Beware of Gaslighters and Their Tactics
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Ed Stetzer is very skilled at gaslighting. He was quick to condemn his fellow believers as “conspiracy theorists” when they indicated there might be evidence that the coronavirus was created in and escaped from a Chinese laboratory, yet utterly unwilling to retract the accusation when the evidence became undeniable.
Fortunately, Capstone Report and Janet Mefferd pointed the spotlight on Stetzer and Christianity Today right when evangelicals most needed them to. According to a Capstone Report article titled, “Ed Stetzer, Christianity Today are not Trusted Voices nor Reliable Sources,”
Evangelical Elite Ed Stetzer secretly deleted insulting comments about conservative Christians. Stetzer mocked conservative Republicans and Christians who thought the Coronavirus COVID-19 escaped from a Chinese lab. Hours after the deletions were exposed on Twitter, Stetzer added a passive aggressive publisher’s note. The entire episode reveals why Evangelical Elites are untrustworthy sources of news—especially about complex geopolitical issues involving China.
In his post at Christianity Today, Stetzer declared, “In a study just published by Pew, almost 30 percent of Americans believe the theory that is ‘almost certainly not true’ about the novel coronavirus being concocted in a lab. The largest group in the study to affirm this was conservative Republicans at about four in ten (39 percent). That group would also be the most religious group.”
Unfortunately for Stetzer, Fox News and other outlets including the Washington Post and International Business Times reported that US officials now believe the virus escaped from a lab. Fox News was specific—that US officials believe Patient Zero worked at a Chinese lab.
Egg meet face.
But, instead of updating the post, Stetzer and Christianity Today did what they are known to do—show no journalistic ethics. They deleted the paragraph and didn’t add a note to the post—well, until called out for it on Twitter.
That drew reaction from evangelical conservatives.
Evangelical talk show host Janet Mefferd reacted strongly to the deletion.
It’s just a matter of ethical journalism.
If you change a story, you print a clarification to explain why you changed it. When you don’t do that, you look shady.
What’s SO ironic is they dodged this transparency in a piece that argued CT is your “trusted source” for news! Lol https://t.co/yx06AvuSUB
— Janet Mefferd (@JanetMefferd) April 16, 2020\
Mefferd is an experienced journalist. She spent years as reporter and editor at newspapers including the Dallas Morning News. Her knowledge of journalism practices provides important context.
Ed Stetzer, along with J. D. Greer, also lied about President Trump and what he said and didn’t say during the first presidential debate, which was held on Monday, September 29, 2020.
It’s frustrating enough that reporters would flat out lie about what Trump said during the debate, but even more frustrating to me is the fact that evangelical leaders J. D. Greear and Ed Stetzer are actively promoting that lie. Conversations That Matter podcaster Jon Harris called them both out for lying on Twitter. Here is his response to Greear.
You can access Greear’s original tweet here. He didn’t mention President Trump by name, but he didn’t have to. We know what occasion prompted his tweet. Furthermore, as we have indicated, Greear wasn’t alone, and Ed Stetzer did mention the president specifically.
Here is Stetzer’s original tweet.
This is more than disgusting. The Ninth Commandment is clear: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Ex. 20:16). These additional passages of Scripture echo and reinforce God’s command against spreading lies, especially as it applies to this situation. And of all people, pastors and church leaders should obey these biblical teachings.
I would never lightly accuse anyone of lying, but the evidence is here is strong. In Greear’s case, I believe what he wrote and when he wrote it effectively amount to lying, although in a roundabout way. Certainly his meaning was and is clear.
Please do not tell me Greear and Stetzer may have been misled regarding Trump’s response in the debate. They can watch what actually happened, and they can understand it. They can read. They can hear. They have no excuses, especially before taking to Twitter to make false public statements against the president.…
Here’s my question: Why? Why would Greear and Stetzer do this? Has the social justice movement overtaken their thinking so thoroughly they are willing to lie? Apparently this is the case, and it says a great deal about the social justice movement. Whatever their motivation, their approach is entirely consistent with their social justice take on politics as a whole. It’s the same approach Pastor David Platt and Tim Keller also are taking — and it is wrong.
The point here, of course, is the manipulative tactics of these evangelical leaders. They appear to be driven by a leftist agenda rather than the truth. These examples aren’t exhaustive, but they are representative.
Ed Stetzer is a leftist and a gaslighter. He needs to be opposed!
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