Opinion - Why Do People Read Pulpit and Pen?

AD Robles

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You know, I saw yesterday a live video from Jordan Hall of Pulpit and Pen, and he was answering the question as to why is

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Pulpit and Pen grown so much, you know, why do they get so many readers is the question that he was trying to answer.

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And I thought I'd throw my two cents in here as well, because this is something that I've been thinking a lot about over the past,

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I don't know, let's call it a year. Let's call it a year, because people have asked me many times what my opinion on Pulpit and Pen is.

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I'm not sure why they ask me, but, you know, I'm okay to answer. Every time someone asks me, I answer. I answer the question.

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And this is not just online either. This is in my personal life as well. In fact, there's one person in particular, a brother of mine, a beloved brother, an older guy.

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This is the kind of guy that when I need advice on something or when I need help with something that I'm thinking through theologically, or even just practically, that I'll ask his opinion because I respect it.

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He's been a Christian a long time in Vermont, a place where it's, you know, spiritual wasteland here for the most part.

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Hard to stay faithful in Vermont. He's remained faithful probably longer than I've been alive. Maybe not that long.

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So if you see this video, I'm not trying to call you old, but anyway, I respect this guy's opinion. One day we're sitting at breakfast and he asks me a question.

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And I, you know, does he ask me about, you know, theology, government, politics? No, he hasn't asked me about that kind of stuff.

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Although he would ask me, I mean, I'm not saying he wouldn't, he didn't think he's too good for that. But you know what he asks me?

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He asked me, what do I think about pulpit and pen? Amazing. Amazing.

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You know what, you know why he was asking me? Because this guy has been rebuked privately, publicly.

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He may have even lost a friend over this, over sharing pulpit and pen articles.

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I've seen this many times. Chances are some of you who are watching this have been rebuked for the sin of sharing a pulpit and pen article.

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And so people ask me, what do I think about pulpit and pen? And I answer them. And my opinion on pulpit and pen has evolved over time.

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Kind of like Barack Obama's opinion on homosexual marriage. It's evolving. But I'll tell you right now,

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I have a different opinion today than I used to have, having gone into sort of, you know, online, you know, interactions and having my videos out there and people saying things about me and stuff like that.

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And I know that people say things about me that aren't true all the time. People, I mean, we're talking like evangelical leaders, people that are respected and stuff like that say things about me that aren't true.

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And it's not fun. And I understand that it happens when you're going to say something publicly.

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People are going to oppose you, all that kind of stuff. And so people ask me, what do I think about pulpit and pen? And I think a lot of people have this same kind of belief about pulpit and pen.

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And people tell me these things. They say, you know what? I like a lot of what they have to say. I like a lot of what they're doing.

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They're standing up to error. They're, the polemics thing is necessary. I mean, that's, discernment is necessary.

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People understand that. And they like that. And oftentimes people will say, yeah, you know, but I, sometimes

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I just don't like how they say things. People say that all the time. People say that about me as well. They don't like how

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I say things. And I get that. I understand. You know, not everyone has the taste for the same kinds of rhetoric.

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I get that. I get it. So people, people, people, people, people like the content in general.

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And they're appreciative of the content in general, even if they don't like some of the ways that they say things.

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I get it. And I'm pretty sure that the people that write for pulpit and pen understand that full well.

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And so the question is, why do people read it? If they don't care for the rhetoric, they don't care for the tone or whatever it is.

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Why do people read it? That's the question. And you know what I think it is? Here's what

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I think it is. I think it's because they don't detect from Jordan or the people who write with him.

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They don't detect the disdain for the common man that they do detect when it comes to things like the

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Gospel Coalition and the ERLC. They don't detect the same disdain for the person in the pew, the regular

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Joe Sixpack that comes to church on Sunday, worships the Lord with his brothers and sisters in Christ, but still, you know, votes

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Republican. Still enjoys hunting. Still enjoys, you know, collecting guns and talking about guns and still enjoys, you know, regular

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Joe type of stuff. You know, still works with their hands and stuff like that.

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Has torn jeans, not because it's a fashion statement, but because their work is such that it tears their jeans.

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Like regular people, you know what I mean? They don't detect any disdain for the regular person in the pew from Jordan that they do detect from these ivory tower people from the

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Gospel Coalition. Let me give you a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Let's take it out of evangelicalism for a second. Here's an article about the

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North Carolina House seat that the Republicans won just yesterday. And this is a subtle thing, but look, you don't think we get this?

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We understand this. We see the disdain that the Associated Press has for the common man.

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We understand. Listen to this. It says conservative Republican Dan Bishop won a special election for an open house seat in North Carolina, averting a demoralizing

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Democratic capture of a district that got pissed off for nearly six decades. But his narrow victory didn't erase questions about whether Donald Trump, President Donald Trump and his party's congressional candidates faced troubling headwinds approaching in 2020.

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Listen to this next line. Bishop, a state senator best known for a North Carolina law dictating which public bathrooms transgender people can use, defeated centrist

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Democrat Dan McCready on Tuesday. That line is chock full of propaganda and disdain for the common man.

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The person who wrote this article thinks if you voted for this guy, you're an idiot.

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You're a buffoon. This guy, his best accomplishment is dictating, listen to that word, dictating which public bathrooms transgender people can use.

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That's his best accomplishment. He dictated that. You idiot. What kind of a bigot are you?

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Backwards, caveman, Neanderthals. That's what you voted for? You want to dictate which bathrooms transgender people can use?

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The disdain. He wants to make you look as stupid as possible. First of all, nobody dictates which public bathrooms transgender people can use.

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Your private parts dictate that. God tells you, you know, what gender you are.

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You know what I mean? But it must make you seem so backwards, right? It's propaganda. This author has disdain.

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If you are Republican, regular Joes in North Carolina, this author cannot stand.

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This happens in evangelicalism all the time. You know, fundamentalism has become the F word in gospel coalition and ERLC circles.

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They have disdain. Their writings are dripping with disdain for common men. You know, you see it all the time.

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People say, well, if you still support Trump, then you're a racist. You're a bigot. And that's the kind of thing that I'm talking about.

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I remember I had a pastor who didn't talk about politics, and then he quit the pastorate to do whatever else he wanted to do, and he started talking about politics, and all of his politics dripping with disdain for regular

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Joes, regular Christians in the pews that just want to stop abortion and just want the government to leave them alone and lower taxes and stuff like that.

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But no, no, no. They have disdain for you. They have disdain for you. Here's a perfect example of what

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I'm talking about. This is a tweet from Thabiti Anyabwile. He says this.

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You peons. This is what he says. If I were the head of state working for an

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American ally, I would be working to convince other American allies to work together to hack the next election to choose for the

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U .S. a normal president so we could return things to normal. The world can't afford more of this.

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This was in response to the government shutdown. So this is the biggest problem we have.

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A few government employees, they're going to get paid a little bit late because Trump wants his wall, whatever. Thabiti, we got it.

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We know that us peons down here, we can't decide what's right for us, but you, oh wise one, oh wise

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Thabiti, you know what the right president for us is. We got that. You see the disdain, the disrespect, the just, he thinks he's up here.

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And you idiotic peons that vote Republican like a little robot because you're a good little robot, you're idiots.

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I'd hack the next, we should hack the next election so that the peons don't get to choose their own destiny.

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I need to choose. We got that. We know that you think you're better than us. We know you have disdain for the fundamentalists.

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We get it. This is why people read Jordan Hall. This is probably one of many reasons people read

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Jordan Hall, but when they read Jordan, they see him letting these leaders that have such obvious disdain for regular people in the pews, they see him letting them have it, and it seems to them that he's on the side, excuse me,

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I keep knocking this down, he's on the side of the common man, the everyday person in the pew, that kind of thing.

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He's on their side. I think that's what people see about Jordan that they like because when they read his stuff, they know he's a hunter.

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They know he's a regular guy. They know he's probably just a regular, he'll talk to you like a regular person.

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He won't talk to you from his ivory tower of, oh yes, I know so much better than you peons.

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I'll choose the next president for you. Don't worry about it. We got this. There's no hint of that.

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You talk to Jordan Hall, and it's like you don't think that he thinks that you're an idiot. You know what

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I mean? There's some people he thinks are idiots, but it's not the regular Joes. It's not the regular

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Joes. And I think that's what people find attractive about him. I could be wrong.

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That's just my opinion. But when I read Jordan Hall's stuff, it seems to me that he actually cares about the people in the pews instead of thinking that he's better than them, that he's somehow special, and that his opinion is somehow the correct one.

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And if you don't share it, well, then you're just a peon. When we read Gospel Coalition, that's not what we see.

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We see that you have disdain for regular people, simple people with a simple faith that cannot see.

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How could you not do anything about this abortion crisis? It's the most obvious thing ever.

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We don't have to nuance this thing to death. You know what I mean? Stop talking to me like I'm an idiot, talking about human flourishing, all these vague things, like I'm some kind of an idiot.

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I'm not an idiot. That's what people see. And so, look, Gospel Coalition, if you want to lower the influence that Jordan Hall has, because in this video, he was talking about how his

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Alexa rankings are in the 7 ,000s. That's pretty tremendous when you think about it.

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A lot of people are reading Pulpit and Pen. If you want to stop that influence, you don't like it because he talks naughty words or whatever it is that he does, whatever the heck you say that he does, here's an idea.

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Stop writing to us like we're idiots. Stop writing to us like if we vote Republican, we're somehow these evil backwards fundamentalists that just aren't nuanced enough.

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They don't care about human flourishing. Stop talking to us like that and start showing some respect for the people in the pews, the people that you should be having compassion for.

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How about that? Because I think a lot of us are onto your game, too. That's the other thing.

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We know that you say sweet -sounding words publicly, but privately, you're vicious. I've experienced this myself.

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There are some authors for the Gospel Coalition that publicly put this soft -as -a -teddy -bear persona, but behind the scenes are vicious.

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I've got e -mails that I could show you, words from people you wouldn't believe, vicious words.

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I've had someone, a rising star in Big Eva, a rising star tell me that I am pro -sex trafficking.

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Where do they get this? It's a fabrication, obviously, because I'm actually more against rape than pretty much anyone in Big Eva because I think the penalty for rape, if convicted on the evidence of two or more witnesses, is the death penalty.

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It should be death. You rape someone. You sexually abuse someone. You ought to die. Somehow, someone's turned that into,

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I'm pro -sex trafficking. So I've been on the receiving end of what you guys are really like behind closed doors and things like that, and I think when people see

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Jordan Hall, they think, you know what, at his church, he's probably just a regular guy like me.

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He enjoys hunting, enjoys fishing probably. I don't know if he likes to fish. I don't know. He's someone

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I could talk to. He's someone that I could sit down, share a meal with, and really talk to.

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But when we read stuff from Gospel Coalition, these people seem like they're the elites, man.

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They know better than you, and they will talk down to you, and they often do. Just look at their Twitter feeds. Look at their Facebook pages.

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We don't like that. We don't like that. You might like that in your cosmopolitan little, you know, latte -drinking tea parties.

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You might like that kind of stuff, but regular Joes in the pew, we don't like that kind of stuff. We'd rather hear some harsh -sounding language and truth than smooth -sounding words and untruths.

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And you know what? That's a biblical principle, my friend. That's a biblical principle. You see, we're simple.

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The people in the pews, we're simple people. We know the Bible says that faithful are the wounds of a friend, but profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

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We understand that. We understand that. We understand that the

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Bible, when it talks about people who create divisions, it often talks about people that talk smooth, smooth -sounding, talk buttery language, and that's how they deceive, by the things that sound nice on the outside, but really it's vicious.

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It's war in their hearts. There are so many people out there that say smooth -sounding things, but really they're talking about division.

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And I'm looking at you, Gospel Coalition. You're chock -full of people like that. We don't like that. We'd rather someone engage in a little ad hom that we don't care for, because I'll be honest,

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I don't care for some of the ad hom that pulpit and pen engages in. But the reality is, I'd rather have that and truth than have smooth -sounding, flattery words, buttery language with war in your heart.

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I don't like that. I think a lot of people don't like that. So you want to know why people like pulpit and pen?

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Because they're sick of being talked down to. They're sick and tired of being talked down to.