Two Bloggers Don't Appreciate Mac Brunson's GCR Prayer

No, the picture at left doesn't mean Johnny Hunt lost a contact lens on the platform. Rather, I suppose these men are falling "prostrate" as Mac Brunson prays.

Mac Brunson had a good day, sort of, at the Southern Baptist Convention Pastor's Conference Day 1.

His nominee for the 2011 SBC Pastor's Conference President position was elected by the messengers - good for Mac. The Florida Baptist Witness said Mac gave a "rousing" nomination speech. It was "rousing" maybe a bit "angry", but his guy won! Go Mac!

And then he gave a passionate prayer for the passage of the Great Commission Resurrgence (GCR) in the evening - but not so good for Mac.

Below is the prayer, or at least part of it.

Two bloggers didn't appreciate the prayer, and even criticized and mocked his prayer on the Internet. Imagine that, other pastors criticizing another pastor's prayer!! How cruel!

One pastor, named "Steve", even accused Mac of faking his crying during the prayer - EGADs! A person claiming Mac is crying on cue.

Says "Steve" at his blog "A Fish Called Grace":

"Now, for the disappointing aspects of the evening. Again with the GCR. Lord, have mercy. These people are going to drive me bonkers. And shame on Mac Brunson for the fake crying. I mean, really. Dude. "

Then he goes on to mock Mac's prayer as though it was a shameless attempt to persuade people to vote for the GCR. The audacity of this guy!

Another blogger, Dave Miller at the more popular "SBC Voices" blog expressed similar thoughts about Mac's prayer, saying it was "unseemly" (my emphases below):

"I hate emotional manipulation and pressure tactics. They should not be necessary to anyone who is doing the work of God. If God is in something, if it is his will, the Spirit will move hearts to come in line. If the GCR is God’s will (as [Ronnie] Floyd clearly believes) he does not need to emotionally manipulate and pressure the messengers. Put the truth forward and trust the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts.

I was especially taken aback at something Mac Brunson said. He told us that the Task Force are the leaders of the convention on this issue. I inferred (and I do not think I am being unfair here) that he was saying that we should submit to the will of the Task Force and stop questioning the Report. I found it unseemly.

I have argued strongly for the the GCR, but Floyd and Brunson’s pressure tactics and manipulation could have turned me off to the report if it went on much longer."

Seems the day of pastors licking the boots of the big boys is over, as with the Internet comes instant analysis and criticism from these bloggers.

You'll hear Mac beg God to forgive the pastors for "saying those things we should not have said."

Gee, whatever did he mean by that?

Brunson GCR Prayer from FBCJax Watchdog on Vimeo.

"You Do Know that This is Grounds for Divorce, Right?"

The past 3 years I have received some pretty crazy emails, and heard some remarkably stupid comments directed my way, but the remark that takes the cake is this remark made to my wife by her former Sunday School teacher at FBC Jax shortly after the April 2009 news article was published of the outting of the FBC Jax Watchdog:

"You do know that this is grounds for you to divorce Tom, don't you?"

This statement was made after they had discussed my authorship of the blog, and this person claiming I have sinned grievously, and that if we were so disatisfied at FBC Jax we should have moved our family elsewhere and I should not have taken to blogging.

Then this spiritual mentor of sorts for my wife of many years, put the idea to my wife:

You can divorce your husband over this. Yes, take your kids and leave the house and drop the louse. Split the family, get a lawyer, your husband is a blogger. Your husband has authored many articles very critical of our church and our pastor and staff and members, so:

Divorce him if you want.

I thought my wife receiving a trespass paper signed by six prominent FBC Jax men for the listed offense of "associating with a member committing church misconduct" couldn't be beat, but the "divorce" comment sure knocked it out the park.

My wife was absolutely flabbergasted and shocked to hear this from the woman that she had looked up to for so long at First Baptist. It took my wife several weeks to break the news to me that this is what a prominent woman at First Baptist told her. And I wouldn't be surprised that there are others there who feel the same way: leave the loser, he's a blogger, a scoundrel and maybe worse. He dared harshly criticize the "man of God", and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, so there's no telling what he is capable of.

I could rant and rave how this mindset is so incredibly cultish, as is the experience of how friends we had for years at FBC Jax don't call, and some that see us around our side of town refuse to make eye contact at restaurants and stores.

But I'll stop there.

I am happy to report that my wife loves me and supports me and is proud of me. And she has shown the strength and grace to endure it all without being bitter or resentful or hateful to those who have wronged her. She doesn't lash out and accuse and express hatred toward her husband's detractors, instead she understands, and with God's grace she carries out her role of caring for her family and loving her husband.

Yes, SHE is the godliest woman I know, FBC Jax. It's your loss that she is no longer able to serve at her church home of over 15 years.

If Ankerberg Were a Clinton Democrat

How sad to read John Ankerberg's statement of support for Ergun Caner, with absolutely no caveats, no acknowledgment whatsoever of lies or embellishments on the part of Caner.

Read Ankerberg's last two sentences of his statement:

"For someone to attack Ergun's selfless sacrifice, especially since they malign his character without any substantiation, is both unchristian and unbiblical. Count me among the many who will stand with Ergun Caner, knowing he stands for the Lord Jesus Christ."

No one is attacking his "selfless sacrifice", and there is plenty of "substantiation".

But this just goes to show you the depths we have sunk to in this day of celebrity-driven evangelicalism - the celebrity status of Ergun Caner must be protected, even at the sacrifice of truth and right.

I used to wonder how in the world Democrats could defend Bill Clinton during the days of the Lewinsky scandal. I thought that the big difference between liberals and conservatives was that conservatives stood on principle, and the principles of truth and justice and right took priority over the personalities espousing those principles.

If Ankerberg worked for the Democratic Party around the time of the Lewinsky scandal and the stained blue dress proving Clinton's infidelity, he could have written this:

"I have known Bill Clinton for nearly a decade. I am disheartened by the recent attacks upon his integrity and character as a philanderer. I have interviewed Bill for more than a dozen television shows and believe him to be faithfully married and monogomous with his wife Hillary Clinton. Otherwise, I would not have lent my credibility to him by associating with him. Bill Clinton, and his wife Hillary, are wonderful Americans who have taken a valiant stand for the poor and downtrodden, even costing them and their families their own comfort. For someone to attack Bill's selfless sacrifice, by maligning his fidelity without any substantiation except a stained blue dress, is both unAmerican and unlawful. Count me among the many who will stand with Bill Clinton, knowing he stands for all that is American."

Ergun Caner Coming to Jacksonville!!

Just learned today that North Jacksonville Baptist Church, pastored by Dr. Herb Reavis is scheduled to have Dr. Ergun Caner preach at NJBC on August 29th, 2010.

I know that some NJBC members read this blog, and I have to ask you: how do you feel that your church is having Caner come in, knowing of his many embellishments of his testimony over the past 9 1/2 years that have been reported in many media outlets? Are you happy that your church leadership has decided that CANER of all preachers is the right guy to bring in?

Guess with all the brouhaha over Caner's troubles at Liberty and the ongoing LU investigation into Caner's embellishments, ole Ergun is still landing the speaking gigs - at least this one and also a conference with Jerry Vines Ministries. I hope Caner is getting paid well for his upcoming talks, as he will have to put in double time to come up with an all new schtick since he's been called out on all the racial stereotypes, and any descriptions of his jihadist upbringing and "camel jockey" and "sand nigger" descriptions of himself will go over like a led zepellin now.

But he is very entertaining, quite the performer, and I'm sure he will have the NJBC folks rolling in the aisles.

Or wait a minute - there is another possibility...maybe when they say "Erun Caner" is coming they mean "fake Ergun Caner" from YouTube at www.youtube.com/drerguncaner.

Now THAT would be hilarious!

Some Reflections on the 400th Post by the Watchdog

This blog post marks the 406th posting by the Watchdog over the past 3 years. The 400 post mark is not a particularly important milestone (I intended to make THIS the 400th post but events at Trinity in NH put this off), but I thought I would reflect on the importance that I think blogs and the Internet now play in American evangelical Christianity. I'm sure my thoughts here will make the blood boil of my detractors, but I'm used to that by now. And as some pastors like to say about their sharp words troubling the pew sitters: it just tickles ME pink to know that my words get under pastors' skins! Amen? Amen!

My blogging experience over the past 3 years has been one I might characterize as a spiritual journey of sorts.

As I became concerned over events at my church starting in 2006 under new leadership, I thought that issues troubling me at my church were more local, or isolated to my particular church and its leadership, but soon found out they were just a glimpse of the larger problem within evangelical Christianity. I was a member at FBC Jax for many years, and I saw things that I thought I would never, ever see in my church - that I have blogged about here over the past several years.

So I started a blog. A place where I could raise the consciousness of my fellow church members, to get them to think more deeply about abuses at the church that I thought needed to be answered by the leadership - and a place where people could discuss these issues anonymously if they desired, without fear of reprisal from church leaders.

And my oh my, how my church leaders didn't like my blog and others' blogs. Mega church leaders generally have a fear of any blog that is critical of preachers. Critical blogs are viewed as sin, evil, attacks. Perhaps it is because pastors can't control the messages on blogs - blog posts don't have to be approved by the preacher and his marketing team before being published; and pastors can't keep their donors, er, I mean their sheep - from reading the blogs. So many have sought to shut down, influence, intimidate - even pass resolutions - to get blogs shut down or bloggers discredited - and it has only served to create more blog writers and more blog readers.

As much as celebrity preachers say they love the First Amendment, and want their religious speech protected - their own actions and resolutions show that they want it for themselves, but not so much for the lay person in their church. Preachers love to criticize culture, other faiths, even blast other preachers and denominations with which they disagree - but a lay person analyzing and criticizing THEM - well, that is "sin" in their eyes. And must be stopped.

For a good portion of my three years I blogged anonymously. Yes, the "coward" anonymous blogger, "the coward that he is" as I was affectionately called by one of my dearest fans. I am amazed in this day and time that people still take issue with people's desires to blog anonymously. History tells us how harshly critics of church leadership have been treated. Those who speak about unpopular ideas, or who criticize, especially harshly criticize powerful, religious people, are treated worse than infidels or criminals by church leaders. Even those who seek to expose sexually abusive pastors - they are told their blog is sin because it casts a negative light on the church and on "God's man".

But as I continued to blog about matters at my church, now not anonymously but still under the WD pseudonym, and as I read other blogs and participated in other discussion forums, I realized that the concerns I had at my church, were not just local issues that arrived with the new pastor and leadership team: rather they were more symptoms of larger problems in the Southern Baptist Convention and even evangelicalism as a whole. My blog posts sometimes dealt with what was happening at FBC Jax in the context of what was happening or had already happened at other SBC churches.

God is using these blogs, I believe, for many purposes, one of which is a cleansing of sorts of His church, as the abuses and lies of religious leaders are being exposed, and the laity is being educated as to what really is going on in their church - just as was done in the days of Martin Luther.

God used Luther and the printing press to accomplish His will.

Today, blogs and discussion forums are today's new "printing presses" that are allowing for a Reformation of sorts to take place. [the gnashing you hear are the pastors' teeth as they read this]. Lay people who are no longer just sitting and soaking and forking over 10% so their church can do what they want with the dough with no accountability to the sheep. They want transparency and openness and won't settle for pastors taking over their churches and running them like the CEO of a profit-making enterprise with parishioners and converts viewed as a market to be tapped.

Lay people can examine documents and video and audio of celebrity pastors to see if they are liars in the pulpit - if they make up grand stories, or if they lie about their detractors.

Celebrity preachers can no longer embellish their testimonies or outright lie to their congregations for fear that they will be exposed.

Church leaders who try to cover abusers in their midst, protecting their pastors and their church reputation by accusing the victims or sweeping allegations under the rug - have a much harder time these days as they know their story can be put up on the Internet for all to see.

A prime example of the power of blogs - and why pastors have passed resolutions condemning blogging - is seen in the current Ergun Caner scandal. As much as very powerful men in the SBC who were behind his rocket-launch to instant SBC stardom wanted this issue to just go away and be swept under the rug, bloggers wouldn't allow it to happen. I personally was disgusted to go back and hear Caner's FBC Jax sermon from November 2001 and compare his statements to public documents showing some of his claims to the FBC Jax faithful about himself to be false. I was glad that this blog was used to expose the contents of that sermon - within hours of me realizing what I heard, the excerpts from that sermon were published for all to hear.

So where am I at in this journey of religious blogging? I will continue on. I am a Christian, I love the Lord and I still committed to the Southern Baptist Convention and all they have theologically stood for over the years. I will continue on as a Christian blogger. But I am sad to see what is happening to the SBC at the hands of the new breed of mega church pastor - and I therefore will continue to blog about these issues in evangelical Christianity every chance I get.

I also in due time will have more to say about my past year and a half and the coming year in the legal battles I have fought and am continuing to fight. It will be an interesting tale for sure, and there will be likely many more twists and turns and setbacks - and hopefully some victories - but whatever the outcome I fully intend to tell this part of my story when this long legal process runs its course.

Meanwhile, I'll blog about issues of interest to me, about issues that I am very passionate about in evangelical Christianity, and my journey into blogging will continue.