In recent days, news has begun to trickle in the Christian community about a budding scandal at Daystar Television Network. For the most part, this news has stayed fairly buried, only showing up on fringe X accounts and lesser-known journalists’ websites. I have my suspicions about why that is, but I’ll get into that in a bit. In a nutshell, the story that is emerging is a tale as old as time. Jonathan Lamb, son of the late Marcus Lamb, and his wife Suzy have come forward with claims of sexual abuse against not only Suzy, but their young daughter as well. And the kicker — these abuse claims are from several employees of the Christian television network.

The Backstory

For a brief backstory, I am a former employee of the network. I know some of the people in this scandal personally. There was a time when I would have called these people the salt of the earth. I left the network in 2010 mere weeks before giving birth to my first child, but even as a twenty-something, fairly naive to the darkness that has been spreading its tentacles in the Church at large, I knew even then that something was just not quite right about that place. I had nothing but intuition and some quiet rumors circling throughout the staff. (A particular favorite point of gossip was the inconvenient fact that popped up in conversations in the breakroom often: that the name Daystar was given to Satan himself in scripture. Coincidence? I’ll let you decide.) I chalked it all up to nothing more than that phenomenon we’ve all encountered: weird Christians and fringe theology.

But as the years have gone on, as I have been a part of ministries over the years, a theme has emerged, one which I have explored often on this site. There is a pervasive and destructive tendency within the Church to protect the institution at the cost of the people within it.

Daystar is proving to be no exception to this rule.

Tight on the heels of the scandal that emerged this summer from my former church, Gateway, I’m now finding out that my former employer is embroiled in an equally dark scandal of a strikingly similar nature. I have to ask myself: what is happening here? Why do these scandals seem to be emerging more and more lately? Does someone have a vendetta?

The truth is, there is a clear vendetta against the Church. But I don’t think it’s the kind we’re so quick to blame. Is it the Enemy? Is Satan himself attacking the Church? The long and short of it is yes, but that’s an oversimplification of the problem. We’re working in tandem with him. We’re helping him. And until we become aware of our own part in this scandal, I fear it’s only going to continue to grow.

Why would a Christian family allegedly‡ cover up sexual abuse in the place where they work? Why would a God-fearing woman like Joni Lamb allegedly‡ go to the extent she has gone to ensure this story is buried? Why would she allegedly‡ willingly estrange herself from her son and grandchildren? Why would she allegedly‡ go to painstaking efforts to make sure the mainstream media doesn’t get wind of this story? Why would the child’s own parents allegedly‡ not speak out about it for three years?

To protect the institution, of course.

Daystar is a multi-million — and some even claim billion — dollar network. It is worldwide. Its influence is huge, even if you may not have heard the names Marcus, Joni, or Jonathan Lamb. The influence of this family is far-reaching and deeply engrained in the Christian community around the world. Daystar Television Network is a juggernaut in the industry, boasting broadcasts in every country in the world. They raise money by the millions every year for the sake of “missions.” That “missions” money, by the way, just goes toward adding more satellites and channels to the network. But that’s their “mission field,” I suppose. Never mind the lack of integrity in that turn of phrase alone. They convince viewers to donate millions of dollars by bringing on prosperity preachers who promise ten-fold returns on their investments. I know. I took those calls. One conversation branded me forever. I answered the phone during the semi-annual telethon the network used to raise funds (because it’s a non-profit, of course. And not just any non-profit, but a church). It was a sweet elderly woman who was crying as she spoke to me. She had nothing. No money. Deeply in debt. She maxed out her credit card — the last $1,000 to her name — to give to Daystar because the preacher on the screen told her that she’d get $10,000 back for her faithfulness.

That was the last call I took for that network. I left shortly after, feeling like a scumbag for running that credit card number.

A Cracked Foundation

Hand on the Bible, that is a true story and I see now that it was the beginning of the end of my love of megachurches, prosperity preachers, franchised Christianity, celebrity culture, and the shysters who call themselves men and women of God. So when I heard that Jonathan Lamb, son of the founder of Daystar and heir to that throne, had become a victim of his own system, I just got angry.

I know the guy personally. Are we best friends? No. But I’ve sat around the conference table with him many times. He’s a good man and the only one of the Lambs who seemed genuine to me. He was young when I knew him — not even married yet. But he was sincere and kind and didn’t seem to drink the same kool-aid his other family members drank. But even if he was a scumbag too, it wouldn’t make it right to be abused and then abused again in the alleged‡ cover-up by his own family.

How could it happen?

How could a family so willingly betray their own? How could they let a child become the victim of this kind of game? It’s clear that both sides failed her for the simple reason that Marcus and Joni were quick to allegedly‡ (and I use this as a pejorative) “listen to the voice of God” and dismiss the allegations against the family member accused of molestation, but Jonathan and Suzy were also allegedly‡ eager to obey and submit to their parents and spiritual leaders, at the cost of their own consciences.

Let me be clear: I have been in their shoes. I have laid aside my misgivings because my “spiritual leaders” told me to. When I was young, looking obedient and seeming compliant meant more than following my conscience for the sole reason that I was groomed to believe that my own conscience couldn’t possibly be as wise or as seasoned as my leaders. I am certain the same thing happened to Jonathan and Suzy. They wanted to trust. Who wouldn’t trust their own parents? Especially when their parents were well-known, worldwide evangelists?

The problem only arose when Jonathan and Suzy realized that the “voice of God” that allegedly‡ told Marcus and Joni that the accused was innocent was not a voice of reason, not a voice of true investigation, but rather their attempt to protect the institution of Daystar at all costs. In other words, Jonathan and Suzy only spoke up and went public when they learned that Marcus and Joni had allegedly‡ lied to them by claiming that third-party investigators had put the matter to bed when in fact they had not.

So how could this happen?

It happens all too often, I’m afraid. And it happens because Christians begin to worship celebrity and status more than Truth. It happens because Christians put people on pedestals of their own making. It happens because institutions like Daystar exist on the backs of people who support it — and the people who support it are too trusting of the people asking for the money. Am I saying that all people associated with Daystar are frauds? No. Am I saying all large Christian institutions are not to be trusted? No.

What I am saying is that the culture of mega-celebrity Christian pedestals built on non-profit machines unanswerable to anyone but themselves must die a quick, painful death.

The only way they’ll die is if we wake up.

Christians, I beg you to wake up. I beg you to pay attention to what’s happening. I beg you to walk away from the celebrity, bigger and better, megachurch, prosperity, entertainment culture that is enabling these kinds of atrocities. I beg you to stop thinking your church has a marketable brand that needs to be franchised. I beg you to stop worshipping pastors and worship leaders and TV evangelists. I beg you to stop going to worship concerts and conferences and perpetuating this mega-million-dollar machine that is eating people alive.

Yes, these people are monsters. But we’re enabling them to thrive. I could even make the argument that we’ve made them into the monsters they’ve become. But whether we’ve made them or simply exposed the rot already there, we’ve created a fertile soil of complacent, dim-witted, Jesus-flavored nothing-religions, hyped on celebrity, high on entertainment, and completely lacking anything resembling discipleship, theology, and conviction.

Get out of your megachurch.

Walk away from your Jesus country club.

Turn off the Christian TV network.

Stop buying self-help books from so-called pastors and start reading the Bible.

Stop worshipping worship leaders.

Stop enabling these people to abuse and lie and betray and destroy. They can’t get away with this kind of thing if we stop supporting their lavish, evil, self-focused, fear-based lifestyles.

‡Each of these claims are allegations which have yet to be proven or disproven in a court of law.