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Christianist pastor Rick Joyner defends predator pastor Mike Bickle--again [1]
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Date: 2025-06-05
Trigger warning: discussion of sexual assault
As many of you know, I had a rough 2024. I had to move from my hometown of Charlotte to my wife’s hometown in West Michigan due to my mother-in-law’s cancer—but that move was delayed due to my mother taking a nasty fall. As a result, I more or less stepped back from most in-person activism—including the 2024 election. But there’s one thing I regret more than not being able to do more to help the blue team stay in office. Nope, it was not being able to take down an evil and depraved pastor in my former backyard, Rick Joyner of MorningStar Ministries.
Joyner is one of the most prominent and most obnoxious generals in the Trumpvangelical Army. During Trump’s first term, Joyner warned that the devil himself was behind the opposition to Trump, and explained that those who persisted in their opposition risk getting “smacked” by God himself. He openly called for martial law to derail any attempt to impeach Trump.
But that’s minor league compared to a sermon Joyner delivered last March. He saw fit to call for Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer, to be “restored” even after he had been pushed out for a staggering litany of sexual misconduct. Never mind that one of Bickle’s victims was 14 years old at the time Bickle molested her. Joyner’s base at the former Heritage USA complex in Fort Mill, South Carolina was a mere 15 minutes from my apartment in Charlotte, so this was really personal for me. It was even more so after I considered Joyner’s ministry included a Christian school within its umbrella, the Comenius School for Creative Leadership.
Well, earlier this week, Joyner proved once again that he has no place in polite society. As I note at my Substack, Joyner reiterated his call for Bickle to be “restored”—even after an investigation earlier this year left no doubt that Bickle was a serial sexual predator.
On Monday, during a video message to his followers, Joyner spoke up again about Bickle. The MorningStar Accountability Project, a grassroots group of MorningStar walkaways calling for reforms in the ministry, flagged it on Twitter; watch a clip here.
x Rick Joyner affirms Mike Bickle and his continued leadership in “rant” posted today. “Mike Bickle has been one of the great leaders in the body of Christ in our time, and his time’s not up. He may just be coming to what he’s ultimately supposed to do.”#churchtoo #MorningStartoo… pic.twitter.com/GomMdbxu8X — MorningStar Accountability Now (@MStarAcctNow) June 2, 2025
Joyner hailed Bickle as “one of the great leaders in the Body of Christ in our time,” and claimed “his time was not up.” Citing Galatians 6:1’s call for people to be restored, Joyner claimed it shouldn’t be considered as “punishment,” but a process geared toward “getting back where they were.”
It was bad enough that Joyner once again saw fit to defend a sexual predator and child molester. But what emerged earlier this February following an independent investigation into Bickle’s misdeeds makes it even worse. That investigation found that Bickle had abused at least 17 people since the 1970s, including some minors. Even if Joyner didn’t know about this report, he should have made it his business to know. At the very least, he was disengaged in a way that a minister of his standing cannot be.
Joyner’s flagship church in Fort Mill meets in what was once the atrium of the 501-room hotel at the center of the Heritage USA complex. IIt’s a near-mathematical certainty that there are survivors of sexual assault there, who have been thinking about coming forward. Can you imagine what some of them are thinking when they watched this video? Plus, consider the presence of that school. I don’t think I need to tell anyone here why someone who is willing to defend a sexual predator doesn’t belong within an area code of a school. All together? It’s been all I could do to keep from sending Joyner an email or instant message saying, “Foxtrot Romeo Juliet!”
This, friends, is why survivors of sexual assault frequently don’t come forward for years if they come forward at all. It’s so-called men like Joyner, the very people who should be lifting survivors up, who instead kick them in the teeth and a bunch of other places. A church that finds this acceptable is a clear and present danger to the community. Joyner has forfeited any authority to lead, and MorningStar has forfeited its right to exist.
For more details, head over to my Substack, Loud, Liberal, Christian. I’ve been hamstrung in turning my writing into a revenue stream due to the craziness of last year, so a paid subscription would especially be appreciated, as it helps support my work.
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