Yesterday, the Georgia Cumberland Conference (GCC) sent an email to their pastors about an advertisement on the Crosswalk Chattanooga website for a “Men’s Retreat with Richard Rohr.”
Crosswalk Chattanooga screenshot from 1-26-2024
Georgia Cumberland Conference email:
Our Response
The article in question was critical of Richard Rohr, a Roman Catholic mystic and author. It was also critical of the Crosswalk Village for advertising and hosting the event. The article was not critical of the Georgia-Cumberland Conference, but rather looked to them to correct the problem posed by this advertised event (Proverbs 28:1).
Crosswalk Chattanooga did advertise on their event page a “Men’s Retreat with Richard Rohr.” There are numerous screenshots. They took the link down on after the article regarding it was published.
According to the original link,“Richard Rohr challenges us to encounter our archetype (king, warrior, magician, and lover), and he invites us to grasp the strength of these images, along with it’s dark side. The workshop will last twelve weeks.”
The links to the Crosswalk event were sent to us by an Adventist individual who happened to discover this event advertised on the Crosswalk website. He wasn’t looking for it and neither were we. He shared it with us out of his concern, hoping that the GCC would intervene and get it taken down. That’s what happened, so good job.
The Crosswalk Church removed the Rohr event from their website, acknowledged that it happened in a podcast and blamed Fulcrum7 for reporting on it. This is called damage control, in the corporate world. Blame someone else, and say ‘Nothing to see here.’
The GCC rightly outlines the theological and spiritual concerns that Bible believers should have with Rohr’s material. We stand with them on this.
The GCC accuses Fulcrum7 of stretching the truth to make others appear apostate. The truth regarding the Rohr event was in plain sight on the Crosswalk website. It speaks for itself, as does his worldview.
The GCC response gives the impression that Fulcrum7 people got out of bed Friday morning and said “Hey, let’s make up a story about Crosswalk today!” Complete nonsense.
How do you read this event that was in plain sight on the Crosswalk website?
The GCC says that they “reached out to Fulcrum 7 and requested they [we] correct the misleading, misinforming article, but they [we] have not chosen to do so.” This is untrue. The GCC administrative vice president says that he sent an email to us. For whatever reason, we never received it. Period. If we had. we would have listened to their concerns. Their (his) claim that we “have chosen not to do so” is false witness, the very thing that they accuse Fulcrum7 of (Deuteronomy 5:20; Exodus 20:19).
An Adventist student who saw the picture of Richard Rohr said “Hey. Why is that dude with the Pope? I literally saw him preach at the Crosswalk in California.” Because of this previous experience, he thought that Richard Rohr was an Adventist, until shown differently. We don’t have the date for that alleged Rohr sighting at Crosswalk, CA, but we suspect that it is true. One Project founders espoused ‘silence in Jesus’ at their final meeting of the One Project in San Diego, 2018. We believe this comes from Rohr’s book, Learning to See as the Mystics See, 2009.
Some have asked “Why is a church that emanates from a One Project founder even in Chattanooga (and in the GCC)?” That’s a good question, one that we don’t have an answer for.
Walk with the King, and be a blessing!
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“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality” (Colossians 3:23).