there are no Apostles. I would reserve saying anymore about that because I do not really like discussing nonsense and to say that there are no Apostles today is just that… “NON-SENSE”

The letter started off great but at the end he clearly had learned nothing. Still chasing titles. And as I mentioned, this former member has his own church now where he has made himself an apostle.

Bottom line.  Is Jesus Christ the center and focus and star of your church?  If yes, stay there.  If not, FLEE!

I like this. Gluttony is a sin and obesity kills. I like that this pastor found a practical way to help himself and his flock lose weight.

None of my regular readers will be surprised by what I’m about to report. Check this out:

A former youth coordinator at Without Walls International Church filed a lawsuit today against the predominantly black church alleging a senior administrator sent him racially offensive e-mail messages.

Joshua Randolph’s suit in federal court in Tampa alleges that Brandon White, the son of the church’s founder, sent him messages that used the N-word five times.

Randolph said the racial discrimination forced him to leave his church job.
Randolph filed a separate civil suit against the ministry on Monday seeking $4,200 for a hotel bill he said the church agreed to pay, lost wages and court fees.

“The whole place was turmoil; it was hell,” said Randolph, who is representing himself in both suits. “I don’t want anybody else to come down here and be taken advantage of.”

The complaint is “false and dysfunctional,” said Barry Cohen, Without Walls’ attorney.

The suit is a calculated attempt to embarrass the church, Paula White and Brandon White, Cohen said today. “It has a very deep-seeded, vindictive motive.”

No comment!  Just shaking my head.  Pitiful….Oops!  I said I wouldn’t comment, right?

SOURCE

Hat tip to Evangelist ET

Some articles are very, very difficult for me to discuss.  There are so many instances where a Hicktowner like DeeLove or Diva or Evangelist ET, etc. will send me an article and I just cannot bring myself to write it up.

The case I’m about to discuss is not new to me.  I saw this a week or two ago but passed on it because it was difficult to read and simply upsetting.

A 61-year-old pastor who was killed in a rural Oklahoma church was found lying behind the altar with her arms outstretched, a source close to the investigation told CNN.

It was one of the latest details to emerge in the killing of Carol Daniels, whose nude body was found in the Christ Holy Sanctified Church in Anadarko, Oklahoma, in a crime scene the district attorney described as “horrific.”

Pause there. The first time that I heard of an attack in a church was in the history books.  A racist had bombed a church in Alabama and three little girls died.  I remember reading about that and I’ve seen documentaries about it.  Nothing is lower than when satan walks into a church and opens fire.  Nothing is lower.

The second time that I heard of a church attack was when I started hearing about criminals walking into sanctuaries and robbing the churches.  And I’ve heard of criminal homosexuals taking over [by running through and stampeding] churches that speak against homosexuality.  Link

This case here is a reminder that we are indeed in the Last Days.  The church is not a sacred place anymore.

Daniels, from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was found inside the church August 23. She died from “multiple sharp-force injuries,” according to a preliminary autopsy report obtained by CNN. Sharp-force injuries mean cuts or stab wounds.

Diagrams in the autopsy notes show Daniels suffered injuries to the side and back of her neck, her back and her left breast. She also suffered wounds to her hands, a typical spot for defensive wounds resulting from attempts to ward off an attack.

My question is….why? That woman could have been anybody’s mother, aunt, sister, grandmother or cousin.  She happened to be a woman of God and pastor of a church and she was targeted and murdered.

Why? Money?  Small church pastors have no money!  They do what they do from the heart.

Daniels’ son, Alvin Daniels, told CNN that she traveled many Sundays to Anadarko, about 50 miles southwest of her home, to the church “in case people came to worship.”

That’s heart breaking.  Apparently she did not really even have any members but took the long drive “in case” people came seeking the Lord.

District Attorney Bret Burns has called the crime scene the worst he’d seen in 17 years as a prosecutor but gave no further explanation. Jessica Brown, a spokeswoman for Oklahoma’s State Bureau of Investigation, said last week the body was “staged” after the killing, but declined to elaborate.

I pray that she did not suffer and that the LORD took her Home immediately.  I pray peace on her family and I pray that justice is swift for the demon who did the unthinkable.

 source

There is something oh so strange and abnormal about a church being sold. Churches are such institutions that it just does not seem right that a “rock” could crack, break, dissolve or have need of being sold.

Over the years, the late “Bishop” Earl Paulk was accused of many horrible things, many of which were discussed right here on this blog.

I guess it would seem fitting then that his “rock” was not so solid.

The Cathedral at Chapel Hill, founded by the late Earl Paulk Jr., was purchased by Greater Traveler’s Rest Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga., for $17.6 million, according to CNL Specialty Real Estate in Orlando, Fla., which brokered the deal that closed on Monday.
The church campus, which had been put on the market in November for $24.5 million, has seven buildings, including a 6,000-seat main auditorium, large fellowship hall, offices, classrooms and theater.

SOURCE

Hat tip to Hicktowner, Ironhorse

I often hear people say, “Why isn’t the church involved?” or “The church needs to be out in the field, doing more on this problem” or “Where was the church when this was happening”.

NEWSFLASH!

The “church” is made up of humans. The church is a building. It is a structure. Yes, it’s also the bride of Christ but that’s not what this article is about. This article is about the realities of church structure and the fact that a church building is unable to do work. HUMANS do work.

Here is the structure of the church:

Top of pyramid is the pastor

Below pastor are ministers

Below ministers are deacons/elders/stewards

Below deacons are the members

In terms of organization, there are committees that people need to join but the truth of the matter is — as scriptures warn, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers few” (Luke 10:1-8).

Churches receive their life and blood source from its members. So…when a person inquires as to why “churches” are not doing the work, they actually are asking why the PEOPLE in the churches are not doing the work.

Uh….question. Do you seriously believe that the people who ask that question are involved or active in a local church? I can tell you that I am 100% certain that they are NOT. How do I know? Because of their ignorance. If they were part of a church, they would know that churches don’t do work. The people in the churches do the work. And ALL churches are short on people willing to be active.

It’s easy to stand on the outside looking in, telling OTHERS what they need to be doing. However, my advice to folks is to stop looking to others to do what you are not doing. Get up off your butt and join a church and get ACTIVE and then YOU go out there and do the work that needs to be done!