LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY blueboy2000)

For about 10 months, the Every Nation article on Wikipedia has been under on-again, off-again mediation because the gangsters in Brentwood have a conniption fit over anything critical about them.   It's part of their clumsy attempt to ignore the overwhelming evidence that they are, in fact, a repackaged and revived version of Maranatha Campus Ministries, one of the most notorious campus cults of the 70s and 80s.

Well, it's on again after yours truly and a bunch of other EN refuseniks on the FactNet anti-cult message board tweaked it a bit--check out the article's history to see it (edits by "Blueboy96"--yours truly--and "Osakadan" are from the good guys).   See the talk page to follow the discussion.

In particular, EN, through its communications director, has been somewhat upset at excerpts I added in from a speech made by Jim Laffoon, their chief "prophet," at their 2004 world conference.  In this speech, entitled "To Reach and to Rule," Laffoon announced that the organization was changing its name from Morning Star International to Every Nation in accordance with a vision God had given him.  According to Laffoon, Every Nation is part of God's plan to retake the world from the devil.

My good friend "ulyankee"--the intellectual leader of the EN refuseniks--has a copy of the CD from that conference, and kindly transcribed it here.   Here are some excerpts ...

• "I’m here to tell you today that God looks down from heaven, as much as He hates sin, He has a plan for the earth. He looks down at every movie mogul. He looks down at every empty educator. He looks down at EVERYONE stealing the values of our children, and says, 'You’ve got to be kidding if you think you’ll thwart my plan on the earth. I have a plan you don’t understand! I have a plan for every campus! Every school! Every specter of society! Every region of the world! I have a plan! And though it’s so dark you cannot see it, my plan is going to win.'"
• "I’m utterly convinced, as I stand here tonight, that God has raised up this family in the earth to reach 'every nation in our generation.' But the ultimate purpose of God is not for us to reach every nation, it is to raise up a generation long after my generation is gone who because they have reached nations can begin to rule nations! Have you ever wondered why the church has spent two thousand years reaching the same nations OVER and OVER and OVER again? It’s because we’ve only set a goal of reaching them and not understanding what it is to rule them, and one generation reaches them, and never transfers the burden of rule to the next generation, and we reached them over and over and over in a cycle! I’m here to tell you, the generation of Phil [Bonasso] and Rice and Steve [Murrell], our generation, will plant a church capable of reaching that nation, in every nation, but your generation, twenty-five and under, thirty and under, God wants to install something, God wants to do something, where we not only begin to reach nations, we literally begin to possess them."
• "Let me tell you, for all your might, and all your power, the thing the enemy fears is not you, it’s what you’re capable of birthing! The thing the enemy really fears in [?] for tonight, in Camp Morning Star tonight, in the students tonight, the thing the enemy fears is not Phil and Steve and Rice, it’s what the synergism of their lives can BIRTH and PRODUCE! What the enemy really fears, in the end, is not just another church plant. It was the fact that that woman was pregnant with something as you read on, that was not just going to reach nations, it was going to rule nations. That scared the enemy. You see, when the enemy finds an apostolic family under authority, when he finds a people who walk as family, with power over the enemy, filled with righteousness [builds] yet realizing their great destiny on the earth is not just to shine and not just to look good, that they are there to somehow birth a generation that once they’ve paid the cost to reach every nation they could hand those nations to their children and their grandchildren and say, 'NOW RULE THEM!'"
• "...before it’s done, God will give us hundreds of apostles and prophets, evangelists, teachers, pastors, thousands of campus workers, but it’s only the beginning, for they are going to equip the greatest army of professionals, and lawyers, and doctors, and entertainers, and fashion designers, and politicians, and mayors, and congressmen, and congresswomen, and athletes, and entertainers that the world has ever seen. And that’s why I say tonight, movie moguls beware, ungodly dictators be afraid, anti-Christ political systems be worried, ungodly educators your day is coming. For we believe that the kingdom of God can come to the earth as it is in heaven. We believe that we are called to not only reach but to rule. We believe that we are called to change history. We believe that we are called to produce a generation that will rule. I believe that one day we will leave to our children NATIONS and REGIONS and CONTINENTS!"

And yet, EN would have you believe that this isn't what the ministry (and I use the term very loosely here) actually believes.  Let's see, your chief prophet (and, as of a reorganization of Every Nation in 2006, a member of the International Policy Council) makes this speech, and is not only not condemned, but actually applauded for it.  Yep, you heard it here--after this speech, Rice Broocks, this outfit's then-president (now second-in-command to fellow ex-Maranathan Steve Murrell) encouraged the crowd to "thank the Lord tonight for what we've heard."

Now let's say, for the sake of argument, that we're making this up.  The best way to solve it would be to put up the actual video (which is now available at the Every Nation store) or audio online.  Unfortunately, if anyone outside of EN were to do so, it would be copyright infringement.  However, if EN Productions were to give permission for that speech's video and/or audio to be released, that would be another matter.  Or they could post it to their extensive archive on YouTube (see for yourself--here's what a search for "Every Nation" on YouTube yields).  And yet, ever since I suggested this on the article's talk page a few days ago, the silence has been deafening.  I can only assume one of two things--either EN is trying to goad us into breaking the law by putting the actual speech online, or they're just not interested in mediating the article in good faith.  Why else would they be sitting on their hands about it?

Now, why do you suppose that EN wouldn't want this to get out?  It's not just their clumsy attempt to ignore the overwhelming evidence that it is a revived and repackaged version of Maranatha.  I suspect another factor is that in late 2006, Shrub named EN's highest-profile black minister, Brett Fuller, as a member of the President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.  Now, you don't suppose that if this speech were to get legs that this appointment would go down in flames, do you?  I think so.