March 2017 – Page 4 – Warren Throckmorton

K-LOVE Discontinues The Shack Promotion

Near the end of February and into the first week of March, K-LOVE promoted the movie The Shack on air. It had all of the trappings of a paid promotional campaign, complete with a ticket giveaway contest. However, many K-LOVE listeners were not amused (e.g., Tim Challies), viewing The Shack as promoting heresy.
In response, K-LOVE discontinued the promotion. The announcement was low-key and in response to a listener post on the K-LOVE Facebook page:

Thanks for sharing your concerns, Julie. We discontinued this promotional earlier this week and are no longer airing it. If you do have any questions or concerns about our biblical values, you’re more than welcome to call our K-LOVE pastors at 1-800-525-5683.

Just a few days prior to yesterday, K-LOVE defended the promotion but the reaction may have been strong enough to change their minds.
While I cannot be sure, I think the promotion was probably about to end anyway since the ticket giveaway campaign ended on March 5. I wrote K-LOVE about the details but did not hear anything back.
K-LOVE can be responsive to listeners when the leaders perceive it will impact them. I will be watching their Spring fund drive to see if they modify any of their claims to make the promotion more transparent.

Why Christian Nationalism is a Problem – Exhibit A: India

Yesterday, Terry Mattingly at Get Religion blog began a post about the NYTs coverage of India and Compassion International like this:

If you have followed news in India in recent years, you know that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party – commonly known as the BJP – has continued its efforts to promote “Hindutva,” or Hindu-ness, which essentially argues that Hinduism is an essential component of what it means to be a citizen of India.
Thus, it’s goal is to defeat secular pluralism and the recognition of a valid role for other faiths in public life. The side effect has, in many cases, been a crackdown on many of the activities of other faiths in India – especially ministries linked to foreign groups.

For discussion’s sake, let’s Americanize these observations:

If you have followed news in the United States in recent years, you know that the Republican party – commonly known as God’s Own Party (GOP) – has continued its efforts to promote “Christian nationalism,” or Christian-ness, which essentially argues that Christianity is an essential component of what it means to be a citizen of the USA.
Thus, it’s goal is to defeat secular pluralism and the recognition of a valid role for other faiths in public life. The side effect has, in many cases, been a crackdown on many of the activities of other faiths in the US – especially the construction of new mosques and activities of foreign groups.

If you read the NYT’s article, you will get some insight into conditions in India where Hindu nationalism appears to be on the rise. Christian journalist Mattingly properly locates opposition to Hindu nationalism in human rights. When the government or a political party takes sides in religion, eventually freedom of conscience suffers.
Christians don’t like these policies in other countries but seem to be oblivious to the same or similar rhetoric and actions here. We should oppose religious nationalism even when the perceived winner is our team.

Reparative Therapy Pioneer Joseph Nicolosi, Dead at 70

I was saddened just now to read in the Daily Beast that Joe Nicolosi died suddenly early this morning. The Beast cited the Facebook page of Nicolosi’s clinic, the Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic in Encino, CA for the news. According to the note, posted earlier this afternoon:

We are deeply saddened and shocked to announce the death of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi yesterday in California from complications from the flu.

My condolences to his wife Linda and son Joseph, Jr.
The illness must have come upon him quickly; I know someone who spoke to him just recently. As always, he was vigorously defending his ideas.
We disagreed about a great many things, but I can say to his credit that he cared deeply about his family, his work, and his clients.
Nicolosi was the co-founder with Charles Socarides and Ben Kaufman of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) in 1992. Along with Focus on the Family and Exodus International, NARTH was a third of the ex-gay movement’s trinity. Nicolosi spoke frequently at Exodus conferences and was for many years the featured speaker at Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out traveling ex-gay conference.
Nicolosi adapted psychoanalytic ideas from Elizabeth Moberly and others to promote what he considered to be a therapeutic approach to sexual orientation change. He was most interested in the formation of male homosexuality and believed distant fathers and overbearing mothers together created a family triad which greatly increased the chances that a male child would become gay. Even as neurological and family studies called his work into question, Nicolosi defended his ideas via media appearances and his organization NARTH. At his death, Nicolosi was in the middle of a research project with psychologist Carolyn Pela.
In response to reports of harm from Nicolosi’s theories and practice, many gay rights advocates made ending reparative therapy a prime objective. Currently, five states, DC and several cities have banned reparative therapy for minors.
This evening Nicolosi’s wife Linda released a statement on the clinic Facebook page.

Six Months Later David Barton Still Hasn’t Explained His Earned Doctorate

In early September of 2016, self-styled historian David Barton posted the following video:

The day after he posted the video, he removed it from his Wallbuilders website and Facebook page. He has never addressed why the video was up for a day and then gone.

Barton ridiculed progressives for disbelieving his claim to have an earned doctorate. Then all of a sudden the video was removed and he stopped talking about his doctorate. None of the people who rely on his work apparently care that he claimed to have an earned doctorate when in fact it came from diploma mill Life Christian University. The claim just vanished as if it never happened.

Will Barton ever address his claims?

For the rest of the story, see these posts.

Three People Listed by Ecclesia College as Regents Didn't Know They Were on the Board

Now that’s embarrassing.
Steve Henderson, H.D. McCarty and Pat Boone are listed by Ecclesia College as members of their Board of Regents. However, the men now say they didn’t know they were listed as members. Pat Boone told Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter Bill Bowden he never heard of the school.
Henderson and McCarty both know about the school and know beleaguered president Oren Paris but they didn’t know they were on the Ecclesia Board.
Paris has been indicted on charges of fraud for his part in an alleged kickback scheme including two Arkansas state legislators, Sen. Jon Woods, and Rep. Micah Neal. Neal has already pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. Woods and Paris maintain their innocence.
Those listed as Board of Regents are:

Please click on the names below to find out more about our featured Board of Regents members:
Honorable Bob McEwen
Dr. David Barton
Pat Boone
Dr. Steve Henderson
Dennis Lindsay
Dr. H. D. McCarty
Eric Metaxas
Twila Paris
Winkie Pratney
Valentin Vale

If the leadership of the school would mislead the public about something as important as who is on the Board of Regents, it does make me wonder what else they aren’t being honest about.