Category: Evangelical Stuff

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Evangelical Stuff Op-Ed

Platform Grifters Case Study: The Hardings

We try very hard at Protestia not to punch down – that is, publish articles targeting those who carry little or no actual influence in evangelicalism. Yet occasionally we witness behavior and theology from online characters that is worth discussing as a demonstration of a growing or novel problem affecting the church.

In this case, the problem is platform grifters.

A grifter (combination of grafter and drifter) is a person who steals (grafter originally meant thief) and when exposed or thwarted drifts to another camp or group. The internet, with its ability to create any reality, is a fertile ground for ideological grifting – in this case grifting that involves theological influence. An idea or teaching can be advanced online without any of the traditional barriers to entry that historically muted the unqualified or uncommitted.

The platforming of regular people resulting from the internet’s flattening of public discourse, while a win for equality and individualism, also encouraged a new breed of small-time “ministers” – false teachers motivated by the desire for influence as much if not more than the desire for money. In contrast to the televangelist of yesterday feeding on check-mailing insomniacs, platform grifters feed on likes, comments, and online engagement with strangers – preferably those in positions of real or perceived influence (platform evangelicals). Grifters create digital kingdoms where they are free to declare themselves experts, influencers, victims – anything that will keep their supposed support flowing – no matter how superficial or limited the “support” actually is.

They imagine that every like, supportive comment, or retweet represents a faithful and loyal subject (and likely hundreds more who just didn’t engage this time). Their influence – real or perceived – is what validates every action taken, allegiance formed, or proclamation made from their virtual throne. And this virtual throne sits on top of dopamine-pushing social media software designed to assure them that every time they post they are actually issuing a royal edict.

Yet absent any actual influence, real-world institutional framework, or solid doctrinal conviction, the platform grifter’s perceived support dries up. Viewers who initially offered enthusiastic but cheap ovations of support shift their attention elsewhere, and the initial splash of attention the grifter hoped would lead to their big platform arrival turns out to be nothing of the sort. They discover (although rarely accept) that people’s attention is limited, and the internet’s ability to offer limitless content does not come packaged with limitless audiences.

So much like a 10-year-old simply starts a new Minecraft world, the platform grifter changes positions and begins the platforming cycle anew knowing that the internet is huge and new followers will either be ignorant of or be happy to ignore prior positions. Receiving praise from the opponents of their prior position, they resume their quest for influence with new enemies and allegiances. This cycle of grift invariably moves leftward as emotionalized subjectivity is required to cover for the shifted views of the grifter and objective, revealed biblical truth is jettisoned to avoid charges of hypocrisy.

My Case Study

Out of all the online examples of platform grifters I could discuss (and at the risk of providing the platforming and legitimacy they so desperately desire), the case of Erin and Todd Harding has intrigued me more than most. This was because Erin’s relatively inconsequential bachelor’s degree in Pastoral Ministry from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in the wake of her and Todd’s precipitous downgrade in theology was such a prominent marker of the liberal downgrade within the Southern Baptist Convention. Yet at the same time, I suspected that if John MacArthur offered Erin a position teaching at The Master’s Seminary, she would gladly abandon her woke ways and return to advocating her prior conservative positions. Allow me to explain.

The Hardings demonstrate all of the characteristics typical of platform grifters:

  • Shifting alliances and friendships, seemingly changed based on personal support and/or platforming from a person or group.
  • A preoccupation with personalities and tribes over biblical doctrine.
  • Vocally and aggressively bandwagoning with the shifting winds of cultural concern (survivor advocacy and its theological puppetmaster egalitarianism, for example).
  • A narcissism that frames every issue as being about the grifter (which of course promotes support of their platform).
  • A tendency towards the extremes of personal interactions (“I love this guy!” or “I hate that guy!”) absent substantive doctrinal concerns.
  • Willingness to toe the line or carry water for anyone influential they believe will endorse them.
  • An obsession with status (those they’re trying to impress are wonderful, others are “nobodies.”)
Todd likes to call websites like Capstone Report, Protestia, and writers with actual readership “nobodies.”

Note: While these behaviors manifest across a variety of online personalities and backgrounds, platform grifting can be especially tempting for intelligent and capable adults who profess Christ later in life, are excited about their faith, and are able to capably debate and express theological ideas. They engage under the belief that Christian theology is to be navigated via personalities and tribes, and their desire for influence and respect (platform) encourages tribal conflict rather than doctrinal conviction as their standard for public discourse.

The Hardings have – within a few short years – promoted positions and teachers all over the doctrinal spectrum. In less than four years, they have expressed undying love for John MacArthur, podcasted with reformed patriarchalists, rebuked Beth Moore and Lysa TerKeurst for teaching men, cooperated with Tom Buck, attacked Todd Friel and those who thought the Dallas Statement was helpful in defining where Christian leaders stand on social justice, ripped John MacArthur, engaged in an ongoing feud with and anathematized Tom Buck, lauded Beth Moore, and (in a final theological faceplant and rejection of God’s immutable design) declared that a “transgender woman” (a male) reflects Jesus and is definitely saved.

They loved JMac and decried women pastors like Beth Moore:

https://tiribulus.com/flix/1Screen_Recording_20220819-181500_Player-FM.mp4
Clip from the Harding’s Ex Nihilo podcast discussing John MacArthur, circa 2017.
https://tiribulus.com/flix/2Screen_Recording_20220819-183704_Player-FM.mp4
Erin states that it would be wrong for her to be a pastor or teach in the gathered assembly.

Later they decry JMac, express approval of woman pastors, and cozy up to false teacher Beth Moore:

Erin took JMac’s theology seriously just a few years ago.
The credential bolsters the new egalitarian platform.

They claim being blocked on social media is evidence that they are right, yet routinely block others:

Erin insults those who have blocked her.
I guess Erin and Todd aren’t willing to tussle?

When Erin and Todd thought expressing conservative views and orthodoxy would provide them with the platform they admittedly wanted, they were more than happy to affirm biblical principles on gender, yet within a few short years both had done a theological 180, completely replacing the biblical definition of love with subjective emotion, claiming “transgenderism” is compatible with regeneration, that a male living as a woman is a “sister in Christ” (a double lie), and redefining age-old biblical teaching on sin to cast their opponents out of the kingdom:

See 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
See Matthew 7:21-23.
Todd fails to understand that “one another” applies to believers, not those in active, unrepentant rebellion against the Lord.

In truth, the Hardings hate “Natalie.” Affirming abject rebellion against the Creator is the essence of hatred – both for “Natalie” and more importantly God Himself.

The Hardings are an interesting example not because platform grifting is uncommon (to an extent, platforming oneself is the purpose of social media), but because they are such a clear example of the theological wasteland platform grifters occupy and how this wasteland entangles those who are foolish enough to mistake self-promoting platforming for principle.

After bouncing around theologically for years, the Hardings continue to advance obvious theological errors that wouldn’t make it past Awana Cubbies, and uncritically yoke themselves to anyone willing to give them credibility. This behavior is entirely disqualifying of serious engagement, much less ministry in the name of Christ.

Bonus: Since Todd thinks we’re clowns, here’s a little clowning… Todd has a chance of being the spokesperson for his suggested Theobro sponsor:

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Evangelical Stuff Protestia Tonight Videos

Protestia Tonight: Who Can You Trust?

On this episode of Protestia Tonight for August 4th, 2022, David talks about why it makes perfect sense that Russell Moore is the new editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, and how World Magazine bought into the woke agenda. In the VIP portion, we discuss the corrupt logic used by some pastors to attack discernment ministry.

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Evangelical Stuff News Op-Ed

Christianity Today and Russell Moore: A Match Made in Hell

‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.’ Revelation 3:14-15 (ESV).

Call me old-fashioned, but I still think words should mean something. Take Christian for instance – a word which identifies a person who believes in and practices the doctrines of Christianity. A Christian is a person saved by faith in Jesus, and who bears fruit in keeping with true repentance. And not just any “Jesus,” but the Word who became flesh (John 1:14) and whose authority comprises the entire counsel of holy scripture (Revelation 22:18). Christians believe and practice God’s truths.

So imagine my surprise when the long-published evangelical magazine Christianity Today (CT) made the decision to promote their most notorious unbeliever – “Baptist” grenade tosser Russell Moore – to the position of editor-in-chief. After all, if the word Christian means anything at all, having non-Christian employees at a Christian publication would seem to undermine the supposed purpose – especially if those employees held a position as important as editor-in-chief.

Obviously, I wasn’t surprised at all.

In truth, CT is being consistent with its original purpose, which according to founder Billy Graham was to, “plant the evangelical flag in the middle of the road, taking a conservative theological position but a definite liberal approach to social problems.” According to Graham, CT would “combine the best in liberalism and the best in fundamentalism without compromising theologically.” While Graham’s understanding of liberalism was undoubtedly different in 1954 than the unapologetic Marxism the term denotes today, the magazine was purposefully founded to stand in the middle of the worldly road and bridge the divide between truth and falsehood – a biblically offensive concept (2 Cor. 6:14). Rather than shine a light into a darkened world, Graham’s evangelicals and the newly-defined evangelical establishment embraced a middling third way that more closely resembled the Christian Democracy-style communitarianism that defines the ethics of Russell Moore. In other words, having an editor-in-chief who advances social justice, bullied Christians into submitting to compelled vaccination, and ripped churches that grew due to their faithfulness in not closing down during the “pandemic” fits CT perfectly.

Moore himself who claims to have begun reading CT at age 15, being “electrified” by columnists like gay-partnering former CT editor-at-large Philip Yancey, who helped Moore see the racism, immorality, violence, and legalism occurring in “Christian subcultures.” Moore’s life as a confessional and convictional chameleon (Democrat to Republican, Baptist to Presbyterian and/or Anglican, Calvinist soteriology yet world capitulation) prepares him perfectly to head up a publication whose name implies sensitivity and concern with the latest thing, and Moore’s jaw-bending southern delivery is primed to disarm all but the most vigilant Bereans.

Much like founder Billy Graham, Russell Moore sees CT as the voice of the evasive third way – conservative on paper, liberal in practice – befriending all and loving none. Rather than the Christianity once and for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3), CT will continue to promote a “Christianity” of today – bending to the desires and lofty ideas of the culture it inhabits. Russell Moore is an ideal person to lead a publication that has one foot in the church and the other in the world, and an ideal representative of modern evangelicalism’s unholy union between light and darkness.

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Conspiracy Evangelical Stuff SBC

Buckgate: SEBTS and Friends Keep Digging

Pastor Tom Buck released a statement in response to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary exonerating themselves for the leak of Jennifer Buck’s rough draft and subsequent attempt to blackmail Buck into silence. The statement was released on Buck’s behalf by journalist Janet Mefferd, and offered corrections that included the following:

  • Contrary to SEBTS’s claim, they did not conduct a “careful investigation,” and SEBTS President Danny Akin told Tom Buck he was going back on his agreement to allow a third-party investigation.
  • SEBTS Provost Keith Whitfield held back from Akin the fact that he was the one who contacted Karen Swallow Prior to confirm the authenticity of Jennifer Buck’s rough draft, only revealing the information when directly questioned by Buck.
  • Akin placed unreasonable demands on the third-party investigation, including the requirement that Rachael Denhollander sign off on the investigating firm.
  • Akin claimed that he knew what a third-party investigation would reveal, so he recommended to the SEBTS trustees that they cancel any plans to investigate.
  • The Bucks did not accuse anyone at SEBTS of the attempted blackmail – only with leaking the rough draft to whoever engaged in the blackmailing behavior. Yet those involved (Prior, Todd Benkert, etc.) continued to dodge responsibility by pointing to the strawman that SEBTS employees were being accused of blackmail.
  • The so-called “anonymous couple” sent their email to the contact form on Rachael Denhollander’s website with no actual evidence of what they are supposedly admitting to, yet Akin finds this a satisfactory reason to cancel any further investigation.

Soon after, Tom Buck released videos of a Zoom call featuring Karen Swallow Prior pulling a Clintonesque “not that I recall” when asked if she had given Jennifer Buck’s rough draft to anyone in the last year:

The Buck response contained the fact that David Bumgardner (now on “sabbatical” from writing at fake Baptist news site Baptist News Global) has revealed that newly-graduated, foul-mouthed pastrix Erin Harding was also in possession of the draft and had served as a primary source for Bumgardner’s clownish article on the Buck’s situation:

In addition, Baptist News Global writer David Bumgardner — who wrote a much-maligned April 11 article about the Bucks, in which he alluded to the rough draft — recently revealed to Tom the name of an SEBTS graduate whom he claims not only has a copy of the rough draft, but also served as one of his major sources on the controversial story.

True to form, Erin Harding (who has attacked Tom Buck on social media for months) frantically and aggressively denied possession of the rough draft. Buck responded by releasing phone call audio where Bumgardner admits that Harding indeed did have it, which forced Bumgardner to release a statement claiming he was “confused” when asked directly about Erin Harding, and claiming that his phone conversation with Tom Buck was “confidential”:

https://twitter.com/Janet_Mefferd/status/1535331826373468161?s=20&t=DOXbXVeS4kCKiubEC4voOg
Bumgardner’s statement on June 10th.

Buck responded to the (now unpublished) Bumgardner statement:

We warned (along with several others) back in April that David Bumgardner (in a similar fashion to Hannah-Kate Williams) was being used by SBC elites to do their dirty work before being unceremoniously cast aside:

Now the ridiculous “anonymous couple” explanation by Akin and the SBC institutional class is falling apart quicker than the Willy Rice presidential campaign.

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Breaking Evangelical Stuff SBC Scandal

“Pridepost” Solutions? SBC Sex Abuse Task Force Materially Violates 2021 Motion that Created It

At the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting, the messengers passed a motion empaneling a Sex Abuse Task Force (SATF) to investigate the Executive Committee (EC) of the Southern Baptist Convention to determine whether EC members had committed abuse, mishandled allegations of abuse, or mistreated abuse victims between January 2000 and June 2021. The recently released report from Guidepost Solutions (the LGBTQ-affirming, non-Christian, and woke firm hired by the task force to conduct the investigation) demonstrated no pattern of abuse nor any behavior indicating a coverup of abuse mishandling within the SBC.

Yet the report did demonstrate malfeasance from the task force itself.

According to the 2021 motion, the task force was required to provide (emphasis ours), “a written report on the factual findings of this review” that “shall be presented to the task force 30 days prior to the SBC Annual meeting in 2022, and made public in full form within one week of the Task Force’s receipt of the report along with suggestions from the task force for actions to be taken by our convention.

Yet the full Guidepost Solutions report contains numerous references and citations to information with links that are within Guidepost’s Sharepoint server and unavailable to the inspecting public. Interested parties reportedly may contact the SATF for the information behind these non-functional links, but the 2021 motion requires the report to be made available in “full form” (that is, with all cited evidence available for inspection), not requiring additional requests from SBC church members, media, or discernment websites like this one in order to access the relevant information.

It has become evident that the SATF and the abuse grifters that demanded its creation have failed miserably. Rather than turning up any evidence of systematic bad behavior (instead revealing that the EC members were largely and appropriately not involved in abuse allegations towards independent churches), they instead wasted millions of dollars of SBC church giving to collect mostly publicly-available information.

Even the “bombshell” revelation of pastor Johnny Hunt’s promiscuous behavior with another pastor’s wife was not definitively demonstrated to be a case of sex abuse – made all the more suspicious with the revelation that the woman’s husband was apparently willing to let Hunt off the hook after a conversation about their respective “ministries.”

The 2022 messengers must be made aware of the abysmal failure and waste of the SATF, the fact that it has failed to fulfill the requirements of the 2021 motion, and that the hired third-party firm (that supported the immoral demand for EC members to waive attorney-client privilege) is a pro-gay, anti-Baptist organization that has no business investigating churches or offering recommendations to the people of God.

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Church Evangelical Stuff News SBC

Litton’s Female Worship “Leader” – One Last Insult From Scandalous Presidency

Ed Litton is nothing if not an innovator.

He broke new ground in giving up power and privilege by only serving one year as SBC president (the tradition is two). He pioneered applying modern environmentalism to the pulpit, where his “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle” method of sermon preparation showed pastors that they don’t need to reinvent the wheel every Sunday. Ed even showed how God can be honored through a pastor telling another’s personal story as their own, so long as doing so has the desired effect for whichever carefully-acronymed sermon point he happens to be working.

Perhaps no innovation was as pivotal as when Ed showed us that popular racism narratives need not be true to be used as a personal rationale for infusing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the world-preferred (and totally free from leftist baggage) addition of racial reconciliation. True or not, we have Kingdom work to accomplish.

While Ed’s innovations may have drawn widespread rebuke from Bible-thumping fuddy-duddies in the pews (you know, people too unloving to put preferred pronouns in their bios), his advancement of newchurch cultural engagement capitulation goes on unabated.

Now in a final slap in the face to the stubbornly stale keepers of the old religion (and more seriously, God Himself), Ed is bringing another innovation to the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in the form of the corporate worship music being led by his church’s female worship pastor, innovatively called a “worship leader” or “worship arts minister.”

JD Greear

Ta-da! Litton the Innovator brings us yet another magic trick of ministry – showing that all it takes to avoid those pesky Pauline prohibitions is to change the word we use. If only the early church had the vision to see this little workaround, perhaps it wouldn’t have failed so miserably in showing the kingdom diversity necessary to make world-soaked churchgoers comfortable with themselves!

Enter Redemption Church’s Abbie Maggio, leading thousands of saints in worship next month.

Maggio is interviewed in a video with Jonathan Howe (the Baptist Press Communications VP recently involved in selectively editing an interview with SBC presidential candidate Tom Ascol) where she reveals several very troubling things about her understanding of biblical worship and her upcoming role at the Convention. Most notably, Maggio reveals the man-centered framework unapologetically employed by modern music ministries.

During the conversation, Maggio decries the notion that worship music is entertainment, rightly noting that worship music allows a congregation to remember what God has done, but predictably frames her statements in terms of what worship does for us, rather than what it does for God:

It’s a unifier. It allows you to…you remember, okay, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. And we have the same mission – we have the same goal. And it allows us I think, to take steps in the right direction with the proper outlet. Worship puts us in our proper place. We remember we’re a part of something much larger than just ourselves.

While Maggio claims to not want the worship to be “song service,” it is clear throughout the conversation that she sees the worshiper as the focus of corporate church music rather than the One the church is to worship. Maggio also betrays a pastoral approach in her focus on fellow worshipers (her people), as she notes to Howe:

You know, I know my people. Right? Like I can look… That’s one of the joys of the local church – is when you are invested for years in one local body you’re able to look across the congregation and you see stories. Right? You see – you know – this family who just walked through a cancer diagnosis or you see this family who, you know, their husband just lost a job and we’re worshiping together truly as a family – as a body of believers.

At this point you may be asking, What’s the big deal? So what if a woman is leading worship?

First, the man-centered approach Maggio employs would be equally disqualifying for a man. Yet the error is compounded when made by a woman, whom the Bible prohibits from serving in such a role.

Without writing a too-long-to-read exposition on the topic, it boils down to this: Prescriptively leading the gathered assembly in worship is teaching from a position of authority. Women are not permitted to teach nor exercise authority over men (1 Tim. 2:12). That’s it.

If a church does not approach corporate singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs as a profoundly doctrinal activity under the necessary supervision of qualified and responsible elders, you have likely substituted Christian worship for emotionalized, self-serving entertainment like the vast majority of modern churches.

A worship leader – that is, a minister tasked with determining what words will be corporately proclaimed or one effectively instructing the congregation in real-time to proclaim the words – is both instructing and exercising authority, even if that authority has supposedly been delegated. The same reason a woman should not teach Sunday School or a small group Bible Study involving men is the same reason a woman should not effectively be telling men what theological statements they should sing in worship.

By the way, a woman can “lead” a song, if by lead we mean function as the primary vocalist. But if she chooses the song (without the active participation of an elder), or preaches a sermonette before she begins to sing, we have an exercise of teaching/authority, and we have a problem. It should also be noted that a woman acting in this capacity is also exercising spiritual leadership over her husband, a reversal of headship that Paul alludes to in 1 Tim. 2:13-14.

The question that must be asked when a church places a woman in a corporate leadership position is this: What need do we have to have this person serve right here, right now? Even if we believe there is wiggle room regarding the biblical prohibition on women teaching or exercising authority over men in this instance, do we need to take that risk?

In a church the size of Redemption, there are undoubtedly many musically-capable men who can serve as the worship leader. Yet Maggio is in the role for one of two reasons (likely both) – she wants to be in the role, or (more likely) the church wants to make sure the world knows that they aren’t like those backward churches who insist on maintaining the outdated cisnormative instructions found in scripture.

Maggio herself reveals this when she talks about “four things that you can plan to expect that kind of encapsulate what [her] heart has been in preparing,” which she says are “kingdom worship” (or so-called kingdom diversity – that is, visible diversity of skin color and gender), “highlighting ‘the West’,” which apparently means featuring musicians/singers from western states, worship that “transcends generationally” (playing some songs old folks like, apparently), and finally “Jesus at the center,” the Sunday School answer tacked on the end of the list of every other concern firmly focused on the needs and wants of the worshipers.

Ed Litton betrays both his church’s lack of understanding of the purpose of corporate musical worship and their willingness to ignore clear biblical teaching on the purpose of male headship in the church. Placing Maggio in a position to teach and exercise authority – even in a limited sense – over thousands of men at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting is yet another example of his disqualification from SBC presidency and (more importantly) from the pulpit of a true New Testament church.

The Road to Anaheim – Episode 16 from Baptist Press on Vimeo.

Author’s note: My wife and I will not participate in such a public display of disrespect for God and his Word. I will not teach her that I am willing to submit to the authority of a woman during the gathering of the saints of God. I encourage all Bible-honoring Southern Baptists to join us in either not showing up for this disobedient display or simply walking out when it begins and returning for business later.

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Evangelical Stuff News Op-Ed

Julie Strikes Out

How long will people continue to take Julie Roys seriously? How many more obvious, manifest lies will she have to publish before she is marginalized into obscurity?

Frankly, I’m getting tired of picking the low-hanging fruit. Julie Roys is barely talented enough to take on the obviously corrupt, much less smear faithful pastors and ministries. The pieces she publishes on her embarrassing scandal blog represent her full-time work. Yet time after time she manages to whiff on even the most basic journalistic standards.

After we comprehensively exposed Roys’ perverse game of Six Degrees of John MacArthur, fair-minded evangelicals wisely put some distance between themselves and her “ministry.” There will always be those who are ready and willing to lap up even the most far-fetched claims made against leaders they don’t like, but the Christians who initially threw away their MacArthur Study Bibles sheepishly pulled them out of the garbage after realizing they’d been had. Roys was (and is) roundly rejected by the vast majority of reputable Christian voices – especially those that represent the theological conservatism she laughably identifies with.

Yet her Ahabian pursuit continues. Roys remains convinced that the great expositional preacher who told Beth Moore to “go home” is secretly evangelicalism’s biggest purveyor of patriarchal abuse, and she continues undeterred in pursuit of her white whale. She momentarily has the attention of the popular evangelical conversation, and she has to fire all her ammunition. Unfortunately for her, the evidence that John MacArthur is corrupt simply refuses to be found. No matter – she simply continues to create the narrative she needs. Enter the cold cases of Paul Guay and Al Alegrete.

Paul Guay

Using her typical technique of staying one step removed from making actual claims (“sources say,” “reports show,” “witnesses claim” are her journalistic tropes of choice), Roys writes about the four-decades-old account of Wendy Guay, the daughter of now-deceased Grace Community Church pastor Paul Guay. According to the article, Wendy reported to her friend Lisa that her father was molesting her. The two girls then reported the abuse to Lisa’s father (John Tucker), who reportedly confronted Guay.

According to Tucker, Guay confessed to “sexual acts” involving his daughter. John and Paul Guay reportedly met with John MacArthur shortly thereafter, and Guay supposedly confessed to molesting his daughter to MacArthur.

It’s here where the story veers into the unbelievable. According to Tucker, MacArthur apparently heard Guay’s confession of child molestation and decided to handle it merely with biblical counseling and discipline. Even more unbelievably, Tucker was apparently okay with no punishment for a man who he believed had molested his daughter’s friend and was “hovering over” his own daughter during sleepovers.

Setting aside for a moment the unbelievability of a father being okay with a pastor who may very well have molested his own daughter continuing to minister and facing no legal action, MacArthur wrote a letter to Wendy shortly thereafter describing Paul Guay as a “wonderful Christian” who was “a faithful part of our staff and will continue to be in the future.” Wendy expressed optimism in a journal entry, writing that “everything has worked out with her dad” after talking to MacArthur. Wendy got married and had kids, and allowed her pedophile father to visit and stay overnight. While Wendy allowing her father to visit and stay overnight in the house with the kids does not demonstrate his innocence, Paul Guay is not the one on trial here – MacArthur is.

Two years after the reported confession, John MacArthur caught Paul Guay pursuing an affair with a church secretary and fired Guay on the spot. When asked later, MacArthur’s secretary responded that, “Paul never confessed anything to John or to our elders at that time about any kind of molestation.” Even more tellingly, Wendy herself realized that MacArthur was not trying to cover up anything, writing on April 12th, 2003 (emphasis mine): “I now see the reason WHY John was NOT worried about potential legal action (unforeseen liability), and the potential and likelihood of more victims surfacing (past, present and future), and was not indeed participating in a cover up (as I originally thought), is because he NEVER took ANYTHING, serious enough to put the needed time, prayer and action into it that it DESERVED.”

MacArthur reiterated in an April 18th, 2003 email that he never received a confession of molestation, writing, “I had no knowledge of any molesting as you claim.” Earlier in the email, MacArthur reminds Wendy that her father was immediately dismissed in 1984 for hugging and kissing a single woman who worked in the office, violating the church’s “zero-tolerance standard for any and all moral offenses or compromises by staff members.”

Roys expects readers to believe that the same John MacArthur that fired Paul Guay immediately for non-adulterous but sinful behavior is the same guy who would receive a confession of child sexual abuse and let the confessor remain in ministry. She also expects readers to believe that John Tucker knew firsthand that Guay molested children, but was willing to let MacArthur brush it under the rug. To top it off, Wendy herself realized the absurdity of the idea MacArthur somehow knew her father was molesting her and did nothing. Roys’ primary witness destroys the credibility of the entire article.

Al Alegrete

In an article entitled, “John MacArthur’s Church Failed to Report Kidnapper & Child Molester for Two Years,” Roys and Sarah Einselen lead readers to believe that Grace Comunity Church (and quite possibly John MacArthur himself) knew about a kidnapper and child molester in their midst and callously did nothing about it. True to the RAG™ (Roys Abuse Grifters) formula, the article bounces back and forth in time, trusting that the confused reader will arrive at the most damning conclusion possible.

In the opening sentence of the article Roys and Einselen report that Alegrete confessed in 1982:

In June 1982, Albert Alegrete, a Sunday School teacher at John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church (GCC), confessed to a pastor at GCC that he had committed sex crimes against children.

Yet a careful examination of the cited LA Times article reveals no such confession. Rather than a confession of sex crimes against children, the article states:

The Rev. Richard A. Hines, pastor of the Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, said that he counseled Alegrete to surrender after Alegrete confessed some of his crimes to him in June, 1982.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-05-15-me-5293-story.html

According to Hines, Alegrete sought counsel for unspecified “sexual immorality,” and was counseled by Hines that if Alegrete had committed any crimes, he must turn himself in. In response to this counsel, Alegrete ghosted Hines, the church, and his family. Not only does the article not specify what Alegrete confessed to (the crimes he was eventually convicted of, for instance), Richard Hines flatly denied that this is what happened. Yet Roys draws a nonexistent connection and publishes anyway.

That Roys’ logical leap is patently anti-journalistic is obvious. But for it to come from a supposed investigative journalist demonstrates sinful malice. A suspect admitting to a “crime” during counseling and then later admitting to the specifics does not show that the counselor knew the specifics. This is journalism 101, and Roys purposefully failed.

The rest of the article recounts horrific specifics that Roys now expects her readers to tie to Grace Community Church and John MacArthur. Yet these ties are entirely dependent on the premise that Alegrete provided specifics during his 1982 counseling – a premise not demonstrated by evidence and flatly denied by Hines.

In reality, Grace Community Church pastors escorted Alegrete to the police station when he confessed to specifics in 1984, making sure he confessed to the police in the presence of Richard Hines. The church financially supported Alegrete’s wife and kids for years following his imprisonment, including GCC elder Phil Johnson’s family reportedly helping Alegrete’s wife who was now raising daughters as a single mom.

Roys and her crack team of investigators couldn’t even be bothered to figure out that Alegrete died in prison, reporting, “The Roys Report could not locate Alegrete, who would be in his 70s now.”

Strikes Two and Three

For Julie Roys to accept and propagate such absurdities reveals just how broken and darkened her heart is. Julie Roys is not merely an incompetent, shoddy journalist. She is an accuser of the brethren, purposefully attacking Christian churches from a position of zero accountability. Knowing her track record of lies, distortions, and hypocrisy, anyone granting her credence rather than calling her to repentance is complicit in her sin (Romans 1:32).

MacArthur and Grace Community Church have never been without enemies. There have always been journalists, malcontents, and forces of darkness trying to destroy their ministry. No doubt there are people near Grace Community Church, Grace to You, or The Master’s Seminary who have been hurt. These ministries (like all ministries) are full of sinners. At P&P and Protestia, we have taken issue with them when we believed they were in error. We will continue to do so because we love them as brothers and sisters in Christ and Christians are charged with holding one another accountable.

Yet Julie Roys is so obsessed and narcissistic that she expects her readers to believe that under the surface of a LexisNexis search lies MacArthur-destroying evidence that his enemies have apparently been too incompetent to use against him. She is treading a well-worn path of failed MacArthur accusers, obsessively dragging the hearts of abuse survivors through the spiritual mud just as she did with her former student “Sarah.” And as she is not a church member, no one can hold her scripturally accountable. All we can do is expose her wickedness (and that of her financial supporters like Judson University), rebuke those who fall under her spell and refute her lies. No Christian should support Julie Roys’ evil quest. Mark and avoid her.

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Evangelical Stuff News

The Spiritual Abuse of Julie Roys

2 Samuel 12:5-7a Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.” Nathan said to David, “You are the man!

Imagine that you came across the following quotes from a youth minister, written about a former student in their ministry:

How did I get entangled in an emotionally dysfunctional relationship with a former student in our church youth group?

…my need to rescue her was sabotaging my marriage.

When she’d cut off communication, as she often did, I’d pursue her aggressively.

[She] could create entrancing harmonies and convey the emotion of a song like no one I had ever known. I loved the blend of our voices, and singing together became like a drug to me.

The truth is I couldn’t let go. I didn’t want to give up singing with [her]; I couldn’t imagine someone else taking her place. Beyond that, I didn’t want to give up the relationship. I had become emotionally hooked, and the thought of ending the relationship killed me.

I wasn’t the only straight person who ever got sucked into her emotional vortex, and I thank God my relationship with [her] never developed into anything physical.

If you are anything like the current crop of abuse-obsessed #ChurchToo proponents, you would call on Julie Roys and demand she launch an investigation into why such a damaged, predatory, and imminently disqualified person was being allowed to minister to students. After all, Julie Roys’ website has reminded the world of the dangers of spiritual abuse on many occasions, and that spiritual abuse is a precursor to physical abuse:

Clearly, a youth minister admitting to being “entangled in an emotionally dysfunctional relationship with a former student” – a relationship that the minister couldn’t stand the thought of losing – would be grounds for permanent disqualification from ministry, and a perfect example of the kind of dangerous person Julie Roys charges herself with exposing.

The problem is the minister who admitted to this behavior is Julie Roys herself.

Roys recounts this relationship with a female student (whom she labels “Sarah”) in her 2017 book Redeeming the Feminine Soul. According to Roys, this relationship with a female former student was codependent and involved intense emotional attraction (being without Sarah “killed me”). As Roys was clearly in a position of power in this emotional affair (it was “sabotaging” her marriage), the relationship was (by her definition) spiritual and emotional abuse – a position she reiterated years later when discussing the case of Ann Lindberg and Willow Creek:

Roys sought flattering affection from Sarah, writing, “…deep down I liked taking her mother’s place. I liked being needed and playing the role of savior.” Years later Roys noted the connection between these kinds of expectations and spiritual abuse:

Throughout the account of Sarah, Roys claims victim status for herself and blames Sarah:

She had her mother’s keen emotional perception, and her ability to manipulate.

…she was simply manipulating me to fill the gaping hole in her soul.

[Sarah was] constantly drawing others into [her] dysfunctional world…

…Sarah was like a vacuum cleaner, and I was like a piece of lint—unsuspecting, powerless, and consumed.

Before noting that she would apparently have continued to pursue the former student if not for Sarah abandoning her:

I didn’t have to end my relationship with Sarah; she did it for me, running off with the woman she had told me about and cutting off all communication. I was wrecked.

True to form, Roys Abuse Grifters (RAG™) like Christine Pack of “Sola Sisters” tried to cover up for Roys by pushing manifest untruths about Roys’ account:

Pack first claims that Roys “took steps to get out” before admitting that Sarah was the one who ended the relationship. Yet even after Pack acknowledges that Roys did nothing to end the relationship she doubles down, claiming Roys “took steps to correct.” This is clearly false as Roys admits that Sarah leaving “wrecked” her.

After pressure, Roys finally admits to blaming the victim, yet characterizes her predatory pursuit of Sarah as merely something she should have been better at “managing:”

Should forgiveness be extended to Julie Roys for this sinful affair? Yes. It seems she has recognized the sin and repented. Yet by her own standard, she should remove herself from visible ministry. There exists no evidence she ever sought to confess and ask forgiveness from Sarah. Perhaps this is impossible, but the internet age we now inhabit makes it highly likely someone will figure out who Sarah is or that Sarah will reveal herself. Regardless, this kind of rank hypocrisy from a supposed “church restoring” journalist should cause anyone who still affords Julie Roys’ scandal blog any trust to change their minds.

Julie Roys needs to come clean regarding this rank hypocrisy. And the rest of us need to realize she has no business acting in the role of a defender of the abused. She is manifestly disqualified – convicted by her own words.

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Evangelical Stuff News podcast Polemics Report SBC

Polemics Report Live 6:30 MST: SBC Corruption

Join us for a livestream on YouTube at 6:30pm tonight!

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Church Evangelical Stuff SBC Scandal

SBC Woke Eating Their Own: Willy Rice’s Fired Deacon Pushed 1619 Project Wokeness

YouTube and Woke Preacher Clips (WPC) never fail to provide. This time, it’s a panel discussion at Willy Rice’s Calvary Church on race relations which took place just after the death of George Floyd.

While the video has been made private as Rice furiously attempts to scrub the internet of every bit of evidence of his wokeness (including removing blog posts about sexual abuse and his calling Trump supporters idolaters), WPC highlighted the most telling portions on a tweet thread, starting with the panel’s endorsement of Robin DiAngelo’s woke manual “White Fragility”:

Perhaps the most bizarre connection revealed in the panel videos was the presence of the guy WPC called “Jeff, a Calvary deacon.” While Jeff the Deacon parroted the “white guys stole land and labor” trope for the panel, I couldn’t help but notice that Jeff was the very same deacon recently removed from being a deacon at Calvary Church.

Apparently, a deacon faithfully producing fruit in keeping with true repentance (according to Rice) won’t save him from being thrown under the Willy bus, no matter how reliably woke the deacon apparently has become.

Worse, it seems Jeff the Deacon operates a charity whose mission is to fight fatherlessness (and hopefully preach the Gospel, although it’s not clear from the charity’s website), which is an honorable goal. Willy Rice’s cowardly decision to capriciously remove Jeff the Deacon from church ministry will likely have devastating consequences for this charity (which I am purposefully not naming) once the internet figures out the connection (which is guaranteed).

The right thing for Willy Rice to do when it became apparent that his deacon’s past was going to become a public issue would have been to either stand by his deacon (because if what Willy said in the video is true, scripture backs him up), or remove his name from consideration for the SBC presidency in the interest of protecting his church. Instead, Willy is furiously scrubbing evidence of his positions, associations, and doctrinal weakness from the internet (which we all know never works), and dragging his church family through the mud.