“Paine arrived in the American colonies in November 1774, shortly before the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Though the colonies and Great Britain had commenced hostilities against one another, the thought of independence was not initially entertained. Writing in 1778 of his early experiences in the colonies, Paine “found the disposition of the people such, that they might have been led by a thread and governed by a reed. Their attachment to Britain was obstinate, and it was, at that time, a kind of treason to speak against it. Their ideas of grievance operated without resentment, and their single object was reconciliation.” Paine quickly engrained himself in the Philadelphia newspaper business, and began writing Common Sense in late 1775 under the working title of Plain Truth. Though it began as a series of letters to be published in various Philadelphia papers, it grew too long and unwieldy to publish as letters, leading Paine to select the pamphlet form.”
Source: Wikipedia
“All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.”
John Stuart Mill
On June 17, 2023, the Christian Post published an article titled “SBC leader denounces ‘divisive groups’ in convention sermon, draws backlash and praise.”
The article was referring to a sermon given by Todd Unzicker, the Executive Director and Treasurer of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina on June 14, 2023, and said in part that:
“A Baptist state convention leader has drawn backlash and praise for a sermon he gave at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, in which he denounced the presence of “divisive groups” within the denomination.”
The following quotes from the article are what I would like to focus on today:
Unzicker expressed concern that “some of us in this room live more for the convention than the mission.”
“Will we be on mission together to reach others or are we going to incessantly fight and quarrel?” asked Unzicker. “Are we going to give weight to people in this convention who tweet more than they tithe? Who post more than they pray?”
“What if we spent half the amount of time tweeting and posting on Facebook and spent that time sharing the Gospel, soul-winning? What if we spent half the time reading and reacting to the daily airing of grievances and, instead, we got serious about making disciples?”
Unzicker asked attendees if they were “going to be shaped by divisive groups on social media” and those who “sue the saints or are we going to be a people who sow seeds of the Gospel?”
Below is a video I compiled from Unzicker’s sermon containing some of the quotes above. I thought it was important to see how passionately Unzicker spoke out against those who use social media.
Once again we see elite evangelical men in power slamming their unnamed opponents in a thinly veiled attempt to turn public opinion against them and silence them.
This is why I led off the article with a quote about Thomas Paine. He believed in his ideas strongly enough to publish tracts – the social media of their day, if you would – to attempt to persuade people opposed to his views, or perhaps to embolden those who agreed with him but were not brave enough to state their opinions in a public forum. Again, here is the quote that illustrates how the majority of Americans felt at the time:
“Their attachment to Britain was obstinate, and it was, at that time, a kind of treason to speak against it. Their ideas of grievance operated without resentment, and their single object was reconciliation.”
It is my opinion that insecure leaders are the ones who attempt to silence discussion. I don’t know who, specifically that Unzicker was railing against. I believe it was the conservatives in the SBC, but it really doesn’t matter. Thank God that in the United States of America, we still have the right to freely voice our opinion. A strong leader welcomes dissent, regardless if it comes from the conservatives, the moderates, or the liberals. My opinion of Bart Barber is that he does so, Todd Unzicker, not so much.
Now I want to examine Unzicker’s statements more closely.
“Are we going to give weight to people in this convention who tweet more than they tithe?”
This is a false dichotomy. The amount of Tweets you publish has no connection to the amount of money you donate to your church. Does Unzicker see some connection? For example, is one Tweet one less dollar tithed? Bizarre thinking. So, according to Unzicker’s thought process, I clearly must donate more to my church than either he or Bart Barber donate to their churches.
Another interesting factor about Tweeting that @Steadfast_Women brought to light – the SBC presidential candidate that Tweeted the most was elected. Using Unzinger’s logic, perhaps that’s because those candidates that Tweeted the most did not give as much to their church so they therefore had more to spend on their election campaign!
Unzicker makes the same false dichotomy between Tweeting and prayer that he used for Tweeting and giving.
“Are we going to give weight to people in this convention who tweet more than they tithe? Who post more than they pray?”
Again, this faulty logic is very concerning for a man in Unzicker’s position. Based on his logic, I pray more than he and Bart Barber.
Next Unzicker asks the SBC messengers, “What if we spent half the amount of time tweeting and posting on Facebook and spent that time sharing the Gospel, soul-winning?
Again, a false dichotomy. As an aside, I wonder if Unzicker realizes that many big-shots in the evangelical world don’t even write the Tweets that are published on their Twitter accounts?
Just think how much time Ed Stetzer must have for soul-winning!
I think my point is understood. I now want to raise an issue about Todd Unzicker that really concerns me.
In an article by the North Carolina Baptist State Convention dated March 29, 2021 they announced that they had decided to hire Todd Unzicker as their next executive director-treasurer for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC) and they gave a brief history of Unzicker’s life. The article stated, in part that:
“Unzicker, a 44-year-old native of the Washington, D.C., area, is currently chief of staff at The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, where he has worked closely with The Summit’s lead pastor, J.D. Greear, during Greear’s tenure as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
Prior to his current role, Unzicker led The Summit’s missions and church planting efforts as pastor of sending and as a campus pastor. The Summit became the top missions-sending church in the SBC and the top Cooperative Program giving church in North Carolina during Unzicker’s tenure as pastor of sending.
Before joining the Summit’s staff in 2012, Unzicker was the director of missions at the Holmes Baptist Association in Bonifay, Fla., and served two years as a missionary in Central America.
Unzicker graduated from the Baptist College of Florida in Graceville, Fla., and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. He and his wife, Ashley, live in Wake Forest.”
You may recall that in a past blog about the termination of Bruce Ashford I posted this video of Lauren Ashford and Ashley Unzicker. They appeared to be good friends. They both were on the ERLC Council.
Bruce Ashford was also an elder at The Summit church. He and J.D. Greear were good friends and college roommates. Bruce Ashford was terminated from his employment at SEBT in October 2020 for serious sin. He was silently scrubbed from the Summit website. I believe both J.D. Greear and Todd Unzicker would have known the circumstances that caused the firing of Bruce Ashford, and if they were going to act in a Biblical manner they should have followed the instructions found in I Timothy 5:19-20. “Against an elder receive not an accusation, except at the mouth of two or three witnesses. Them that sin reprove in the sight of all, that the rest also may be in fear.”
To my knowledge, Bruce Ashford was never publicly rebuked. My point is that it appears Todd Unzicker and J.D. Greear hushed this story up and now Unzicker is trying to hush up SBC members from sharing their thoughts on social media. I am not surprised.
Social media and the blogosphere are great threats to bad-boy preachers (e.g. SBC pastor-pedophiles) and aberrant movements of faith (e.g. SBC’s New Calvinism). The powers-that-be within SBC would dearly love to see cyberspace go away, even though they have their own Facebook and Twitter accounts!
I interpreted “tweeted more than they tithed” as meaning only the rich should express opinions.
It’s the “pay to play” SBC game … “if you ain’t givin’, you ain’t got the right to say anything.” Although, those with the biggest voice in SBC right now (young New Calvinists) spend their time tweeting their lives away, rather than spending any money on SBC. It’s amazing, but it’s the old non-Calvinist Southern Baptists who are still bank-rolling SBC … they ain’t got a clue that the young reformers have taken over their denomination!
Or, maybe he meant for the pew peons to stop communicating with one another and just shut up and do as the SBC elites (like him) say. Hup, two, three, four!
After all, if everyone has just kept their mouths shut about finances and abuse and the cover-ups……….
“Thank God that in the United States of America, we still have the right to freely voice our opinion.” Amen to that, Todd. And Max, you are absolutely right, SBC leaders would love to see the blogsphere disappear…unless you’re running for office and need a team write your tweets to ensure your election.
“Unzicker is trying to hush up SBC members from sharing their thoughts on social media”
Yep, that really is the bottom-line. It’s reminiscent of Robert Morris’ rant calling blogs “Satan’s Hit List”:
“I have to say this, um, I’m really concerned about how much time people spend on the Internet. I’m extremely concerned about it. Extremely concerned about it; here’s one thing, just even the blogs that mention Christian leaders, and I’m one of ‘em. Praise the Lord, I’ve made the Satan, Satan’s hit list now you know”
One man’s discourse is another’s divisiveness.
A multitude of counselors and advisors is recommended:
“Where there is no wise guidance, the nation falls,
but in the multitude of counselors there is victory.”
Proverbs 11:14, World English Bible, Public Domain
“Where there is no counsel, plans fail;
but in a multitude of counselors they are established.”
Proverbs 15:22, World English Bible, Public Domain
“For by wise guidance you wage your war;
and victory is in many advisors.’
Proverbs 24:6, World English Bible, Public Domain
The internet has opened the door to much wise counsel and many advisors. @MargMowczko all the way down under in the outback of Australia, spreading her amazing work throughout the globe via the internet, comes to mind. We’ll meet in Heaven, where I will give her great thanks.
Guess the boyz just can’t keep a lid on it. Yes, they still hog the microphones and the podiums – no women allowed. “Women, thou shalt not …” However, oh well… those days of capture and control seem to be bygone. Moving right along now…leaving that room where they hog with their one voice booming and everyone else is silent but donating.
Let the boss-boyz keep barking their rhetoric from the mics and the pulpits. Yawn. The rest of us have other places to meet where we can no longer hear the senseless blather. The boss-boyz can be so utterly tiresome. Same old, same old.
It’s a new day. Maybe some of the boss-boyz will meet Jesus on the road to Damascus, then figure it all out. It’d be nice to converge here in this New Day. But those of us who have experienced the New Day, with all of the faithful sharing on level ground at the feet of Jesus, are not going backward to Capture and Control by the boss-boyz middleman game.
Jesus-direct is just too good, amazingly wonderful. Jesus is so good. With Jesus, there are many more @MargMowczko-types to get to know and hear what they have to share. Thank God for each one, for the multitude of advisors and counselors that Jesus through His Holy Spirit has provided for us. And God gave us the internet so we can find each other.
“Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great crowd (a multitude) of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance, the race set out for us. Together, let us run to Jesus, eyes fixed on Him.” from Hebrews 12.
Yes, it is a false dichotomy, but with some truth. It is false because there is an assumption that those who tweet and post do so without understanding issues. It is also a reflection of the church’s tendency to abuse authority. It is also true that there is a danger in abusing social media. In Covey’s book “7 Habits of Effective People” he makes a distinction between a person’s “circle of concern” and their “circle of influence.” When too much focus is laid on the first circle, one’s second circle shrinks. Conversely, focusing on one’s circle of influence tends to cause growth and makes your influence in your circle of concern grow. Christian users of social media should recognize the danger of misusing media and remember to keep the first things first.
Christian users (and witnesses or listeners) of microphones and pulpits, particularly when one booming voice is the only one allowed in the room, should recognize the danger of misusing a microphone and a pulpit and remember to keep first things first (the Body of Christ with all on level ground at the feet of Jesus versus a hierarchy of middleman power, for example).
In any case, if the microphone and pulpit hog the room, time to leave the room and communicate sans the hogged microphone and platform, so social media, perhaps?
At least with social media, one can sort out the voices for oneself (with agency), tossing the junk mail instead of censorship from a so-called authority. When only one voice is allowed to hold the mic and stand in the pulpit, time to leave the room. There are other places to meet. Online may be one of those places. Thank God for the internet – God’s invention.
The pulpiteers and mic hoggers can also use social media, however, with social media, there are many voices. There’s no hogging the mic and the pulpit, and no hierarchal restrictions on who gets a voice, a place at the table.
Social media allows for both agency and many voices. Sure, the gatekeepers are pretty much nil, but that’s the point – the traditional hierarchical gatekeepers are gone, so many voices are free to speak. Listeners get to sort that out. Freedom, and yes, responsibility. No more infantilizing the listeners from the booming mic and pulpit. Everybody gets to be a grown-up, as it should be.
Oooohhhh, scary, the listeners have to sort out the many voices on social media? No, freedom; the listeners WANT to sort out the voices on social media for themselves instead of being infantilized by one voice of supposed authority overpowering the room from a pulpit. (Looking at the scandals of those in authority, the general public NEEDS to sort out the voices and the so-called voices of “authority”.)
We were in a church once under the control of a powerful family who had been members there for generations. They essentially believed the church belonged to them since they had given big bucks over the years! In one particularly contentious business meeting, the family matriarch approached the microphone and began to unload her view on the issue as if it was to be the final word on the matter. The church went silent. As new members, we were stunned.
After the meeting, on the way to the parking lot, an elderly gentleman commented “That’s exactly why you should never give the devil a microphone!” IMHO, the devil has the mic in many churches and denominations.
IMO, Southern Baptists need to be more concerned about some of the bad-boy men in SBC ministry, than women in ministry. The denomination is way overdue on exposing and dealing with sex abusers in its midst. Instead of picking on 170 female pastors, it needs to turn up the heat on multiple hundreds of rascal male pastors.
The dude needs a refresher on Baptist history. By the very nature of soul competency Baptists have always been the divisive ones that won’t shut up no matter what human authority attempts to silence them.
I think some are jealous that these days more preaching is done on line than in the pulpit, and folks listen more to the little people than they do to some of the self appointed gurus.
Ava Aaronson,
It’s more than just the things you pointed out ……..
The internet and social media make information available immediately…… information that many would not hear or read otherwise.
We are no longer dependent on the six o’clock news and our local newspapers to access whatever iformation they deem important, or have the time and space to report.
Look at all of the evil that has been exposed worldwide concerning just the SBC over the past four years. People who use social media played a prominent role in that.
Wait till’ one of the big boyz gets charged with complicity cuz’ he knew about Chester the molester under his watch and did nothing.
The poo-poo is really gonna’ hit the fan.
That’s one of the reasons why the New Calvinists have scrambled to erase the doctrine of “soul competency” from SBC history. They have also been successful at canceling out the long-standing Baptist doctrine of “priesthood of ‘the’ believer.” They just don’t want folks in the pew knowing that they have authority in Christ.
Max,
“Bad-boy men in SBC ministry” are not just the sex-abusers, but also authoritarian bullies who lord it over others in ways that are contrary to the servant role Jesus calls all of us to embrace.
The guy sound like he’d fit right in to the Catholic Church.
Actually, the Catholics are more open to listening to the membership.
Amen! And that would place thousands of SBC leaders on the bad-boy list. A bully-pulpit is not Christlike for sure. Praise God for the humble servants of God who have not fallen into this leadership trend within SBC. IMO, the real-deal pastors who are left in SBC are serving in obscure places, in rural churches with 200 members or less; they are more focused on Christ than Calvin.
Unzicker is using emotional control described in Steven Hassan’s BITE model:
https://freedomofmind.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/BITE-Model-Handout-9-23-16.pdf
Specifically, he’s attempting to make his listener’s believe the group’s problems are the followers’ fault and not the leaders’ (maybe a kernel of truth here) and he is also stirring up feelings of guilt and unworthiness by claiming people aren’t tithing, praying, or sharing the gospel like they should. These are all common guilt buttons; no evangelical I have ever met feels like they are doing these three things “enough”. For me, regaining a confident sense of my own autonomy to decide how much I participate in these three disciplines helped shed the guilt.
Max,
Why are authoritarian leaders always telling their followers what is “of Satan” and what is “of God”? I’m sincerely curious about this. In this example, Unzicker’s claiming he made “Satan’s hit list”. How does he know? Maybe it’s God’s hit list. Maybe it’s just the “hit list” of the blogger.
My hypothesis is authoritarian and narcissistic believers really want their followers to see them as the ultimate arbiters of what is good and evil.
Great post, Todd.
I continue to think that this nonsense comes out of the Neo-Calvinist crowd. They are big on authority, which is to be held by some guy who is, above all. They hate social media. They try to shut people up and are increasingly tuning them out. It was social media that caused them to have to admit that sex abuse is rampant in the church. I suspect these guys knew about stuff for years and covered it up.
They only hate social media that point out the ails of their movement and shortcomings of their leaders. The Calvinistas are masters of social media … there would be no New Calvinist movement without social media. They tweeted themselves into existence … it is the resource that connects them to each other.
Paul K,
Thanks for the link, I saved the document to the Wayback Machine.
Thx for making this connection. Steven Hassan does excellent work.
Regaining autonomy, agency, after experiencing Capture and Control church, is golden.
God created us each to be connected directly with Him as our Heavenly Father with dignity and joy. Jesus died and rose for this. The Holy Spirit is with us to keep us close to God as our Heavenly Father.
Steven Hassan’s work does a great service in guiding us away from the entrapments of the cons. God bless Steven Hassan. Hassan’s work springs from his experiences with the Moonies. Fortunately, he got out. His research, however, applies across the board. Hey – a con is a con, though cloaked in a variety of disguises.
I’m convinced that those who are totally free in Christ aren’t members of organized religion. They may go to church, but they know what the real Church is. They move across the landscape as the Holy Spirit leads. They walk and talk as He directs them in the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth in the here and now. Jesus is their authority, not man. There is freedom in Christ … we need to exercise it more.
Max,
Max,
Grand statements you are making there, Max. Big ideas. I’m sure, however, that you are on to something here.
In any case, yes, every day with Jesus exudes greater freedom, from our mortal enemy, from the world, from the flesh. If an org is of those three, then closer to Jesus, and distancing from the org is the way to go, the way to freedom. How can we settle for anything/anyone less than our Lord and Savior Himself. Live Jesus in our hearts, forever.
dee,
I also like Todd’s calling out “false dichotomy” which is also related to evangelicals and fundamentalist that like to reduce things to “binaries”, either/or, etc.
We all should be in the “habit” of questioning “preaching” like this..
The same big ideas that Jesus had in mind for His followers, I believe. Living freely in Christ in the world is better than being defeated in the church any day!
The Bereans searched the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was true … Paul!!
Paul K,
Also perhaps trying to discourage people from getting information from “unapproved” sources, another culty trait.
linda,
Heck, make that all of Protestant history. It’s right there in the name, man.
Govteach57,
actually, the Catholic ‘ideal’ is to listen to one’s own conscience AFTER
finding out what the Church teaches and AFTER considering the reality of one’s own personal circumstances
especially in matters of faith
and to admit that others have the responsibility of following THEIR own consciences in moral and ethical matters and in matters of faith
sadly, too many have adopted the ways of following ‘dear leader’ in the political sphere, and boy howdy, does he teach them at his ‘hate rallies’
“Culty trait.” At the very least, cult adjacent. A new wave of a so-called Emerging Church – emerging as a cult, or culty, or cult adjacent.
CMT,
Yes! This is described as Information Control, the “I” in the BITE Model.
dee,
In “Trauma and Recovery” Judith Herman writes that at the center of all abuse is control, the undermining of a person’s autonomy. Many, many other psychologists (and experts in other fields) recognize coercive control as harmful to people in many ways.
It deeply unsettles me that Calvinism presents a universe in which God controls everything and autonomy is an illusion. To be fair, I know a handful of Calvinists who are anything but controlling…but the theology still disturbs me.
Here’s a link to Dr. Les Carter’s short video on how to spot a collective narcissistic system. I think anyone who watches it will see the connection…to everything!
https://youtu.be/9BpFsCgj_18
Well said, AVA
I agree that the other side of the ‘Freedom’ coin reads ‘Responsibility for Consequences’, and that is a lot of responsibility indeed!
too many folks today want to follow ‘dear leader’ (whomever their cult fuhrer is) and when they are accused of malignant activities against innocent people, they claim they were just ‘following orders from on high’ . . . that kind of ‘excuse’ went over like a lead balloon in Nuremburg;
the worst I see these days are those present-day pharisees pointing fingers at ‘those other sinners’ and yes, in has risen to modern crimes against humanity (the Ugandan gov’t was talked into the death penalty for gay people by American fundamentalists claiming to be ‘Christian’)
What is coming at us in ’24? I don’t know. We shall see the folly of people’s cultism, I fear. I hope for better, AVA.
Paul K,
Yep, it is menticide. My ex-church deploy this form of rhetoric all the time. Took me a few years after leaving the church to realize what the pastor’s rhetoric had done to me.
I picture this as the milgram experiment with a twist. The lab-coat is the pastor/speaker(authority), the test subject is you, AND you are also the one being zapped by yourself. The rhetoric steers to make you the problem, make you to look inward, and turn the self-flagellation dial up.
Jeffrey J Chalmers,
You can only have Jonathan Fletcher lifting a finger, or Jonathan Fletcher not lifting a finger.
Ava Aaronson,
Occasionally, because he has further to go himself, in escaping, he is too micromanaging in his suggestions and (slightly) inaccurate in his critiques.
In the various cult models which are best used in combination, nowhere near all the listed characteristic boxes need be ticked. And some will register strongly and some weakly.
I spent a lifetime thinking this religion is “a bit” this, the other religion is “a bit” that. And I only had one life. And I might have moved quicker and helped more people.
It’s in this context one can make best use of the helpful models and good work done by Hassan and others similar.
God gave us each a unique radar and providentially showed us a unique succession of situations to learn from to set example to unique others around and after us.
It is coffee so do smell it!
Govteach57,
Varying models:
1 – all barrels blazing as so often documented by Dee and Todd; designer damage causing to create scope for limited image polishing at stategic moments, or as decoy from separate items of damage causing at strategic moments; and lots of loud complaining to accompany (Unzicker sounds like he’s trying to give the impression he’s against his own side as well as outsiders; they have got to drink their own medicine because after all it is medicine)
2 – perpetual shifting emollience albeit almost without real bait.
Jesus told us to be careful what to be “in communion with” at organisational level (the only important level to so many people bigger than ourselves)
Ever heard of Mr Nasty and Mr Nice? Plus c’est la meme chose.
We ought to be semi detached and help our peers to ask God to help them: that’s all that religion is.
Dale Rudiger,
This is what is meant by choosing one’s battles. By trying too hard, codependents in the public or semi public eye don’t exhaust themselves, only the people around them. This leads to amplifying of hangups out of context or perspective.
If they would put some of their concerns on the back burner God may help a time come when something genuine can be done about some of them according to each point’s merit.
These codependents ought to trust in the independent prayer life of smaller people to be of help rather than hindrance. This is why codependents don’t encourage prayer, only “influencing”.
Around Stott, “evangelicalism” as snobbery had to come before respect for nonconformists or ordinary C of E goers: both of whom M LLoyd-Jones esteemed. Stott didn’t “need” strengthening and this was the attitude he spread. Immediate effect: nobody guarded me against what got rolled out in my classroom; longer term effect: churches formerly called nonconformist as well as C of E now devastated alike; genuine old-time religion of whatever distinct identities no longer even a memory.
Boasting of their thievery through his proxy!
Paul K,
You are thinking to much! ( I am being sarcastic)
Max,
I am growing/moving toward this thinking as well…. If one reads the Gospels without the establish church baggage, Christ really does say, simply, follow me..
Many leaders/participants of the “Resurgent” church (aka New Calvinism) were once involved in the “Emergent” church (think Rob Bell, Brian McLaren). Both movements bordered on cult from the get-go (charismatic leaders, authoritarian control, unwavering devotion to a set of beliefs and practices, etc.). To attract a following, they have depended on getting out on the fringe of Christianity, sensational teaching which stretches Scripture beyond its bounds, and being opposed to your Grandma’s way of doing church. With each new emerging form of church, we drift further from Truth.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe the Body of Christ with many members and all their giftings (without distinction in race, class or gender), is still the model for doing authentic Church. But in its absence, individually following Christ as the Spirit leads may be a believer’s only way out of the wilderness given the current condition of the institutional church in America. “Follow Me” rings louder in my ears as Ole Max gets older.
Sowre-Sweet Dayes,
That’s an interesting way of looking at it!
Max,
Max, you often says that the New Calvinist enter by the side door. Well I was perusing in my new purchase “General Epistles” book By Christopher Wordsworth, (an Anglican bishop of the 19th century,) that have been recommended by Pr Bryan Wolfmueller. (reference given by Dee some months ago.).
So I am reading Jude. He explains what the Greek word really means, its finesse. V. 4 They crept in privately, as it were by a side door, and with a stealthy purpose.
St Jude here announces the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Apostle St.Peter, who had foretold in his Second Epistle that false Teachers would arise, and “would bring in privily destructive heresies.”
Volume 4 covers the General Epistles (of James, Peter, John, Jude, and the Revelation). (Free PDF Download | purchase on Lulu). On Wolfmueller.co
GBTC. well my name may be wrong, Frances, Frences ? but I just wanted to share this with Max.
Thanks Frences for pointing this out. Jude makes it very clear. I once had a young reformer tell me during the early days of the New Calvinist movement “We’ve come in through the backdoor.” To which I replied “Anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the door, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a rogue” (John 10:1). He walked away with a grin on his face, mocking Ole Max. The “door”, of course, is Christ … someone the New Calvinists talk little about. Stealth, deception and bully-pulpits are tools of the NeoCal trade, but not gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Jude goes on to say that such men “pervert the grace of God”. The New Calvinists talk a lot about grace-this and grace-that … Bonhoeffer called it “cheap grace.” IMHO, many in this movement have not experienced Grace, a personal encounter with the living Christ … they have exchanged this reality for doctrinal propositions about God, but don’t truly know him. It’s just the latest movement of many which have taken Christianity off course over the centuries. It, too, will someday fade into obscurity.
Don’t you know, Max?
“TRUTH. IS. OUT OF STYLE.”
— MC 900 ft Jesus
(And NOT just among Those Heathens and Shirley MacLainers the churches point fingers at)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mj_R4lbHHI
He might have walked away with a defensive smirk on his face, but the words you spoke to him, wiped it off his mug (figuratively) in short order:
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
That’s what the new reformers need more than anything. The uncompromised, theology-free, bully-free, Word of God proclaimed over them … to reveal the thoughts and intents of the hearts of these young rebels and their band of leaders running roughshod over God’s people. But they would have to get away from the pulpit noise and the dudebros they are currently exposed to.
Yep, I realize that every time I attempt to go to church and each time I turn on the news. Guess I’m just a fuddy-duddy old fogey.
Related, Tony Merida has been named NAMB’s SEND Network’s VP of Planter Development, thus fully consummating the union between NAMB and Acts29. (As an aside, just how many concurrent leadership roles does one person need???)
https://www.brnow.org/news/ncs-merida-named-send-networks-vp-of-planter-development/?mc_cid=2f24e74210&mc_eid=c09a9d8e42
Burwell Stark,
Hmm, it seems that the Biblical Recorder didn’t mention Merida’s involvement with Acts29. Oh, he’s not on their website. Maybe he left. But he was there. https://www.thegoodbook.com/authors/tony-merida
Tony Merida os also on the 6-man “Board” selected from “The Council” to govern ‘The Gospel Coalition’:
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/about/council/
Click on his photo and his bio there appears…
“Tony Merida is the founding pastor of Imago Dei Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, director of theological training for Acts 29, dean of Grimke Seminary, and a Board member of The Gospel Coalition. He is the author of a number of books…”
If we simply follow Jesus, will we find each other, share the Holy Spirit’s giftings, and thus interact/function as the Body of Christ?
Red flag: one gift elevated above the others (strictly forbidden in the NT, Rom 12, 1 Cor 12, Eph 4). And Paul states: 1 Timothy 1:15, “The saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief, the worst sinner of all”. WEB, Public Domain. So Paul refused to be elevated.
A local social worker has said that whenever a group of people casually form a camp, a community of sorts (basically a homeless or hobo camp, or flower children and communes back in the day), without exception, it soon comes under the control of an alpha male who steps in, exhibits power, then controls the resources, and introduces vice. Sounds like the waywardness in the evolution of churches. Graft, grift, and goons. Human nature? Without the Holy Spirit throughout a community, the people end up sinking to the lowest common denominator?
Bishop Wordsworth’s books are also available for free download on the Internet Archive. They’ve got a lot of the great commentaries of the 19th/early 20th century including Westcott’s and volumes of the International Critical Commentary.
https://archive.org/search?query=Christopher+Wordsworth+new+testament
Here’s a Jewish Rabbi commenting on the SBC’s latest, with a nod to Jewish history:
https://religionnews.com/2023/06/15/women-pastors-southern-baptists/
Interesting when different leaders weigh in. Interesting to find this commentary on the internet. Thank God for the internet, and commenters sharing . Discourse. Freely. Sans gatekeepers. I guess we all have to put on our Thinking Caps as we read. That used to be a thing in education – the teacher telling students to put on their Thinking Caps.
Power is at the top. Information and truth are at the bottom. If they don’t communicate, the ship sinks. – David Marquet, Navy Nuclear Sub Commander, retired; author of the books: “Turn the Ship Around”; “Leadership is Language”.
Before I retired, I traveled as an environmental consultant across the country. I can’t tell you how many times I encountered other Christians to fellowship with … sitting next to them on the plane, in business meetings, at conferences. We shared what the Lord was doing in our lives, ministered to each other, and prayed together as the Church outside the church. No pulpit bullies, no power mongers, no theological debates … just believers interacting with each other and praising Jesus, brought together by the Spirit not by coincidence.
Every organization sooner or later takes on the personality of its leadership. If Jesus is not the head, some knucklehead narcissist will assume control.
Not surprising. SBC’s church planting program under Kevin Ezell’s leadership at NAMB has focused on planting reformed theology, not Gospel churches. Merida will fit right into that strategy. At one time, he was Director for Theological Training at Acts29. And mainstream (non-Calvinist) Southern Baptist pewsitters/tithers ain’t got a clue that their hard-earned money is financing the takeover of the SBC by New Calvinists. It’s the darnedest thing I’ve ever seen.
John Berry,
Oh great. Another guy whose church is around the corner from me. The hardballs run the SBC.
Ava Aaronson,
Jeffrey Salkin writes a great article.
And yes, thank God for the internet, it is having the same effect on religion as Gutenberg’s movable type printing press had on the religion of his day.
No longer can religious tyrannies hold sway over human hope and human potential.
don’t forget the oddballs!
Ava Aaronson,
1 – Perhaps TU was concerned lest his colleagues experience “creation grind burnout”.
2 – Their “tweeting” in a specific milieu would always attract an equal and opposite reaction in the same milieu, because other members would insist on not seeing it as one-way.
To Pythagoreans, women were even and men were odd.