Knowing that Chris L doesn’t like my fighten’ fundie label, I’ve coined a new phrase called ODM, which stands for Online Discernment Ministries. You can read the value of ODM’s in my own life here. Men and women let me tell you this has been a busy day for these purveyors of news they call discernment. One site deleted a post that at best was in poor taste and at its worst was a blatant twisting of the facts to suit one’s own purposes. Having being called out by many in the usual “Amen” corner, a comment was posted stating that the author had been attacked there in the comment section even though no attacks were apparent to this reader. Now, mysteriously and without explanation, the post is missing. Who knows why? It does bring up credibility issues though with the site. We all make mistakes, I make many, but if we can just pull a post down where is the accountability so many ODM’s are screaming about for Godly men like Bill Hybles, Dan Kimball, Rick Warren, or Erwin McManus. It kind of reminds me of my 4 year old daughter who one time said something she should not have said. When I asked her about it, she looked at me and said, “I’m just joking.” If you would like more information about the now missing article you can read about it here.

Speaking of jokes and credibility, I assume the author of this ODM post was kidding when he put this missive up.

I’m going to ignore the petty renaming of Willow Creek’s efforts to help people effectively share the gospel with their neighbor. We’ll just let his issues with that event speak on their own.

He is trying to make a comparison between our own Nathan Neighbor and the Apostle Paul. The author is attempting to make a false anti-thesis between the two in an effort I suppose to be mean and attack. The thing is, the two statements (The Apostle Paul’s and Nathan’s) seem to be in agreement with each other. After careful examination of the ODM in question one can only conclude that the author was calling for all to wake up and realize that Nathan is doing what God has called him to do and like the Apostle Paul there are those who oppose him for reasons only they and God can truly know.

If this author was truly attacking Nathan, which we may assume he was based on his statement

self-professed “leader”

what does that say about the author? What does his actions tell us about his heart? I know we believe that our enemy is not flesh and blood but I believe that there are people who are being used by our enemy to work against the bride of Christ.

Mr. Silva, who is listed as the author of the post, quoted the Apostle Paul who wrote two letters to a young man named Timothy. In those letters he says,

But mark this: 1There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

10You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Simply put, both of these examples show what is one of the greatest dangers in the ODM movement. Men and women, how long will we offer our minds to senseless acts of meanness? I’ve been telling you for years you need to stand up and stand against these senseless, illogical attacks on the body of Christ, which only bring glory to the enemy. However, if you have the courage to take that stand I implore you to understand what the Apostle Paul said,

2In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

You will be persecuted. Many times by people who claim to be on the same team.

So tonight Nathan, we who have come to know you, salute you. Ignore, this silly attempt at persecution and soldier on for the cause of the cross.

I am sorry, but I am really tired of articles like this.  First, as an emerging leader, I am accused all over the internet of being shallow, doctrinally weak and too focused on insignificant elements in church.  However, there has been an increasing trend among watchdoggie blogs to write articles on nothing but someone’s appearance.

Keith from Watwasithinkin? had this to say about Dan Kimball

One of the people below is Dan Kimball, who is from what I’ve been able to put together, an author of several books related to the emerging church (and no I haven’t read any of them)… I had never heard of Dan Kimball before now.

I didn’t watch all of the video. I couldn’t. I could not get past the hairdo!!! …How in the world does an ADULT walk out of the house looking like this and think: “Man, my ‘do’ is looking goooooood today!”…To the people that will see this and be offended, may I offer the following: If you REALLY want to be taken just a little bit serious…DO NOT WALK OUT OUT OF YOUR HOUSE LOOKING LIKE THIS!

Here’s a guy who doesn’t even know Dan, but feels it necessary to critique his HAIR!?!  I have come to believe (in the hundreds of conversations I have had with people visiting Mosaic) that the main beef with watchdoggie blogs is style, not substance.  Most articles have to do with music, traditions, “the way things used to be” and how the good ‘ol days need to come back.  My grandfather, Ralph W Neighbour Jr., wrote a book in 1979 before The Survival Kit called The Seven Last Words of the Church.  You know what he said that the last words of the church there were going to be over 25 years ago? “We’ve never done it that way before.”  Man was he right.  I just hoped it would all have a little more depth to it than hair-dos and clothing. 

And so the story goes: Rob Bell is being shown around heaven by Peter. Pointing to a large group of people, Peter says: “That’s the Baptists. Over there are the Catholics. Next to them are the Pentecostals. And around the corner, you’ll find the Non-denominationalists.”

Rob scratches his head and asks, “But who is that tiny little group tucked away in the corner over there?”

Peter replies: “Shhhh! That’s Pope Benedict, Ingrid and Ken. . .they think they’re the only ones up here.”

I was watching an episode of Carnivale (an HBO show set in a traveling carnival during the Great Depression) and in this episode the carnival was almost flat broke. The manager of the carnival declares they’re going to have a fireball show.

“What’s a fireball show”, I thought to myself, “this could be interesting.”

They start showing the fireball show. The scene opens with a carnival barker enticing people to come into the tent and see the man eating chicken. He talks about the dangers of the man eating chicken and how when its done there’s nothing left but bones. When the room fills up with paying customers he pulls the curtain, and there, is a man eating a chicken. Needless to say there are no refunds. The fireball show also featured rigged games so no one wins, and a museum of fake creatures, such as the turtle boy, which is a turtle shell with a doll’s head. As all this chicanery is going on, the carnival sends out pick pockets to rip off as many people as possible. The scene ends with the carnival manager going through wallet after wallet, taking the money and discarding the wallets.

But that still didn’t satisfy my curiosity. Why is it called a fireball show? The show didn’t answer that. So I turned to my trusty friend google which turned up this nugget:

A show with a poor performance which allowed so many dishonest practices on its grounds that the towns played by it were literally “burned up” for any show that tried to follow it.

Ah, now that makes sense. Sometimes I get asked why I bother writing about the sites that are written about here. The reason is that Slice, C?N, and the rest of the watchbloggies are fireball shows. Anyone who comes across them are burned up for any Christian or church they encounter in the future. And its not because of their theology, no matter how flawed it may be, and its not because of their biases and prejudices no matter how much it skews the stances they take. Instead it has everything to do with how they make their points.

When they write, there is no compassion, grace, mercy or love in their words. All these things are commanded by scripture, especially so in our dealings with other people who Christ has suffered and died for. Their fire breathing is in direct disobedience to the scriptures, and as a result they’ve obscured the gospel.

In Matthew 17 we see an exchange take place:

24After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax[b]?”

25″Yes, he does,” he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own sons or from others?”

26″From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the sons are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27″But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

A temple tax was extracted from Jesus. In this conversation with Peter Jesus clearly indicates that they are sons of God and that the king doesn’t tax his sons. In other words the temple is Jesus’ house. If he wants to he could pull up a cot and take up residence. By right, he should be exempt from the tax. Instead of going in and demanding this exemption, he pays the tax, so that he “we may not offend them”.

Can you imagine any of the blogs that have been criticized in this space putting aside their rights in order to avoid giving offense? I can’t.

I hope and pray this is just a very vocal minority getting lots of attention because of their screeching. I pray that our churches don’t act this way in general, because if so, the gospel is getting burned out in towns across the country.

It appears that the article in question has magically disappeared.  I wonder why…

I am going to try really hard to not assail any individual at Slice, but the article written today about the late Tammy Faye Messner has been bugging me all day. It’s something I have not been able to shake. It is one thing to write mean spirited words about men and women who can defend themselves, it is another thing to speak ill of the dead. It is even more cruel when the mean spirited words are only half true.

Ingrid posted the following quote from an interview with Tammy Faye

Larry King to Tammy Faye Messner: “What do you want to be remembered for?”

Tammy Faye: “My eyelashes.”

She continued to talk about what you are going to be know for, basically explaining that Tammy Faye is known for the wrong reasons. The article failed to address Messner’s continued statement, as pointed out by many comments on the article. One commenter wrote:

I thought that she was just joking, She said my eyelashes, of course (because she like you said wore heavy make-up and was always being made fun of) then laughed and said no, she wanted to be remembered for her faith in Jesus….that’s how I remembered it.

To Ingrid’s defense, the rest of the statement was not published in the news article provided. But I think this illustrates a huge problem with watchdoggie blogs. Taking one line, or a few lines out of the whole piece can dramatically change the meaning of it all. It literally enables people to completely re-write the life of a person and twist it into being overly shallow and meaningless.

The Slice writer continued to explain that Messner was in the wrong because homosexuals were mourning her death. She was remembered for her compassion and love for those in a gay lifestyle. And obviously because gay people love her, she had to have been wishy-washy in her doctrine. As Ingrid put it

I am sorry for Tammy Faye. I do not understand how someone who at one time was presented the Gospel could reject its core message. Jesus said that narrow is the way, and few there be who find it.

It’s almost as if someone is not hated and mocked fro their faith, then they did something wrong. If non-believers love you and mourn your death, that shouldn’t be as sign that you are apostate or unorthodox. After Slice was called out for its hurtful and incorrect interpretation of Tammy Faye Messner’s life and death, the writer had this to say

While I’ve been attacked here at Slice for commenting on Mrs. Messner’s remarks on Larry King, I’d like to point out that she was the one who sought the publicity, as she did all her life. When asked if she had any regrets, she said she couldn’t waste her brain on that kind of stuff… Some reader just told me that I should have had compassion on her and not posted this because she was grimacing in pain on Larry King. Why was she on Larry King? Because she asked to be on. One last go at the media.