Bob Weiner is an apostle in C. Peter Wagner's International Coalition of Apostles. Weiner Ministries International still has the same address in Gainesville as Maranatha in 1988 (date of Weiner's book "Take Dominon").  Lee Grady was listed as an apostle previously but is no longer on the list (same with Stephen Strang).  For readers who don't know - Rice Broocks, who co-hosted the Maranatha Forerunner television show with Weiner, co-founded Every Nation network with Steve Murrell and Phil Bonasso, claiming not to have continued authoritarian practices.  Broocks also pastored Bethel World Outreach Center and is involved in Christian Zionist activism.

Maranatha's "Forerunner" was continued by Jay Rogers, and is  openly Reconstructionist. The Providence Foundation (McDowell and Beliles) was originally a Maranatha project, according to Weiner's book. Weiner is mentioned as an advisor in a Providence Foundation account, which claims that he provided Boris Yeltsin with some of their media materials.
 

by Rachel Tabachnick on Thu Aug 05, 2010 at 01:15:16 PM EST

The local feminists doing escort duty, suddenly overwhelmed by 100+ ranting loonies every Friday evening, put out a call for reinforcements from other progressive organizations. Those of us who answered were mostly long-time activists: civil rights campaigners, anti-war Vietnam veterans, civil-disobedience-experienced environmentalists, union workers, maybe even a few (gasp!) ACORN people. Having faced down cops, feds, company goons, and the like for years, we were in no mood to take any crap from a bunch of Sunday Schoolers out to pick on women in a uniquely vulnerable situation, and saw little reason not to dish it out.

With only a dozen or two of us, operating carefully within the law, and Maranatha initially responding by sending out another hundred or so, it took us a few months to persuade even the hardcore that their little project was Not Going To Be Any Fun Any More. Eventually the last slow learners got the idea, and we didn't see any more Maranathans (though others intermittently picked up where they left off - I ended up doing clinic escort work for 16 years, until health concerns & new volunteers convinced me to take a break).

Anyhow, it wasn't long after they left the clinic's sidewalk with their tails between their legs that rumors started going around that Maranatha was going out of business (they duly collapsed not long after). I doubt we'll ever know how much our spoiling their holy amusement might have had to do with that, but I like to think their embarrassing failure on NW 23rd Ave helped push things along.

Incidentally, in response to requests from the local Muslim community, we are probably not going to confront these turkeys again directly for their Sept 11 stunt. I hope they remember to count that among their blessings.

by Pierce R Butler on Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 08:34:44 PM EST