Above Reproach?
In my studies over the past two years, I have really learned the importance of being above reproach. I have learned that people claiming to be Christians ought to practice holiness every fleeting second we are alive. We should stand up for the gospel we preach by being obedient in every single circumstance. I realize that even in my own life this isn't the case, so I do direct this at myself quite harshly. We need to be uncompromising in every situation for the sole purpose of glorifying Christ, the Savior. We even need to be uncompromising in the small things. With that being said, here is a true story about a pastor who was put into a rough situation. Read the story and tell me if he did the right thing. Knowing that he is a Christian, did his actions glorify God? What would you have done? After I read it, I realized I probably would have done the same thing as he did, but my conscience and heart convict me that it would be compromising to the gospel. How tough it is to be called of God. Here is the story.
Christian See Clemency for Alleged Wrongful Imprisonment of Pastor
Charisma News Service
Thousands of Christians nationwide have written letters expressing support for a Pentecostal pastor serving a 41- year sentence for a crime he said he was coerced into committing. Dino Gentile of Chatsworth, Calif., is seeking clemency from President Bush for his role in a 1998 bank robbery in Pensacola, Fla. The former pastor affiliated with the Apostolic World Christian Fellowship Inc., said he was forced to drive the getaway car at the threat of harm to his wife and two children in California. Gentile, 49, said he became involved in the robbery when Jeffrey Durham, now serving time for the robbery, asked if he could accompany Gentile on a cross-country evangelism and fundraising trip. By the time Durham revealed his plan to rob the Pensacola bank, Gentile trusted him. But as he sat outside in Durham's getaway car with a bomb on the seat behind him and a threat of death if he did not cooperate, Gentile said he was forced to make a decision. Durham was arrested for the robbery in 1998, and FBI agents later linked Gentile to the crime, charging him with aiding and abetting. He received 30 years for his alleged use of an automatic weapon, and 11 years for the abetting charge. Since then, friends, relatives, former parishioners and members of his 3.2 million- member denomination have written some 3,000 letters and faxes requesting clemency
posted by Jon Canler at 12:37 PM
10 Comments:
I agree. I guess I didn't state my intentions clearly enough. I am not saying this guy committed sin at all. My thoughts are about compromise. Once he knew the man was going to rob the bank, he had 2 options. This first option is to go along with the robber. The second option was to not go along with the robber. The pastor knew that going along, although unwantingly, was going to bring about sin. He was, by his actions, helping this man commit the crime of theft. Now, he could have said no to the man. He could have said, "No I am a Christian, and I will not help you commit sin. I will not be associated with it." He could have said that and been uncompromising and above reproach. The consequences might have been very differnt. He and his family might be dead, but they would have went down glorifiying God. I know this is a tough situation, one that I wouldn't want to be in, but where do we draw the line. We say "I will not drink" or "I will not have premaritial sex" to prove our uncompromised faith in Christ, but where do we stop? Is there any instance where comprmise in anyway is good or o.k.? I don't think so. We need to be uncompromising in every situation, something I'm definately not at the moment but working on it daily. That is my point. Hope that helps.
Jon, I agree with you that living above reproach is accepting the consequences for doing the godly/right thing regardless of what those consequences may be. I agree that having to explain your motives afterward for driving a get away car does not advance the gospel. At the same time, like you, I do not pretend that I would make a decision all that different from this guy's decision.
I whole-heartedly agree, too, that we need to cry out to God to keep us from being lame Christians. We need to commit ourselves to lives that glorify God and that facilitate the work of the Holy Spirit to make us uncompromising followers of Christ (in all situations).
just in case someone looks askance at "facilitate the work of the Holy Spirit...", i mean lead lives that sow to the spirit, not to the flesh. watching an R-rated movie full of foul-language and sleezy women does not facilitate the work of the Holy Spirit. Glad to clear that up... if it was ever unclear.
I've been reading a number of the posts on your site. The holiness theme really strikes accord with much of my thinking. Let me offer you a story please let me know what you think about it.
There is a guy I know called Andrew, he's a really strong Christian studying at bible college, committed to evangelism, social justices, holiness. During the holidays he works to cover his fees at college at a petrol station. When he started there he asked not to work Sundays because of his Christian belief. However, shortly after starting his boss was in a fix and asked him to work on a Sunday. Andrew agreed not wanting his collegeagues to resent him for his Christian beliefs. Now Andrews boss calls him into work every Sunday and I rarely see Andrew at church although he seems to continue to be strong in his faith. Soon Andrew will be back at college now but I don't get it is Andrew doing the right thing? Will his colleagues really respect him as a Christian? Isn't his boss taking advantage?
Please e-mail me with your comments and feel free to share this example with others. email- jamesichurch@hotmail.com
Yours in Christ,
James
Mr. canler i need to speak with you concerning Dino. my father nad he are very good friends and brothers in christ. Dad has known dino for 10 or more years and If possible please e-mail me at ibsurfn@ec.rr.com
Russ Meares
Rev. Dino Gentile was/is my pastor. I was involved in the ministry at our church. There are some details that are not in the article.
At the time of the robbery, Durham told Rev. Gentile that the car they were in was rigged with explosives and that if he (Dino) tried anything, he would blow him up. If you are thinking, "Yeah, right, explosives." Sometime after the incident, the way they caught Durham is because he was in the hospital for injuries he received involving explosives.
Have personally known Rev. Gentile, this man would go out of his way to help someone. Even further, he would want someone to make things right with God. He repeatedly tried to get Durham to give himself up. Durham kept threatening Rev. Gentile that he would kill Dino's family if he told anyone about the robbery. Having been a cop myself and Rev. Gentile having been a cop, I believe that Rev. Gentile was an unwilling party in the crime and feared for his life and the lives of his family members. He had no other option. And being a man of God, he wanted Durham to give himself up and repent before God.
When the FBI interrogated Rev. Gentile, they wanted him to give up Durham (unknown to them at the time) and he told them he couldn't or he would kill his family. The FBI told them if he did give up the other person, they would pin it on him (Gentile). The trial was a "kangaroo court" that admitted that they didn't like "city" folk and city-slicking lawyers.
No money was ever found to be in possession of Rev. Gentile. No fingerprints of Rev. Gentile were found on any weapons used in the robbery. No witnesses ever implicated Rev. Gentile as being involved in the robbery.
Hopefully this clears a few things up in the short space I had to write these comments.
An update to my previous comment. Since Pastor Dino Gentile has been in prison, he has continued his ministry as a preacher there. His ministry has brought hundreds of lost souls to the Lord, and have baptized them in the name of the Lord.
The petitions have fallen of deaf ears. President Bush has not acknowledged the petitions and one acknowledgment has been received from Karl Rove's office, but not from Karl Rove personally.
His wife and children miss him very much, as do the members of his church. This was an obvious wrongful prosecution and over-sentencing.
God has promised us that his angel will camps around us and defend us. If the Lord is in my side who is against me?
i remenber on occasion when i was leaving my job and i had just recieved my salary (cash). i was in the bus stop and a guy approached me he threatened me saying that if i said a word he will cut my neck. i was completely terrified i dint know what to do but suddenly from my mouth come some words and i said you cannot this to me i am daugther of God, you have to repent, Jesus loves you and immediatly this guy apologized and said im sorry i didnt know you were from the church and then he left. maybe it is not the same situation but i believe we have trust God with all our heart and be prepared all the time.
My name is Gino and I got to know pastor Dino in Lompoc. If it wasnt for him and his willingness to let God use him, I would have never made it through. It was seeing the love of God in him that helped me get through and stay focused. Man, he cant get an ankle monitor for forty years or so? We have people murdering and getting 10 years? And you have people giving their lives to help people and give God the glory, and he gets 41years?!!!!!!! Wow.... praise God. We wont stop working for you, pastor!!!
I'm sorry gentlemen. I cannot agree with Pastor Gentile's actions. Having visited The Ark in Chatsworth back in 1998 and personally meeting Pastor Gentile for myself, I cannot believe that he had no choice but to comply with Jeffrey Durham. After meeting him, I concluded that Pastor Gentile is a very intelligent man, well spoken and charismatic. And so I know that he could have been very resourceful in getting out of this situation without taking part in the robbery. There is always a choice.
If what is listed in the article is true(and I think that there is a lot of missing information in the story, not due to you Jon Canler, but due to how this story was reported to you and the general public), then Pastor Gentile should have prayed to God for a way out of the situation and God would have answered him and sent the vehicle of deliverance for him. But he didn't do that because he was afraid for his family's life and as such, he reacted in fear. So then if this mentality continues, then all the devil has to do is threaten Pastor Dino's family every time he wants to get him to compromise and sin. In this way, this type of manipulation can go on indefinitely and eventually discredit his entire ministry as long as Pastor Dino continues to take part in it. That was the devil's goal! So where is the line drawn? If Durham never got caught, he may have very well tried to manipulate Pastor Gentile again with another demonic scheme and then when Pastor Gentile refused, he would have threatened his family again as well as threaten to go to the cops and turn him in for the Pensacola robbery. So now that's 2 vehicles of blackmail. Gentlemen, do you see where I'm going with this? The manipulation will never end until you put your foot down and stop giving in to the devil's manipulation and family threats. He, as a pastor, cannot live the rest of his life in fear of what will happen to his family, otherwise he would be walking in fear and not faith. This is why God dispatches angels to keep us in our ways and guard and protect us. This is what Pastor Dino should have been thinking about and because he reacted in fear and not faith, that's why he is in the predicament that he is in. And being a former police officer, Pastor Gentile hypothetically could have called any number of his former police associates to help him out of this situation. There were lots of possibilities that he could have done, but he chose to still go along with it. Something doesn't correlate.
I was at the church service where Pastor Gentile confessed that he was the getaway driver. He said "Well what was I supposed to do? They were going to kill my family!" So he did confess, but the thing I could never understand was that in the course of recanting his tale about what happened, he never spoke of trusting God to get him out of the situation, only compliance with the robbery in order to ensure his family's safety. I found that alarming, especially for a man that is leading so many to Christ. By the way, how did he get from Los Angeles to Pensecola, Florida so quickly after Jeffrey Durham gained his trust? And why would Pastor Dino trust a man that wanted him to rob a credit union/bank in the first place? The article says that Pastor Dino trusted him even before the man threatened his family.
I think the main issue is that Pastor Dino let the wrong people get too close to his family so that they could later manipulate him into doing evil deeds. But Jon, I think that there is a lot about this story that you, I and the rest of the general public don't know. There are lots of missing pieces and because of these missing pieces, a lot of what is reported to us concerning this story still doesn't add up.
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