Category: Eric Metaxas

Eric Metaxas Goes Anti-Vax

Not only has Eric Metaxas become a conspiracy theorist when it comes to the 2020 presidential election, he apparently has gone full anti-vax.

I told you about his move into this world back in 2020. Now Metaxas is telling his followers not to get vaccinated.

(Metaxas has removed the tweet, but below is a screen cap of it)

Hat tip to Joemygod for this. I am blocked by Metaxas so I didn’t see it.

In May 2020, Metaxas had Kent Heckenlively on his radio show and gave him a 36 minute commercial for the anti-vax movement. Heckenlively was allowed to provide a full recitation of the anti-vax catalog of false claims and half-truths. Now it seems Metaxas has fully sided with the fringe and may push some people over the anti-vax edge.

He just keeps finding the edge of the fringe and jumping off.

The article that Metaxas links to is not by a scientist or virologist but by a conspiracy writer. In it, he writes:

It [the vaccine] is not a vaccine. Vaccines are actually a legally defined term. And they’re a legally defined term under public health law. They’re a legally defined term under CDC and FDA standards, and a vaccine specifically has to stimulate, both an immunity within the person receiving it but it also has to disrupt transmission. And that’s not what this is.

Here is the CDC definition of a vaccine: “A product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease.”

While there is a question about transmission with these vaccines, these questions don’t render the vaccine not a vaccine. Past vaccination efforts have had inconsistent results when it comes to transmission immunity. See this Scientific American article for more on that topic.

This 2009 scientific virology paper casts doubt on the notion that transmission prevention is a requirement to be a vaccine:

The benefits of reducing person-to-person transmission in the context of either an epidemic or a pandemic are clear. It is therefore appropriate that one of the main aims of vaccination is to limit transmission. Nevertheless, the efficacy of vaccines in blocking viral spread, either to or from the vaccinated individual, is not traditionally assessed in preclinical or clinical trials.

Beneficial? Yes. Required or “traditionally assessed?” No.

David Dark asks Simon & Schuster a very good question.

American Thinker Retracts False Claims About Voter Fraud and Dominion Voting Systems

The far right website American Thinker just published this statement about Dominion Voting Systems. The site had published articles accusing Dominion of throwing votes from Trump to Biden.

American Thinker and contributors Andrea Widburg, R.D. Wedge, Brian Tomlinson, and Peggy Ryan have published pieces on www.AmericanThinker.com that falsely accuse US Dominion Inc., Dominion Voting Systems, Inc., and Dominion Voting Systems Corporation (collectively “Dominion”) of conspiring to steal the November 2020 election from Donald Trump. These pieces rely on discredited sources who have peddled debunked theories about Dominion’s supposed ties to Venezuela, fraud on Dominion’s machines that resulted in massive vote switching or weighted votes, and other claims falsely stating that there is credible evidence that Dominion acted fraudulently.

These statements are completely false and have no basis in fact. Industry experts and public officials alike have confirmed that Dominion conducted itself appropriately and that there is simply no evidence to support these claims.

It was wrong for us to publish these false statements. We apologize to Dominion for all of the harm this caused them and their employees. We also apologize to our readers for abandoning 9 journalistic principles and misrepresenting Dominion’s track record and its limited role in tabulating votes for the November 2020 election. We regret this grave error.

This is an important statement. Of course, they were threatened with a defamation suit, but the owners of the site recognized that they couldn’t prove their claims.

There will be more of these as right wing sources realize they are going to have to prove their reckless and false claims or back off. They can’t do it, so they are going to have to tell the truth to people. Much damage has already been done but I hope some people will listen and realize these claims were lies from the start.

Dominion has filed suit against several other news outlets and persons, including Eric Metaxas.

Trump Jericho Marchers Part of Capitol Assault

Lots of finger pointing at antifa today by Christians who say Trump supporters didn’t storm the Capitol yesterday during the count of Electoral votes in Washington, DC.  Instead, they say antifa infiltrators did it.

First, no specific people have been offered as examples. One would think all of those Trump supporters would know a stranger in their midst. Second, Trump supporters all over the place are taking credit for the mayhem (see here, here, and here).

The third point in response is the subject of this post. Jericho Marchers, mostly Christian Trump supporters who believe the election was stolen posted video of themselves occupying the outside of the Capitol and are bragging about it. Look:

The marchers are on the Capitol steps and the bleachers set up for the Biden/Harris inauguration ceremony. According to news reports yesterday, these spaces were off limits to the public.  The whole area was barricaded but the marchers broke through.  Here they are singing the National Anthem after illegally breaking through the barricade and occupying the Capitol steps and plaza.

I watched this yesterday as it happened and I couldn’t believe the marchers just walked through the barricades. The marchers ignored instructions and warnings from Capitol Police and occupied the area.

Another way of looking at the people outside of the Capitol is that they provide cover for the mob inside the Capitol to loot and terrorize. They were not supposed to be there and it took a significant law enforcement build up to clear them from the area.

I will end this brief post with a Trump supporter asking “what did you think was going to happen?” Pardon the language but I think he asks Donald Trump an important question. Trump invited his most sincere followers to Washington to do something about the election. What did Trump think was going to happen? You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube, Donald.

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.