5. Apostate ChristianityTwenty years ago we were holding our heads down in shame as we endured the ugly PTL scandal which added new phrases to our national vocabulary such as "air conditioned dog house" and "gold-plated faucets." Televangelist Jim Bakker went to prison, Jimmy Swaggart's Bible college collapsed and many disillusioned people lost faith in evangelical ministries because donor funds were misused. Hopefully we learned some important lessons from that debacle. Or did we? I don't know about you, but I'm having flashbacks from 1987. It was déjà vu all over again when one of the country's top Pentecostal colleges was accused of serious ethical and financial wrongdoing last week. In a lawsuit filed by three professors from Oral Roberts University (ORU), school officials, including its president, Richard Roberts, were accused of misusing donor funds and violating IRS tax codes.The suit triggered an uproar in Tulsa, Okla., where ORU's 5,300 students, along with alumni, faculty and community leaders, are now forced to take sides while the school's reputation hangs in the balance. The worst thing that could happen is that the ORU scandal could become our Christian version of Enron. While we pray for everyone at ORU (and that should be first on our agenda), I'd like to challenge all churches in this country to use this unfortunate situation as a learning experience.If a ministry is getting sloppy in any area of legal or ethical compliance, its leaders should take this simple test which is based on the word Enron. The letters in that infamous name form a helpful acrostic: E is for entitlement. Do leaders in your church or organization feel they deserve to be treated like kings? That style may work OK in a monarchy, but Jesus said that in His kingdom leaders must behave like servants. Those with a spirit of entitlement should be disqualified. N is for nepotism. When leaders show favoritism to family members, they create arbitrary double standards. Christian organizations must stop building spiritual dynasties. R is for robbery. If a Christian leader is using donor funds to purchase lavish perks for himself, he is stealing from God. Let's call it what it is. Though the Bible makes it clear that a Christian worker is worthy of his hire, it also condemns ministers who have their hands in the coffer. When the prophet Malachi asked the probing question, "Will a man rob God?" (Mal. 3:8 NASB) he was not just addressing people who didn't tithe. He was pointing to greedy priests who stole part of the offerings meant for the poor. O is for overinflated egos. Too many leaders today are drunk with power. Like Nebuchadnezzar, their pride has caused them to go insane. When an egomaniac drives an organization, you can be sure he will eventually crash and hurt a lot of people in the process. N is for negligence.God looks for integrity in the little things. He judges leaders not by the size of the crowd or the volume of their preaching but by the way they conduct themselves when no one is looking. In this hour when our enemies are ready to pounce on our every mistake, we must be faithful in the smallest things. That means we must get our houses in order financially. As the board of regents looks into the allegations at ORU, let's pray that God will guide the process so that the school's credibility will be restored and its mission accomplished.The Rev. Drew Phoenix is many things to many people.To congregants of St. John's of Baltimore, he's the fun-loving pastor who counsels them, takes their children hiking, explains Scripture and plunges into worthy causes. To conservative Methodists, Phoenix embodies another front in the culture wars: a rebel who has defied God and nature and should be removed from ministry.To mainstream society, Phoenix is an enigma who transcends traditional sexual boundaries, provoking uncomfortable questions about the interplay between body, mind and soul.To the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church, he's number IV on the docket for its Oct. 24-27 session: "A Review of Bishop's Decision . . . Whether Transgendered Persons Are Eligible for Appointment in The United Methodist Church." The issue of transgenderism seems too hot to touch for religious Americans already bitterly divided over sexual orientation.A number of Methodist theologians and ethicists asked to comment for this article declined. But as scientific advances and changing sexual mores allow transgender people to slowly move into the mainstream, religious leaders will soon have to grapple with the theological implications of sexual identity, scholars say. In practical terms, they have to consider Phoenix and whether he should remain in ministry.The judicial hearing of the United Methodist Church, one of the largest Christian bodies in the United States, may be a high-water mark for transgender awareness in the pews. "The theological issues here are very important," said Mark Jordan, a professor of Christian ethics at Emory University in Atlanta. "It's not just an issue of church discipline, and it's not just a freak show." About 18 months ago, after 46 years of feeling trapped in the wrong body, the Methodist minister had sexual reassignment surgery, at last aligning psyche and sex. The Rev. Ann Gordon became the Rev. Drew Phoenix.
The 40 or so members of St. John's, who say they pride themselves on being the most accepting and inclusive Methodist church in Baltimore, said their minister's sex change was no big deal. They had some questions, which Phoenix answered in individual meetings, but no large theological hang-ups. But to some Methodists, Phoenix's ministry posed larger problems. At a meeting of the Baltimore-Washington Conference in May, several pastors questioned whether the ministry should be open to transgendered people.