Articles

Parasitized Pastors

By Karl Priest April 22, 2009 (revised 7-17-11)

I recently visited two mainline churches of different denominations. Both churches had ample literature on display about the charitable work they were doing. Any literature that referred to Jesus about His love and everyone is a part of Him. I attended a Sunday morning service in one of the churches and saw absolutely no one carry in a Bible. I understood why when an adult Sunday school teacher announced his class was going to vote on which book to study in his class. The choices were The Prayer of Jabeez, The Shack, or Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life. I was surprised that Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen was not an option.

Sadly, big name preachers like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen remind me of when caterpillars are attacked by a special kind of wasp. The wasp lays eggs inside the caterpillar with little or no pain. Some caterpillars are paralyzed, but alive. Others continue to move about. That caterpillar, in all its gaudiness, continues on its merry way gorging itself with no realization of what is happening inside. The eggs hatch into larvae and caterpillar now has an invader inside of which it is quite unaware.

Some wasps inject a substance that disables the caterpillar’s immune system which prevents a counter attack upon the invader. The secret invader can keep the caterpillar from maturing and therefore remaining a shelter for what will soon bring the caterpillar’s demise.

The caterpillar is being stealthily devoured from within. The invader works in a systematic way to prolong the caterpillar’s functioning as a walking dead entity. The caterpillar’s fluids are drained and then its fat tissue. Next to go is muscle followed by the non-vital organs. Finally, the invader takes the vital organs such as the heart.

One particularly poignant method used by some invaders is to only consume the caterpillar’s fluids, then eat through the caterpillar’s skin and start to turn into a cocoon nearby. Some invaders remain inside and seem to have control over the caterpillar. The caterpillar doesn’t move or eat and only sits arched over the invader cocoons. If a threat to the invader cocoons gets near, the caterpillar will move in protective motions to run off an enemy which would be harmless to the caterpillar. When the invader is ready to emerge and reveal itself the caterpillar dies.

This alarming analogy is one that I wish were not true. Unfortunately, when Warren and Osteen compromise to appease Larry King, they appear to be (and so are their churches by extension) invaded by an enemy that is letting them function for his purposes.

This analogy applies to lots of local pastors.

The course ahead, unless the enemy is excised, is spiritual decay and ultimate demolition. The course ahead, unless the enemy is excised, is spiritual decay and ultimate demolition.

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Also see Panty Waist Pastors.