Category — black church

Media outlets in Wilmington, NC reported that a 54 year old Church of God in Christ “superintendent” has confessed to multiple sexual crimes against a 14 year old boy. The crimes occurred in 1998 while the boy stayed in the pastor’s home.

According to several news outlets [see here, here and here] Superintendent Thomas A. Wiggins,Jr., pastor of the Faith Temple COGIC and Bolton COGIC was arrested and charged November 29th with five counts of first-degree sexual offense and five counts of indecent liberties with a minor.

The crimes are of a serious nature. North Carolina law defines the charges thusly:

§ 14‑27.7A. Statutory rape or sexual offense of person who is 13, 14, or 15 years old.

(a) A defendant is guilty of a Class B1 felony if the defendant engages in vaginal intercourse or a sexual act with another person who is 13, 14, or 15 years old and the defendant is at least six years older than the person, except when the defendant is lawfully married to the person.

§ 14‑202.1. Taking indecent liberties with children.

(a) A person is guilty of taking indecent liberties with children if, being 16 years of age or more and at least five years older than the child in question, he either:

(1) Willfully takes or attempts to take any immoral, improper, or indecent liberties with any child of either sex under the age of 16 years for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire; or

(2) Willfully commits or attempts to commit any lewd or lascivious act upon or with the body or any part or member of the body of any child of either sex under the age of 16 years.

(b) Taking indecent liberties with children is punishable as a Class F felony.

The unmarried Wiggins is an “adminstrative assistant” to Bishop CE Anderson in the denomination’s North Carolina 2nd Jurisdiction [source].

Despite numerous high profile sex crimes and cases of sexual immorality among members of its clergy, denominational leaders continue to deny that clergy sexual abuse is a significant problem. In November 2009, the denomination’s chief lawyer Enoch Perry told a church gathering

“Media coverage of any sexual oriented event and the church will have a negative slant. The pessimistic coverage will have a direct impact on the overall public perception of the church involved, its corporate body and its membership. Additionally, this negativity will directly affect new membership and outside donations.”

Report COGIC Abuse has been documenting the shocking examples of disregard for biblical admonitions and the church’s own seemingly selective application of its own constitution.

Despite a letterallegedy leaked by the church’s COO detailing legal failures and ethical violations by Perry, he was promoted to bishop in the 2011 convention in St Louis.

The case with Thomas raises the number of cases in 2011 to four and 47 total documented cases.
Cross posted at COGIC Abuse Watch blog

Earlier this year, GCM Watch reported that Baltimore pastor Jamal Bryant was moderating a “conversation” about homosexuality at his Empowerment Temple Church. Slated on the guest list was gay christian cleric Dennis Meredith of Atlanta and former lesbian Brenda Burton of Jacksonville, NC. The event was billed as “Homosexuality in the House of God”.   Per the graphic flyer that was released by the ministry, Meredith got the “featured” billing. But after the GCM Watch article, the graphic was amended and rereleased with Burton’s name added. You can see both graphics from the event here.

Videos of that  exchange have now been uploaded to Youtube but only five of the seven parts are available. Part 1 is Bryant presumably giving some historical background and context but the actual “conversation” doesn’t begin until about 5 minutes into part 2.

We have not reviewed all the videos, but feel free to add your comments and insights as you view them.

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

“At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here,for Herod wants to kill you.” And he said to them, ”Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ’Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Luke 13:31-35

As I read these words from My Savior, I thought of this an appropriate message to “the black church”.

Ode to the black church

When the word of God is taught/preached in a complete and sound method (expository), you will always have those who obfuscate the truth. Meaning they will purposely teach and lead their listeners into confusion and error. They do not present what the bible says with clarity and understanding to bless those who hear it. But again they pose as real God-fearing, bible believing teachers, when in reality they are nothing more than spiritual dung beetles who desire the spotlight. 

One need no more than to look around at the majority of Christian “bible” teachers on the media scene today. Most, (and it saddens me to say this) have no more bible knowledge than a cockroach has lips, yet they are loved and lifted up as the Men of God for today! While those who labor in the word both day and night suffer for righteous sake, are frowned upon, rejected and scorned for their exclusive, non ecumenical, uncompromising message, which is exactly what our Lord and Savior preached.

The only way to fight lies and error?

By boldly presenting, teaching, preaching, and living out the TRUTH (God’s word). But one must first grasp the truth before they can teach it. One must fully know and understand the truth, before attempting to distribute it to others.

So let’s make one thing clear

By the grace of God I know the truth, not to sound boastful, but its true. I know the truth, and it’s because I know the word of God. You can take that statement as you want, but understand that the truth is not my truth. It didn’t originate with me, nor am I its author. The truth comes from God. It belongs to Him, and He gave it to us. When I preach my authority comes from God. For His words are the authority.

Where can we find that truth?

Only one place….His Word. His open letter to us concerning Him, His Righteousness, His Holiness, His Peace, His Salvation, and His Glory. The Autobiography of His Son, The Christ, The Messiah, The Anointed One, The Mighty God and Everlasting Father.

This Truth is the Truth (John 1:1-3). He is both Lord of all and Savior to those who believe.

So why in the world would people (in the church) tolerate a person who comes not in the name of the Lord to bring Him glory, but in His own name with doctrines of demons and lies that lead to hell? Why would the church completely reject sound teaching and doctrine that is taught for their spiritual health and soul salvation? That question is a glaring one, bold and rebellious sitting right in the faces of so-called church leaders who have turned from God and have embraced humanism. Humanism that will never ever be able to save the souls of those who hear it. Humanism that teaches man that they can be good and better people without ever leading them to the only one who is good. GOD! (Mark 10:18)

The wisdom of men will do that to you. The wisdom of men will raise up large religious cults (Jehovah’s Witness, Mormonism, Islam) that fall vastly short in addressing man’s biggest problem. Sin! The wisdom of men will try to change a sinful world by engaging in politics and legislation to change the laws of the land, but never successfully changing the nature of men, thus keeping them dead in their sins.

When did we lose sight of what truth is?

How have we (the church) fallen so far away from the very thing that was given to us to lead us into the truth? Why is it that churches no longer preach the gospel message? Preferring instead to lure in the sinners with music concerts, kids jams, raffles, and free gas offers. Why have we left the gospel? Don’t we understand the gospel is the power of God that changed our lives? (Romans 1:16) Don’t we remember the dread, the anguish, and condemnation that pressed heavily upon our hearts sending us into hopelessness when we found out that our sin totally separated us from God, and exposed us as hell bound sinners deserving of every ounce of wrath that God would pour upon us? Don’t we remember the sweet and loving peace that fell over us when we finally understood that Jesus Christ died for that very sin, He drank the wrath of God, to save us from that awesome and terrible day?

How dare we rob people of the same conversion! How dare we look at God in the face and tell Him His message in out of date no longer needed to save the lost!

Who do we think we are?

That’s our problem. We are what the world tells us. We are great and special and somebody. And even if we don’t feel that way the world tells us to embrace it anyways. We reject what the bible says about us being hell bound sinners in need of a savior. No, we would rather hear how diverse and unique we are. How we should be ourselves and embrace ourselves not knowing that as we do that, we are embracing the very disease (SIN) that God hates, and sent His Son to die for so that those who believe might be saved.

In other words man has an identity crisis.

Is there any hope?

I’ll echo the words Paul Washer uttered to a man who asked Him if He could be saved: “I  don’t know….”

If the church, who claims to know God and His Son Jesus Christ, will repent and turn back to Him. If…

New Orleans – The Times-Picayune reported last night that Bishop Charles E. Brown, I, bishop of the Church of God in Christ Greater New Orleans Jurisdiction was booked on charges of sexual battery in June. Brown was released after posting a $25,000 bail. But the story quickly raised more troubling issues about Brown, his past, COGIC’s so-called zero tolerance sexual abuse policy and his association with the church’s presiding bishop.

According the paper, Brown seemed to have made a very foolish decision to contact the woman he is alleged to have molested. [source]

The spiritual head of a local Pentecostal denomination has been arrested and booked with sexual battery on a teenage girl more than 23 years ago. New Orleans court records show that Bishop Charles E. Brown, 58, was released on $25,000 bond.

Brown, who since Hurricane Katrina has divided his time between New Orleans and Houston, is the jurisdictional bishop for Greater New Orleans in the Church of God in Christ, a Pentecostal denomination with headquarters in Memphis. He is also pastor of a local congregation, Full Gospel Church of God in Christ.

Brown was arrested June 28, according to police records.

Several attempts to contact Brown at his home in Houston were unsuccessful. Court records did not list a lawyer. And denominational officials in Los Angeles and Lafayette who would know about the arrest either were unavailable or did not respond to an inquiry.

A police affidavit supporting the arrest warrant said an unidentified 39-year-old woman called the department’s child abuse unit in March to report that Brown molested her between the ages of 14 and 16.

The woman said at the time Brown was her aunt’s boyfriend, and the acts occurred at his home.

She told police Brown recently reached out and asked to “friend” her on Facebook. She told him she knew him to be an abuser and decided then to go to the police, the affidavit said.

Brown originally was arrested and booked with aggravated rape. But Magistrate Commissioner Harry Cantrell said the specific facts alleged by the woman supported only the lesser accusation of sexual battery.”

Brown, pastor of Williams Temple COGIC in Houston and two other churches, was a prominent figure in pre-Katrina New Orleans.  His bio connects him with several powerful civic and religious leaders around the country including serving as a board member with Dr. Fredrick Price of LA, Bishop IV Hilliard in Houston, as the “spiritual advisor” to former Katrina-era NO mayor Ray Nagin and ironically as a board member of Bishop Blake’s “Save Africa’s Children” charity. Within his denomination, Brown was the former Chief Operating Officer of the church until he resigned after a fallout with Blake over a Houston church he now pastors.

What’s troubling is that the police report alleges the crime occured about 23 years ago. That would put the timeline of the crime about 1990-91. During that time, according to Brown’s bio, he was

• Director; Youth Church,  [COGIC] UNAC/AIM 1980-1997.
• Executive Board Member; General Assembly of the Church of God in Christ, 1984 to present.
• Board Member; Fellowship of Inner City Word of Faith Ministries (FICWFM), Dr. F. K. C. Price, Founder. (1990-Present).

The woman alleges that Brown committed the crime while he was her aunt’s boyfriend. Just a few weeks ago, we told you about the case of adulterer and deadbeat father Joseph Hogan.  The biblical requirements for the office of a bishop mean nothing to COGIC leadership. If  blatant adultery and sexual immorality doesn’t disqualify a man from the office, what will? Sources told Report COGIC Abuse that despite the hard evidence on Hogan, COGIC will consecrate him to bishop.

Brown was arrested in June, but still holds his office of pastor and bishop in the Church of God in Christ (see this unconfirmed comment). Report COGIC Abuse has learned that the denomination passed a resolution giving bishops the power to immediately remove a local church pastor upon allegations of sexual misconduct or criminal sexual activity until an investigation is concluded. But there was no clause for the bishops to remove those in their own ranks.

As the Times-Picayune story noted, church officials aren’t responding even though there is evidence that all members of the church’s “general board” —including Charles E. Blake— were made aware of Brown’s situation prior to the story going public.

This story was cross-posted at COGIC Abuse Watch.

Are Baptists circumventing their own theme?

Based on his past activities supporting homosexual rights, NAACP director Benjamin Jealous doesn’t  have solidarity with the National Baptist Convention’s theme “Solidarity with the Savior”. Any person who claims that homosexuality is not a sin, isnt in solidarity with Jesus or the Bible either. So its ironic that the NBC would invite Jealous. In order to be in solidarity with the Savior (Jesus) wouldn’t you also have to be in agreement with his word?

The nation’s largest black religious organization is planning to have Jealous speak at a mission event during its upcoming conference in Orlando.  Asked by the Daytona Times about “formally recognizing” deceased Orlando Pastor Zachery Tims, Morris Tipton, the denomination’s director of media made a passing allusion that the NBC wouldn’t do so because Tims died in an unrepentant state. [source]

“We also fully believe what the Bible says in 1 John 1:9; ‘If we confess our sins (to Him), He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’,” he continued.

The events have instead scheduled a full list of other activities, with NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous holding the task as the keynote speaker at the Annual Home Mission Board “Mission Train” Awards Luncheon.

The central theme of the Assembly will be “Solidarity With the Savior.”

Tipton said, “Our goal as a Convention and as individual Christians should always be in harmony with the will of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, every ministry and program that we involve ourselves in as a body of believers is to be in solidarity with the Savior.”

While it seemed to disavow Tims because he was “not in solidarity”, the NBC misses the same problem with Jealous.  In Matthew 19:3-6, Jesus upheld and strengthened Old Testament laws which condemned any sexual activity other than covenant marriage between a man and a woman.

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

If you’d like to test it on homosexuality, play the role of the pharisee and rephrase the question. It would probably look something like this:

“Is it lawful for a man to have another man as his sexual partner for any cause”?

Jesus’ answer:

“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

If you notice, the answer remains the same.

Black is the new gay?

Ready for the NAACP to be co-opted by a National Association for the Advancement of Gay People?  Some are already heralding that blacks are a yesteryear minority and that gays are the new minority du jour. In other words, if you want to score points as a civil rights crusader, you would need to take a trip through the homosexual community first. And with white homosexuals desperately seeking to rain money into the depleted coffers of the NAACP,  Jealous is the perfect fit.

Under Jealous, the  NAACP is  fervently ramping up its homosexual coalition building efforts more than ever before.

Last year the NAACP came out against California’s Proposition 8, the recently overturned ballot initiative banning gay marriage. And in July, at its annual national convention, the NAACP rolled out an LGBT Equality Taskforce, a seven-member committee designed to stay on top of justice issues within the gay community.

But it seems as if these activities may have been merely preludes to the upcoming One Nation Working Together march. Led by the NAACP, the Oct. 2 event will find President Jealous and his colleagues stepping out with more than two dozen LGBT partner organizations, an unprecedented showing of public support for gay-rights activists of every stripe.

Homosexuality makes strange bedfellows.

With a golden bed as a background prop, Cleveland pastor RA Vernon takes about 29 minutes to talk about sexual issues and in particular homosexuality.

A summation of the teaching:
1. Covers some biblical history on homosexuality including homosexual incest with Noah and the Sodom and Gomorrah story. He broadens the sin of Sodom into being out of place with God.

2. Covers gay christian theology by telling people that gay theologians are fairly adept at mishandling scripture.

3. Homosexuality (and all sin) is intended to feel good, but feelings are no measure of righteousness.

4. The word homosexual via translation is problematic because it didn’t exist in Greek or Hebrew.

5. The creation of man and woman was natural because it was God’s plan.

6. Sin is man’s predisposition, but each person has to live according to the truth of God’s word.