Church fights turn high-tech: Web is new weapon of choice

Company: Dr. M. Marshall Woodard, CEO Rapture International, Inc.
Address : P. O. Box, Johns Island, South Carolina United States
URL: woodardphd@yahoo.com

Church fights turn high-tech: Web is new weapon of choice

By Rev. Swade Tucker


When will these drama queens stop attacking this man. If I invite you to my home, you would think I would pay for the food..duh I work for and with Dr Woodard. I'm a News Reporter and I run the tech support for the website. There has been an attack upon his ministry because of booty call women claiming to be Christians inviting him to their homes and churches afer sharing email, and yes I have seen the emails she sent, when there is no romance...ie, He slept in her sons room.....fatal attraction turns into hate. This has been happening to Black Preachers all over the web but now its tearing up mega White churches as well.

Salem Baptist Church is on the cutting edge of a growing trend - at least when it comes to conflict. Like members from several other prominent churches nationwide, congregants at this US megachurch are using web sites and blogs to post details about ongoing dissent within the ranks.

But do such high-tech tactics empower church members to address conflict or merely make the conflict worse while airing a church's dirty laundry to the world?

The issue at Salem Baptist involves the Pastor and a group of longtime church members, mostly women who say he's receiving an inappropriately high salary, is pushing the church toward an all male, elder-led system, and has forced out a popular female music director after having an affair with her.

Others have said the pastor uses intimidation and arrogance as his main modus operandus. Still more say they feel it's too soon to change the 30,000-member church after the death four years ago of it;s legendary founding pastor. The current pastor, along with a strong contingent behind him, has denied the allegations.

As part of their protest, Bellevue members created blogs and websites, which includes letters from members, a transcript of an interview with a concerned deacon, and links to sites of churches in comparable straits. The site had received more than 90,000 hits.

Across town at New Testament Baptist Church, and hundreds of miles away at Trinity Baptist Church, congregants have faced similar divisions and used similar methods to disseminate information and garner support. At First Baptist Church, bloggers brought scrutiny to financial dealings that led to the pastor's resignation.

All four church conflicts involved conservative churches divided over leadership style and use of authority. But the trend to take those battles to cyberspace is not limited to conservative churches.



Blog and web site proponents ues the technology to publish information, which should be kept within the local church - like church financial statements or minutes of church meetings, accusations against the pastors that can not be proven - that would otherwise be kept within the excutive board of the church. Some supporters say opposing factions within a church need a forum to communicate their concerns.

I personally do not feel it should be the internet. I think it's the same old story of blogging being ignored until it is recognized that thousands of people are reading one side of a story. While blogging about denominational politics on a national level may be useful to inform mass audiences via a broad medium - but it's unacceptable, in my oppion to use blogs for conflict resolution in individual churches.

I think at the local church level, it is very, very wrong, I just can't imagine that there's any real value to this." Christians should use biblical models for resolving conflict, like the 18th chapter of Matthew. If dissenters need a forum, use the church directory to mail correspondence to relevant people, or have large church meetings. Just don't advertise the problem on the Internet.

I think a part of what's implied in [Matthew] is that one of the principles you use is don't let the resolution process spread the conflict to a broader audience than it had to begin with. I think blogging is one giant violation of that principle.

In First Corinthians Paul exhorts followers to avoid settling disputes in secular courts. The principle Paul expresses in that text applies to blogging about church conflict, which places an internal church dispute on the Internet so it is laid out before a whole unbelieving world.

God only knows the damage it does to the cause of Christ. You've got people reading scamclub, blogs and website in India and China - folks we are hoping to evangelize - and they are reading about local disputes in Baptist churches. I think it's just very unhealthy.

Rev. Swade Tucker
Nassau Bahamas


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