Driving to work this morning viewing the effects of the terrible thunderstorms that spared my neighborhood but hard hit the one right next to mine, I was listening to Christian radio. Out of the blue comes TD Jakes’ booming voice. In it, he first speaks of how much he loves America and so forth. I immediately thought of Jakes doing this to exploit anger over Barack Hussein Obama, Michelle Obama, and Jeremiah Wright’s considerably less than jingoistic statements and actions. Then he went into his exhortation spiel for people to register and get out to vote.
First, I see Lifeway Bookstores, owned by the Southern Baptist Convention, selling TD Jakes’ doctrinal error (oneness pentecostalism and the Word of Faith/prosperity doctrine are but a few of his MANY problems) and now the National Religious Broadcasters are using this guy. I had been using the NRB as a sort of a refuge from the blatant charismania that you will find on The Word Network, Trinity Broadcasting Network, Daystar, etc. So I just ignored the heavy Pat Robertson presence on the channel, as well as their “white Europeans are the descendants of the children of Israel … the Danube River is so named because of the tribe of Dan” show that comes on early in the morning. I also ignored their embrace of the Ellen White Seventh Day Adventist cult. So I suppose that I cannot cast NRB aside on Jakes’ account, since the ones that I just named are hardly better - if anything some might be worse - or else I would be reacting out of a personal dislike for Jakes rather than on principle. (On the other hand, Slice of Laodicea has criticized NRB, albeit for different reasons, such as this post stating that not one red cent of NRB’s $5 BILLION IN ASSETS is being used to defend the faith from Oprah Winfrey.)
Incidentally, speaking of TD Jakes and PR spots, he has another one out (I did not catch the sponsor!) promoting single sex education, saying that “boys need their own schools so that they will be able to, you know, romp and stuff (his choice of words not mine!) and that boys learn differently from girls and needed their own classrooms in order to be accommodated. So … it looks like Jakes is not that far removed from Jeremiah Wright’s separatist doctrines after all?
I have to be honest, back when I was part of the religious right and allowing my worldview to be shaped by the Washington Times and the National Review, I was in full agreement. But now … I just recall reading about this inner city public school that went all male. Sure, the discipline problems decreased and the test scores went up. But when they interviewed the boys that attended the school, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WANTED THEM TO BRING THE GIRLS BACK! Why? Because, er … BOYS LIKE GIRLS! Or at least they are supposed to anyway. Perhaps now that T.D. Jakes is on board with the new world order’s gay rights agenda (and yes this is relevant … perhaps due to his son) he thinks it is OK. To me, the whole single sex education thing … who wants it? Certainly not the kids. Not the administrators or teachers. Parents go for it only because they are desperate for any hook or angle to improve the failing school systems that the government is ruining on purpose. Not even the old fashioned religious sorts - of which I am one - think that it is a good idea anymore, where you were supposed to keep boys and girls separate in their little boarding or finishing schools (where they were supposed to look OH SO CUTE in their little uniforms I guess) UNTIL GRADUATION DAY WHEN YOU MARRY THEM OFF.
Sorry people, but society has changed. Not all of the changes have been for the good, but methinks that one of the most important things for a boy to learn from school is how to treat a lady and how to behave yourself in their presence. For some of us guys, those things do not come naturally, and you only learn them through trial and error. Especially error. (If you don’t learn to handle competition and rejection in junior high and high school, how on earth are you supposed to handle being turned down for jobs, promotions, college choices, etc. later in life?) So … HOW ON EARTH ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO LEARN THOSE THINGS IF THERE ARE NO GIRLS AROUND TO LEARN THEM FROM?
Like I said, TD Jakes may have his own reasons for wanting to turn your local public school into Morehouse College or similar, and whatever they are I oppose them 100%. All the more reason why the Southern Baptist Convention should not be selling this guy’s books and NRB shouldn’t be using him for their get out the vote campaign. But I suppose that this oneness anti - Trinitarian heretic is just too good at making money and moving public opinion for these people to pass up. That is, unless they are actually along with Jakes, on his side. After all, the Southern Baptists refuse to do anything about the likes of New Age heretic Erwin McManus and Council on Foreign Relations worker Rick Warren (and Richard Land too?), and as stated earlier, Al Sharpton Al Gore global warming propagandist partner Pat Robertson is a major partner with the NRB.
When I first started this website, I enthusiastically endorsed Jesus camps, thinking that they were an excellent way to turn children into spiritual warriors - as it WAS initially a charismatic spiritual warfare site - from an early age. Well … WOW WAS I WRONG! Jesus camps use the evil combination of spiritually seductive charismatic slain in the spirit frenzy and dominion theology politics. Instead of teaching children to pray for their enemies, to show kindness to the poor and elderly people, to interpret the Bible and discern doctrines, to worship and praise the Lord in a dignified manner becoming His glory, and to exhibit the fruits of the Holy Spirit, these folks are feeding these children false Christian doctrines and fascist notions of merging church, state, culture, etc. that will makes any of them that internalize this spiritual evil easy pickings for the anti - Christ and moreover very willing workers in the plot to create the climate where the man of sin will take power. The more things like this come out, as well as things with the Jesus Seminar, Mike Huckabee, Jeremiah Wright … Bible believing Christians have to start speaking out. There is something seriously wrong with both the religious right and the religious left, and we have to start boldly opposing it with the Word of God.
I mentioned this earlier in On Needing That Anointing Christianity but I decided to give it its own post for the benefit of the Tonex fans that feel the need to come to this site and defend the fellow from time to time in the hopes that they will realize that their loyalty to this fellow is misplaced. Incidentally, please know that Tonex, after retiring from gospel music because he wasn’t making enough money in it (like the pope’s admitting that he entered the priesthood because he wanted a nice car Tonex freely admitted this on one of his many websites that he keeps creating and deleting), found employment with Michael Jackson as a music producer. That, er, MIGHT EXPLAIN Tonex’s endorsement of the Jehovah’s Witness homosexual child molester Jackson as possessing the gifts of the Holy Spirit and using them to edify and minister to people (as opposed to corrupting small boys).
You know, when I owned Tonex’s Out Tha Box concert DVD (which I finally located a few days ago after MONTHS of not being able to find it, and then immediately threw it out with the trash), one of my favorite tracks on it was “Pole Position”, where he gave a brilliantly crafted and delivered piece of oratory (seriously, the fellow is extremely talented!) exhorting the prosperity/Word of Faith doctrine on how if one continued to tithe and give offerings year after year even through times of great financial distress, eventually God would remember and bless you. He used an analogy with the popular Monopoly board game (I am not making this up!) stating that if you just kept rolling the dice, rolling the dice by being faithful in the prosperity/Word of Faith apostolic doctrines, and eventually you would hit Boardwalk, your big payday.
But alas, it appears from Tonex’s own life that said doctrines have a price, the least of which is having to go on a Christian television show and promote not only Benny Hinn (and please recall that Tonex was also an associate of Eddie Long, calling him a “spiritual father” … funny how these Roman Catholic references keep slipping into this Pentecostal madness) but a known homosexual pedophile. That is the truly sad thing: EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT MICHAEL JACKSON IS A HOMOSEXUAL PEDOPHILE, AND YET IT IS PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE FOR A PASTOR AND GOSPEL ARTIST TO WORK WITH HIM! Of course, to be fair, Tonex is not the only one. Lots of gospel artists, including Andrae Crouch, used to work with Michael Jackson back in the day. The allegations concerning this fellow were not public then, but what did the “industry insiders” know? Then again, did Andrae Crouch work with Michael Jackson (among others including “impregnate a white woman and leave for the next one Quincy Jones”) before, after, or during the time that Donnie McClurkin was sleeping with the men in his choir? Donnie McClurkin says that he is delivered from homosexuality, but that does not prevent him from pastoring and founding churches after fathering a child out of wedlock and never marrying the mother.
My goodness. At some point someone is going to come out and reveal what a cesspool some quarters of the gospel industry is. Then again, Kirk Franklin already did over ten years ago, and it had absolutely no effect whatsoever. The people are deceived because, quite simply, they choose to be. Which means that they are not being deceived at all. And that is why we MUST continue to pray for them, that they would be delivered not so much from the enemy, but from their own rebellious wicked hearts. I should know, for many sincere Christians, from family members to co - workers, tried to warn me about a lot of these people - including Tonex - for quite awhile before I was willing to let them go. So if God did it for me, He can do it for someone else! That is why we should never cease to pray for the people trapped in their own prisons of selfish rebellion.
By the way, how did it come to be that the black gospel industry became dominated by the charismatic/Pentecostal/COGIC/prosperity/Word of Faith types to begin with? Incidentally, a similar trend is happening with Christian rock and Christian contemporary music, as more and more of its artists are coming from the praise and worship teams of megachurches. But as for black gospel (yes I know that this includes acts like Martha Munizzi, Vicki Yohe, and JoAnn Rosario that are not black, I just refuse to say “urban” or similar) I am told that it is due to the “gospel music workshop” scene for which we have COGIC’s JAMES CLEVELAND to thank for - and please recall that this very scene was very important to launching the career of one Tonex - but I am hoping that someone in the know might be able to tell me.
In any event, yet another video showing the depths to which Tonex has sunk (he has rather savvily had his “The Naked Truth” - related videos that are basically profane megalomaniac rants - including what some allege are self referential allusions to homosexuality - removed from YouTube it appears).
