COLORADO SPRINGS (CO)
Christian Post [Washington DC]
August 23, 2021
By Kelly Williams
What is hush money?
It is money paid so that someone will keep certain information a secret.
Orpah Winfrey recently created a whole multi-season show called “Greenleaf” that airs on Netflix. This fictional show chronicles the ways churches try to bury the truth. Unfortunately, way too many real-life examples prove the truths in this series.
In my own hometown of Colorado Springs, New Life Church and Pastor Brady Boyd paid a sex abuse victim of Ted Haggard’s to keep quiet about the details of the very public fallout. When asked about it in a public interview, Pastor Brady said, “It was compassion assistance.” However, this is not a biblical term nor are there any positive examples of this in the Bible.
Since then, we have seen this same scenario play out with Ravi Zacharias, Brian Houston, Bill Hybels, Jerry Fallwell Jr, and the list goes on and on. We are learning each day more and more that churches and ministries have seen this nondisclosure practice as acceptable.
However, Scripture teaches just the opposite. Every example of “hush money” in Scripture is ungodly and used in some capacity to suppress the truth and not allow the real story to be public.
Balak paid the prophet Balaam to silence God’s blessing over His people and curse them instead. Numbers records Balak saying to Balaam: “I will make sure you are richly rewarded, and I will do whatever you ask. Please, come and curse these people for me” (Numbers 22:17).
Balaam ultimately wouldn’t do it because, even as a pagan prophet, he feared the God of Israel.
Balak was livid. Scripture says, “And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together. And Balak said to Balaam, ‘I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them these three times. Therefore, now flee to your own place. I said, ‘I will certainly honor you,’ but the Lord has held you back from honor.’ And Balaam said to Balak, ‘Did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me, ‘If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord?’” (Numbers 24:10-13)
Apparently, Balak failed to get a nondisclosure agreement from Balaam. He obviously didn’t understand the power of God over the power of money, at least in Balaam’s life.
In the New Testament, Judas was paid to hush speaking the truth of who Jesus is in Matthew 26:14-16. He suppressed the truth for the sake of a bribe.
In God’s eyes, this is not an acceptable practice to handle matters.
It is legal but it is not godly or biblical. So why do church leaders and boards do this?
Boards have a lot of pressure on them to do the right thing and yet feel the need to suppress the truth for “the sake of the Gospel.” Oftentimes, the point leaders take the fall for the suppression when it becomes publicly known. However, boards are just as much to blame when they use “truth suppression” for the “good” of the Gospel.
What does the Bible have to say about leaders and boards suppressing the truth and paying brides to suppress the truth?
Ecclesiastes 7:7 says, “…a bribe corrupts the heart.”
Instead of using money to hush the truth, the Bible actually tells us to buy the truth. God wants us to live with full disclosure.