Frightening Parallels Between Morey and Hanegraaff

Several years ago a friend told me about the many abuses of Hank Hanegraaff, President of CRI and host of the “Bible Answer Man” radio show. This friend told me that there is a series of articles and letters written by Walter Martin’s widow, his two adult children, and many ex-employees of CRI chronicling the deceitful takeover of CRI by Hank, his abuses toward employees, his self-promotion, plagiarism, and other sins. At the time I thought it was interesting, but just sort of ignored it. I found the web page yesterday and read the whole thing last night. I was amazed at the many similarities between the abuses of Morey and the abuses of Hanegraaff. Multitudes of ex-CRI employees banded together in the 90s to call Hank on these many issues and to hold him accountable. They eventually called for his resignation. But he ignored all of them. I encourage you to read the whole thing and the many testimonies for yourself. But here are a few excerpts from the stories. The following snippets are not the words of just one person, but are clips from many different letters from ex-employees of high position at CRI.

Hank, the entire CRI board of directors, and the entire executive staff at CRI (Paul Young and John Stoffel) could resign their positions and step down from the ministry, to preserve the integrity of it and the message CRI puts out. This would also be Biblical since Hank has disqualified himself in light of 1 Timothy 3, and he should step down if he refuses to confess his sin and truly repent of it. Until either of these two things happen in a very public way, it is incumbent on the church as a whole to communicate our displeasure to CRI continually. This can be done by writing to Hank, calling into the Resource Center at CRI and the comments and suggestions line, and by calling into the Bible Answer Man show itself. Most importantly, Hank and CRI will definitely understand the request for Biblical integrity of it's donors stopped donating to CRI. Hank continually encourages people to withdraw their support from aberrant ministries, we should follow his advice in this respect, and collectively withdraw our support for both him and CRI, until the Bible Answer Man does the Biblical thing.

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Once again, we call for the resignation of Hank Hanegraaff. The new charges brought again him are still serious, and we keep hearing them again and again--new voices every time. He owes fellow brothers and sisters in Christ much more than a few arrogant comments regarding them.

Where is the obedience to Matthew 18? Where is the repentance and restoration from the man who claims the title "The Bible Answer Man"? It's past time for the Church to open its eyes and stop inviting him into their pulpits, awarding him book medals, and sending him hard-earned cash to spend on expensive cars, expensive family vacations, and flowers for his mother. There is a wolf in amongst the sheep. Enough is enough.

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How Did This Happen?

In 1994, approximately thirty employees of CRI formed The Group for CRI Accountability in an attempt to hold Hank Hanegraaff accountable for some questionable actions. He refused to meet with them individually or as a group. Instead, Hank Hanegraaff's lawyer, Sealy Yates, sent letters to members of the group which read in part:

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Why Did Darlene Martin and Members of the Martin Family
Call for Hank Hanegraaff's Resignation?

In late 1997, Darlene Martin asked us to investigate allegations against Hank Hanegraaff brought to her attention by close friends and many other concerned Christians. After an intensive two year investigation into the situation at CRI, we are now able to publicly address this issue.

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How Did This Happen?

In 1994, approximately thirty employees of CRI formed The Group for CRI Accountability in an attempt to hold Hank Hanegraaff accountable for some questionable actions. He refused to meet with them individually or as a group. Instead, Hank Hanegraaff's lawyer, Sealy Yates, sent letters to members of the group which read in part:

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What are the Charges Against Hank Hanegraaff?

After talking with many reputable Christian leaders (who were never CRI employees) about their personal experiences with Hank Hanegraaff and reviewing the affidavits presented by the Group for CRI Accountability, we decided to contact--personally--as many people as possible in an effort to arrive at the truth. If Hank was innocent, we wished to make that very clear to everyone. If he was seriously compromised by the evidence, we felt an obligation, as the family of Walter Martin, to say so. It is important to note here that the Group for CRI Accountability did not initiate contact with us. We were referred to them by several highly respected Christian leaders whose concern for CRI prompted them to call us and discuss the situation. Still, even after this confrontation, Darlene found it difficult to believe the allegations against Hank. For the next two years, at her request, we made hundreds of phone calls and conducted face to face interviews with people who worked very closely with Hank. We hoped for the best, but ended up with a very negative portrait of Hank Hanegraaff--to our disappointment and dismay. We were appalled when we realized the extent of the problems at CRI.

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Many people have approached us with their personal experiences at CRI over the years. Several have worked very closely with you on a day-to-day basis. Unfortunately, according to them, these experiences were not positive. It is extremely troubling to hear their stories of your personal behavior towards them. They stated you were quite verbally abusive, that you used foul language and caused "scenes" inappropriate for the Christian workplace. Perhaps one person making accusations like this could be dismissed, but many people voicing the same experiences cannot be ignored. As a Christian "leader" who has publicly stated that the tongue must be controlled, how do you answer these allegations?

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Secondly, one of our family's main objections to Hanegraaff's continued leadership is his mistreatment of fellow Christians. He has left a trail of wounded people behind him since the takeover of CRI in 1989. The testimonies against him include those who are his "right-hand" people, people who worked closely with him.
Hanegraaff has called repeatedly for accountability in other Christian leaders and should be held accountable himself.

DARLENE MARTIN

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Why Does Hank Hanegraaff Ignore More Than
50 Brothers & Sisters in Christ?

We ask Hank to answer now what he refused to answer for us in 1999:

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A Trail of Wounded People. . . .

All of the following people have reputations of integrity. Many are still involved in apologetic ministries throughout the United States.

Based on my own direct experiences and the reports of many others, I was forced to go through the following abuses and acts of vengeance over four years ago:
1. I was characterized as a money hungry disgruntled employee . . . but I let it go.
2. Many lies were told about me and my motives . . . but I let it go.
3. I was slandered behind my back to two of my best friends injuring those friendships . . . but I let it go.
4. I was forced out of CRI without notice or cause . . . I but I let it go.
5. I apologized to Hank for reacting in anger to his abuse, only to have it used against me . . . but I let it go.
6. I wrote to you, the CRI board with my great concerns and yet was ignored . . . but I let it go.
7. It was even implied that I may suffer from delusions because of having a sister who is mentally ill . . . But, I even let that go!!!
I let a lot . . . GO . . . back in 1990. But after hearing the testimony of more than 20 people from different backgrounds tell their personal stories of abuse, authoritarian rule, lying and distortions of truth as well as what appears to be pathological behavior and manipulation by Mr. Hanegraaff, your president! It was this that motivated me to, once again, contact you. This time, I will not simply . . . "Let it Go!!!"

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Needless to say, the whole ordeal from the outset was very disturbing and left me in a state of depression and disillusionment. Because I confronted Hank with real concerns - not imagined - I was brought before a kangaroo court where I was "tried" or judged without due process; I was accused of being divisive; I was shouted at and attacked personally by the president of CRI; I was told that I was arrogant and prideful for raising questions regarding legitimate inquiries as to Hank's credentials; I was treated like a criminal; I was wrongly accused of being incompetent, insubordinate, and useless to the ministry of CRI.

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1. Hank consistently demonstrates conduct unbecoming of Christian leadership. When confronted by concerns, questions, or comments regarding his credentials or decision making, Hank exhibits anger, verbal outbursts, endless self-defense, manipulation of other's words and self-aggrandizement. These are not marks or characteristics of a sensitive, humble, Christian leader.

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I suppose it first began when Craig Hawkins was terminated at CRI. At the time, although I was surprised and saddened, I took it as an internal problem at CRI. However, when Robert Bowman was terminated, it really bothered me. I know it bothered you because of your demeanor when I asked you about his leaving. But again, I chose to overlook it as another internal problem. The resignation of Kenneth Samples, though, was of particular concern for me. I have the highest respect for Ken not only because he is an educator, a fellow teacher, a profession that I held for over thirty years, but also because of his skill as a researcher. I enjoyed translating his articles. His leaving CRI hurt me greatly.

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This letter is written by request from some twenty individuals who believe that Hank Hanegraaff is not qualified to lead CRI. I feel that in light of what they have testified combined with what I know to be true they appear to have a very good case.

Read the full accounts at
http://www.waltermartin.com/cri.html

By the way, Larry Wessels just mailed me a large box with all the physical documentation in it of Morey's guilt. The stack of documents weighed 3 1/2 pounds and was nearly two inches thick. Just think about this. Who in their right mind would go out of their way and mail out freely pounds of physical evidence if they themselves were guilty? That would be utter suicide. Rather, what a guilty person would do is try to ignore the whole situation, sweep it under the rug, change the names of those he robbed so no one in the future could look them up, and hope to God that it never surfaced. Hmmm...that later strategy sounds all too familier. This is not over.

Here all the evidence on these hours of audio documentation at
http://www.putfile.com/lieutenantcolumbo

I also have the visual DVD versions of these audios where they show all the evidence, but heck, I have the hard documentation myself now thanks to Larry