“The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials.”
-Pope Francis
Pop quiz – Who is Riley Barnes?
I don’t expect most to know the answer to that question, so allow me me fill you in. As you can see below, Riley Barnes had a great education, graduating Cum laude from Washington and Lee University. He studied abroad in India. He obtained a Masters degree in International Affairs from Texas A&M University in 2011.
Below is Riley Barnes’ work history. I found this on his LinkedIn account. He has not updated his history since 2020, but more on that later. Also, as you will see in another document, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of State for approximately 2 months. He resigned on January 8, 2021. His resignation coincides closely with Joe Biden’s beginning his term as President.
You will notice that Barnes was an intern for Texas Senator John Cornyn. Also note that he worked in the U.S. Department of State for approximately 3 yrs 7 mos, not the 6 yrs 4 mos stated in the document. (This is due to the fact that he hasn’t updated his job history on LinkedIn, so the timeline shows he’s presently working there when he actually resigned in Jan 2021.) Barnes’ term coincided with Donald Trump’s Presidency.
I don’t know anything about Riley Barnes’ parents, but it’s a safe bet they possess wealth and influence. I do know a thing or two about Barnes’ father-in-law. You may have heard of him, Dr. Albert Mohler, the President of Southern Seminary! Below is a Christmas portrait of the family found on Mohler’s Facebook account. Riley is on the left of the photo.
Below is the U.S. Department of State document which shows Riley’s tenure as Deputy Assistant Secretary was short-lived.
Next I urge you to read this article on the hypocrisy of Albert Mohler as it relates to Donald Trump. In case the article is removed I have saved it on The Wayback Machine. Here is a screenshot of the save.
A quick summary of the article is Mohler came out strongly against Trump in 2016 but in 2020 reversed course and endorsed Trump. The interesting part of the article as it relates to this article is the following:
So, even though Mohler doesn’t have to worry about getting beat for SBC president (the convention canceled the annual meeting because of the coronavirus pandemic), perhaps he realized the SBC’s political winds are blowing to his right. He still has a seminary to keep running, with money to raise. So, staying in good graces with evangelicals who still back Trump by almost 80 percent (and the SBC is a complete subset of evangelicals) is good for business.
Maybe it’s more personal. The Post article reported Mohler’s son-in-law, Riley Barnes, is a senior adviser in the State Department. Perhaps the Mohler family has more than religious posturing to gain by his endorsement. Trump loves loyalists and abuses dissidents.
As we now know, Trump lost the election and Riley Barnes lost his job with the State Department. Not to worry though, Riley Barnes is a long-time member of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, pastored by Mark Dever. Mohler and Dever are BFF’s.
I found that Barnes preached a short sermon at CHBC back in 2016. This is generally a technique Dever uses on young men he wants to nominate for an elder or a staff job.
Riley Barnes became an elder at CHBC sometime in 2020. He first shows up on The Wayback Machine as an elder on May 8, 2020. I am unsure if Mark Dever had convinced Riley Barnes to resign his position in the State Department and go to work for him as a pastor, or perhaps Barnes had determined he no longer wanted to work for the State Department, even if Trump were elected to a second term. At any rate, I found this announcement on the CHBC website:
Those of you not familiar with the 9Marx way of doing business should know that they are governed by a “plurality of elders.” The way I saw this actually played out in reality was the authoritative senior pastor told the compliant elder board what he intended to do and the elders rubber-stamped his wishes. The item was then presented to the church members at large, and they too rubber-stamped the pastor’s wish. So the above announcement makes it clear to me that Barnes’ hiring as an Associate Pastor was virtually guaranteed. That is, in fact what happened.
I would guess that some members who had concerns about hiring a man as a pastor who had zero schooling in theological matters raised questions in the Q & A session, but my guess is that Dever assuaged their concerns by informing them that Barnes would receive training in his 6 month internship program. This did take place.
I don’t know what duties Barnes is assigned, but preaching doesn’t appear to be one of them. The sermon I mentioned above seems to be the only one Barnes has preached at CHBC.
One item of interest is the fact that prior to being named an Associate Pastor, Barnes photo on the CHBC web page contained his name, Riley Barnes, below the photo. Beginning October 2021 the moniker under his photo says “R. Barnes.” I can only conjecture the reason for this, but you will notice that every other person listed on the CHBC website lists their first and last name.
In summary, I am not sure what this all says about Mark Dever and CHBC. For sure it says that Mark Dever and Albert Mohler are good friends. Barnes is obviously an intelligent individual and Dever is undoubtedly putting his skills to use, but it seems strange to me that CHBC, a church that seems to pride itself on their leaders being brilliant theologians, would hire a government bureaucrat as a pastor.
The New Calvinists take care of their own. It’s not surprising that Dever, a member of “Al’s little playgroup” (a term used by Mrs. Moler), would make room for Al Mohler’s son-in-law whether he can preach or not. And the beat goes on.
I sort of get this. Young people in DC often waft in and out of government service depending on political fortunes. Usually they go from government bureaus to non-profits and back again. DC is full of people like that.
I’ve never been to CHBC but I understand a large percentage of its members and attendees are like the folks I described.
This story is interesting. Barnes is apparently thinking of ministry as an alternate career, or a career he can go back and forth between. And we often choose careers based on family and friend influences. So it’s not surprising that Barnes, having married into the family of one of America’s most recognized theologically engaged people, would pursue this.
The “corner cutting” is obvious. He’s getting a position before getting the sheepskin.
Will he stick with it? Will he become a pastor, seminary President, or a cultural commentator? Who knows.
Not quite sure who the “target” is here – Mr. Barnes, Mr Mohler or Mr Dever or the new calvinists in general or why this is of interest. Yes Mr Barnes worked for Republicans but he also worked for a company that harvested donations for the Democratic Party. He attended CHBC and Mr Dever married the couple. Mt Mohler explained why he changed his voting habit but he made clear that his view of Mr T’s character hadn’t changed. As for the author of the piece, good old Marv, impartiality isn’t a word he knows or practices, having likened YECs to Islamic terrorists (using the word fundamentalist for both) and looking the other way while a theologian in his “fellowship”(not “denomination”) claimed Jesus was not the Son of God, the Bible is unreliable, and Daniel told lies. Said theologian then left fellowship because he had outgrown old ideas.
Now that would make a story!
Are CHBC’s “brilliant” theologians or just good at looking for isolated verses out of context to justify their preconceived positions on topics? I’d say the latter.
“…the moniker under his photo says ‘R. Barnes.’ I can only conjecture the reason for this…”
I’m stumped. What’s your conjecture? He’s trying to be harder to google?
I’m just going to point out that resigning on January 8, 2021 is unusual. Generally, these appointments expire on January 20 when the new president is inaugurated. Now my memory of those days is that several people in the Trump administration abruptly resigned after what happened on January 6. These included Elaine Chao (Secy of Transportation), Betsy DeVos (Secy of Education), Mick Mulvaney (Special Envoy to Northern Ireland) and a number of others. See this Politico article: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/03/trumpworld-jan-6-526291
That said, Riley Barnes does *not* appear in the article and my searching the Interwebs has not found a reason why Barnes chose that day to resign, as opposed to just waiting 12 more days and leaving the job at the end of the term.
As for Albert Mohler, I didn’t have much respect for the guy prior to his big flip-flop, but I have ZERO respect now. And that is because for Mohler and so many others, it was all about access to political power.
Let me give another example. It’s like a remarkable statement made by the governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, yesterday in response to a question about Tim Ballard, a person described as someone who goes out and rescues trafficked kids. Last Friday, the church formerly known as Mormon issued a statement saying that Ballard had been involved in undefined “morally unacceptable” behavior. In another state, this would never, ever have come up, but “Jake, it’s Utah”. The governor felt compelled to confirm the statement was real and that the statements were “disturbing” and “unconscionable” “if true.”
To be very clear–Ballard has not been charged with anything. All that happened is that his church issued a statement saying he was involved in “morally unacceptable” behavior, and the *elected governor* of Utah felt compelled to comment about it in response to a question. Um, why? Cox could have just said, “that’s a church matter, I’m the state governor” and gone on, but he didn’t. That’s because IMHO the church formerly known as Mormon is a huge political player in the state.
It’s all about power, folks.
I would too.
“These two Dodekans said one to another:
Dodekan to Dodekan o’er the world is Brother…”
The thing that confounds me is how people confuse brilliance with repeaters of the same-ol’-same-ol’ Protestant dogma.
It’s as worn out as the bald tires on a big rig.
Being brilliant doesn’t necessarily mean you are smart. Intelligence is not the same as wisdom. Some of the most “brilliant” theologians who ever lived have been dead wrong about the things of God … church history is littered with the damage they have done.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
You would think by now that one of the brothers would have spilled the beans on what the heck the secret society Dodeka is/was all about. (Mohler said it was a mere “dinner club” … I think it was something more sinister)
= New Calvinism
All designed to manipulate, intimidate and dominate the spiritual daylights out of their followers.
Of course he did … he was in DC … CHBC was just down the road … I’m sure his father-in-law said “Where else is he going to go?”
“Where else are they gonna go? I mean, what options are there? If you’re a theologically minded, deeply convictional young evangelical, if you’re committed to the gospel and you want to see the nations rejoice in the name of Christ, if you want to see gospel-built and structured and committed churches, your theology is just gonna end up basically being Reformed, basically being something like this New Calvinism or you’re gonna have to invent some other label for what’s just gonna be the same thing. There just are not options out there. And that’s something that I think frustrates some people. But when I am asked about the New Calvinism, I will say just basically, where else are they gonna go? Who else is gonna answer the questions? Where else will they find the resources they need? And where else are they gonna connect? This is a generation that understands, they want to say the same thing Paul said. They want to stand with the Apostles. They want to stand with old, dead people. And they know they are going to have to if they are going to preach and teach the truth.” (Al Mohler)
Max you and I agree (I think) that what purports to be Calvinism in its present manifestation isn’t. But this particular post is a scattergun approach without a point of discussion in view. Who cares if the man’s family is rich? Who knows if there are political machinations behind the marriage or pastoral desires? It takes a pretty mean spirit to think that there might be. Reformed isn’t new Calvinism as I’ve said many times before. And if you keep quoting Hűbmaier I’ll start to think you might be an Anabaptist which is worse than Lutheranism or Calvinism. 🙂
Lowlandseer,
Is he going to turn the churches into quangoes?
You are not going to be pastored, you are quango “clients”.
Lowlandseer,
Why would the politician Calvin be any more important than the present crowd?
Knox was a more genuine reformer.
Religion needs to become more “Knoxious”.
The fact that William Wolfe is on that list should tell quite a bit about the folks going into and coming out of CHBC’s pastoral internship program
Lowlandseer,
Scattergun approach is right. Good points.
Lowlandseer,
Anabaptist or not, truth ‘is’ unkillable 🙂
Do that Quango Tango!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp5UGW0sgFw
If you’re a CELEBRITY, you can go on Oprah or Elijah List, say “Two Plus Two Equals Five”, and everyone will be fawning over you for your Brilliance and Discernment of this New TRVTH.
I have seen “Intelligence 18, Wisdom 3” from both sides.
Just as long as you don’t use it as a jumping-off point into Holy Nincompoop Syndrome, where the more stupid and foolish you are, the more Godly you must be.
I doubt that it works that way in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth in the here and now.
Perhaps something to think about….
Given Riley Barnes past (read through all the bits Todd Wilhelm included — embedded in his post — on Riley Barnes education and work history)….given Riley Barnes connection to Al Mohler….given the following excerpt (copied from The Baptist News article The moral hypocrisy of Albert Mohler (and evangelicals of his ilk) – the Internet Archived article Todd Wilhelm linked to in his post):
….and as I’d wondered (and as Muslin, fka Dee Holmes commented on), is there a connection between Riley Barnes resignation on January 8, only 2 days after the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill? Is Riley Barnes dragging more politics into the evangelical church? Is Riley Barnes then going to do even more to politicize the evangelical church? And if so, is Riley Barnes then going to use that to ensure the evangelical vote (whether for himself or someone else)?
That’s what I was thinking. Immediately after the election was called for Biden, people started getting fired (Krebs & Esper for instance), and replaced by new people. It appears that Barnes got moved in Nov 2020 when a lot of the firing/reshuffling started. I think the most logical explanation for his resignation January 8th is that it was a reaction to the sixth.
I just started reading a book called “American Royals”, which is a sort of Gossip Girl inspired revisionist history with the premise that George Washington was crowned king instead of the US becoming a republic.
Like Gossip Girl, the book is fairly fluffy. However, in reading stuff like this post, I start to corrolations on how nobility systems work and how the New Calvinists handle their relationships. They protect their own, intermarry for status, and do whatever it takes to keep the power they hold or desire.
It makes me wonder if they want to return to a monarchy or oligarchy nobility system. They are most definitely elitists and believe the common people are beneath them, which is very clear in their theology. I think their logic is erroneous though, if they think someone like DT will maintain their level of loyalty to them. He isn’t one of them and very rarely manages to keep senior level people around him, even in his own family.
You can betcher’ sweet bippy they want to, with the great orange ducktail as dictator for life.
January 6th should have caused every member of the elephant party to rethink things … I have.
Constitutional democracy wasn’t around in biblical times. It’s not “God’s” way.
These clowns go further back than a monarchy, they want a priesthood to be in charge.
Ayatollahs of rock n rolla.
With themselves seated at His right and left hand. Forever.
Jesus: Love God all in. Love your neighbor as yourself.
As opposed to: As God’s chosen, love your neighbor when it benefits you, maintaining the bottom line of It’s all about you.
Is it just me who thinks the mugs of all the white men, in one of the most diverse parts of the country, is just creepy?
Nope.
Very true.
But does God always have a ‘way’?
I know of many people of faith who claim that he does, and it’s very telling that ‘God’s way’ seems to always coincide with their way.
I know folks that are convinced that God is a Republican … others truly believe He is a Democrat. But if you listen carefully, He is saying:
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8)
Max,
Good Scripture Max, guaranteed to shut them up no matter which side of the aisle they’re on.
Yeah, god and I tend to agree to disagree on a number of things.
I don’t know. He’s never revealed it to me so it makes me skeptical that he’s talking to anyone else, outside the bible, which seems to imply many issues can be solved by smiting.
That explains a lot, actually…
And I’ve heard that exact same verse quoted to justify Holy Nincompoop schemes against all sense and shut up critics.
“Seems to”?
Jack,
Smiting was (and is) the “last” word (so far) because God has been left speechless by the amount of it.
A motto of low calibre religion is “smite as ye would not be smitten by”.
Former CLC’ER,
“Is it just me who thinks the mugs of all the white men, in one of the most diverse parts of the country, is just creepy?”
+++++++++++++++
i feel the same.
it’s indicative of lack of awareness — which means being dumb.
it guarantees that they do things in a dumb way (inefficient, missing the point, ignorant of things of significance and consequence, unfair,…
i’ve spent time looking at church websites (for various reasons). Almost all of them are a full frontal assault of large scale men’s faces.
it’s dumb. it’s infuriating. it also stings.
like a golf club (taking up huge swaths of highly valuable land and ridiculous proportions of the water resource —
both of which inherently belong to everyone),
where only white men are allowed to belong, either officially or unofficially.
I have seen a good bit of racism in that group, and I suspect, by their use of “founding” SBC beliefs, that it is intentional. They want a segregated, elitist world in which they are in control. They use some of the same theology they used for segregation for segregating women now, but also apply it to membership.
Or “SMITE Them before They can Smite You.”
Don’t you know the One True Church is “Whites Only”?
For consideration, the article seems mostly a series of poor conjecture. Sorry, thought it needed said. Can understand it though, with other concerns experienced and expressed regarding 9Marks. However, scripture tends to remove any warrant we may have against this type of expression. In a context outside of 9Marks, we may even find ourselves rejoicing over the connections and manner that God used to call his servants.