# Voice of the Martyrs troubles



## Pergamum (Mar 17, 2014)

From the Lighthouse BlogRichard Wurmbrand’s Son, Michael Wurmbrand, Comes Forth – Asks VOM to Allow Independent Investigation

Over the past several months I have been very discouraged by all the failures and sins I have seen in the ministry. From missionary conflict I have experienced myself, to spiritual abuse and authoritarianism, anger and lack of love I have seen in myself, to the misdeeds of celebrity pastors, and especially the sexual scandals of men who preach against these very kinds of sin (especially those sins done to children). 

Here is a link to recent news about the Voice of the Martyrs.


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## Hamalas (Mar 17, 2014)

Tragic indeed.


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## Free Christian (Mar 17, 2014)

Sad stuff indeed Pergamum. What's even sadder is that it is not slowing down, rather it is, all that type of thing, gaining momentum. Paedophilia is growing at an alarming rate in all walks of society the world over. As is the ripping off of people through supposed charity organisations. So much done wrong, supposedly in the name of Christ. Sadly too people have become accustomed to the "see then sweep" syndrome. They see something bad that happens and go "look at that, its terrible" they react for a short time, show their outrage but it does not take long before the "sweep" comes into play and its swept aside and forgotten about. Over here there was a terrible rape murder last year, people were outraged, and rightfully so, there was a seen change in people noted on the streets too by police and welfare workers. But these people, the police and welfare workers were visited 1 month later. They said "there was a noticeable change for about 3 to 4 weeks but its like its over now and all back to normal, the street violence has returned to what it used to be before the incident". See and sweep. Fast everything world, things quickly forgotten by the masses. Sad. We pray for change.


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## Sensus Divinitas (Mar 17, 2014)

Very sad developments.


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## MarieP (Mar 18, 2014)

Is this legit? The only place I see this particular news discussed is on "watch blogs"...there was the news about Tom White a couple years ago, but this isn't as widespread.


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## Edward (Mar 18, 2014)

MarieP said:


> Is this legit?



Are you asking 'did they fail to investigate'
or 
Are you asking 'is he guilty of the accusation' 
or 
Are you asking 'was he accused'. 

As to the third Cops: Oklahoma ministry head dies amid abuse probe | Fox News

As to the second, suicide as opposed to denial suggests some guilt. Flight to avoid prosecution is evidence of guilt in some jurisdictions. 

As to the first, if there have been no other allegations, it would not be good stewardship to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an investigation of that sort. If there was another allegation, I would say that no stone should be left unturned. But to date, no allegation appears to have come forward, and no plaintiff's lawyers have surfaced. 

I do think that using the suicide as a fundraiser was in very poor taste. Heartfelt Letter from VOM's President on Tom White


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## MarieP (Mar 19, 2014)

Here at the SBTS library, we haven't received an issue since December. I've had to call a couple times, each time they said they'd send us the missing issues and get us back on the mailing list (somehow we got dropped). Is anyone else having the same problem? I wonder if the lack of magazines is related to this...of course, everything would be related to this!


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## Stephen L Smith (Mar 19, 2014)

Pergamum said:


> Over the past several months I have been very discouraged by all the failures and sins I have seen in the ministry.


Yes, tragic

I see Bill Gothard also stood down for sexual misconduct.


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## lynnie (Mar 19, 2014)

Sickening. Thanks for the link. They were one group I really admired.


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## Leslie (Mar 20, 2014)

I wonder if the devil puts in overtime to seduce those in a position of authority. An alternative is that there are a lot of garden-variety Christians out there who have also fallen similarly, but the facts have just not been made public. I certainly try to keep my giving as close as possible to the end recipient, a direct deposit into a personal account when and if this is feasible. International Aid was a great organization, went the same way.


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## Tirian (Mar 20, 2014)

What is it with these para-church organisations. It's almost as though they have no church governance at all.


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## Edward (Mar 20, 2014)

Tirian said:


> What is it with these para-church organisations. It's almost as though they have no church governance at all.



That's a cheap shot at parachurch organizations. It's not that hard to come up with similar examples from churches and 'churches'.


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## Nebrexan (Mar 20, 2014)

I'm not exonerating VOM but notice that Lighthouse Trails takes the "guilty until proven innocent" approach in their article:



> Second, *if indeed Michael’s statements are true* (and we have no reason or evidence to doubt they are), then in all fairness, the body of Christ needs to know these things.



In other words, "if the charges are true then we should publish them," but they publish them anyway. I'd caution us to avoid the same "guilty until proven innocent" error.


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## Tirian (Mar 20, 2014)

Nebrexan said:


> I'd caution us to avoid the same "guilty until proven innocent" error.



The sooner an independent audit is done the better for all, I should imagine.


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## Edward (Mar 20, 2014)

Tirian said:


> The sooner an independent audit is done the better for all, I should imagine.



http://www.persecution.com/uploads/media/downloads/176_2012auditedfinancialreport.pdf

I'd be more interested in comparing what the current exec is making with what the founder's family was making when they controlled the organization. I do hope that the convicted embezzler doesn't have access to the bank accounts.


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