After reading this article I would urge you to sign the petition. I have placed three links to the page in this article where you can do that.
Take action – sign the petition here.
When I think of Evangelicalism today suffice it to say that my head is not filled with pleasant thoughts. I could write a litany of detailed corruption amongst the celebrity leadership, and in fact I initially did so, but instead of rehashing the many negative stories I chose to delete a few hours of work, assuming that my readers will not contest the fact that American Evangelicalism is a ship that is badly listing.
I want to instead highlight Reformation Baptist Church, a small church in Youngsville, NC that has reassured me that there are still some local churches that are fighting the good fight. What this church has done in researching the corruption in Nigeria VOM is amazing and quite commendable.
I received the following email two days ago:
Hello Todd,I am writing to you, because I am hoping you will be able to help us expose this evil situation that is going on in Nigeria. A group visiting there for ministry from our church was told of a very sad situation where the girls in an orphanage that Voice of the Martyrs runs in Nigeria (the Stephens Center) were being abused by their staff.The director: Isaac Newton, has habitually abused the girls, and then has taken them to have their babies aborted, and one of the girls has even had to have her womb removed.Other than the sexual abuse that goes on, the children are not fed or provided for adequately – and VOM has advertised this Orphanage and raised money for it!Isaac Newton is now trying to cover up and discredit us, so that he can continue in his wicked ways. He has threatened the girls he has abused not to speak up, and also his former employees who blew the whistle on him.We’ve spent the last year fighting to get justice for these girls and to get VOM to stop the evil and make sure it never happens again. We have been in lengthy contact with members from them, sending all the board members the video well before we released it last week. We contacted Richard Wurmbrand, the founder’s son, (Editors note: they actually contacted Michael Wurmbrand, Richard’s son.) and he has told us that VOM is fully corrupt and will not deal with it.So far he seems to be right, they have shown themselves to be more interested in covering up the scandal than doing the right thing. They told us they defunded him, but then gave him $100,000 worth of property and materials. So now we’re trying to shine the light of truth on this darkness. Would you help us by making this video more available to the public and asking people to sign the petition that we’ve created, calling VOM to do an outside investigation, and be open about what went on there?We have put together a video and website persecutingthepersecuted.com.Thank you very much,Andrea Horn from Reformation Baptist Church
Isaac Newton, VOM leader in Nigeria charged with raping many girls entrusted to his care.
Prior to getting into the important issues that the Reformation Baptist Church has raised, I believe it would be helpful to review the Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) organizaton.
“The Voice of the Martyrs was founded in 1967 by Richard Wurmbrand, a Romanian Lutheran/Anglican pastor, who had worked with the underground church in Romania after it was taken over by the USSR in 1944. As a consequence, he was imprisoned for 14 years for preaching Christianity but was eventually freed to the west after a ransom was paid for his release.
In 1966, Wurmbrand testified before the Internal Security Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate about the treatment that Christians received under Communist governments, raising worldwide interest in Christian persecution, and through his influence several missions were founded around the world to help support Christians who suffered under Communist persecution. After the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, these missions expanded their focus to include those suffering religious persecution in Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist societies.
In April 2012 the executive director of VOM-USA, Walter Thomas “Tom” White, committed suicide after a Bartlesville police investigation opened with him as a suspect for child sexual abuse of a ten-year-old female. On March 14, 2014, the son of the founder and longstanding employee of the ministry, Michael Wurmbrand of Torrance, California, called for an independent commission to fully investigate the matter within the nonprofit over a period of years as Thomas R. Holland, the police chief was a board member as well as other financial related matters involving the construction of a $28M headquarters building and concerns over a vice president who was an embezzlement felon. All allegations relate only to VOM-USA and are unrelated to other VOM missions worldwide.”
-Wikipedia
Below is an excerpt from an article on Tom White’s suicide, found in Christianity Today.
AN OPEN LETTER CONCERNING “THE VOICE OF THE MARTYRS”
Dear Friend:
Those who read my website know that I am very fond of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand and his wife Sabina. My wife and I knew them quite well. They spoke in our church many times. I can vouch for Pastor Wurmbrand’s absolute integrity. But we have received disturbing news from Pastor Wurmbrand’s son Michael concerning “The Voice of the Martyrs,” located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I am advising our church not to send any more donations to “The Voice of the Martyrs” until they clear up the questions raised by Michael Wurmbrand. Michael is a 75-year-old man. He is very serious and he is concerned about his father’s and mother’s names being used to raise money that he says is not going to the persecuted peoples of the world, but is rather being misused by “The Voice of the Martyrs.” Please click here to read Michael Wurmbrand’s accusation against “The Voice of the Martyrs.” I wish I didn’t have to report this to you, but I feel compelled to as a friend of the late Pastor Richard Wurmbrand. You can contact Michael Wurmbrand after 6:00 PM by phoning him at (310)544-0814. Or you can email him at wurmbrandm@yahoo.com.
Yours in Jesus’ Name,
Pastor R. L. Hymers, Jr.
D.Min., Th.D., Litt.D.
Philippians 4:13
“After I brought all of these facts to light, I was asked also to keep quiet, not to rock the boat. Before being laid off I was offered substantial contractual financial incentives not to “badmouth” VOM. Some of the organizations endorsing Voice of the Martyrs have interrelated employees and interests. When I approached them, they were shy and sore afraid for their own interests to insist my letter be answered. Some pathetic answers like: “Do not cast the first stone,” “king Solomon made mistakes ,” “we might also sin” or “promise to keep correspondence private only” displayed the hypocrisy to protect the flow of donations rather than any interest in protecting possible children victims! Some answers were outright sarcastic, as if my requesting a proper investigation regarding suspected pedophilia among “Christian missionaries” would be some joke.”
-Michael Wurmbrand, son of the founder of “The Voice of the Martyrs,” Richard Wurmbrand.
[gview file=”http://wurmbrandmichael.com/index.pdf” save=”0″]
The Reformation Baptist Church, through circumstances described in the video below, became aware of gross mismanagement of funds in the Voice of Martyrs Nigeria. Most of the money came from Voice of Martyrs in America. In addition the church was also made aware of terrible abuse occuring at an orphanage in Abeokuta, Nigeria. This orphanage is called Stephen Centre and was run by Isaac Newton, head man of VOM in Nigeria.
I would urge you to watch the video below. It is about 45 minutes in length. The Reformation Baptist Church did an outstanding job of researching and producing this; it will definitely awaken a righteous anger in you. Once you have watched it you will want to sign the petition. I suggest you will also want to cease contributing to VOM. As Michael Wurmbrand stated, they are fully corrupt.
Take action – sign the petition here.
Below is a short, four minute excerpt from the video.
Take action – sign the petition here.
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