Just Mercy: Why IHOPKC Needs a New Third-Party Investigation
Author: Andrew Comiskey
May 13, 2024
‘Mercy
without justice is the mother of dissolution; justice without mercy is
cruelty.’ Thomas Aquinas
Remarkable.
Tragic.
IHOPKC is dissolving before our eyes. How
could something solid (24/7 prayer) led by someone true (Mike Bickle)
disintegrate in 6 months?
Mercy
without Justice
Perhaps
IHOPKC tried so hard to grant mercy—God’s unmerited pardon of human failings—that
it failed to recognize and remedy its own. Mercy may well triumph over the judgment
incurred by sin (Jm. 2:13) but some sins bite and devour the saints. Especially
those visited upon sheep by shepherds.
Riffing
on Aquinas, Joseph Pieper writes that ‘justice is the virtue which enables
humanity to give to each one his or her due’ (
The Four Cardinal Virtues).
That means that we as social creatures have some rights, some basic needs that others
must recognize. What is ‘due us’ need not involve huge entitlements, just protection
of basic human dignities. No justice, no dignity. And no clarity as to what we
need mercy for—the sins we commit or are committed against us—that can invite
His unfailing love and begin a process of healing and restoration.
Many
have accused IHOPKC of a host of injustices. For mercy to restore the abused, objective
markers of ‘abuse’ must be ascertained.
That’s
not as easy as it sounds. Abuse—the misuse of power—is big business these days.
The term is itself abused, so much so that those truly abused get lost in the
cultural clamor of trauma without end. A ‘victim’s’ convincing internet accusation
(where you become judge and jury) can assassinate the character of one innocent
until proven otherwise; it also launches civil suits that can score the
‘victim’ million-dollar settlements.
Big
money and big reputations are at stake today. ‘Influencers’ hope to manipulate
the system to prove a point, even if the point is a minor one that is more
‘offense’ than real ‘abuse.’ For example, inviting persons with same-sex
attraction to heal through a community of mercy is viewed by many in today’s
culture as ‘abuse,’ a Christian abuse of power for men and women who just want
to have fun. Who determines what?
That
is why a new third-party investigation is essential for IHOPKC. The latter
hired a lawyer to investigate this mess, but the block of credible witnesses didn’t
participate due to mistrust of the rather implausible lawyer IHOPKC hired.
Her weak report did justice to no one, in my humble opinion.
For mercy
to begin to heal the abused, justice must be served. Justice hinges on an
objective report involving experts, not Internet ‘influencers,’ who can use
their skills to distinguish felonies from misdemeanors, true guilt from
innocence. That applies to those claiming abuse as well as to alleged abusers, including
Mike Bickle.
Justice
without Mercy
Is
there restoration for Mike and others from IHOPKC? Can trust be rebuilt for
those undermined by IHOPKC leaders? Merciful Jesus can do both. But objectivity
is essential. Personal recollections and recounted memories are subjective by
nature and need to be submitted to a controlled fire—an extended scrutiny as to
separate wheat from chaff.
We
need a new third-party investigation process that highlights both wounds and wounders
so that ‘what is lame may not be disabled but rather healed’ (Heb. 12:13).
Most
dodge the hard work of such scrutiny. Restoration demands it. Jesus makes the narrow
way possible. Warning: I have participated in many expressions of disciplining shepherds
who failed to keep their bodily commitments of chastity with sheep or with each
other.
My
goal? Restoration of the shepherd, justice for the wounded sheep. In every
case, I have been accused by the accused and his loyalists of being
heavy-handed and rigorous. Those who shine the light of reality, however
imperfectly, are the first to be demonized. Unforgiving business.
Restoration
is easy to say, hard to walk out. But I will give each one his due, Mike Bickle
included. It’s up to each one under discipline to manifest contrition and
submission to an agreed upon course of restoration.
IHOPKC
strikes a deep and grateful chord in me. I am not untouched by its benefits. I ache
for its failures, beginning with Mike’s. I want and need to keep surrendering a
range of emotions (shock, fake peace and mercy, anger, hatred, etc.) to Christ
Crucified so I can line up with His merciful heart. He is God and loves people
on both sides more than I do.
He
doesn’t want any of us to grow hard due to yet another weird Body blow. Members
of that Body struggle to trust again. That’s where we need mercy. And the key
reminder of this Easter season: He is risen and He walks through walls to
invite radical repentance.
I am
not expecting Mike to make a valiant display of humility by coming clean
online. He can’t. Legal eagles forbid him. Millions of dollars are at stake.
That’s the litigious mess we are in.
While
writing this,
I was gutted by a report that the efforts to launch a
new third-party investigation of IHOPKC just failed. IHOPKC Board member Pastor
Shane Holden, brought on in November to broker such an investigation, just
resigned after the organization refused one yet again. ‘There is a trust issue at
IHOPKC right now…They do not have the trust of the greater body of Christ. Whereas
if you would just do this investigation, open things up, be transparent, you
would gain that trust back…’
My
biggest fear? That Mike will skip out, fueled by loud IHOPKC loyalists who
claim he is a Trump-like victim of ‘fake news,’ a martyr for Jesus, etc. That
would be the worst thing. That could tempt him to resurface in someone else’s sanctuary,
having failed to endure what he must to be restored: vindicated for some
things, refined necessarily for others.
Oh, for
a chance at real restoration—this good, flawed man enduring his cross publicly
for Jesus’ sake and ours. That requires, among other things, an expert and
thorough third-party investigation. Mercy hinges on justice, then mercy is free
to run like a river to cleanse and close this deep divide.
No new
third-party investigation? No justice, no mercy, no trust. Jesus, walk through
these walls.
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