Monthly Archives: June 2018

In for a Penny, In for a Pound

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MKT pointed out a video celebration of J.D. Greear’s election as president of the SBC.

In his comment, MKT noted Russell Moore’s cameo, but Beth Moore is in there as well. If you watch both videos you’ll see that it’s a who’s-who of the SBC’s ascendant politburo.

But today I want to talk about the animating spirit behind J.D. Greear’s ascendence, and I want to do that by examining the message put out by one of his biggest fans, the producer of this video. Her name is Ashley Unzicker. [1] She is a member of The Summit Churches in NC where her husband Todd Unzicker [1] is a sort of pastor of the 10,000 plus church, according to this McClatchy article about how evil Trump is.

It turns out that the celebration video is a follow-up to this video from March 14, 2016 in which she pimps big for Greear to be president. [2]

The lyrics point out that Greear is accomplished, smart, well-travelled, has a full head of greying hair, runs a successful and growing corporation, pushes diversity, and handles loads of cash. She literally puts her whole being into service to joyfully sing and dance Greear’s praises.

Two and a half months after (May 30, 2016) “J.D. Greear for SBC President Rap”, Ashley released another video.

The video is titled “Husbands say ‘No’ to Cleaning”, but in the song it’s the wife saying no to her husband. It mocks her husband as a slobby and irresponsible man-child who isn’t allowed to go play until he finishes his chores, or else she will shame him on Facebook.

Her husband Todd helped her make the video by starring as one pathetic boob representative of all husbands. (It’s called “HusbandS say ‘No’ to Cleaning”.) Perhaps that’s not a fair reading of her intent. After all, this is a diversity-loving woman. Maybe she meant Todd to only represent boring, unsexy, white husbands.

With whom should we assume Ashley is infatuated?  J.D. Greear at whose feet Ashley devotes herself body and soul, or Todd whom she mothers, dominates, and shames online?

[1] Check out Ashley and Todd’s profile tags. 

Hers: Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

His: Follower of One, husband of one @AshleyUnzicker , dad of three, sender of many @Summitrdu

[2] Here’s a video of J.D. Greear withdrawing his 2016 candidacy for SBC president.  If that looks familiar, it might be because you read Greear’s January 30, 2018 post “Why I’m Accepting the Nomination for SBC’s president”. The post’s header image is taken from that 2016 withdrawal announcement. It was posted five months previous to the SBC women’s letter which led to the ignoble ouster of Paige Patterson; a political assassination which would frighten the sheep right into Greear’s woman-shaped arms. Spooky? Nah. That’s just good plans.

The New Woke President from Hipsterville, NC

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I’ve been following the recent events in the SBC since Paige Patterson’s ouster (for his efforts to be faithful to Scripture’s instruction). Yesterday ended the SBC’s annual convention. There they elected a new President, JD Greear from a church group in North Carolina called “The Summit”. If you’ve heard of that church before, it may be because they’re a super-hip church in super-hip Raleigh-Durham.

Or it may be because you read this post and looked at this spreadsheet and noticed that 80 of the 331 (24%) NC signatures were from one of Greear’s churches.

Name Church City State
Julie Rougeux Summit Church Apex NC
Caroline Barnhill The Summit Church Apex NC
Stephanie Creasman The Summit Church Apex NC
Elizabeth Carter Summit Church Cary NC
Glynis Moinet Sumitt Durham NC
Michelle Key Summit Durham NC
Yolanda Reed Summit Durham NC
Elizabeth Ashford Summit Church Durham NC
Bryce Batts Summit Church Durham NC
Kellan Dickens Summit Church Durham NC
Lauren Ellis Summit Church Durham NC
Jennifer Falco Summit church Durham NC
Eva Leung Summit church Durham NC
Samantha Linton Summit church Durham NC
Melissa Mosby Summit Church Durham NC
Jessica Thommarson Summit Church Durham NC
Stephanie Oyler The Summit Durham NC
Amber Pearson The Summit Durham NC
Lori AdamsBrown The Summit Church Durham NC
Nan Beaty The Summit Church Durham NC
Sharon Beavers The Summit Church Durham NC
Katie Berger The Summit Church Durham NC
Jillian Boland The Summit Church Durham NC
Daniel Bonar The Summit Church Durham NC
Emily Bonar The Summit Church Durham NC
Ashley Dickens The Summit Church Durham NC
Jonathan Dickerson The Summit Church Durham NC
Allison Dolbeer The Summit Church Durham NC
Ginger Gooch The Summit Church Durham NC
Rebecca Hankins The Summit Church Durham NC
Audra Hodges The Summit Church Durham NC
Scott Hodges The Summit Church Durham NC
Jordan Kohman The Summit Church Durham NC
Parker McGoldrick The Summit Church Durham NC
Reema Nasrallah The Summit Church Durham NC
Matt Oettinger The Summit Church Durham NC
Tiffany Oettinger The Summit Church Durham NC
Landon Pauley The Summit Church Durham NC
Kat Robertson The Summit Church Durham NC
Rebecca Shrader The Summit Church Durham NC
Alexis Sponaugle The Summit Church Durham NC
Haley Warren The Summit Church Durham NC
Kate Williams The Summit Church Durham NC
Amanda Winter The Summit Church Durham NC
Justin Winter The Summit Church Durham NC
Aaron Coalson The Summit Church Durham NC
Stefanie Golden The Summit Church Durham NC
Christina Kelly The Summit Church Durham NC
Cindy Peterson The Summit Church Durham NC
Sarah Weddle The Summit Church Durham NC
Taylor Weddle The Summit Church Durham NC
Danielle Wilson Summit Raleigh NC
Jason Adams-Brown Summit Church Raleigh NC
Amanda Brown Summit Church Raleigh NC
Laura Brown Summit Church Raleigh NC
Debbie Derbyshire Summit Church Raleigh NC
Yolanda Finney Summit Church Raleigh NC
Kate Hughes Summit Church Raleigh NC
Sarah Davidson The Summit Raleigh NC
Patti Taylor The Summit Raleigh NC
Becca DeLucia The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Kelsey Hamilton The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Caitlin Hooks The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Morgan Jeffreys The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Sarah Krivsky The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Alex Lewis The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Jessica Locklear The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Zack Locklear The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Scott McWhirter The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Mackenzie Morris The Summit Church RALEIGH NC
Doug Porter The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Kristen Porter The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Makayla Riggs The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Nicole Shields The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Amanda Springer The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Katelyn Watkins The Summit Church Raleigh NC
Jeremy Robertson The Summit Church Raleigh Durham NC
Gardner Pippin The Summit Church RDU NC
Hillary Pippin The Summit Church RDU NC
Ray Gardestig The Summit NC

The next largest batch of signatures from one church organization in NC is from Imago Dei, with 30.[1] Between these groups, that’s almost exactly 1/3rd (110/331) of all the NC signatures.

Why did JD Greear stand for nomination? He writes:

  1. Keep the gospel above all as the foundation of our unity and the focus of our mission
  2. Continue growing in cultural and racial diversity
  3. Turn up the temperature in our churches with more intentional, personal evangelism
  4. Plant and revitalize hundreds of churches
  5. Mobilize college students and recent graduates into the mission, and
  6. Engage the next generation in cooperative mission.

The correct way to read this list is to recognize that the first point is The Given. It’s the thing you must say to unite or avoid alienating your constituents right off the bat, as he says. These are Southern Baptists Protestants so he leads with “the gospel above all”.[2] If you were in consideration for janitor at Second Baptist Church Nowhere, your application should start with, “The foundation of clean toilets is The Gospel above all.”

It’s the second point which reveals a candidates actual priority and passion, and which will be forwarded under the cover of The Given: “Continue growing in cultural and racial diversity”. This is where Paige Patterson posed a problem as president; not because he had been racist, but because his anti-racism had got tangled up with sexual predation when–way back in the benighted late 80s and early 90s–he defended Darrell Gilyard, a black pastor who had committed several acts of adultery and later was convicted of molesting teenage girls from one of his several churches.

For the moment I count on the reader’s Google-Fu to combat his possible ignorance on that debacle, but from what I have read it seems that Patterson initially took the radical stance that “no charge should be admitted against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses”; not even charges admitted by a woman! The scoundrel!

I have more to say about Patterson and Gilyard in a future post, but for now I’ll just close by passing on the understanding that Patterson’s early defense of his former student Gilyard is some seriously convoluted history from which to virtue signal about the gospel of multiculturalism, and that’s what the new SBC leadership desperately wants to do.

[1] Hilarious and illuminating text from Imago Dei’s bulletin: “Please note that our Lord’s Supper elements are all gluten-free.”

[2] I note that he does not capitalize Gospel. Which gospel does Greear have in mind? I think he wants us to assume that he means The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it fits the Southern Baptist tradition so we’ll go with that for now.

Clerical Errors?

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A conversation on a different social media platform provoked a question in my mind that I am surprised I have never wondered:

Where are clergy in the Men’s Sphere, or the larger Dissident Right?

Not one? I know of several psychologists or paychiatrists. There are lawyers and business owners. There are more than a few military officers. College professors are becoming common. Every section of the middle class is represented except clergy. Surely I don’t know everyone, but I have been around for awhile.

Doesn’t that mean either something is deeply wrong with us, or with the clergy of every denomination?

Have at Them

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I was raised in the Southern Baptist tradition. Despite my departure from them back in the mid-90s, I still have affection for them. They are how and why I, as a child, became a Texan, and I recall my father’s discussions with other men about the conservative pushback against the liberal SWBTS president Dilday; Dad being with the conservatives. So, as a literal child of the conservative takeover of the SBC, I was interested in the horrific character assassination of now-former SWBTS president Paige Patterson.

I can find reasons to dislike Patterson. He, along with many others, own the mess created by the extra-Biblical idea of Complementarianism. [1] But the fact is he was taken out because–even in his Complementarian error–he chose to skew closer to Biblical, traditional, and observably true judgments of men and women.

Anyway, that’s about all I have to say about Patterson the man. This post is about the 3,365 Southern Baptists who signed an open letter which rebuked Patterson for being reasonable and Godly in his teaching; even if his specific examples in those teachings were sometimes less than verifiable. I would want to know if the sort of person who would sign such a letter was teaching my kids, or influencing my wife. In fact, I’d want to talk to them about their Godless, views. I’d want my friends to know.

17 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. 18 For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites,[f] and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. 19 For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

So I have copied the names into a spreadsheet and sorted them by state, city, and church. The data isn’t perfectly massaged, but it is easily searchable. The first tab has the whole list of signers. The rest of the tabs are a breakdown by state, provided the state had enough signers to warrant their own tab. Rhode Island info is only on the All States tab, for example. View the spreadsheet here.

[1] Even the word itself sounds weak.