Friday, July 02, 2010

Mr. Grady mucks out the barn

[Originally posted at Bene Diction Blogs On, Nov. 23, 2009]

J. Lee Grady, well known as the editor of the main Charismatic magazine Charisma, has been interviewed on Christianity Today's website today. The lengthy story goes into Grady's efforts to give corrective words to some of the excesses in his wing of Christianity.

One example is his distate with money-grubbing machinations, which he says may well be as bad as the medieval practice of the Church selling indulgences.

The group that Grady joined in his salad days that had a dictatorial leaderhsip style, by the way, was the Maranathas. (There was a sprinking of items in the student newspaper where I went to school--in the 70s and early 80s before my days on campus--about the group's outreach there are how people were worried about it being a cult.)

Many figures in the movement comment on Grady and his concerns, which makes the story an interesting read.

Those who have been following the errant evangelist Todd Bentley may be interested to know that Grady's eventual condemnation of Bentley's misdeeds has resulted in a difficult past year for the editor:

Grady said he lost several friends after he publicly questioned evangelist Todd Bentley's revival meetings, which attracted 30,000 visitors each week last summer in nearby Lakeland, Florida.

"The Lakeland revival was a four-month-long nightmare because of its divisiveness," Grady says. From the earliest days of the revival, Grady used his columns to question Bentley, who was often physically rough with those who came to the platform for healing.....

....Grady says it was the most difficult stand he had to take because so many followers distanced themselves from him. But it was also a time when other leaders told him they had begun to rethink arrogance or showmanship in their own ministries.