Christian Research Institute - My Response to Their Latest Fundraising Letter

Let me preface my comments by saying that the Christian Research Institute - in the past - helped educate me, helped me to clear a lot of bad thinking from my head, and helped me to avoid some serious pitfalls. I was introduced to some great authors and ministries through CRI.

It has been a while now since I have let my monthly support for CRI’s “The Bible Answer Man” radio program lapse, as my credit card expired and I didn’t give CRI the information for the new one. However, I still get mailers from the Christian Research Institute. These kinds of mailers are standard for charitable, religious, and political organizations... you send them money once and they will spend more than your donation sending you pleas for more money for years to come.

This mailing contains a basic survey, probably to gage what topics are important to the people who will donate the most money – if the surveys will be examined at all.

I’m guessing I will be more likely to get my opinion to someone in a prominent place in the organization if I write it here than if I send back the mailer - at least that has been my experience with other organizations. That’s why I’m writing this.

Now, you can’t be an organization like CRI, or have a program like “The Bible Answer Man”, or a host like CRI President Hank Hanegraaff without all kinds of controversy. First of all, they ask for donations, and there are always people who are leery of that and people who hate anything Christian. Hanegraaff was also accused of misleading donors about a postal mix-up in order to get them to donate more. And then there are people who identify as Christian who condemn anyone who doesn’t adhere to their exact form of Christianity in every minute detail and likewise condemn anyone who doesn’t, and thus they hate CRI. There are the cults, organizations, and personalities that CRI exposes as teaching things counter to the essentials of the Christian faith, or having harmful practices - you can be certain they yell about CRI. There are Roman Catholics who think the Protestant ministry is too anti-Catholic, and Protestants who think that it isn’t anti-Catholic enough. There are people who disagree with how CRI is run, or the tactics and practices of Hanegraaff.

Organizations that are built from the ground-up around a dynamic founder, especially innovative ones, always are the subject of controversy once that founder is gone. It never fails, whether they are churches, businesses, nonprofits… whatever. Someone will always say they are drifting from their original mission, values, and methods, and others will always point out that change must come with changing times and needs, and there are a whole bunch of people somewhere in the middle of it all. CRI was founded by Walter Martin, who certainly was a dynamic personality, and has been headed by Hanegraaff since Martin’s death. Walter Martin’s familial heirs have since expressed their concerns about Hanegraaff, but other than influencing supporter opinion, they don’t have the ability to remove Hanegraaff.

I’ve read criticisms of “The Bible Answer Man” radio program that have focused on what the show isn’t. Those critics want the show to be a more detailed, extensive Bible study. That’s like criticizing paramedics because they don’t treat cancer. There is a place for programs that give some basic answers to questions people have about the Bible, and what the Bible does and does not teach.

For the most part, I’m not writing this to focus on those controversies and criticisms (despite all of the space I have used up writing about them). For most of them, I have no way of even knowing if they are true. Rather, I want to let CRI know what would motivate me to start supporting them again.

I first caught on to “The Bible Answer Man” (and thus, CRI) in 1990 or 1991 when I caught the show on KKLA, running in the 3 p.m. hour. (I had found KKLA through the late Wally George, of all people, who once had a political talk show on the station.) Friday shows were tapes of the late Walter Martin, who had passed away in 1989, lecturing on topics like The Watchtower (Jehovah’s Witnesses), Mormonism, Christian Scientists, the New Age movement, the Occult, Atheism, Mary, and more. I had never heard anything like it. Here was this guy exposing the methods and mistakes of the leaders of pseudo-Christian cults, contrasting false teachings with what the Bible actually teaches, and defining and defending the essential doctrines of the Christian faith in a logical, linear, researched way.

The shows Monday through Thursday consisted mainly of people like Ron Rhodes, Paul Carden, Ken Samples, and Elliot Miller taking calls. I liked the explanations regarding Christian doctrine and practice and what was orthodox and what wasn’t, and the exposing of heresy and fluff masquerading as Christianity on too many TV shows and in too many books. I liked the warnings about cults and the tips for witnessing to people in cults – they were helpful. I liked the defense of the Bible from attacks by atheists and the like.

It was still good when Hanegraaff took over hosting duties most of the time, especially when he’d play audio clips of these bizarre-but-popular televangelists making their outrageous statements, as it was good to hear with my own ears where these people were making serious errors. Christianity in Crisis, Counterfeit Revival, and the countering of “millennial madness” and the Jesus Seminar were all very helpful for me.

Now, I don’t listen much. Why? Los Angeles radio, on the stations that are still broadcasting in English, has a lot competing for my attention at 3 p.m., and if I can listen to the radio, I prefer to listen to something that is teaching me something and keeping me informed. Over the last few years, it seems like whenever I check in on “The Bible Answer Man”, it is Hanegraaff talking with someone selling a book, DVD, album, or software in what amounts to an infomercial without much useful, practical information other than “buy this resource.” If it is a program where Hank is taking calls, there seems to be little practical information given out – usually it is “I wrote a book that addresses this – I’ll send it to you.” Everyone else can call the toll-free number or go on to the website to order it.

To be sure- the last time I checked out their magazine – the Christian Research Journal - it was chock full of great information and in-depth analysis. But I can listen to the radio at times I can’t read… like, oh, when I’m driving, and I stopped getting the Journal when I let my monthly payments to CRI lapse. I wasn’t motivated to go resubscribe to the Journal because I wasn’t lacking in reading material or mail to go through.

Also, I’m not criticizing Hanegraaff for putting out books where he sees a need. For example, even though there seemed like an endless number of other books exposing the “factual” elements of The Da Vinci Code as fictional or erroneous; it was good for Hanegraaff to offer another because he does have a way of making things clear and memorable for the average person. In fact, he was accused of wrongly using CRI resources to promote his memory-building business and himself - he is good enough at making things memorable to have had a business around it. While I do not know if such accusations were true, I do know my own perceptions. Over the years, many of the prominent authors and experts that used to be on staff at CRI either left or were pushed out. Does CRI even distribute any books written by staffers other than Hanegraaff anymore? Ron Rhodes, for example, has authored many great books over the years, but he’s long been gone from CRI. My perception is that CRI has become mainly a bookstore that also publishes a great magazine, and a radio infomercial for promoting the books that bookstore sells, especially the books of Hank Hanegraaff. Again, I have bought many of Hanegraaff’s books, and I have found them extremely helpful, but where are the days of having the kind of people on staff who could also write books?

CRI’s store used to be one of the only places I could find a good collection of books that weren’t sandwiched between nonsense from Benny Hinn and Bob Larson, but since then, online book buying has brought an unlimited selection to my fingertips at low prices, and since CRI moved across the country, I can’t physically go to their store anyway. If I'm going to order a book online, I might as well do it elsewhere, unless CRI has a special deal.

Maybe the lack of authors on staff and a (perceived) diminishing of primary research is the inevitable result of an innovative organization “growing up.” When CRI first took off, there was nothing else like it out there. However, as people leave the organization to start their own and as others are inspired to form similar ministries, it became inefficient for CRI to keep that in-house. Perhaps CRI is more efficient as a conduit for the movement it spawned? Still, I’d think there would be something to be said for having a large, integrated organization doing primary research with various specialists on staff, instead of only having a loosely-connected group of smaller ministries contributing material. The website has some good information (especially the articles from the Journal), but there are many websites out there I find more helpful and timely when I’m looking for answers and research.

I’m an outsider – so maybe I just don’t have a clue.

But I was a donor, and I’m willing to be one again if I like what I see – which gets me back to the reason I’m writing this in the first place. There are probably other people like me, too.

The mailer CRI sent said “Please indicate how interested you are in learning more about each of the following topics.” So, here goes…

The creation/evolution debate
I’m extremely interested. However, other organizations specialize in this, so CRI’s role should be examining/explaining the work of those different organizations, such as the Discovery Institute, Reasons to Believe, and the “young earth” folks like Answers in Genesis.

The Intelligent Design movement
See above.

Mormonism
I’m extremely interested. With a major Presidential candidate being a Mormon, this is very timely.

Jehovah’s Witnesses
Extremely interested.

Scientology
Quite interested, due to the front groups and celebrities it uses.

The cults in general
Quite interested. I don’t have the impression that they are as big of a problem as they used to be – maybe because I’m not being informed.

Islam
Extremely interested. What is more relevant right now?

The Prosperity Gospel and other false Christian teachings
Quite interested. These people make Christians look bad and draw many astray.

Spiritual warfare against satanic/demonic forces at work in this world
Mildly interested. Let’s face it – if we focus on Him, we need not focus on the enemy.

“Scholarly” attacks on the Bible or Jesus by secular “experts,” such as The Gospel of Judas
Quite interested. We need to continue to show that Christianity embraces good scholarship and can be defended from such attacks.

Popular attacks on our faith in books and movies, such as The Da Vinci Code
Extremely interested. Our society is obsessed with pop culture.

Attacks on biblical Christianity in the mainstream media
Extremely interested. See above.

Human cloning and embryonic stem-cell research
Mildly interested. Other organizations are doing a great job on this one.

Abortion
Mildly interested. Other organizations are doing a great job on this one.

Homosexuality and same-sex “marriage”
Mildly interested. Other organizations are doing a great job on this one.

How to raise children who will stand firm in their faith
Mildly interested. Other organizations are doing a great job on this one.

How to read the Bible for all it’s worth
Not interested, if it means more infomercials.

End times biblical prophecy
Mildly interested. Explain the difference between the various constructs while keeping alarmists and newspaper prophets in check. Do not focus on only Hank's conclusions on the matter, though they are good to hear.

How to share your faith
Quite interested, but you can cover this by having Greg Koukl on the program frequently.

Personal spiritual growth
Mildly interested. Other organizations are doing a great job on this one.

Other
Mildly interested in discussion about “paranormal” and occult topics that are so popular today – expose the bogus and potentially demonic.

Quite interested in countering “liberal” church stances (universalism, extreme pacifism, acceptance of fornication) that go against clear Biblical teaching.


What I’d really like to see is CRI get back to extensively researching churches, cults, and religious movements; helping callers and thus listeners by explaining the very real differences between other belief systems and Christianity, and defending the Bible, debunking false teachings and perceptions, and investigating claimed phenomenon.

Maybe Hank will get bored talking in depth about the same topics over and over, but there are new listeners all of the time who need this kind of help, and Hank can avoid boredom by having other authors on-staff who can host the program.

Get a blog going on your website that covers the topics raised in the radio program, and news of what is going on in media, churches, religious movements, and cults. Bring on an established blogger if need be.

End the desperate pleas for money. Really. Fundraising is needed, of course, but there is a tone to take here. I had a pastor who mocked appeals that hinted a ministry was on the brink of shutting down with “Good – maybe it’s not serving a purpose anymore.” CRI isn’t nearly that bad in their appeals, but they do tend to make it look like getting money in by June 30 and December 31 each and every year is going to save the ministry from drastic cutbacks. You know, if I don’t eat, I’ll starve! Technically, it is true. But guess what? It’s going to take a long time of not eating for me to starve to death. I could stand to skip a few meals.

I’ll be more likely to resume supporting CRI if I see it being more than a bookstore with its own magazine. As I wrote at the start of this post - CRI has helped me a lot over the years. Hank has done some great work. People who expect Hank to be perfect are asking too much. They have a great magazine. I want to support CRI. Please restore my motivation.

PLEASE SEE MY UPDATE POSTED ON 12/29/2011