[Posted at Bene Diction Blogs On Jan. 6, 2011]
I had no idea that bloggers and reporters were doing the work of Satan. Until Faytene Kryskow set me to rights.
I am being sarcastic, of course. But I want to put what she had to say in an unguarded moment last year on the record. If nothing else, I want my fellow bloggers to be able to guess what she really wants to say to them when she drops her facade.
And reporters who cover Faytene Kryskow, by the way, should know that she might feel a need to cast demons out of them before any interview.
This comes from a teaching message of hers called Honour on her website. If you get the download, as a friend of mine did who passed it one to me, the MP3 is titled “The Spirit Of Honour”. At the time that my friend got the file, it was download only, and unavailable in CD format. (In this way, Faytene Kryskow can be very careful to make sure that this message does not get into the wrong hands.)
I’m listening to this for another, forthcoming, post, but she lets her guard slip for about four minutes at the start of her message in a way that I think might surprise bloggers and reporters alike. So, I would like to pass what she says along.
I respect Faytene’s tendency to be honest and frank. I don’t want her to dissemble as so many do. But I have to call it as I see it.
Faytene is probably speaking in a church. Judging by some things that she says, we can roughly date this to the spring and summer of last year, when the release of Marci McDonald’s book caused speculation and discussion in the media regarding the influence of Canada’s Christian Right on politics. Faytene gets a chapter basically to herself in the book, so people were wondering about her as well.
Introducing her remarks, Faytene Kryskow says “I seem to specialize in controversy these days, according to the national media, who are scared of these Christians who want to take over the world, okay (she laughs).”
Her argument in a nutshell, is that Christians' refusal to knuckle down appropriately to authority in politics and the church has caused a culture of death in Canada, mass abortions in Canada and such. I will deal with that in a later post.
Faytene Kryskow, however, sees herself as a leader in Canada’s church due to her influence amongst Ottawa so-cons and Christian youth. So, she goes off on a tangent in which she draws object lessons that she includes herself in.
I will be quoting heavily and leaving her grammar as is. Any emphasis is mine. If Faytene was directing her anger at me personally, well the fact that I spent a couple hours trying to get what she says below exactly right means that I was thoroughly berated by her over and over again.
“….[W]e now live in a culture where it is actually cool to bash leaders. I know it because I am one, you know [i.e. a leader] Did I mention about the articles in the National Post this week?” Faytene says.
And then she lets her gripe, with a lack of respect for leaders such as her, rip:
“….We now live in a culture that is so self-focused and so unrighteous in this matter, that as soon as somebody as the reformer bringing change we hearld them and cheer them on. And then, as soon as they actually get set into a place of leadership or authority, we now think it is our God-given mandate, to bash them to, really to, the point of death and to criticize them so much, that we end up destroying the very thing that we just loved over on a few moments ago…If life and death is in the power of the tongue—If you were the Devil and if all power and all authority has been gien to the church and if is in the power of the tongue. If you were the Devil, don’t you think that it would be kind of sneaky to trick those [in the church as a whole] who have been given authority into cursing the very ones who have been set into leadership over a nation, or over a church, or over a city or of a region?
‘Cause if the Devil can get us speaking this stuff. Guess what? Landing pad, baby [for the devil], 'cause if there’s any power in what we speak…you know one of the scriptures that actually strikes the fear of the Lord in me because I’m a verbal processor, is where it says that “every single word we speak will be judged”. Every single idle word that we speak will be judged. It also says “woe to you Scribes and Pharisees…” You know, I have a spiritual father that said “In 2010, those are called bloggers.” [Faytene laughs] So woe to you who slap your opinions all over the place, you know. Anyway, I’m just verbally processing here.”
Let me unpack this for various bloggers who may have blogged about Faytene. The “scribes and the Pharisees” were Jewish religious leaders in Jesus’ time who criticized Jesus. They went on from this, however, to help set up a situation where Jesus was tried and then executed by the Romans.
Calling someone a “scribe” or “Pharisee” is the equivalent of saying that your rhetorical opponent would crucify Jesus. It is amongst the worst insults that a Christian such as Faytene can use, in the place that she said it.
It is fair to say that she has cursed those in the blogosphere who have chosen to not write about Faytene as she would have liked.
Faytene probably thought that those who wrote on blogs about her would never hear of her sliming of their work.
Not sharing her opinions—it goes without saying—I am pleased to frustrate her designs.
I would be careful about waving the word “Pharisee” around as it is hubris to think of oneself as someone who would not have been baying for Jesus to be crucified back in the day.
I am personally discouraged by this. We may remember that Faytene has replied to posts about her on BDBO, in which she tries to argue for what she has done and explain herself. I thought that it showed a willingness to dialogue and to perhaps be open to understand what Bene D and I were expressing as our points of view.
Now, however, what may be the real Faytene pops out. People who don’t defer to her are rhetorical Christ-killers who deserve to be swatted down, hard. No attempts to clarify. No attempts to deal with constructive criticism. Just “shut up.”
Even if you agree with Faytene’s opinions—what about her tone? Is it appropriate for a self-styled “leader” of the church to be, at the very least, rude towards her opponents in this way?
Faytene is also discounting the overwhelming majority of work in the blogosphere about her, which is trying to argue that Christ’s followers should be, well, Christ-like. One does not have to be “saved” to be able to apply wisdom, discretion, and common sense to what Faytene—or other prominent Christians-- choose to say and do.
At the Cry Vancouver two years ago, Faytene Krskow let slip that when “we” control the media, things will be very “different”.
God save us from that.
Faytene wasn’t done yet, however. A few seconds later, perhaps having realized that she might have messed up, she proceeds to pay for the media, specifically. And then, she fumbles again.
Faytene Kryskow, a few seconds after the above says…
“….[A]nd on this note right now, just because I rant, I vented a little bit already in this opening thing. I hope you guys love me anyway. Can we—I don’t do anything but real…. [She begins to pray out loud] So, Father, I just thank you for the media in this nation God. And Lord, we just send a blessing, God over the media in this nation, Father. Lord we thank you for the good report of the March for Life, Father. We thank you Lord that they are beginning to report, Lord, even what you’re doing in this nation. And thank you Father, that we live in a time where there has been such advance in Canada that even the national media is saying “Is the Christian Right taking over in Ottawa.” “
Fair enough. But here she drops the ball.
“Father, we just thank you Lord that we live in this time. And God, we bless every single person, every single voice out there that would be trying to discredit you and your bride [the church]. Father, we say bless them with the love of Jesus. Bless them with the revelation of your heart. Bless then, bless them, bless them, bless them with deliverance in Jesus name. Amen. That’s good.”
Notice the word “deliverance”? In the charismatic circles that Faytene frequents, it has a special meaning. Not only does it mean deliverance from problems and grief, it also means that you are delievered from evil spirits and oppression. Those who practice “deliverance ministry” cast demons out of people "in the name of Jesus!" Think of “The Exorcist”. Some charismatics would say that the little girl in the movie who had to have a demon cast out of her was delivered.
So, if you are a reporter who writes critically but honestly, about the church, you are possessed and need to have a demon cast out of you. I think her phrasing applies this to bloggers too.
This casts a different light on her appearances in the media doesn’t it? She’s the so-con girl next-door-who wants to bless her country. But if you, as a reporter or blogger, disagree with that or point out some flaws, or aren’t supportive, then out the demons need to go!
It would follow then, that it order to ensure the best, most accurate stories, that Faytene should follow through on her thinking and ask that reporters have the necessary demons cast out of them first before she speaks to them. “Mr. Mansbridge, before I answer your questions, there’s a teensy thing I need to do first.”
I can imagine people in newsrooms reading this and saying, “Forget the prayer…just don’t think that I am possessed!”
Disagreements, even heated ones, do not mean that a reporter or blogger is a tool of Satan. It is fighting below the belt to say this. It is not a Christ-like way to come across and makes other Christians that the reporter or blogger come across look bad too.
All this is a shame for a lady who desires to share Christ’s love and grace. No love for bloggers. No grace for reporters. And no respect for either of them.
I ruefully smile that Faytene’s hissy fit—I had to listen to it over and over to get it down—made me feel a bit like the lost dog in the old joke.
The owner puts up a “lost dog” sign. It reads like this:
“Lost Dog. Blind in Right Eye. Deaf in Left Ear. Missing his right front leg.”
“Answers to the name: Lucky”
;)