Valleygate

It has been a tough year for the BGCT. Valleygate pretty much blew up in its face during its annual meeting this month in Dallas. For those two blog readers who may be unfamiliar with Valleygate, check out David Montoya's blog. I do not know Rev. Montoya, but he gets a lot of cred from me. He once was a shining young star among fundamentalists. Once, he saw their anti-Christian and unethical behavior, he basically ratted them out and became a pariah. He seems like a man whose eye is on the prize; unlike apparently some BGCT leaders.

Valleygate essentially involves $1.3 million laundered from church-planting funds by a couple of guys starting Mexican churches in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. This did not come as a big surprise to me. A dear friend of mine - who is Mexican - relayed to me years ago about how it is not uncommon for Mexican pastors in the U.S. to rake in tons of dough overseeing "churches." Like in the Valley, many of these churches are made up of extended family members and really would not pass muster as a fundable church - but anyone who has been to a church meeting in the last three years knows that you can get just about anything if you put "Hispanic Initiative" in front of it. One meeting even caused one very liberal pastor to exclaim, "enough about the Hispanics already."

But that is not really the issue. I guess it is part of it. The BGCT clearly turned its head and put it in the sand regarding this matter all in the name of cultural sensitivity or political correctness. The FBI told the BGCT in 2000 there were problems in the Valley, but the BGCT ignored it. Now, the BGCT is doing what all institutions do - running, blaming and CYAing. Montoya and others' claims for accountability have fallen on deaf ears.

As hard as it may be, Charles Wade must fall on his sword for being on watch while $1.3 million of church gifts were stolen for nice houses, Range Rovers and Jaguars. Wade probably is innocent of any fraud - but you know what they say about ships and captains. Clearly, like it probably has for 100 years, the good-ole-boy network is out protecting its own. I think the sad part is that it shows there really may not be that much difference between the SBC and the BGCT - just the labels. On the inside, a people who may be doing what they think is right but life has turned the gospel into an institution.

In Dallas, the BGCT had a special opportunity. An opportunity to be countercultural. It failed.