More Sex Scandal, Circling the Wagons Around a Deceased Kingmaker

Since the weather's dreary, I thought I would peruse Ben Cole's for a little rainy-day humor. Ben's always good for a laugh. Instead, I stumbled across the big sex scandal that is going on at Bellvue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn. Bellvue is where famous fundy Adrienne Rodgers pastored for many years. Rodgers may be best described as the Senator Palpatine of the Fundamentalist Takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was the public face of Emperor Patterson's phantom menace.

One can only imagine the machinations that have gone on behind the scenes since the new guy took over. For some reason, anytime a pastor quits, the church must undermine the new guy. This particular the case with someone like Rodgers, who is all but worshipped in fundy circles. But it really exploded when it came out that a long-time staff member admitted to being a child molester, and the new pastor kept silent for more than six months.

The new guy, Steve Gaines, already seems to be unpopular. There is a whole web site dedicated to his destruction. He's pretty funny too, as one reads his resume it comes off like a used car salesman ... he's the top Jesus salesman in Alabama! But I digress. And we wonder why churches are dying. Gaines should call Joel Gregory and learn about stepping into a hornet's nest. Rodgers I guess in many ways was W.A. Criswell's fundy successor - big-money, big-time mega-church leader, cult of personality. Seems like a lot of the little fundies look up to Rodgers like the older fundies looked up to Criswell.

What is funny now, is the full-scale PR effort/legacy salvation/spin control/revisionist history that is being launched to make sure everyone knows that Rodgers never knew his longtime staff member, Paul Williams, was not a child molester. Our buddy Ben makes Rodger's widow, Joyce, seem almost divine as she comes out to defend her husband's honor. Yet, she offers no words of prayer or consolation for the victim, for Williams, for the church ... she just wants to make sure everyone knows that Adrienne didn't know. Here we have a family friend, someone the Rodgers know for more than 30 years, has lost his ministry, his reputation, and all Joyce can think about is protecting her late husband's legacy.

I think I see a parallel between Joyce and Betty C. If anyone read's Gregory's book or knows much about FBCD, it was Betty as much as Willie that ruled San Jacinto Street. One cannot rise to political power in the SBC - or any institution for that matter - without burying some bodies and a wife willing to hold the shovel.

Now I was not born yesterday. Is Joyce and the rest of the Rodgers apologists asking us to believe that Paul Williams, a long-time friend and employee of Rodgers who appears on his memorial video, never once confessed to his mentor but confesses to this new pastor within six months of his ascension to the throne? Gaines told the church a "retired staff member" knew about the incident ... who else would it be? Did Williams confess to the youth minister? The A/V guy? The janitor? Either something fishy is going on or Rodgers was such a terrible pastor that his own friends and collegues did not trust him or his ministry.

What is lost in all of this tragedy is that a young person was sexually molested by his relative, and that it provides another example of Christian hypocrisy. What is even more telling is that for all the PR/BS about Rodgers, just like when he was alive, the focus is more about power and legacy than healing and redemption.