Her allegations brought down megachurch pastor Bruxy Cavey. Then the anonymous trolls came for her.
By now most readers of this blog know that I’m a huge evangelical Christian. When I was going to seminary, almost 50% of the students I met on my very first day of class were Christian. I was so surprised to find out so much about my own faith that I thought I didn’t have any idea what I was about to discover. To me, Christianity is a faith, not a race, a philosophy or a culture. It is something that is deeply important and deeply personal. It’s not a set of ideas or beliefs. It’s an experience. It’s something you can know and touch and share. It’s one of the most transformative experiences I’ve ever been through.
This week, I was walking to the subway from my office when I saw a small group of protestors on the steps of a church right outside my building. They were protesting an upcoming sermon by Pastor Bruxy Cavey and were standing in the street in front of the church with their signs and chants. They held up signs that read #BoycottCavey and #ThisIsAClearingMassacre. As I read the signs, I realized why the protestors were protesting.
I don’t know how many people have written to me to complain about the way the media covered this story. Maybe they were angry but mostly they were scared. People are scared of having their faith questioned on social media.
In fact, the pastor had a lot of social media followers back when he first came to prominence. After all, he’s a megachurch pastor who has been featured in Newsweek, Time and The New York Times. As of this writing, the church’s Facebook page has nearly 3,000 likes.
Now, I am not saying that all evangelical Christians are good people. A certain segment of the church just want to pick on everyone else’s beliefs, and they don’t care if they are hurt. I am saying that what happened to Dr. Cavey is not an isolated incident.
This is not an attack on the church or the gospel. I am not attacking my own faith either. I’m not an apostate or confused thinker with a broken heart. I