Todd Pruitt Strenuously Objects to Good Advice

All right, welcome back to the channel. God bless you. I am going to do a quick video today. I'm not sure if I have enough time for a longer one. We will see how the day goes. But I did want to comment about this post here from Toby Sumter, which I have to thank Todd Pruitt here, because I never would have seen it had he not, I guess he's trying to dunk on it.

I don't know exactly what he's trying to do. He finds this objectionable for some reason, which we're going to get into why he thinks this is bad. It's unbelievable that he thinks this is bad. But Todd was trying to, you know, get some bona fides, get a little attaboys for this.

He's dunking on this. But Toby actually has some really good advice here. In fact, I practice this advice myself. We'll talk about that in just a second. If you don't know who Todd Pruitt is, he's another one of these guys that, kind of similar to Kevin DeYoung, I can't say that he doesn't fight back.

He just fights back a lot differently than I would, which again, this is completely okay. We need Ezras and we need Nehemiahs. If I'm going to be more on the Nehemiah personality, I can't be upset about other people being Ezra personalities.

And so, you know, we need all types. And so if you know anything about Todd Pruitt, I would not say he's the kind of guy that just doesn't fight back or doesn't do anything. There's a lot of guys out there like that.

We get it. But I would not say Todd Pruitt is one of those guys. I don't agree with him on everything, obviously, but at the very least, on some of the core issues, he does fight back to some degree. And so you've got to commend him for that.

Unfortunately, Todd Pruitt is best known for being partly responsible for creating the monster that is Amy Bird. So there's that. Anyway. All right. So here's what Todd Pruitt has to say. He says, what other church or pastor thinks like this?

And you could certainly see him with his holy robes and maybe he's got his pearl necklace and he's just clutching it. He can't believe anyone would think this way. What other pastor or church thinks like this?

You got to read it in the right tone. At least in my mind, that's how the tone is. Well, think of the children. You know, that woman from Simpsons. Anyway, so he's obviously very troubled by this. And so let's read it.

Because when I saw Todd quote tweeting Toby Sumter, well, not really quote tweeting him. He actually did the old screenshot type thing. And which, you know, it's much more disrespectful to do it that way.

But anyway, he did the screenshot thing. When I saw it was Toby, I was like, man, Toby must have really had a he must have really said something stupid. Because the thing is, Toby from time to time, he'll say something incendiary, right?

And it's intentionally incendiary. And so you can certainly understand why somebody gets their panties in a little bunch over it. But so I wanted to see what it was because I didn't know what he had said.

I hadn't heard anything yet. You know, usually I'll hear it through the grapevine. Oh, did you see that Gabe said this, you know, and I hear a little bit about it. And I can pretty much assume that when somebody is, you know, trying to dunk on something, that it's that thing.

It's a stupid thing that he said. So I was ready for a doozy. I was ready for Toby to say, to have said something like, oh, I don't know. Great, great. You might as well put your grape juice in a in a sippy cup.

What did he say? Let's not get into it. Let's not we don't have to have that fight on this channel. Anyway, so I was expecting to be something like that. Here's what Toby actually said, though. This is what Todd Pruitt wanted to dunk on.

He said, FYI, for those who find themselves in anti-Moscow churches or communities, I just sent this to someone the other day whose home church isn't into the Moscow mood. Quote, My general advice would be to work hard at being the most cheerful, gracious servant in the church and not worry too much about defending Moscow or Pastor Doug.

If it comes up in conversation, you can say things like, I have a different perspective, but how about them cowboys? End quote. In other words, just work to avoid the conflict if it's just about Moscow stuff and folks.

If you're going to press on something, press where you can point to a clear passage of Scripture, but still do it If you're going to be under those elders and they are otherwise godly men, don't make their lives difficult.

Hebrews 13, 17. Otherwise, you might, you really might need to find another church. Blessings. I wish I was kidding, but that's what Todd Pruitt, Pruitt, Pruitt, Todd Pruitt found so objectionable about Toby Sumter.

What other church or pastor even thinks this way over that? What Toby said there is really good advice. And of course, Toby is answering a question from somebody else. And I'm sure he's had this question asked to him a number of times.

And so that's why he posted it online. So that way, you know, he could just kind of point to this. And I've done that before, you know, people ask me questions and sometimes we'll get a very unique question, but a lot more often than not, the question is not unique at all.

And that's not to say that the person is stupid or anything. You just get the same question over and over again. And so I'll do a video about it or I'll do, I'll write a post about it. So that way it's real easy to answer.

I'll even sometimes respond to someone and say, Hey, you know, do you mind if I respond to this in a video? You know, I won't, I won't say anything to you specifically, but you know, stuff like that. This is really good advice.

I practice this advice myself, you know, and this is not just necessarily only for your church and your specific elders, but it could be really for any relationship that you have. You know, you're going to meet people that really aren't into some of the pet, you know, projects that you have, or they're not that interested in things that you like.

And it could be a personality, like in this case, it's the Moscow mood, Doug Wilson, things like that. Or it could be even, it could even be a matter of theology. You know what I mean? And I've got situations in my own, in my own theology that I know are unusual and they're not common.

They're not commonly accepted. There are points in my theology that I understand that about, and I choose not to fight over them. It doesn't mean I won't talk to you about it, but I'm not going to, we're not going to, we're not going to go round round after round over it.

You know what I mean? It's as simple as that. I won't allow it to happen. And so this is really good advice. Like, don't be a problem. You know what I mean? Don't be a problem. Don't make yourself a problem.

Now, I posted this on Twitter, you know, don't be a problem kind of thing. And somebody responded to me, you know, what I found is that oftentimes in liberal churches, problems find you. And that's true.

You know, as long as it depends on you, be at peace with everybody. So don't be a problem. Don't be insisting on your own way. Here's the point. Not everybody has to do it the way you do it. Not everyone has to have the same personality.

Not everybody has to like the same content. I mean, for goodness sake, we're talking about the same content, like liking content. I like Doug Wilson's content. You don't like Doug Wilson's content. What do I do?

Here's what you do. Don't make it a big deal. It isn't. It's not a big deal. What could possibly be offensive about that advice? My pastor doesn't like the same content I do. So what? Why does he have to?

Now, in Toby's post, I mean, it's a little bit more extreme than that. They're actually against Doug Wilson. His pastors are against Doug Wilson. So it's a little more intense than they just don't like the same content I do.

He says anti-Moscow, which there are quite a few anti-Moscow elders out there. That also doesn't have to be a big deal. That also doesn't have to be a big deal. You know what I mean? Because the thing is, just because good pastors, pastors that are otherwise godly, in fact, that's what he says here.

Toby says otherwise godly men, right? He says if they're otherwise godly men, don't make their lives difficult. And I think Todd, you know, he underlined this here. And I think he probably took offense to that.

Like, what do you mean otherwise godly? What are you saying? They're ungodly? Well, no, I mean, otherwise godly is exactly the opposite of that. Like, it's like saying, you know, I can't tell if you're doing the right thing or not, but you're otherwise smart, so I'm going to trust you on this one.

You know what I mean? Like, I don't know if you're right about this one, but you're usually right, so I'm going to trust you. Like, it actually means the opposite. So he underlined this and is getting his pearl necklace all stretched out because he's so upset, but that's actually a good thing.

You know, otherwise godly men, yeah, so I'm going to trust you. So my point is, like, otherwise godly men who are anti-Doug Wilson, they're not going to church discipline you or get upset with you for not being anti-Doug Wilson.

You know what I mean? So don't make a problem. Don't make a problem over it. You see, they're otherwise godly men. They're good men. That's why you're at that church, and they're anti-Moscow. That actually doesn't have to be a big deal.

Like, not everybody has to agree with your attitudes. Not everybody has to agree with your style. Not everyone has to agree with your content choices. Not everyone has to agree with your theology. It's as simple as that.

It's as simple as that, and somebody's right and somebody's wrong, but you don't have to make it a big deal. You can actually still submit to elders who you think are wrong about certain theologies. It's as simple as that, and the thing is, like, you can't, though, then say, well, I'm going to, like, crusade or I'm going to create a little, like, a coup d 'etat or a mutiny over certain theologies.

Like, that's actually not following Toby's advice. You know what I mean? Avoid conflict. That means actually avoiding it. Don't make it a big deal. If you know your pastor is anti-Doug Wilson or anti-Moscow, you know, maybe don't share the Canon Press article with him that you found so helpful.

It all depends, though. I mean, different people have different personalities, right? Like, certain pastors are okay with being challenged and stuff like that, and certain ones aren't. You got to know these guys, and so if you have a pastor that, you know, he kind of likes kicking things around, he likes grappling with things, you know, sure, maybe you send him the recent Doug Wilson article that you know he's going to hate, but there's some pastors out there that don't want to hear it, and they get all upset, and they get all worried and stuff like that, then don't.

I mean, there's a lot of wisdom that's involved here. There's a lot of wisdom involved here, and so Todd Pruitt, like, he's, like, trying to dunk on Toby here, but Toby's just given extremely good advice and also quite mature advice.

He understands that there are a lot of people that, quite frankly, hate him. They hate him, and Toby's, you know, more than willing and, in fact, happy to say, it could be godly guys that hate me. It could be godly guys out there that are against everything that I'm for, and so don't make it a big deal.

It's not a big deal. You don't have to go to war with those people. Anyway, thought that was interesting. Hope you found it helpful. God bless.