Pastor Hagee's scandal and petition

Pastor John & Diane Hagee

James 3:1
Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

Update: The Open Letter was sent to Pastor Hagee, with over 100 signatures, in Sept. 2005. I expect him to ignore this, so I will continue to collect more signatures to let him know that more and more will know of this scandal, until he repents. I've also sent out hundreds of postcards to other ministers, esp. those in San Antonio near his base church (Cornerstone Church), to let them know of this scandal in their neighborhood.)

Hi All-

I reworked and revised the petition, due to many discussions and prayer. The big change: rather than go to the IRS, the goal is to perfectly align with our Lord Jesus' advice in Matthew 18. This is implemented by:

1. Explaining the problem.

2. Writing an open letter to Pastor Hagee, asking him to repent and make amends for this serious lifestyle of sin/greed in his life and mishandling donor money.

3. Asking for witnesses (you) to sign the letter (petition) and stand-up to Pastor Hagee as a fellow believer. If he refuses to repent, we are not to treat him as a fellow believer in fellowship, but regard him as an unbeliever, according to our Lord Jesus.

Please go to the petition, read it, and see if you can sign it, if you haven't yet. Here's the petition: http://raydehler.com/fgn/

It's very difficult to stand-up to a fellow believer that is sinning. It wasn't easy for Jesus to stand-up to the religious leaders of His day and clear the temple (Matt. 21:12-13), . It wasn't easy for the prophet Nathan to confront King David in his sin (2 Samuel 12:7). The choice: do you want to do what's easy, or do you want to obey God? It's bad enough that Pastor Hagee is a very visible minister, bringing shame upon the whole church (the body of Christ) by his greed. But he adds to that by condoning the sin by what is called "the prosperity gospel." Jesus said we can't serve two masters (God and money). Hagee says we can (as long as you give a minimum 10% to the church). What does God tell us? That we are to use ALL of our time, treasure, and talent as good stewards of God. We need to submit everything to God, not just 10% of our increase.

If you'd like to see a TV show I did on this topic, you can download it now to your computer and watch it, just click here. I have over 20 points regarding why Pastor Hagee should be exposed
and disciplined. Click here to see the MS PowerPoint slides.

To sign the petition, click here. The number of worldwide signers, I'm surprised, is VERY few.. Pastor Hagee must be laughing, saying "see, who cares?" However, much good is being brought by this, in that the news is going out. I firmly believe that it's impossible for this high-level sin to continue, and I think the crash will be mighty and loud when it happens... a mini-judgment day for him. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it ends up with some jail time for him. Speaking of jails and ministers, here's an article about the investigations with Benny Hinn (article) and Morris Cerrulo (article).

Some pastors have signed this, mostly friends of mine. Why won't more sign? Two reasons I've seen. One, they don't want to raise the issue, so people won't ask them how much THEY make... let's not go there... Two, some want to be positive-only. I consider this a compromise... I would call them "ear-ticklers" (see 2 Tim. 2:3, click here). They don't want to upset supporters or donors. Apparently, they fear man (or loss of income) more than God. Some fundraising experts say it costs about $20 to acquire a good email address, so they do what they can to protect these investments in donor acquisition!

Webcast Description:
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/247/Archives.asp

Greedy Pastors
Sunday, August 7, 2005

Some prominent Christian pastors have serious greed problems, and they are not being confronted by fellow Christians, by and large. Bernie lays out the case why, as Christians, we need to take a stand against
this cancer in the Church. Bernie answers over 20 of the most common objections against standing-up to this immorality of stealing from God's people. These preachers are experts on Malachi Ch. 3, but act
as if they've never read Malachi Ch. 2! This kind of action by ministers really incenses our Lord to anger, as evidenced by when He turned over the tables in the Temple area. Matthew 21:12-13 & Malachi 2:1-2

Malachi 2:1-2
"And now this admonition is for you, O priests. If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name," says the LORD Almighty, "I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me.

By the way, I found out that his church compensation, as Senior Pastor, is also disclosed on the G.E.T. tax form. From both ministries combined, he is taking well over $1 million of donor's money, yearly... money that was intended to build the kingdom of God. What will his donors think when they learn of this? We'll soon see...

Please continue to send me feedback on the shows, webcasts, articles, etc. to:
feedback@FreeGoodNews.com .

...Bernie
Dir., FreeGoodNews.com

PS: Free Offers (click here):
1. Free book download about what tithing is, and why it isn't appropriate to
teach it as a Christian practice today.
2. Free Audio Bible on MP3
3. Free Bible Study Software, Bibles, and research tools
4. Previous webcasts, available for free download (click
here).

PPS: Here's an interesting version of Matt. 18:

Mattew 18:15-17 (The Message)
¹⁵"If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him--work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you've made a friend. ¹⁶If he won't listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. ¹⁷If he still won't listen, tell the church. If he won't listen to the church, you'll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God's forgiving love.