It happened again a couple of days ago. Shock. Outrage. Twitter lit up because the men at Pulpit and Pen said something outrageous, racist, sexist, and homophobic. Honestly, who could have seen that coming? I am not going to repeat what they said. The shameful rhetoric would even rile some who share JD Hall’s views.
But it was not shocking that P&P did something like this. Shameful, unChristian, vicious attacks are the stock in trade of JD Hall and Seth Dunn and have been for years. There is no evidence of the Fruit of the Spirit or even the desire to display such – just the will to eviscerate anyone who disagrees.
If you read them, that is what you will get.
Why would you read them? Does Pulpit and Pen build up the Body of Christ? No. Does it lift up the name of Jesus? No, regularly it sullies the name of Christ. Does it do anything good for the kingdom of God? No, it is a cancer in the Body of Christ.
Then, why do you read it? Why do you follow P&P on Twitter? Why do you interact with them, with JD or Seth on Facebook? The word of God commands us to separate from such divisive, destructive people.
Reject a divisive person after a first and second warning. Titus 3:10
They have been warned 2000 times. The time for warning has passed. It is time for Christians who love the Lord, the word of God, and the Body of Christ to ACT!
1. BLOCK Pulpit and Pen on all social media platforms.
I did this long ago. It was for personal sanity, I will admit. JD had decided to personally attack me. I blocked him and all of his twitter terrorists. Some of them are now friends, as they realized that the pulpiteer way did not honor God.
But life is simply better if you don’t read Pulpit and Pen. There is NOTHING good that comes from that site. STOP reading it. It brings you no joy, no discernment. It is dishonest, twisted, dark, and evil. Just block them on Facebook, Twitter, and every other form of media. Don’t read the blog.
And for the love of all that is holy – don’t copy and paste links to me when they say stuff about me. If I cared about JD’s opinion of me, I’d follow the site.
I had several private interactions with JD, attempts to reconcile with him before I cut off all contact. He lives by his numbers and views himself and his site as successful because of how much traffic he generates with his clickbait posts. When you read him, it feeds his massive ego. When you interact with him, when you “call him out,” when you berate him, all of that just feeds the beast that is Pulpit and Pen. The only solution is to block the site and ignore it. Look at what was posted two days ago. 
It is the right thing to do and it is the best thing to do. Anything else feeds the troll.
2. PRAY for JD Hall and Seth Dunn (and any others involved there).
I don’t know at this point if it is just Jordan and Seth or if others write for the site, but we should pray that God will bring JD and Seth to repentance. I don’t know who is redeemed and who is not, so I don’t question people’s salvation, but there is nothing on the site that honors Christ or builds up his body. They are enemies of righteousness and we should pray that God would bring down Pulpit and Pen and would bring Seth and JD to repentance.
While you are at it, pray that Phil Johnson and others will stop encouraging P&P and have the discernment to stand against it.
3. Do not interact on social media with outrageous things Pulpit and Pen says.
When you interact with what they say, you are simply feeding the troll. You are doing exactly what they want. Pulpit and Pen drives traffic by saying outrageous things. Don’t take the bait. If you see something by Pulpit and Pen, just encourage whoever they are interacting with to join the movement and block them. The more Christ-loving people that block P&P the less the venom of the enemy spreads through the Body of Christ.
I know that when you see something outrageous, something evil, it provokes you and you want to say something back. We have been conditioned that “calling out evil” is an act of righteousness. But Pulpit and Pen doesn’t need to be called out. Their evil is manifest. They need to be put out. They need to be marginalized, ostracized, and excised from the Body of Christ so they can do no more harm. Isn’t the harm they have done enough?
It is time to do the right thing. BLOCK PULPIT & PEN, my friends – for the glory of God and the good of the kingdom.
Please hear me. This post isn’t about confronting P&P or JD or Seth. I gave up on that a long time ago. I wish some of those who are around them, men like Phil Johnson, would man-up and confront their sin but that is not my role or my purpose.
My target is all those people who are horrified by the actions of P&P and retweet their tweets and talk about them online. That only feeds the troll. I long ago stopped engaging with JD or Seth and I do not intend to engage with anything they might say in response to this. My hope is to appeal to godly men and women with hearts for Christ who are horrified by what P&P writes and tweets.
STOP promoting the site by tweeting about and discussing what they said.
And yes, I realize the irony of posting this article that gives visibility to P&P asking people not to post or tweet about P&P. We debated this a lot. But after the tweet this week, and after seeing the flood of messages of horror about how awful JD and P&P are, I thought it was time to issue this call.
BLOCK THEM. Do it now!
I went to NOBTS with Seth and for a time, knew him well as he was completing his M Div. I confronted him during a theology class we shared over his temperament and sheer arrogance. I moved on once it became apparent that not only would he not receive criticism about his unsuitability for pastoral ministry, but that the professors at the Atlanta NOBTS Campus were not going to do a single thing whenever he was disrespectful in class – to include bullying behavior toward women and minorities. To this day, he is one of only two people I have ever directly encouraged to not pursue pastoral ministry.
That is sad
I’m almost afraid to ask this question, Matt, but when you say he was abusive toward women and minorities, what did his bullying consist of?
Can I suggest you take this private?
I am not going to let Seth defend himself here and it is not fair for such charges to be placed if he is not going to be able to defend himself.
Certainly, his online behavior has been shameful enough. You two are welcome to exchange emails if you desire and discuss this privately, but not on here.
kijeski@gmail.com
I can’t add to anything you have said here except yes, yes and yes. Call out evil. But when it gets to be the same people over and over again and especially for 9 or 10 years, it is time to give it up for your spiritual and emotional health.
Someone tweeted that they are to Christians as Westboro was and that pretty well sums it up. If they go, another group will take their place using the Bible and the name of Jesus(which is worse than any other hate group without Christ). Stomp them out by not giving them your time and energy. It’s simply wind fueling the fire.
I wish I’d thought of that comparison to Westboro. It would be in the post.
I just went to their website for the first time ever and I was disappointed in what I saw.
Not anything Pen and Sword had said–rather what they were revealing.
I don’t do Twitter so I am in the dark on the issue of which you speak.
I know Dave Miller from this blog and I could not be more supportive and encouraged.
I was informed by the things I saw and read on Pen and Sword, that they were simply revealing facts of the harsh realities among us in the churches of today.
I will did deeper to see if I can find the “Westboro” in them you speak of. I don’t want to believe it is so any more than an SBC pastor”immersing himself” in materials related to a change of heart and mind concerning homosexual lifestyle.
What is left remaining to shock us?
“Stand Firm”, at this point, seems to mean one thing to them and another to you.
Is “Pen and Sword” distinct from “Pulpit and Pen”? I’m not familiar with either.
Sorry about that Paul. It was the Pulpit and Pen I visited. I did not see the tweet that is in discussion. So far, I have appreciated the Pulpit and Pen site for exposing and informing. The sorrow that I have is that the content on this site can be verified as true. (that which I have worked to verify)
This is the danger of writing an article like this. I don’t want to drive anyone who isn’t familiar with the sewage at P&P to read it. The greatest evil they do today is on twitter conversations. People who are familiar come to realize the site is evil and generally walk away. It is like a train wreck – it is hard to stop watching. But I would encourage you NOT to watch. For your own spiritual sanity.
Big time “thumbs up” to what Dave is saying here. Blogs like that had been something to which I had been drawn. “Discernment” was the stated objective, while destruction was the actual goal. Not healthy. Not biblical.
We should have the discernment to avoid the discernment bloggers. They never seem to discern anything good.
I read from a number of sources that I would not recommend or link. I don’t see the profit in blocking any of these. On balance, I’d probably not announce to the SBC world that I am blocking whatever site and everyone else should also. Counterproductive, I’d say.
Not that I disagree with Dave Miller on the toxicity of much of their stuff. I can pick and choose what interests me and I don’t think I’m a threat to be misled. Then again, I’m not much for following a bunch of things on FB or T anyway.
I am a proponent of reading that with which we disagree, but the evil done by P&P puts it in a different class.
Its certainly a difficult balance. Do you answer a fool in his folly or not? And certainly we have some Scriptural precedent for naming those who are harming the body of Christ. (We know of Alexander and Hymenaeus because of this).
The benefit in blocking is to not continue to get dragged back in to nonsense. It’s much as I would counsel someone struggling with pornography to remove themselves of the source of temptation. Our addiction to outrage porn likely needs a similar admonition.
bingo
William: I have a real problem with your statement. Maybe you don’t know the tweet being spoken of, but if you do and still believe this…..I find it very very troubling that you do.
I tend to agree that this post seems counter-productive, especially since Dave’s entire 3rd point is “don’t interact on social media…”. Given that Dave himself states that doing so “feeds the beast.”
Dave’s Post itself does what Dave’s point 3 tells us not to do. 🙂
Posting about someone is not the same as interacting with them, so no, Dave’s article is not self-defeating.
Amen.
Got the same advice a couple of years ago.
Best decision ever.
I heard of the Hall guy a few years ago, but can’t remember the context. Not even sure what this is about.
There are a lot of weird things about there.
I think the context you are looking for is his twitter war with the teenage son of a prominent lightning rod, who eventually went on to kill himself.
Think the son of Ergun Caner who committed suicide at a young age.
As much as I disdain P&P, I have enough information on that situation to know that blaming that on JD is not completely fair.
I dont read that blog or its tweets and if there was ever a problem i would block them in a heartbeat.
I dont block those i dont interact with or never interact with.
But I do support using that avenue for any who do interact with hateful God dishonoring people who claim the name of Jesus.
I know of P and P by the remarks of those I do follow who have had the same experiences as Dave.
And I support his action and his remarks in the OP 100%.
This article does seem quite ironic for sure. Read what we want and ignore what we don’t. We are adults here no need for censure
P&P publishes clickbait sub-Christian insults and attacks. They violate Gods word and accuse the brethren.
If you want to read that smut, fine.
My point is that a) it violates God’s word to do so (Titus 3:10) and b) if you are going to fill social media with shock and horror at the awful things JD and Seth say, just block them.
If you like that stuff, your choice.
Personally I don’t fill social media with much of anything. IMO I find face book, Twitter and such as juvinile bumper sticker Theo. I prefer open articles where debate and discussion can be had to a meaningful level. So personally I haven’t seen those who are “shocked and horrified”
I went to the site and I think that there is some information there that should rattlle the bones of most concerned Christians. I don’t tweet so that was out. If the town drunk knocks on my door in the middle of the night and tells me my house is on fire I’m going to check it out no matter the source. Seems some may be more concerned with the vessel of information than the information.
However, to chastise me as one who wants ” to read that smut or if you like that stuff” seems to be attacking me for not fully agreeing in with you.
But I agree Dave, if something like that is not bringing glory to God, don’t go there
I am saying it is your choice.
I can also say that it is not safe to believe that their attacks are honest. Twisting the truth to make attacks is P&P’s stock in trade.
Truth is not.
But if you wish to read it, it is your choice. But if you choose to read it, don’t complain about it.
Don’t continue to put your hand on the stove and complain about getting burned.
Can’t make it any clearer. Not gonna try.
I appreciate your passion, and I always enjoy someone who plants their flag in the ground and says this is what I believe, but alas I feel you may be wrong on. This one.
I don’t think we should ever operate from a position of less information is the correct course,
And you already have a few comments about the ergun dust up to prove my position.
People with an opinion, but possibly not fully informed about said position, jumping into the fray.
We ( as believers, trying to be salt and light) should strive to always be the most informed as we can when we try to share with anybody.
It’s not wrong to suggest people rethink what they read and where they get their information. I call it the Philippians 4:8 principle, and I use it all the time online. Much less unnecessary intellectual and emotional drama, more peace, less distraction from what matters right here in the real flesh-and-blood (compared to bits-and-bytes) life God has placed me in. I’ve been blogging for 20 years. I’d have gone insane if I hadn’t put this into practice over the years.
Thanks for the comment, Julie. We’ve asked others to summarize their points in a comment rather than linking to their own blog. You have some good ones that would be worthwhile. Occasionally, we will post an article that links a number of views on an important topic.
I don’t know about the tweet you’re talking about. However, I find your post and much of the commentary here rather ironic in that it’s claiming to discern that these “discernment” bloggers are discerning incorrectly. I’m not defending JD Hall or Seth Dunn – I don’t know either and won’t likely ever. But some of the words you’ve used here are extremely inflammatory and sound very much like the tone taken by the Pulpit and Pen. If it isn’t meaningful when coming from “the other guys” why is it suddenly meaningful coming from you?
I’m not asking to be a jerk. I read your blog regularly and will continue to do so regardless of how you respond to me.
If you read that blog enough you’d understand that Miller isn’t even in the neighborhood. If you aren’t familiar with the stuff that caused Miller’s piece here, I don’t see how you can make any judgment at all.