Gerald Derstine: The Predator Pastor

August 1st, 2011 http://christianwinstead.blog.com/2011/08/01/gerald-derstine-the-predator-pastor

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.
-Matthew 7:15

In July of 2010, Dr. Gerald Derstine of Gospel Crusade, Inc. in Brandenton, Fla. was accused of molesting a young girl at his 110 acre Strawberry Lake Christian Retreat north of Detroit Lakes, Mn. While the case was dropped, the evidence that he indeed violated a vulnerable minor remains. Most telling is a handwritten letter on Gospel Crusade stationary Derstine wrote asking for the girls forgiveness and which can be downloaded here:

http://christianwinstead.blog.com/files/2011/08/Derstine-Letter-to-Jane-Doe.pdf

Here is the transcript of the phone conversation as well:

http://christianwinstead.blog.com/files/2011/08/Derstine-Police-Statement.pdf

Equally disturbing is the fact that Gospel Crusade, Inc. fabricated evidence of miracles in the Middle East:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1995/september1/5ta064.html

From the article:

For seven years, Gerald Derstine of Gospel Crusade, Inc., in Bradenton, Florida, inspired his followers with sensational accounts of miracles, mass conversions, and subsequent martyrdoms among Arab Muslims in Israel and the West Bank.

Derstine’s supporters responded generously, contributing $2.8 million in 1994 alone to support the ministry and the persecuted church in the Mideast.

But in March, one of Derstine’s Arab ministry leaders confessed, in the face of mounting evidence, that the reports were fabrications. The Gospel Crusade board of directors suspended the Arab leader and another individual in April. Gospel Crusade also withdrew from circulation literature and videotapes containing the leader’s stories, including the 1993 book “Fire Over Israel.”

Even more chilling is the following:

http://www.cc-vw.org/articles/icej.htm

During the 1980's the ICEJ was also politically active in the destabilisation of Central America, as a channel for the funding of the United States backed Contras.

When the ICEJ proudly established an “embassy” in Honduras and in Guatemala, they worked closely with the government of Israel in bringing funds into the countries. ICEJ was granted diplomatic status in both countries and allowed to bring goods and funds into the country without inspection by customs agents. In September 1988, the investigative journal Israeli Foreign Affairs noted that the ICEJ “ambassador to Honduras,” Marta Rodriguez, told journalist Deborah Preusch that ICEJ had brought in vehicles and other items for the Contras. Other fundamentalist Christian groups that cooperated with ICEJ, include Gospel Crusade of Bradenton, Florida, whose head, Gerald Derstine, is a founding member of ICEJ. This project, in close cooperation with the Israeli government and its embassies in Guatemala and Honduras, operated in total violation of United States law and policy.

This is from the Antipas Ministries site:
http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000128.htm

(Phil) Derstine is typical of those evangelicals who, for one reason or another, got mixed up in the “goings-on” in Central and South America and who, as a result, became entangled in the CIA’s dirty little war against communism in that area of the world in the 1970s and ’80s.

Derstein told reporters at the 1987 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Washington DC that he had become involved in the “happenings” in Central America at the behest of the National Security Council (NSC), specifically as a result of Oliver North’s entreaties. Derstine’s assertions as to his connection to the NSC are supported by a November 1985 report in a Florida newspaper, the Sarasota Harald-Tribune, that U.S. Rep. Andy Ireland (R-FL) had personally accompanied Derstine to a National Security Council briefing together with Oliver North prior to his September 1985 trip to the Honduras-Nicaragua border region.

My sympathy goes out to those who have trusted the Derstines and their ministry mind, body and soul. Let us all pray that the Pastors’s transgressions be brought to light and that their deceptive, predatory ravenings, all in the name of blood money, come to an end.