Some time ago we wrote the following section under the main subject heading Misc. Topics 2:
#5. Nominees: The Worst Christian of 2022
(Pulpit and Pen) Who out there, among the professing, has had the most deleterious effect on the health of the body of Christ in the year 2022? Using a number of criteria Pulpit & Pen has identified a list of nominees from a pool of eligible individuals (obvious charlatans and the theologically heterodox* were not included for consideration). In 2021, Beth Moore claimed the title of Pulpit & Pen’s “Worst Christian” of the year, beating out Ed Litton, Russell Moore, James Merritt, and Dhati Lewis. This year, Moore is not among the nominees, instead, there are a few new faces.
This is not how to restore wayward Christians to Jesus.
Our words are in bold. We have nothing against Protestia, although it is a strange name, and we have no problem with, as they describe themselves, online polemics and discernment ministries.
They are needed. Protestia’s Op-Ed came out shortly after we published our article with their link. This is what they wrote in the second section of their Op-Ed:
This ministry is primarily engaged in the theological practice known as polemics, which (in contrast to apologetics which is the defense of the faith to non-Christians) is the practice of challenging and refuting doctrinal errors, including errors advanced by false teachers.
We have no problem with that, if they actually did do some honest refuting and challenging doctrinal errors. What our one line under our quote above was referring to was HOW they were going about this ministry. It had nothing to do with their ministry or purpose.
We think they misunderstood what we wrote and instead of asking for clarification, they go and jump to conclusions and make assumptions about what we said. Of course, right now it is very difficult to get a hold of us due to some unfortunate actions by certain people.
So here is the clarification. Our words were referring to the name calling, the insults, and other derogatory terms used by Protestia in their identification, challenges, and refuting of those people they have found to be false teachers.
We find their terminology and its use to be very unbiblical and unChristian. In the different ministries that Protestia participates in, they are not excluded from any biblical rules of conduct towards believers or unbelievers.
We will not bring anyone back to the church or to the faith by insulting them. On occasion, we have done the very same type of ministry throughout the years. Yet, we refer to people as Mr., Mrs., Miss, Dr., and so on except for those gender identity-confused people who are referred to by their birth pronouns.
We do not hurl names, insults, or even write them as that sets a bad example for our readers and disobeys the biblical instruction ‘ soft answer turneth away wrath’. We do not care how nasty those people we identify get as we are to return good for evil.
Now maybe their classification of good includes those negative and derogatory terms but ours does not. While we enjoy getting the news they provide, we just do not enjoy their style of writing, their methodology, or their condescending tone.
We also do not enjoy their lack of good writing as often they only publish short blurbs and do not say why something is wrong and we have yet to find the refutation and challenges they say they provide.
Yes, there is a pink-haired ‘prophetess’ running about saying things that are wrong. yet, why is she wrong, why is she a false person, and what can be done to win her back to Jesus if she was there in the first place.
There are a lot of false teachers running about saying things that are not biblical and just plain wrong. If you are going to challenge them, then challenge what they are saying instead of insulting them or ignoring what they have said because you have identified them as false teachers.
The thought has occurred to us that they may not be theologically trained well enough to do the refutation or challenging. We do not know and would hesitate to say more about that. But it is a disservice to one’s readers to say ‘this person or this statement is bad’ and then say nothing more.
How about a more detailed background on the Pink haired lady or why you mention that Brian Houston and his wife are selling their furniture, clothing, etc.? We do not see anything wrong with the latter and hope they may have come to their senses after all the trouble they have gone through.
Give credible and legitimate information not personal attacks or ad hoc statements that put a black mark against your claims of being Christian. Jesus may have insulted the Pharisees, etc., but that does not give us permission to ignore the rules of behavior Christ laid out for us.
None of us are on his level and we should be very careful not to copy him without fully understanding more of why he said what he said. We are not free to insult but we are free to identify and refute, as well as challenge those who pretend to be Christian, yet say and do unChristian things.
Solid teaching is needed so Christians can grow and do their work right.
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