Warren Throckmorton

Until this past weekend, Mike Wilkerson was the Biblical Living Pastor (Pastoral Care) at Mars Hill. Widely respected, Wilkerson helped develop the Redemption group concept (website for Redemption Group Network) which is the Mars Hill effort to provide lay counseling. Here is the announcement:

From Pastor Scott Harris:
Mars Hill Family,

According to this Florida Today report, David Barton is slated to speak at the Space Coast Prayer Breakfast in Melbourne, FL this Thursday.
The reporter provided the details of the event and noted that Thomas Nelson pulled from publication Barton’s book The Jefferson Lies. Barton continues to spin the situation as being the result of “two professors.”

Barton’s most recent book, “The Jefferson Lie, Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed,” was withdrawn by publisher Thomas Nelson because of factual errors, but will return.
“Thomas Nelson withdrew the book after two professors criticized it. But it’s coming back out at some point. You can’t just get rid of history simply because you don’t like it.”

While Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims about Our Third President was used by Thomas Nelson as a resource, it is beyond dispute that The Jefferson Lies was widely criticized by academic historians, both Christian and otherwise.  The book was voted Least Credible History Book in Print by the readers of the History News Network and garnered many critical reviews from real historians. In prior posts, I debunked Barton’s “two professors” claim.
The real story is why Barton continues to be invited to speak about the founding era when he has been so widely discredited as an authority on the subject.
Tonight, Barton speaks at Urbana University in Ohio.
 

Grace College history professor Jared Burkholder today published an interview with me on fact checking David Barton’s claims.
Go check it out. Being an historian, Burkholder’s questions were thoughtful and included some analysis of his own. For instance:

Jared: In my mind, Barton’s problem is a methodological one rather than simply getting things wrong. And often the issue is that his faulty approach leads to misguided interpretive conclusions. Simply put, Barton does not engage in the critical study of history. Historians are trained to be critical, which means they must be ruthless questioners and skeptics – especially of themselves. They seek to maintain a certain amount of distance between themselves and the events they narrate so the conclusions are as objective as possible. Historians are expected to make arguments, or course, but one’s judgment is supposed to be free from bias. This is not to say that this is a perfect process; perceptive readers can usually detect at least some bias in all sorts of historical writing. Sometimes we even categorize historians in one school of thought or another based on their bias. But sometimes it becomes apparent that a writer’s presuppositions or a particular political or religious agenda is overtaking the careful process of questioning that makes for solid and useful historical writing. This is certainly the case with Barton. Warren, would you agree?  If you could boil it down to a few sentences, what is the crux of the matter regarding Barton’s historical work? In other words, is there a root issue, which in your opinion, leads to “bad history?”

You can read my answer and the rest of our exchange at the Pietist Schoolman.

John Fea brings word that The Ventriloquist, an underground paper at Cedarville University was shut down earlier today.
From the paper’s website:

On April 23, distribution of the April issue of The Ventriloquist was forcefully shut down by Cedarville University president Dr. Thomas White and VP of Student Life Jonathan Wood.
As usual, distributors were set up outside the DMC to pass out copies to students leaving the university’s mandatory chapel service. Before chapel was dismissed, White and Wood walked around the distribution stations confiscating papers. Wood forcefully removed papers from the hands of at least one distributor.
When queried, White and Wood stated that The Ventriloquist required prior permission to distribute the issue. Per the student handbook (available online in PDF format here), the only activity that specifically requires prior permission is a “demonstration.” The handbook does not provide a definition of “demonstration,” but The Ventriloquist has distributed twelve issues in similar fashion over the course of the last four years with no warning or retribution from university staff.

As an alum, I am sad to hear about this and about the drift to the far right which seems to be gripping the school.
Also, I can relate to the students who write for the paper. When Paul Dixon became president of the college during my time there, he appointed the public relations department to oversee the paper’s content. In essence, this shut down the school paper because the newspaper staff resigned in protest.
It can now be revealed that I was co-editor of an underground paper published stealthily to replace the absent newspaper. We printed the paper secretly and distributed it literally in the middle of the night. After awhile, the papers started disappearing from where we left them (mostly in the student mail room) and we had to get creative in ways to spread them around. What goes around comes around I suppose.
When I first went to the “Ville” in 1975, men were not allowed to grow beards or mustaches and long hair for men was forbidden, women could not wear pants to class, and movies and dancing were prohibited. I got into some hot water for playing Stairway to Heaven at the new student talent night. Music preferences were monitored. Generally, I pushed the rules as far as I could. As a relatively new Christian, I didn’t get the legalism. In years following graduation, Christian rock and pop artists were featured in chapel and other kinds of moderation followed. Before coming to Grove City in 1994, I had an informal interview at Cedarville.
However, I received a pretty good education and I know there are fine people still teaching there. I am disappointed to think that the school could be returning to a stifling rigidity and legalism that marked the early days.

Rob Smith once attended Mars Hill Church and was a deacon who was on track to become an elder. In 2007, he strongly protested the approach used in dismissing Pastors Bent Meyer and Paul Petry from the church. Smith is the person behind the Facebook group REPEAL THE BYLAWS – EXONERATE PASTORS PETRY & MEYER. He is now also writing about his experiences at Mars Hill at his new blog Musings From Under The Bus (referring to the pile of dead bodies Mark Driscoll famously proclaimed were under the Mars Hill bus).
One post describes how Smith attempted to personally contact Mars Hill Board of Advisors and Accountability Chair Michael Van Skaik regarding formal charges filed by Dave Kraft in 2013. However, Van Skaik insisted that Smith submit his information in writing. Smith wanted to meet face to face with Van Skaik to discuss his experience. According to an exchange of communication between Smith and Van Skaik reproduced on the blog, Van Skaik refused to meet with Smith to discuss the matter.
Smith specifically focuses on church shunning:

My family and I have experienced the impact of having been shunned by our church family. This blog is intended to be a forum for processing, healing, and calling for Christians to understand the harm done to people through the harsh practice of shunning. It is also a forum to understand how to pursue justice and mercy in dealing with those who are victims of shunning, or those who have been the perpetrators of shunning.

I am about to teach a section on ostracism in social psychology. There are significant consequences psychologically from ostracism which might also be experienced by those who are ostracized from their church.