The Heart of Christ: Self-Righteous Karen Vs Only Fans Girl, Whose Side Are We On?
I’m thankful that our Tweeter-in-Chief on the Protestia X account makes a point to include “Things We Like” on a regular basis. You know, it includes stuff like baptism services, small churches who never closed during Covid, old guys singing a hymn on their front porch, and stuff like that. It makes us feel warm and fuzzy, which is a change from the way we usually feel from our posts about the ELCA somehow getting even gayer or a mega church pastor who drove a Cyber Truck into the sanctuary.
As the originator of Protestia who had the bright idea to make a website dedicated to all the ridiculous, heretical things Christians and sub-Christians do in the name of Jesus, I’ve a pretty calloused disposition to the asinine. When you chronicle this garbage day-in and day-out for a decade or longer, little can surprise you because – to appropriate a quote from Solomon – there is no new heresy under the sun.
From zip line pulpit entrances to stripper poles as sermon props, we’ve seen it all at Protestia, and made fun of all of it. It’s rare that we see something that legitimately angers us, merely because our anger button has been pressed so many times it doesn’t work as well as it used to. In fact, my disinterest in the ridiculous has led me to write as much at Insight to Incite about deeper cultural issues than here at Protestia’s Museum of Stupid Stuff Evangelicals Do.
But, wow. I saw something last week I’ve been meaning to get to. It made my blood boil, and after thinking about it for a week, I’ve decided it should make my blood boil.
Let me fill you in on the kerfuffle.
An Only Fans (it’s an app and site in which you can pay pseudo-celebrities for exclusive content, which can range from physics lectures to photographs, but is mostly p0rn) girl named Nala Ray, reportedly came to Christ.
It’s here we should immediately be cautious. Not skeptical, per se, but cautious. When the primary skill set and trade-good that women have to offer is their flesh, it’s not uncommon for them to find a new skill set when their flesh fades.
Or, for example, when they figure it’s time to stop sewing wild oats and find a husband – and discover that quality men don’t typically want a used woman that many other men have already known (in a Biblical sense) – they’ll get ‘ho-saved,’ which is similar to being ‘jail-saved,’ which wears off pretty quickly.
Personally, I blame the concept of ‘Born Again Virginity’ from the True Love Waits culture or some similar silly notion, that salvific redemption can bequeath you with second-hand chastity. Of course, the washing of regeneration that comes in Christ, doesn’t make your flesh un-do the past. Some people get saved and still have devil tattoos on their forehead, and some women get saved and still have a triple-digit body count that isn’t going away. You get the point.
I’m quite thankful for Protestia’s treatment of Nala Ray, which has been both kind and cautionary. They thanked God when she professed faith, and there was much reason to. Saying that Jesus is just okay with you, or popping into the Jordan River for a quick baptism while on a Holy Land tour, is not the same as being able to confess that what God calls sin is indeed sin, and to turn away from the “former lusts that once consumed you” (1 Peter 1:14).
Without a confession of sin, there’s no evidence the Holy Spirit is legitimately at work, because Jesus said the Holy Spirit’s job is “convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment” (John 16:8). Ergo, being able to publicly acknowledge that you agree with God that what you once enjoyed is sin, that you understand your righteousness must come from Christ, and that there is a God to whom you are accountable, is a partial evidence of salvation (there are some other things).
However, we’ve all seen porn stars or Hollywood celebrities or “influencers” of various kinds announce they’re on Team Jesus but go on to show utter disregard for Jesus’ teachings (a decade ago, they usually had Carl Lentz in tow). And this is the reason for Protestia’s caution regarding Nayla Ray.
After all, how many of us were happy to see Ye profess Christ with what appeared to be sincere enthusiasm? I was happy, and not just because I saw what the rest of you saw on social media, but because I knew the very solid brothers in Wyoming (where he had relocated) who were attempting to disciple him. And now, Kanye has remarried, re-divorced, and walks around the streets in trash bags and reportedly is starting a p0rn company.
The danger with this, is that new converts are usually not equipped to be leading others to Christ. Even the Apostle Paul studied for three years (there is a dispute about whether that was with Christ, in the Word and in prayer, or with the disciples) before beginning his ministry. So, when someone like Russell Brand comes along, we are ecstatic for him, but also wish he would shut up for a while until he gets grounded in discipleship.
And that’s what Protestia was getting at with this tweet:
The Whatever podcast, further filling you in, largely exists to make fun of women who need to be made fun of. I’ll grant it that their mission is not altogether unneeded. Mockery, after all, is often a profound avenue for enlightenment. And on the Whatever podcast, Nala Ray demonstrated that she does not have a firm grasp on essential Christian doctrines.
But then…well…it got really inappropriate really quickly.
If you don’t want to watch that, good for you. But let me tell you what you would see.
You would see a bitter, angry hag of a woman – in the name of Jesus – insult, berate, and humiliate a little one (Matthew 18:6) who has either recently came to Christ, or is in the process of coming to Christ. The context of Matthew 18 is not didactically about children, but those who embrace Jesus with childlike faith, and someone comes along like an older disciple, and shews them away, causing them to stumble.
Imagine the scene. Here are the disciples who’ve been following Jesus around for quite a while. They are proud of their proximity to Christ. And getting too close to Jesus for their own comfort, they discourage children from coming up to him. Jesus rebukes them strongly, and warns them that they would be better off hanging a weight around their neck and jumping off a boat.
Keep in mind, at this point in Jesus’ ministry, the disciples are portrayed as brain-dead morons who had yet to figure out in fullness who Jesus was. They understood precisely zero parables. Everything Jesus said had to be explained to them, but they wouldn’t be able to understand any of it until after Pentecost, except a small confession from Peter at one point that Jesus was the Son of God. In other words, whatever they thought they knew about Christ, was nothing compared to the knowledge they would one day have, so they certainly had no business discouraging anyone from coming to learn at his feet.
Folks, I’ve looked demonically possessed people in the face. I’ve studied the Occult and listened to everything I could from Anton Lavey and Carol Lansing (his replacement in the Church of Satan). My study of the Occult and of sub-Christian cults is what brought to you ministries like Pulpit & Pen and Protestia. I read the Screwtape Letters annually, just for the reminder that Satan is very real and his schemery among men is evident all around us. I have seen the worst and most demonic things the Prince of this World has to offer to us.
That said, I’ve not seen anything more demonic than the way Rachel Wilson treated Nelly Ray in a very, very long time. And by that, I don’t imply that Wilson is possessed. I’m asserting she was doing the work of demons.
Those with whom the Holy Spirit is dealing and dwelling, are for us a sacred Ark of the Covenant and we must not dare lay a finger upon it. God Almighty is there, in his Third Person, drawing the new believer to himself. To treat someone like Nala Ray, the way Rachel Wilson treated her, is profane in every sense of the word. It is to make vulgar, something that is set-apart and special.
I was careful at Pulpit & Pen to publish explanations and descriptions for every ancient heresy I could, for the sake of modern readers; Aryanism, Sabellianism, Monarchianism, Socinianism, Gnosticism, Anti-Trinitarianism, Modalism, and the like. We made up terms to describe new iterations of old heresies, like Osteenism, Keynonism, Rauschenbuschism, Theoerosism (that term really caught on) and compared new divergent teachings like hyper-charismaticism with ancient Montanism.
The point is, correcting people’s theology is something we have always specialized in. However, even though that’s true, I can’t understand where Rachel Wilson is coming from.
What I mean by that is, every ounce of energy Protestia and Pulpit & Pen have put into correcting theology was for the sake of reproof, correction, and training in godliness (2 Timothy 3:16). It was not done in order to project a palpable self-righteousness to berate or attack lost people or new converts. And what Wilson did to Ray in that podcast was not correction, it was viciously attacking. There is a difference.
I’m not the slightest bit worried about an angry soccer mom with a permanent scowl deterring Nala Ray from coming to faith. Grace, after all, is irresistible, and the Hound of Heaven always gets his gal. But may God forbid one of his precious, little children be mistreated that way for entertainment (which is what the Whatever podcast is about).
When Jesus encountered the promiscuous woman in Samaria (John 4), perhaps the most famous evangelism encounter in the Bible, she tried to discuss doctrine with him. He refused to get into a doctrinal skirmish over what mountain they were obligated to worship upon. He stuck to her need for repentance and to accept the Living Water he was offering.
The moment we forget that salvation is as simple as trusting in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, confessing our sin, and acknowledging that he is Lord, is the moment we learned way too much polemics.
While there are serious concerns about a new believer not understanding Trinitarian language or being unable to wrap their head around doctrinal issues that confound even the wise, catechesis comes down the road for the newly converted. Unless they are a child raised in a household of faith, catechesis always comes after conversion. My jaw dropped to the floor to hear Wilson berate Nala Ray over her lack of understanding of Communion, of all things.
Lutherans believe in consubstantiation, and non-Reformed Baptists believe in pure Memorialism, for example. Even if you remove Papists and their view of transubstantiation from the equation, if you put three Protestants in a room to discuss Communion they’ll come out with five different opinions. Are we rationally expecting a redeemed or redeeming former Only Fans influencer to understand to the satisfaction of a bitter church wife?
If I was forced to choose as company (and I am not) a former Only Fans girl and Bitter Blue Betty, I’m choosing the Only Fans girl, and not only because the other one is hard to look at it. It’s because I believe that’s what Jesus would do.
Polemics is not a stick to beat lost people, and it’s not a rod to beat new converts. It is a staff, the hook of which is to grab lost lambs and pull them out of the mud.
For additional thoughts, check out my Substack, Insight to Incite.
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“Polemics is not a stick to beat lost people, and it’s not a rod to beat new converts…”
But JD…that’s exactly what you’ve been doing for the better part of the last decade or so. That’s the entire reason Pulpit & Pen and Protestia were created in the first place. You spewed your vitriol and ran your mouth until it finally caught up with you, and now you’re nothing but a convicted felon writing op-eds for the site you yourself founded.
Hope your pal Morrill will pay you enough for this trash to help pay your court fines.
I’ve been neither convicted nor a felon (as a matter of fact), but thanks.
We have always rejoiced at new conversions, and have reserved our “vitriol” for false prophets, not those who follow them and least of all, for new believers.
JD, while you’re here, I want to clarify that what I posted under your previous article was not meant with any animosity. I don’t believe that what happened is permanently disqualifying. But I was a bit concerned about whether or not you have recovered enough to jump back into the fray. I’ve had a couple of breakdowns and burnouts myself, and I know it can take a good while to recover. Sometimes you never fully recover, but just get used to it. Just posting anonymously can be stressful at times. I could not do what you guys do. And you’re much appreciated. Though I’ve disagreed with Protestia from time to time, I do appreciate all of you guys. I wouldn’t visit and comment here if I didn’t. But that was what was on my mind when I posted what I posted. Sounds like you’re doing well these days. But I too am a bit cautious. I believe I could probably speak for most when I say we just don’t want to see you run yourself ragged and have another breakdown. Be sure to get your rest. And remember His yoke is easy and His burden is light. The Lord uses us all in ways we will never know. Each doing our little bit. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Very good article here, btw.
From what I watched of the video, it appeared that Rachel Wilson was claiming that one must take communion in order to be saved. I was brought up to believe that it isn’t required for salvation. Nor is baptism required.
The apologists at Got Questions state … “For example, if partaking of the Lord’s Table is necessary in order to receive grace, then grace is not really free and must be earned by deeds we perform, in contradiction of Titus 3:5. And, if the bread is actually the body of Christ, then the Lord is being sacrificed again and again, in contradiction of Romans 6:9–10. These matters are significant enough to have divided the church through the years and actually became an issue of contention during the Protestant Reformation.”