Tag: ruslan

Categories
News

Under Cross-Examination by Lawyer, Ruslan Says He Hasn’t Lied in 8 Years

Christian YouTube creator Ruslan KD, who we’ve clashed with in the past for giving passes to Modalists like Marcus Rogers, doubling down on dissing us over a John MacArthur/Julie Roys article and recently joining up with Joel Osteen and several NAR false prophets for a scammy ‘Prosperity & Wealth” seminar whose sole purpose seems to inject you with bad theology while pressuring you to pay them money, appeared on The Lead Attorney’s YouTube stream, where he claimed he hasn’t lied in 8 years. 

The assertion comes from discussing divorce and custody battles, and whether someone cheating on their spouse necessarily makes them a bad parent who may be unfit to take custody or care for the child. 

Whereas Ruslan did well to defend certain tenets of the Christian faith regarding marriage and relationships, his imprecision and lack of a nuanced perspective, coupled with the gall to think he could steamroll his way through the conversation, was swiftly and brutally cross-examined by the seasoned lawyer. Unable to dismiss and blow off people as he does on his show, Ruslan stumbles badly. The wole thing is well worth the watch. 

Because Ruslan is unwilling to say that sometimes men of integrity do lie (i.e., they sin), and is also arrogant to boot, he gets pushed badly, offering that he became a man of integrity when he turned 30, and in the 8 years since, has not lied, or at the very least, cannot remember ever lying, something we don’t believe for a second.

Categories
News

Ruslan Joins Joel Osteen, NAR False Prophets for ‘Prosperity & Wealth” SCAM!

Christian YouTube creator Ruslan KD, who we’ve clashed with in the past for giving passes to Modalists like Marcus Rogers, doubling down on dissing us over a John MacArthur/Julie Roys article and generally acting as an arrogant gatekeeping elitist, has joined up with arch-heretic Joel Osteen and the who’s who of New Apostolic Reformation prophets for a 31 Day Wisdom Challenge, being one of the speakers for an event designed to promote health, wealth, and other prosperity, all done in a completely scammy way.

The program, which has a supposed value of “$995.00,” offers “mentoring” and “personal insights and revelation from influential leaders making Massive Kingdom Impact in the areas of Business, Ministry, Hollywood, Social Media, Government, and more. (Editor’s Note. Seven Mountain Mandate)

Organizer Pedro Aduro explains to prospective participants that “I’d like to invite you to decide and declare that no matter what happens in 2023, it will happen for you good…it will be for you and not to you” so that you can “experience even more of God’s goodness, favor, and prosperity in 2023 all while making a massive impact for the Kingdom.”

He says, “I can’t tell you how excited I am to start announcing the incredible line-up of revelatory teachers and prophets…and the incredibly successful entrepreneurs I have lined up to share with you, very private and personal study notes…from their own search for the wisdom of God as provided in the Book of Proverbs…if you hunger for increased wisdom and kingdom revelation…and are committed to 2023 being a year of favor, prosperity, and breakthrough…” then this event is for you.

Some of the revelatory teachers and prophets include:

  • Bill Johnson, Lead pastor of Bethel Church who oversees an empire of blasphemy and false teaching. They have a ‘Lab’ where they apply scientific methods to the prophetic + People. Only $2750!
  • Christine Caine, the charismatic, egalitarian, one-time leader from Hillsong who preaches the word/faith prosperity gospel while leading a network designed to empower women to become preachers and pastors. Caine holds to the notion that Jesus died on the cross to give you possessions, wealth, and health, and that it is there for the taking if you have enough faith and confess it positively.
  • Keith Ferrante, the founder of Emerging Prophet and the founder of Prophetic Consulting Certification, he offers a certification program where he can train you how to grow your prophetic ministry for only $4997.00
  • Joel Osteen, a straight-up heretic, no matter what Ruslan and Mike Winger say. 
  • Ron Carpenter, a megachurch pastor who sued his church over a $6.25M retirement package he alleges was promised after he gave the church away to a different pastor.
  • Dr. Brian Simmons, a NAR “apostle” who is the author of wretched and anti-biblical The Passion “translation.” He claims that Jesus appeared to him and gave him “secrets” of the Hebrew language. Lest you are confused about the “Dr.” in front of his name, it wasn’t due to his scholarly prowess. Rather, he received it from Wagner Leadership Institute – a NAR organization founded by C. Peter Wagner that offers courses in subjects like dream interpretation and miracle-working and where you can get a “Masters of Spiritual Healing, Deliverance, and Warfare” or a “Masters of Apostolic Leadership and Applied Ministry.”
  • Graham Cooke, the head Prophet and Founder of Brilliant Perspectives. He is a “specialist in exploratory dialogue” and a “consultant to numerous churches, organizations and businesses.”
  • Heidi Baker, a charismatic prophetess who routinely gives false prophecies claims she frequently visits heaven where she is given special revelation. She’s crazy as a rat in a coffee can. 
  • Stacey Campbell, a charismatic prophetess known for violently and vigorously shaking her head when she’s prophesying. She is described on her website as “a prophetic voice to this generation” who has a “passion to teach believers to know how to hear the voice of God through proper teaching and strong values.” 
  • Dano McCollam, a Co-founder of Bethel School of the Prophets and founder of Prophetic Company.
  • Kris Vallotton, Bethel Church’s chief prophet and healer. The leader of the Bethel School of Supernatural ministry, he’s claimed his prayers have regrown and recreated hymens before and can fix vehicles just by laying hands on them. He famously prophesied Trump would win the 2020 election.

The program is also endorsed by Shawn Bolz, the poster child for false prophecies and whose prophetic predictions have proven to be less accurate than a drunken meteorologist. He falsely prophesied about the quick end of COVID-19 back on February 28, 2020, before any deaths in the United States, and falsely prophesied that Trump would win in 2020.

Sadly, hundreds of thousands have undergone this program, being exposed to this wretched hive of scum and villainy. 

As soon as we signed up, we were invited to buy a “Wisdom Journal for $31,” which we declined.

Then we were prompted to buy a special offer of a “Wisdom Pack” workshop, a “$2300 value” for only $95.

This pack includes the journal, a 90-minute workshop on how to Dream with God (value $495), tickets to his conference in March (value $695), a “Kingdom Wealth Workshop” where in just three hours he’ll teach about “creating wealth, protecting wealth, stewarding wealth and multiplying wealth from a kingdom perspective.” (value $995) and access to some YouTube Videos. (value $95)

The website is plastered with warnings that “ONCE YOU LEAVE THIS PAGE, YOU WILL NOT SEE THIS PRICE AGAIN! with a countdown timer showing 5 minutes left. This naturally resets each time you refresh the page, because you can absolutely get this price anytime you want, creating a deceptive sense of urgency.

Once you bypass this, the site prompts you to download the 31-Day Wisdom app, where much of everything will take place. Despite claiming that over 100,000 people have done the Wisdom Training, the app has only 5000 downloads.

This entire event is one big red flag on every level possible, and now Ruslan is right in there along with this, joining with these hucksters and money grubbers for a truly wretched event. We are not asserting that he agrees with all of this- maybe he does and maybe he doesn’t- but the lack of discernment involved to find himself among them is truly breathtaking, and shows how unqualified he really is.

h/t to Shawn at Revealing Truth on YouTube.

Categories
News

Ruslan KD Praises Pornographic TV Shows + Says Disagreeing With Him is ‘Low Level Thinking’

In a recent live, since-removed video, Christian YouTube creator Ruslan KD, who we’ve clashed with in the past on account of him giving passes to Modalists like Marcus Rogers, doubling down on dissing us over a John MacArthur/Julie Roys article and generally acting as an arrogant gatekeeping elitist (see postscript), took to task a commenter who pointed out that Lecrae had the propensity to watch some filthy TV shows, and as a result should not be revered as a sound teacher in the faith. 

Ruslan quickly jumped to Lecrae’s defense and revealed that he himself watched the shows Snowfall and Ozark, that they were the best shows ever, and that taking a perspective of ‘all or nothing’ when it comes to shows with nudity is immature and childish.

Bro I watched Ozark and I watched Snowfall. So that sounds like you have an issue with media in general, it sounds like you have an issue with media in general. Right? So, like, again, all or nothing mentality. If you can’t enjoy a specific artist, well then don’t watch it. But if Lecrae says, ‘Hey, I’m into Ozark’- I’ve been transparent about being into Ozark. I think Snowfall is arguably one of the best shows on television.

The commenter points out that the show is filled with sex and nudity, and for that reason, it’s not appropriate for Christians to watch, but Ruslan burns down a strawman, retorting:

I never said there’s no sex and nudity; I’m saying you’re conflating with you disagreeing with on- if Lecrae has the permission or if I have the freedom to watch Ozark or Snowfall, which you know, by the way, you know what happens in Snowfall when I see those sorts of scenes, which I don’t remember the scene you’re talking about, but you know what happens when I see those types of scenes, you know what I do? I just fast-forward them. I know, right? You can just fast-forward those scenes if you don’t like those scenes, right? So again, this is the low level of thinking here. You don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. You disagree with Lecrae on if he should watch Ozark or Snowfall, so therefore you discard everything he’s ever done in his entire ministry.

By way of reference, not only is there tons of cursing in Ozark, between 20-50 F-bombs an episode and a fair amount of violence, the show is rife with sex scenes, including many graphic homosexual ones, resulting in it being rated 18+ in many countries. This is a show where less than three minutes into the very first episode, a semi-nude man receives oral sex and then starts thrusting into a woman, and the rest of the sexual content is consistent and persistent.

As per IMBD, some of the more egregious content includes: (warning, graphic descriptions ahead)

  • …Brief nudity shown by an older woman during a short sex scene with a much younger man. As well as another casual sex scene with an unclothed couple (no nudity, covered by sheets).
  • An email with an amateur porn video is sent and opened in one scene. The webcam video details sexual actions of a man and a woman from the back with only the buttocks shown. It is shown twice. The video is discussed between two men later on. It is played in multiple episodes. A man masturbates in his car and fantasizes about a prostitute giving him oral sex.
  • A pregnant woman is seen pole dancing at a nightclub. Her breasts are clearly visible.
  • An old man is walking down to the water naked, only his backside is shown with a towel covering the front. A nude poster is seen on the wall next to a door. A topless girl is seen in a bar. A homosexual oral sex scene takes place in a motel room, a man giving another man a blowjob and you hear him gargle and choke when the man ejaculates in the other guy’s mouth. No visible nudity.
  • A stripper has sex with a man in a private room until a woman interrupts them, she can briefly be seen nude.
  • A stripper is hired to seduce a man into having sex with her. She walks in and the stripper is wearing a strap on and the man is sucking on it. The man also appears to be wearing a bra and panties. A woman takes a video of this. She then shows it to the man’s wife.
  • An elderly couple has sex in a darkly lit room. We see them thrusting and then we hear them orgasm and moan. We also see the woman’s breasts, but the man’s nudity is not seen by viewers.
  • A man is seen masturbating while he’s listening to a dead man’s voice. A man and woman have sex in the bathroom of a bar, there is thrusting, moaning, and male rear nudity and female rear nudity but they are clothed.

For the record, it’s not just Ruslan who likes this, but Kyle J. Howard and Jackie Hill Perry have both watched the series and have shared their appreciation for it.

The other series is ‘Snowfall’, which also contains a ton of graphic sex and nudity and which Ruslan has watched through. This series has received cautions from both Common Sense Media and its IMBD page, who explain:

In fact, in the very first episode, within the first five minutes, a naked woman blows cocaine up a naked man’s backside, and then gives the man oral sex, before being joined by another woman for a threesome. In the first five minutes,* and Ruslan didn’t turn it off? 

That’s the point. He kept on watching after that, knowing that this was setting the pace for the rest of the show. He has the world of entertainment at his fingertips, millions of books, films and art over the millennia, and this is what his heart gravitated towards? If that’s the first five minutes of the first episode, we can’t even imagine what sort of filth is in the four other seasons.

It’s almost as bad as the time Senior Editor of The Gospel Coalition, Brett McCracken, shared that his Favorite TV Show Contains a Graphic Homosexual Sex Scene. It’s shameful stuff, but Ruslan sees nothing wrong with it, and continues doubling down, even as someone asked if Christians could watch Game of Thrones with the same attitude- just fast-forward through all the gratuitous nudity even though it won’t stop you from catching a naked breast here or some naked thrusting there, given how flawed the strategy is.

Ozark is brilliant. I watched all the seasons. And when there was something sus(pect) in Ozark I fast- forwarded them, right? So, no, I’ve never watched Game of Thrones, but you’re missing the point. Like, you’re really missing the point. (Unintelligible) I’m just really trying to hear him out, I think I’m done. 

I mean, you got pastors in here saying Ozark is so good-storytelling and cinematography, but I’m sure he probably thinks you’re a bad Christian or you’re not really saved or something. So we’re gonna get him out of here. He dead. He dead.

Editor’s Note*  Also, we have not personally watched that scene from Snowfall, or any scenes from Snowfall, but two independent sources have verified that it’s there. We do not watch any terrible films or shows we criticize, but curate the content from various sources.

Bonus

Categories
News

Popular Christian YouTuber Allen Parr Refuses to Condemn Heretics and Trinity-Deniers

Allen Parr is a popular Christian YouTuber and host of The B.E.A.T (Biblical Encouragement And Truth), an “online video ministry dedicated to communicating God’s word in a creative, practical and easy-to-watch format.” Featuring videos like Should Christians Have Titles…OR NOT?, 5 Things Modern Day Preachers Need To STOP Doing, and The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Podcast | MY REACTION, Allen teaches theology to his nearly 1 million subscribers, one of the biggest audiences on the platform. 

Parr frequently offers a good amount of proper teaching, yet he repeatedly demonstrates he has fatal blind spots manifested by his refusal to condemn false teachers, specifically men like Joel Osteen and Trinity-deniers Marcus Rogers and T. D Jakes, doing so in the most inconsistent way possible. 

Speaking to Ruslan KD, (who also gives passes to Modalists like Marcus Rogers), Parr explains that there are three categories of bible teachers, Recommended, Not Recommended and False Teachers, and that everyone basically goes in the first two buckets:

Because even someone like Joel Osteen. I don’t agree with prosperity theology, I wish that he would challenge people in the areas of sin, I wish he wouldn’t preach a cotton-candy gospel, I wish that if I actually went to his church, I’d be challenged in areas of purity, holiness, and sanctification, all that stuff.

But I’m gonna be honest. And some of you you’re gonna fight me for this, right? But I’m gonna be honest, if I go to his website, and he adheres to all of the non-negotiable tenant, core beliefs of the Christian faith, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the inerrancy of Scripture, the deity of Christ, all these different things, right? The Trinity and all that stuff. It’s hard for me to label him as a false teacher when he is saying, ‘This is how you can be saved. You need to be saved. And we want to be a church who’s going to help you become saved’ right?

Allen makes several large errors here. First, he promotes “Website Orthodox” which is when a pathological Bible-twister or false teacher has an orthodox statement of faith on their website but ignores it entirely in their body of work, sermons, books or teachings.

It’s easy to have an orthodox statement of faith or doctrinal statement on a website, and false teachers regularly point people back to the website whenever their orthodoxy is challenged. In truth, their “website orthodoxy” is mere cover for their theological confusion and abuse. 

The fact is that every woke, pro-choice, openly lesbian pastrix-leading church in the apostate ELCA or PCUSA has an orthodox statement of faith on their website or has the apostles creed put up somewhere. Here’s a list of 600 gay-affirming churches in New York alone who all have an orthodox statement of faith on their website, demonstrating it’s entirely irrelevant to a church’s soundness.

Parr acknowledges that Osteen’s gospel is marked by prosperity theology, is “cotton-candied” and does not challenge people on sin, holiness and sanctification.” Still, he regards this as a true, biblical gospel.

And this is where I’ve caught flack, is instead of me going around naming a whole bunch of people and saying ‘they’re a false teacher, they’re a false teacher, they’re a false teacher’ I would rather focus on the teachings…I’d rather look at the individual teachings of Joyce Meyer. I’d rather look at Bishop Jake’s teaching, I’d rather look at these different people and say, you know what, because of the fact that he teaches a cotton candy gospel, because he preaches prosperity and health and wealth and a name it claim and positive confession and all this stuff, then these teachings by Joel Osteen or Bishop Jakes, these are false teachings. And therefore I put them in the category of “not recommended.”

If I’m giving advice to a new Christian, and they’re asking me, ‘who were the people that you would recommend I listened to?’ I would not put these people in that category. And that’s where I kind of differ, but does that mean that I can’t have fellowship with these people? You know, and that’s where I see the the toxicity online, particularly in the space that we operate in is like.

Parr points to Lakewood Church’s statement of faith as his justification for affirming Osteen’s orthodoxy, regardless of what the megachurch leaders preaches or doesn’t. Yet Jakes has gone on record saying he doesn’t believe that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity but rather is just a “manifestation” of God. Even now, his website reads, “There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three manifestations:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

Parr has previously pointed out the Bishop’s problematic website in an earlier video, rightly affirming that Trinity-deniers have “the wrong view of the Trinity, Jesus and salvation.” 

Despite this, he glosses over Jakes’ modalistic statement on his website, offering, “even though Bishop Jakes has since embraced more of a Trinitarian perspective, there’s still a problem with him leaving this type of language on his website, which is the idea of God manifesting Himself in three distinct ways, which is not the typical way that we describe the Trinitarian Godhead.”

Contrary to popular belief, Jakes has never recanted his modalism, yet Parr still won’t condemn him as a false teacher, but rather a brother to freely fellowship with. Can you trust a teacher who can’t identify a wolf like Osteen, the lowest hanging fruit in Christendom, and call him on it? We certainly don’t think so. 

Until Parr gets this right, he’s definitely ‘Not Recommended.’

Editor’s Note. It’s not just Parr. Prominent discernment minister Mike Winger likewise can’t bring himself to call Osteen a false brother, suggesting that he teaches a true gospel. This is categorially false.

In the gospel of Joel Osteen, the “good news” that he brings is that “God loves you and wants to save you from life of mediocrity and small dreams. Therefore, if you believe in God and be obedient to him, God will give you a plan for your life that includes big dreams, self esteem, favor, health and wealth, influence, a better job, a positive self image and a fulfilled life free of negativity”.

That’s it. That’s what it’s all about. That is the sum of just about every book, every sermon, every media appearance, and every tweet of Joel Osteen, condensed into a few sentences.

That being said, there is something significant to understand about Joel Osteen: He does talk about God. A lot. You cannot accuse the man of not mentioning him because he’s all over that. Yet it’s never really in a personal sense. Joel talks about God, but it’s always in a vague, amorphous sense. There is undoubtedly nothing distinctly Christian or Biblical about it. There’s nothing doctrinal or theological about the way he talks about God. Instead, He is an ethereal, shapeless, formless, customizable, singular being thing that is out there called God that functions like a cosmic vending machine whose sole purpose is seeming to bless you and make your life better. Even when he mentions God, it’s not ABOUT God, but it’s about what God can do for YOU.

And while he talks about God a lot, he NEVER talks about Jesus. We did a survey of his Tweets one year and out of nearly a thousand tweets, he mentioned ‘God’ over 330 times and ‘Jesus’ just three time. GT notes:

More often than not, Osteen sounds like an inspirational life-coach, instead of a herald of the gospel. He often preaches about how people can improve their lives, be prosperous, and experience happiness. Noticeably absent in Osteen’s optimistic message is any mention of sin or repentance. The atonement of Christ provides us with healing and the abundant life, according to Osteen, but apparently receiving forgiveness from a holy God is not necessary.

In numerous interviews and writings, Osteen has failed to proclaim that Jesus is the only way to heaven. He has repeatedly refused to agree with the teachings of the Bible that certain behaviors are sinful. This is not a new convert being interviewed; it’s the leader of a church of tens of thousands. Osteen can’t bring himself to support fundamental doctrines of the faith he claims to preach. His words communicate relativism and demonstrate a profoundly poor understanding of the Bible.

When you don’t talk about sin—and Osteen purposefully does not—you’re not preaching the whole gospel. When you barely, if ever, call sin what it is, you’re not helping anyone, least of all the sinner who is enslaved to sin (John 8:34; 2 Corinthians 4:3). Joel Osteen’s teaching would lead us to believe that we are being saved from unhappiness and failure in life, not from sin and God’s wrath. Osteen does not teach that we need a divine rescue from judgment, but rather simply a self-improvement plan.


Categories
News

TV’s ‘The Chosen’ Director Dallas Jenkins Doubles Down on Controversial Mormon Comments, Straight up Lies

Dallas Jenkins, son of “Left Behind” author Jerry Jenkins, and Director of the smash-hit TV show The Chosen continued to double down on controversial comments he made last year about Mormons (Latter Day Saints, ie LDS) and Jesus loving the same Jesus, appearing on Ruslan KD’s channel and against insisting that some of his Mormon friends indeed have and love the same Jesus as he does, while engaging in a bit of revisionist history over what he actually did say.

For a brief overview of the Mormon views on Jesus and other things, they believe that Jesus was once a regular sinful man who became exalted and turned into a God after doing many good deeds. ‘God the Father’ himself was also once a man on another planet, but because he likewise was such a good Mormon, he was granted the right to become a God over this earth. They believe that they too can become capital ‘G’ Gods of their own planet one day, and in fact, hold that there are millions of Gods. For them, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all and individual separate Gods, and they all have human bodies of flesh- they are not Spirits.

Mormons categorically deny the idea of salvation by grace alone and believe Jesus and Lucifer are ‘spirit brothers.’ They believe the scriptures we have are all corrupted and that’s why they have the new revelation of Joseph Smith.

Jenkins tells Ruslan (who really should do better prep when he has controversial figures on. We offer our archives as a great resource so he doesn’t keep on getting lied to by his guests)

And one of the things that I have said in the past that caused the most controversy was I was referring to a few LDS folks that I’m partnered with, that I know, and I said, “we love the same Jesus”. And a lot of people have taken that out of context and quoted me as saying, ‘Dallas Jenkins says that all Mormons are Christians’ or ‘[All Mormons] believe the same Jesus’. I’ve made it clear… I don’t speak for any group of people. I was speaking for a few friends that I have, a couple of my partners, I stand by the statement, and I don’t speak for an entire LDS or Catholic Church, just like I wouldn’t speak for the entire evangelical church.”

He goes on to say that there are two reasons why he doesn’t discuss publicly what Mormons believe or comment on the truth and accuracy of the Mormon gospel, suggesting that in the same way that evangelical Christians believe some of the wrong things within their faith, so do Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses, as if a different view on infant baptism or women preaching is comparable to the notion that God the father once being a sinful human who became a God and then had sex billions of times with his celestial wife in order to populate the earth with spirit babies.

“…I believe that my job as the creator of The Chosen, in this context, publicly, is to point people to the authentic Jesus, point people to Scripture and to the real thing as much as humanly possible. And so that if you spot a quote, unquote, counterfeit gospel, or counterfeit Jesus, that you will know it immediately.

And that brings me to my second point, which is that I don’t believe that LDS or Catholic or Greek Orthodox or Jehovah’s Witness, have a monopoly on people as part of their faith traditions, who believe in the wrong thing. I believe in the evangelical faith, I believe… in my own churches I have sat next to people who believe some of the wrong things.

I have, and probably currently do have a few things that I’m getting wrong. And so my job in my in with the show, and also, I think, even in my personal relationships, is as much as possible to to evangelise to everybody. So…there’s no win for me in taking time to go through each of the different faith traditions, and try to point out all the different things that I disagree with….’ll let the Holy Spirit and I’ll let the discipleship of the local church do the job of nuancing all of those kind of large scale or even small scale disagreements.”

Here’s the thing. Even if he wasn’t explicitly referring to the LDS community, which he was, unless his Mormon friends repudiate basically everything they believe about Jesus, then he is still wrong that his Mormon friends and partners believe in the same Jesus. Even if we were to grant his contention he’s not talking about ‘all Mormons,’ it doesn’t make it any better that he still believe that these specific Mormons love the same Jesus.

But the comments he is referring to that got him in such hot water are from a May 29, 2020 upload on the Mormon Show Saints Unscripted, where he originally said:

One of the most interesting things about this whole project has been my relationship with different denominational or faith traditions that I didn’t have before. I’ve learned so much more about the LDS community than I thought I knew.

…And what’s funny about the LDS folks as you guys seem to be, even though you’re the most controversial, you seem to be the least confrontational. It’s just like, ‘hey, we all love Jesus. I just want to let you know, we love the show’. And when people start going, ‘Hey, you’re a Mormon, you’re going to hell’. You just like, ‘hey, whatever.” It’s like it just kind of seems to roll off your back. Maybe it’s because you’re used to being on the outside sometimes.

…So even if I had significant disagreements with the LDS community, which I’ve learned, I have fewer than I thought I did. But even with that, I was okay, I was comfortable with that, because as long as they’re treating the show properly, that’s all that matters. So I can honestly say it’s been one of the top three most fascinating and beautiful things about this project has been my growing brother and sisterhood with people of the LDS community that I never would have known otherwise.

I’m learning so much about your faith tradition, and realizing, gosh, for all the stuff that maybe we don’t see eye to eye on, that all happened, that’s all based on stuff that happened after Jesus was here.

The stories of Jesus, we do agree on and we love the same Jesus. That’s not something that you often hear. Sometimes it’s like, ‘oh, they believe in a different Jesus that we do.’

Host: “that’s a controversial statement. ”

Yeah. No, it’s the same. I mean, I’ll sink or swim on that statement, and it’s controversial, and I don’t mind getting criticized at all for the show, and I don’t mind being called a blasphemer. I don’t like it when my (LDS) friends are.

And I made it very clear that if I go down, I’m going down swinging, protecting my friends, and my brothers and sisters. And so I don’t deny we have a lot of theological differences, but we love the same Jesus.”

Clearly, he’s not talking about just a few people. Lastly, here is a transcript from a previous post we did, where he routinely fails to make the delineation that he was only speaking of his specific friends and partners, but rather all Mormons.

Morgan Jones  1
“I have been told that you are a fierce defender of the Latter-day Saint belief in Jesus Christ, and that is something that honestly, on behalf of all of us, I just want to say thank you for that. But why is it that you are a defender of our belief in Jesus Christ?

Dallas Jenkins ;
Great, so you’re starting off right out of the gate with that one. Well, it’s a tough question. I am happy to answer that and I just say that because I recently have gotten a little bit in trouble in certain circles because I was on another LDS podcast, and I said that LDS and evangelicals love the same Jesus. I got some heat from people who suddenly didn’t want to watch the show anymore because of that. Apparently it’s a controversial statement, which I guess I would have known that a few years ago, but now that I’ve been working with my LDS brothers and sisters over the last couple of years and gotten to know them so well, I’ve learned quite a bit.
I come from a strong evangelical background, and I want to say this, and I’ve said this in a few conversations with LDS people, that there are reasons why I’m an evangelical and not LDS. I do have things theologically that I disagree with or things that even just in kind of practice that aren’t quite my speed in the LDS faith. However, one thing that is unabashedly true and unarguably true is that in getting to know some of my LDS friends here on this, especially through “The Chosen,” you’re passionate about Jesus Christ, and it’s Jesus of Nazareth. When I hear people say, “it’s a different Jesus”—and I’ve heard that, by the way, from both… I don’t know what term, I know you guys don’t use the term Mormon anymore, but it’s too long for me to try to say…

and

So even if you are listening to this right now as an evangelical and are horrified to hear me say some of these things, consider that even if you disagree, even if you think that, “No, it’s two different Jesus’s, and they worship two different Saviors, and what you’re saying is wrong.” Fine, believe what you will. I’m not gonna have these arguments with you…I don’t like it when my friends get attacked. So that’s why I tend to be pretty defensive of my friends, even if not always defensive of the theology on which we sometimes disagree...I don’t really care because I can’t be cancelled unless I cancel myself. So I’m totally fine with it. But I’m happy to say, “Yeah, we disagree on some things, but I’m going to die on the hill of, we love the same Jesus, and we want the same Jesus known to the world.”

Editor’s Note. See more of Jenkin’s shenanigans here

Categories
News

Christian YouTube Personality Doubles Down on Dissing Us Over JMac/Julie Roys Article

Yesterday we called out Ruslan KD and Julie Roys for an interaction they had regarding the new scandal that John MacArthur and Grace Community Church is involved in. Our intention was not to make any judgment on how the matter was handled one way another by the church, but rather to point out some sloppy and inaccurate reporting of facts that the two had in conversation, demonstrating they are playing a little fast and loose with the truth.

One of these episodes includes mischaracterizing the letter that one of the pastors wrote regarding the accused, and the other the claim made by Ruslan and Roys that Roys was the first journalist to cover the Ravi Zacharias scandals and break the news, despite us writing about it years earlier and breaking it way before she did.

Both of them would come to make the same claim; that Protestia/Pulpit & Pen aren’t ‘real journalists” and therefore ought to be roundly dismissed. That Ruslan even says this is very strange, given the stats we could speak to.

Protestia/Pulpit & Pen is more widely read than Julie Roys website and gets far more traffic. Our news stories have been featured in more big-name secular sources, Fox News, BBC, MSN, CNN, NYT, Washington Post to name a few, and have trended worldwide. We’ve published stories with millions of views and tens of thousands of shares, and have done our fair share of investigative work and story breaking. This is being done all the while having channels and pages getting deleted and our sites being targets for crippling throttling of page views and visibility from social media giants, given all the strikes we’ve gotten for daring to discuss LGBTQ issues.

But even if we didn’t, the media is changing. The Big Three broadcasters don’t have a monopoly anymore, but rather citizen journalists are rising up, creating content on social media, doing investigative reporting, and engaging in guerilla journalism. We’re not elitists like Roys and Ruslan, who are acting as gatekeepers to a private club where only Formally Educated Journalists can be trusted to join and participate. Give us an amateur with a camera and a Twitter feed any day. This is new media.

Here Ruslan really drops the ball:

For all her troubles and as respectful as she was being, he blocked her. It’s a sad state of affairs. We’re not mad at Ruslan, just really, really disappointed.

Categories
News

Ruslan Gets Duped by Julie Roys During Interview and Spins his Own Errors

Despite Ruslan KD taking a few shots at us in a recent video he did with Julie Roys outlining the John MacArthur saga, we have no ill will towards him, and in fact have featured him before. What we did want to focus on, however, are several claims made by both parties showing the careless way they handle facts and truth.

The first claim came from Ruslan, who said, “she was the first journalist to cover Ravi Zacharias” to which Roys responds:

“I was the first journalist to break it. I mean, there were some bloggers out there, you know, writing about it for years. I think it was in August or September, I broke the story of 2020. And then within like a month of that, then CT broke the story of the spa allegations and then World Magazine, but yeah, I was the first to break that, especially the part about Lori-Ann Thompson.

We have been pursuing justice and rattling this cage before this was a blip on their radar, as Pulpit & Pen, and then later as Protestia. We’ve been on Ravi Zacharias’ case for three years now – in 2018, and then in many more articles to follow we published his emails showing that he threatened to kill himself if Lori Anne Thompson told her husband about their interactions, which Ravi claimed were innocent and pure as the driven snow.

Heck, we mentioned the sex scandals in his obituary months before this all came out. But even we didn’t get the information out of nowhere. The whole push to expose Ravi was led by Steve Baughman of RaviWatch, who for years was instrumental in any and all movement on this.

But we were the first news organization to break the story of the abuse of the Spa workers – with information passed on by Steve – which kick-started the story back on September 9th, nearly 3 weeks before Christianity Today or anyone else did their piece and gave it national attention.

We likewise wrote about Zacharias multiple times in 2019, and 2020, asking why no one else was covering this. We wrote the following three years ago:

What’s of more significance is that few Christian publications have written about the adultery of one of the most – if not the most – prominent Christian apologists in the world. When the Christian Press has covered the topic, they have done so only in the most shallow of ways, mostly refusing to publish the evidence and allowing Zacharias or his ministry to dismiss the concerns without any moderately tough questions asked.

As far as we can tell, Roys first wrote about Zacharias on September 14, 2020, when she launched three-part investigation into the same claims we covered years before.

But days before she launched her investigation into the 2017 incident and “broke” the story by providing clarity on claims postulated by Ravi and platformed by Christianity Today, we had already written about the new spa allegations multiple times, reaching out and receiving comments from Ruth Malhorta where she claimed the claims would be virtually impossible to investigate.

In fact, we have written more about the Ravi Zacharias scandal than any other news organization.

If Roys or Ruslan can show where she wrote about it sooner than that, we’d love to know. Otherwise, Ruslan is wrong that she was the first journalist to cover Ravi, and Roys is wrong that she’s the first journalist to break the story and that CT was the first to break the spa allegations.

We imagine she might defend these claims by pointing to her title as the first “journalist” to cover these stories, rather than “the bloggers” who she swiftly dismisses, but we’ll put up our creds against hers any day.

Protestia/Pulpit & Pen is more widely read, gets far more traffic, and our news stories have been featured in more big-name secular sources (Fox News, BBC, MSN, CNN, NYT, Washington Post to name a few) than hers have. It’s not even close. We publish stories with millions of views, and have done our fair share of investigative work and story breaking – all the while having channels and pages deleted, and our sites being targets for crippling throttling of page views and visibility from social media giants, given all the strikes we’ve gotten for daring to discuss LGBTQ issues.

If she says she wasn’t aware of the work we did, then cool, she can clarify at her earliest convenience.

Another key point from Ruslan’s video is the narrative that John MacArthur and the elders at GCC encouraged Eileen to submit to abuse. Not to David even though he confessed to having bouts of being abusive, but to the abuse itself. This is what Roys herself tells Ruslan:

“And I think the real key piece of evidence there, is that we have this declaration by Pastor Alvin Barber. So he was the pastor who married Eileen and David Gray. And she was recording those counseling sessions… with Carey Hardy who was the personal assistant to John MacArthur, who was an assistant pastor at Grace Community Church. So she recorded these counseling sessions, she sent them to pastor Barber to listen to.

We have sworn testimony from Pastor Barber saying that in those counseling sessions, Carey Hardy was encouraging Eileen to submit to her husband, and even his abuse. Even the abuse she was supposed to submit to. So that’s sworn testimony from a third party who heard the counseling tapes that Carey Hardy had recorded.

But this is not true. First of all, Barber didn’t listen to all the tapes, as Roys claims, but rather only ONE tape, as he explains in his affidavit.

Second of all, Barber does not say that he heard her being counseled to submit TO the abuse, as Roys twice alleges, but that she was to submit to him, even in spite of his prior abuse.

For better or worse (and to what degree he was still an abuser), Grace Community Church elders believed David was fully repentant, and there is no evidence she was counseled to stay with him while he reigned down blows, submitting to his fists and “submitting” to his abuse.

But again, the purpose of this post is not to defend MacArthur, but rather to point out the ways in which Roys is playing fast and loose with the facts. What we have frequently noted about Roys is that she has good facts, but a bad narrative.

She is good at sourcing primary documents, but bad at interpreting what they mean. If this Barber affidavit is her key piece of evidence (that Eileen was being counseled to submit to the abuse), and that MacArthur was in some way to blame, we don’t think she has much to support those claims. For all her claims of her being an elite investigative journalist, she really ought to be less careless.

h/t to Bible Thumping Wingnut for pointing out that latter part.