Just consider the abject stupidity of their yarn here. Three well respected former pastors and board members of IHOP must have all secretly hated Mike Bickle for some unknown reason. So, they concocted an elaborate web of lies involving at least eight woman spanning forty years but they apparently made up all the stories because five of them now have allegedly "recanted." They must have also been lying when they claim to have approached Bickle and been rebuffed, even though Bickle has not commented, on anything. Instead, innocent Mike agrees to step down, instead of fighting, for a matter he refuses to even publicly refute. These three rogue former IHOP leaders then present this to current leadership who brokers the step down but then realize they may have been too quick to act because random people start making Facebook posts. They hire a local lawyer to represent them, not the victims, and then lie about contacting GRACE after they publicly change their mind about using them. Oh, but it is not on them. It is all on the victim group. They do not need someone independent because they want to first vet the charges themselves despite their clear subjectivity. Oh, and the most damning accusation? They seem to dismiss out of hand that their leader when he was 42, prophetically manipulated a 19-year-old sheep into a decades long sexual relationship just because it started prior to IHOP being founded. Very Christian. Maybe Bickle can teach on holiness again. Yeah, this dog won't hunt beloved.
In all likelihood, these are credible accusations. Maybe some have changed their mind and recanted due to the pressure I am sure people, their friends and maybe Bickle himself put that pressure on them. The three former leaders were nothing but respected up until they dared to try and help these victims. Now they are maligned and marginalized by the current leadership who is clearly compromised. They pretended to want to get outside help but quickly recanted due to the same pressures the recanters probably faced. It is vile. It is disgusting. It is obvious. Their needs to be a crescendo of outside demand and insistence from within their own community to stop defending Bickle and hire GRACE to investigate. Then they need to shut up until the results are in. If they are so confident of Bickle's innocence then this would be a no-brainer. The fact that they themselves are lying, manipulating and disparaging the victims and former colleagues tells you all you need to know. There is something rotten in Kansas City. There has been since Mike Bickle brought his horribly warped theology there but now the rot has deepened as it usually does on all cult leaders. Enough is enough.
Reverend Anthony Wade - November 17, 2023
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