leeches in the Church. Do something today about it

posted in 2004

Leeches are one of the beasties in this world belonging to the class of parasites. Parasites are creatures that cannot exist without drawing shelter, nutrition and in some cases actual hosting within the bodies of other living things. Fleas, lampreys, tapeworms .. yecch .. they are all parasitical things.

The Body of Christ is covered with these damnable things that are dragging so many in the Christian world down with them. They've been there so long, we've come to accept them as part of the scheme of things. The Bible makes no room for them, however, and roundly puts them in their place. Yet we welcome them and even ring the dinner bell for them:

- Cults cannot exist without the Church: too many Christians are fat targets for their wiles and groups like Remnant Fellowship to the Unification Church to Mormonism et al ad nauseum (Mt 24:4) seduce so many who could do well without them to their eternal ruin.

- Hireling church leaders who couldn't make a living any other way and who feed upon the flock to rip them off, milk them dry and steal away their livelihood (Ezek 34) by magnifying their authoritarian "anointing" through fear, intimidation and hardfisted politicking.

- The menagerie of opportunists (Mk 11:17) whose cottage industries based upon warped appeals to the pride, greed and weaknesses of the Church (like the fund raisers, so-called "Christian" TV, etc.) would collapse without the "widows mites" they shill mightily for.

- The amazingly well entrenched consolidation of aberrant, good-ol-boy leadership which is seen often at the helm of many a church movement dedicated to "the Kingdom of God" but who exist only to perpetuate their foul lineage of cronies and sons (and daughters) who have no business in the ministry at all (Mark 7:1-13).

I could go on. But they are there. We see their loathesome presence all the time. But we tolerate them so well. We are told just to "pray" for them, to "love" them, to "accept" them, to "not gossip" about them .. by those whose spiritual vessels have long ago been breached by the bloodsucking probosces of the parasites they defend so ably (in some instances, reckoning them as the Only True Defenders of the True Faith whose dictates are the very breath of the Spirit, "fresh words" that only stink of their decay). So they live on to this day, undisturbed, eating away at the Body with scarcely a concern.

And Jesus said it would be like this before He returned. But hey, we're in revival, right? Billion Soul Revivaltime, right?

But just because He noted their ilk would be on the hunt for us doesn't mean we automatically needed to just surrender and let them fasten on us like some alien thing ready to invade our temples of the Spirit. Far too many of us do so. Some of them are the loudest mouths on this board who defend nothing they truly understand, who cherish heroes and doctrines and practices that do nothing but sap the Church. It might be interesting to see what those red patches around their ears might actually be caused by, and what might be lurking beneath those darker ones around their hearts.

But we can deworm the Body of Christ .. these things can be sent packing if we would do but ONE thing .. STOP FEEDING THEM!


agape

rafael