Last week, I became aware of a rather ugly incident on the internet. Now the internet surely has it's fair share of ugly sides. It seems that nothing will bring out more zealous side as human beings more quickly than the internet and our spiritual beliefs.
There are all sorts of ugly, angry people on all sides of an issue. To be sure, many of the discernment sites seem to have a plethora of angry owners. One only look back at few months ago at the beating Tim Challies took for calling some discernment sites to task. Oh, there were some who had apoplectic fits attempting to bring him back into line. Mind you, he never mentioned names. But to act as though that only the "discernment sites" have angry people is not only naive, it is entirely wrong.
It is my experience that there is plenty of anger to go around all the way on both sides. Both sides will claim God is on their side and both sides will cite injurious activities based on malicious intent from "the other guy."
Last week, a guy I've never met named named James Duncan, who is apparently a prof at Anderson University and a blogger who has criticized Perry Noble and NewSpring Church. He also appears to have been a critic of Gary Lamb and a few other churches around the nation. He actually offered a piece telling his readers where he thought Lamb might have gone wrong when it was discovered that Lamb was stepping down because he had an affair.
Mr. Duncan seems to be a more than adequate writer and obviously has a bit of a following. Apparently, his criticism of NewSpring angered some who were on staff and involved there.
According to Duncan, they did some horrible things. I say, "according to Duncan" because he is the one making the proclamations and NewSpring has not admitted to anything in detail. As near as I can tell there is no court records to draw on for evidence at this point. Ok, to be honest, it certainly seems as though Duncan is on the up and up on this matter or any other. As far as I know he is of the highest character and integrity. It certainly seems that he is a victim in this affair.
You can read the sordid details here. You can read NewSpring's response here.
I wonder if NewSpring isn't something of a victim as well. Perhaps, not at the hands of Mr. Duncan but perhaps at his hands. In one recent post, Mr. Duncan takes NewSpring to task over the sermon points. A woman comes on and comments that she was at the sermon and gives her sermon notes including accurate points. She is rebuffed. Of course, even if Mr. Duncan did get the sermon points wrong, he didn't deserve the actions taken against him. I also doubt he needs however many millions he's asking for.
The point of this post isn't to get into the whole "those people are right and those are wrong" event; it's not to get into a she said, he said type of thing. It's to ask a simple question and perhaps offer a few observations. Here's my question:What did you expect to happen?
Take a look at Mr. Duncan's friends listed on the side of his blog. Go spend some time reading their writings. They are engaged in a "Truth War."
They use verbiage about "blood soaked ground" and other such silly statements. The constantly talk about engaging the enemy in this "Truth War."
They say that the men and women they are talking about are not their enemies, but they use words that certainly seem to indicate otherwise. I personally have seen half truths and out right lies used time and time again. Cut and paste quotes work wonders to help a zealous discerner make his point. Titles are inflated, and positions invented. When you call supervisors in the denominations that these men claim affiliation with in order to go to them about being sinned against, you are told, "I'm sorry but we don't consider Mr. So&So as part of our denomination."
What happend in this event is sad. The details honestly disgust me. Mark this; it will not be the last one. You cannot consistently use words about a truth war and not expect people to fight back. That does not justify the actions of anyone in this event but it is reality.These people are not engaged in a truth war, because the truth doesn't need them to fight for It.
This event shows us the ugliest side of the Church universal. No one wins here. As long as there are blogs that feel they are "watch dogs" of the church, we will continue to see this type of thing. I'd bring up the entire issue of loving our neighbor and even our enemy but often these bloggers claim that by making up spurious titles (essentially calling someone else a derogatory name in the name of Jesus) they are in reality showing love.
This is not about saying I think something is wrong with someone's doctrine and being engaged in honest debate. The truth of what I am saying is never more evident than when one of these "discernment" blogs are called to task for something. Victim status is immediately called. One particular blogger used the term "online gang rape" because her writings and ideas were being dissected. She deliberately chose an emotionally charged word and in so doing she insulted every woman who has ever been raped.
Over the last years, these discerners have created a violent and angry culture. They have deliberately used imagery of fighting. Some of them have lied. Some are probably motivated by honest and pure motives and to be sure, some discerners have taken the high road. Too many have not. Read the comments in Mr. Duncan's blog. You'll see fanatics on both sides. What amazes me is that many cannot see or do not know the difference between Seeker Sensitive and Emergent so they simply broad brush those with whom they disagree.
Some of these people engage in activity that looks entirely too much like stalking. Talbloid like titles are the norm and alliterative name calling is the norm. One of these authors has mentioned "The Truth War" numerous times in just a few of his last posts. I debated writing this post, in fact some of my friends thought I should just avoid the topic. I almost did exactly that. However, I came to the conclusion that the idea behind this travesty had to be engaged. This terrible and sad event is a direct result of the environment that has been created by those who are engaging in the "Truth War." Grace is not the norm on these blogs. If you don't know what I'm talking about, and you haven't been to these blogs, consider yourself fortunate.
They call pastors, Goat Herders (because they're not really pastors), they make up names like Elvis of the Emergent movement, Pope's of the Carolina's. When they are called to task, they pull out there ordination credentials.
Of course, as this incident proves, the people they are critiquing also have issues. There's video of one pastor calling people in his church "the jack-ass" and another video of another pastor talking about regretting the fact that he didn't hit a woman with a baseball bat, and burn a piano.
All of this has to disgust God.
Mr. Duncan has an interesting quote on the side of his blog. It says:
This blog is mine alone and does not necessarily–or very often–represent the thinking or sentiments of anyone who disagrees with me, my wife, my employer, my friends, my family, my pastor, my brother, my church and, almost certainly, God. After I hit the Publish button, it doesn’t always even reflect my own thinking. It does seem to often reflect the thinking of Tommy F, Twit Conway and some guy in Minnesota, however.
It appears that Mr. Duncan is asking his readers to have grace with what he writes and the responses that are offered based on what he writes. I wonder what it would look like if these tabloid styled discernment sites offered that same grace to those that they disagreed with.
This incident is one of the many reasons I attempt to avoid what I call "the church wars" here as much as possible. There are bloggers out there who are indeed talking about real issues, without the name calling.
I don't imagine this culture is anything new nor do I think it will be going anywhere very soon. We can only hope that they will be ignored and that the majority of the church will ignore them.
Our culture should be one of love not of battle, one of respect not engagement in a war. We should be a people of peace, not of fear-mongering in the name of Jesus. Until, this culture changes, more people will get caught up in ugly affairs just like this one.
The name of Jesus will continue to be sullied and the church will continue to look like a bunch of rabid third graders.
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