Jon Harris over at the Conversations That Matter podcast has done some fine work covering inroads by social justice advocates and those promoting CRT from within the Southern Baptist Convention in recent years. His episode yesterday touched on the situation with JD Hall, and I'd like to take some time to answer key points he makes about his engagement to this point.
But first things first, be it known I have admired, respected, and appreciated Harris's engagement on the issues he's covered. Facts matter. More to the point, our handling of God's Word as Christians is crucial to our Christian life and thought. Insofar as Harris has championed sound doctrine and vigilance with a calm, measured voice, he's contributed not just to the substance of the debate in our day, but to the tone and tenor as well. He's to be commended for that, and I do commend him.
Actually, it's for that reason especially, and out of familiarity with his body of work, that Jon would have been an excellent candidate for covering the situation in Sidney, Montana carefully and with grace. This is to say nothing of his platforming JD Hall, not once but twice.
I agree with Jon's concern about accusations from some of guilt by association, here and elsewhere, and how those are carried too far to implicate relatively innocent parties. But the trouble is that for going on a decade, JD Hall has been skating by in the minds of many on a kind of innocence by association.
That is to say, in Eastern Montana where I'm from, Jordan's ability to name drop powerful, high-profile names in American Christendom has given him an ability to bully and intimidate those in his local church and my home community.
So please understand. When I hear almost only references to how we should pray for JD, and how hard this must all be for him, and hopefully JD is getting the help he needs, but hear not a word for nearly a decade looking into abuses by Hall in Eastern Montana where I'm from, it proves difficult to stomach.
Jon says in his podcast episode yesterday, for instance, that he can't speak with confidence to what all has happened and is happening on the ground in Sidney, Montana. Yet to at least some extent, this must be admitted as due to Jon having not wanted to know, and having declined and passed up opportunities to investigate and cover this story using his platform.
Unfortunately, here also, as with the recent F4F video by Rosebrough, Peters, and Johnson, I can't help but feel frustrated that the warnings given were private and to JD only all this time from influential men who speak out now, seemingly as much or more to protect their own reputations and influence as to comfort or inform any of the victims of physical and spiritual abuse which for a decade have lived in fear of their lives and livelihoods where I come from.
Yet the stated reasons for not having gotten more involved, or for having platformed and endorsed Hall up until just now when he comes indefensible due to arrest and the filing of legal charges with the Sidney Police Department - these also make very curious saying anything at all now, or having platformed Jordan previously. I'm sorry to say, but once again a definite partiality seems apparent which is not godly, wise, or coherent. I reject it accordingly, and would encourage you to also.
