- 00:06
- All right, so I just finished watching John Harris's video today.
- 00:12
- It's really good. If you have some time, I definitely recommend that you watch this, the Conversations That Matter podcast, and it's titled
- 00:20
- Panel Discussion with Three Different SBC Whistleblowers. And this is Tom Rush, this is
- 00:25
- Russell Fuller, and then a guy named Forrest that are telling their stories about the liberal progressive drift, the downgrade of Southern Baptist seminaries.
- 00:36
- And this is extremely interesting, although it's quite sad. Because if you remember a few weeks ago,
- 00:43
- I did some videos about Al Mohler and his disdain for social media and what that's really all about, and how he says, well,
- 00:52
- Southern Baptists on social media, they're not that good. And they might even be bots, they might not even be real people.
- 00:58
- And so we need to get in the room together. And I remember talking about how that seemed to me like just a tactic.
- 01:05
- Because obviously, I don't have access to Al Mohler, I don't have the bat phone that I could pick up, and it connects directly to Al Mohler's office.
- 01:12
- That's not the relationship that most of us have. And I'm not saying that I should have that relationship, but what
- 01:18
- I'm saying is, the only recourse I have for confronting Southern Baptist leaders directly is often through social media.
- 01:26
- And so it's preposterous to try to take that away from Southern Baptists as an option.
- 01:32
- He says it's very bad and things like that. But what's so remarkable about this video is these are guys, especially in Tom Rush's case, that do have the bat phone that connects directly to Al Mohler.
- 01:47
- Like Tom could call him up on FaceTime and Al would probably pick up. He could set up a meeting with him and Al would take the meeting.
- 01:54
- This is somebody who knows the ins and outs of how this works. And I don't want to spoil this whole video for you, but the tactics are very similar to mafioso pressure tactics, with the exception of people don't get whacked, at least not literally.
- 02:14
- Because Russell Fuller lost his job for this kind of thing and things like that. And so the pressure tactics that these seminaries are engaged in to silence consent or to silence dissent and to pressure people to do the things that they want them to do, to vote the ways they want them to vote, to say and not say the things that they want them to say and not say, it's unbelievable.
- 02:34
- Well, it's not unbelievable, but it's very disturbing is what it is. How can a Christian organization run this way?
- 02:40
- But yet many people look at me in the face and say, Adam, you're so naive. I've known that this is how
- 02:47
- Christian organizations run for a very long time. In fact, you know, people always get mad at me when I mention them, but that's
- 02:52
- OK. You know, Pulpit and Penn and people associated with them have been reporting on this kind of behavior for a very long time.
- 02:59
- So this is nothing new. It might be new to me and it might be new to you, but it's not new. This is how these organizations are run.
- 03:07
- You know, Al Mohler is a mob boss, for lack of a better term. It's a Christian mob.
- 03:13
- It's a mob that's not engaged in necessarily illegal activities. But for a Christian, there's a lot of underhanded stuff that goes on, like withholding withholding a professor's pay because he refused to sign an agreement that he wouldn't talk.
- 03:27
- He wouldn't talk against anyone associated with the seminary for the rest of his life. Like that's insane. Like you need to pay him what you've told him you were going to pay him.
- 03:36
- And like to try to dangle someone's career or livelihood or benefits for their family as a as a as a as a way to put pressure on them to do what you want them to do is absolutely disgusting.
- 03:50
- It's not how an honest man operates. It just isn't. And so this video is so interesting.
- 03:56
- It's very disturbing. And I think it should lead to action items. And that's what I wanted to do this video about today, because this is the time, my friend, if you see what's going on and the sins of these organization is apparent to you, you see what's happening today is the day to stand and you do it in your local context.
- 04:17
- Yes, but you also do it publicly. You also do it if you have a social media platform, do it on social media platform.
- 04:23
- I commend a guy like Owen Strawn, who is not perfect by any means. And I know that some people have have said some things about what he's engaged in in the past that it's not necessarily the best.
- 04:35
- Okay, fine. Like, like, like, like, he hasn't handled the social justice controversy as purely as some of us would like him to.
- 04:42
- But but he's doing the right thing now. You know what I mean? He's doing the right thing now. So I commend him for that. And you see, they they try to cancel people like this, but they are not capable of canceling people all the way.
- 04:54
- They want you to think that they're everywhere. Their eyes are everywhere and they can destroy you and crush you like a grape at any moment.
- 05:01
- That's what they want you to think. But it's not true. It's not true. They're not going to get away with this for very long.
- 05:08
- Yeah, they chopped Russell Fuller. They whacked him, you know, metaphorically speaking. Hold on a second.
- 05:14
- Oh, got to get rid of this. Hold on a second. Yeah, so the point is, like, like, this is the time to stand, right?
- 05:24
- This is the time to stand for truth. What do you care more about the truth or about your career?
- 05:29
- It's time to man up and care about the truth more than you care about yourself, because the truth is a person.
- 05:38
- What do you think they attack social media so much? One thing that I missed in the last John Piper video is how he says this is something that social media does.
- 05:48
- And he gets that he's he's going along with the drumbeat, that social media is encouraging people to slander all like all over the place.
- 05:55
- And so social media is somehow a negative. And it's so ironic, you know, they do this on social media, which demonstrates they really don't have a problem with social media.
- 06:03
- What they have a problem with is the fact that they can't control the narrative the way they used to.
- 06:09
- They can't control the story that's being told the way that they used to. It's a lot harder to do that with the advent of social media.
- 06:16
- That's why they censor so often on social media. That's why if you post anything about the election, you'll get the little message.
- 06:23
- Twitter does not approve this. You know, that kind of thing. They can't control the narrative as much as they used to.
- 06:30
- Well, now that we have social media and direct access to these leaders and stuff like that. And so John Piper doesn't want you to use the word critical theory, and he calls it slander even.
- 06:41
- And that's upside down, because often the charge of critical theory is exactly correct.
- 06:47
- And if it's exactly correct, then it's not slander. We've got people that when you look at what they teach, it's very similar to critical theory.
- 06:55
- But not only that, they also their favorite theologians are often liberation theologists or they themselves, quote, critical theorists.
- 07:03
- But not only that, many of their friends and the people that they do ministry with, with this kind of thing that we think sounds like critical theory, many of their friends are open critical theorists, as in they call themselves critical theorists.
- 07:17
- Not only that, but then they they pass and push resolutions defending the use of critical theory and talking about how useful and beneficial it is as an analytical tool and stuff like that.
- 07:30
- And so all that put together and you're telling me that it's somehow slanderous to use and utter the phrase critical theory with some of these guys.
- 07:40
- No, John, no, you don't get to control this narrative. That's not how this works.
- 07:47
- It's obvious to anyone who's paying attention that someone who's sounds like a critical theorist has friends that are critical theorists and then defends critical theory has obviously been very influenced by critical theory.
- 07:59
- That is not slander, John. And so you might not like the fact that a guy like me or a guy like John Harris uninitiated, not approved, unauthorized.
- 08:10
- We don't have the right education credentials, all that kind of stuff. We don't have books that are endorsed by everyone in your guild and stuff like that, like, like you don't like the fact that some of us have platforms on social media where we can directly challenge your nonsense narrative and it resonates with people.
- 08:26
- You don't like that. So you don't want us to use the word critical theory. It's a little too close to home. Well, guess what?
- 08:32
- We're going to use it if it's appropriate and we're going to use it more than we used to because we know it bothers you.
- 08:40
- That's, that's right. We're going to do it because we know it bothers you. We know we are hitting close to the mark with so many of these guys.
- 08:47
- They will, they will enter a debate calling the defensive critical theory. And yet somehow you think you can convince us that it's slanderous to say,
- 08:56
- Hey, that guy's influenced by critical theory, even as he's in a debate defending the use of critical theory. We're not stupid,
- 09:03
- John. We're not stupid. And you don't get to run this story anymore.
- 09:08
- Your narrative, it's obviously false. And guys like me will call it false every single time.
- 09:15
- We're not impressed by your credentials so much so that we'll keep our mouths shut because that's what you really want.
- 09:21
- You want us to keep our mouths shut because we're unauthorized. We're uninitiated. We're not in the guild. We don't have the endorsements or the credentials or the track record of ministry that you and your buddies have had for thousands of years.
- 09:32
- I don't even know. Not thousands, decades, right? Decades. Here's the thing.
- 09:37
- Like you can't dangle our careers in front of us. We don't want a career with your organizations.
- 09:43
- You can't pressure us in those ways. And I know that burns you up. And so you rail at social media, like that's social media's problem.
- 09:50
- No, that's your problem. We're not going to be bought off by access to you or a personal phone call.
- 09:56
- Like some people get, get all giddy when Al calls him up on the personal bat line and they're like, wow,
- 10:02
- I must be a player. Well, guess what? I don't care. If you, if I saw you on my caller ID, I would probably not pick up just so I can make sure to record the call.
- 10:11
- I'm ready to record it. And then I'd call you back, Al. I'm not going to be giddy because I don't trust you. You understand what
- 10:16
- I'm saying? Like, like, that's the thing. Like we can't be pressured and bullied in the normal ways that you've been pressuring and bullied your guild members.
- 10:23
- But here's the thing, guys, I have shown over a period of three years, John has shown over a period of three years.
- 10:30
- Guys like Owen Schron are right now showing that all of your bully tactics and all of your nonsense is all a lot of hot air.
- 10:37
- You can't stop us. It's just that simple. You cannot cancel us. You can try, but you can't do it.
- 10:45
- Russell, Russell Fuller is going to probably have more influence now that you fired him than he had when you didn't fire him, like, like, this is how this is going to work.
- 10:53
- Like you guys are all, you know, are these pressure bully mafioso tactics. And when those don't work, you just double down and try to rail against social media again.
- 11:02
- I mean, good luck with that, but it's not going to work. We don't believe your stories anymore.
- 11:07
- We don't believe your narratives anymore. And that's just all there is to it. And so do what you got to do, but let this video encourage you.
- 11:15
- If you see the sins of these organizations, if you see the teaching that's going on, the downgrade, the liberal progressive drift that's happening amongst us.
- 11:24
- If you see it, the time to stand up and find some backbone and trust the
- 11:30
- Lord to get your back is now. Let me encourage you in that, brothers. I hope you found this video helpful.