A hypocrite of Biblical proportions

“He who is exalted shall be humbled. He who is humble shall be exalted.”
— Jesus Christ, from the book of Matthew in the Gospels

According to a recent press release, Pastor Rus Sarver is retiring at Grace Brethren Church in Hastings. Is this time for real? Sarver has been trying to step down for a long time, so long he has been referred to as “Pastor Emeritus” at the church for quite a spell. It appears the wily old minister has a difficult time giving up on his grip on power over his flock which he sometimes seems to think extends far out into the community at large. Why should I care, you may ask? What’s a retiring small town pastor got to do with a political blog on the world wide web that should be focused on much more important matters? Let me explain...

Rus Sarver has been a very public player in Hastings and Barry County for a long time. He’s been the unofficial president of the local chapter of Flat Earth Society, publicly speaking derisively of evolution as “monkey talk.” He was the founder of the “Let’s Perfect the Family” movement that went virtually nowhere. He’s been this area’s greatest promoter of Saul of Tarsus, AKA the Apostle Paul, through his monthly sermons disguised as letters to the editor in the Hastings Banner. He also has had the quaint custom of placing a small advertisement in the Reminder, the local shopping guide, every week, quoting passages from the Scriptures and providing the service of interpreting them for the reader, according to his own theological views.

Rus Sarver is well thought of in many circles in the area, so beloved that a few years ago he was presented with the coveted Book of Golden Deeds Award, which meant he got to be the grand marshal of the Hastings Summerfest Parade. Though he certainly can be affable and grandfatherly when he is encountered, he also shows telltale signs of being the stern old fuddy-duddy who is out of touch with modern reality, he has been guilty of deliberate deceit, he has been all too guilty of a “my way or no way” attitude and he has been demonstrated to be a hypocrite of Biblical proportions.

From where I’ve been sitting, Rus Sarver is a prime example of the Pharisees and teachers whom Jesus warned about in the Bible.

Sarver’s sermons in the Banner rarely have offered a point of view except that he has the answers to all problems and is the master interpreter of what Scriptures tell us. About 80 to 90 percent of his quotes have been from biblical books of Galatians, Phillippians, Romans, Corinthians, Thessalonians and the like, all of which were letters written by the former Saul of Tarsus, who had been magically transformed into the Apostle Paul. Only occasionally has Rus slipped in something from Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, also known as the Gospels. The Gospels quote Jesus Christ, not Saul of Tarsus. So Pastor Rus seems to be less of a follower of Jesus (a Christian), and more of a disciple of the writings of the Apostle Paul who actually never met Christ and, in fact, spent his time before his conversion trying to eliminate the cult of Christ.

Then there was the question about leading the charge for the movement known as “Let’s Perfect the Family.” Pastor Rus reportedly did not show up at his granddaughter’s wedding, citing a conference he decided to attend instead. I’m almost entirely certain his granddaughter somehow had offended him because she did not follow his stern instructions on how to lead her life reportedly because she "lived in sin" before her wedding. How can anyone teach us how to “perfect the family” and then not show up for his granddaughter’s most important day of her life, regardless of the reason?

Then there was the affair of the deliberate deception. Banner Editor David T. Young told me in a recent conversation about the soon-to-retire pastor that a few years ago, while Rus was getting his monthly “letter” into the newspaper, a couple of letters arrived on the editor’s desk that looked and sounded suspiciously a lot like the missives of the good pastor. Both were purported to be written by inmates at the county jail, who had found the Lord, but there some unmistakable handprints from Sarver. The inmates made use of key words such as “agape” and “right-wise-ness,” both of which Young said he had never seen nor heard written nor uttered by anyone else. The letters were typewritten in the same manner Sarver has sent his monthly sermons to the Banner. The only difference was that the signatures at the bottom, hand written and barely legible, were of these inmates. Young said he merely put the phony letters aside without printing them.

One has to wonder about the integrity of a minister who writes phony letters to the newspaper advancing his point of view and then has some poor schmuck in jail sign them so he can get his letters in the paper more than just once a month. It was deliberate deception, and I’m sure it happens more than we care to admit, but when a man of the cloth is the perpetrator, what are we to think? Sure the offense may seem minor when considered as a simple act of trying to "spread the word" but when one thinks of it as a willing manipulation of "true believers" you have to wonder how many more things like this he engaged in that haven't been discovered?

The integrity and hypocrisy of Ted Haggard was called into question when it was learned he was playing footsie with a male prostitute while leading the change against homosexuality in the great state of Colorado. The integrity and hypocrisy of Jimmy Swaggart was questioned when he was caught red-handed with a prostitute and then cried crocodile tears on national television. Rush Limbaugh demonized drug users on his radio show, but avoided being prosecuted for his own illegal possession and purchase of prescription pain killers and then got caught carrying illegal Viagra coming back from a sex tourist vacation. Jim Bakker preached about sin on the PTL Club on national TV and then got busted for fleecing his flock. Newt Gingrich railed against the decline in morals in America, yet he was having an extramarital affair while going after President Bill Clinton for a blow job in the Oval Office. Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett even wrote a book “the Death of Outrage,” about America’s declining morals, and then was outed for being a huge gambling addict.

The list goes on, and I maintain Pastor Sarver belongs on it. I don’t think his motivation has been money like so many of the others. I think it’s been a power trip, the need to dominate, to tell others how to live righteous (right-wise).

Sarver’s son has been the Hastings police chief for nearly two decades and rumor has it he’s about to retire. Jerry Sarver seems to have been a reasonably adept chief, but I’ve been told the acorn didn’t fall far from the tree in terms of attitude and lust for power and control. Both Sarvers will go out with the band playing but Christians who take the words of Jesus Christ seriously should examine them again and take a good hard look at whether all along we’ve been exalting Pharisees.

One last thing: I've thought long and hard about whether I wanted to write this since I'm often criticized for being nasty and overly-personal on this blog but finally I decided that what I've written here needed to be said. And to quote the late comedian Bill Hicks, if you're a Christian and you don't like what I've said, "then forgive me."