Breaking The Silence: Alnor as Relentless Opponent of CRI

Chapter Five:
Alnor as Relentless Opponent of CRI
 

By early 1996 Alnor’s continued inability to refrain from the very kind of divisiveness EMNR was created to overcome, as well as his abuse of EMNR funds (see chapter seven), pushed the board over the edge and his position as executive director was terminated. No longer constrained by the EMNR board, he was now free to join forces fully with those who were opposing CRI, and he quickly moved to the forefront of such activity. He and others working in concert with him would obtain Hank’s speaking engagement itinerary and would send packets of defamatory materials to the churches and other venues to which Hank would be arriving. He worked to develop “moles” within CRI, people who would conceal their alliance with him and keep him aware of CRI’s plans, new personnel that were hired, and any information that could be used (invariably out of context) against Hank and CRI. Through this means it was common for new personnel to be contacted by Alnor and asked if they’d heard about the problems at CRI, as though Alnor were trying to give them a friendly heads up. Some CRI employees thought the call was strange and suspicious, but others were confused by it and it left them with a negative filter through which to interpret future events at CRI. As a result, Alnor was able to recruit new moles and perpetuate the very internal problems at CRI about which he contacted the new employees. In other words, Alnor’s ongoing reports of trouble at CRI were to a significant extent his own self-fulfilling prophecies as he once again became a part of the story he was covering.

In 2001 Alnor announced on his Christian Sentinel Web site a change of focus to an even greater emphasis on the muckraking style of reporting that already characterized his work:

July 2001 Update: a shift in focus for Eastern Christian Outreach
By Bill Alnor
Posted July 2, 2001, revised Aug. 7, 2002

…If you have been familiar with the work and ministry of Bill and Jackie Alnor and Eastern Christian Outreach, you may have detected a slight change of focus with some of our new articles on line here at cultlink.com in July 2001.

…The shift of focus is real and permanent. In fact we have added three major points to our mission statement that indicate we will be more involved than ever with exposing hypocrisy and corruption in religion. Because there is so much of this going on, part of the direction we are going in is creating a type of informal “Christian Better Business Bureau” in these pages (or call it a “better Ministries Bureau”). We will be tracking and cataloguing the scandals within the church as a part of an important worldwide service.…

We know that although some will applaud us for it, others will attack us for it and call us unchristian. Some will say we are gossiping.…

We know we’ll lose some friends and perhaps some support, but that’s O.K. with us; we’d rather obey God than man in fulfilling our mission. (Acts 4:19) We also know this new expanded role is biblical because we are dealing with public sin, not private sin. If these religious leaders we expose were personally sinning against us, then we should go to them privately as it states in Matthew 18. Paul said in Ephesians 5:11 to have nothing to do with the works of unrighteousness, but to expose them. Paul named names publicly when public sin came to his attention.….

Further, this web site and magazine will be rebuking even professing Christians, not trying to bring physical harm to them. There is a verse that states that those in sin should be “rebuked before all so that all may fear” (1 Tim. 5:20). We are also committed evangelicals in the mainstream of Protestant Christianity, and we believe that by our taking a stand against excesses in our own camp, it sends a message to an on looking world that there are at least some Christians concerned about sin and integrity.

We also want you to know that although we engage in some activities that some might consider to be “muckraking,” we don’t mean anything personally by it. It is also true that the famous “muckrakers” of the early part of the 20th Century like Ida Tarbell and others did their reforming work because they believe God wanted them to. Like those muckrakers, we desire to build up to change things for the better.[1] (emphasis added)