The CJ Mahaney-SGM-saga continues. It appears that a circle-the-wagons-effort is underway. Batten down the hatches. Also, there is reason to believe that legal counsel has been involved. You may want to follow Sovereign Grace Ministries blog as well, a resource for some rather unctuous, unhelpful, uninvestigative, undeliberative, and, if we may say it, rather self-serving posts. We're watching the Celeb-figure's movement problems closely. For further info, use the search engine for SGM on this site.
http://thewartburgwatch.com/2011/07/18/mahaney-lectures-gospel-coalition-dont-use-e-mail-to-correct-others/
Mahaney Lectures Gospel Coalition: Don’t Use E-mail to “Correct” Others
Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all. ~William Temple
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What a difference a year makes! Last summer I visited The Gospel Coalition website and watched an interview featured on the main page. James McDonald was interviewing C.J. Mahaney on the following topic: Don’t Use E-mail to Correct Others. The video was uploaded to The Gospel Coalition website over a year ago and can be accessed at this link.
Little did I know when I first watched this video that Mahaney was speaking from LOTS and LOTS of experience! He had been engaging in an e-mail exchange with his colleague Brent Detweiler for YEARS. You can read some of their correspondence that goes back to at least 2004 here.
The Gospel Coalition interview begins with these words from James McDonald:
“O.K. CJ, so I get this comment on my blog the other day. I mean why do I even take comments on my blog? I mean who is this person writing this?”
Not surprisingly, Mahaney responds as follows:
“I would recommend you NOT take comments on your blog, but that’s another issue…”
Yep, so many of the Calvinista leaders DO NOT ALLOW COMMENTS on their blogs. They have all the answers, and they do not need to hear from the sheeple. Just shut up and follow is what the flock is expected to do. To McDonald’s credit, he still allows comments, and hopefully that will not change.
As the interview proceeds, McDonald states:
“Who hasn’t received or given a comment, a piece of input through a blog, through an e-mail that you received from a friend of co-worker. It just seems like we’re writing things down that we should be speaking in person and misunderstanding of where the person’s heart was at. The raw words are not communicating our heart, and it seems to be causing problems.”
C.J. Mahaney then responds:
“I would want to restrain anyone and everyone from using e-mail as a means of communicating correction. I think it is an inadequate means of communication, particularly correction. I think correction should be communicated personally so that I can communicate my care, so if I’m correcting you I want you to be able to study my facial expression. I want to be able to communicate with you personally. I don’t want you looking at a screen and trying to study words that will not be able to carry tone, appropriate tone, hopefully humble tone, and hopefully the tone of care that I can only communicate effectively in person. So I think much difficulty is created by trying to use e-mail as a means of communicating correction, and I think it’s also a convenient way for us to in effect submit to the fear of man. In other words it can be easier for me to communicate with you and correct you through e-mail because I don’t have to meet with you then.”
It certainly appears that Mahaney has serious regrets about having communicated with Detweiler via e-mail. Imagine what he must think a year after this interview was conducted. Toward the end of the video Mahaney warns against the use of corrective e-mail by stating:
“There is every reason to avoid using technology for correction and every reason to correct someone personally.”
The Gospel Coalition video concludes with these words from CJ:
“We all have regrets about e-mails we have sent that have not served the recipient.”
Who did Mahaney have in mind when he made this statement? As this debacle continues to unfold, there is yet another document by Brent Detweiler on the internet. It is entitled Is CJ Above Reproach?
The Gospel Coalition, which was established just a few years ago, has promoted C.J. Mahaney ad nauseum, and it's high time they took some heat for the unacceptable behavior of one of their “stars”. To our knowledge a former Desiring God employee named Justin Taylor, who authors a blog featured on The Gospel Coalition website, is the only one who has spoken out about Mahaney’s fall from grace. Here is what he had to say:
“If I could offer one short word here: information like this can be difficult to process because you’re not sure what to do with it. I think our natural temptation is to speculate and to gossip, which ultimately accomplishes nothing but destruction.”
It’s worth noting that Justin Taylor, who usually allows for comments on his blog, has disabled comments on this particular post.
As for the rest of the Calvinista leaders affiliated with The Gospel Coalition (besides Mohler and Duncan), your silence is deafening!
James MacDonald also interviewed C.J. Mahaney on the topic of “humility”. This video entitled “Grace Through the Humble to the Humble: MacDonald and Mahaney” is featured here on The Gospel Coalition website. However, we have also embedded at the end of this paragraph. It is truly incredible that Mahaney could write a book on humility and speak with such authority on the subject. We wonder how much money he made off Humility book. Take a look if you have the stomach for it.
Lydias Corner: 2 Samuel 19:11-20:13 John 21:1-25 Psalm 120:1-7 Proverbs 16:16-17
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