The Christian Sentinel
January 2005 E-update
Wallwatchers
Slams CRI and Hank Hanegraaff; Christian Sentinel
Continues to Call for CRI Leader to Step Down
Editorial
Comment by William M. Alnor, Ph.D.
(Posted
Jan. 1, 2005)
ã
2005 Christian Sentinel
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NOTE: This article continues from the left side on our January 2005 E-update. It begins: Nonprofit
Watchdog Group Urges Donors to Consider Not
Supporting the Christian Research Institute
CONTINUED: This apparent ECFA complicity in covering up CRI’s transgressions also illustrates that ECFA is not a good enforcer of accountability, particularly when the organization is receiving thousands of dollars each year from CRI. See our editorial that quotes media expert Dr. Quentin Schultze discussing the inadequacy of ECFA and the National Religious Broadcasters. The MinistryWatch.com website provides excellent links to more information revealing the inside story on the CRI situation, including these articles written by Michael Barrick: -- Was CRI Whistle Blower Justified? When complaints fall on deaf ears, what is the proper biblical response? -- CRI Refuses Repeated Requests for Information. Stonewalling by ministry leads MinistryWatch.com to issue Donor Alert Christian Sentinel editorial comment: In the recent sci-fi blockbuster movie "I, Robot" that features rampaging robots attempting to take over the Earth, Detective Spooner (played by Will Smith) a critic of robots declares, "Somehow `I told you so' just doesn’t quite say it!" Similarly, The Christian Sentinel for years has been ringing the alarm bell calling for the resignation of Hanegraaff and for donors to stop contributing to CRI. We have documented a pattern of out of control spending, a lack of biblical discernment on various issues, constant fundraising appeals (some of which are unethical), board of directors shenanigans, and deception and corruption ranging to the highest levels of CRI, while Hank and Kathy Hanegraaff’s salaries (combined including expense accounts and other perks) zoomed to more than $400,000 per year. We will continue to do this as we learn of new lies and deceptions inside CRI. Meanwhile the amount of CRI revenue reportedly spent on more fundraising (including telephone solicitors) utilizing huge mass marketing firms, has zoomed to almost 20 percent, while the average ministry norm is about a third of that. In my recent doctoral dissertation (successfully defended at Temple University in Philadelphia on June 22) I outlined that Hanegraaff had extensively plagiarized radio and television preacher D. James Kennedy’s work, and that several of his paid researchers, Elliot Miller and Gretchen Passantino issued deceptive statements covering it up. See http://www.cultlink.com/plagiarism/plaglies.htm. He also extensively plagiarized several other authors. Further, we believe every pastor and Christian leader should know about the troubles and problems at CRI so they can urge others to not contribute. Permission is grated to E-mail copies of this E-update and other materials on CRI out to others. A good start would be to check out the links on our statement concerning Hanegraaff and CRI. It is newly revised and found at: http://tinyurl.com/3qv6f If you would like us to send them out for you, just sent us their E-mail addresses by writing editor@cultlink.com.
Again, do not support
CRI. Send your money elsewhere. The Christian Sentinel
endorses the following apologetics ministries: What about "The Last Disciple?" … In another matter concerning Hanegraaff, we cannot endorse his latest book co-written by Sigmund Brouwer called "The Last Disciple." The preterist position that Hanegraaff and Brouwer endorse in the book is not only untenable theologically, but it’s thoroughly unbiblical. We also see it as another money-grabbing attempt by Hanegraaff – an obvious try to cash in on the financial success of the Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye’s "Left Behind" potboiler series of books. The Preterist position proposes that all the events in the book of Revelation happened around A.D. 70 and that Roman Emperer Nero was the Antichrist. Although Hanegraaff announced in taking on the project hat he hoped to change the "paradigm" of the church’s thinking on eschatology, it has had the opposite effect. It's ironic that a book co-written by the supposed Bible Answer Man posits such unbiblical drivel arrived at through faulty exegesis that has thoroughly been debunked a long time ago. Naturally, the book has been met with surprise – and anger by some, and many rightly see it as a book that cuts away at the authority of the Bible. Some Christian bookstores are refusing to stock it, and former Hanegraaff ally Chuck Smith, founder of the Calvary Chapel movement, has refused to allow it in his bookstore and has authorized the Calvary Distribution network not to carry the book. (It is also true that Smith has been distancing himself from Hanegraaff for a long time for multiple reasons.) We also note that much of CRI resources have been used to promote the selling and marketing of the book, which goes against the grain of the prophetic beliefs of most of the CRI employees -- and most scholars and apologists. Meanwhile, Hanegraaff who has been engaging in numerous ungodly attacks against "Left Behind" authors Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye on his radio program, has abandoned Southern California and most of his employees who are still serving him in Southern California and has settled in a new house in a multi-million dollar gated community in the Charlotte area by a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus. The CRI employees rarely see him. See our August E-update for more details (http://tinyurl.com/3p9zp).
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