Jupiter. NASA-JPL
“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Unknown
I spent this afternoon listening to a group who have experienced a church takeover. They didn’t see it coming and were experiencing the pain that occurred when they discovered the church had hired a deceptive church pastor. I will be writing their story soon. It differs from McLean Bible Church (MBC). Still, it bears many of the same circumstances, including a pastor who wanted a church with valuable infrastructure and a stable giving base that guaranteed a successful future. Like MBC, people are waking up to the reality that they hired someone with ambitions very different from the history of that church.
David Platt played a game with MBC. He smiled, nodding along with assumptions that Lon Solomon would be invited back to speak. Folks, that was never going to happen. MBC is a church in transition. The die is cast, and to turn it around is not impossible but very difficult. On the other hand, a group of people are committed to the long haul.
I don’t do politics.
There is concern amongst those searching for a way to return MBC to its former way of running a church. There is a political angle to some of the concerns. Some believe the church was involved in conservative politics, and Platt is somewhat left-leaning. I think it is a mistake for those seeking a change to emphasize this in their raison d’être. I believe they have problems, but this is not one of them. They should stick to the knitting.
A local church should have the freedom to choose their path.
Who are the people at MBC? What is important to them? Was this emphasized in their search? Did David Platt respect the people of MBC? Or…did he come into the church planning to change the emphasis? We follow the one who is the Truth. Did Platt tell the truth, or did the people of MBC ask the wrong questions?
Lon Solomon: was he suckered by Platt?
Solomon was a beloved pastor who built MBC. Platt was working at the SBC’s International Mission Board when he came to MBC. Folks, what did you expect? The SBC appoints pastors of big churches to run these entities of the SBC. They are paid very well, but their actual salary is not released to the public. Platt was selected because he was an insider. SBC insiders are the true believers. Why did anyone suddenly expect him to become an “independent bible church” believer? I think he is also a dyed-in-the-wool, hardline Reformed pastor who is friends with John Piper and SBC insiders like Mark Dever and Al Mohler. He then hired Joe Carter, who is another Reformed insider. From Linked In;
Indeed, did the church vote on all of this? Did Lon Solomon agree to this? Was he told the truth?
Capstone Report wrote this titled post: Petty Leadership: David Platt refused to invite Lon Solomon to return and preach as Pastor Emeritus at McLean Bible Church, according to a former elder’s letter uncovered during a legal fight to force MBC to accountability.
I’m afraid I have to disagree that it was “petty.” It was far worse than “petty.” In my opinion, it was deliberate action on the part of Platt to change the direction of the church, and he would make sure that Solomon wouldn’t be part of the new way.
According to the letter written by Mark Gottlieb and uncovered by subpoena, “If you remember, Lon promised to be back and preach occasionally. Yet David never invited Lon back to preach. At least 3 times over the next year–I would bring this up at an elder meeting. David’s excuse being he wanted Lon back to be recognized, and that Lon didn’t want to be recognized–he wanted to preach–as he promised. Two years ago–Lon confirmed with me when I saw him at some event that he has never been invited back to preach. I brought up the fact to the elders that this is not about what David or Lon wants–it’s about what’s right. And about helping Lon ‘finish well’ as he always hoped. David didn’t want him back–and the elders did nothing.” (emphasis added)
Here is a link to that letter.
Platt has, in TWW’s opinion, “exaggerated the truth” in the past to make him sound even more “radical.”
I quote this post I wrote in 2013: My, My Dubai: 9 Marks Played Hardball While Lifeway/ David Platt Stretched the Truth. At the time, Todd Wilhelm, who writes at TWW, was living and working in Dubai. The second section of the post is relevant to this post. Please refer to the full post to understand Todd’s points fully. Some links no longer work since the post is 11 years old.
Don’t Lie About Dubai
Todd, who actually lives in Dubai, reported on what appears to be a deceptive LifeWay advertising campaign which involved David Platt in a post here. He has given us permission to repost it here.
What is Dubai really like?
What comes to your mind when you think of being a Christian in the Middle East?
1. Open debates and dialogues are common in Dubai. Christian leaders are welcome to debate Muslim Imams. The Middle East is not monolithic in this regard.
I suppose all this and worse come to your mind when you think of the perils of being an unabashed follower of Christ in the Middle East. I don’t wish to discount this as in many countries in this region Christians do face persecution for their beliefs, sometimes even losing their lives.
But I would like you to know that I live in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Christians have nothing to fear in this moderate Muslim nation. The UAE is socially progressive and is a fine example of what an open society in the Middle East can and should look like. The leaders of this country have donated land for Christians to build churches on. They welcome open dialogue between people of different faiths. They have approved public debates between Christian Pastors and Muslim Imams. Thabiti Anyabwile, the author of the book below, has been the Christian representative in four such debates in Dubai.
2. Arab leaders donate land on which to build Christian churches.
3. One cannot do street evangelism in Dubai but talking about the faith, with Muslim friends, is easy, maybe easier than in the United States.
4. Did David Platt and LifeWay knowingly misrepresent the culture in Dubai?
Apparently, this “simulcast” was presented as a live broadcast (it was taped) in an “undisclosed location.” Todd’s daughter actually attended this event.
Todd continues: All this to say that, in my opinion, David Platt and LifeWay Christian Resources are attempting to boost sales of Platt’s most recent book, Follow Me, and accompanying study manuals, by creating an aura of cutting-edge excitement based on number of things which just are not true.
The following is from the announcement of Platt’s visit and talk.
Broadcasting live from an undisclosed location, David Platt will challenge you, your group, and your church to take the next step in your relationship with Christ. In this place where proclaiming Jesus could mean literally losing your life, Platt will invite us to forfeit our own lives for the sake of the gospel.
Todd continues:
My daughter attended this “simulcast” event that was taped in Dubai on August 14th beginning at 7:00 P.M. local time. So even if the “simulcast” would have been broadcast in the USA at the originally advertised time of 6:00 P.M. Eastern time, it would not have been “live” as claimed it was to have been. When it is 7:00 P.M. in Dubai it is 11:00 A.M on the East Coast of the USA. That pretty much debunks the “live” claim.
Next it is claimed this “live” broadcast will be from an “undisclosed location.” Here is a link on the Redeemer Church of Dubai’s website which openly announced that the event would be held at the Marriott Hotel. That debunks the “undisclosed location” claim.
Lastly, they claim this “undisclosed location” was one “where proclaiming Jesus could mean literally losing your life.” I am happy to say no one involved in David Platt’s presentation in Dubai on the evening of August 14th lost their life, nor was there ever any danger of doing so because of “proclaiming Jesus.”
All this is to say that Platt can sometimes present himself as more “radical” than he is. This tendency should be taken into consideration by MBC.
Is David Platt “radical?”
For the record, I live in a nice house. I have nice clothes and good food. I had a good education. I am not “radical.” Well…some might consider me a bit radical due to this blog. 😎 When Platt wrote his book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, he wrote about those who gave up their homes to live in poor areas. He suggested that he had people in his former church, Church at Brook Hills, who gave up their homes to live in impoverished areas. He seemed to imply that he was also residing “radically.” Maybe he was back then.
However, now, he lives in a lovely home. I understand that MBC originally purchased this home for their “radical” new pastor for $835,000. So it has gone up in price.
Now he owns a $1.1 million home while the average American home in 2023 is worth $412,000 and the average Virginia home is worth $413,000 and the average home in Washington, DC is worth $626,000, according to data published by Forbes.
Platt preached a December 3, 2023, sermon wondering how many Americans have a blind spot because of material comforts. Platt said, “I wonder if followers of Jesus a hundred years from now, if Jesus has not returned, will look back at Christians in America today and wonder, ‘How could they worship, sing, study the Bible and live in such affluence, while billions of people were going to hell without even hearing how they could go to heaven, many of whom were living in impoverished, dire conditions on earth? They gathered for worship, they read the Bible, they sang the songs, they lived what they said were Christian lives. How could they keep prioritizing their comforts and preferences to the neglect of so many people in need?’
I do not claim to be radical, whatever in the world that means. I’m sure I have more to learn on this front, but I think there may be better tutors than David Platt.
Finally
Let this serve as a warning to churches who are calling a pastor. How well do you know them? See where they are now, and do not expect them to change.
MBC: You are officially in a church takeover, and you have become Baptists. Your representative, Mrs. Platt, voted on your behalf, which means the SBC recognizes your church as a member of the SBC. You didn’t get a pastor; you got a Baptist talking head who is taking you in a direction you didn’t see coming. He should have told you. That’s what Christians do. They level with one another.
Good word Dee!
Platt said “ while billions of people were going to hell without even hearing how they could go to heaven “
What is this radical soteriology? How could anyone who believes this even sleep at night, when even one soul might be consigned to ECT and it’s not God’s fault, nor the sinner’s, but YOURS? Millions of Christians will be trying to rejoice in heaven while also trying to forget the billions they consigned to hell? It’s like Chick’s friend in the tract who forgot to pray for a man who’d wronged him. Maybe Chick’s friend was ill or had to work long hours or had family troubles or needed a vacation. But because he forgot, “two weeks later that man and his girlfriend plunged to a Christless grave”.
From the letter by Mark Gottlieb: “the elders did nothing.”
Typical.
This:
“Let this serve as a warning to churches who are calling a pastor. How well do you know them? See where they are now, and do not expect them to change.
“MBC: You are officially in a church takeover, and you have become Baptists. Your representative, Mrs. Platt, voted on your behalf, which means the SBC recognizes your church as a member of the SBC. You didn’t get a pastor; you got a Baptist talking head who is taking you in a direction you didn’t see coming. He should have told you. That’s what Christians do. They level with one another.”
Bottom line: it’s all about the benjamin$. A church is doing well, revenue-wise. The org sees that: “How can we get in on that?” And a Christian leader also asks: “How can I get in on that?”
Not trying to get political here, but it’s a bit irritating that in the letter by Mr. Gottlieb he specifically cites someone’s “hatred for the Republican party” and unironically uses the term “woke-culture.” I get that the American church is lined up firmly behind one side of US politics but disagreement with the prevailing political trends of evangelicals isn’t a character flaw, and pretending that it is ought to give an elder pause if the individual is otherwise theologically sound.
Because a Righteous enough Cause justifies any amount of Lying and Deceit.
They know where the money, prestige, and power is.
At the left and right hands of a Pastor/Dictator.
“I’m Court Favorite of the Week!
How do I know I’m Court Favorite?
I get to bring the bowstring for last week’s Court Favorite!”
The Party Line, recited without activating any neuron above the brainstem.
And nothing brings Unity and Righteousness like an Enemy to HATE.
There’s a new LORD and God in town who WILL give them what they want, and they have taken his Mark with rejoicing.
“A local church should have the freedom to choose their path.”
Amen! From the way I read it, the Biblical form of doing church is through congregational governance, not elder-rule. The people of God, under Holy Spirit guidance, represent local authority over the belief and practice of individual churches … not the pulpit. A pastor who deceptively and stubbornly usurps this authority is essentially operating in rebellion. Scripture is clear about this modus operandi: “Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23).
Those who seek to manipulate, intimidate, and dominate a church … to boot out the long-standing traditions of a church … to advance their personal theology and ideology from the pulpit … to assert authoritarian control over the Body of Christ … to seek to capture church building and property of a church for the New Calvinist movement … is to operate in a form of witchcraft (in my humble opinion). I suggest that Mr. Platt immediately consider a sinner’s prayer!
“I think he is also a dyed-in-the-wool, hardline Reformed pastor who is friends with John Piper and SBC insiders like Mark Dever and Al Mohler.”
No doubt about it! As a young pastor, Mr. Platt became a darling of the New Calvinist movement within SBC when he openly criticized the belief and practice of millions of mainline (non-Calvinist) Southern Baptists. He was invited into Mohler’s inner ring and became President of SBC’s International Mission Board, where he promptly recalled 1,000 career foreign missionaries (primarily non-Calvinist), some who had been on the mission field with their families for decades, preaching the whosoever-will-may-come Gospel of Jesus in remote corners of the earth. Platt cited a funding shortage for these missionaries, but SBC continued to find plenty of money to plant thousands of new churches in North America (with primarily reformed pastors fresh out seminary). That sort of activity is about as “dyed-in-the-wool, hardline Reformed” as you can get!
“I do not claim to be radical, whatever in the world that means.”
radical: very different from the usual or traditional; favoring extreme changes in existing views, habits, conditions, or institutions; associated with political views, practices, and policies of extreme change (Merriam-Webster)
You are radical enough, Dee – don’t get too crazy on us! 🙂
Driscoll was radical (bye-bye) … MacDonald was radical (bye-bye) … Mahaney was radical (bye-bye) … Platt is radical (bye-bye soon)
Given David Platt’s apparent lack of honesty and Mr Gottlieb’s mostly political concerns (benefitting a former leader of a country you may know, of dubious reputation worldwide), I think I’ll quote Shakespeare here:
“A plague on both your houses!”
Don’t get me wrong – I don’t wish either of them evil personally, but what they’re doing is, as they say in my country, as useful as a goiter.
The “houses” – the empire-building in either direction – are what makes the whole thing really and unmistakably Christian, aren’t they?
Pastoral “Yes-Men” are not called by God as elders. They are to hold the pastor and each other accountable … they should be representatives of the pew, never to be held in the grip of the pulpit. Elders who fail this assignment are unqualified for that sacred office.
“You didn’t get a pastor; you got a Baptist talking head who is taking you in a direction you didn’t see coming.”
MBC, “you got a ‘New Calvinist’ Baptist talking head”. In numerous articles posted on TWW, you can read all about others of their tribe who have wreaked havoc in churches across America.
Is Platt ‘theologically sound’? Much has been written about the aberrant belief and practice of the New Calvinists.
Rick Warren, who was once called “America’s Pastor”, threw confusion into evangelical ranks about the idea of separation of church and state when he said:
“I believe in the separation of church and state, but I do not believe in the separation of politics from religion.”
I’m more inclined to agree with Gen. William Booth (founder of the Salvation Army) about our current dilemma when he said:
“The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, heaven without hell.”
Max,
Amen to Gen. Booth…
Im confused. Why would you (dee) say the church would now be baptist? Isnt Platt reformed? Wouldnt it be a reformed takeover???
Platt is a Reformed Baptist. Technically, it would be a New Calvinist takeover by a Reformed Baptist.
There appears to be more flavors of “reformed” than you can shake a stick at. I don’t have many problems with classical Calvinists. I have worshipped alongside them and count some as friends. They have been civil in their discourse, respectful of other expressions of faith, and not out to takeover churches with the “one true gospel”. But, these New Calvinists are a different beast! “Radical” doesn’t adequately describe these young whippersnappers who are running roughshod over God’s people. I’ll continue to shake a stick at them!
This tells you all you need to know about Mr Platt, especially if you follow the other links in the article
https://capstonereport.com/2023/12/17/david-platts-prosperity-gospel-platt-buys-1-1-million-home/42532/
Lowlandseer,
I have zero sympathy for the butts in the seats who dig deeply into their wallets and purses to bankroll Platt.
They get about as much in return as they would a kewpie doll from a barker on a carnival midway.
They deserve each other.
Muff Potter,
Actors would have no stage if it weren’t for an audience willing to buy tickets to the show.
Abigail,
Read the last post about MBC from a week or two ago. Platt’s wife officially represented MBC at the Convention (as a voting, dues paying member), and MBC is now listed on the SBC “member churches” site.
Ben,
Yep. That means that MBC sent at least some CP money to the SBC.
Since MBC is elder led, I doubt if any of the congregation knew it. It wouldn’t surprise me if even some (if not all) of the elders knew nothing about it.
Bottom line: it’s all about the benjamin$. A church is doing well, revenue-wise. The org sees that: “How can we get in on that?” And a Christian leader also asks: “How can I get in on that?”
Ava Aaronson,
Leave out the word “Christian”, and I’ll agree with you 110%.
Platt and his friends in the upper echelon of the SBC are selfishly and gleefully living high on the hog off of the hard earned paychecks of the sacrificial givers….. and Platt’s MBC givers don’t even know it! (I wonder how many of them have seen Platt’s house, or the paperwork where Platt bought the house from the church, or have ever gone to the PVA office to check the stats on the house?)
Apparently pastoring is lucrative nowadays.
It seems like this was not always so.
An elderly prayer lady at church says back in the day, her grandpa was a farmer during the week and an itinerant preacher, on horseback, on the weekends. No one got rich.
IMO (after doing SBC for 70+ years) the most faithful real-deal Southern Baptist pastors were bivocational servants of God in rural churches. They worked full-time jobs to support their families, ministering to and serving their church congregations with minimal additional salary. They loved the Lord and loved the people of God.
Nancy2(aka Kevlar),
It would appear that the elders unanimously supported Platt’s call. In the attached FAQ you’ll see that MBC was a co-operating church with the SBC.
https://mcleanbible.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Heading-II-FAQDocument_CallingANewPastorTeacher.pdf
“In 2016, MBC became a cooperating church with the SBC … like other cooperating churches, MBC has chosen to work with this coalition”
The members didn’t know that?!
It seems that there’s a combination of poor governance and apathy.
For example in my wife’s church, the head pastor is also chair of the board.
Sure the board is elected but the same names from the same families dominate.
They’ve had the same lead since 1997 and before that the lead pastor was in place for decades.
The recently retired lead got his daughter hired to the pastoral team, as chair of the board in the event of a tie, the chair breaks it. The board is responsible for hiring and firing and salaries. So there’s huge conflict of interest issues.
They recently hired a new lead pastor who seems pretty hipster.
Most of the pew-ons just attend. I doubt any of them pay attention to the governance.
It’s likely the same here. As long as the coffee is on and everyone stays in their respective closet, it doesn’t matter whose denomination you belong to.
Jack,
i’ve long observed apathy by faith in christian culture.
All things work together for good; God is in control; etc.
…and many unjust, foolish, abusive, corrupt things sprout like crabgrass having its way.
My pet peeve of spouting foolishness: yes, the Bible does tell us we will not face the temptation we cannot overcome, as with it God will always make us a way out. Somehow that is morphed into the idea God will never give you more to handle than you can handle. As in, famous person saying his kid will kick cancer because God never gives you more than you can handle. So, if cancer took your child what does that say to you?? Or if poverty just took your home? Or your spouse just walked out on you?
I dare say some folks in Gaza today, and that were attacked by Hamas in their raid on Israel in October were given by other human beings some things they could not handle.
Little more than a lofty platitude…
No, we are in control, and it’s up to us to make things better in this here and now.
elastigirl,
Good comment!
I’ve observed the same things.
Muff Potter,
other people end up paying the price for apathy by faith.
it’s not a light burden picking up the slack in dealing with the consequences of someone else’s apathetic inaction.
And “God is in control” becomes just another pious platitude.
Virtue-Signalling Empty Words, nothing more.
Ironic BCD glasses, Ironic Tight Pencil-Leg Pants, Ironic Beard & Hairstyle that takes two hours to primp and gets covered by Ironic bag-beanie, and ever-ready Ironic Quip?
Wasn’t that one of the Reformers’ main beefs about Romish Popery?
“Writing for a penny a word is stupid. If you want to make a million tax-free, Start Your Own Religion!”
— L Ron Hubbard, founder/Prophet/”lead pastor” of Scientology
“There’s a sucker born every minute.”
— P.T.Barnum
And Christians are the easiest of Easy Marks.
Mohler’s little playgroup.
“Dodekan to Dodekan o’er the world is Brother…”
Elders are pretty useless in most churches and forms of church governance, so don’t be too hard on MBC elders per se.
I’m one of the MBCers who was far too trusting and therefore passive.
However, it was obvious to me that it was a coup from the beginning when there was no real pastor search.
The elders or congregational board are responsible for the good governance of the church.
I’ve been president of our child care center volunteer board of directors and our local air cadets squadron. I don’t know about churches but legally I had a responsibility to those organizations. And I was covered by liability insurance.
In my wife’s church, the lead pastor is chairman of the board of directors. The same board that hires, fires and sets salaries.
Huge conflict of interest!
It would be considered illegal in the secular boards I’ve been involved with.
It’s the elders responsibility to always act in the best interests of the congregation they represent.
So, yeah, given the wad of cash involved, you should be hard on them.
I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself, you only act on what you know but you have to decide how to act going forward knowing what you know now.
You got the look right. Haven’t heard the guy and probably won’t. My church days are done.
I like the cut of your jib, young man!
Other people’s money.
Hebrews 11 is full of incidences of folks decimated by what, in their earthly bodies, they could not overcome. Yet in the end, their faith carried them soul and spirit into Eternity to be with their Heavenly Father.
And to be with poor man Lazarus, Luke 16, who was also delivered to Paradise with God.
Meanwhile the rich man who prevailed on Earth suffers in Hell for Eternity. Eternal damnation.
Matthew 18:6-9.
Matthew 25:31-46
An MSF doctor said, after returning from a “civil” war in Liberia: “I did not know what human beings could do to other human beings*.”
(The same could be said about the Holocaust or US slavery, or the Japanese during WW2, etc.)
Lots of quaint cute little churches operate this way … including back in the “good ole days”.
No offense to your wife.
And the people showing up with their tithes and volunteer hours each week? They just want to belong.
It’s a huge need, the need to belong. It’s how a leader built the 3rd Reich.
Heck, they work all week and just want a place to land on the weekend that is close to, but just beyond, the local pub, among their Homies.
Meanwhile Pastor or Priest does their thing. Perhaps diddling with the youth boys or girls. Live and let live.
If you want to get rich and live high, do it with Other People’s Money.
You get all the benefits and the Other People get all the risk.
That was a continuing theme of my Finance class in college.
Which ended up mutating into total focus on the Hereafter to the point of total neglect of the here-and-now.
Eyes fixed upon Heaven to the point of total neglect of real people.
“How did it ever come to this?”
Did the elders say something like the following to members? “After a long and exhaustive search for our next pastor, in which we reviewed hundreds of resumes and interviewed dozens of candidates, we are pleased to put before you David Platt.”
I’ve been a member of search committees in the past. One resulted in the same “hostile takeover” behavior observed at MBC. How I wish we had added one clause to the pastor-to-be employment contract: “this contract may be terminated for cause upon determination that the applicant has deceived this committee in any way.”
Platt should be on the street, on his backside, but likely will not be.
Agreed. That would sweep the SBC house clean of most New Calvinist pastors! Much has been written about pastor search committees fooled by the stealth and deception of NeoCal candidates. I suppose the new reformers somehow justify in their minds that lying in order to advance the NeoCal movement is OK.
Included in the 7 things that God hates in Proverbs 6:16-19: “a lying tongue”
By it’s nature, a ‘fundamentalist’ church where biblical inerrancy/literalism is preached is going to be authoritarian.
The Kingdom of God is a kingdom in a very real sense. An absolute Kingdom. I noticed in the Pentecostal church I attended, you were free to believe exactly what they told you. How you worship was a little bit looser but only insofar as you could raise your hands and look suitably engaged.
Lots of follow the leader crud. I remember one guest pastor had the congregation stand and remove a shoe and raise above your head. (No, I did not participate). He was making some inane point that I can’t remember.
So you have a culture of compliance where following is baked in.
Most people attend but are pretty hands off.
My wife’s church was mostly harmless, it was a ‘benign’ dictatorship – the previous 2 long term pastors certainly didn’t fall into the ‘evil’ category.
But certainly this church would be a prime takeover target. Millions in legacy assets, foundations, property right downtown.
Not sure how immune a Pentecostal Church is to a Calvinist. This church definitely has no love for baptist theology.
Anyway, it might be worth keeping tabs on what happens, but probably not since I don’t attend anymore.
Charismatic Calvinism is a thing. Mark Driscoll has been known to hang out with pentecostals of late.
Same here in an independent Discipleship (Shpenerding) Fellowship(TM) in the mid-Seventies.
Cult Compound and all.
Their Freedom In Christ(TM) was as oppressive as Orwell’s 1984. Only difference was THe LORD(TM) instead of Big Brother.
Only reason I got out was I had Heathen contacts on the Outside (in newly-discovered SF Fandom) and they introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons. It was like going over the Berlin Wall into the West. Never looked back.
SF fans are among the most tolerant of people. I enjoyed my time playing d&d (though I preferred Traveller and SF based RPG’s like 2300, Shadowrun and Paranoia).
Fandom has its issues too. A good friend resigned her Klingon commission when folks who took it too seriously. Her boyfriend at the time was a Starfleet officer! The scandal!
She was part of a Klingon country band – one of their songs was “There’s a pain in my heart ’cause There’s a Knife in my Back”
Max,
Haven’t we heard about someone else from some “mission board” or other, as well, in the last couple of days?
Dave A A,
Oh my goodness!! Yes!! Do you know how tortured those tracks made me as a child?!? I still see the one you’re talking about in my mind!!
Two words:
WRETCHED URGENCY.
https://imonk.blog/2010/04/09/imonk-classic-wretched-urgency-the-grace-of-god-or-hamsters-on-a-wheel/
I was the only Trav fan in an area that’s a Traveller desert. I did find an outlet, though. For over a decade I’ve been publishing articles (under my real name) in the online gamezine Freelance Traveller. Single-handedly started their “Other Roads” section, cornered the market on Classic Trav ship designs in their “Shipyard” section, and have a lot of world/system writeups in their “Jump Destinations” section.
Do you remember the short-lived TV show Firefly about a Free Trader getting in trouble out on the Rim? AKA “The Outlaw Josey Wales in Space” or “Josh Whedon’s Traveller Campaign”? (My spies at TravCon some years ago confirmed the latter.)
Klingon. Country. Band.
Somebody really needs to enter that prompt into an AI art bot and see what comes up.
“Living the Dream” like Reichsmarschall Goering.