Discernment sites and slander

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The standard should be "knew or should have known". Willful ignorance isn't a valid defense.

When the accusations start flying, one should investigate or hold their peace.
True enough. Related would be, what of a character witness? Seems many have no room for them.
 
The standard should be "knew or should have known". Willful ignorance isn't a valid defense.

When the accusations start flying, one should investigate or hold their peace.

Yes.

And Al Mohler did admit wrongdoing in backing Mahaney. Finally. When it got too inconvenient any longer to support Mahaney.

We can either conclude he is dishonest and is putting up a public facade because the winds of public opinion have changed. Or we can conclude that he genuinely believes he did wrong and now repents.

https://baptistnews.com/article/al-mohler-says-he-was-wrong-about-c-j-mahaney/#.XW4PaSgzZPY

The Church, too, is rife with the error of "the good ol boys' club" - where pastors and police and others protect their own kind instead of adequately looking into abuses of their profession. Catholic priests refuse to snitch on other priests, even when little children are harmed, and Protestants are not much better. And "repentance" comes only after one is caught or pressured, it seems.

And bloggers can provide such pressure.
 
I occasionally visit a couple of these sites, but to be honest, they exhaust me. I do not diminish the necessity for being on the alert, and hats off to those who do the heavy lifting. But I have my hands full with keeping my congregants on the right path, let alone people I have never met who wouldn't listen to me anyway.
 
Trying to be as discreet as I can so I am not like them but, I am sick of seeing stuff about Tullian, other abusers, etc. It literally depresses me. Don't get me wrong the world should know and churches be a safe place for victims to speak up, and some but not all churches have failed.
But on some of these sites for instance, they throw every one under the bus charging them with conspiracy if you were somehow connected with the accused. For instance, I typed a name recently alluded to and near the top of the Google search all these sites are over it with little more than he rubbed elbows with a person charged and apparently didn't disassociate publicly or to their satisfaction and "Ha! He's in on a conspiracy! An enabler!" Its so routine any more which is why Dr. Clark got slammed for the article, he wasn't hysterical like them trying to turn over every rock.
While many of these accusations may indeed be true, cover ups, conspiracy and all, it seems many more are publicly accused merely because of the seven degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Or another is that is you don't agree with their exact wording of a statement or your own statement doesn't match theirs on abuse, you are publicly shamed and called an enabler.
Another well known and used site has blacklisted nearly every accredited seminary and Christian college (not that all seminaries are good obviously) because they website was scoured and 'meditation' was mentioned irrespective of the context.

Does this not strike you as wrong? We are not the jury.

I am all for calling out unorthodox teaching and practice but, the internet takes it too far.

Well with Tullian in particular it might have to do with the fact that there was a lot of warning given about his teaching before all was revealed. Yet those who were doing the warning were dismissed as legalistic or uncharitable and big names stood by him. The whole Tullian fiasco serves as an excellent example of why teachers should be judged by their teaching and not on who they're related to, who their friends are and how much money their books rake in. Which is why he was given a pass. So no let's not forget about Tullian. He is still out there. His enablers are still teaching and wielding influence.
 
Then you have the Evangelical Dark Web that falls outside the auspices of big Eva. The report you are about to read is not taken from the Babylon Bee (believe it or not).



“an obvious question for those orthodox Protestant Christians who reject the evangelical dark web is how to run an effective counterinsurgency against the “evangelical dark web?” These are some embryonic thoughts:

Counterinsurgency has three traditional components: isolate and degrade insurgent activity, build target audience resiliency (e.g. strengthen, defend, and counter-radicalize), and lastly, if and where needed, reform the at-risk regime.

For countering the evangelical dark web particularly, these steps will need to be taken.”

“Fight the temptation to get certain outlets or personalities to do battle on your behalf. A critique of the “evangelical dark web” by the Gospel Coalition, ERLC, the New York Times, Washington Post, or the Southern Poverty Law Center, or a byline by Emma Green, Peter Wehner, John Fea, Warren Throckmorton, et. al. will backfire and easily become ammunition for the next round of attacks.....”

https://mereorthodoxy.com/evangelic...PSIZHPpPED97al-pSWlSFSGWvgPb2yD8cuCS6oUgT5lno
 
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Then you have the Evangelical Dark Web that falls outside the auspices of big Eva .... the report you are about to read is not taken from the Babylon Bee (believe it or not).



“an obvious question for those orthodox Protestant Christians who reject the evangelical dark web is how to run an effective counterinsurgency against the “evangelical dark web?” These are some embryonic thoughts:

Counterinsurgency has three traditional components: isolate and degrade insurgent activity, build target audience resiliency (e.g. strengthen, defend, and counter-radicalize), and lastly, if and where needed, reform the at-risk regime.

For countering the evangelical dark web particularly, these steps will need to be taken.”

“Fight the temptation to get certain outlets or personalities to do battle on your behalf. A critique of the “evangelical dark web” by the Gospel Coalition, ERLC, the New York Times, Washington Post, or the Southern Poverty Law Center, or a byline by Emma Green, Peter Wehner, John Fea, Warren Throckmorton, et. al. will backfire and easily become ammunition for the next round of attacks.....”

https://mereorthodoxy.com/evangelic...PSIZHPpPED97al-pSWlSFSGWvgPb2yD8cuCS6oUgT5lno


If the Gospel Coalition and the ERLC is warning me about a blog, you can guarantee that I will be reading that blog and bookmarking it.
 
Yet those who were doing the warning were dismissed as legalistic or uncharitable and big names stood by him.

I recall some early defense of TT around here more than a decade ago. And even more caution about not rushing to judgment and waiting for things to develop.
 
If the Gospel Coalition and the ERLC is warning me about a blog, you can guarantee that I will be reading that blog and bookmarking it.
Check out this guy’s bio. What is his dog in this fight?

“Brian Auten currently serves as a supervisory intelligence analyst with the United States government and is an adjunct professor in the Department of Government at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia. He is the author of Carter’s Conversion: The Hardening of American Defense Policy (University of Missouri Press, 2008). All views, opinions and conclusions are solely those of the author and not the US government, any entity within the US intelligence community, or Patrick Henry College.”
https://mereorthodoxy.com/author/auten/
 
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Then you have the Evangelical Dark Web that falls outside the auspices of big Eva. The report you are about to read is not taken from the Babylon Bee (believe it or not).



“an obvious question for those orthodox Protestant Christians who reject the evangelical dark web is how to run an effective counterinsurgency against the “evangelical dark web?” These are some embryonic thoughts:

Counterinsurgency has three traditional components: isolate and degrade insurgent activity, build target audience resiliency (e.g. strengthen, defend, and counter-radicalize), and lastly, if and where needed, reform the at-risk regime.

For countering the evangelical dark web particularly, these steps will need to be taken.”

“Fight the temptation to get certain outlets or personalities to do battle on your behalf. A critique of the “evangelical dark web” by the Gospel Coalition, ERLC, the New York Times, Washington Post, or the Southern Poverty Law Center, or a byline by Emma Green, Peter Wehner, John Fea, Warren Throckmorton, et. al. will backfire and easily become ammunition for the next round of attacks.....”

https://mereorthodoxy.com/evangelic...PSIZHPpPED97al-pSWlSFSGWvgPb2yD8cuCS6oUgT5lno

That was pretty cringe to be fair. And I'm not quite sure why they have decided to go after Ascol and White. I can see how an argument could be made that maybe they don't know, or aren't willing to discuss, all the dimensions of what's going on. But they are definitely doing a lot of good in this fight. That attack just seemed bizarre. That being said White couldn't resist making snarky comments in response.

Also, why would they want to associate themselves with the Intellectual Dork Web? Major cringe.
 
True enough. Related would be, what of a character witness? Seems many have no room for them.

Character witnesses only go so far. If there is evidence of nefarious activity, or if certain persons are turning a blind eye to what's going on, then that is more relevant than whether others think them "a good guy" or "a solid Christian".
 
That was pretty cringe to be fair. And I'm not quite sure why they have decided to go after Ascol and White. I can see how an argument could be made that maybe they don't know, or aren't willing to discuss, all the dimensions of what's going on. But they are definitely doing a lot of good in this fight. That attack just seemed bizarre. That being said White couldn't resist making snarky comments in response.

Also, why would they want to associate themselves with the Intellectual Dork Web? Major cringe.
Don’t let the enemy define you.

The defenders of sound doctrine want a fair hearing and analysis of these issues but they’ve been stonewalled.
 
I'm not sure to whom you are referring?
LoL, sorry. I was just agreeing with you.

Being characterized a part of an Evangelical Dark Web or anything dark web, especially something almost non-related, is absurd.

Whatever happened to free speech, transparency, and honest debate on matters of vital importance? Things are truly getting out of hand.
 
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