March 2016 – Page 7 – Warren Throckmorton

Former Mars Hill Church Executive Pastor Sutton Turner Comments on RICO Lawsuit

Mark Driscoll and Sutton Turner are the defendants in a RICO lawsuit filed by two former Mars Hill Church couples. Driscoll recently spoke out and called the charges “false and malicious” and “without any merit.”
This morning, co-defendant in the suit — former executive elder Sutton Turner — responded to the matter on his blog. About the suit, Turner said:

As time has passed, I have watched the pursuit of legal actions by my brothers and sisters towards the Church and former leaders. I empathize with them and hurt with them. After recently being named in a legal proceeding, but having yet to be served, I have reached out to the plaintiffs directly. They were probably unaware I was willing to meet with them directly. I hope to meet with them, empathize with their hurt, pray with them, apologize to them, and clear up anything I can.
I have been contacted by many news organizations to make a comment on the lawsuit. In the past two weeks, I have prayed. I have reached out to the plaintiffs directly to communicate my willingness to meet. And I continue to hope that Christ will walk us through this difficult but necessary process in a spirit of reconciliation.

Turner’s reaction to the suit is different than Driscoll’s. Rather than criticize his accusers, Turner seems to sympathize with them.

Nearly a year ago, I wrote a series of blog posts to help me heal as well as to bring clarity to others for their healing. I wrote about my involvement in Result Source and my involvement in Global. The history and culture of Mars Hill is one of both a lack of trust and transparency. Lack of transparency breeds distrust and distrust causes less transparency. It is a perpetual cycle that can exist within any organization or relationship.

Turner says he has yet to be served the suit.

David Barton Condemns Guilt By Association Now That Ted Cruz Is The Target

Once upon a time, Ted Cruz Super PAC head David Barton believed Marco Rubio’s gay-marriage-supporting staff would cause Rubio problems with conservatives.
Now that Ted Cruz is being associated with dominionists and Pentecostals by Matt Drudge, Barton now thinks guilt by association is “ridiculous.” This evening, Barton was featured in a damage control piece at Cruz Net Daily:

Barton condemned any use of “guilt by association” tactics on the Right, by anyone, and was equally critical of similar attacks that might be levied against Trump, Marco Rubio and other candidates.
“Look at Rubio’s funders; so many of them are supporters of gay marriage,” said Barton as an example. “So do we read into that that Rubio is a pusher of gay marriage? No, that’s not a fair read. You’ve got 330 million people in the United States. Are we going to look at every voter who might vote for Trump, or Rubio, or Cruz, or for Kasich and say, ‘Well, look at what this voter believes, that’s ridiculous.’

Recently, Barton did not object to Bryan Fischer’s negative characterization of Rubio’s staff who support gay marriage. Watch:

A little closer to home for me is Barton’s love of guilt by association when he attempts to discredit my debunking of The Jefferson Lies. About me, he told World Net Daily:

Reflective of the change in Throckmorton’s overall philosophy is the fact that he currently writes for the progressive Huffington Post,[22] even though in 2008, he attacked that site as being part of the “far Left.”[23] He also now regularly contributes to Salon,[24] another of the nation’s most progressive and liberal news organizations. Furthermore, two of the nation’s most secular groups, “Americans United for Separation of Church and State” and People for the American Way’s “Right Wing Watch” praise Throckmorton’s current writings and cite him as an expert in promulgating their beliefs.

Barton says I am a liberal because I have written for HuffPo and Salon (and it is a stretch to say I ever “regularly” contributed to Salon). He has to turn me into a liberal to sell his false narrative about The Jefferson Lies being the victim of liberal attacks. As I have written previously here, that story is false. For the purpose of defending his book, guilt by association is Barton’s operating procedure.
On the specific point of Cruz’s beliefs, I wish reporters would ask him about his various “anointings.” His religion is not a Constitutional barrier to seeking office but his beliefs might make some people think twice about voting for him. Given the views of his advisors (including his father), it is only fair to know how he believes those beliefs will guide him as president.

Mark Driscoll's The Trinity Church Will Host First Meeting on Easter Sunday

When Mark Driscoll ran Mars Hill Church, Easter Sunday was a big deal on the church calendar. It is no surprise then that the first gathering of The Trinity Church will be on Easter Sunday in their new/old location.

Here is the announcement just sent a little while ago.

Our New Church Family Has an Old Church Home!

A church building with a rich past will serve as the new home of our future church. Pastor Mark Driscoll is excited to announce that The Trinity Church will host its first ever gathering at 5pm on Easter Sunday March 27, 2016, at the Glass and Garden Drive-In Church in Scottsdale, Arizona!
In time, we look forward to launching The Trinity Church. In the meantime, we did not want to pass up this historic opportunity to gather for the first time on the 50-year anniversary of the landmark building, which opened on Easter 1966. Even though it’s last minute, as the ink on our rental contract is still wet, we look forward to meeting you at our modest open house and prayer meeting. Pastor Mark will be sharing our church vision as we begin gathering our launch team.

About the Drive-In Church:

Pastor Goulooze and architect E. Logan Campbell designed the Glass and Garden Drive-In Church in the mid-century modern style of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The goal to build the 1,400 seat church and adjacent drive-in movie theater began on 7 acres. This drive-in church is likely the only one of its kind in Arizona. Today, the drive-in is gone, although the church remains on 4.55 acres and was named one of the “10 Coolest Churches” by local media.

You see more pics and read more about the facility here. Last Sunday was the last service in the facility for Living Word Bible Church Scottsdale. This coming Sunday (3/13) Living Word will hold their first service in a local Marriott Hotel while they build elsewhere.

More Truth Stretching: Ted Cruz's GOP Debate Claim About Obama's Oval Office Churchill Statue

Despite numerous factual accounts of what happened to the two White House statues of Winston Churchill, Ted Cruz repeated a debunked story during Thursday’s GOP presidential debate which has been around since the early days of Obama’s first term. Here is what Cruz said last night:

CRUZ: Of course it does. And we’ve seen for seven years a president that has made the presidency and has made, sadly, his administration a laughing stock in the world. This administration started with President Obama sending back the bust of Winston Churchill to the United Kingdom within the opening weeks.

Cruz has said that before during the campaign. The claim rated two pinocchios from Washington Post fact checkers.

UK Prime Minister Cameron and President Obama admiring the remaining bust of Churchill. White House

Obama did send a bust of Churchill back to England. That bust was loaned to George Bush and when he left office the statue had to go back. However, there is another statue which has a permanent place in the White House furnishings. That statue stayed at the White House and in the photo above is being viewed by U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron along with Barack Obama in 2010.
It is a pretty silly controversy, so am I writing about it?
Given Cruz’s close ties to David Barton and Glenn Beck, the fact that Cruz repeats what is to him a useful story despite it being so misleading as to be untrue is relevant to his candidacy. Just yesterday, I posted a clip of David Barton claiming that he was on the FBI’s hate group list. He encouraged his listeners to go look up his name on the FBI website. However, I learned from the FBI that the agency has no formal list of hate groups and so David Barton can’t be on it. Barton has made numerous false claims about historical and current events.
While opening for Cruz’s campaign speeches in Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada, Glenn Beck deceived Cruz audiences about his copy of Don Quixote and George Washington’s diary entry on the day Washington signed the Constitution.
These are needless distortions and falsehoods by two of Cruz’s closest endorsers. Cruz’s distortion of the facts was needless as well. However, it seems that Cruz and company have such a pattern of this that all factual claims need to be checked (see also this example from a Cruz legal brief). Those who have followed Barton and Beck know that truth stretching is part of the operating procedure. Either this has rubbed off on Cruz or birds of a feather have flocked together.
So many red flags go up. Cruz’s slogan is TrusTed. My response is: Why should I?

FBI Says There is No Hate List So David Barton Can't Be On It

Awhile ago, Right Wing Watch posted a clip of David Barton telling an audience that he was on the FBI website as a “hate group.” He also said there is a new hate group list out from the FBI and he is on it.
First, I went to the FBI website and used the search engine to look for Barton and/or Wallbuilders. I found nothing.
Curious, I decided to call the press office of the FBI and ask where I could see the new list and if Barton was on it. The representative said there was no list like that so Barton couldn’t be on it. She told me that the Southern Poverty Law Center publishes such a list.
I checked out the SPLC site and found an out of date article about Barton as an extremist but he wasn’t labeled a hate group as far as I could see.
In any case, it is hard to understand how Barton could confuse the FBI with the SPLC.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-3nwoAt3WA[/youtube]
And I don’t believe you can be fined in San Antonio just for saying marriage is between a man and a woman.
And Ted Cruz says Trump voters are “low information.“