Pastor Douglas Pirkey
Apostolic Ministry at Wellspring at the Cross
Combined Locks, WI 54113
23 November 2019
Pastor Dennis Episcopo
Senior Pastor at Appleton Alliance Church
Appleton, WI 54913
Pastor Episcopo,
My first letter to your elders, Superintendent Brown and you, and the meeting you finally agreed to have with me, have rendered from all of you only more disappointment. Ultimately, you have gone on to set aside the mandate to equip in the Scriptures and make “adequate for every good work” your church member, Allan Loux (2 Timothy 3. 16, f.). Though you say you do not agree with the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer (LGBTQ) policies that Loux has implemented at Rawhide Boys Ranch, you are unwilling to correct him. You even embraced as an expedient for taking a hands-off approach to this matter Allan’s blasphemous claim that he feels the Lord is leading him to implement what is a patently ungodly agenda. Pastor, you are refusing to lay down your life for the sheep!
Though you have been urged to bring Loux to repentance, you are unwilling. As it relates to transgenderism, pointing to how there are ongoing efforts in Appleton’s city government to enact an ordinance that prohibits counselling young people to identify with the gender of their birth, you remain unwilling. Though I implored you, saying, the regional reach of Rawhide’s ungodly policy reinforces and establishes here in Wisconsin a national trend of marginalizing Christians, still, even this was not enough to move you. Pastor, you are serving what is unholy!
Despite the fact that it is your church member who is at issue here, you refuse to shepherd him and instead prioritize the status quo of Appleton Alliance. You say this matter is “too messy” to deal with while you abet your CEO church member’s destructive agenda. Effectively, you are complicit in denying at-risk children of the life-changing power of the Truth of the Scriptures! But the Bible says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1. 18). Pastor, you are being unrighteous!
Clearly, you either agree with the LGBTQ agenda, or, the real mess you wish to avoid is even more important to you than giving Christ first place in this matter. From your response to me at the outset of my efforts when I first called you on the phone, yours was a preoccupation with the political and financial status quo of Appleton Alliance. But the Bible says, “No one can serve two masters (Matthew 6. 24). Pastor, you are serving money!
Instead of destroying with the Truth a secular, satanic agenda, by your neglect you are effectively “raising it up against the knowledge of God;” and, instead of bringing Loux to the obedience of Christ, you enable his disobedience (2 Corinthians 10. 3 – 6). Your constant equivocations to exempt yourself from this spiritual battle in which the Truth and headship of Christ at Appleton Alliance are casualties is cowardly. Siding with the world, you refuse the love and courage to judge the church you lead (1 Corinthians 5. 12, f.). In so doing, you spurn the exhortation of the Bible: “Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4. 4). Please, pastor, repent!
For the rule and reign of Christ’s kingdom,
Pastor Douglas Pirkey
Excellent!! Hold up the Lord’s banner, all. It is important to deal bcz the Word has 2 edges: Father’s goodness AND severity. This pandering and compromise to get donations is very disheartening. What response did you receive from Rawhide ?
Rawhide ended up firing or pressuring out most of the believers that were holding biblical beliefs regarding the LGBTQ+ policies. There were Board members also trying to address it once it was exposed and they ended up leaving. The Board had been replacing long-time members and people associated with the ministry that wrote the very biblically based bylaws and were replacing them with liberal members mostly from Appleton Alliance. The few that were left when the agenda was exposed tried to address it and ended up leaving. One was Reverand Alvin Dupree. Douglas Pirkey spoke to the head of the Alliance churches in the region about Pastor Episcopo’s involvement in hiring his previous church board chairman Allen Laux who ushered in all of these changes. He said that he would look into it. Maybe Douglas can hop on and give exact details, but it didn’t go anywhere. Rawhide continued to bleed staff when the Board Members that were fighting it failed.