Rawhide, Appleton Alliance and Transgenderism?

What’s the Connection?

Pastor Dennis Episcopo was hired as a consultant by the Rawhide Boys Ranch Board of Directors. Chris Myhre, Board Chairman at that time was also a member of Appleton Alliance. Episcopo led them in finding a new Executive Director for Rawhide which culminated with the hiring of Alan Loux.  Alan Loux had previously served as Appleton Alliance’s Chairman of the Board for five years. Both Myhre’s and Loux’s wives are on staff at Appleton Alliance.  When Loux began at Rawhide he immediately, according to his own testimony, began to bring individuals born female but transitioning to male into Rawhides boys homes.  He did this without making the entire Board of Directors aware. The secularization of every aspect of the program was being implemented. Christian staff who had been serving the Lord at Rawhide for years and some for decades began to raise objections.

“Gender Issues” Training

In July of 2019, at Alan Loux direction, a training titled “gender issues” began. Alan personally began this training stating, among other things, that Jesus hung out and partied with sinners, that Jesus never said anything about LBGTQ+ and transgender issues, and that even though Rawhide holds that the Bible is inspired, inerrant and believer’s only guide, that any mention of scripture regarding this issue would be considered divisive and could lead staff to being disciplined or dismissed.  A number of the staff attempted to reach out to the Board of Directors in protest but Loux stood between those board members and staff. The board of directors were not all made aware that the gender issues philosophy had been implemented or what it encompassed. After the training many staff saw no alternative other than to resign feeling that to follow Loux’s new agenda for Rawhide would be to deny Christ and His word. Over 20 staff have resigned over this issue so far.  Many are staying faithfully hoping that the four Board members who are opposing this descent will keep Rawhide moored to its Christian origins. If Rawhide continues on this secular path, many more staff will resign.

The Bottom Line

When
we first attempted to speak to Alan Loux, the way in which he spun his
responses and changed the biblical meaning of certain scriptures led us to the conviction
of speaking to his Pastor in hopes that he would either help us explain how
Loux was off or rebuke him.

In those first interactions Loux explained to us that because some churches believe that homosexuality is not a sin Rawhide is free to encompass this belief as orthodox.  He also said that because Rawhide entered contracts with the state that include LGBTQ+ children they must service them in the in-house program to keep their integrity. Of course Rawhide should not discriminate and should bring identifying LGBTQ+ kids into the program but they should be bringing these kids to the redeeming power of Jesus Christ and not having them live with the boys but offer them out patient counseling. In effect Rawhide is choosing market place integrity over biblical integrity. Loux has said himself that he believes that he is serving God’s will in this matter.  The conversations have been difficult to follow and to discern what really is meant regarding his belief, his actual intentions and what exactly he is going to continue having Rawhide do. Because of the obvious deception here we turned to Loux’s Pastor for help.

In
doing so we discovered the large number of ties that exist between the Rawhide
Board and Appleton Alliance. With such close proximity, that Episcopo is his
Pastor, and because Episcopo was paid by Rawhide to bring Loux in, we hoped
that he would speak to him and help him recalibrate to the headship of Jesus
Christ in these matters.

Pastor Douglas Pirkey (Wellspring at the Cross) went to Pastor Denis Episcopo (Appleton Alliance) to ask him to speak to Alan Loux (Rawhide).  But Pastor Episcopo, after several meetings and discussions, was unyielding, stating that: he did not want to get involved; that he had no authority at Rawhide; that Loux had told him he was following the Lord in this; and that Episcopo was going to continue with no correction even though Loux is staying the course.

What’s the Agenda?

The church is being unmoored from
scripture. Both in churches and Christian organizations the spirit of the age is
pulling down truth after truth.   Sociologists call this
ideology Deconstructionism. It is the base of postmodern culture, and it is
inching forward through the politically correct, LGBTQ+, truth is relative agenda.
It’s expressed goal is to deconstruct biblical Christianity.  Left unchallenged
these ideas undermined the authority of scripture and its directives to the
Body of Christ. We can see it clearly playing out in what we are now
experiencing in Rawhide.

Jude 3 and 4 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

What Now?

The Bible is very clear how to deal with these types of matters.  We are told in Matthew 18 to go to the person we find in sin.  And we are told that if they do not repent to bring a brother, as we have done.  We’ve spoken to Loux, to Board members, to Alliance District Superintendent Jeff Brown and to Pastor Dennis Episcopo in hopes of resolving this privately.  The Bible tells us in Matthew and in Timothy that if those in sin will not repent to tell the church.  To expose it. In the book of Revelation, John is clear that when a false teaching as in this case affirming a child falsely that “she” is a “he” and bringing her to the doctors that are willing to mutilate her body, sterilize her, and affirm her mental disorder, we are to refuse, to rebuke, and to expose it.

2 Peter 2

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;  if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked  (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard);  then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,  and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,  whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.  But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!  Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing,  but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.  For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.  They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.  For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.  For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.  What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Here are the links to the letters that Pastor Douglas sent to Pastor Episcopo.

Open Letter to Pastor Episcopo

Second Letter to Pastor Episcopo

Rawhide Boys Ranch Goes LGBTQ+

Open Letter to Rawhide Board

from Joie Pirkey