EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK: A Win For Transparency

Editor’s Note:  Most Saturdays we will feature this “Editor’s Notebook” column.  MinistryWatch President Warren Smith will comment on one or more stories in the week’s news, adding an additional perspective or, sometimes, a behind-the-scenes look at how the story came to be. 

A Win For Transparency.  A Louisiana church led by the spokesman for the Conservative Baptist Network has been ordered to turn over nearly a decade of financial records to former members. 

In a pair of court filings, members of First Baptist Church of Bossier, Louisiana, accused pastor Brad Jurkovich of diverting to the Conservative Baptist Network funds meant to support missionaries. They also allege that Jurkovich blocked them from seeing church financial records, in violation of Louisiana nonprofit law, and that the pastor illegally changed the church’s bylaws.

Judge Charles Smith of the 26th Judicial Court in Bossier Parish ruled that the church had to turn over financial records dating back to 2013. Those records include bank statements, W-2 statements, paid invoices, purchase orders, and bank deposits and transfers. 

The church was also ordered to turn over details of staff housing allowances, names of staffers holding church credit cards and cellphones, and any loan documents or nondisclosure agreements related to the church.

Also at issue: changes made to the church’s bylaws in 2014, giving Jurkovich the ability to remove church members from the congregation—which had previously been a decision made by the church’s board of directors.

This ruling is a win for transparency and accountability.  These practices, the use of NDAs and centralizing power in the hands of a single man, the pastor, are all practices MinistryWatch discourages, and practices that we have seen lead to scandal elsewhere.  

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Pro-Lifers Targeted.  It is somewhat ironic that Joel Osteen has been targeted by pro-abortion activists.  Joel Osteen is famous for avoiding controversy.  Though he has said that he is pro-life, he hasn’t been outspoken in his politics or in his pro-life activism.

So it is notable that three activists with a Texas pro-abortion group interrupted a service at Joel Osteen’s Houston megachurch, Lakewood Church, last weekend by stripping to their underwear and shouting “my body, my choice,” “Overturn Roe, Hell no,” and other epithet-laced slogans. 

The activists, part of the group Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, were protesting the possibility of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states to set their own abortion policies. 

But why target Lakewood for this activism?

At least part of the answer is probably that the group knew it would generate media coverage.  Lakewood, an evangelical non-denominational Christian church led by Osteen, is one of the largest congregations in the United States, with average weekly attendance in the tens of thousands. 

And I should admit that this fact did cause me to think hard about this issue before we published the story.  Would we not be contributing to the publicity these pro-abortion activists are seeking?

The answer I came to was:  Yes, it is possible that we could be giving these activists the very publicity they are seeking, but it’s also important that pro-life pastors and church leaders know that this disruption happened.  This event was just one of several similar acts of disruption and vandalism by pro-abortion activists in the past week.  A pregnancy resource center (PRC) in Buffalo, N.Y., was firebombed this week.  Vandals in Seattle painted these words on the door and sidewalk of a PRC: “If abortion isn’t safe, you aren’t either.”  A similar message was painted on the door of a PRC in Asheville, N.C.

In Wisconsin a group calling itself Jane’s Revenge took credit for the firebombing of Wisconsin Family Action, a pro-life advocacy group.

Given these incidents, I made the decision to cover this story, even at the risk of giving the groups the publicity they seek.  My bias is always that it is always better to know than not to know, to be informed rather than uninformed.  The truth always sets us free.  Part of the truth of this story is that the pro-abortion groups will get some notice that they might not otherwise have had.  I can only hope that our readers will understand this story as a warning.  Because if a church such as Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church can be targeted, a church that doesn’t a strong stand on this issue, then no church is safe.