53 - Church vs Cult
In the last two editions of R4R, we’ve seen the contrasts between the different ministry approaches of the two founders of Revoice - Nate Collins, who was recently interviewed by Preston Sprinkle, and Stephen Moss, who has left Revoice and joined the staff of Harvest USA. (His article is on page 4.)
Although Collins recognizes that sexual orientation is not a concept found in Scripture, he continues to describe himself and others using this ideology. As the head of Revoice, he and other leaders associated with the movement attempt to indoctrinate the church into using these ideas as their basis for ministry:
What we think of in terms of what Revoice offers that really not many organizations really offer is sexual minority-centered ministry. You know, we as a ministry are predominantly sexual minorities. And so here we are as sexual minorities building community for ourselves, but also realizing that God has called us and equipped us to go and disciple pastors to help them know how to recreate community like that for themselves and their churches. And so we have a curriculum that we’ve recorded, and we work with pastors in basically a relational model of meeting. once a month, …that kind of thing. And the goal really is to disciple pastors.
… Because what happens is a lot of times pastors and pastoral leaders and ministry leaders will realize ways of relating to gay people or ways of understanding what orientation means that are not helpful. But then that doesn’t automatically make their church a safe space for LGBT people. They’ve got just the average person in the pew. And again, these are well-meaning people who are just trying to be faithful Christians. So it’s a big project in terms of discipling, re-discipling the American church to be more loving towards gay people.
But yeah, helping pastors catch a vision for what it looks like to help move their congregation along, to just understand the basic humanity of gay people.[1]
Although Collins insists that he uses the term “gay” to describe experiencing same sex attractions, here he continues to use it as a category of personhood. For example, when he says, congregations need to “understand the basic humanity of gay people.” Ironically, categorizing someone according to this one temptation is dehumanizing. We are whole persons, not defined by a single aspect of our lives. Collins also claims Christian leaders need to learn “ways of relating to gay people.” Do pastors need to be discipled in how to relate to adulterous people, or liars, or selfish people? Or would we be better off seeing one another as the Lord sees us? (II Corinthians 5:16-21)
On another note, how often has anyone who identifies as LGBT+ had their safety been threatened in a church? In researching this question, I came across one incident of a young man being physically beaten in the Word of Faith Fellowship in 2013 in Spindale, North Carolina. (This was part of an effort to “expel the homosexual devil” from him.) Five congregants were indicted, and one pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault, which was the only conviction in this case. The young man later stated he forgave those involved but left the church.
Investigative journalists Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr conducted interviews and reviewed documents, revealing this church to be a cult.[2] Individuals were manipulated financially, and children were taken from their parents. The ministers used cruel, warped practices on numerous people:
…it was something that really got worse over time. And you have to understand what her philosophy is. The doctrine is really pretty simple — devils are real. And if you’re a drug addict, it’s because you have this drug devil. If, you know, you’re an alcoholic — the same. If you’re having an affair, it’s the same thing. There are lustful devils. And so what she would do is it was called Devils in Deliverance, where they would have people surround you and scream at you to get the devils out. Get out, devil. And it would go on and on and on. Perfect example is with a baby. If babies cried, it wasn’t because they were hungry or they had a dirty diaper. It was because there was a devil inside them that was making them cry. So you would have groups of people surrounding an infant and screaming until that baby would just get tired and finally, you know, go to sleep....
…Over time, it became more and more violent. It wasn’t enough just to scream, to scare the devils out of people. Now you had to punch people. You had to hold them down and restrain them. You had to choke them. You had to do everything possible to get rid of that devil. And that’s when it became extremely violent. That’s where the people who’ve recounted their stories would break down to us. They would tell us about their injuries. [3]
If you ever see a group of people surrounding and screaming at a baby…that is your clue to get as far away from those folks as you possibly can. This was obviously a horrible case of abuse on numerous levels – physical, emotional, spiritual, etc. It was not safe for anyone, regardless of what temptations they may experience. Any environment where someone is being physically restrained or lashed out at is not a church, no matter what people there may call themselves.
Collins does not refer to this extreme case of cultic abuse, but when he talks about making the “church a safe space for LGBT people,” it warps the concept of safety. People who experience same sex temptations or who are insecure or confused about their gender are not under threat in churches. Collins and Revoice assume there is a major problem with Christian leaders and congregations: “…it’s a big project in terms of discipling, re-discipling the American church to be more loving towards gay people.”
These are poor assumptions. We don’t need “sexual minorities building community” for themselves[4] and discipling pastors and congregations into seeing and treating people as “gay,” “lesbian,” or “trans.” We don’t need to reinforce stereotypes that churches are dangerous or full of unloving people. In a healthy church, all are learning how to love each other well, and people are at different stages of maturity in their faith. The Lord has equipped the whole Body of Christ with gifts so that we can minister to one another as His disciples[5], grounded in holiness, not in an ideology that reduces anyone to a singular temptation.
When we break free from tribalism by integrating into a church, we learn how the Holy Spirit is moving in the lives of one another. In Wesleyan band and class meetings, everyone has the opportunity to grow in holiness through mutual accountability. As I hear my sisters in Christ relaying their stories and recalling Scripture, Jesus sheds light on my own blind spots or ways in which I was closing myself off from the work of the Holy Spirit. We find greater freedom to love as we trust Him.
"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (II Corinthians 5:16-21)
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRiTdYT9ynU
[2] Broken Faith: Inside the Word of Faith Fellowship, One of America’s Most Dangerous Cults
[3] https://www.npr.org/2020/02/17/806052660/word-of-faiths-pattern-of-abuse-got-worse-over-time-says-broken-faith-author
[4] Revoice has started over 28 “local chapters” that meet on a regular basis in cities across the US, several of which have close affiliations with Christian college campuses.
[5] II Corinthians 1:3-5, I Corinthians 12
