This is a really well done article from NYT about illegal alien identity theft. But the most infuriating thing about it is how the illegal immigrant’s church worked to shield him and other others like him who are causing chaos in our system.

And if you read closely, this man was not just a criminal for stealing an identity and breaking into the country multiple times (which should be enough to deport him without further debate).

But he also committed DUIs and endangered the lives of American citizens. The story STILL tries to make him a sympathetic figure. And his church was STILL working to shield him from the consequences of his illegal actions without any thought to the financial and reputational damage his identity theft had done to an innocent victim.

It is very wrong for churches to behave this way and frankly it harms the name of Christ. Christians are compassionate. We are loving. We will give you the gospel and food to eat and water to drink regardless of how you came to be here.

But working to ensure that crime and lawlessness continues in Christ’s name is borderline blasphemous.

https://x.com/megbasham/status/1992634079901368674

Article here:

https://x.com/aaron_renn/status/1992634079901368674?s=12

I don’t know who Carl, who is a friend, was thinking of in his Gig Eva essay, and I wouldn’t presume to guess since he chose not to say.

But I know this. Men who openly lied in order to destroy other men’s good reputations should fear God before using this essay as some sort of defense against the just criticism of their reprehensible actions. Bad men should never have the temerity to use the words of good men as cover for their wicked deeds

Last week, I said I would offer a response to Dr. Danny Akin's comments about my book, Shepherds for Sale, during his interview with @DemarsSean on the @RoomForNuance_ podcast.

For those not aware, Dr. Akin is president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the largest seminaries in the US.

During this interview Dr. Akin says, "[Megan Basham] accused us of being at the forefront of global warming issues.

"We never talk about global warming issues around here. Never. We did have a conference on creation care, which is a much better way to talk about [it]. That's a biblical framework. So we did have a conference on creation care.

"And wrongly, even though she was given information that proved that what she was going to write would be incorrect, we had invited a diversity of Evangelicals to speak to the issue of creation care, coming from different perspectives, including a very, very conservative wing of that movement."

So let's break down Dr. Akin's assertions one by one in the thread below. 1) "We never talk about global warming issues around here."

As president of Southeastern, Dr. Akin has been promoting global warming and climate change alarmism for many years. The first record I found came in March, 2008 when he was an initial backer of the "Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative."

That statement asserted, in Southern Baptists' names, that, "our current denominational engagement with these issues have been too timid, failing to produce a unified moral voice, our cautious response to these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless, and Ill-informed. We can do better. To abandon these issues to the secular world is to shirk from our responsibility to be salt and light. The time for timidity regarding God’s creation is no more."

The statement went on to say, "We resolve to engage this issue without any further lingering over the basic reality of the problem or our responsibility to address [climate change]. Humans must be proactive and take responsibility for our contributions to climate change—however great or small."

It then argued that Christians "must" care about climate issues specifically because of "our love for God" and because "we are called to love our neighbors."

You can see NBC's reporting on this initiative at the time. That statement has been taken down at its original site, but was preserved in full here:

interfaith-climate.com/?p=2040

So, not only has Dr. Akin talked about global warming in his official capacity as the president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, he has been doing so for nearly 15 years.

He reaffirmed his support for the initiative during a 2020 interview with Root and Vine, a religious environmental publication.

rootandvine.com/dr-danny-akin-…

First of all, I have made no public comments about this so I don’t know why you’re tagging me, Mike. Second of all, I signed on months ago when this was the lineup.

One of the things I am deeply sad about is that I was very much looking forward to speaking alongside Voddie, learning from him in person, and getting to know him better. His loss is immeasurable.

I will have more to say in the future, but for now, please stop slandering me.

https://x.com/megbasham/status/1977154324422705178

What I’m sure not going to do though is make decisions based on what a bunch of social media carpers who couldn’t even be bothered to get their facts straight have to say.

I've now seen the complete raw footage where that frightened and bewildered young woman starts to cry, almost seeming unaware of the severity of her injuries, before she falls over.

All I can say is that I feel so infuriated beyond words by every pastor and ministry leader who aided and abetted the policies that led to Iryna Zarutska's death when they joined the trendy but false BLM narrative that our criminal justice system was "structurally racist" and needed significant reforms.

Well, those reforms were enacted. Cashless bail. Decriminalizing homelessness. Reducing the jail population. Anti-racism training for police and courts--all in the name of "racial equity."

These were the "reforms" you demanded when you marched with BLM and its associated organizations. These were the reforms you asked for when you told us to use the slogan "black lives matter." You got them. And you got your applause for taking part in lies.

Repent. Yes. As the president of the largest Protestant denomination in the US, @jdgreear also counseled evangelicals to adopt the slogan "black lives matter" and said "I know that we need to take a deep look at our police systems and structures and ask what we’re missing. Where are we missing the mark? And I’ll say that we do that because black lives matter.”

He has said nothing about the death of Iryna Zarutska in his own state though it is a national story.
x.com/tyler_austin55…

So now that the progressive Baugh Foundation has granted Baylor nearly 3 quarters of a million dollars to promote LGBTQ inclusivity, it’s worth looking at why Baylor would take this step sure to anger MANY Christian families who send their kids to school there.

Fact is, they made themselves beholden to this Left Wing org long ago.

A thread. First, in 1988 and again in 2013, the Foundation bankrolled Baylor’s John F. Baugh Center for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise. Nothing controversial there.

Then in 2021 they established the Eula Mae and John Baugh Chair in Physics at Baylor through a “significant estate gift.”

Again, fine but it goes to Baylor’s increasing reliance on the self-proclaimed progressives holding the purse strings.

EXCLUSIVE: I just spoke with a pro-life leader in Colorado who told me he met with a pastor who said his church isn't going to talk about abortion anymore because it's a divisive issue. He said he brought in a program from the @J29Coalition that taught him there's a better way.

I looked up the program, and it's another Russell Moore/ David French campaign to transform the politics of evangelicals.

Let's look at J29, a project of the left-wing funded @ourvaluesngo So first off, who does J29 claim to be and what does it claim do? It says it's "theologically conservative" and wants to "disciple the American Evangelical church in kingdom-shaped politics."

And who are these supposed theological conservatives? Never Trumpers Moore and French, Democrat Justin Giboney, Democrat Curtis Chang, progressive-leaning Kaitlyn Schiess, (cohost of The Holy Post), and progressive-leaning theologian Scot McKnight, among others.

This fall they are doing special 3-month cohort of pastor training and they say their "focus is on those who self-identify as theologically conservative and evangelical."

So they're targeting conservative churches and pastors, the people who have reliably voted GOP for years largely due to issues like abortion and family values.

Let's talk about the import of what @JoshDaws uncovered here. What he found is that @BillKristol's explicitly partisan, anti-Trump organization, Defending Democracy Together, gave $200k to Redeeming Babel, which developed @drmoore @DavidAFrench and @curtischangRB's church curriculum to help "reframe Christian political identity."

How did they go about executing this reframing among Christian voters during an election year?

Let's take a look... At the start of an election year, @cccuorg encouraged its 185 member schools (and roughly 520,000 students), including @WheatonCollege @biolau and @Baylor, to use the After Party curriculum in their chapel services, discipleship groups, theology and pastoral classes, and in student book clubs. Many of these Christian schools offered chapel credit for attending After Party lectures.

Wheaton held an After Party event featuring Chang and Atlantic writer, @TimAlberta. Many other schools like Baylor and @ACUedu also welcomed The After Party to campus to speak to their students about politics.

Many large churches all across the country also hosted The After Party to speak to their congregations about how they should think about politics.

Please note the incredibly manipulative tactic of Matt Crawford, Pastor at a Southern Baptist Church in Cordova TN. He calls for unity and a unified church, and then injects incredibly divisive politics into his sermon during the gathered assembly. Plus, he erroneously warns of “raids” in churches as a result of Trump’s immigration orders.

This is also misleading. The new order’s intention is to allow ICE to arrest specifically targeted criminals without first obtaining special approval.

I would certainly hope if the pastor of this church had an alleged rapist or terrorist in his building with the church members, he is charged with protect protecting, he would allow the authorities to arrest that person.

There is absolutely no evidence that the Trump administration plans to start indiscriminately raiding churches. This is rank scare-mongering.

The media will now rely on its time-tested tactic of showing only one side of the immigration issue. This will particularly affect Christians who of course feel a call to show kindness and love to the suffering. But you need to understand how the one-sided approach works.

This is an email that @CTmagazine’s new executive news editor sent out shortly before Trump’s inauguration today. Note that Olasky is ONLY asking for on-the-ground stories related to illegal immigrants who are being caught up in raids. He is not asking for stories of families or individuals who have been negatively impacted by immigration.

He says CT has reporters on the ground who will be “covering what happens to immigrants and refugees beginning on Jan. 20.” But there is no expressed interest in reaching out to people who may see the raids in their communities as a positive thing.

In light of @realDailyWire's first theatrical release, @MattWalshBlog's Am I Racist, it's worth remembering how much DiAngelo's poisonous ideology of CRT and antiracism infected even supposedly conservative evangelical institutions .

Azusa Pacific included White Fragility as a "resource" for becoming "engaged allyship and committed to deepening their anti-racist knowledge and work." (The link, which I cite in my book, Shepherds for Sale, is still live).

pages.e2ma.net/pages/1767323/…
Baylor's School of Social Work still has their antiracism statement up, complete with DiAngelo's work on the recommended reading list "to produce ethical social work practitioners committed to anti-oppressive practices."

socialwork.web.baylor.edu/about-us/glanc…

An Open Response to J.D. Greear.

As Greear is the first major figure in my book to publicly object to my depiction of his statements and actions over the last few years, I’ll deal with his objections one by one.

https://twitter.com/jdgreear/status/1823021407787233304

Greear feels it was not fair to mention his sermon wherein he said the Bible whispers about sexual sin because he later released a statement reversing his position after two years of pushback.

But the fact that he did later say that he does not believe that the Bible only whispers about sexual sin is something I myself noted in the paragraph he quotes. Where then is our disagreement?

Of the many distortions and outright falsehoods in @warrencolesmith's Dispatch piece, here are two. First, Warren says he received "no response" to his request to interview me. Blatantly false, as demonstrated here by some of our text exchanges. (that last cropped bubble is me giving him my email address).
Another falsehood--he claims I did not deal with abortion rates going up under Trump. Here is where I do, right there in my chapter on the pro-life movement.

Yeah, hate speech laws like this are no different than what conservatives have been opposing in Ireland, it’s just protecting a different special interest. Outlawing “mendacious” language or arguments that some citizens have more loyalty to other nations clearly violates 1st Amend.

You don’t have to agree with speech like that to have a huge problem with it. This opens the door to all kinds of unacceptable speech suppression.

The fact that Muslim jihadists are killing Christians for sport in Nigeria is getting next to no attention from American political leaders. Let it not be said that it’s getting no attention from American Christians. I’m sad I didn’t see this until today, but here is one way to help.

https://twitter.com/bubbahenson/status/1742000607659999280

I never see the evangelical “abuse crisis” quantified in hard statistics or even in the way of broad specifics at all. It tends to be individual stories. Many are terrible and should be lamented & addressed. But crisis suggests something particularly widespread and systemic. I’ve never seen anything to justify that.

https://twitter.com/jaredstacy/status/1729515817073565928

Essentially “apocalypse” is a media narrative that no one questions because you’re a bad person if you do.

That’s not to see there haven’t been egregious cases. But calling it a crisis in the church has not, so far, been merited in terms of incidence rate.

Southern Baptists should be aware, if they are not already, that @LeatherwoodERLC, head of the ERLC, the lobbying arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, has been leading group to block the release of the shooter's writings. Leatherwood told NYT that the group has told their attorneys to "leave no stone unturned…to prevent any of these writings…from ever seeing the light of day.”

https://twitter.com/JeremyDBoreing/status/1721579103151706225

Also worth noting there is nothing in the pages Crowder released that would aid copycat crimes. Shooter's primary motivation, at least in these pages, appears to be racial hatred against white people.

The Daily Wire is part of a group of media outlets suing for the release of the shooter's writings.

For those asking, here is non-paywalled reprint of my original Francis Collins article. It details his funding/ support of transgender research, including experimentation on children. Also his support/funding for experimentation using aborted baby remains.
illinoisfamily.org/religious/how-… Please note he declares himself a firm LGBTQ ally. Also, here is my coverage of his support for forcing people to get vaccinated under threat of job loss.
dailywire.com/news/exclusive…

Meet Caitlin Campbell, the small business owner in the viral video. She grew up in Lynchburg, VA before moving to Toronto. She started Street Brew Coffee w/ her dad. Those who guessed she’s an activist were right. She DOES advocate a social cause...
Helping the homeless get back on their feet, particularly through job training and employment. A part of Street Brew’s proceeds go to helping the homeless get “back into society by providing job skills, housing and a bank account.”

These guys have such unequal standards. They claim deep concern about abuse but cheer as ethical the leader who used clergy-penitent privilege to avoid a grand jury subpoena to testify regarding a church staffer charged w/ multiple counts of first-degree sexual abuse of boys.

https://twitter.com/DrSampler/status/1668623035476361216

These are public records that were not included in Houston Chronicle’s Abuse of Faith series or Guidepost report though both knew about it. Why would they not include the most significant and best documented case that was more recent (2004) than others?
newspapers.com/article/the-co…

Some facts on Cat. 4 for Ministry Check site. Credibly accused is based on a "preponderance of evidence" standard. What that means is anything greater than 50%. So if an investigator is 50.01% convinced accused is guilty, he would add name to list. Basically its a coin toss. Proponents argue this is the same standard as civil court. This ignores 4 facts. 1) Accusers & witnesses in civil court are subject to perjury charges and financial penalties for lying—a threat they don’t face from independent third party investigations.