The preacher I cross-examined was silver-haired, blue-eyed, ruddy-faced, a visage strengthened by the battered nose he'd won as a boxer before he'd "seen the light." It was a fall day in Meadville and the lights high in the old courtroom did little to illumine the scene, and the story my clients had told me was one of darkness.

After he'd seen the light, the dynamism — and individualism — he'd had as a middleweight became transformed by the pulpit into what was known around Gibsonia, Pennsylvania as "hell-fire preaching" and had won him a congregation of followers, largely new converts or refugees from liberalism in the main line churches.

Then he'd read Acts 2 and declared the congregation a "Christian Community," a goal the congregation willingly supported. But something went wrong. The true light was extinguished by the limelight of ego and pride.

He led the group to Florida — selling the family home was rite of passage — and bought a trailer park there with a down payment from the pooled funds. Then he bought ground in Texas, then moved back to a 64 acre campground on Lake Canandohta in Crawford County, sold the Florida trailer park to buy it, and brought a group of the faithful with him, for, as one glassy eyed lady on the witness stand told me, "he had the greater light." Yet on this trek he'd divorced his wife, married and ordained the organist and arranged the community lifestyle so that all women lived in a house with him while the men lived a celibate existence in old Army barracks and ministered by cutting firewood and building a tabernacle for revival services. He also bought a white Caddie convertible. And a houseboat in which he'd transported the womenfolk down the Mississippi on a missionary venture.

One night he summoned the faithful forward, ordered them to kneel and demanded they lay their wallets on the communion rail, and marched up and down sinking a double bitted axe into it by way of exhortation. This drove a man and his adult son into my office where they stacked a three inch pile of cancelled checks on my desk and asked if the monies could be recovered along with the wife/mother and two daughter/sisters they'd left in the light. Home, family, and life-sav­ings lost in the pit.

The women were adult and could do as they had chosen. The contributions were unrestricted gifts and irretrievable as well, I advised with inner bitterness. The "mystery of lawlessness" is no small thing, in the courtroom or out of it. But the "old boy," as my elder client called him, had titled those 18 mobile homes in members' names and collected rents from them to pay off the notes. He then misused a power of attorney, sold the whole lot and pocketed the proceeds to buy the campground at Canandohta. We could, and did, sue for the proceeds he'd converted from the sale of the mobile homes.

My cross-examination thus focused on why — or how — given the remarkable picture painted in Acts, he drove a Caddie while others did hard labor, and why the houseboat and the womenfolk were his peculiar possession while the men showered in cold water. I knew the Bible as well as he did, so I chased him around the courtroom from text to text, pinned him several times behind "they held all things in common" and had him on the ropes when the Judge called a technical and said, "I understand your point, Mr. Downie," and I guess he did, for he ruled in our favor.

The point? In Waco, Georgetown, or Canandohta when individualism reigns arbitrarily, a person­ality cult grows, and disas­ter follows. Jesus, by contrast, sent his followers out two by two, the Apostles seldom soloed, and John makes the remarkable declaration that:

...as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.

The Bible reposes leadership of the called-out-ones always in elders, plural, never in an individual. The reformation discovered that we all, in Christ, are Prophets, Priests, and Kings. The New Testament makes the remarkable statements that "you have the mind of Christ," and speaks of "Christ in you, hope of Glory." We, by contrast, follow pseudo-heroic individualism by allowing ourselves to be led by "any individual who claims a "ministry" and uses the code-words of Evangel-speak.

While the idea of "didache" — teaching — is vital to the life of the church, we are all to be taught, says Christ, until we ourselves are able to teach. That's pretty much the central purpose of any teaching, isn't it? But when do we graduate in our modern arrangement?

It is obvious now, post Bakker, post Swaggart, that no Christian — no matter how ardent his evangelism or persuasive his rhetoric is beyond accountability. Over against the Biblical idea of the Prophet-Priest King office of all believers, American fundamentalism — and much of Evangeldom — is anti-intellectual and lives in a follow the leader syndrome that stunts their growth and makes them ripe targets for cultic "shepherds", Christian Super Stars, who frequently mislead themselves, then the flock. That's why ex-fundamentalists are a major client base of professional counsellors. I know that because I'm usually the next stop after the counsellor.

I do not question the integrity of the vast majority of "pastor teachers" — or of their congregations. Perhaps I react too much because what I deal with as a lawyer is the wreckage of bad teaching. But the question remains — how and why can so many Christians — indwelt by God Himself — be suckers for bad leaders? They've surrendered their mind and we've trained them so

We must take Pentecost at face value. We must take the Scriptures seriously and see that the very text that endorses a more communal lifestyle implicitly excludes individualism or petty tyranny.

Well, my client didn't get his cash back, but did get the 64 acres in lieu thereof and now lives in the big house up on the hill. Some lots were sold to recoup cash losses, the two daughters have returned to life, the barracks roof has caved in, and the "old boy" is dead of diabetes and a bad heart.

But in his short time this little Caesar did immense damage to people, families, and the name of Christ and it took legal action to bring him to a halt. The judge was a Believer, other Christians rallied 'round, and everyone but those that had the "greater light" could see clearly what was going on. But the damage was done.

The vice will be done away with at one fell stroke if we but trained our peo­ple to be leaders, not followers. Trained them to think Biblically about whatever they're told, by whomever, for, patently, the pulpit is no guarantee of truth. We must see and topple the idol of American snake oil side show individualism that infects The Body, think more communally, and live up to our joint calling as Prophets, Priests, and Kings.