For the rest of the simple folks like me, let me explain what Neil is attempting to do here in defense of his pastor.
In academic-ish terms, he's deconstructing the book's source material in order to interrogate each part against the sum. This technique will ALWAYS give the
I just finished the Introduction of
@megbasham
's Shepherd's for Sale. My review will focus more on broader themes than on factual issues, but I spot-checked some of the endnotes for material I recognized.
I'll post the results below without commentary.
1/
@RollingStone
Can't believe a Christian father would attempt to keep his son away from internet porn and then be consistent enough to hold himself to the same standard...
BREAKING: Confidential sources have reported to
@Protestia
that, in fact, Martin Luther did not contact the Pope (or even send a copy) prior to publishing his Ninety-Five Theses. Protestia thereby finds the work to be poorly researched, shoddy journalism, and thoroughly debunked.
Can anyone honestly say
@megbasham
misrepresented
@gavinortlund
's climate change video? None of his statements are made better by additional examination, they're made worse.
It seems that most of Gavin's complaints stem from assuming the whole book is about to him 🤣
Wait... you mean it's possible that a TGC guy who recently claimed "the church is still figuring out its position on homosexuality" might not be a fan of a book exposing LGBT infiltration into the church?
#SHOCKED
David French, the claimed 1A advocate, is voting for a prez. ticket openly anti-1A (Walz on MSNBC decries 1A). Because Trump has worse policies? Nope. Ironically, it's because Trump *says* mean stuff. French is a total clown shoe. ICYMI:
Of all the people exposed by the squabbling over
#shepherdsforsale
, this one truly makes me sad.
@Janet_Mefferd
has been in the trenches, done the work, and has the scars to show. For pegging Driscoll as a plagiarizing narcissist, she faced a similar character assassination
The attempted discrediting of
@megbasham
's book has already started with a ham-handed defense of 3rd way Eva's sacred cow, Tim Keller. For example, she is being accused of "editorializing" for claiming Keller overtly found Trump support offensive while he stayed silent about the
Stop claiming Jesus is "inclusive." It's biblically absurd.
Matt. 7:13-14 "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those
Regarding the Andrew Klavan theological dumpster fire - Christians do not claim that God "abandoned the Jews." The Jews rejected the Messiah - right along with everyone else - and outside of Christ, all stand condemned. Yes, this includes those who subscribe to Klavan's
More "real journalism" 🙄 Allow me to do their work for them:
On 1/9/24, Hunt's team missed blacking out the last 4 letters of Doe's name while redacting a discovery dispute.
Subsequently (4/9/24), Doe's attorney failed to properly redact Doe's full name *dozens of times*
‼️‼️‼️
In her book, Meg Basham claims that Johnny Hunt’s alleged victim was accidentally outed by her own attorney in an unredacted court file.
The woman’s attorneys now say it was Hunt’s attorney, not them, who filed the document.
I went over to
@challies
site to find his commentary on
#shepherdsforsale
, and on the homepage is a "deal of the day" for a Rebecca McLaughlin book.. seriously, you can't make this stuff up (yes, that's Greear and McLaughlin after their talk promoting Side B gay Christianity).
@drmoore
No, the question was guilty or not guilty of a *still undefined* crime. That you saw this trial as an opportunity to decide something else shows how little character and concern for justice you have.
Guys, I think
@NeilShenvi
's X account might have been hacked by some sort of spam bot. It keeps posting the same thing over and over.
#needproofoflife
@RonDeSantisFL
I appreciated the respect you showed the students by telling them the plain and simple truth. They can handle it, no matter what the elite class claims.
At this point, I'm wondering if perhaps
@megbasham
baited everyone with
#shepherdsforsale
's citations in order to get leftists crying about misrepresentation, sending regular folks digging deeper and finding out how truly compromised by leftism Big Eva really is. 😅
Hey pastor who strongarmed your church into vaxxing to "love your neighbor" - "I was deceived" is no better excuse for you than it was for Adam and Eve.
Perhaps the silliest of all of
@NeilShenvi
's issues in his long-teased
#shepherdsforsale
review:
Meg: Benkert had to be removed.
Neil: Ackchyually, Benkert "resigned."
Does Neil also buy that Willie McLaurin "resigned?"
How about Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle?
Behold, a few of the JD Greear "deleted scenes" from
#shepherdsforsale
. The book offered Greear a plea bargain, but he apparently wanted to go to trial.
An Open Response to J.D. Greear.
As Greear is the first major figure in my book to publicly object to my depiction of his statements and actions over the last few years, I’ll deal with his objections one by one.
The "third-way" compromise attempted by Andy Stanley is endemic across market-driven Christianity. Here is pastor Rick Long of Grace Church in Arvada, Colorado pushing the same thing (cut together with explanations from John MacArthur). They have yet to have a conference...stay
A lot of obfuscation to distract from JD basically admitting the book's stuff about him is true. Again, any additional context (which we have reams of reporting to provide) will only reinforce the book's points.
@JackPosobiec
@CMC_MarineCorps
@iimigofficial
Attacking a civilian member of the media for being critical of DOD policy is EXACTLY the kind of thing prohibited by DOD policy. The people running these accounts should all be brought up on Article 15s.
Alistair characterizing those who oppose his position as "erring on condemnation" and "closing the door on evangelism," particularly as so many faithful brothers and sisters have lovingly brought God's Word to bear on his error is absolutely heartbreaking.
During last night's Sunday evening service, Alistair Begg responded to his recent scandal, passionately reaffirming his advice to attend the LGBTQ wedding, comparing attending an LGBTQ wedding as scarcely different than hanging out with sinners in other contexts, exegeting the
Conservative Christian, you can believe the courageous and serious theologians at Grace to You, or you can believe the guys telling you, "the Bible whispers about homosexuality."
Gavin Ortlund in March 2022: "I think about climate change every day."
Gavin Ortlund in 2024: "I have no idea who Greta Thunberg is. But I've done 3 or 4 rounds of study on IPCC scientific reports."
🤡🤡🤡
JD Greear is the latest person who has had to take a few hours away from their ministry work to respond to
@megbasham
's mischaracterizations and misrepresentations.
Journalism fails - both on the right and left - when our favored narrative trumps facts.
@RobManess
You are absolutely correct, Sir. The fact that Twitter is openly debating how political the military is proves Tucker's point. It's not our job to win Twitter wars, it's our job to win ACTUAL wars. This is a shocking failure of leadership and decorum.
#tuckerisright
Wanna know why your favorite solid pastor went woke? Because right now the fad is wokeism. 10-15 years ago it was being reformed. Their driving principle is still numerical success.
@gavinortlund
is way too smart to not understand how writers and journalists use pieces of quotes to clarify/summarize the point their subject is making. It's not a "shady tactic of distortion" (which Ortlund well knows but hopes you don't), it's a common, standard writing
Pray for FBC Lindale's elders to have the strength of character to gird their loins and stand with
@TomBuck
. The lies and pressure are coming. He's done nothing here but what was right and honorable despite what I'm sure was the opportunity to do otherwise.
@Pastor_Gabe
Can someone explain why
@toddbenkert
supported the
@SBCExecComm
waiving privilege (in the supposed interest of transparency) but insists it's appropriate to claim privilege in hiding who asked him about
@JenniferBuck65
's rough draft? SBC hypocrisy at its finest.
Next, Basham's claim about Tim Keller's assessment of "Christian Trump supporter[s]" vs. Keller's actual statement, which was an assessment of "**strategies**" embraced by "many evangelicals."
Basham's criticism of Keller seemed to grow more pointed throughout the chapter. 2/
@NeilShenvi
Keller's middle zones of renewal (2b, 3a) do not include Trump voters (2a) nor supporters (1).
And back to the citation argument - your disagreement with an author's characterization does not demonstrate a citation error. Megan's book is not a technical manual, it's a book with
J.D. is an upright man. The more I've gotten to know him, the more I trust his leadership, his theology, and his heart. I encourage you to read his response in the spirit of Proverbs 18:17—"The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him."
Undercutting Megan Basham's characterizations of Keller by appealing to additional information (Keller's tweets) with no reference to the authoritative info I pointed out to him? Come on,
@NeilShenvi
Wait... Warren Smith's transparency website Ministry Watch funding saw a 700% increase in funding between 2018 and 2021, and is funded by anon, DAF sources just like He Gets Us? A "transparency" advocate who's against transparency for himself and his Big Eva buddies? No way🤔
"Why won't GCC say anything??" we continue to hear. "Their refusal to address things must mean they're guilty!" I need to make something abundantly clear - the men at GCC are willing to be accused of vile, awful things for the sake of their principles. Let me explain. 1/8
By transparently and narcissistically attempting to be the hero for progressive opposition to Shepherds for Sale, Gavin Ortlund (and his laundry list of decidedly un-conservative positional baggage) broke ranks. He violated the cone of silence.
The
@ERLC
's Brent Leatherwood noted that the Covenant parents (including him) had apparently not seen any of the manifesto until today. So he was militantly supporting the censorship of something he hadn't even seen? Yeah.... not buying it.
@curtischangRB
You meant to type, "There are plenty of factual errors in Megan Basham's book (she's blocked me so I can't tag her...) like ___________" I'm sure.
Related question - On which page does she substitute political purity for the Gospel?
Go watch Gavin's March '22 "I think about climate change every day" video, where he clearly claimed Christians are mandated by the gospel to take action on climate change. He supportively regurgitated every anti-capitalist climate change talking point and granted every single
The thousands of
#SBC24
churches with women pastors is our dirty little secret. They help fund our institutions, and in turn, we avoid calling them out on their disobedience. We say openly that we are against women pastors (and kick out sacrificial lambs like FBC Alexandria), but
@jdgreear
@William_E_Wolfe
JD, receiving the gospel is preceded by the heart's conviction under the law of God. That you were able to address people attending your church actively involved in child murder without identifying this as grievous sin and calling them to repentence is frankly shocking.
Please stop with the "Okay, Julie Roys' reporting was terrible and agenda-driven, but it's clear that GCC handled this situation badly" when it was the terrible, agenda-driven reporting that convinced you the situation was handled badly. Just admit you were fooled.
Planned Parenthood recently changed their website to scrub the sentence that treatment for ectopic pregnancy is NOT an abortion to help gaslighting politicians like
#SBC
president Bart Barber who keeps claiming the opposite.
Since 1980 we have consistently said that abortion should be illegal unless the life of the mother would be in peril if the pregnancy were to continue (such as in the case of an ectopic pregnancy).
@nickcornor
@megbasham
It really isn't. 1st Thessalonians 4:17 - Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
Andy Stanley claimed this morning that
@albertmohler
's version of Biblical Christianity "draws lines," and is why "people are leaving Xianity unnecessarily." This "pastor" doesn't understand the nature of salvation itself - arguably far more dangerous than his LGBTQ position.
2021 French: Christians who won't take the vaccine are immoral.
2022 French: Christians who oppose civil recognition of gay marriage are immoral.
The fruit of a reprobate mind.
Ask yourself this simple question: After decades of ministry and tens of thousands of people involved, how is the best evidence of the "abuse culture" at
@GraceComChurch
a 20-year-old murky, church discipline case? Please use your brains, people.
So far, this has been the go-to "they think you're stupid" modus operandi of the left in trying to discredit Meg Basham's book:
1. Define *real* journalism as zero analysis, only literal quotations.
2. Nitpick every non-controversial conclusion on silly technicalities.
Example:
@megbasham
@dennisdjackson
If you want to be accurate, say, “Don’t read this review of my book because it’s being published by a conservative news outlet that included David French on its launch team.”
Which, of course, would be guilt by association. Also a mark of bad journalism.
The church desperately needs better thinkers. It is infested with men who can't tell the difference between the church and secular society, the messenger vs the message, or biblical patriarchy vs beefheaded misogyny.
In other words, they think more like children than men.
Am I the only one really confused by Meg Basham’s popularity? We have many complementarians following her & putting her in the spotlight - on matters of ecclesiastical import. I don’t understand why we’re objecting to female leaders in churches while propping up Basham.
(ducks)
@elizabethprata
@jdgreear
The irony of reducing Christian women to getting their feelings hurt and not serving because we are discussing women pastors... 🙄
How shameless indeed... Demanding Megan "pull" the book for quoting out of context (hint: she didn't) someone who has...wait for it.... recommended and endorsed the book! 🤦♂️ This is, sadly, what I was talking about yesterday.
As I've said, the primary bulwark of progressives against
@megbasham
's book is Tim Keller. Keller has become the untouchable patron saint of epistemologial and cultural evangelical downgrade.
Mark my words: when the shooter manifesto is finally released, it will entirely undercut the gun-grabbing narrative. They pushed to keep it from the public for a very specific, political agenda.
It seems to be deafening silence from pastors and "public theologians" who pressured Christians into vaxxing to "love their neighbors." We're compiling a list for public rebuke, and want to make sure we don't include any who have repented of their sinful gullibility.
This point cannot be made loudly enough. Folks I talked to at FBC Naples who voted *for* Hayes told me they knew the opposition to him had nothing to do with race, but were afraid to stand up for fear of the SBC PR machine. The slander irreparably harmed this church.
No. One cannot in good faith publicly label ordinary members of a church racists without clear evidence.
Greear was SBC president at the time and had the biggest megaphone in the denomination. He had all the more responsibility not to speak unless he knew that the allegations
"Christian leader can't offer a comprehensible position on abortion in under 280 characters" 🤡
@Protestia
obliterated Roys and her "real journalism" when she tried to destroy MacArthur (she ended up exposed as an unrepentant abuser herself).
Warren's stupid "review" is next.
That messenger was me, Marshall. This was the Denhollander question that was part of my motion at
#SBC24
:
"What has been the official role of sex abuse advocate Rachel Denhollander, who has been reported to be advising the Convention’s sex abuse response, legally representing
I heard a messenger make public statements that were categorically false regarding the volunteer help the task force received from Rachel Denhollander. She has been an invaluable help to state conventions and SBC institutions during times when expert help was needed.
Prior has yet to announce her next institutional appointment, but we’re guessing either a column at Christianity Today, a teaching position at Biola, or a pastor at Saddleback Church.
Roys literally characterized JMac as being a prosperity preacher for having a 3-bedroom home 11 miles from the beach (in SoCal) and for his ministry being tax-free (just like her scandal blog is now) 🤡
Hunt's lawyers missed 4 letters in January. Melissa Hogan, representing your client, failed to redact her full identity and address DOZENS OF TIMES in April. Quit treating everyone like they're stupid, Boz.
“The facts are that it was Johnny Hunt’s counsel who, in violation of the court’s protection order, filed a document with the court that did not redact our client’s identity. [Basham’s] misstatement of the facts could have easily been corrected with any basic fact-checking by the
The femvangelical formula:
Any authority differential makes consent impossible. Lack of consent means rape. So all Eph. 5 marriages involve rape, and complimentarianism is abusive by default.
The answer? Let women do whatever they want, no matter what the Bible says.
Get it?
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on!"
Wanna know why my brokenhearted pastor (like so many others) had people tell him they were leaving our church because "the SBC is full of abusers?" Read chapter 7 of
#shepherdsforsale
. Then call your pastor and tell him you love him and aren't going anywhere.
I worked with that woman and her husband for MONTHS before they would let me tell their story, and only with a ton of assurances that we would do everything possible to protect their identities. Meg outed them after finding a court doc that was accidentally filed w/o redactions.
It wasn't difficult to not ascribe the weight of God's law to one side of the admittedly conflicting information. Pastors who decided to get the vax themselves were just fooled. Pastors who misused scripture to say "God says get the vax" sinned.
@William_E_Wolfe
Alternatively, we could give grace to pastors leading during difficult times, with conflicting information, and trying their best to pastor at the moment. Christian unity instead of quarrelsomeness and division (Galatians 5:15).