The apostle Paul wrote the Bible’s most eloquent words about Christian love. But when it came to the subject of heresy, he went into verbal-attack mode. He labeled those who were spreading false doctrines “dogs” (Phil. 3:2) and “liars” (1 Tim. 4:2), and he not only labeled heretics publicly but “handed them over to Satan” in his prayers (see 1 Tim. 1:20). Doesn’t sound much like the sloppy agape love we often model today.

Paul believed that if heresy goes unchecked it gnaws at the larger body of Christ and contaminates everyone. He warned his disciple Timothy that false teaching spreads “like gangrene” (2 Tim. 2:17). The King James Version says the words of false teachers “will eat as doth a canker.” The word “gangrene” can also be translated cancer.

Modern translation: False doctrine is malignant. Get the tumor out before it kills people.

What is troubling me these days is that many American church leaders (and I am talking about my fellow charismatics and Pentecostals) are not displaying the necessary backbone to label a heretic a heretic. We have become masters at soft-pedaling and inaction when the Lord requires us to confront.

Case in point: Bishop Carlton Pearson, who was raised in the nation’s largest Pentecostal denomination (the Church of God in Christ) and who once served as an evangelist with the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, began teaching what he calls “the gospel of inclusion” a few years ago. He has become a Universalist, claiming that people do not need Christian conversion in order to be saved by Christ.

Pearson’s deception has been widely reported.

In Charisma magazine we followed Pearson’s demise and announced that one body, the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops’ Congress, labeled him a heretic in March 2004. Since that time, Pearson convened a national conference about Universalist doctrine that featured Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong, who does not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and has promoted his ideas in books such as Why Christianity Must Change or Die.

You would think that every charismatic leader in the United States would sever all ties to Pearson until he renounces his apostasy. But that is not the case.

Huh? Therein lies the root problem. In the loosey-goosey world of charismatic independence, we find it almost impossible to police our own. Everything is about “fellowship,” but we lack the teeth in our policies to ensure that we can properly discipline preachers who veer off into doctrinal error.

When I bring up the issue of Pearson’s apostasy I usually get a lot of glazed looks from people who don’t want to believe that a brother has fallen into deception. “Don’t be so hard on the guy,” is a typical response. “Maybe we don’t understand what he is teaching.”

I don’t need any more explanation. Pearson has a banner on his Web site that announces: “God Is Not A Christian.” And his church is hosting a combined service on Nov. 17 with a local Unitarian congregation in Tulsa.

We Christians are so nice we don’t know how to handle it when the Bible requires tough love. Let’s remember that when it comes to heresy, God does not require us to be nice. It’s time for all of our congregations, denominations and church networks to raise the bar and defend the faith from those who pervert it.