Heresy

One of the radio programs I listen to on my runs is "This American Life". Last week, their program was about the Reverend Carlton Pearson.

You can read the transcript or listen to the show at the link.

I found the story fascinating and heartbreaking at the same time. If you are Biblically literate or a student of biblical theology, you will quickly realize that just about everything this man says in the course of the program is utter gibberish - incoherently jumping from one non sequiter to the next.

What makes it all so fascinating is that someone with such flawed theology and limited understanding of the Bible could be so successful in the upper reaches of the Evangelical movement. It reminded me once again that in our age where charisma has taken the place of substance, you don't have to be wise, devout or even Biblically literate to be a church super-star.

As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

- Acts 17:10-12

Teaser:

The story of Reverend Carlton Pearson, a renowned evangelical pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who cast aside the idea of Hell, and with it everything he'd worked for over his entire life.

Carlton Pearson's church, Higher Dimensions, was once one of the biggest in the city, drawing crowds of 5,000 people every Sunday. But several years ago, scandal engulfed the reverend. He didn't have an affair. He didn't embezzle lots of money. His sin was something that to a lot of people is far worse: He stopped believing in Hell.

Reporter Russell Cobb takes us through the remarkable and meteoric rise of Carlton Pearson from a young man to a Pentecostal Bishop: from the moment he first cast the devil out of his 17-year-old girlfriend, to the days when he had a close, personal relationship with Oral Roberts and had appearances on TV and at the White House. Just as Reverend Pearson's career peaked, with more than 5,000 members of his congregation coming every week, he started to think about Hell, wondering if a loving God would really condemn most of the human race to burn and writhe in the fire of Hell for eternity.