Author: Paul Brown

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TGC Author Charlie Dates Tells White Evangelicals To Leave Chicago’s Name Out Of Your Mouth

Following the murder of 19 students and 2 teachers in the Uvalde school shooting, leftist evangelical thought leaders politicized the tragedy in an effort to push universal background checks and other gun control legislation. While many Texas state leaders have called for their constituents to pray for the families of the victims, shameless political clown Beto O’Rourke raided a press conference that was focused on the tragedy, in a publicity stunt that will likely backfire at the polls in November. A number of evangelical thought leaders made incoherent comments about guns, including SBC Presidential contender Bart Barber.

Not to be outdone by pagans like Beto O’Rourke, or ignorant evangelical institutionalists like Bart Barber, TGC author Charlie Dates has taken up the mantle of anti-gun activism in the name of being “pro-life”. Dates published a rambling pro-gun-control piece in Christianity Today, the rag to which leftists like Russell Moore run when they want to publish an article that would be better suited for a leftist secular news source like the Washington Compost. Simply add a little Christianese to leftist talking points, and voilà, secular thought is baptized in the waters of a “Christian Magazine”.

Talking About Chicago Gun Deaths Is Racist

Dates calls republican references to gun violence in Chicago a racist “dog whistle”. According to Dates, white evangelicals should not discuss gun violence in Chicago, because they don’t care about black lives lost.

“In short, I think you should leave Chicago’s name out of your mouth until you understand the forces that shape this city. We are not your rhetorical whipping boy, trotted out for another session of mockery that serves your political ends. We are not your minstrel show, played on repeat on your news channels as a way to reinforce tropes about the inherent dangerousness of Black people. We see what you are doing and name it for what it is: racism. We know that you do not actually care about the Black lives lost to gun violence here. If you did, you wouldn’t use dead Black boys and girls as a political tool. You would see their tragic deaths as a catalyst for action.”

According to Dates, white people who reference Chicago in their arguments are involved in a sinister plot that involves using “dead black boys and girls as a political tool.” Such an argument attempts to equate the deaths of children in the Texas school shooting with shooting deaths in Chicago. Dates ignores the huge difference between the deaths of schoolchildren in Texas and gang-related shootings in Chicago. The children in Uvalde, Texas didn’t deserve to be murdered. While all death is lamentable, many of the “boys” and “girls” who have died in Chicago were willing participants in the gang war culture of Chicago which glorifies crime and murder as a way of life. They live with one foot in the grave. Chicago pastors should place their focus on confronting wicked aspects of their city’s gang culture, rather than blaming white Christians for not advocating gun control measures (i.e., take the cannonball out of your own eye before trying to remove the BB from your brother’s eye).

Blame Republican States

Dates proceeds to blame the lax gun laws of Republican states that surround Illinois for the crime that takes place in Chicago. Instead of blaming Chicago gangs for rampant violence in the city of Chicago, leftists like Dates prefer to place blame on all of the surrounding states that have lax gun laws. Never mind the fact that the border states with more lax gun laws have a much lower crime rate than Chicago itself. According to Dates, Chicago is beholden to its neighbors.

“Chicago is a border colony. Illinois is a gun-restrictive state. Studies have shown that nearly 60 percent of guns connected to crimes in Chicago arrive through Republican states. The loose privileges of others have a direct, negative, and destructive effect on us.”

According to the study linked to Dates’ article, the death by firearm rate for black children is more than four times that of white children. Blaming Indiana for Chicago’s gun violence is equivalent to blaming the United States for gun violence in Mexico. A large number of guns are smuggled across the border from the United States to Mexico, by Mexican criminals who break many laws in the process. The vast majority of these guns are purchased by drug cartels. The United States is not responsible for gun violence in Mexico. The drug cartels are to blame for smuggling guns and committing murders. In the same way, the gangs of Chicago are to blame for gun violence in the city. Criminals will commit crimes with complete disregard for the law, and that is why they are criminals in the first place.

Adopt Leftist Policies or You Can’t Call Yourself Pro-Life

Dates joins other left-leaning evangelicals, who say that those who claim to be pro-life must promote a litany of government-funded social projects, supporting individuals who are born from conception to death. Apparently, pro-lifers must support increased funding for government childhood indoctrination centers, free government healthcare, and pledge themselves to Marxist organizations like Black Lives Matter; in order to be considered truly pro-life.

“We have waited for you to use your influence to lobby Congress for better school funding, access to quality health care, and food security. We have waited for you to denounce the alt-right racism that made a playboy a president. We have waited for you to declare that our lives matter.”

Social Gospel Pushes Aside the True Gospel

Asserting that white evangelicals who point out the gun violence of Chicago know nothing about the “hard work of pastors and religious leaders on the ground” in Chicago, Dates lists several organizations and individuals that work to decrease violence through Social Gospel work. Among these individuals is James Meeks, the executive vice president of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition.

“If you talk about Chicago, talk about James Meeks and the Salem Baptist Church of Chicago, which decreased violence by voting their neighborhood dry for two decades.”

James Meeks’ strategy to end alcoholism in his community mirrors Charlie Dates’ strategy to end gun violence. Meeks focuses on the evils of those who supply alcohol to alcoholics, and Dates’ focuses on the so-called evils of gun store owners in states that surround Illinois. All of these strategies push aside the true Gospel of Jesus, as anti-gun Social Gospel advocates seek to build an ecumenical coalition of churches to push their social agenda. In advocating for Meeks as a pro-life success story, Dates promotes an individual who serves as an executive for Rainbow Push Coalition, an organization that promotes race-baiting, abortion rights, big government globalist agenda items, and a false social Gospel narrative.

Perhaps Chicago is not the only thing that should be left out of people’s mouths.

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The Bad and the Ugly of the SBC Guidepost Sex Abuse List (Is it Worth the Paper It’s Printed On?)

The SBC and Guidepost solutions recently released a list of individuals who have been accused of sexual abuse. Reporting on abuse in the SBC has been sensationalized, and many media outlets have glossed over the details of the investigation, resulting in a mischaracterization of the facts that surround the story. Here are the facts surrounding the sex abuse list, including the bad and the ugly.

Not All of the Accused Are Part of the SBC

The report contains more than 700 entries. More than 300 of the entries are against individuals who are either not part of the SBC or their denomination is unknown. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest denomination in the United States, with approximately 14 million members.

Reported Sex Abuse Accusations by Denomination
DenominationTotal 
SBC396 
Freewill Baptist2 
Baptist Union of GB1 
American Baptist3 
Other Baptist6 
Unknown Baptist179 
Redacted66 
Independent Fundamental24 
Independent Baptist19 
Missionary Baptist4 
Unknown5 
Baptist Type-Nondenominational1 
National Baptist1 
Baptist-Full Gospel1 

The Report Is “Not Adequately Researched”

A quick review of the report shows that the data presented has not been thoroughly reviewed or vetted. Referenced news sources include Fake Baptist news site, Baptist News Global. The report itself clearly states that its data is incomplete, not proofed, and not properly researched:

The information is largely pulled from news articles complied from 2007 until 2022. It is incomplete. It has not been proofed. It has not been adequately researched. It is not Southern Baptist specific.

The name of the individual who produced the report, a “former employee of the executive committee” has been redacted from the report.

Report contains records that are completely redacted

The report contains numerous items that are either partially or fully redacted.

The fact that 66 records are redacted indicates that either some or all of these entries are either completely unrelated to sex abuse or could not be verified in some way.

Sex Abuse Falls On The Woke

While the egalitarian hordes on Twitter have been busy blaming the patriarchy for all of the “systemic” sex abuse in the SBC, they ignore the fact that sex abuse scandals also affect the woke and progressive. The list of churches affected by sex abuse includes the woke First Baptist, Venice CA, a bastion of liberalism whose youth pastor, Demetrius Allen, sexually abused a 14-year-old student, before the now-defunct church became a museum for cultural Marxism.

First Baptist, Venice CA. Where Demetrius Allen was youth pastor.

Some Incidents Occurred Long Ago

While the target date of the investigation related to sex abuse from 2000 to 2021, a number of cases on the list occurred prior to 2000. The sex abuse committed by pastor Dale Dickie Amyx occurred in 1974. The victim settled a civil suit against Amyx in 2008.

Other accusations that were 30 years old, include a current employee of the International House of Prayer, who was accused of abusing a victim in 1988.

Abuse From Across the Pond

The report includes the case of Anthony Akers, a deacon in the Cary Baptist Church in Preston, Langshire UK. Akers abuse took place in England in the 1970s. The Baptist Union of Great Britain is not affiliated with the SBC.

Not All Incidences Are Related to a Church

The case of Sergio David Bezerra took place at Waco Baptist Academy, a school that appears to be an independent Christian School with its own facilities. It is unclear why such a case was left in the report, as the school doesn’t seem to have any affiliation with a specific church or the SBC.

Not All Offenders Are Clergy

The report lists teacher Tonja Stovall-Fishcer as an offender, for sexually assaulting a male student. The entry for Stovall-Fishcer states that it is not sure about her association with the SBC. Such an entry brings into question the parameters of the SBC report. If the report was intended to include sex abuse by all members of the SBC, including laypersons who commit abuse in a setting outside of the church, the report would undoubtedly contain thousands of entries. The executive committee seemed to only include Stovall-Fishcer’s entry because she was included in the Houston Chronicle Database.

Kurt W. Sturtevant, another entry that is listed as “Baptist Type- Non-Denominational” (whatever that means) lists the sex abuser as a member of a Baptist Church, but then goes on to ask the statement “Did he do anything at the church?”

The “Secret List” Isn’t Really a Secret

The list compiled by the Executive Committee employee isn’t really a secret. The majority of the accusations were documented by media sources at the time that local law enforcement either brought charges or the perpetrators were convicted. The list acts as a rough “database” for sex abuse, but the data is shoddy, because it fails to stay within the defined parameters of SBC-related cases and the sources are unvetted. Anyone who can google “Baptist Sex Abuse” would have the ability to develop a similar list.

The entries that don’t have media sources show the difficulty faced by bureaucratic ivory-tower institutionalists who try to discern the truth of what happened when thirty years have passed and the information is merely “he said” versus “she said”.

Perhaps, with the wisdom of Solomon, someone would be able to discern the truth in such unclear cases from the 1980s. The executive committee and leadership of the SBC undoubtedly lack such wisdom.

This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia

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SBC Guidepost Report Calls For Establishment of Sex Abuse Bureaucracy

Guidepost Solutions has released its “Independent Investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention”, a 288 page report that details the issue of sexual abuse in the convention. The report includes a sexual assault accusation against former SBC President Johnny Hunt, who partnered with Ravi Zacharias to open up massage parlors, as well as numerous other accusations of sexual abuse within the SBC. As one might expect, the Guidepost report sided with leftist Russell Moore, who pushed the convention to investigate claims of sexual abuse in a letter that claimed the problem was ongoing within the convention for many years, even as Moore did nothing to stop it while he was at the helm of the ERLC. The move by Moore has been exposed as a political hit job against conservatives within the convention.

While the accusations themselves will be the subject of much debate over the next three weeks, leading up to the denominational convention in Anaheim, the most disappointing part of the report is the unbiblical and destructive recommendations made by Guidepost:

Baptist Press As SBC Pravda

Baptist Press previously reported on former Vice President of Lifeway Jennifer Lyell’s admission of having a “morally inappropriate relationship” with a seminary professor that lasted 12 years. Following the report, the executive committee issued Lyell an apology for an alleged “misunderstanding” about the nature of the relationship. In the apology, Lyell’s relationship was portrayed as “non-consensual”, despite the age of the victim and the duration of the “abuse”. Baptist Press retracted the article and Lyell received a settlement in 2020 from the executive committee, and then a second settlement from the executive committee in 2022. Guidepost recommends that the convention should utilize Baptist Press to continue reporting on sexual abuse, while “balancing the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort”. Thus, the way that Baptist Press spun the Jennifer Lyell story will serve as a model for how it will manage stories that contain inconvenient facts in the future.

Sexual Abuse as Primary Focus of Credentials Committee

The credentials committee is responsible for investigating matters related to a church’s qualifications to be a part of the SBC. In recent times, churches and local associations have been removed for issues related to the acceptance of homosexuality and other cultural downgrades that violate the Baptist Faith and Message. Guidepost would like to remake the committee so that its primary focus is on sexual abuse, rather than doctrinal fidelity. This includes social engineering of the committee’s makeup to increase the representation of women and the social science practitioners.

Creation of a Sex-Abuse Bureaucracy

Guidepost’s recommendations include the creation of a new “administrative entity” to regulate and process sex-abuse allegations, because the best people to deal with sex abuse allegations apparently aren’t local law enforcement, or local leadership who understand the nature of the situation. Inevitably, such a bureaucracy will infringe on the autonomy of local churches. Guidepost doesn’t just want the SBC to establish a bureaucracy using the normal 2-year procedure that the SBC normally follows to create a new entity. Instead, the consultant agency recommends that the SBC create the bureaucracy at the upcoming June convention, in 3 weeks, using bylaw 25 to bypass the normal process that would be used to critically think about such an undertaking before rashly moving forward.

One Registry for Both Convicted and Accused

The Biblical standard for accusations against an elder requires 2 or 3 witnesses (1 Timothy 5:19). Guidepost would like the newly created sex-abuse bureaucracy to lump those convicted together with those who have been “credibly accused” in an offender blacklist.

“Credible” is defined as “not manifestly false or frivolous”, meaning that the burden of proof is on those who are accused to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the accusation is false. The list would also include those who “aided and abetted in the cover-up of such conduct”, which means that all of the conservative executive committee members who resigned in protest would also likely be a target of the blacklist.

and

The system would be publicly accessible, meaning that those individuals who are “credibly” accused, but not convicted, would receive the same treatment within the SBC as a convicted sex offender.

The #MeToo movement took the standards of determining guilt and innocence and turned them on their head. Now this movement is on the doorstep of the SBC in the form of the #Churchtoo movement. Proponents of the movement are rejoicing at the Guidepost report. They can’t wait to dance on the grave of the SBC.

Establishment of a Sex-Abuse Compensation Slush Fund

The executive committee used critical theory to redefine sexual abuse, making the case that grown women in consensual affairs could be considered sex-abuse victims. With that precedent set, Guidepost recommends that the SBC set up a “Survivor Compensation Fund Program” that will be funded by cooperative fund giving, the liquidation of SBC assets, and a special giving drive that would likely be similar to the Annie Armstrong or Lottie Moon Offerings. The fund would be administered by the newly created bureaucratic sex-abuse entity, whose master would determine the amount of compensation from the comfort of an ivory tower.

Guidepost understands that this move will be very costly. The cooperative fund will likely become a black hole for the cooperative giving of the convention. The consultant agency would also like local churches to add sex abuse prevention as a line item in their annual budgets.

Guidepost proposes that an “independent fund administrator” or “special master” be appointed to administer the fund, meaning that the final say on who receives money from the sex-abuse fund wouldn’t be in the hands of a jury, local church, or an elected SBC official, but rather an appointed bureaucrat.

Permit Outside Influences From Public Theologians and Consultants

Guidepost recommends that the Credentials Committee be given the authority and funding to retain a “panel of theologians” and Support Specialists, to support the decision-making processes of the committee, meaning that the committee that Guidepost would like to infuse with a significant number of sex-abuse survivors, social workers, and victim’s rights advocates could potentially be advised by the likes of Russell Moore.

The Credentials Committee would use advice from these so-called outside experts to determine the standards by which local churches are deemed either friendly or unfriendly.

While many of its local church recommendations are excellent, Guidepost’s recommended standards for cooperation would also require churches to fire anyone who is listed in the Offender Information System, which would include those who could not disprove an accusation, but were never charged with a crime. This would inevitably lead to a system where accusations are weaponized against innocent individuals in the church. If a pastor cannot disprove a false accusation, he will lose both his job and career, as part of the blacklist system.

Accept Anonymous Accusations

Guidepost recommends that the newly-created sex-abuse entity change the current policy of the credentialing committee to require that the committee accept anonymous submissions about sex abuse in a church, meaning that anyone, even pagan activists could manipulate the reporting system to devastate a church and pastor.

Anonymous accusations should never be permitted by the credentialing committee. If false accusations are proven to be false, the accuser should receive the punishment that he or she intended for someone who was innocent.

The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil  from your midst.

Deuteronomy 19:18-19

The way that the convention deals with the Guidepost report will be key over the next few months. The annual SBC Convention meeting in Anaheim is sure to be a turning point, either for better or worse, as the messengers will either choose to change course and elect leaders that will reform SBC institutions; or double down on the tomfoolery and continue onward with denominational downgrade in a manner that is irreversible. God is sovereign over the SBC. He will either reform the institution, or it will become just another dashed piece of pottery beside the potter’s wheel. He will not be mocked.

Editor’s Note. This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia

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Denny Burk Claims Women Undergoing Abortions May Not Fully Understand They Are Killing A Baby

When Supreme Court nominee Kentanji Brown Jackson recently refused to define “woman” on the basis that she was not a biologist, conservatives and evangelicals bristled at the idea that someone could claim ignorance to such a basic question. If a Supreme Court Nominee could not answer such a simple question, how could she provide judgments on complex matters of the law. Denny Burk, who has often taken principled Biblical stances on issues such as intersectionality and biblical manhood and womanhood pointed this out.

In the past week, Burk has published a series of articles defending the incrementalist approach to banning abortion, blasting abolitionists who want to totally ban abortion, and defending the idea that women who have abortions should not be subject to any legal penalty for their decision to break the law and murder their baby. In the process of defending his position, Burk had his own version of a Ketanji moment, when he used the words of Scott Klusendorf to make the claim that women don’t have the same level of understanding as an abortionist, and therefore they should not be charged for murdering their children.

“That is to say, did the woman contracting the abortion have the same understanding of the act and same proximity to it as the abortionist? I think most agree that the abortionist knows exactly what he’s doing while the aborting mother may not fully understand. For example, the abortionist assembles the instruments used to dismember the fetus and often views the child on an ultrasound machine during the dismemberment procedure. He uses a doppler devise, inaudible to the patient, to detect crushing fetal heartbeat. (See abortionist Warren Hern’s book, “Abortion Practice.”) His acts are clearly premeditated. True, the mother and the abortionist have a meeting of the minds in that they agree on having the abortion, but they rarely meet beyond that point because the mother rarely knows what the abortionist knows.”

Burk’s position that women can’t understand that they are murdering their children because they are not abortionists is just as absurd as Ketanji Brown-Jackson’s claim that she is not qualified to define “woman,” because she is not a biologist. The idea that women don’t know that they have a baby growing inside of them is demeaning to women and just plain ignorant. Give women at least a little credit, they must have some degree of culpability, right?

If a man hires a hitman, both the man and the hitman can be prosecuted. If parents gave their children to traffickers, both the parents and traffickers can be prosecuted. The idea that women who have abortions should be immune to a murder charge is absurd and ignorant of the Biblical standard for murder. It’s like arguing that David didn’t murder Uriah and should not be found guilty because he wasn’t there when it happened nor was it his men who physically killed him.

In fact, we’re convinced most prolifers like Burk have never met a defiant, motivated, haughty, unrepentant, ‘shout your abortion’ type woman before. Instead, they believe 99% of women who get abortions are meek, fearful, and are being dragged by the arm into the clinic under threat of death, having no comprehension of what they are doing, and therefore not punishable in any way.

Incrementalism was a pragmatic position of many pro-lifers under the Roe V. Wade ruling. The position led to constant compromise and the development of a “pro-life” industry that fed on the wallets of well-meaning conservative Christians (like Denny Burk) while providing only meager legal results.

If the Supreme Court stays the course and strikes down Roe V. Wade, Christians will no longer have any excuse for pushing half-measures that regulate abortion rather than totally abolishing it. Burk’s argument that abolitionists are anti-pro-life is blatantly false. Abolitionists have zeal to totally eliminate the scourge of abortion, giving it no quarter.

Editor’s Note. This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia.

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Karen Swallow Prior Pushes Leftist Policy Support As Pro-Life Standard

Photo from (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Karen Swallow Prior, the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary English professor who was recently implicated in the SBC scandal that involved the unauthorized leak of Tom and Jennifer Buck’s testimony is back in the news. Instead of going to a Christian Publication to argue her position on abortion, Prior decided to air her complaints about conservative pro-lifers to the pagans at the Washington Compost, in a feature article that spotlighted Prior’s twisted take on what it means to be pro-life. Apparently, the best way for members of Big-Eva to win the optics war against conservatives is to smear their opponents in the secular press.

The article claims that Prior was “shocked and thrilled” with the idea that Roe could be overturned, but quickly realized that the issue of being pro-life is more complicated than just being against abortion.

For Prior, it means much more than overturning Roe. It means more support for child care and pregnant women as well as supporting sex abuse victims, vaccinating as many people as possible against the coronavirus, and helping start and run an inner-city high school in Buffalo.

While most pro-lifers would agree that being pro-life also involves the churches’ work to help pregnant women who are in need, Prior wants the pro-life movement to be a conduit to force churches and conservative Christians to support a never-ending clown car of leftist social programs that have nothing to do with Christianity, the Gospel, or even loving your neighbor. According to Prior, becoming a Karen and insisting on the Covid shot is part of being pro-life. Supporting public child care, the expansion of the nanny-state is apparently also an important part of being pro-life. In recent public debates, Prior has also called for addressing gun-control and racial injustice as pro-life issues.

Prior is disappointed that Roe won’t be overturned under her idyllic set of circumstances. She continues to suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome and participates in many of the delusions of the “me too” movement.

In her mind all these years, she had pictured Roe ending, under “a truly conservative president who believed out of conviction that abortion was wrong and that there would be justices who weren’t accused of sexual assault.

Ironically, Prior, who is more involved in both Southern Baptist politics and secular politics than most church-going pro-lifers, believes that pro-lifers have made politics an idol.

Prior realized that she no longer put so much faith in politics. To antiabortion activists, politics “has become an idol and we are reaping the consequences for that,” she said.

Perhaps Prior should do some soul searching and take a good look in the mirror, because no one is more political than the woman that allows herself to be referred to as Notorious KSP, in deference to leftist Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Notorious RBG) whose death paved the way for the conservative Trump-appointed justices who appear poised to strike down Roe.

Editor’s Note. This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia

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Elijah Removed From Gospel Coalition ‘Molech Debate’ Following Dismal Performance At Mount Carmel

Following a dismal “Good Faith” Baal worship debate performance at Mt. Carmel, The Gospel Coalition has removed Elijah, the controversial Prophet, from its upcoming “Good Faith” Molech worship debate. At the showdown on Mt Carmel, Elijah relentlessly mocked Baal and his prophets, resulting in a frenzy of self-inflicted injuries, as the Baal worshipers cut themselves in an attempt to solicit a response from their god. The prophet lacked the winsomeness and nuance that characterize the gentle and lowly hearts of Gospel Coalition contributors, as he caused unnecessary trauma with words that were anything but seeker-sensitive. After God rained fire down on Elijah’s sacrifice, the Prophet piled on to the humiliation of the Pagans’ defeat through the uncharitable act of slaughtering them after the debate was complete.

In a promotional spot for her upcoming debate, TGC’s Pro-Woke, Pro LGBT “Good Faith” debater Rebecca Mclaughlin called on Elijah to repent of his actions, explaining:

“Elijah needs to recognize and repent for the damage that he has caused to the Baal Community, just as Christians need to repent for the damage that they have caused by not accepting and loving members of the same-sex attracted community in our churches. How can we expect to have good faith debates and find common ground with those who hold different opinions if we don’t foster an environment that allows us to question and weigh out our differing opinions so that we can find middle ground?”

Gospel Coalition founder Tim Keller defended Elijah’s removal in a series of cryptic tweets that he will probably soon deny have anything to do with Elijah:

“Wavering between 2 opinions is the best way to find the third way that we so desperately need in the evangelical community.”

“Ahab is a brilliant example of how to be an Israelite in the public square. Notice the witness, but in a form that the culture and his sweet wife Jezebel can handle. We should desire to have more Israelites in these spaces like Ahab, and give them grace as they operate.”

“Sacrificing to Yahweh doesn’t get you into heaven. I happen to know this. So how in the world could sacrificing to Molech get you into hell.”

“As one of my esteemed colleagues frequently says, ‘we ought to whisper about the things that the Bible whispers about and shout about what it shouts about.’ The Bible whispers about child sacrifice, compared to its shouts about religious pride.”

“We Should not judge pagan beliefs on the basis of God’s law. The fairest way to evaluate a world-explaining narrative is by judging on the basis of its own premises and beliefs. If we decide it fails, we must show it fails on its own terms.”

Sean Demars, another “Good Faith” debater, questioned Elijah’s judgement of those deemed false prophets, as a legalistic witch hunt:

“Elijah, man, he is zealous, and constantly accusing guys of idolatry when they hang out in the high places.  Most often I’m saying to him, ‘Hey some of these guys that you’re saying are worshipping false gods. I know them. They’re my friends. That guy discipled me. I had lunch with him last week. I heard him say this about that person. Trust me, he’s not going pagan at all.’ Anyone who’s even slightly sympathetic to hanging out with the ladies of the high places or watching the soft-core porn laced entertainment recommendations of Brett McCracken and Jackie Hill Perry is suspect in the eyes of Elijah. That guy is a real buzz-kill.”

Now that Elijah has been removed from the debate, the race is on to find an adequate replacement. The current frontrunner for the spot, SEBTS English professor and TGC author Karen Swallow-Prior, has stated that if chosen she would like to expand the scope of the Molech worship debate to include all issues related to life:

“People like to look at the Molech worship issue as if it was just as simple as not throwing babies into the fiery altar. In reality the debate is much more nuanced and complex like. It;s like that book, ‘If You Give a Mouse a Cookie’, only the title should be ‘If You Make a Woman Keep Her Baby.’

If you make a woman keep her baby, you have to provide her with everything that she could possibly need. Food stamps, free baby formula, and universal basic income are a pro-life issue. Once the baby is born, the mother will need free government childcare and healthcare, which are also pro-life issues. The child will need government funded schooling, condoms, subsidized housing, and free college tuition, which are also pro-life issues. Animals are alive, so by nature animal rights are a pro-life issue. Fundamentalists like Elijah need to focus on the pro-life issues that really matter, rather than just narrowly focusing on stopping Molech worship.

Look at how much water he wasted on Mt. Carmel in the middle of a drought, and those bulls definitely weren’t free range organic. Worshipping God in a sustainable way is a pro-life issue.”

Editor’s Note. This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia, and is a piece of satire.


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Preston Sprinkle Promotes Annihilationism and Universalism as Orthodox Views on Hell

Preston Sprinkle’s ‘Theology in the Raw’ is akin to going to a third-world open-air meat market and purchasing a rancid salmonella-infested hunk of meat that has been sitting out in the sun for days, rotting away and covered in flies. Consume such “raw” theology at the peril of the body, and by body, we mean both yourself and the church body to which you belong.

The theology of Sprinkle’s recent Theology in the Raw: Exiles in Babylon conference is no exception to this description. Protestia previously reported on the first day of the conference, which included Francis Chan’s description of the Lord’s Supper as having a mysterious “intercourse with Jesus”. Within days of the reporting, Preston removed video of the first day of the conference from Youtube, scrubbing evidence of false teaching. You can still view day one of the heretical conference here.

Day three of the conference included a debate and discussion on views of hell. Before introducing Chris Dates, the defender of the annihilationism heresy, and Gerry Breshears the defender of the eternal conscious torment position; Preston began by making the argument that he believes that there are 3 orthodox positions on hell that can be held by a believer. (Preston Sprinkle, Conference Day 3, 20:10-21:52)

There’s three Christian views of hell. By Christian, I mean views that have been held by Christians who hold to Christian orthodoxy and have different views of hell.

There is the most familiar one, eternal conscious torment, and that’s the view that probably almost all of you… when you think of the idea of hell this is what comes into your mind. That hell is a place in the afterlife where people who don’t follow Jesus will suffer never ending punishment. That’s eternal conscious torment.

Then there’s the annihilation view, or sometimes called conditional immortality. This view also says that there is a hell. It’s a place of punishment, but when people go there, they die. They will cease to exist. There is no never-ending ongoing conscious torment.

The third view is sometimes called Christian Universalism. It’s better titled ultimate reconciliation. That says that, and you have to distinguish between Christian universalism and non-Christian forms of universalism or pluralism, which would say ‘oh all roads lead to you know heaven or whatever you know. Jesus is one way and Hinduism is one way and even atheists is another way.’ You know that’s radically different from Christian Universalism or ultimate reconciliation Christian Universalism says that the blood of Jesus is so powerful that it can even overcome the unbelief of all humanity, and that God will ultimately reconcile all things, including all people to himself.

All three of those views have been held by orthodox bible-believing Christians throughout the centuries and this morning we have two of those three views.

Notice how Sprinkle cloaks his own heretical views (annihilationism) and the heretical views of the unrepresented position (Christian Universalism) with an unproven declaration of orthodoxy. He also refers to the views by their adherents favored names, conditional immortality and ultimate reconciliation, in an attempt to make heresy more palatable. According to Sprinkle, alleged orthodox Christians held these views, therefore they must be orthodox.

Prior to the conference, Facebook advertisements for the conference were blitzed by commenters who called out the conference as woke and heretical. Sprinkle responded in the comments section by telling the commenters that they would have to answer to God for calling such great preachers as Francis Chan and David Platt these things. Such methodology is backwards. The scripture defines orthodoxy and heresy. Men who are orthodox follow orthodox Biblical teaching that adheres to the scripture. By definition, men who follow heretical teaching are heretics.

Splitting the hair of the heresy of universalism, as Sprinkle attempts, gives cover to rank heretics, such as Rob Bell. Universalism is heretical whether the heretic believes that Jesus universally saves everyone or the heretic believes that all paths, whether Christian or not lead to heaven. These beliefs are two sides of the same coin. Both “types” of universalism are unscriptural and lead the heretic away from the clear scriptural command to repent and believe on Jesus for salvation. Both brands of universalism lead their adherents to false, but easy pragmatic positions where there is no point to evangelism or teaching ministry. If all people end up in heaven, as universalism claims, what is the purpose of anything done by the church on earth? This is the reason why “churches” that believe universalism are dying. They have no purpose.

Sprinkle didn’t have a universalist at his conference, because an explanation of universalism by a universalist would clearly reveal that universalism is heresy, in light of scripture. While the remainder of the debate and discussion of the views on hell remained cordial, at one point Chris Dates exclaimed that Gerry Breshear’s position was “nearly heretical”. One could only imagine what would have happened if Sprinkle invited a universalist to represent the position rather than simply excusing universalism as just another orthodox position.

All of you know what might have broken loose.

This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia.

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News

Retired Pastors Sue Woke Denomination After $90M Goes Missing from Pension Fund

Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Photo by R. Kennedy for Visit Philadelphia

Following a leadership transition in June 2021, the African Methodist Episcopal Denomination discovered financial irregularities in the denomination’s pastoral pension fund. The scope of these irregularities has recently come to light, as three separate lawsuits have been filed against the denomination and its former head of retirement services, Jerome V. Harris, on behalf of pastoral retirees in three different state jurisdictions. According to court documents, the fund, which was purported to contain $126 million in assets at the time of the leadership transition, may actually contain less than $36 million in assets. Church officials claim that current denomination staff do not understand where the funds went, and only the former head of retirement services would be able to explain the discrepancy in assets.

AARP Foundation legally represents a number of retired clergy from the AME who depend on the pension to pay monthly bills, and the foundation has petitioned to transition the litigation into a class action lawsuit on behalf of as many as 5,000 retirees. The AME department of retirement services issued a statement on March 30, claiming that they continue to cooperate with federal law enforcement and are “committed to making every fund participant whole by restoring their full investment plus interest.” The fact that the AME suspended pension payments to retirees on March 10 casts doubt on whether the fund will ever be able to meet its obligations to retirees, or keep its promises to pay back all that has been lost plus interest.

The circumstances under which the fund’s assets went missing are rather murky, but fraud and incompetent investment strategies are the two greatest possibilities. Federal authorities are involved in a financial crimes investigation, indicating that fraud is suspected. However, court documents indicate that Jerome V. Harris performed his financial management duties with little or no oversight from denomination leadership, resulting in an investment strategy that invested money in a variety of sketchy investments, including Florida land, a solar farm, and a venture capital outlet that no longer exists.

The AME is one of the wokest denominations in the United States, producing large numbers of “Liberationists” like James Cone the father of Black Liberation Theology, a heretical bastardization of the true Gospel. Based on conventional wisdom that those who go woke will eventually go broke, and the fact that one of the major investments was a solar farm, a stereotypical leftist pie in the sky investment, is it possible that the woke chickens have finally come home to roost at the AME? No matter the result of the lawsuits and investigations, one thing is certain, if you follow the typical logic of Black Liberation Theology; the whole retirement system of the AME must have failed not because of Jerome Harris, or his investments, but rather because it is rooted in a system of financial white supremacy that is designed to oppress the clergy of the AME.

Editor’s Note. This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia.

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SBC Prez Candidate Bart Barber Believes That BLM, CRT, and MeToo Opposition Has Nothing To Do With The Bible Or Theology

Jesus warned the disciples to beware of the hypocrisy of the pharisees, who presented themselves as the religious leaders of the nation of Israel. Their whitewashed clean public persona was like a nice-looking tomb that contained the dead bones of uncleanliness and hypocrisy. Jesus promised that their backroom dealings and heart motivations would one day see the light of day.

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

Matthew 12:1b-3

No current figure in the Southern Baptist Convention personifies the modern-day Spirit of the Pharisees better than Presidential hopeful Pastor Bart Barber. An establishment Big-Eva candidate, Barber prides himself as the unifier who will save the convention from divisive conservatives who ally themselves with the likes of the Conservative Baptist Network. In the wake of his campaign announcement, Barber has been eager to cast himself as the candidate who is on the right side of SBC politics, CRT, and even secular politics; all the while claiming that conservatives don’t have a properly nuanced approach to the most important issues.

Fortunately, things written by Barber in the past remain for clear-headed observers to judge. Contrary to his current position of rejecting CRT, Barber continually casts those who oppose CRT on theological grounds as unhinged political hacks who are hellbent on bringing political issues into the SBC arena. Barber even goes so far as to say that Black Lives Matter, Critical Race Theory, and Me Too movement opposition have their roots in politics as opposed to matters of the first conservative resurgence, which he considers to be purely centered around theological matters.

To Bart Barber, the leftists who introduced CRT, BLM, and the MeToo movement into the church are not the problem. He sees these issues as tertiary matters- things that are disputable on the basis of scripture. However, when it comes to conservatives who oppose these things on the basis of scripture, and want to present a Biblical answer to clearly leftist anti-Christian propaganda entering the church, Barber believes that they are “WAY off message.”

Leftist proponents of CRT gush at Barber’s repudiation of conservatives. Race baiter Dwight Mckissic, who has appeared at Barber’s church even went so far as to proclaim Barber a “prophet” on the basis of Barber’s Proclamation that the convention is in a “Golden Age of Southern Baptist Unity” and that the current problems faced by the SBC are not as bad as the problems that caused denominational splits in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

The fact that someone so far to the left as McKissic has been invited to appear at Barber’s church and approves of his approach to CRT and politics speaks volumes about how Barber would steer the SBC. Barber has been positioning himself for the opportunity to run for President of the SBC for quite some time, despite claims from Barber that he “wouldn’t be an SBC entity head for a barge of gold.” This begs the question, which Big Eva entity or influential benefactor will pony up the barge of gold to pay for Barber’s services, in the event that he wins the election for SBC President?

Editor’s Note. This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia

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TGC Author Francis Chan Wants to Know Why Can’t We Just Put Aside Theology and All Get Along

Ecumenism, the principle of promoting unity between different denominations and religious sects, despite clear theological differences, has become a force for evil in modern Western society. Many young people who claim Christianity as their faith have cast aside the clear doctrinal truths of scripture in favor of an ecumenical feel-good relational experience that looks more like a Jesus Movement Kumbaya campfire singalong than the convictional preaching of the scriptures that characterized the Protestant reformation and spiritual revivals of the past five hundred years. Barna’s 2021 American Worldview Inventory survey reveals steep declines over the past 30 years in Biblical Worldview, belief in Salvation by Faith Alone, and belief in the Bible as the accurate Word of God amongst those who claim to be Christians.

The shifts that can be seen in the theology of author Francis Chan exemplify the downgrade in the beliefs of many of those who would call themselves Christians in this present age. Chan obtained his education at the Master’s Seminary, an institution that is heavily committed to orthodox teaching and the study of scripture as the inspired word of God. That was thirty years ago. Today, Chan seems more enchanted with the gnostic and mystic teachings of Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Charismaticism than the clear teachings of the Christian faith.

Recently, Chan took center stage at Preston Sprinkle’s Theology in The Raw: Exiles in Babylon Conference, as a replacement for David Platt, who withdrew as the main attraction at the conference of false teachers. Chan began his Christianese sprinkled TED talk, standing next to a table with bread and wine; lamenting that the church has moved away from a gathering of believers that focuses on the body and blood of Christ to a model that focuses on the preaching of the scripture from the pulpit. Chan presents the listener with the false dichotomy that churches must either choose between the teaching and preaching of sound doctrine or the Lord’s Supper as the centerpiece of the worship service. Contrary to Chan’s position, Orthodoxy (proper doctrine) and Orthopraxy (proper practice or living) go hand in hand, and God calls the church to embrace both. Chan continued with a series of patently false statements that have been the bedrock of his ecumenical claims for the past several years:

Everyone’s Fighting about who’s right. Do you realize for the first 1,000 years there was one church. We aren’t arguing about who has the best theology. There was one church for a thousand years.”

Anyone with the most basic knowledge of early church history knows that the first thousand years of the Christian faith were wrought with theological division, as the church encountered heretics who sought to alter the message of the Gospel and introduce poisonous heresies. Numerous church councils in the first thousand years of the Christian Church addressed heresies such as Arianism, Docetism, Nestorianism, Montanism, Pelagianism, Gnosticism, and many others. Theological precision was important to early believers, because they understood the warnings given by the Apostles and Jesus to avoid false teachers and false teaching.

Chan continues his TED talk by lamenting that Protestant believers deny the Catholic false teaching of Transubstantiation, the belief that the blessed elements become the literal body and blood of Jesus. Catholic theology has bewitched Chan for years, but this time, Chan decided to up the ante, claiming that the word Koinonia in the context of the Lord’s supper in 1 Corinthians 10 means having a mysterious “intercourse with Jesus.”

Chan even goes so far as to say that early believers didn’t have access to scripture, and as a result, centered their gathering solely around the observance of the Lord’s Supper. Such claims are patently false. While the first century church did not have leather bound copies of the canon of scripture, believers received the epistles that carried the weight of Apostolic Authority given by Jesus, writings that referenced the Old Testament scriptures and understood Christ as a fulfillment of all that was written in them. Doctrine from the epistles, law, and prophets shaped the beliefs and practices of the early church.

The point of Chan’s argument is to erase theological lines by ignoring theological distinctives that divide denominations from one another, in order to create ecumenical gatherings that agree on nothing but what Chan refers to as “the essentials of the faith.” Unfortunately, Chan cannot clearly define these things, because the true essentials of the faith are the very theological issues that divide those who seek to follow the Gospel of the scripture from Catholics who believe in Salvation through works (including the work of taking the Lord’s Supper), and wild charismatics who practice gnostic and mystic forms of theology. Unity in the absence of truth is mere delusion, and truth can only be defined by the God who cannot lie and has spoken through the scriptures. 2 Peter 2:1-2 instructs believers on the realities of false teachers who would come into the church and attempt to syncretize the truth of the Gospel with lies:

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.

Editor’s Note. This article was a written by Paul Brown for Protestia.