An Indictment of the American Clergy: The End to Racism and Abortion Comes Through the Church and Not the Government

By Thomas Wade

For seven times seven years, the attendance at the United Methodist Church has declined, and the church leadership has refused to publicly acknowledge their culpability, and the laity has accepted their excuses. The clergy have let their personal political agendas nudge out their responsibility to the church and to Jesus Christ. The clergy have also not recognized the responsibilities of the church to end racism, lead the country toward assimilation of immigrants, and displace hatred that leads to gun violence with hope offered by Jesus.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973626244

Thomas Wade

Thomas Wade is a seventh generation Methodist with conservative principles living in Virginia. This is his first book after a career as a sales engineer. He grew up in Virginia and is a 1980 graduate of Virginia Tech.

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Copyright © 2018 Thomas Wade.

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except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation,

copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-2623-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2625-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2624-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018904660

WestBow Press rev. date: 03/09/2021

I

dedicate this book to the American clergy, whom I love so

much. I am grateful for their sacrifice. I also dedicate this book

to God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the bride of Christ.

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

I Is for Introduction

Chapter 1     In the Beginning

Chapter 2     Bible

Chapter 3     Politics from the Pulpit

Chapter 4     Social Justice

Chapter 5     Racism

Chapter 6     God-Given Rights

Chapter 7     Gun Control

Chapter 8     Abortion

Chapter 9     Homosexuality

Chapter 10   Lottery

Chapter 11   Payday Loans

Chapter 12   Marketing and Charities

Chapter 13   Organization

Chapter 14   Leadership

Chapter 15   Sentencing

Chapter 16   My Psalm

Chapter 17   Less Government

Afterword

Notes

Bible References

PREFACE

I love the clergy. God has allowed me to see how wonderful the clergy are. He would not allow me to finish this book without making sure I was completely in love with the clergy. They lead the most magnificent lives and are in many ways examples of how we all should live. Like any of us, they are not perfect. I begin my quest to offer input for their benefit and, hopefully, for the benefit of the bride of Christ—the church.

I am a seventh generation Methodist. I have painfully watched my church go from a high of eleven million members in 1968 to seven million members today. All of the mainline denominations have lost membership over approximately the same period. The excuses though do not line up with the rate of decline among the various denominations. The Methodist clergy have offered every imaginable reason for the decline in membership; however, they are merely excuses, for if their reasoning were plausible, then the various denominations would be losing members at the same rate. They are not. In the 1980s, the clergy explained the decline as a result of the Rock Church’s attraction taking away from the Methodist Church. In the 1990s, the clergy explained it was the mega-churches that were drawing away members from the Methodist Church. Around 2000, the clergy told me that declines were the result of computers, internet, and video games and that people were in need of constant distraction. Most recently, the clergy are telling me it is the change in culture and the church has not kept pace with the changes. But much of the change in culture is due to a decline in morality. So the church has failed to lead the culture toward morality.

The church is to inspire morality and the clergy are to lead the church. The church does not exist in a vacuum. We should be the leaders of morality and culture in this country. Instead, we are letting the culture dictate church attendance. Attendance should climb under any circumstances of the outside world, except, of course, where there is persecution. Even in our society in which many try to make God irrelevant, God has given us everything we need to thrive. Yes, we are supposed to thrive.

Naively, I thought the clergy at my church and most denominations were politically similar to my politics. Then about five years ago I learned differently. I started paying close attention to the news, comparing it with the sermons and speeches I heard at church. Then came an epiphany. The clergy have misinterpreted an important part of Scripture, which has led to a faith that is not true to Jesus Christ. This misinterpretation is focused around social justice or more importantly social injustice. Christians across this country cannot distinguish between Christian justice and social justice. Christian justice is primary while social justice is secondary. Even more recently, I had a second epiphany revealing my own errors in assembling facts that I have understood on ending abortion. Hopefully, what God has shown me will become evident as I challenge the beliefs that many people have held for most of their lives. Briefly, I do not want a man to stand for the national anthem—I want him to want to stand for the national anthem. If he does not want to stand for the national anthem, then I want to know why and the best way to do that is to form a relationship with him so we can help each other. Then we can stand for the national anthem together. The best way to form the relationship is to go to church together. No one has ever knelt with me to worship God and then refused to stand with me for the national anthem.

Though I am well read on the Bible I am not an expert. Much like a pastor receives a call to go into ministry, God has called me, even compelled me, to write An Indictment of the American Clergy. It has taken years to write it.

My goal is to challenge you, the laity, to discuss anything learned from this book with your pastor, priest, or minister. Read carefully this admonition:

If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the fault. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If that person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. If the church decides you are right, but the other person won’t accept it, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector. (Matthew 18:15–17)

The laity has the right and responsibility to confront their ministers with tough love concerning the minister’s departure from their calling to serve Jesus Christ, provided they understand the minister has emotions and an investment in the process as well.

God has introduced me to so many wonderful clergy, and he has taught me to love them and see their frailties as well as their great Christian attitudes. They are perhaps the finest class of people throughout the entire world. Considering their lifelong commitment to ministry, they arguably have the toughest job in the world—even beyond our combat soldiers, law enforcement, or first responders because the life of a minister is 24/7 for forty to fifty years. Too often they handle funerals of congregants/friends. They deal with the personal problems of the lonely and depressed, the emotionally unstable, the elderly, the vulnerable, the suicidal, the infirmed, the incarcerated, the divorced, the widowed, or the soon-to-be-married. And then let’s not forget their subjection to church/board politics, late-night meetings, odd work hours, limited pay, staff and volunteer management, and financial concerns. Though their job description entails much more than this, you get the picture. Please also remember that they also have to write and deliver good sermons and administer any number of church programs. Last but not least, they must resist temptation better than the rest of us.

My thanks go to all the clergy, whether they are ministers, pastors, or priests.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank my parents, Bob and Olive, who have passed on. They were among the most compatible couples in history and they were great parents. I also thank my brothers, David, Paul, and John, along with their families. Very special thanks go to my children, Danielle and Elizabeth.

I IS FOR INTRODUCTION

I hate losing. For the last forty-nine years, I have been on a losing team called the United Methodist Church. With one or two exceptions a year, I show up every Sunday. I go to services when I’m out of town, whether on vacation or work trips.

December closed out seven times seven straight years of declining attendance at the United Methodist Church. Many of the congregations may not care but I do. I have spent many a season with little hope of reaching more victories than losses. It is like rooting for the Detroit Lions. The United Methodist Church has a worse record than the Lions. Of course, the playoffs are not until Judgment Day. I sit in the pew listening with patience and hope, thinking the clergy know what is best and that I just need more faith. I spend countless hours volunteering and tithing when I can. I have invested my life in a church that continues to lose members.

About five years ago, I was talking with another Methodist; only to learn that about 70 percent of the Methodists are politically conservative but about 70 percent of the clergy are liberal. Then the epiphanies started rolling in. I became more acutely aware of subtle influences the clergy had on the congregation, both in and out of the sanctuary.

My focus throughout An Indictment of the American Clergy is on the United Methodist Church, although the principles can be applied to most of the denominations. I have included several examples how the clergy have misinterpreted parts of Scripture. This misinterpretation has led them to approach their ministries in ways that do not fully support the mission of Jesus Christ. For the most part, this misinterpretation centers around social justice and the negative effects it has on our society. This Christian country will never be truly successful until we recognize that God plays a bigger role in our lives than does the government. We will not be successful until the clergy understand their role to lead their congregations as if the government did not exist.

Church leaders are poor administrators of the church. More specifically, they do not have the vision required to understand how to increase attendance and the power of the Christian message. Because the church lacks marketing skill, the good works of the church are not evident to the public. We are competing with good charities to service the needs of the less fortunate. These charities are often on the television advertising their good works. The hierarchy of the church refuses to announce the good works of the laity. The clergy have made a lifetime commitment to the spreading of the gospel, and it is the laity’s responsibility to offer the clergy the loving support they deserve while challenging them to success. The clergy need to listen when they are given sound advice. If the church were gaining in attendance, then they may have a claim to ignore such advice. But the church is losing attendance, yet they still reject godly counsel from lay members who run successful companies. Or perhaps the clergy do not seek wise advice.

The last four or five decades have seen a continual decline in attendance of mainstream Protestant Christian churches. The clergy continue to ignore the reasons and try to blame everything but themselves for their failure. I make the bold claim that the clergy is 100 percent to blame for the decline in attendance. I suspect most laity would accept part of the blame, but they should not. Failure, as well as success, always starts and stops with the leader of any organization. It is time the clergy stop blaming anyone and anything else: societal changes, the congregation, the music, the youth program, the government, political parties, the media, and the mega-churches. I have heard almost every one of those excuses used to explain the decline in attendance. The reasons just shift from year to year or decade to decade. The clergy are not being honest with themselves and, in the end, are not honest with the laity.

The laity certainly has a responsibility to help the clergy, and I believe we do a pretty good job, though we can do better. The laity also must lovingly challenge the clergy and help point out mistakes. Too often, laypeople either angrily complain and gripe to the minister, or fail to sufficiently convey the needed message. The real answer is for a group of concerned lay members to confront their minister with the problem and then work together to find a solution. By the same token, the minister needs to listen and learn from the other spiritually gifted in the church. I would encourage ministers to accept offers from the congregation to listen to concerns but always invite more than one person into the meeting to listen. The ministers tend to have a greater degree of education and ability to communicate where the laity may fall short so a group of congregants may be able to convey and discuss an issue with more support for both the concerns and resolutions. If the congregant voices a concern solo, and the concern is not acknowledged appropriately, the response may be interpreted as arrogance whether it is real or not. This invariably leads to the congregant leaving the church.

Think of this: If the United Methodist Church were gaining 2 percent attendance a year instead of losing 2 percent a year, that would reflect a 4 percent difference. If we had gained 2 percent a year since 1968 when we had 11 million members, instead of losing 2 percent per year, the church would be standing at 29 million members today instead of the 7 million we now have. Rather than asking for a 2 percent improvement each year, we should be asking for a 4 percent growth in attendance each year. No company in this country expects less than 4 percent growth. At a lower percentage of growth, the company would be laying off employees—starting with the CEO. The laity would do well to throw off their complacency and demand more from the clergy than they do.

The last forty or fifty years have also seen a continual decline in morality. The clergy fail to understand that their lack of leadership is the main culprit. The clergy are to be our leaders in morality. The evidence only convinces me that the clergy have not done a good job; rather, they neglect to denounce sin, including but not limited to the lottery/gambling, abortion, sex outside of marriage, and homosexuality. Their sermons avoid talking about the problem of sin and that we can achieve victory in our lives by avoiding sin. They also do not understand the church is to end racism, gun violence, and immigration problems. Instead, the clergy deliver messages about social justice and political matters, such as gun control. More importantly, millions of people think their political opinion is Christian. Our church leaders have a responsibility to correct the thought patterns of a nation in this regard. Liberals will claim it is Christian for the government to provide food and housing to the poor. Conservatives will claim owning a gun is a God given right. Both theories are false and I will explain later. The American clergy should explain why the claims are false on a regular basis. They should be defending what it means to be a Christian. Clergy must avoid favoring their own political opinion over their loyalty to Jesus Christ.

Clergy chase away their congregants with criticism of our communities and society because they do not understand how much better Americans have it than other countries. They need to condemn the sin, not the sinner. They do not understand all of Scripture, and they do not have true faith that the church is designed and equipped to help solve the ills of society. Many of our clergy are invested emotionally in government actions to help society, but that is neither what God has called them to nor what we have hired them to do. Their task is to inspire us morally in spite of a government.

I define Christianity throughout this book. Jesus Christ taught us to love and forgive. This requires developing relationships between individuals from all walks of life. We can certainly commit a Christian act anonymously, but my focus is on relationship building. This requires a commitment of time and emotional energy. We can overcome most of our societal problems through relationship building.

An Indictment of the American Clergy is a challenge to church-going Christians to pray and discover the will of God. We need to encourage the clergy to heed the advice given in the Bible and add our own business advice as to how to run the church. The laity hold the purse strings, and we must hold the clergy accountable, even if it requires dismissing some clergy. I believe we have underestimated the power and capability of the church. We can build passion for God beyond imagination. Let’s challenge the clergy to lead.

CHAPTER 1

In the Beginning

In the beginning, God created Levites. Not quite at the beginning, but close. The Levites’ job was to accept the Hebrews’ offerings and sacrifices. The Levites were allowed to eat what had been sacrificed. These sacrifices are also known as a church tax. A friend of mine calls it membership fees. The Levites determined that sacrifices should be made daily so the people would pay taxes daily, thus providing the Levites with daily sustenance.

The Levites did not want just any animals for the sacrifices. The animals were to be nearly perfect—no deformities or blemishes. After all, Levites deserved the very best. In all fairness, they instituted this rule most likely because the people were offering the worst of their flocks or herds.

The need for animal sacrifices ended with the crucifixion of Jesus. The sacrifices came to a