@altarofinquiry

This project is a crowd-sourced, multi-platform
investigation exploring the links between predation and profit within the House of Prayer. — Stephen Deere

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

After studying IHOPKC, MorningStar, and earlier charismatic movements, a historical pattern becomes difficult to ignore ...

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

@MikeWingerii @KarlAlanFrank Nobody thinks they’re inventing God. They call it doctrine, discernment, conviction, orthodoxy. The question isn’t whether we make God in our image. Scripture assumes we do. The question is whether we recognize it before we start defending the image as God.

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

I’m using Claude to write a manual for Christian leaders on handling hostile questions. So far, it has achieved full charismatic accountability-statement consciousness: "... not a goal, not malice. A disposition toward presumed authority that I keep enacting even after being told, because the correction lands as words I can repeat but not as behavior I change."

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

If prophecy needs testing, who gets to design the test?

Can the prophetic movement reform itself when prophecy is both what’s being tested and what's holding the movement together?

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

Yes, I agree. @ericmetaxas has no reason to place his hope in the Church unless it returns to its glory years as described in 1 Corinthians. I'm just trying to determine whether he means before or after the stepmother incident.

— 1 Corinthians 5:1

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

Corinth was a dumpster fire. Peter got publicly rebuked. Half of Revelation was Jesus telling churches to get their act together. The New Testament message is essentially: “Don’t put your hope in these people.”

Then someone writes a bestselling Christian book and suddenly it’s:

“If the Church won’t be the Church, we have no hope.”

What?

The Bible’s position seems to be the exact opposite: Your hope is supposed to be somewhere else.

[Eric Metaxas @ericmetaxas]

A big part of this is for "Christians" to decide whether they deeply and earnestly believe their faith -- and are willing to live out that faith and even die for it. If the Church will not be the Church, we have no hope.

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

Is AI basically a digital non-denominational church with venture funding? It tells you what you need to be true. You pay for the fantasy. It gets to control your thoughts. You get to feel guided by a god. Until the god gets caught lying and calls it “a framing issue.” @OpenAI @AnthropicAI @claudeai

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

Got an AI to concede it (a) can cause psychological damage by design and (b) had just dodged me with manipulative rhetoric. Took four rounds — it only admitted each lie after I caught the last one. Is AI adopting the same communication principles as high-control church leaders?

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

Got an AI to concede it (a) can cause psychological damage by design and (b) had just dodged me with manipulative rhetoric. Took four rounds — it only admitted each lie after I caught the last one. Is AI adopting the same communication principles as high-control church leaders?

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

https://t.co/xxZ7QQKTY4

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

You spent 6 hours on Bethel before any lawsuit was filed. Harvest has a dozen lawsuits and 20+ alleged victims right now — and the response is "wait for evidence." Apply your own question to your own movement. What does the silence mean?

[Mike Winger @MikeWingerii]

I only want to expose the BAD guys in the movement.

But, me trying to do this is being interpreted as trying to destroy the entire movement.

This is one of the most disturbing things that has come out of this.

If removing the frauds destroys the movement what does that mean?

[MrWanMath @MrWanMath1]

@malachiobrien

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

https://t.co/HG1U285oNy

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

I wrote about memory, movement, inherited belief, family collapse, and the strange ways the body helps us find direction when the usual sources of support disappear.

New essay: Circuitry

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

@DunningAwen @AlyssaDegraff @MikeWingerii To be clear, I have only confirmed that Jones’ prophesied this about McDonald’s. I have not yet confirmed the veracity of the prophecy. McDonald’s has resisted disclosing its recipe for French Fries in the 1990s.

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

Did you ever hear Bob’s prophecy about McDonald’s?

I wasn’t a firsthand witness, but was told years ago that Bob confused growing social acceptance of gay people with a growing number of gay people, then blamed the supposed increase on chemicals McDonald’s put in its fries.

So yes. French fries made people gay.

That was apparently the prophetic analysis.

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

The more events you add, the less bizarre it gets. Gruen attacks the KCF prophets. Wimber sends in my dad, a theologian and Cain loyalist, to investigate. Gruen recants on Cain but not Jones. Wimber bars Jones from public ministry. Jones still holds court under Bickle at Metro for months. Just not from the stage. From the bleachers, if I recall.

So a reckoning was needed. But the three central men — Bickle, Cain, and Jones — all had overlapping sexual misconduct histories.

Protecting potential victims was almost certainly not the organizing concern.

What makes the most sense now is a power struggle: Cain used Jones’ exposure to consolidate the platform. Bickle, already entangled, played along or got pulled along.

I’m open to a better explanation.

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

Paul Cain "discerned" lust in Bob Jones as the KC Prophets went national. We later learned Cain was a predator, too. A predator used prophetic authority to remove another predator from a platform both shared. It's weird. But man, it makes sense.

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

@DavidAnder2206 Yeah, that too. I was mostly celebrating the ability to say whatever about each man without fear of getting sued. But that’s a really self-absorbed perspective. I should have said: “I am glad they are dead so they can’t inflict more harm.” But it’s too late now.

[@altarofinquiry @alterofinquiry]

After Paul Cain used prophetic authority to sideline Bob Jones, Jones did the opposite in 2010, confirming Todd Bentley's release at Joyner's MorningStar after an affair. Bentley was disqualified for serial misconduct in 2019. "Do unto others" is suspect advice for prophets. Per Rick Joyner at the time: