Baptist Preacher Models His Style on George W. Bush: Autocracy Rules
What happens when a Southern Baptist megachurch congregation starts to question the iron-fisted rule of its preacher? Things get nasty in a hurry. Rev. Jerry Sutton, is facing complaints that he spent church money on his daughter’s wedding. Oh, and he watched p‚àö‚àèrn on his church computer and had an affair with a female member of the congregation. Sutton has served as leader of Nashville’s Two Rivers Baptist Church for 21 years. The megachurch is located just across the highway from the Grand Ole Opry. In 2005 the church hosted the “Justice Sunday II” rally, where then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and others criticized judicial activism to a national audience of evangelical Christians. Of course, that was before the Supremes got down to rewriting the Bill of Rights, etc. Sutton’s people deny the p‚àö‚àèrn and affair, which were investigated by the congregation’s human resources staff and found ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ surprise ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ to be baseless.
Wow…as it turns out, Christians are just as prone to the same vices and shortcomings that the rest of us poor, unchurched heathen are. Given the right amount of power, money, an inflated ego, and the judicious application of knuckle-dragging sycophants, even the most well-meaning preacher can turn into an uber-religious version of a cross between J. Edgar Hoover and Tom DeLay.
Sutton, as it turns out, almost transcends the role of a mere DUMB@$$. In point of fact, he’s a Grade-A, world-class @$$HOLE, who just happens to use his church and his flock for his own enrichment and self-aggrandizement. Those with the temerity to challenge him soon find themselves on the outside looking in. Somewhere along the line, Rev. Sutton forgot that his ministry isn’t about him. It’s not about making him wealthy or powerful, and it’s certainly not about providing him with his own empire. No, Sutton’s ministry is supposed to be about his flock and honoring the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Then again, given Sutton’s autocratic, holier-than-thou proclivities, there might just be a place for him in the Department of Justice, where dominionist, theocratic Republicans are always welcome.
Thankfully, Jerry Sutton is a pronounced minority among Christians, but it’s DUMB@$$E$ like him who give modern Christianity a bad name. What would Jesus do? No doubt, he begin by kicking Sutton’s corrupt, self-righteous, power-mad @$$.
