There is a petition circling the internet, asking for justice for the victims of Bill Wininger.
This is definitely a negative!
How do I turn it into a positive?
I was saved as an adult. Growing up, there was no hero worship in my life. Totally unfamiliar concept.
When I got saved and we became a part of the ministry of FBC Hammond, hero worship was one of the mainstays of my newfound faith. Since these were the people who knew the truth about Christ, they must know the truth about everything, I reasoned. Therefore, it is important that we idolize the greats. And there were so many greats. They were constantly pointed out to us not only from the greatest of them all, Pastor Jack Hyles, but in every area of the ministry whoever was in charge (therefore one of the greats themselves) was careful to constantly put other greats before us.
Phoster Club may have been the worst for this. Every year at Pastor's School, we were called upon to go above & beyond (like everyone else). We wives of college students, without two dimes to rub together or a decent place to live (in many cases) were given the high honor of caring for the VIP's.
We had to scrape together our monies, then carefully plan to decorate & stock the hotel rooms in which these VIP's would be staying during Pastor's School.
We were so excited to do this for these Great Men of God. We would arrange with the hotel. We would scrape together enough money for the gas to drive to downtown Chicago. We would pay for parking, we would bargain with the hotel staff to allow us to gain access into the room. Did I say "room"? It was never a room. It was always a suite, opulent and first class of course. Jaw-dropping for us impecunious college wives. But never did we question -- we accepted that this is the deserved accommodation for such esteemed Men Of God. The aura! The mystique! The "we are not worthy of your bootstraps but we serve you happily since you are so above us! just please put in a good word with God on our behalf, maybe, if you can spare a second to think of us handmaidens, which really we don't ask of you because we know there are ever so many much more important things for you to do and think and pray for!"
But I digress.
We would scrape together every cent we could find. We would make banners and signs and I'm sure it all looked pretty homespun and cheap, but we would decorate, and find out their favorite everything (by submitting questionnaires ahead of time to their secretaries) -- favorite color, favorite scent, favorite soda, favorite candy bar, any pertinent likes or dislikes, etc -- and have baskets full of their favorites placed all over the room.
It was worth it to us. It was thought of as an incredible honor that we were chosen to do this. We were spoiling the Man of God!
I remember every encounter I ever had with one of the greats. It ALWAYS disappointed me that they really didn't seem all that great.
And what is positive? I can look back on all of this, and embarrassed as I am that I fell into the trap, I am relieved I got out. I can never, ever be gaga about someone who is supposedly great again. (One of which was Bill Wininger) And that is as it should be.
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