“They have wronged the poor and needy. They are wolves who substituted cash for the cross. These are money-mad preachers….Jeremiah 5:27: ‘Their houses are full of deceit. Their sin has become great and they’ve become rich. They’re fat and sleek but they don’t heed the cause of the orphans, that they may prosper; they do not defend the rights of the poor…’”
– David Wilkerson

In this sermon, David Wilkerson denounces the so-called Prosperity Gospel, calling it a “perverted gospel…an American gospel invented and spread by rich American evangelists and pastors. Rich!”

“This poison [the doctrine that God wants all Christians to be rich] is spread all over the world,” Wilkerson said. “If money is the object, if prosperity is the object, you’ve missed the cross, you’ve missed the Gospel and you’ve got to repent.”

In this sermon, Wilkerson denounced, by name, some of the biggest (and richest) stars in the Pentecostal world. And he called on his listeners to forsake any association with those who preach the Prosperity Gospel and who “poison multitudes” around the world with their false doctrine.

“A gospel is being preached that is withering everything that is in sight. Everything that is green and Godly and pure is being withered. The seed is rotten . . . . . there is a famine of hearing the pure Word of the Lord. . . .” Wilkerson preached.

This is the most powerful denunciation of the Prosperity Gospel by a prominent Pentecostal that I have ever encountered.

While Pastor Wilkerson preached it, “a number” of Prosperity Gospel supporters in his own congregation got up and walked out, but he kept preaching.

You can read the text below or listen to it here.

By David Wilkerson
The Approach of the Solemn Assembly

Zephaniah 3:18 – “I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. ”
(more…)

Sad, sad news out of the Lone Star State.
Times Square Church founding pastor David Wilkerson died Wednesday in Eastern Texas.

His church has posted an announcement here.

Rev. Wilkerson lived an extraordinary life, founding Teen Challenge and bringing an evangelical congregation to Times Square at a time (pre-Disney, pre-Giuliani) when that piece of real estate was a real hell-hole.

He had extraordinary integrity and was willing to speak the truth, condemning some of the most outrageous excesses in the Pentecostal and Evangelical communities.

Chaos erupted at a Sikh temple in New York City after a clash broke out.

Dearborn governmental officials are trying to stop Anti-Islam minister Terry Jones from holding an anti-Islam Good Friday protest in this heavily-Muslim Detroit suburb.

Article here.

They’ve actually gone to court to block Jones’ protest. They’ve offered to let him protest if he posts a $100,000 bond.

Jones’ speech may be ugly, uncharitable, inflammatory and irresponsible, but the Bill of Rights’ guarantee of free speech does not exempt unpopular speech from First Amendment protection.

The court has already said that Nazis can march in Skokie, Illinois and that Fred Phelps can picket funerals from Topeka to Timbuktu. Presumably, if Nazis and Phelpses are protected by the First Amendment, Terry Jones is protected as well.

Meanwhile, Dearborn hasn’t tried to stop Dearborn Mayor John O’Reilly from holding an anti-Terry Jones/Pro-Islam rally in their city. It went forward without a hitch.

Disputes over property between Episcopal dioceses and breakaway parishes tend to be knock-down, drag-out affairs.

But in Virginia, one clash has been resolved, thanks to about $2 million in state Department of Transportation funds.

Apparently, transportation officials are expanding a road near the parish and offered a big chunk of money to the congregation as compensation for the government “taking” of private property. The diocese will keep most of the money. The church will keep its building (and the mortgage).

The Anglican District of Virginia weighs in on the settlement here.

The American Anglican Council has put up this post as well.

Why the settlement? The diocese knows this is not a slam-dunk legal case. The diocese could very well lose. Rather than pursuing an all-or-nothing strategy, they’ve seen a way to guarantee a win-win.

The parish also has a real incentive to settle. If the diocese loses this case, the diocese dusts itself off and keeps going. But if the parish loses, it could walk away with nothing. No church building, no school, no bank accounts. No nothing. A loss is therefore catastrophic or near-catastrophic for the parish. A settlement gives the parish a new lease on life (as well as an old mortgage to keep paying…)

h/t: AAC

The folks in Malta apparently liked him, but critics in the State Department didn’t.

US envoy criticized for religious activism resigns
By BRADLEY KLAPPER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to Malta, an important Roman Catholic supporter of President Barack Obama, said Sunday he would resign after a State Department report criticized him for spending too much time writing and speaking about his religious beliefs.
(more…)

The Pulitzer Prizes get announced today. My money is on Marshall Allen, whose work on the hospital industry in Nevada for the Las Vegas Sun is definitely Pulitzer-worthy.

Marshall, who is now at ProPublica, was a longtime member of the Religion Newswriters Association and is one of the nicest folks in the newspaper business.

UPDATE: Marshall was a Pulitzer finalist in the local reporting category. A complete list of winners is here.

Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell, made headlines recently. So did LaSalle University.

The reason?

Media censorship on campus.

But the move backfired at the Catholic School.

It also boomeranged at Liberty.

In 2011, it’s hard to suppress real news. Clumsy attempts at censorship are likely to backfire.

It was an interesting day at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. An $80-million painting by Paul Gauguin came under attack. Fortunately, the painting was not damaged.

All the details here.