Christian Advocacy
The particular advocacy I offer are for those who
claim to suffer abuse from institutional church leadership or who otherwise need a
witness to correct the leadership in accordance with Mt 18 "If
your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you
and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if
he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of
two or three witnesses every word may be established." and "Do
not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by
two or three witnesses. Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly, so
that the others may take warning." 1Tim 5:19,20
The history of post-Biblical Christianity has
demonstrated that institutional leadership has characteristically run
roughshod over Christians, judging them without having a legitimate
scriptural basis for doing so, and that with impunity, not allowing
themselves to be likewise scrutinized. In fact, due to the pride
characteristic of religious leadership, such as Jesus spoke of in Mt 23
and elsewhere, scrutinizing church leadership they generally treat as a
sin so heinous as to be a basis for excommunication, and in former days a
basis for putting Christians to death, just as in the case of Jesus.
Consequently Christians, so abused, go without
advocacy due to cowardly fellow Christians feeling intimidated at the
idea of scrutinizing the religious elite. And so I offer my services, as
Jesus and Paul instruct. But I will not involve my self in a
civil lawsuit as Paul writes, "I am writing you
that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but
is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or
a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of
mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those
inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among
you. If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it
before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do you not
know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the
world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?" 1Cor 5:11-6:2