So I was going back through some old comments and I found this one addressing the ongoing obsession with trying to “Reconcile” with SGM and its leadership.

I wrote this response to an overarching discussion on the post Reform or Not to Reform in 2009. Now that almost four years have passed and now that we have had the Wikeleaks docs and CJ Mahaney Magical Metaphysical Mayhem the AoR report and the neo Calvinists circling the wagons around Vicar Charles Joseph I wanted to … well I wanted to say I told you so.

>snicker<

Here is what I wrote in 2009: (with some editorial changes)

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One of the leading questions that I get off line is for me to recommend if it is a good idea to continue to engage further conversation with SGM leadership after having left the organization or while still an “under the radar” member.… Read the rest

Begging the cool crowd . . . to get rid of one of its own is like begging the class clown to be serious.

I know this is old news. But in case you missed it, Brent Detwiler—former muckety-muck member of the “Apostolic Team,” pastor elite within Sovereign Grace Ministries, writer of WikiLeaks tattletale documents, and receiver of the left foot of fellowship from his “First Among Equals” preacher homeboys—has decided to beg the “National Leaders” to get involved with the CJ Mahaney ordeal.

For those who don’t care to keep track of the Sovereign Grace Ministries’ shenanigans, CJ and others have been named in a lawsuit over alleged abuses and cover-ups and sundry other “Leadership Deficiencies.” So now it seems that all those tithes and offerings will be spent on legal bills.… Read the rest

Apocalyptic scenarios are fascinating. It is fun to ponder how does a person survive in the face of full societal breakdown, and a zombie infestation is a wonderfully entertaining end of the world scenario. Of course, I’m not the first to offer this vision of the future and most likely not the last. To be sure, grim, barbaric, savage, death-worshiping Mad Max milieus are standard fare: nihilistic future visions in modern fiction or Hollywood movies or video games are almost as plentiful as zombie horror stories and sparkly vampire love affairs.

But what if . . . (This is the question that all writers ask.) .… Read the rest

Let me be the first to welcome you to the Marxist States of America. The 2012 election marks the culmination of a hundred years of social philosophy: the villainization of all things individualistic/capitalist and the veneration of all things collectivist/Marxist.

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are in fact archetypes of these clashing worldviews. And they are both symptomatic of specific philosophical assumptions. I say this because it is important to grasp that they are not causes. They are merely the logical extension of two diametrically opposed ideologies. One is the ideology of liberty and the other is the ideology of slavery.… Read the rest

It turns out that Sovereign Grace Ministries is getting sued.  I have mostly ignored the goings on in that world for a while so I was unaware of the sundry details. Someone sent me the article from the Washington Post three days ago.  I browsed the article, mostly unmoved. And then one of my readers asked what I think about that factoid.

What do I think of the lawsuit?

Mmmm …. Shrug … Yawwwn.

I’m not a lawyer so I have no expertise to measure the validity of the Plaintiffs case on legal merit. After the Catholic Church debacle and the growing cultural hostility to Christianity in general, and anything that smacks as “Fundamentalist” Christianity in particular, the plaintiffs might get some legal satisfaction.… Read the rest

I am always pleased to watch people work with their ideas and offer their thoughts on the most foundational of all questions: Philosophy.  

Argo, a long time commenter on Spiritual Tyranny weighed in on Objectivist thought developed by Ayn Rand. Most people are introduced to Ayn’s thought via Atlas Shrugged and the Fountain Head. However thorough John Gault’s presentation of objectivist philosophy might be in Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand wrote volumes more. For the New Intellectual, Philosophy Who Needs It, The Virtue of Selfishness and many more titles, articles and essays bear her name.  Her intellectual heir Leonard Piekhoff wrote the definitive work on her ideas: Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand and Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology.  

Of course being one who sees the essential foundation of the effectiveness of Reason, its foundation in Man’s competent Epistemology, and a student of philosophy I have read Mrs.… Read the rest

“John, I owe you an apology. You were exactly right,” said Bartholomew.

To which I replied, “You are correct. You do. And I told you so.”

While Bartholomew’s name is fiction, this snippet of conversation occurred in the fall of 2001 in a church parking lot. The broader subject was the institutional mistreatment of a local church organization. The context spanned months of interpersonal antagonism between him and me. 

My second Kinko’s-published edition of had been circulating Montgomery County Maryland for some time. This individual had read a copy though he didn’t get it from me; I was later to learn it was a copy of a copy of a copy given by a pastor I’d never met.… Read the rest

Ken Sande wrote a book, Pastoral Leadership for Manhood and Womanhood, edited by Wayne Grudem and Dennis Rainey (Crossway Publishing, 2003). A reader posted the link on another thread. I originally just glanced at it, but that glance was enough to keep me coming back to read further and deeper. What follows are my mental reflections. (Thanks so much, Dave Harvey. Hugs and kisses)

The excerpts that follow are from the book’s second chapter circulated in PDF form by the Peace Makers organization (click here). I haven’t read the whole book. But since the PDF is being circulated as a self-contained document, I am going to focus my comments on the ominous undercurrents of this chapter.… Read the rest

If you haven’t caught it yet, here is a review of Blight in the Vineyard.

This article was originally posted at Pauls Passing Thoughts.… Read the rest

Super Bowl XLVI was played between the New York Football Giants and the New England Patriots. The Giants won because Tom Brady can’t throw and catch at the same time. (Yes, Gisele, you were not the only one that noticed.) Towards the end of the game, Wes Welker dropping a flying in the air, over the back shoulder catch. It would have been an extraordinary catch, but I think most people believed Welker incapable of dropping passes. Cris Collinsworth pointed out from the NBC broadcast booth, “Welker makes that catch 100 percent of the time,” which he does, because he is such an extraordinary talent.… Read the rest

by John Immel

“Run, run as fast as you can! You can’t catch me! I’m the Gingerbread Man!”

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there were two bloggers taking on abuses in twenty-first century American Christianity.

Rumpelstiltskin was clever, adorably blunt and talked about Metaphysics and Epistemology. The Gingerbread Man was sweet and cuddly, serving milk and cookies to his readers while grumbling about blogging for the greater good.

Rumpelstiltskin talked about Ethical and Political theory. The Gingerbread Man gave people a safe place to tell their stories of being under the thumb of giants up the SGM beanstalk chanting, “Fee-fi-fo-fum!… Read the rest

 By John Immel

(For those of you who don’t care about the specifics of the SGM phenomena, give me a minute. This is going somewhere.)

 Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead.

Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!

Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.

Wake up – sleepy head

Rub your eyes, get out of bed.

Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead.

She’s gone where the goblins go,

Below – below – below. Yo-ho,

let’s open up and sing and ring the bells out.

Ding Dong’ the merry-oh,

sing it high,

sing it low.

Let them know

The Wicked Witch is dead!

CJ Mahaney, El Primo Doctrinal Mover and Shaker of Sovereign Grace Ministries fame, recently released a letter stating that he is stepping away from being the Alpha Big Dog at the top of the “First Among Equals” governing egalitarian hierarchy. It is my current understanding that he wrote this letter to the leaders within his family of churches on July 2^nd. He subsequently made a blog post on July 6^th for general consumption. There is one difference of consequence between the blog posts and the pastoral letter—blog version: first paragraph, CJ reserves the right to update his blog while he is on self-imposed doghouse vacation.… Read the rest

Somehow I ended up on a Frank Viola e-mailing list. Someone was very kind to add me. I suspect that the motive was either counterargument by proxy or they assumed that I would agree with what Mr. Viola is teaching. Whatever the reason and whoever put me there, thanks. I now have more fodder for my Spiritual Tyranny grist mill. Of course, I know some of you are Frank Viola fans, so this could get interesting. My fans are most affirming and vocal when I’m taking on the Sovereign Grace Ministries phenomena. I’ve said repeatedly that they are not my obsession, only a stepping off point.… Read the rest

By John Immel

Unless the rapture only included about four people, I’m going to assume that it didn’t happen. I know, I know, some of you are shocked. Your calculator said the same thing that Harold Camping’s calculator did. I could crack a blonde joke, but that might get me in trouble. We can just all agree that math is hard.

What have we learned?

Well, if history is any measure … probably not much. I remember the first time (within my lifetime) that this whole Jesus is coming back in 5 minutes and 31 seconds occurred. Then the book was called 88 Reasons Why Jesus is coming Back in 1988 and lots of people were all in a dither about Jesus knocking on the Rapture door.… Read the rest