In the United States, when someone is suspected of committing a crime, he is arrested, incarcerated, and tried for his alleged crime before a jury of his peers.  If he is found not guilty, he is released.  If he is found guilty, he is sentenced to a term in prison.  This process is relatively uncontroversial.  It is justice.  While incarcerated, the freedom of the offender is restricted.  He is separated from his friends and family.  This is intended to be unpleasant.  Prison is punishment and the punishment of crime is an integral part of the justice system.  Again, this is uncontroversial.  It is also ordained by God.  In his epistle to the Romans, Paul wrote the following:

“Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except rom God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.”

The application of Romans 13 made national news yesterday as it relates to treatment of illegal immigrants by the United States government.  As reported by the Washington Post:

“On Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant children from their families at the border by referencing the New Testament.  ‘I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13,’ Sessions said, ‘to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order.”

 

The Trump administration has been under fire from critics for its practice of detaining illegal immigrants who are caught crossing the border illegally and placing their minor children in care facilities until such a time as their cases can be adjudicated.  One might think that American Christians would be encouraged that their country’s top attorney is a fellow Christian (albeit a United Methodist) with a biblical view of justice.  Unfortunately, Sessions’ defense was made in response to critiques from progressive Christians who claim that it is unjust to separate children from their law-breaking parents.  In doing so, these progressive Christians are creating a special class of the oppressed: illegal immigrants.  There are thousands of incarcerated parents in American prisons right now for breaking various laws.  Yet, these progressive Christian critics of the Trump administration are focusing on a specific type of criminal and getting plenty of press for doing so.  One might expect progressive religious criticism to originate from liberal denomination such as Sessions’ own UMC.  Sadly, it is a Southern Baptist who has been front and center in criticizing the rule of law.

Terrible theology. Romans 13 was wrongly used to support slavery, the Fugitive Slave Act, Jim Crow, and events leading to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. It is the Subversion of Christianity for political purposes/gain and every pastor and theologian in America should be aware. https://t.co/0cPMJnCO3D

— Alan Cross (@AlanLCross) June 15, 2018

This morning, CNN invited Southern Baptist minister and SBC Voices contributor Alan Cross to discuss a Christian view of immigration.  Cross has labeled Sessions’ biblical defense of the government’s administration of immigration law a “subversion of Christianity.”  Cross describes himself as a minister who works towards “gospel-based Racial Unity” and “Immigrant/Refugee ministry and advocacy.”  He is but one of a new breed of Southern Baptist social progressives formed in the mold of prominent Southern Baptist ethicist and ERLC president Russell Moore, who long ago referred to the Lord himself as an “illegal immigrant”.  It is passed time for every-day pew-sitting Southern Baptists to start paying more attention to the politics of the convention they support with their hard-earned dollars.  Southern Baptists are paying to educate and even promote men like Alan Cross and Russell Moore.  The social gospel is making a comeback in Southern Baptist circles.  Are you going to condone it?

*Please note that the preceding is my personal opinion. It is not necessarily the opinion of any entity by which I am employed, any church at which I am a member, any church which I attend, or the educational institution at which I am enrolled. Any copyrighted material displayed or referenced is done under the doctrine of fair use

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Last night, SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore appeared on CNN to criticize Attorney General Jeff Sessions.  Sessions has come under fire from religious leaders for the Trump Administration’s policy of separating the children of illegal immigrants caught crossing the southern border of the United States from their parents.  Rather than sending children to jail with their parents or choosing not to enforce the law, the Trump Administration has chosen to incarcerate illegal immigrants and look after their children in care facilities until such a time as their parents’ cases can be adjudicated.  In response to criticism from Christian leaders, Sessions cited Romans 13 in order to justify the government’s actions in enforcing the law.  Russell Moore took the occasion to appear on CNN with Wolf Blitzer and declare that Sessions “could use more time in Sunday School.”

Evangelical leader Russell Moore to AG Jeff Sessions: “We all have moments when we could use a little more time in Sunday school, and this is one of those moments for the Department of Justice” https://t.co/riIIw0DDOB pic.twitter.com/ksG2mMbvU9

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) June 16, 2018

According to a 2016 profile published by Newsweek, “Sessions is a Sunday school teacher at the Ashland Place United Methodist Church in Mobile and has been a delegate to the annual Alabama Methodist Conference.”  That Russell Moore, whose job it is to lobby the government for Southern Baptists interests, went on national TV and made a flippant, disrespectful, and ignorant remark about the USA’s top attorney is inexcusable.  His haughty remark may have played well with Blitzer and the liberal demographic of CNN but it is arguably not representative of Southern Baptists thought.  Before giving Moore the floor during the interview segment, Blitzer (who is Jewish) cited several New Testament passages out of context.  Rather than taking the time to correct Blitzer for his misapplication of scripture, Moore continued his multi-year blitzkrieg against the Trump Administration.  Russell Moore rightly argued that Romans 13 does not support the application unjust law.  However, he made no substantial argument that US immigration law is unjust.  Instead, he employed emotional rhetoric about “vulnerable children” who are “clinging to their parents.”  He did not address the actions of those parents, who bring their children along while committing a crime and engaging in what can often be a very dangerous illicit border crossing.  As a theologian who graduated from the same Southern Baptist seminary as Russell Moore, I can tell you that Sessions’ application of Romans 13 was sound.  The difference between myself and Moore, is that I don’t make my living as a professional lobbyist for an increasingly progressive denomination.  Moore, whose original career aspiration was that of a Democratic Party politician, is the tip of a dangerous Southern Baptist iceberg.  I am beginning to suspect that below the water are an increasing number of Neo-Calvinist social justice warriors making their way out of Southern and Southeastern Baptist Theological seminaries.  Widespread acceptance of Moore and his acolytes by Southern Baptist leaders may be motivated by financial concerns, given that illegal immigrants can’t tithe from jail.   Whatever the case, Southern Baptist laypeople should pay more attention to how their money is being spent.  They and their churches essentially paid to have someone who represents them go on CNN, decry a conservative government official, and content for a soft immigration policy.

To learn more about how you can defund Russell Moore and his progressive agenda, see this article.

*Please note that the preceding is my personal opinion. It is not necessarily the opinion of any entity by which I am employed, any church at which I am a member, any church which I attend, or the educational institution at which I am enrolled. Any copyrighted material displayed or referenced is done under the doctrine of fair use.

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Peter LaBarbera

In case you’ve yet to hear, the Revoice Conference is an event designed to celebrate “Queer Culture” within the Christian Church, to “de-sin” Same Sex Attraction (SSA), and to move American evangelicals to abandon a traditional, historic and orthodox understanding of human sexuality. Although a conference like this is standard fare among mainline liberal denominations like the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), the Presbyterian Church USA, or the United Methodist Church, embracing and celebrating celibate homosexuality is not typical among more conservative denominations like the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) or the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The Revoice Conference, however, will be hosted by the PCA, is being promoted by Southern Baptists affiliated with the SBC entity, the ERLC (Matt Chandler, Karen Swallow Prior, and many more), is being organized by a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary graduate and former faculty member (Nate Collins) and is even being promoted by a Master’s Seminary graduate (Preston Sprinkle). The conference is seen as a bellwether   for the direction of conservative evangelicalism, or at least the remnant of it that still exists. Members of the Evangelical Intelligentsia who aren’t promoting the conference explicitly are (laughably) claiming they’re unaware of it (as Russell Moore claimed at the annual meeting of the SBC, even though his ERLC research fellows are helping to promote the conference, and its infamy has been reported widely in the media). As Revoice is aiming to make the evangelical church more inclusive to the LGBTQXYZLMNOP lobby, its organizer, Nate Collins, has rejected the registration of conservative Christian advocate, Peter LaBarbera, excluding him from the event.

LaBarbera is the founder of Americans for the Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH). AFTAH was founded in 2006 and educates the public regarding homosexuality and argues that homosexuality is not inborn or innate, but a decision made by the homosexual and is in part created by the environment rather than genetic variables. LaBarbera was once the editor for the highly esteemed Family Research Council (FRC), and has a long track record of social conservatism, particularly on the issue of human sexuality. Prior to serving the FRC, LaBarbera was a reporter for the Washington Times. He first came to wide acclaim for his 1994 video, The Gay Agenda, which was promoted by the Christian Coalition. That documentary is seen in the eyes of many as being nearly prophetic in its accuracy of the homosexual goals and their fulfillment in America. LaBarbera has promoted traditional marriage and the Sanctity of Life in both the United States and Canada and is a well-known opponent of the normalization of sodomy as a valid lifestyle choice or identity group.

LaBarbera tweeted out that Nate Collins, the former SBTS faculty member and Revoice organizer, contacted him to return his registration fees and inform him he could not attend. The following is from his Twitter feed…

It is certainly odd that Revoice is actively researching its attendees – even from publicly available information. This seems to be of the same neighborhood of odd behavior that led to ERLC employee, Brent Leatherwood, to make a false report against a media member at the SBC annual convention and having him forcibly removed from the convention hall for doing nothing but asking Russell Moore a question about the upcoming Queer Culture-celebrating Revoice Conference. Like with The Gospel Coalition’s meeting that excluded all white women, inclusion seems to be only a one-way street for leftists and progressives.

The message of Revoice seems clear…conservatives need not attend.

It’s exceedingly odd that a conference that is ostensibly designed to increase dialogue and understanding would shut out someone with an opposing point-of-view.

[Editor’s Note: LaBarbera has not returned a request for comment sent to his Twitter account, by the time of publication]

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We covered the breaking news that Thomas Littleton, a conservative Southern Baptist and freelance journalist with press credentials, was tossed from the SBC annual meeting after  ERLC employee, Brent Leatherwood, allegedly made a false accusation toward him in retaliation for asking Russell Moore inconvenient questions about the LGBTQ Revoice Conference. You can read that post here.

In no uncertain terms, the Ethics and Religous Liberty Commission (ERLC) has thrown its unofficial support behind the queer-normalizing conference through its underlings, while allowing Russell Moore to maintain plausible deniability. However, in one of the most egregious acts of censorship and thuggery ever committed by the Southern Baptist Deep State, a member of the press was literally hauled off the property being rented by his own denomination just for asking questions (and asking them politely).

Littleton has explained the encounter with Leatherwood and his ouster from the Convention on Janet Mefferd’s program, and has gone on to write about it extensively on his blog, Thirty Pieces of Silver. You can read it below…

FROM LITTLETON

By now word has spread that a member of the press was kicked out of the SBC annual meetings in Dallas last week. I am that person and make no mistake about the cause. I came to the SBC convention to follow up and seek to interview the SBC leaders whose institutions have disturbing ties to the upcoming Revoice conference in St Louis. At the same time leaders in the Presbyterian Church of America were doing the same in their annual General Assembly in Atlanta. I went to Dallas at my own expense and out of deep concern that the last two remaining conservative denominations have clearly been infiltrated and are on the verge of accepting EXTREME and Radically pro-LGBT+ language into the heart of their congregations. No denomination has ever returned from this abyss and all who fall into it remain in steep decline. This compromise always leaves the Gospel and those who need it harmed. A new younger President was elected who subscribes to a primary source (a Regent University Psychologist Mark Yarhouse) of the radical language. J.D. Greear.  His campaign press coverage promised that the make-over of the SBC has only begun as change agents a plenty strutted through the halls of the Dallas SBC 2018 meetings.

I was struck while attending the Southern Baptist Convention 2018 by one exhibit which was offered in the Exposition hall. I spent a great deal of time there because in the vast Texas sized Dallas facility dead center of the Expo was the only place my cell signal was not (dead). The world of virtual reality is changing everything in the marketing game. I saw several booths with convention goers looking like puppies with bags stuck on their heads while living in the virtual world for moment in time. In a three-day long event a press guy or gal (I was working with World View Weekend / WVW radio to cover the SBC meetings) has to find humor and comic relief where they can.

Yet one virtual experience in the program at the convention was far too sad a reflection on our virtual Baptist, virtual missions experience to laugh off. This trek was to provide the virtual experience of a REFUGEE.  I have been in ministry for 40 years now – mostly in evangelism and missions both long term and short. I see first-hand the long-term benefit of taking believers’ missions trips and there is no substitute for placing your feet on the ground and getting face to face with the beloved of God who are in need. Medical missions have been a long-term commitment of our family. But to offer a third world or missions experience or in this case the politically charged and Soros funded “Refugee” issue driven in the SBC by “Rented Evangelicals” and World Relief, I fear, is not only manipulative but is sad window on the world of modern Christian state of unreality. This malady seems to have infected many of the Leadership of the SBC as well and especially in the current leadership of the ERLC and some neo Calvinist seminaries.

MY PERSONAL REFUGEE EXPERIENCE; WHY DOES ERLC NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW THE TRUTH?

The players involved -ERLC’s Russell Moore – ERLC Staffer Brent Leatherwood – Myself – and after the press statements below – the Executive Committee/ Roger Oldham, and an ERLC underling. History and context is provided below.

I would like to acknowledge Dr. Albert Mohler of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, that HE was the one and only key leader from the circles involved in Revoice who did grant an interview and comment on it. His answers can be heard at Worldviewradio.com. Russell Moore’s response, other than to deny knowledge of Revoice after at least two people discussed it with him, appears to be lost somewhere in the now empty halls of the Dallas Convention Center.

First, here is the ERLC version in a Christian Post article from June 14^th 2018 for which I was never contacted or interviewed. This article does not have the facts or even the timeline.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/pastor-says-he-was-thrown-out-of-sbc-meeting-for-questioning-erlc-ties-to-revoice-conference-224987/

WHAT IS FALSE IN IT?

*The SBC Executive Committee did not remove me from the SBC convention meetings as the ERLC’s younger press spokesperson claims. This claim is also amazingly echoed, though not confirming my name, by Roger Oldham of the SBC Executive Committee. I have history with Oldham when expressing concerns that then CEO,  Frank Page, of the Executive Committee had joined two radical gay activist organization leaders, Fred Davies of ARCUS Foundation (massive LGBTQ funder) and Harry Knox of the infamous Human Rights Campaign (the nation’s largest LGBTQ equality advocate), on the Obama Faith Based Partnership Board. The White House led group worked to “Find Common Ground for the Common Good” and obtain government grant funding in cooperative partnerships. After months of engaging these concerns, I was then passed down the line by Frank Page to Oldham who made no effort to encourage a course correction from the trajectory Page had helped place the SBC on with Obamas FBP program.

Dallas Issue :The SBC did not speak to me or ask me to “Move along.” I had spoken to Oldham in the presence of Radio journalist, Janet Mefferd, about an hour before and IRONICALLY thanked him for his work with the press and their excellent hospitality which I compared to “Sunday Afternoon after service in a Southern Baptist Church.” This REALLY happened! In Spite of my appreciation and even the opportunity at that point to correct me for any loitering I was allegedly doing in an allegedly restricted area, nothing was said. -I had used the same location where I had found scarce cell service all week yet Oldham said nothing of such an issue just an hour prior. He now claims in the CP article the same completely FALSE, baseless and dishonest version of events which came from Russell Moore’s ERLC in the article. Start asking yourself why and I will try and help you understand it.

NOTE-RUSSELL MOORE’S HISTORY OF FALSE CLAIMS

A 2008 article recounts problems with false accusations and claims of assault made by the current ERLC head Russell Moore when he was finishing his doctorate in 2000 and working for the Baptist Press as a reporter at Baptist events.  https://baptistnews.com/article/daniel-vestal-counters-bp-column-that-said-cbf-not-truly-christian/#.WyWh7qdKjIW

“In 2000, many general assembly attendees accused BP writer Russell Moore of inaccuracies and blatant fabrications in several stories — most notably a report where he claimed that a former missionary attending the meeting physically assaulted him. Moore is now a dean at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.” There are other such reports from this 2000 era work by Moore as a Baptist Press reporter.

TAKE NOTE

So ERLC’s Dr. Russell Moore has a long credibility problem and is known to make false claims about issues, like an assault on his person by an “unnamed Foreign Missionary”.

*Fact: the actual events at the SBC Dallas convention are verified by two conversations with the Dallas Police Department that two uniformed Dallas Police Officers (again I have their names and the multiple call history of the conversations with the Dallas PD and what was reported on the events to the Sgt. assigned to handle the call. I have his direct telephone number. FACT: Dallas Police were lied to and used by a false report from an SBC organization to remove me – NOT the Executive Committee. It is shameful and foolish for the ERLC and the Executive Committee to crawl out on a limb together and not only obligate themselves to maintain and defend their false story but to even imply the Dallas Police Department and its officers present are lying. The other side of reality is, once admitted, that someone in an SBC entity that, in this likelihood, the ERLC has lied to and misled their own security team members on a day when the Vice President of the United States had been in the building at the Dallas Convention Center. Criminal fines and jail time accompany making a false reporting to police.  It may be clear why the need was felt to so drastically alter their version of events and someone in fact really does deserve to be dismissed for misleading the Dallas PD. I do not know how after many years of service Roger Oldham would be so foolish as to expect Me to allow him to confirm the ERLC saying I am lying. This issue will not go away. Why? Because THE TRUTH matters.

FUTHERMORE

*I was NOT in a “restricted area”. I was in the Expo Hall near the Lifeway retail sales area.

*I was not loitering. The only place I had cell service on my old unit was in the center of the of the Expo building. I was there repeatedly all week long doing interviews and making news reports. That was my job for the week at the SBC meeting.

*The two officers of the Dallas PD told me that I had been “reported as having threatened someone,” Again this is in DIRECT contrast to Oldham and the ERLC/ Moore’s press statements in which they say I am making a FALSE claim. The Officers’ names and that of the Dallas PD officer assigned to the complaint was made by Worldview Weekend boss Brannon Howse and by myself within 30 minutes and then an hour after the events took place.

TIMELINE

The simple FACTS: What happened when I was REMOVED from the building on June 13^th 2018 by Two Uniformed Dallas Police Officers on the complaint they received that I threatened someone.

* The exhibitors had started taking down their booths, yet many people were still in and out some were even getting last minute purchases and info from exhibitors. No one that I saw was being restricted from entering the Expo area for any reason. I went in and out several times during this period.

*While on the phone to an editor of mine I saw ERLC employee Brent Leatherwood (seventh down this list of ERLC Staff https://erlc.com/about/staff ) standing in the ERLC booth and glaring at me.

SIDE NOTE about the PREVIOUS DAY : The day before (Tuesday June 12 ) this same staffer, Brent Leatherwood,  had bodily stepped between me and his boss Russell Moore, ERLC Executive Director,  and grabbed my arms saying repeatedly “we are fine, we are fine, we don’t need anything, ” By this time, Moore and I made eye contact and he spoke acknowledging my presence. I asked for comments on the “LGBT+ Christian” Revoice Conference and told him I had broken the story on it a month ago.  Moore said he “had heard about it but did not know much.”  When Moore did not wish to comment in the press about Revoice. I expressed my concern to him as a Southern Baptist and a minister, pointing out the Revoice/ERLC ties, with Karen Swallow Prior, his Research Fellow at ERLC being on the Revoice website promoting the conference and Revoice speaker Branden  Polk, whose Arrowhead Advising LLC is an ERLC consultant/ contractor. I also talked to Moore about the concerns I had over the use of terms like “Queer Christian” and “Queer Theory” and I mentioned the source from which I had heard about Revoice being ERLCs partner Sam Allberry / Living Out ministry which was  promoting Revoice in early May 2018. I spoke with Moore about the Human Rights Campaign activist who I knew from confronting their intentions in my own state which Moore had invited TO his 2014 ERLC conference . I mentioned the HRC staffers by name and what they had done in Alabama to further their pro LGBTQ cause.  Moore, now informed about the basis of the concerns assured me he “would look into Revoice. ” However,  when asked about Revoice the next day by an SBC Messenger, Moore denied knowing about Revoice.

*Back to Wednesday June 13^th in the Expo area – a public access area. About two minutes after seeing Brent Leatherwood glaring at me[,] -two uniformed Dallas Police Department officers, whose names I have, came into my view slightly to the right of the ERLC booth from which Leatherwood had been glaring at me .

Of NOTE

Leatherwood is the former Tennessee GOP employee, a die-hard “Never Trumper, ” like his ERLC Boss. The conservative and Christian voters, leaders and journalists in Nashville and across Tennessee have written MANY articles about the work of Leatherwood in the TN Republican Party. Strong criticism including that he and his group of operatives were using Republican funds to defeat conservative candidates in TN primaries and other activities outlined in Breitbart considered treasonous by many in TN. It is not hard to find but those left with a favorable impression of his time there are much more difficult to locate. Here is just one example :  https://rockytoppolitics.com/2016/12/02/yeah-hire-someone-who-helped-bankrupted-the-party-and-tried-to-screw-trump-that-makes-sense/

The headline reads-

“Brent Leatherwood for State GOP Chairman? Seriously? “One quote says to Leatherwood in his article, “Is it just us, or would any normal, rational, thinking individual who has a fiduciary and political responsibility to spend the state GOP’s money wisely have a big freakin’ problem with the sleazy, disingenuous, inside dealing (nepotism) that you and your staff have engaged in and used our money to do it.”

The writer then concludes, “You will undoubtedly be looking for work if someone besides you gets elected to the chairmanship, but there is not a snowball’s chance in h*** you could get any credible position in the Trump administration.”

*   After Leatherwood lost a bid for Chairmanship of the State Republican Party, he was then hired by Russell Moore into the ERLC as Director of Strategic Partnerships. Once the Dallas Police came up to me, Leatherwood was now out of view. However, he came back to the scene soon as you will see. The two officers approached me as I was still on the phone and said I had to leave the building. I asked if they meant the EXPO building because of the exhibitor breakdown. I showed my press credentials and explained my lack of cell service elsewhere in the building. The Dallas PD officer told me someone had filed a complaint against me. I asked who it was .He would not say who but said they had the right to ask me to leave the building. I asked what the allegations were and he answered “that you threatened someone. Why would you do something like that?” I said, “Why indeed, since I am a Christian, a minister and a Southern Baptist and a member of the press? I threatened no one.” I said I was waiting for the next meetings at 4/4:30 to begin, which were the ERLC annual reports where Russell Moore was speaking. I had stayed an extra day in order to cover that event and report on it. I was then informed by the Officers that this would be a problem because I was being asked to leave the entire building and would not be allowed back during the SBC event.

READ MORE HERE

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Rev. Stephen Black

Pulpit & Pen reported earlier in the day that the Revoice Conference rejected the registration of Peter LaBarbera, a conservative Christian advocate for traditional marriage, Biblical sexuality, and the sanctity of life. We can now report that the Revoice Conference has continued to ban those with a more biblical understanding of human sexuality from attending, and are researching registrants to ensure that none may report negatively on the progressive conference’s undertaking.

We wrote:

In case you’ve yet to hear, the Revoice Conference is an event designed to celebrate “Queer Culture” within the Christian Church, to “de-sin” Same Sex Attraction (SSA), and to move American evangelicals to abandon a traditional, historic and orthodox understanding of human sexuality. Although a conference like this is standard fare among mainline liberal denominations like the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), the Presbyterian Church USA, or the United Methodist Church, embracing and celebrating celibate homosexuality is not typical among more conservative denominations like the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) or the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The Revoice Conference, however, will be hosted by the PCA, is being promoted by Southern Baptists affiliated with the SBC entity, the ERLC (Matt Chandler, Karen Swallow Prior, and many more), is being organized by a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary graduate and former faculty member (Nate Collins) and is even being promoted by a Master’s Seminary graduate (Preston Sprinkle). The conference is seen as a bellwether   for the direction of conservative evangelicalism, or at least the remnant of it that still exists. Members of the Evangelical Intelligentsia who aren’t promoting the conference explicitly are (laughably) claiming they’re unaware of it (as Russell Moore claimed at the annual meeting of the SBC, even though his ERLC research fellows are helping to promote the conference, and its infamy has been reported widely in the media). As Revoice is aiming to make the evangelical church more inclusive to the LGBTQXYZLMNOP lobby, its organizer, Nate Collins, has rejected the registration of conservative Christian advocate, Peter LaBarbera, excluding him from the event.

SBTS graduate and conference president, Nate Collins, is still busy disinviting those who believe that Same Sex Attraction (SSA) is a sin and can and should be purified from the believer by sanctification in Christ. Adding to the blacklist is now prominent ex-homosexual and now-Christian convert, Stephen Black.

Black revealed today via social media that he also received an email very similar to that of LaBarbera, pictured below.

What about Black was so objectionable?

Black is a former homosexual who has found ultimate freedom from that sin by conversion to Jesus Christ and subsequent sanctification by the Holy Spirit. He wrote the book, Freedom Realized: Finding Freedom from Homosexuality & Living a Life Free from Labels. 

Black is living proof that by the power of the Gospel, the homosexual can be set from from Same Sex Attraction (SSA). However, the purpose of the Revoice conference is to normalize SSA, to “de-sin” it (ostensibly, so long as it is celibate), and to even celebrate “queer culture.” One would think that Black would be able to provide exactly the type of dialogue that is needed in this important debate within the visible church. However, the very Gospel itself seems to be persona non grata at the Revoice Conference.

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The “Latte Mafia” (credit to Thomas Littleton for the term) of the Evangelical Intelligentsia – those elites who I have defined here – have found the recent immigration policy debate an opportune time to signal their virtue. The contrived non-crisis (the common sense policy of not incarcerating children with their criminal parents is decades-old) has provided an opportunity to yet again lobby against the rule of law, and by extension, the concept of national sovereign borders (you know, like God gave Israel). This is best explained by the money trail directly from George Soros’ Open Societies Foundation and Evangelical Immigration Table to Russell Moore, and from Clinton financier, James Riady, to Southern Seminary.

The commentary provided below is taken from Dr. Robert Gagnon’s Facebook page, and we feel he’s on the mark. We’ve written previously about the latest dust-up regarding evangelical complaints toward Attorney General Jeff Session’s citation of Romans 13 here and here.

ROBERT GAGNON

Robert Gagnon

Just like Dr. Russell Moore, Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (for whom I have great respect), has (I believe, and with all due respect) misunderstood and unfairly characterized AG Jeff Sessions’ application of Rom 13:1-7. As I said with regard to Dr. Moore, Sessions was not using Romans 13:1-7 to claim that all the laws of a given country are by definition always good and must always be obeyed. That would be an idiotic position that no Christian of Sessions’ intelligence could possibly believe. It is also not substantiated by Sessions’ appeal in context.

Of course, there are instances in Scripture where government edicts are disobeyed (see the Book of Daniel, the Book of Revelation, Acts 4-5), though only in cases impinging directly on the worship of God and Christ, the proclamation of the gospel, or central moral imperatives. Of course, Christians can and should work to improve our laws within our republican system of government. Sessions wasn’t denying any of that.

Rather, Sessions first made the case that US immigration laws are on the whole just, fair, and generous. As Sessions noted, “we allow in 1.1 million legal immigrants on a path to citizenship every year. Another 700,000 come here explicitly for jobs. Another half a million come here to attend our universities and colleges.” Opposition to *illegal* immigration is not an anti-immigrant position. Therefore these laws should be upheld and those who do violate them by entering the country illegally violate Paul’s injunction in Romans 13:1-7.

Is Dr. Mohler arguing that Paul himself would have contended that Christians should enter a country illegally when that country already had a generous immigration policy in place? And, worse, put children in danger by using them as a “get out of detention and deportation free card”? Surely not. Hence, per Romans 13:1-7, Christians seeking asylum in the US must follow legal channels.

In addition, although Dr. Mohler severely criticized the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration, he did not offer any solution. Whatever solution is adopted *by Congress* (for this is really the responsibility of Congress) cannot send the message that if you cross the border into the US illegally, with children, you will get to stay in the US. Such a message would encourage larger numbers of families with children to enter the US illegally, thereby putting greater numbers of children at risk, not only of short-term separation from parents but also, worse, of attack and abuse by criminal elements in zones between legal ports of entry.

Dr. Mohler seems to reject a salutary deterrent effect of a zero-tolerance policy but the stats do not support that conclusion. Obama’s lax or non-existent enforcement of immigration law has created an enormous influx of illegal immigration by families with children (a five-fold increase in five years). It is going to take a while before the message of zero tolerance gets sent across the border, a message that can only be sent after the government demonstrates repeatedly its determination to prosecute and deport all violators who are caught crossing the border illegally. Once the message is sent, it will drastically reduce the influx of illegal immigration. Giving up now on the detention of adults who violate the law will send the wrong message that immigration laws will continue to be applied laxly or not at all, which will only increase the unlawful immigration of adults with children with all its attendant risks.

One solution would be to allow children to stay with parents in detention centers for longer periods of time; in effect, extended incarceration of children. Is this advisable? As it is, if the parent(s) who have violated the law do not appeal thereafter for asylum, their case (according to Sessions) can be handled in a week or two, reuniting the family to be sent back across the border to apply for legal entry like everyone else. There are legal ways to apply for asylum that do not result in the separation of parents and children. All lawbreakers, including all American citizens, run the risk of some period of family separation during a time of detention or custody, even if only for a brief time. Eight percent of children placed in foster care in 2016 (21,000 children) resulted from parental incarceration (not limited to immigration detention). Why is there no protest over that? Is it because we do not believe that immigration law needs to be taken seriously?

Dr. Mohler’s piece does strive for balance between lawless Democratic policy and allegedly “brutal” Republican policy by the Trump administration (Dr. Mohler was a Never-Trumper in the last election, though minus the harshness of Dr. Moore toward those who saw things differently). He’s not for “open borders.” I commend him for that. However, I think in his effort to be balanced he has misrepresented to some degree Sessions and the zero-tolerance policy. Balance doesn’t require that Democrats and Republicans be viewed as equally wrong on every issue (and here he seems a bit more critical of the Trump administration). He has also criticized the policy without offering a solution. While that allows one to come across more favorably and compassionately to the political Left and even many fellow Evangelicals, it doesn’t deal with the hard short-term decisions that may have to be made in order to achieve effective long-term results.

[Editor: Jordan Hall]
[Editor’s  Note: You can read Gagnon’s comments on this subject on his FB page here]

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The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans:

“So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.'”
Romans 1:15-17

The Qur’an affirms that the certain parts of the Bible (the Torah, the Psalms, and the gospels) are from God.  However, Muslims are taught that the biblical texts have been corrupted.  Thus, they see a need for the Qur’an and the Jesus it portrays,  a “different” Jesus. Within the pages of the Qur’an this Jesus is referred to by his Arabic name, “Isa.” The Qur’an describes Isa as without fault, able to heal the sick, and able to deliver the afflicted from demonic possession.   It even teaches that Isa is alive in paradise. Some Christian missionaries are unwisely building their gospel witness upon what the Qur’an teaches about Isa (the false Jesus of the Koran) and using that as a tool to start conversations with Muslims.  For some, Muslims need only to be taught that Isa is Jesus and that there is more to him than what’s written in the Qu’ran.  This a dangerous tactic; by building upon the foundation of a false Jesus, these missionaries risk creating false converts.

It is a grave concern, therefore, that, International Mission Board President David Platt, reported to the messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention the testimony of a Muslim couple who had converted to Christianity via the assistance of a dream of “Isa” prior to their conversion.  Such dreams and visions of “Isa” are nothing new.  In October 2007, the blog, Catherine of Siena Institute, published the article Muslim Conversions to Christianity” written by Michael Fones. In the article, Fones answers the question, “Why Roman Catholics were not participating in a meeting on evangelization of Muslims.”  To answer that question, Fones reprinted the majority of an article written by J. Dudley Woodbury, “professor of Islamic studies at the School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California, who served in the Muslim world for many years,” that had been posted online in Christianity Today.  What’s interesting about Fones article is not that it’s written by a Catholic. Roman Catholicism has practiced mysticism for hundreds of years. No, the most interesting is what compelled J. Dudley Woodbury to write his article.   What were Woodbury’s conclusions, and why is David Platt, current President of the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) perpetuating these fantastic stories?

Between the years 1997 and 2007 Fuller Theological Seminary gave 750 Muslims a comprehensive questionnaire intending to find out what had compelled them to “convert” to Christianity.  J. Dudley Woodberry’s conclusions, as Michael Fone’s explains on his blog “demonstrates” the variety of ways that Muslims “are drawn to Christ” and “it provides a glimpse into some of the key means the Spirit of God is using to open Muslim hearts to the gospel.”

1. Seeing the faith:

“First, we can look at the experiences that most influenced Muslims. For example, respondents ranked the lifestyle of Christians as the most important influence in their decision to follow Christ. A North African former Sufi mystic noted with approval that there was no gap between the moral profession and the practice of Christians he saw. An Egyptian contrasted the love of a Christian group at an American university with the unloving treatment of Muslim students and faculty he encountered at a university in Medina. An Omani woman explained that Christians treat women as equals. Others noted loving Christian marriages. Some poor people said the expatriate Christian workers they knew had adopted, contrary to their expectations, a simple lifestyle, wearing local clothes and observing local customs of not eating pork, drinking alcohol, or touching those of the opposite sex.”

2. The power of God in answered prayers and healing:

“Like most of the factors that former Muslims list, experiences of God’s supernatural intervention often increase after Muslims decide to follow Christ.
In North Africa, Muslim neighbors asked Christians to pray for a very sick daughter who then was healed. In Senegal, a Muslim marabout (spiritual leader) referred a patient to Christians when he was not able to bring healing. In Pakistan, after a pilgrimage to Mecca did not cure a disabled Shiite girl, she was healed following Christian prayer.”

3. Deliverance from demonic power:

“In northern Nigeria, a malam (what some might call a witchdoctor) used sorcery against a man who was considering following Jesus. The seeker became insane, and his extended family left him. But then he prayed that Christ would free him, and he was healed.”

It helps to note that a third of the 750-person sample consisted of folk Muslims, with a characteristic concern for power and blessings. It is also worth noting that the Jesus portrayed in the Qur’an is a prophet who heals lepers and the blind and raises the dead. Not surprisingly, many Muslims find him attractive. Of course, power and blessings do not constitute the final word for Muslims. The Bible also offers a theology of suffering, and many Muslims who follow Christ find that their faith is strengthened through trials.”

4. Dissatisfaction with the type of Islam they had experienced:

“They expressed unhappiness with the Qur’an, which they perceive as emphasizing God’s punishment more than his love (although the Qur’an says he loves those who love him [3:31]). As for Islam’s requirement that liturgical prayer should be in Arabic, a Javanese man asked, “Doesn’t an all-knowing God know Indonesian?” Others criticized folk Islam’s use of amulets and praying at the graves of dead saints.”

Some respondents decried Islamic militancy and the imposition of Islamic law, which they said is not able to transform hearts and society. This disillusionment is broad in the Muslim world.”

5. Spiritual truth in the Bible:

“Next in attraction for Muslims is the spiritual truth in the Bible. The Qur’an attests that the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel (commonly understood as the New Testament) are from God. Even though Muslims are generally taught that these writings became corrupted, they often find them compelling reading and discover truth that they conclude must be from God. The Bible helped one Egyptian understand “the true character of God.” The Sermon on the Mount helped convince a Lebanese Muslim that he should follow the one who taught and exemplified these values.”

6. Subconscious influences:

“For the most part, respondents did not say that political or economic circumstances influenced their decisions. But it’s hard not to notice that Iranians, Pakistanis, Afghans, Bangladeshis, and Algerians became more responsive after enduring Muslim political turmoil or attempts to impose Islamic law. Christian relief and development agencies try hard to guard against spiritually misusing their position as providers of desperately needed goods and services. But natural disasters in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Sahel region inevitably put Muslims in contact with Christians trying to follow Jesus. It is no surprise that some of these Muslims also choose to follow Christ.

The magical, mystical, desire to live “like Christians, false notions of how prayer was answered, healings, deliverance from demons, answer to disillusionment with Islam, “scriptural” truths, and/or influenced by vain imaginations does not “convert” anyone to Christ. Salvation does not come by any means possible. In God’s great love, he declared his love through the offering of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the God-man. The Son of God, Jesus Christ bore the full weight of the Wrath of God.  Those who repent of their sins and place their faith in Christ receive the imputed righteousness of Christ.

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Here are the facts regarding the endless virtue signaling of evangelicals in relationship to the current (and manufactured) immigration “crisis” regarding children being separated from parents. First, people who invade our country illegally should be detained until they can be tried and dealt with according to the law. Second, we do not want to incarcerate children with their criminal parents; to do so would be a grievous betrayal of justice. Therefore, third, we separate children from their incarcerated parents until they can be retrieved by family members or “sponsors” within the United States. Fourth, this has been the policy for decades but has only become controversial in recent days, primarily as a political maneuver designed to attack the President of the United States, who is not responsible for the policy and neither can he change it (it is the purview of Congress). Fifth, the only real alternative is to not enforce immigration law, effectively dismantling our sovereign national borders and abandoning the rule of law. Sixth, evangelicals of all stripes are among the regiment now known as “woke” Social Justice Warriors, decrying a common sense program that best ensures the rule of law while preserving basic human rights (like not incarcerating innocent children with their criminal parents). Seventh, these facts-deaf and low-information wave of evangelical cultural commentators are being led by globalist billionaire financier, George Soros, whose Open Societies Foundation is funding the work of Russell Moore on the Evangelical Immigration Table, a well-documented Soros front-group. Eighth, new SBC president, JD Greear, is poised to serve out his term in full alliance with the leftist forces that have commandeered the Neo-Evangelical agenda, which have indistinguishable talking points from the American political left.

[Editor’s Note: For the sake of the record, I endorsed Ted Cruz for President of the United States and was – during the electoral process – a “Never Trumper.” I did not vote for Donald J. Trump for president on the grounds that he is a highly immoral man with what I believe is a provenly poor character; of this I am still convinced. I also believed that Trump did not hold any real ideology and would not govern based upon conservative political philosophy or principles; of this I am less convinced than I once was. However, I have repeatedly referred to Trump in terms of being “lost” and a “pagan” (in the textbook definition of the term). So, if anyone wants to prejudge the content of this article with a presupposed pro-POTUS bias on my part, they are ill-informed.]

The Other #MeToo Movement

With the grave revelations surrounding Harvey Weinstein and other prominent celebrity men making the national press, a highly coordinated movement developed in social media known as the #MeToo movement, in which women who were victimized by men would tell their story, identify themselves with victimhood and tweet their account with the hashtag, #MeToo. The movement itself, although not without broad cultural consequence, is also not without rightful criticism. While countless women (since time immemorial) have been the victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by men and while society should have a zero-tolerance policy regarding the mistreatment of women (as this ministry has taken toward adulterers and scoundrels like Greg Locke, Clayton Jennings, Sovereign Grace Ministries, Darrell Gilyard and many others), and while women should tell their stories and seek justice through the proper legal channels, #MeToo went off the rails almost as soon as it began. Hollywood celebrities championed #MeToo, even while acknowledging they were well aware of the plight of women in Hollywood for decades but had remained utterly silent. With victimhood in vogue, many women joined #MeToo with tales about regretting their own voluntary promiscuity, drowning out the voice of the real victims of sexual assault. In the frothing, fanatical #MeToo mob mentality, a “guilty until proven innocent” ethos developed, which is sure to lead to many miscarriages of justice. Now, a number of high-profile men have been accused of vague and unsubstantiated (and eventually disproven) claims that have had even the most ardent feminists and victims’ advocates lamenting what #MeToo has become. Sadly, the greatest negative consequence of #MeToo is that because it was commandeered by those with a shameless political agenda, many victims of real abuse will be overlooked in a sea of contrived victimology.

However, there is another #MeToo movement out there. It is the #MeToo Movement of the Southern Baptist Convention and broader “woke” evangelicalism. The agenda of Social Justice Warriors who have infiltrated America’s conservative denominations throughout Spring of 2018 has been lockstep – let me be clear, it has been identical – with the agenda of the American political left. While many lament an “American Christianity” tied to the Republican Party, those crying in sackcloth and ashes when the evangelical and (credibly) professing Christian VP of the United States spoke at the Southern Baptist Convention, the reality is that the woke evangelical movement driven by Soros and Riady cash infusions to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and The Gospel Coalition (TGC) are even more inextricably tied to the political left. Whatever the agenda of leftist-progressives has been the exact same agenda has been of these evangelicals. Consider examples below.

In the Spring of 2018, first there was the veneration of Dr. Martin Luther King (who treated women as deplorably as Donald Trump) at TGC and ERLC event, MLK50. Following on the heels of MLK50 was the race-fixated Together for the Gospel (T4G) conference, which similarly promoted ideas steeped in Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and Cultural Marxism. With a slight Jesusy vibe to make the political philosophy seem uniquely Christian (it is not), these events served to advance the discussion of reparations, collective guilt, and identity politics. When TGC announced a women’s event in which white women were explicitly barred from attending (apparently judged by the color of their skin and not the content of their character), Thabiti Anyabwile and other Black Nationalists in the movement claimed that criticism had led to “hate-speech” toward TGC and the FBI was investigating (P&P has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see if the claim is true, but it is highly improbable, if not asinine). An ecclesiastical Affirmative Action was explicitly promoted by almost all involved as the solution to these problems. The movement led to exactly what Cultural Marxism is designed to do, which is to cause disharmony. It ended with prominent evangelical thought leaders accusing other prominent evangelical thought leaders of being “racist” for daring to take exception with claims of systemic institutional racism in the church or denying their assertion that one man is guilty for the sins of any other man not named “Adam.”

Second, springboarding off of the MLK veneration conference came a full-scale blitzkrieg of egalitarianism, perpetrated by these very same Social Justice Warriors. Beth Moore was demanding apologies and Ron Burns (Thabiti Anyabwile’s real name) apologized on behalf of men everywhere. Soon, there were real and serious discussions of nominating Beth Moore for president of the SBC after Greear’s terms expire. Any question regarding whether a female should be in leadership authority over the nation’s largest Protestant denomination was derided as sexist. Drawing parallels to Deborah and Esther (who served in magisterial and not ecclesiastical office) were made in blogs across the country, redefining Complementarianism completely, leaving room for women at the “top positions” of leadership (as JD Greear himself argued). The accusations of misogyny against Paige Patterson – led by a clearly limp-wristed bundle of sticks, Jonathan Merritt, and renown leftist, Karen Swallow Prior – only heightened the dopamine highs of the “latte mafia” of evangelicalism, upon signaling their egalitarian, bleeding-heart feminist virtue. It became cool to push the boundaries of what it means to be Complementarian, while others who flatly reject Complementarianism altogether (like Karen Swallow Prior) were elevated to even higher esteem in the Downgrade toboggan going downhill at breakneck speed.

In the third volley of leftist-driven evangelical social justice during the Spring of 2018 came the issue of Revoice, a pro-queer “Christian” conference hosted by a PCA church and organized and promoted by Baptists who graduated Master’s Seminary and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS). Designed to “de-sin” Same Sex Attaction” (SSA) altogther, which has been a goal of the ERLC and TGC for several years, the conference has drawn criticism from many conservative voices, but typically not conservative voices in the upper echelon of prominence. ERLC employee and scandalized former political knee-breaker, Brent Leatherwood, accosted media member, Thomas Littleton, and then filed a false complaint against him and had him forcibly removed by the Dallas Police Department from the SBC annual meeting (Littleton’s “crime” was asking Russell Moore about Revoice). Promoted by Karen Swallow Prior, Matt Chandler, and other ERLC research fellows, the conference is poised to normalize homosexual thoughts and desires. In recent days, as Pulpit & Pen has reported, numerous conservative Christians and at least one ex-gay Christian were banned from attending the conference altogether.

But the fourth and final #MeToo movement in evangelicalism during the Spring of 2018 is the immigration uproar. It has been well-established that Russell Moore is on the financial take of George Soros, working for his Evangelical Immigration Table. We have written before about Russell Moore repeatedly attacking the idea of national sovereignty, calling border walls “a golden calf” and demanding amnesty for illegal aliens. With the Soros-funded agenda of Moore, the latte mafia is busy decrying a not-so-new policy of not incarcerating immigrant children with their parents. Capitalizing on statements made by AG Jeff Sessions in regards to Romans 13 and the rule of law, Albert Mohler, Russell Moore and others have run to the microphone (literal or metaphoric) to decry the public servant in a blatant appeal to emotion.

The Facts Regarding Immigration Policy

1. The current policy of separating children from their criminal parents who chose to not seek asylum but rather invade the border through a non-checkpoint is due to a decision made by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (the most famously liberal appellate court in the nation), called the Flores Consent Decree. It mandated that children can be detained with their invading parents for only a very short period of time. There has been zero change to the law under the Trump Administration. The only thing different between administrations is that Trump is enforcing immigration law more robustly than Obama (guarding the borders more closely and prosecuting offenders more consistently), but Obama literally was under legal obligation to submit to the same policy. The only “choice” Trump has is to ignore the law. Any Christian advocating for that is asking for tyranny.

2. Without wanting to detain children with their parents in adult detention facilities (a real human rights violation), the only option is that they be cared for in the exact same way as American children who are separated by the poor decision making of their parents, and that is by the Department of Health and Human Services. It is not an ideal situation for children; neither is being snuck across the Arizona-Mexico border by a human trafficker. However, parents are usually processed rather quickly and sentenced to time-served, retrieving their children (who’ve been cared and provided for, often with tax-payer medical attention if necessary) and going back home.

3. There are three options. First, adults can be detained in a children’s facility (that is dangerous for children). Secondly, children can be detained with their parents in an adult facility (that is also dangerous for children). Third, border laws can just not be enforced (that is dangerous for everyone).

4. Anyone seeking asylum at a border checkpoint is not being separated from their children;  only those entering illegally are being separated from their children.

What Does God’s Word Say About Border Sovereignty and the Rule of Law?

Jeff Sessions was right in his citation of Romans 13, and he used the verse properly in context. He would have been equally as justified should he have cited 1 Peter 2. Both passages clearly explain our role in relation to the Civil Magistrate. The government exists to punish the wicked and reward the good. It carries the sword (of punishment) for a reason. We are to submit to those governing authorities so long as it does not require us to rebel against God.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.² Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. (Romans 13:1-2).

Also…

¹³ Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, ¹⁴ or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. ¹⁵ For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. ¹⁶ Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. ¹⁷ Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor (1 Peter 2:13-17).

A systematic theology of Civil Governance would reveal times when the Magistrate must be disobeyed in order to keep the laws of God. These include Daniel’s refusal to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s image (Daniel 3:8-27) and Peter and John’s refusal to stop preaching (Acts 4:19). Clearly, neither Sessions nor any other Christian should argue that there are never times to disobey a Civil authority. The point of Sessions is that God demands people obey the laws of the government.

Likewise, as I pointed out in my sermon just a few weeks ago, our chief ruling authority is not a flesh-and-blood emperor, but in American government (and Western Civilization in general) our authority is the rule of law under the Social Compact Theory of government. All laws, but especially that ultimate earthly authority, the Constitution, must be obeyed unless it requires violating God’s laws. When evangelicals like Albert Mohler, Russell Moore, Karen Swallow Prior, or JD Greear demand that Donald Trump not operate by the rule of law, they are asking that Trump (or those who work for him, like AG Sessions) sin. It is wicked to demand someone sin. Furthermore, if you care about religious liberty, which should be nearest and dearest to our hearts as believers, you must not set a precedent of encouraging the Magistrate to simply ignore the ruling authority of the law.

So then, the question is whether it is justified to ignore the law – our emperor – in the case of immigation law. Consider the tweet from JD Greear.

Greear, of course, does not believe the quotation he cites. Greear doesn’t believe it is “wicked” to keep children out of prisons. When parents are arrested every single day in the United States and sent to county jails and ultimately to state or federal penitentiaries, they are sent without their families because we are not a barbaric society that punishes children for the sins of their parents. The only way it would be “wicked” to separate families in relation to the border situation is if invading a country illegally is not a crime and if illegal immigrants are criminals. However, the rule of law says that to invade a country by sneaking into its unprotected border is a crime, and to do so makes you a criminal. Then, the law sets aside a process to detain that criminal and put them through the due process of law. What Greear seems to want is to act as though the rule of law can simply be ignored or to act as though breaking into a country illegally is not a crime.

Here are a few inconvenient facts for those who act as though it is a moral obligation to defy U.S. immigration law.

1. God invented the nation-state and Citizenship. That’s right, it was God that invented the “nation-state” as the children of Israel came out of Egypt with a concept of social construct not tied exclusively to kinship or geography. While it is true that the three building blocks of a nation are (A) borders (B) culture and (C) language, the development of Hebrew identity as a nation came about in an interesting vacuum in which they did not have a border or a geographical anchor. Historical anthropologists recognize that the Old Testament Israelite nation may very well be the first people group in the world to form a “nation” not tied directly or exclusively to kinship and geography, but instead was a social Covenant between Yahweh and his people. The idea of nation via compact was born. Israel was Israel even outside the Promised Land, because Israel had a Covenant with Yahweh. Those obeying that Covenant were seen as Israelites and those disobeying it were seen as Gentiles, and the concept of “Citizenship” was born. This proto-Citizenship in the historical record is demonstrated in the clear delineation of how Israelites were to be treated under Sinaitic civil codes given by God through Moses and how non-Israelites were to be treated. While aliens and sojourners were to be treated well, Old Testament laws make it very clear that Citizens of Israel were unique and were to be treated with different privileges than those not of Israel. This is seen even in the “Courtyard of the Gentiles” constructed outside of the Temple. It took more to become an Israelite than to simply sojourn in the land. Citizenship requires adherence to the Covenant, and formal admission into the body politic by a special rite.

2. God invented national sovereign borders. God himself gave the boundaries for the nation of Israel in Genesis 15:18 and in Genesis 17:8. In this, God ensured that the nation-state of Israel had applied to it the first and most important aspect of its existence; borders. Encroachments upon these boundaries were to be met with hostility. God commanded the Israelites to protect their borders and boundaries, and they were given total and unilateral control of those boundaries. Rather than causing conflict with neighboring nations, the borders clearly delineated property lines, defusing potential conflicts and better enabling the Israelites to govern their affairs in accordance with their Covenant with Yahweh.

3. God invented the border wall. There is an entire book of the Bible devoted to the building of a border wall. Nehemiah 1:1-7:3 explains God commanding the construction of a wall around Jerusalem to protect its strategic interests and prevent foreign invasion. There is nothing unethical, unbiblical, or sinful, about protecting national sovereign borders. And by the way, that border wall was well-armed.

When the United States lets in more than one million immigrants a year to attain Citizenship and nearly that many more to work and attend our educational institutions, it clearly does not exhibit institutionalized bigotry toward the foreigner. A nation that lets in two million foreigners a year does not suffer from xenophobia. That is not systemic racism; it is systemic kindness. That the United States has border crossings where anyone can seek legal asylum through an open and forthright and generous asylum policy, it makes it all the more criminal to instead choose to sneak across the border criminally. That parents aren’t separated from their children by death as America protects its sovereign borders by force (which is its right) is a testimony of America’s shining generosity. Any other nation in virtually any other part of the world would fire upon those invading their sovereign borders. Instead, America applies the rule of law while feeding them, clothing them, providing them due process, and putting them in a detained “time-out” until they can be returned to their home of origin.

And that’s called Christian charity.

[Contributed by JD Hall: By the way, the only possible solution that allows the rule of law to be followed while not separating children from parents would require the construction of camps with FEMA-type family housing, behind lock-and-key, in which community services like medical care and education would be offered until at such time the individuals could receive further legal scrutiny and either cleared for entrance or sent back to their country of origin. In other words, it would an awful like a Japanese internment camp. I’m not recommending it, I’m just saying, “Good luck with that.”]

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions quoted Paul in his defense of enforcing laws and consequences. Hillary Clinton quoted Jesus to support the violation of laws and repudiation of consequences. Albert Mohler, Russell Moore, and the United Methodist Church all have one thing in common. They all ignored Clinton’s butchering of Matthew 19:14 (as though “suffer not the little children” has anything to do with immigration policy) and instead all chose to rebuff Session’s use of Romans 13 (even though it’s perfectly applicable to immigration law). Most absurdly, Sessions may face “discipline charges” from the United Methodist Church. This may denote the first time in…well, ever, that the United Methodist Church has seen someone’s supposed sin rise to the level of discipline.

OPEN MINDS. OPEN HEARTS. OPEN BORDERS?

More than 600 United Methodists have signed a petition asking the church to discipline Sessions for enforcing United States Immigration Law passed by the U.S. Congress and interpreted by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. That law requires United States border patrol to separate children from their criminal parents, in the event their illicit actions require detainment and due process. The accusation against Sessions was made to pastors of Sessions’ home church in Mobile, Alabama, and his attending church in Arlington, Virginia, both of which belong to the United Methodist denomination.

Quoting Paragraph 2702.3 of the 2016 United Methodist Book of Discipline, the complaint accuses Sessions of child abuse, immorality, racial discrimination, and dissemination of doctrines contrary to those of the UMC. You can read the formal complaints of these UMC clergy-members and laypeople here.

It reads:

While other individuals and areas of the federal government are implicated in each of these examples, Mr. Sessions – as a long-term United Methodist in a tremendously powerful, public position – is particularly accountable to us, his church. He is ours, and we are his. As his denomination, we have an ethical obligation to speak boldly when one of our members is engaged in causing significant harm in matters contrary to the Discipline on the global stage. Several Bishops and other denominational leaders have spoken out about this matter, urging Methodists to contact Mr. Sessions and for these policies to change, but we believe that the severity of his actions and the harm he is causing to immigrants, migrants, refugees, and asylees calls for his church to step into a process to directly engage with him as a part of our community

In the meantime, Democratic presidential candidate, former United States Senator, and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has enjoyed a lifelong relationship with the United Methodist Church and has received no such charges of church discipline for genocide, infanticide, gratuitous bearing false witness, or any other reasonable complaint regarding her personal behavior and her crimes against humanity and the unborn.

In fact, discipline in the United Methodist Church on account of sin is almost unheard of.

I attended a United Methodist Church in Helena, Montana on Saturday. It was an “anointing ceremony” for the Big Sky Pride Parade, and included several homosexual ministers. The following is a video of a transvestite leading the congregation in a communion hymn (as performed by the Sidewalk Prophets, called, “Come to the Table”) with the words changed from, “Come join the sinners who have been redeemed” to “Come join the lovers who do not judge.”

It’s safe to say that no discipline charges will be brought against this United Methodist church or any other for such gross departures from Christian orthodoxy.

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Shawn Bolz is a leader associated with the notorious cult, Bethel ‘Church,’ in Redding, California. In the latest video of Bolz promoted by flagship charismatic media outlet, Charisma News, he claims that any prophecy of judgment is not from God. Bolz’ reasoning is that no prophecy of impending judgment can be true because all the wrath of God for humanity has already been poured out on Christ. You can watch the video below, with brief commentary to follow.

In a sense (and only one sense) is Bolz right. No new prophecy today is from God, because Hebrews 1:1-2 teaches that God spoke to us through prophets previously, but now speaks through his Word. However, that’s not what Bolz means. What he is arguing is that only negative prophecy, or that prophecy relating to God’s judgment against man, is false. Only good prophecy of hope, sunshine, blessings and skittles is from God, apparently.

The reason for Bolz’ claim that no prophecy of judgment is from God is well off-the-mark. Jesus Christ propitiated the wrath of God on behalf of those who would believe in Christ. Jesus did not die for the sins of every individual, but only for those who would believe in Jesus Christ and be given eternal life. The rest of the world is most definitely under the wrath and judgment of God.

Concerning his claim that all prophecies of coming judgment after Jesus are false, we leave you the words from the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John the Disciple:

And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. ¹² I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. ¹⁴ Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. ¹⁵ And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-14)

We can assure you, that judgment prophecy is from God. For more on Shawn Bolz, click here.

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It’s not easy going through life being stupid. You know, unable to reason, cognitively ill-prepared to weigh facts and evidence, intellectually aloof, cerebrally challenged…you get it. It’s especially hard to operate with a brain almost entirely programmed by the gods of this age while convincing others that you’re smart. And yet, that is exactly what the Evangelical Intelligentsia have done. It might be their penchant for bowties or maybe it’s the hornrimmed glasses, but for whatever reason, they seem to have the ability to say demonstrably asinine – and even untrue – things without being called out on the carpet for it. And here’s the thing, the latte mafia of evangelicalism is entitled to hold whatever opinion Russell Moore and Rachel Maddow want to give them. They’re entitled to scrub themselves down with exfoliation moisturizers and lather their face in beard balm. They can let their fists fly as limply as possible and tailor their suits as skinny as they want. But what they cannot do – because the rules of logic apply to them – is say things that are demonstrably and factually untrue and expect to get away with it.

They can expect their fellow fraternity of low-information twitter followers to back-slap them from their Starbucks office at the corner table. But they can’t change facts. Their little post-modern brains don’t understand that. I saw something yesterday that exemplifies the gross intellectual dishonesty with which the “woke” social justice contingent of evangelicalism live their lives.

Jacob Denhollander, husband of the brave and articulate Jen Denhollander (who we have never said anything but positive things about it, even and especially in her criticism of Sovereign Grace Ministries), has apparently traded the wonderful, clear, and articulate Gospel spoken by Jen in court and traded it for the Social Gospel (which is the same exact thing as Social Justice, and that’s what we called it five years ago). When you replace a Gospel in which our victory is in Jesus with a Gospel that perpetuates our identity exclusively in victimhood, you lose the Gospel altogether. And Jacob Denhollander’s tweet yesterday was not only teeming with unbridled stupidity and factual unawareness, it may indicate that the latte mafia’s love for their current Social Justice bandwagon may be melting their brains, making them unable to properly understand what the Gospel is at all.

This was RT’d by Justin Taylor, which ought to know better. This is what initially got our attention.

The 9Marks and ERLC fanboys were beside themselves in disgust that the VP of the United States – who by all accounts is a professing Christian believer in right standing with the church – addressed the Southern Baptist Convention. This was supposed to be a totally woke meeting, a new and improved Southern Baptist Convention, and Identity Politics, Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and Cultural Marxism were on the menu. Pence ruined the narrative. The latte mafia’s allies in the WaPo and other press outlets would not be impressed. And so, proving that lemmings always run in groups, those sharing the collective brain of the Social Justice Borg all similarly act as though Pence’s presence at the SBC signaled the impending apocalypse.

Russ Moore was a Democratic staffer and is a globalist who takes cash from George Soros and James Riady, chiefly focusing his energy on dismantling American sovereignty by arguing against immigration law and border security. He invited two non-Christian Roman Catholics along (Rubio and Jeb Bush) and Hillary Rodham Clinton to address the SBC in 2015, without a single fanboy flailing his bent wrist about in the air or getting the vapors on their fainting couch. Dwight Marxissic and Thabiti Anyabwile, two Black Nationalists who have become token representatives of the soft bigotry of lowered expectations, both endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. For this Democratic wing of the Southern Baptist Convention, Pence speaking is the end of the world. I get it. But at the risk of repeating myself, that doesn’t mean that Jacob Denhollander (or anyone else) gets to say stupid and provenly false things.

Denhollander’s claim is clear: Chris Pratt’s speech at the MTV Awards was clearer than Mike Pence’s speech at the SBC. 

Great. Let’s compare them, because I have the transcript for both. What is in bold was done so by me, so you don’t waste your time looking for the Gospel-pertinent sections of each speech.

CHRIS PRATT AT MTV AWARDS

We didn’t have a pot to piss in growing up, but we laughed our butts off every day—we still do. And a special mention to my son Jack, who will watch this one day. Kid, I love you. I love you more than anything in the world.

And to the fans, I wouldn’t be here without you.

This being the Generation Award, I’m going to cut to the chase and I’m going to speak to you—the next generation. I accept the responsibility as your elder, so listen up. This is what I call ‘9 Rules from Chris Pratt: Generation Award Winner.’

Number one: Breathe. If you don’t you’ll suffocate.

Number two: You have a soul. Be careful with it.

Number three: Don’t be a turd. If you’re strong, be a protector and if you’re smart be a humble influencer. Strength and intelligence can be weapons, and do not wield them against the weak. That makes you a bully. Be bigger than that.

Number four: When giving a dog medicine, put the medicine in a little piece of hamburger and they won’t even know they’re eating medicine.

Number five: Doesn’t matter what it is, earn it. Reach out to someone in pain. Be of service, it feels good and it’s good for your soul.

Number six: God is real. God loves you. God wants the best for you. Believe that. I do.

Number seven: If you have to poop at a party, or you’re embarrassed because you’re going to stink up the bathroom, just do what I do: lock the door, sit down, get all the pee out first. And then, when all the pee’s done, poop, flush. Boom. You minimize the amount of time the poop is touching the air, because if you poop first it takes you longer to pee then you’re peeing on top of it and the poop particles create a cloud that goes out and then everyone at the party will know that you pooped. Just trust me! It’s science.

Number eight: Learn to pray. It’s easy and it’s so good for your soul.

And finally, number nine: Nobody is perfect. People are going to tell you you’re perfect just the way you are—you’re not! You are imperfect. You always will be. But, there is a powerful force that designed you that way. And if you’re willing to accept that, you will have grace. And grace is a gift. And like the freedom we enjoy in this country that grace was paid for with someone else’s blood. Do not forget it. Do not take it for granted.

God bless you.

Absolutely brilliant Gospel presentation, right? Oh, so clear. Give him a writing gig for The Gospel Coalition (Pratt will make about as much sense as Sho Baraka, who is the profane, dope-smoking rapper who posted an article there this morning). Sarcasm aside, if Denhollander (or anyone else) thinks that “God is real, God loves you, God wants the best for you” is the Gospel (not a clear Gospel, but any kind of Gospel), you need to go back to Sunday School and this time I would avoid the one back at the Unitarian-Universalist church.

VP PENCE AT THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION

Below is Pence’s speech at the SBC.

Thank you, Dr. Gaines. Thank you for that kind introduction. I too remember that night, and I appreciated your ministry that evening as well. Your kind words of introduction mean a great deal to me, but you know me well enough to know the one I — the introduction I prefer is a little bit shorter: I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order. (Applause.)

It is deeply humbling to be here today, to address the 161st session of the Southern Baptist Convention. And let me begin by bringing greetings from a good friend of mine who just got back to the White House this morning. A leader who I can tell you has been delivering every day on his promise to protect faith and restore freedom across this country. I bring greetings from the 45th President of the United States of America, President Donald Trump. (Applause.)

You know, it really is an honor to be here at the Southern Baptist Convention. It’s remarkable to think that what began more than 170 years ago in First Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia has now become one of the greatest forces for good anywhere in America.

You know, the President likes to say, in his words, that we’re a nation of faith. And the leaders gathered here at this convention and the congregations that you represent make that true every single day.

Your more than 47,000 churches minister to more than 15 million people, and millions more beyond your walls. You can be found in all 50 states, in communities of every size, and at this very hour, you’re planting churches and planting seeds of faith in countless hearts in America and to the very ends of the Earth.

The Southern Baptist Convention has always strived to “reach the world for Christ,” and so you have throughout the decades. And I believe with all my heart that your faith has moved mountains, and your witness changes lives every day.

And I know what I’m talking about. You know, I was raised in a churched home; it was grace before dinner and church on Sunday morning. But 40 years ago this spring, I heard the very message that Southern Baptists speak so faithfully across this nation every day. I heard it fresh in my ears, as though it had been for the very first time, that “God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever might believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.” And I walked the sawdust trail that night in 1978 and gave my life to Jesus Christ, and it’s made all the difference. (Applause.)

So thank you for carrying that timeless message everyday with such faithfulness to the American people. The truth is, Southern Baptists have always worked to bring about renewal of America, and new beginnings. And as I stand before you today, I believe that our nation is in the midst of a time of renewal. And we are in the midst of a new beginning of greatness in America. (Applause.)

You can read the rest of Pence’s speech transcript here.

For the Social Justice fanboys who were public-schooled, I’m going to put these comments side-by-side.

PRATT: God is real. God loves you. God wants the best for you. Believe that. I do…[and after some gross irreverent blatherings about pooping and peeing, another nugget comes in by the sound of rushing jets in a passing gospel flyby…] And grace is a gift. And like the freedom we enjoy in this country that grace was paid for with someone else’s blood.

PENCE: God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever might believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Listen, it’s okay for drones to be programmed however their programmers want. Pinnochio can be whatever kind of boy Geppetto makes him. These guys can continue to be told what to think by those influenced by the Soros-Riady cash infusions into Neo-Calvinist institutions. Whatever. But if buying into Social Justice makes somebody completely unable to know the Gospel or the non-Gospel when they see it, their theology is severely broken.

If these are the virtue-signaling, intellectually-astute, morally-pious mental giants leading evangelicalism into the new tomorrow, God help us all.

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Poor kid is crying because his parents brought him to a Catholic Priest to have water poured on him. As he’s crying, the priest becomes agitated and the slaps the kid across the face. We already know how evil the Roman Catholic system is, but the video below speaks for itself.

Interestingly enough, the kid’s dad just stands there and watches this take place.

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This month’s Patreon Expositor-level book is Counterfeit Miracles, by B. B. Warfield. Expositors who contributed prior to June 1 will receive their book in the mail this week.

This is why I selected this book.

There is certainly a dearth of books defending Biblical cessationism and keeping track of all the charismatic absurdities out there. John MacArthur’s Strange Fire is the premier book of our age on this topic. Following up in the #2 spot for influential books on the topic of charismaticism is also John MacArthur, with his 1992 book, Charismatic Chaos. However, for the budding polemicist, it’s best to start your study at the beginning. And as far as the beginning goes in terms of modern book publishing in regards to charismaticism is the first (and probably most influential) book on the topic in the 20th Century, Counterfeit Miracles by B.B. Warfield.

As I began my studies into the “excesses of the charismatic movement” (which I quickly discovered was the entire charismatic movement) I realized that I couldn’t progress without stopping to read Counterfeit Miracles. This is because every book I picked up on the subject quoted Warfield so repeatedly. I wasn’t disappointed by reading the book. While some may find the printing to be old-fashioned and the writing archaic (it was published in 1918 and found a second wind when Banner of Truth published it again in 1972), if you work through it you will find it a substantial blessing for the serious-minded student.

As their review on the Trinity Foundation website says…

This book is based on a series of lectures on counterfeit miracles that Warfield delivered at Union Seminary in South Carolina in 1918. Warfield, one of the most accomplished theologians of the twentieth century, professor at Princeton Seminary, and prolific systematic theologian, expresses once again the skepticism com-manded by Christ. There are demonic miracles in the modern world; there are unscrupulous impostors; there are weak-minded and gullible churchgoers; there is the power of suggestion; but there are no divine miracles. Divine miracles had a specific purpose, and when that purpose was accomplished, divine miracles ceased. The present fascination with miracles, no longer restricted to the superstitions of the Roman Catholic Church-State, but now spread throughout the world by the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, is not a sign of resurgent Christianity, as many have said, but a sign of resurgent paganism. The sort of religion that pervaded ancient Rome and medieval Rome has returned, just as, and because, Christianity is fading from the modern mind.

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I think we all knew an “I told you so” was obligatory. Nonetheless, we told you so. You can insert all the outrage you want about that, signal your own virtue, and claim that “I told you so” is uncouth, unchristian, or arrogant. But whatever; both we and you deserve it.

We are so incredibly happy to see so many men and women figure out that there is a sinister and wicked cancer spreading from a particular corner of evangelicalism. Some call that corner by different names. We know it comprises The Gospel Coalition and certain elements within Together for the Gospel. We know it comprises the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and that it’s taken over many seminaries. We know it comprises 9Marks and many other parachurch ministries. While everyone else is trying to figure out what to call this Axis of Social Gospel Evil, we gave it a name literally years ago…the Evangelical Intelligentsia.

We warned you. We warned you. We warned you.

We warned you about the specific actors involved on this particular issue years ago and repeatedly on an almost daily basis. We have chronicled its rise and propagation. We have been beaten over the head for it and told we were crazy. Now, we see our material being used (often without proper attribution) in complaints made in articles or blogs all over the world. And now it’s too late to do anything about the dangers of this movement because most didn’t listen until it was too late and until there were more people speaking out.

Don’t get us wrong. We’re thankful for men who’ve been vocal about the mission drift. Phil Johnson was among the first of the “famous guys” to speak up and accuse Thabiti Anyabwile of wandering from the mission. He’s been singing his clarion call on this topic for years. And now others are chiming in. Justin Peters, Mike Abendroth, Voddie Baucham, Brannon Howse, Janet Mefferd, James White, Todd Friel, Josh Buice and others are being bold. Still others, like Tom Ascol, are beginning to whisper a few concerns here and there, but aren’t quite recognizing the threat for what they should just yet (or at least, are still cowering to voice their concerns very loudly). Most of these guys haven’t been directly confrontational with some of the key figures in the Social Justice movement like Albert Mohler, Ligon Duncan, and Mark Dever, but most at least are beginning to confront the parachurch ministries responsible (particularly the ERLC and The Gospel Coalition). Other lesser-known men have also been stalwart in at least calling out the problems and at least some of the problem-causers, like Darrell B. Harrison, David Miller, and Thomas Littleton. Other opponents of the Social Justice movement include Douglas Wilson, Jeff Durbin, Randy White, Jim Fletcher, Gabe Hughes, Andy Woods, Dan Phillips and Ken Ham. Some of those men, like Littleton and Harrison in particular, could write there own “I told you so” posts.

But for most, it seems, they discovered a hostile takeover of Gospel-centeredness yesterday. They’re now woke to being woke. And that’s a good thing, but I’m afraid it’s a day late and a dollar short.

The first time I wrote about Russell Moore’s progressivism I was contacted by Frank Turk, the old blogger at Pyromaniacs, and told that it would ruin me, that no one would ever believe Russell Moore was a leftist because he was a Calvinist. I was warned to leave Moore alone and that it was insane to believe a Calvinist could simultaneously be a liberal. That was going on five years ago, long before I’m aware of anyone criticizing Moore or calling him out for what most people today realize him to be. And yet despite my appreciation for Turk’s work, I know a duck when it walks like a duck and talks like a duck. And Moore’s a leftist-progressive, Democrat duck.

Likewise, when we launched the earth-shaking #the15 – a truly grass-roots social media uprising against these exact same Evangelical Intelligentsia men now propagating Rauschenbuschism (the Social Gospel) – the type and kind of uprising I haven’t seen since, Gabe Hughes of When We Understand The Text (WWUTT) wrote a blog explaining that #the15 was making much ado about nothing. Ed Stetzer and those receiving the bulk of #the15 criticism, Hughes argued, were harmless and meant well. I am 100% grateful to brother Hughes for now grasping the danger these exact same men pose. I’m slightly less grateful that over the last four or so years Hughes has repeatedly admonished Pulpit & Pen for our intensity and placed scare quotes around “discernment” only to go on and say the exact same things we have said and warn about the exact same things we have warned about, only to do so three or more years later when it’s too late to do anything about it. I think it’s true that if you want to know what WWUTT will write about today, just go look at what Pulpit & Pen warned you about four years ago.

Say whatever you want about P&P, but we repeatedly demonstrate that discernment trumps modern “prophecy” every time when it comes to predicting the future. Most discernment, which should be trained with constant practice (Hebrews 5), is learnable and is done mostly by observation. In other words, just by observing trends today you can predict the future (fallibly, of course) tomorrow. In the case of the Social Gospel movement, we have warned you in literally hundreds upon hundreds of posts about these issues going back far enough in time that some of the newly woke-against-woke opponents were the ones calling us crazy. Now they see it. That’s awesome, but it’s too late.

If you think there’s any stopping the Social Justice beast, you’re wrong. The latte mafia controls the IMB, NAMB, ERLC, SBTS, SEBTS, Midwestern, TGC, T4G, the Baptist Press, 9Marks, Lifeway, most of the PCA, RTS, Acts29, and lots of complicit accomplices in the press, like the Washington Post or wherever Jonathan Merritt is busy meeting men in the workplace. You can’t defeat that. Even if they abandoned their hell-bent pursuit of Egalitarianism, or their doubling-down on Critical Race Theory, or their next step to celebrate “sexual minorities” in the church, they would drift away from the Gospel in some other way, focusing on spaying and neutering pets or gluten allergy awareness or perhaps “creation care.” All of the principal figures in this movement, including Russell Moore, Ligon Duncan and Mark Dever, are receiving cash influsions to their institutions by Clinton globalist financier James Riady and Democrat billionaire, George Soros. When Riady is giving millions to RTS and Westminster Philadelphia do you really think they’re going to stop pushing for the dismantling of immigration law? When these figures give dark money to Mohler through SBTS do you really think he’s going to do a complete 180 on his good longtime Democrat friend, Russell Moore?

Our great hope is that John MacArthur will rise up like David and kill Goliath, or like Perseus, he will kill Medusa, or like Hercules, he will kill the Nemean lion. But I’m afraid a single “Strange Justice” conference isn’t going to do the trick this time around (even though I’m on board with the awesomeness of that idea). I’m afraid – and dare I say it – John MacArthur isn’t going to be enough. Can our elder brother really stop the ShepCon speaking roster of Mohler, Duncan and Dever all by himself? While the list of woke-anti-woke people is growing, our side pales in comparison to theirs. They have spent a decade laying the groundwork to control major denominations and their entities, along with the vast majority of popular parachurch ministries and their conferences. People, it’s not going to happen. We’re going to have to live through this Social Justice (you notice I use the term interchangeably with Social Gospel; that is on purpose) fad and live through to the other side. We have to ride it out and survive it because there’s no stopping it.

If people would have actually listened to all the warnings a half-decade ago, we could have stopped it. But many now who are aware of the dangers presented us were the same ones bolstering the credibility of Russell Moore and The Gospel Coalition while we were warning everyone they weren’t to be trusted. They’ve lent their own credibility to the very ones who have now amassed that power and are (without God) indestructible. When we began to warn about Karen Swallow Prior nearly three years ago, we lost contributors due to the public outrage and – again – people called us nuts. Now, these same folks are now warning about Prior, after they helped grow her fame and popularity and rigorously attacked us for being mean to that “dear Christian woman.” They made the beast, and now are unsure what to do about it.

This “we told you so” is done for the sake of discernment. One day, this fad will be gone and the devil will be off to a new strategy (and because you can only kill monsters with silver bullets and wooden spikes to the heart, that crisis will probably also include Karen Swallow Prior). Be of good cheer, Jesus will wipe this movement into the dustbin of history, just like he did the Emergent Church (although this movement will not die so easily) and the only ones left standing will be those of us who are now being called fundamentalists. The people called “fundamentalists” are always the last ones left standing, by the way, and it has something to do with the foundation of our house not being built on sand. God gives people within his Body discernment for its edification, but if people with this spiritual gifting are treated as lepers or pariahs, the Body will suffer. You may not like discernment ministries, but they’re here for a reason.

The saddest part of all of this is that it could have been prevented if people would have just listened. So, let’s just all thank God that He is sovereign and trust that he’s got it handled.

[Editor’s Note: Contributed by JD Hall. Do you want to see “I told you so” in person? Just use our website’s search function, and you’ll see our predictions and warnings for yourself]

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1. America is a country of laws. Laws do not change based on Twitter campaigns, media spins, or some contrived form of public opinion. Laws change via the elected representatives of the citizenry. It is all spelled out in our U.S. Constitution. (Note: Activist judicial rulings are not binding as a true law of the land. Such precedents defy true Constitutional authority. You can’t legislate from the bench).

2. Politics is not the place to make Christian converts. You cannot use the force of government to compel people to go to church. You can’t change the human condition via proper legislation. The hearts of men are deceitful and desperately wicked; they can only rebel. However, the moral law of God as written in the hearts of mankind is the eternal blueprint for what is good and lawful. A nation that defies its moral foundation and elects men who dare to circumvent this foundation is bound to implode. Our tendency to rebel does not negate our true accountability before God and man.

3. The Christian leader, who works collaboratively with secular authorities that not only defy God’s moral foundation but also undermine the very laws they’ve sworn to uphold, must step down. These leaders are to relinquish their positions of authority as they have proven themselves unprofitable. You cannot serve both God and man. Whenever the laws and inclinations of the governing authority blatantly conflict with the Word of God, the true Christian can no longer align him or herself with such authorities. And again, we must respect the legislative process and not incite rebellion against laws established and enacted with proper constitutional authority. (Note: The Supreme Court lacks moral authority and justification to redefine marriage and terminate the lives of innocents).

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In the cesspool of modern American culture, at some point in the last few decades, it has become in vogue to have a “gay bestie,” a homosexual best friend attached to your social entourage. I’m not sure when exactly that became the case because actual Christians have a tendency to maintain some form of separation from the lost world, but it was probably about the time it became in vogue for anorexic white girls in Hollywood to carry around those strange looking rats in their purses. For the cool kids of American evangelicalism, that gay bestie is a journalist named Jonathan Merritt.

Wherever you find the Latte Mafia of evangelicalism’s social justice brigade – or who I’ve termed the Evangelical Intelligentsia – you’ll find Jonathan Merritt, the limp-wristed son of former SBC President, James Merritt (who is also recently “woke“). Merritt writes for Religious News Service, which is basically the Subaru of evangelical news reporting. Writing with all the gay ambiguity with which Liberace played the piano, Merritt is a left-of-center progressivist who has capitalized upon his famous Southern Baptist dad to speak with authority on issues that no other homosexual could possibly imagine. And like any good sitcom father, Merritt Sr. has either embraced his son in the fullness of his homosexuality or remains intentionally ignorant with Ostrich-Sand Syndrom that his son is, as we would say back in the hills, is queerer than a three dollar bill.

Merritt is also the constant social media companion of Ed Stetzer, Russell Moore, JD Greear, Karen Swallow Prior and others in the Intelligentsia who are hell-bent on chasing after culture like a buck in rut. Whatever the talking points of the social justice guild, you’ll find Merritt flanking them with an article for whichever Christian publication that is willing to pretend he’s not gay. But as we’ve been saying forever, and will continue to say, Merritt is the Boy George of evangelicalism. It’s not ambiguous. It’s not a “maybe.” His tent is clearly pitched toward Sodom. All the while, America’s most famous evangelical leaders utilize him as a powerful ally in the press and as an important resource for their agenda. This is the equivalent of partnering with the devil; a big, gay, rainbow-colored, glitter-splattered devil with a rainbow cape.

In spite of his well-publicized gay adventures that were – against his will – exposed by a homosexual colleague with whom he had relations, evangelicals have acted like he’s straight as an arrow, even if the arrow is pointed left. A loved one asked me recently, “How do you know he’s gay,” to which I responded, “Making out with another dude is pretty gay.” Common sense is not all that common. With one foot still in the closet (he is a blogger for Christian media, after all), Merritt has daily dared anyone to out him, not realizing that the only people who consider him still in the closet are the people using his associations with the press like he were a puppet. No one really thinks Jonathan Merritt is a Christian who’s being conformed to the power of Jesus and sanctified by his spirit to be freed from the bondage of gayness. We all understand Merrit is a half-closeted homosexual who won’t be inheriting the Kingdom of God without some serious repentance. But he’s making it increasingly difficult for even his straight besties to play pretend that he’s not the flaming variety of homosexual.

Merritt recently tweeted the following…

Commentary could be provided on the content of the tweet, I suppose. By “abuse” Merritt means “they were told homosexuality was a sin.” By “ignorant,” Merritt means they taught the Bible’s clear teaching on sodomy. By “happy, healthy adults,” Merritt means they engage in anal intercourse (or some other unnatural, aberrant variety of bodily penetration) and are at vastly higher odds to receive disease, illness or early death. By “celebrate you,” Merritt means, “celebrate me, because I’m one of you.”

That aside, this son of a former SBC President is celebrating gay pride. And this shouldn’t just reflect upon the bundle of sticks himself, but it should reflect upon all those, like Russell Moore, Ed Stetzer and so many others, that have made Merritt a powerful ally in dismantling the conservative coalition of the Southern Baptist Convention.

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Lou Anne Smoot (Right) and Her Gay Lover

There are untold myriads of homosexuals in Southern Baptist churches. Of that, there is little doubt and of no surprise. Many homosexuals have taken the path of Jonathan Merritt, the homosexual son of former SBC president, James Merritt, and live a lifestyle of ambiguous sexuality. Some are emboldened toward a trend in once-conservative evangelicalism that has embraced Same-Sex Attraction (SSA) as a non-sin (so long as it’s not acted upon) and promote a response of lifelong celibacy. It’s more uncommon, however, for a Southern Baptist to “come out of the closet” and continue in the Baptist church.

Lou Anne Smoot of Tyler, Texas, has written a book explaining her odyssey as a Southern Baptist who suffers from a lack of regeneration, and with it, now-unbridled and unnatural sexual attraction. She recently did an interview with the Texas Standard newspaper about what it was like to be a lesbian Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher and what it was like to divorce her husband, marry her lover, and find a third-pew seat with her new lover.

Beginning her first lesbian experience in 1956, Smoot explains that she had a fornicative relationship with her college roommate at Baylor University, a Baptist institution of higher education.

When her father discovered love letters between the two over one Christmas break, he and his wife tried to convince their daughter to abandon homosexuality.

Smoot says:

Well, of course, she shared with me what she had been taught, which was, it was sinful, and it was certainly an unacceptable way for me to live my life. Now, she and Dad had plans for me to earn my teaching certificate. And she told me that evening that no school district would ever hire me to teach in their schools. And then she explained that we would have a very difficult time just finding a place to live, that no one would rent us an apartment, and she said practically no one would even sell you a house. So, she painted a very bleak picture of our future together.

After two and a half years, her lesbian relationship ended and Smoot eventually became married to a man. However, after 37 years of marriage, Smoot decided to leave her husband and go back to her lover.

In the 1970s, Smoot traded love letters again with her former lover, who upon reading them with her husband, chose not to return the letters to Smoot. However, in the late nineties, Smoot decided she couldn’t let go of her penchant for sodomy (unnatural affection).

Smoot says:

At that time I was 60 years of age. I was teaching a ladies’ Sunday school class in the First Baptist Church, and one day I was simply visiting with one of those members,” Smoot says. “And she began telling me about her son, who was an artist. And this thought came into my head, Her son is gay… I believe God put that thought in my head, and I believe pushed me into what I did next, which was ask this woman, ‘Is your son a homosexual?’ Well, you don’t go around asking people that question. Especially in Texas and a member of a Southern Baptist Church. Well, she was shocked. And she hesitated for a long time. And then she finally said, ‘Yes, but that’s just the way God made him. And God loves him just the way he is, and we should too.’

No doubt, there are countless stories like this. Sin corrupts, addicts, and eventually kills. What comes next in the interview is the revelation that once divorced, Smoot attended church with her lesbian lover and sits proudly on the third pew.

But then, I feel that God nudged me at that time. If I stayed, I told myself that I had a very unique opportunity to become known as a gay Christian – what to many, and maybe most and all the members of that church, was an oxymoron. So I decided to stay and then when my present wife, Brenda – and we have now been together over 17 years – when she joined me at the church, then together we became the church’s example of a gay Christian couple. And we made a point of sitting about the third row from the front in the center section, where everybody could see us.”

According to the audio interview, which makes it clearer than the written article by Texas Standard, Smoot remained in the Southern Baptist Church, not a more liberal church. There was no indication that Smoot has faced any action of church discipline.

Smoot said, “The Holy Spirit was pleased with the step I was taking.”

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R.C. Sproul discussed social justice in this brief clip. What you’ll find is that Sproul correctly explains what justice truly is. Comparing it to our current discussion, you’ll see from Sproul’s brief exposition from the Book of Amos, that what is currently being promoted as “Social Justice” really isn’t a matter of justice at all. Marxism isn’t justice; it is theft.

Justice is certainly a theme of certain Bible passages. However, it must be Biblically defined. In the clip, Sproul compares Marx’s claims against the standards of justice in the Scripture.

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After reporting for years about the Southern Baptist Convention’s turn leftward, almost single-handedly orchestrated by a former Democratic staffer and George Soros business partner, Russell Moore, Pulpit & Pen is very glad to see many outside the SBC recognize their wayward trajectory. The following was published by One News Now, the website of the American Family News Network…

Concerned about an exhibit at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, a pastor is warning the denomination is drifting farther leftward.

Sam Rohrer, an independent Baptist who leads the American Pastors Network, says he was shocked after learning about the “Seeking Refuge” demonstration that set up in the SBC exhibit hall.

“Seeking Refuge,” which simulates the horrors of a refugee camp, was first reported in a June 20 story published by Baptist Press:

A guard with a military uniform and a bat is speaking a foreign language. One participant starts to ask questions. She’s taken away from the group. At the medical station, they’re checked for lice. At the food station they’re informed they must eat. They may not have another chance to for days.

The demonstration was sponsored by the Women’s Missionary Union along with other SBC mission organizations, including the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board.

After addressing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for families and military veterans in past years, WMU states on its website that it is shifting its focus to refugees beginning in the 2018-2019 church year.

Likely intended to simulate PTSD, participants described the experience as “terror” and “chaos” and “a helpless feeling,” but it struck Rohrer in a completely different way.

Rohrer says the SBC is trying to adopt a policy of social justice.

“And I’m going to take as far to say there’s an element here of liberation theology that takes place in here,” he warns, referring to the mixture of Christian charity and Marxist-like social justice….

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There is really no God-hater with whom Karen Swallow Prior would not join herself in fellowship. Some more charitable souls than myself view Prior as just a simple-minded woman who, like an evangelical and female J. Quincy Magoo, has somehow found herself in the upper echelons of the Evangelical Intelligentsia, irrespective of her woeful lack of self-awareness and total lack of anything doctrinally astute worth saying. They might believe that the English literature professor, who generally all agree has the theological acumen of a third-grade girl in the United Methodist Sunday School class, has become a top-tier conference speaker almost inexplicably. I, on the other hand, think there’s a plausible reason for Prior’s success in spite of her utter lack of mental cognitive capacity, inability to articulate complex ideas coherently, and record-shatteringly void of personal charisma (which I will leave to a later time). Prior’s latest glib remarks regarding with whom she would and wouldn’t break bread are especially vulgar.

Prior has a schtick. Her routine is to fellowship closely with nefarious and wicked, God-hating people. This is Prior’s idea of evangelism, even though it is doubtful that the woman knows what the Gospel really is. In reality, these groups are using Prior, who is happy to serve as the perennial useful idiot. They have a “Christian” whose presence serves to validate their worldview as legitimate, and she has pictures on the gay red-carpet and gets to be wined-and-dined by pagans as some kind of perverted, twisted evangelism strategy. It remains unseen if Prior has ever won anyone to Christ in her entire life, let alone whether her total abandonment of the concept of Christian holiness (separation) has had any positive repercussions.

Prior, who claims to have at one time been a strong pro-life advocate, made waves several years ago for writing in Christianity Today that abortion is not murder and that calling abortion murder is unchristlike. Many Christian leaders took her to task for that intellectual vulgarity, while others defended Prior as misunderstood or inarticulate, but not evil. Little by little, evangelicals have figured out that Prior is in no way qualified to represent Southern Baptists and serve in the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (even Pastor Tom Buck, who departed from fellowship with P&P after our criticism of Prior, recently called for her resignation from the ERLC on Josh Buice’s blog).

At the Social Gospel Coalition website today, Karen Swallow Prior continued her schtick:

But what I would do more often—and did, in fact, do—is dine with the executive director of the local Planned Parenthood, speak at conferences with abortion providers, co-author a paper with an abortion clinic director, and even befriend one of the clinic escorts who assaulted a fellow pro-lifer.

In Prior’s mind, she might very well be a brave evangelist. Probably, she would draw parallels between Jesus’ dining with tax collectors and sinners to her own fellowships. But let us not forget that the same woman who brags about dining with executive directors of Planned Parenthood also claimed that abortion isn’t murder. This is also a woman who has never, so far as anyone knows, led anyone to Christ.

I would go so far as to say that Karen Swallow Prior is the exact type of woman that Paul had in mind when he instructed women to sit down in church and be quiet. She is dangerous. You might send a seasoned evangelist into the lion’s den, but it’s insane to send a lost person in the name of Jesus.

As a polemicist, I try to pay special attention to the daily trends in the Christian news cycle. In the last month or so I’ve seen an emphasis on the gift of hospitality from among the Social Justice Warriors (I assumed it was being positioned for use in their argument for open borders Immigration). Prior’s post today at the Social Gospel Coalition was written in the name of hospitality, entitled Christianity Hospitality in the Age of ‘They’re Not Welcome Here Anymore.’ The trend seemed to kick off with Rosaria Butterfield’s book on the topic (Butterfield tried to get me kicked out of the G3 Conference in 2017 because I had “attacked [her] good friend, Karen Swallow Prior). I wonder if even something as innocent as the spiritual gift of hospitality could be twisted by these people for wicked purposes.

I should probably already know the answer. These people can twist any noble heavenly thing to advance their clay-footed agenda.

In the meantime, something tells me that when Prior dines with Planned Parenthood thugs she doesn’t – like Jesus in the questionable Johannine passage, the Pericope Adulterae – tell them to “go and sin no more.” There’s not enough nuance or winsomeness in that.

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