Criminal Justice

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Affiliation

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a.

Criminal behavior is not limited to people from the working class, but often occurs among people of high social status and respectability. Numerous illegal activities are discovered, together with scam, misrepresentation, violation of the rights of patent holders, etc. White-collar crimes are rarely seen as such. Only a trivial amount of such criminals were impeached. Even if the total sums of money lost by businesses, banks, etc., reach lots of pounds, such illegal activities are not properly mirrored in crime data and are not noted as serious crimes or theft of specific property. White-collar crimes are often cited as simple events that have been overlooked. The perpetrator of the white collar can establish a logic in his mind for example, if the company did not grant rights like (overtime pay, promotion, etc.).

In elevation church, they make their workers and volunteers sign a confidentiality arrangement that they will not disclose anything about the finances of the church, or they will be sued. In this case, the Steven Furtick says in a more palatable way and people are unwilling to call him out on it. No-one can find out what Pastor Stephen is paid, although it is decided by a committee of out of town pastors/advisors (who are probably on the same arrangement). (Mega Church Money1)

Sutherland (1949, p. 7) says that white-collar crime as “crimes committed by an individual of uprightness and high social status in the sequence of his work.” (Van Slyke, Benson & Cullen, 2016). Sutherland describe on the basis of revolutionary study of the unlawful and immoral behavior of the 70 largest companies in USA, a research that persistently transformed the landscape of the criminological world by increasing the classes of crime into this new dominion of “elite” delinquency. Elevation Church were accused of getting ‘volunteers’ to come forward during the ‘spontaneous’ baptism services, in order to encourage others to get up out of their seats. That is grotesque manipulation and a parody of the Gospel. (Turks1).

b. This is quite possibly that the most sycophantic piece I have read yet regarding Elevation and Steven Furtick. In fact, some of the descriptive language used regarding his personal appearance is disturbing. The dismissal of his wild-eyed, childish YouTube rant leveled against other Christians who dare question him is irresponsible because it speaks directly to how the organization, including Furtick himself. In their own words from their Code, "Elevation is built on the vision God gave Pastor Steven. We will aggressively defend our unity and that vision." (Turks1

Nowhere in Scripture are we called to defend a pastor or organization. We are however, instructed to defend the faith. If followers of this organization and "pastor" are convinced that God's will and Elevation are synonymous, then they have placed themselves squarely in the category of a cult. I am not applying that label, but many do attach it. Much of the "criticism" leveled at the organization has nothing to do with "jealousy" as the author asserts, it is simply doing what Paul did in much of the New Testament. And that is, admonishing church leaders and members to remain doctrinally sound and to keep the focus on Christ. Comparing street crime with common fraud and white-collar crime, sufferers of the crimes having no background or specific social circumstances rather they share social space. This verifies the typical association among this specific social group and its admittance to prospects of crime.

References

Mega Church Money. (2014, June 25). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Q3CuauPpjqo

Turks, T. Y. (2014, March 16). HUGE Money Stolen from Megachurch, But That's Not The

OMG Moment. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvzQUcw8oa8&feature=youtu.be

Van Slyke, S. R., Benson, M. L., & Cullen, F. T. (Eds.). (2016). The Oxford handbook of white-

collar crime. Oxford University Press.