Marcus Pittman has posted an excellent and succinct post on the MacDonald-Jakes fiasco here. In the process, he deals with another issue: spiritual pride and the issue of the unteachability of the big-name pastors.
Here are some choice quotes:
This brings us to several recent events which both seem to encompass James MacDonald and his Elephant Room guests. In this attempt to make everyone’s theology on equal grounds we have entered into a form of laziness in defending the truth. So much so we can’t even stand on the courage of our convictions and call anyone to repentance anymore.
No one at the first elephant room conference believed in their doctrine enough to call the other to repent.
Apparently no one needs to repent of anything anymore and when someone does call them to repentance those guys are slandered with the title of “Discernment Blogger” who “sits in their underwear at home in their mothers basement.”
These sort of slanderous ad-hominem’s are loaded with pride and are easy to say to those who might not have as large of an audience as some of those on the top of the Evangelical caste system. It’s easy to just toss them aside because they don’t have as large of an audience as you. They’re not in the club, I got it and I understand. You guys up there are like the State, above rebuke and we’re to look at you for guidance. Not the other way around. Were [sic We're] never to question the Evangelical State.
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We have Perry Noble flat out lying and we have no one willing to simply call TD Jakes what he is…a heretic and false teacher who will go to hell if he does not repent.
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No one within this elite Evangelical State can be questioned. They automatically know what is best. TD Jakes is more then welcome to participate, not because his theology is worthy of hearing, but because he has a larger audience. has written more books and spoken at more conferences then you ever will.
John Piper and Rick Warren, the two popes of Evangelicalism can do whatever they want and any sort of rebuke goes completely ignored. After all they have sold more books then you, they fill stadiums and they have more followers on twitter than you will ever have. By the way who are you to question the Evangelical State. [sic ?]
His later comment to MacDonald is also very interesting, as follows:
No one is against pastors having a big influence, that is a strawman of our position.
We are against having a sort of Evangelical Caste System. A sort of evangelical socialist state where the leaders of this “celebrity group” refuse to listen to the commoners below.
When the lowly subjects of the evangelical state do speak out, they are slandered as “bloggers in underwear” which is just a really prideful way of saying “I got John Piper on speed dial, so I don’t have to listen to you.”
That’s the issue at hand.
You guys, because of your influence have created monsters and that’s a good thing. You have created hundreds, maybe thousands of individuals that believe doctrine is serious and worth fighting for. That’s your fault.
The problem is, that the monsters you have created now hold correct doctrine and are willing to die for it because most of them have come out of that doctrine.
They are angered, upset and confused that many Godly leaders would shake hands with the perpetrators of false doctrine that your ministries caused them to escape from.
You have created men willing to die for the Gospel, who are willing to do things your political correctness won’t allow you to do.
The problem is not influence, it’s celebrity. There is a huge difference between the two. Celebrity involves all sorts of compromise and politics. One can have influence, and never compromise.
Indeed!
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