Mad Props to Bishop Carlton Pearson

I have never met Carlton Pearson. But for the last several years, I have followed his story very closely. I have a deep admiration for Bishop Pearson because he willingly gave up a promising political career, his megachurch, his influence in the Evangelical community, and I am sure, most of his money in an effort to bring Christianity into the Twenty-First Century. This is MY version of HIS story. There are probably some glaring mistakes because almost all of my information comes from the Internet and magazines like Christianity Today and Charisma.

Carlton Pearson was a superstar in the Pentecostal and Word of Faith movements. His Higher Dimensions Church had thousands of members. He was a Dove-Award winning recording artists and his worship music recordings were the model for many churches. His preaching/teaching was saturated with deep insights and thoughtful preparation. His church was integrated in a city where integration was not the norm. Carlton had very powerful influence, not just in his denomination, but throughout the Pentecostal movement worldwide.

Several years ago, Bishop Pearson had an epiphany while watching a television show about the immense suffering in Africa. He began to question God about why these people would be born into Hell on Earth and then be sent to an eternal Hell after their death. Carlton felt God speaking to him and his revelation of God’s nature and character began to change radically. And so did his theology.

In private, Bishop Pearson began researching the scriptures and came to the conclusion that Jesus’ accomplishment through his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, far exceeded what Evangelical Christianity taught. Carlton began teaching what he called the “Gospel of Inclusion”, teaching that all men are saved, or will eventually be saved, through Jesus sacrifice.

It was at about this time, that Carlton Pearson was considering a run for mayor of Tulsa. Polls showed that he was a very popular choice across a wide demographic. Blacks, whites, evangelicals, liberals and conservatives all seemed to be very excited about making Pearson the mayor.

Here is where the story gets a bit murky. This paragraph is my opinion of what probably happened, based on accounts I have read and a few rumors I have heard. Before Carlton began going public with his message, he began sharing it with some of his friends in the ministry. It should be noted that Carlton’s friends in the ministry were not a few guys named Joe. Carlton Pearson ran with the big dogs. His Azusa meetings featured a “who’s who” of Pentecostal and Word of Faith ministers. He was a frequent guest speaker at some of the largest churches in America and the world. He was on the Board of Directors for Oral Roberts University. Carlton says that many of his ministry friends privately accepted, or at least did not initially reject, his new teaching. He felt that at least some of these powerful men would fall in behind him after he went public with the Gospel of Inclusion. He was wrong.

As Charisma Magazine and Christianity Today, began using the “H” word to describe Bishop Pearson (Heretic) his friends acted as if they had never heard his views and feigned shock at finding that Carlton had gotten off track theologically. Higher Dimensions Church attendance began to fall. Staff began to question the doctrine. Collections plunged. And the Christian world, smelling blood in the water, moved in for the kill. Pearson lost his empire. The church’s real estate was foreclosed upon. Still, he kept preaching the finished work of Jesus.

This is why I admire Bishop Pearson. Most of us who have embraced the new Gospel did not sacrifice our livelihood in the process. I lost a few friends and my relationship with my parents has suffered. But I was free to study and write about the Gospel in obscurity. In 2006, for about a month, I passionately defended Carlton at an Assemblies of God website called the blogrodent. (The posts are still up as of this date and can be found here: http://tatumweb.com/blog/about/wp-stats/?stats_author=Greg+Amburgy) But all of Christianity was not hanging on my every word and challenging my every thought. They were doing this to Bishop Pearson.

All of the Christian magazines denounced his doctrine as heretical. His denomination, the Church of God in Christ, took his credentials and dis-fellowshipped him. Oral Roberts University removed him from the board and Oral himself felt he had to denounce the Gospel of Inclusion. Pearson’s small congregation began meeting on Sunday afternoons in an Episcopal Church in Tulsa. I cannot imagine a more hostile environment to teach the Gospel of Inclusion than Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yet he continues to press forward.

Carlton Pearson has written two books, “God is Not a Christian” and “The Gospel of Inclusion.” He has become a go-to guy for liberal media people when the subject of Hell comes up. (I do not like these types of people and feel that they edited the interviews to promote their own agendas, rather than focus on Carlton’s.) But he is working in relative obscurity, compared with his former high profile. But the times, they are a changing!

In 2000, when I first began to seriously embrace the Gospel, there were very few people proclaiming this message. Gary Amirault’s Tentmaker site was one of the few places I could turn for information. But Carlton Pearson and men like Mike Williams have gained quite a foothold and the message is growing in acceptance.
I believe that before Carlton Pearson dies, he will again command tremendous respect from a wide range of Christianity. I see Evangelicalism as a dying form of Christianity that divides mankind and will not survive well into the Twenty-First Century. A God that eternally burns and tortures his own creation in Hell is not a God that is to be worshipped, but a God that must be repudiated. After all, we are to strive to follow after and emulate Jesus. I am following the Jesus Carlton preaches.

Someday, I hope to meet Bishop Pearson. Until then, I will continue to follow his story. It is a story of hope. In the end, it will be a story of redemption.