Bob Jones University Weblog

The Gregory T. Powell Victory Baptist Church Call

I posted to the members of the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) Cult Survivors website to see if any of the Pensacola Christian College people there knew of Gregory T. Powell of Victory Baptist Church. None of the members knew him.  Since I referenced the telephone call, I thought I would post Greg Powell's call to me.

For some context you might look elsewhere on the blog to find the Category "The Northside Baptist Story: How Bob Jones III..."  Here is a bit of context regarding the hornet's nest I stirred up when I sought to look at Northside's financial records from a local front page article: Download Northside Post and Courier Negative Audit where Northside members rejected an audit critical of the handling of church finances.  This article must have struck fear in the heart of every IFB preacher who was taking "Five-finger-discounts" from their churches.  The reaction within the IFB preacher cadre was nuclear! 

Powell called to ask me to remove a Review I had posted in March 31, 2011. As you can tell from the conversation, Powell's call caught me off guard.  Note that Greg Powell repeatedly evaded my questions and hung up after I asked who ordained him.  (Who ordains these IFB preachers, anyway?  Why don't they oversee the guys they send out into the ministry?  No wonder people view IFB preachers as ethically inferior to used car salesmen and telemarketers!  Kind of like 'catch and release' in reverse: 'Create and release'!  Funny that the IFB preachers depend on each other to ordain one another but they are "in-dependent" when it comes to acting as ordained ministers and disciplining their ranks.  Neat little game.    I've only heard of one IFB preacher being defrocked.  One of the guys who ordained the preacher reportedly came into the preacher's offfice and took the ordination certificate off the wall!)

Here is a link to an unsigned Certified letter I received from Victory Baptist two days after I visited telling me I would be guilty of trespass if I returned.  The IFB good ol' boy network at work!  It was quite a surprise:   Download Victory Baptist May82006

I wrote Victory, its deacon board, and pastor a letter asking to meet with them to discuss anything I had done to wrong them that would elicit such a letter.  Here is a portion of what I wrote:

"The purpose of this letter is to seek to meet with you gentlemen about any fault, error, or offense you may have against me pursuant to Christ's commands in Matthew 5:23, 24. Since your letter gave no specifics, I do not know how to right any alleged wrong...I am willing to submit my self to any group of honest, ethical, just brethren motivated by a thirst for truth and impartial, godly judgment..." 

 Download Victory Baptist from Mark 9-25-2006   I never received the courtesy of a response to this letter...so much for a fact-based hearing, an attempt at reconciliation, or the restoration of fellowship. The people of Victory evidently have an inability to select a "group of honest, ethical, just brethren motivated by a thirst for truth and impartial, godly judgment" to represent Victory Baptist.

Here is the letter I wrote Victory in January, 2010.  I never received the courtesy of a reply:

Download VICTORY BAPTIST JANUARY242010

Here is the Review about Victory Baptist that I wrote:

Not for me
Provided by CitysearchPosted by 1911 Man on 03/31/2011

This place was not for me. Visited when Tim Butler was the preacher. Understand he may have left. I was concerned about the spirit in the church. Butler was a BJU grad with a huge control problem. The people who remained continued there at the pleasure of the preacher. One former member said the place became the fiefdom of the preacher. There is no love for the spirit of truth in this place.

Reading back over the Review, it is super tame!

Here is the call in which Victory's present preacher called me to ask me to remove the above Review. Note Powell's refusal to deal with Victory's past activities or to address any of the factors that caused me to conclude that "There is no love for the spirit of truth in this place."  As I listened to Greg Powell I it struck me as how dishonest a seemingly religious guy can seem when one tries to suppress and ignore facts.  It appears that the blind are being lead by deaf people who shut their eyes to facts.  

Everyday, church deacon boards bind churches to property purchases, property sales, to mortgages, sign contracts and all sorts of obligations. Those actions, obligations, and responsibilities don't cease the moment a new IFB preacher is coronated or fellows rotate off the board.  But Powell tried to convince me that Victory's deacons' behavior did not bind Victory morally or ethically.  He made it clear in the call that he and the deacon board of Victory Baptist wouldn't move a muscle to stir for godly judgment, justice, or equity.  

My position is that they have an ethical obligation to name the fault that led to their threatening letter.  If they have not basis to write such a letter, they should rescind the letter.  One would expect any legitimate religious leader to tell me what my sin is and give me an opportunity to beg forgiveness.  But Greg Powell acted with total indifference to anything beyond his desire that I delete my Review of Victory:

Download GREG POWELL 7958229 P1 02-15-12 16=34=00 CALLER 8437958229

If Greg Powell took exception to my March, 2011 Review, he probably didn't like my follow up Review posted after his call to me any better at YP.com.  Note, my wife and I were members of Victory Baptist, right before we joined Northside Bapstist!!!!:

Beware of Victory Baptist.
Provided by YP.comPosted by Witness2truth on 02/17/2012

Beware of Victory Baptist. I was a member years ago when Herb O'Neil pastored VB. Great experience! Visited a few years ago when Tim Butler was pastor. James Flowers was asst. pastor, I believe. People acted friendly at first; a deacon invited our family to an outing. Thought Butler good at preaching but he turned out to be a typical BJU-trained preacher: dictatorial, self-righteous, unapproachable, tyrannical, and aggressive toward anyone who was not mindlessly, dutifully loyal to him. With guys like Butler in leadership, makes one wonder who "ordains" these Independent Fundamental Baptist preachers and why don't they monitor them after they release them on the faithful? And, it made me question the wisdom of the people of VB and their ability to identify godly, servant-leaders who loved God and would treat others the way they would like to be treated.

When Butler and the people of VB turned on me and treated me in an unchristian manner, I spoke to members of VB that I knew from my previous membership there. I asked them what was going on at VB. They indicated that Butler viewed the church as his fiefdom and viewed anyone who asked questions as a threat. I asked to meet with Butler and the VB deacons to reconcile whatever it was they had against me (they never said) and I never received the courtesy of a reply.

In March, 2012, I also wrote a review of VB in CitySearch reflecting my experience:

This week I received a call from Greg Powell, VB's new preacher (James Flowers is still VB's asst. pastor). He asked me to delete my review. I asked Powell some questions to determine his commitment to truth, equity, justice, etc. I reviewed what VB had done in the past and wanted to see if there was any desire to deal with the unchristian actions of VB. Powell claimed he had no knowledge what had transpired. This seemed implausible. It would seem that he had done enough digging to determine who had posted the CitySearch review, found my phone number, searched the internet for my blog, and called me. Powell tried to feign ignorance as to the details of what led me to post my review. When I detailed how VB had treated me and why I wrote the review, he said that since what VB and its deacons had done was done under the previous preacher and deacons that VB wasn't going to seek to make it right. Powell clearly didn't care how VB, and the people VB had elected as leaders including its deacon board, asst. pastor Flowers, etc., had treated people in the past; he just wanted me to delete the review.

After speaking with Greg Powell, I concluded that VB is not a healthy organization led by a servant-leader guided by an honest desire to treat others the way one would want to be treated. Powell clearly sought to justify VB's past actions by convincing me that he was unaware of VB's past unchristian treatment of others. When I detailed to him VB's wrongdoing, he shifted tactics and attempted to justify VB's unrepentance by saying that since VB and its leaders acted under a different pastor that VB was under no obligation to make it right. In Matthew 5:23, 24, Christ commands those who discover they have wronged a brother to stop their religious activity, attempt to make things right, and then resume worship. Despite all of Powell's dismissive self-serving words, Victory Baptist doesn't seem to have a very high regard for Christ's commands. BTW, I edited my CitySearch review to reflect the phone call from Greg Powell.

Jesus taught that Christians are to treat others the way they themselves would like to be treated. I doubt Pastors Powell, Flowers, the deacons, and the people at Victory Baptist would like to be treated as they have treated me. The Apostle Paul declared to the Corinthians, "Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man." Victory Baptist cannot in truth make such a statement.

Beware.

Within the Independent Fundamental Baptist cult there are two "Unpardonable Sins".  The first is to rebuke one of the self-enshrined leaders within the IFB cult.  The second Unpardonable Sin is to ask an IFB preacher or church to give a financial accounting.

Religious tyranny, self-serving ecclesiastic injustice, are ugly things that Independent Fundamental Bapstist preachers commit regularly.

The Bible-example is to expose evil workers so that the entire world, not just believers, will see these people for what they are.

Mark Fitzhenry

 

Religous Networking and How the Good ol' Boy Network operates within Independent Fundamentalism: Part I

Recently, the news within the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) church movement has been dominated by Chuck Phelps and how he handled the alleged rape of a 16 year-old girl in his church years ago.  ABC's 20/20 did a special report on Phelps.  They also mentioned molestations in my wife's old church, Marquette Manor Baptist Church in Downers Grove, Illinois.

In the 20/20 report, a young fundamentalist preacher tried to convince the 20/20 reporter that because all of the IFB churches are independent, there was not a network, even an informal network, within the independent church movement.

Bob Bixby addresses the networking within the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International (FBFI), a somewhat BJU-dominated organization, in an excellent post he calls Insider Gone Rogue?  On the Supposed NON-Network of the Fundamentalists in 20/20.  Bixby drops quite a few names, including David Gibbs, Jr., of the Christian Legal Association.  Where there's trouble within fundamentalism, ol' Gibbs seems to be ready to defend anybody of anything within the fundamentalist orbit.  

Some 20 years ago, I was excommunicated from Northside Baptist 'Church'.  Coincidentally, the excommunication was held in a surprise meeeting two days before I was able to attend a scheduled examination of NB's financial records.  When I asked if I could still examine the financial records, deacon/treasurer Barry Formanack, a BJU grad who now teaches accounting at BJU, told me I couldn't see the books because I was "no longer a member".  Coincidence, I guess.  

Later the preacher, John Stevens, was found to have been taking full church school scholarships for his daughter even though his employment contract forbade it.  Stevens was a board member of the FBF back in those days.  This paragon of virtue is now an FBF board member emeritus, a wise an trusted fundamentalist patriarch.  In trouble, Stevens turned to David Gibbs, the CLA, and a network of preachers and churches that gave him financial and logistic support!

It's too bad that 20/20 didn't do an expose on Northside Baptist.  Northside Baptist had it all!!!  Sexual predators, financial shenanigans, fraud, religious abuse, front-page articles in the local paper, and a cover up or two, or three...  The church parliamentarian, Eugene Stauch, was raping his 14 year-old daughter at the same time he was presiding over the preacher's many meetings, including the excommunication, in order to ensure everything was "fair".  Fair ol' Eugene is out of prison now and is a registered SC Sex Offender, evidently a badge of honor amongst fundamentalists these days.  And, he wasn't the only one in the church that liked little girls.  

But this post is not about sexual predators or financial fraud by preachers and churches the Independent Fundamentalist movement.  This is about networking within fundamentalism.  Specifically, I would like to address the local religious network within the Charleston, SC religious community and address the way Victory Baptist Church, its preacher Tim Butler, its deacons, including Rickman Jackson helped John Stevens and Northside Baptist.  

Then, there is Charleston Harbor Bible Church, now Charleston Bible Church and the actions taken by its elder, Curtis Bostic.  Charleston Bible Church is a member of a different fundamentalist sect than Northside's FBFI.  Charleston Bible is a member of the International Fundamental Churches of America (IFCA).  

Then, strangely, Church Creek Reformed Presbyterian Church, led by elders Dean Ezell, Terry Clark, and my old school mate, Reverend John Olson, seemed to be drawn into the Northside support network.  My wife, our children, and I attended CCRPC soon after we left Northside.  We were tired of IFB churches with their easily manipulated congregational rule.  We thought we would find safety in church government vested in a multiplicity of elders.  We were wrong.  They approached us two or three times about joining and having our children in 'the covenant' family of their church.  If we felt like we were spiritually sodomized by John Stevens, his deacons, and Northside Baptist, we felt raped by John Olson, Dean Ezell, and Terry Clark.  

But first, this is about "networking".  Yes, of course, there was networking in the early church.  Qualified, capable men within the Body of Christ were being recommended for positions because of their God-given abilities.  One must know a man and his reputation before he recommends the man to others.  

The networks that have developed today within Independent Fundamental circles are often centered around a strong personality and/or institution.  These often develop into destructive forms of networking as was noted by Paul in I Cor. 1, "...there are contentions among you...I am of Paul; and I of Apollos...Is Christ divided?" 

Networking becomes destructive to the Church when leaders view the Christianity and the Gospel as things to be branded, franchised, and niche marketed in an effort to promote one's school or ministry.  The emphasis of their ministries turns from preaching the Gospel to expanding their power, marketing themselves, and defending their group's institutions and its leaders.  

Jeremiah wrote about members of the network in his day in ch. 5:  "They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?"

The Lord condemned this type of networking in Ezekiel 22, "There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof...they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things...Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.  Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain."

There are many crooks, charlatans, sexual predators, and religious tyrants within the leadership of Independent Fundamentalism.  Is there a network that aids these guys in remaining members in good standing within Independent Fundamentalism?  Yes.  My experiences over the past 20 years with the good ol' boy system within Fundamentalism that turns a blind eye to multiple acts of wrong doing within the leadership of fundamentalism while vilifying those who point out that wrongdoing.  The Pharisees were just prelude to today's Independent Fundamentalist leaders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fundamentalism's Good Ol' Boy Network's Chickens Come Home to Roost

Haven't posted anything for quite some time.  We received a call during the first part of April, 2011 from my wife's brother.  He was watching an ABC 20/20 program on sex scandals within Independent Fundamental Baptist churches.  My wife was a long time member of Marquette Manor Baptist Church in Downers Grove, Illinois.  There, on national TV, were people they knew from Marquette Manor who were abusing others sexually.

Chuck Phelps, a fair-haired lad from BJU, a Bob Jones University Board Member, a Board member of the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International, (FBFI) and a well-connected, all around fundamentalist big wig, was featured also.  Allegedly, while Phelps was pastoring Trinity Baptist in Concord, NH, a church member had raped a 15 (now he says 16) year-old member and she became pregnant.  Phelps allegedly forced the alleged victim, Tina Anderson, to apologize to the congregation for immorality and being pregnant.  See comment from Chuckles below for more details.

Reportedly, the alleged rapist, Ernest Willis, a church member and successful businessman, was directed to apologize to the congregation for being "unfaithful" to his wife.  Tina also recounted another molestation at Trinity Baptist involving a registered sex offender. Members instructed Tina to forgive the fellow and not report the alleged crime.

Phelps and/or the mother sent the girl to Tri-City Baptist in Colorado to have the baby. This effectively shut down any criminal investigation of the alleged rapes.  Matt Olson, another fair-haired fundamentalist who is now the president of Northland International University, a Baptist Bible school, was the pastor at that church.  Olson allegedly forced the girl to write a letter of apology to the alleged rapist's wife.  

I am reminded of my time at Northside Baptist with Rev. John Stevens, board member emeritus of the FBFI. there were molestations, rapes, and adulteries galore there in the 1990's.  And, the good Rev. Stevens was helping himself and his staff to free stuff like scholarships, credit cards, perks.  The Bob Jones crowd didn't raise an eyebrow.  And, David Gibbs, Jr. and the Christian Legal Association came to defend Stevens.   

It will be interesting to see how the fundamentalists deal with these scandals.  I hope they do a better job of dealing with these things than the Catholics have done but the smart money is betting that they will close ranks and protect their own.  (I edited this post May 10, 2011 to correct some information.  Mark)