Bro-Brett is Blessed to Be Blessed

Christ Animated BLOG

August 17, 2012

My blog - http://ChristAnimated.blogspot.com 

Voice of the Martyrs Executive Director TOM WHITE Apparently Commits Suicide

May 9, 2012

This morning I opened a letter that arrrived yesterday from The Voice of the Martyrs, a ministry to the persecuted Christians worldwide, with the words "Important Message from the President" across the envelope. I assumed it was an urgent call for funds, prayers, etc. When I opened it and began to read, however, I saw quickly that I was wrong.

The news it contained - that Executive Director Tom White had been found dead on April 18 - shocked me. The news that he had apparently taken his own life made the sadness grow. Then the revelation that he had apparently done this to avoid investigation (or hurt to the ministry and his family) over the accusation that he had "had inappropriate contact" with a minor girl sucker punched me in my ample gut.

I hoped it wasn't true - that he had somehow mistakenly thought there was no way the ministry or his family could survive a scandal, that he was afraid of returning to prison (having spent 17 years in a Cuban prison for evangelism) for some reason, or that he felt hopeless defending himself against untrue allegations from an otherwise trustworthy young lady and her family.

I began to search for more information online when I reached my office.

I discovered that the Bartlesville, OK, police department had closed their case against Mr. White, having located his body after acquiring a subpeona to locate him via his cell phone's GPS for questioning or arrest.  

I learned that the father of the unnamed alleged victim had responded to an open letter written to address his daughter regarding this double tragedy - and had revealed details that implicated White with no doubt.

This article contains a lot of information, as well as reliable links to other information:

http://www.benedictionblogson.com/2012/04/21/tom-white-voice-of-the-martyrs-executive-director-under-molestation-investigation-before-apparent-suicide/

I have supported Voice of the Martyrs for many years, and would recommend VOM to anyone. While it is good to know that the alleged abuse did not take place on VOM property or have any connection to the ministry otherwise, and while I know that any ministry must take care in how it words any response regarding alleged abuse (unfortunately, I have had to craft some of this wording in a ministry with which I have worked), I do wish that the letter mailed by VOM had issued some type of regret or sorrow to the girl, even if they had expressed it concerning "alleged" "inappropriate contact". I have already read some negative response to this online. 

I am saddened to hear that a man whom I have held in high regard for many years has taken his own life, and I am more deeply saddened to hear that he may very well have been guilty of the abuse with which he has been accused.

I am also deeply saddened for that young girl. Most reports omit her age, but one says she is 10. One of my daughters is 10 years old, and the other is 7. I would do anything to protect them, and I love them far more than my own life. If anyone attempted to hurt them in any way, I would stop at nothing to protect them, to help them, to heal them, to do anything I could. I am so very sorry for her and her family that this abuse took place, and that she will have to live with that knowledge, etc., for her lifetime.

Her family has read and responded to Wade Burleson's open letter [link in the above-linked article], and you would likely benefit reading it, as well.

May God protect, bless, and heal this young lady, her family, and the family of Tom White.

REVERSE PSYCHIATRY

May 8, 2012

Yes, you read that correctly. Yesterday, I was leaving a store in Natchitoches when I passed by two women talking. One said, "Ha! I used reverse pyschiatry on you!" "What?" the other one replied. "I used reverse psychiatry on you," she repeated. "Oh," was the response.

I wanted so badly to correct them.

But I didn't.

Are you proud of me? 

JOHN RAY

March 28, 2012 

Scanning the radio on the way to the office today, I heard an elderly woman and elderly man discussing using today's music to bring young people into the church. I was intrigued. Then the man said that this was what the churches tried thirty years ago in the 1970s (that's more than 30, actually), and it didn't work then, either. Hmm.

He went on to say it began innocently enough as a misguided effort to try to use something that belong to Satan ("Rock-n-Roll") and just add the name "Christian" to it in order to bring younger people into the church.

Then, in the 1980s and 1990s, artists discovered they could make more money by dropping the "ministry" part of their music and making it all Christian entertainment.  At this point the woman interjected, saying, "I just have one problem with what you said. Drop 'Christian' from it. It's just entertainment!" She practically spat that word out of her mouth. Makes me wonder if she is ever "entertained" by anything a Christian does, like a granddaughter singing for her, or something. No, no, then she would just be "blessed". 

I listened for just a few more minutes (all I could take), trying to ignore pet peeves like gross mispronunciations (he repeatedly said JOHN-Rays, slowly and deliberately, rather than 'genres' when talking about Christian versus "normal" JOHN-Rays of music) and the claims that God has never been worshiped or honored by any music before the first song written that's included in any Christian hymnal (from most sources, no older than 1200 AD) or good-ol' Southern Gospel.

Now, don't get me wrong - I'm from the South and love it. I have a Southern accent. I like a good bit of Southern Gospel music, and enjoy singing some of it.  But God must have been awfully bored, musically-speaking, from before time began until around the time "All Creatures of Our God and King" was written, and chanted. I guess He could have tuned His celestial radio to whatever millenia He chose, since He exists outside/above time ...

It irritates me to no end when people claim (as they essentially did) that God blesses no music other than their own. I may not thoroughly enjoy every genre (JOHN-Ray) of music, but I will support any that God uses to bring people to saving knowledge of Him, or to help them grow as believers in Christ.

That's my two cents. 

I write about what interests me. It's as simple as that. If it interests you, too, read it. If not, don't. That's pretty simple, too.

If you have questions about salvation, please click the cross above for more information.

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A favorite quote:

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." -- C. S. Lewis

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