Merry Christmas – 2020

This is a tradition on the blog:

Recorder artist Victoria Rigel played two recorders at once in this 2008 performance of O Come, O Come Emmanuel. I accompanied her on the guitar. She adds the second recorder at the beginning of the second verse.

Another tradition is to feature music by Audible Waters. I usually do it on Christmas Eve but I was unusually busy this year.

Several years ago, they put together a collection of Christmas carols which I enjoy. Here is one: Angels We Have Heard on High.

Thanks for reading through the year and however you celebrate I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and holiday season.

Eric Metaxas Named in Defamation Suit by Dominion Voting Systems Employee

Update (12/23) – Eric Metaxas just tweeted this YouTube video doubling down on his allegation about vote alteration against Eric Coomer. I wonder who is giving Metaxas advice.

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Yesterday, it was made public that Eric Coomer, a staffer at Dominion Voting Systems, has filed a defamation suit against the Trump campaign, Gateway Pundit, Newsmax, and One America News Network. Of interest to regular readers here is that Bonhoeffer author and Trump court evangelical Eric Metaxas was also named in the suit.

Twitter user jpweigand posted this link to the suit:

Metaxas’ loose allegations and fight to the death mentality may require him to pay some green to Dr. Coomer. Coomer has received death threats and is in hiding right now. We shall see how confident all of these yahoos are in their accusations about Dominion Voting Systems. If they have proof of algorithms switching votes and fraud, then I say to them: defend yourself in court. They don’t and they won’t is my prediction.

Specifically, Metaxas is included in the suit because he interviewed uncritically Joe Oltmann, the man who said Coomer promised Antifa Trump would lose the election: (The Eric Metaxas Radio Show, Joe Oltmann Discusses How A Security Genius at Dominion Voting Promised Antifa Members a Trump Loss, YOUTUBE (Nov. 24, 2020). According to Coomer, Metaxas did not contact Coomer nor attempt to corroborate any of the information.

It will be interesting to see if Metaxas backpedals on these claims. He has some prior experience on that.

Update: As noted in the update at the beginning of the post, Metaxas has doubled down on his allegation that Eric Coomer altered votes. He posted this video to Twitter as if to say Coomer admitted something.

The problem for Metaxas is that Coomer doesn’t explain anything about changing anybody’s vote. This isn’t going to be any kind of defense for Metaxas. And when Coomer shows the court what kind of rabble Metaxas is rousing (see below for a tiny sampling), it shouldn’t take much to establish that Metaxas has hurt Coomer’s reputation.

Eric Metaxas Predicts Bumpy Ride to Second Trump Inauguration; Bonhoeffer Partners with My Pillow

Even after the Electoral College voted to elect Joe Biden as the next president, former Christian intellectual Eric Metaxas insists Trump will have a second term.

The new strategy is for the House and Senate to overturn the vote of the people.

A few Trumpublican Congressmen and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) plan to contest the Electoral College vote. Surely, this won’t go anywhere because both the House and Senate would have to vote to negate the vote. This will not happen.

It is worth noting that one of Metaxas’ new favored resources is the Epoch Times, a newspaper tied to the religious group Falun Gong. On the upside, the Falun Gong opposes the Chinese Communist regime; on the downside, the Epoch Times has embraced QAnon and other conspiracy theories, including the voter fraud claims. Instead of questioning the sources, Metaxas appears to seek sources which feed him what he wants to hear.

It is hard to see where Metaxas goes after this is over. Here is a clue:

If you click the link in the tweet, you go to an ad for a My Pillow “Anniversary Addition” of his Bonhoeffer book.

Bonhoeffer selling pillows; pillows selling Bonhoeffer. Doesn’t seem fair that Bonhoeffer doesn’t even get a My Pillow with him as he is turning over in his grave.

Another COVID-19 Outbreak at John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church – UPDATED

UPDATE: LA County Department of Health informed me this afternoon (12/21) that “No additional outbreaks have been reported by Grace Community Church to Public Health since” the earlier employee related outbreak in October.

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Twitter user and Medium writer Modern Day Zorro posted a piece on Medium with news of another Grace Community Church COVID outbreak (there was one back in October). MDZ is close to GCC and has never been wrong with news on the church. (My question mark in the title is admittedly self-protective, and because I have not been able to get confirmation from Grace’s PR firm. – See the update below) Given the lack of mitigation measures and the ignorance about COVID which have been apparent at Grace, I don’t doubt the report. However, if corrections or modifications are needed, I will make them.

According to the Medium report, multiple Grace members and staff may be infected:

  1. Don’t take the vaccine as it’s just a money ploy.
  2. Grace is welcoming 400 new members.
  3. The giving is the best it’s ever been.
  4. There are no long-term side effects to COVID.
  • Yes <hits mic and blows into it> 7 people, elders and staff, have COVID symptoms and have subsequently tested positive as a direct result of going to a Staff Christmas party.

    While I await confirmation of specific numbers, I can note that one pastor at Grace, Will Varner, has tested positive for COVID and announced this publicly. He also said a musician affiliated with GCC’s Sojourners ministry tested positive.

Let’s not forget that MacArthur’s attorney Jenna Ellis tested positive for COVID-19.

As someone who has had COVID, I certainly wish the best for these folks. I post this because I sincerely doubt that certain church leaders at GCC will provide the congregation with appropriate information. At least, it hasn’t happened so far.

UPDATE: Julie Roys has an article out on Sunday with reporting that people at Grace are being discouraged from telling anyone about their COVID diagnosis.  She also has much more documentation of GCC members and staff who have COVID. It seems pretty clear that MacArthur’s rosy picture of a church meeting indoors without caution and without cases of COVID is false.

During church on Sunday morning, MacArthur did not comment on the cases identified by the sources noted above and by Julie Roys.

Another update from Modern Day Zorro:

MacArthur said everybody has a bug.

YouTube Removes Eric Metaxas’ Biden Parody Video

Yes, due to a copyright claim, the awful “Biden Did You Know?” parody is gone from YouTube. The video featured just about all of the false conspiracy theories about voter fraud making the rounds.

You knew this was coming. I am surprised it took so long.

I emailed Pentatonix yesterday and asked them for comment about being featured in the video. Metaxas used the group singing, Mary, Did You Know? in his parody presumably without their permission. I have not heard from their publicist and don’t know if that email had anything to do with the copyright claim.

In any case, get ready for the persecution cries.

No more will you see this at that link: