Search the Community

PREDATORS, DANGEROUS DEVIANTS & J.D. HALL (of Pulpit & Pen) MAY 30, 2015JANETMEFFERD It’s really disgusting out there. Not just out there, in the moral cesspool of American culture. I mean out there, in the moral cesspool that is rapidly and tragically coming to define American evangelicalism. ....... Now you might remember the name J.D. Hall. He is a Montana-based pastor, author and founder of the Pulpit & Pen blog. But he is perhaps best known for his online harassment of former Brewton-Parker College president Ergun Caner’s teenaged son Braxton, who tragically ended up committing suicide last year. According to The Christian Post, Pastor Hall “confessed to his congregation at Fellowship Baptist Church that he was ‘crushed” by Braxton’s death.” Pastor Hall, who’d become notorious in many Christian circles for his aggressive online battles in the name of “defending truth,” told his church at the time: “The irony is that about three weeks ago I made known to you, my flock, that I was walking away from these conflicts. … In one sense, I am reaping what I sowed. When you live by the sword, you die by it … Knowing now that this young man struggled with that level of despair, I am even more sorry that my interaction with him was adversarial rather than pastoral.” At the time he said this, I thought Pastor Hall’s response to the tragedy was wholly appropriate and right. How impressive, I thought, that he could humble himself like that, admit how wrong his behavior was and vow never to become adversarial in an online context ever again. Good for him! Well, that was then. Because as soon as Pastor Hall saw my husband deny on Twitter that he was literally a “rapist at heart,” he swooped in for the kill. He tweeted to my husband: “Yeah, are you sure? Our view of depravity calls baloney on that.” When I retweeted my husband’s response, Pastor Hall further mocked me for retweeting my husband’s denial, telling us, “You know what’s funny? Your wife RT’d that like she believed you.”