I think it’s time to declare the innings closed and retire to the pavilion.

Pajama Pages will stay here as an archive, but I don’t foresee any more new posts for a while. After all that I’ve written over the last nine months, and especially in the last 10 days, if you don’t see what I’m saying yet, no more words from me are going to get that done.

At the beginning of 2009 I decided to dust off my pajamapages domain and operate it as the world’s 453,298th political blog. In March that changed when I found a more important topic. As all bloggers wish for, the same things that interested and challenged me seemed to do the same for a growing number of readers and commentators.

When I started tracking visits to the blog in February, I was getting about 11 visits a day, probably eight of those from my charitable mother. Things have changed a bit since. Here are a few measures of what the blog turned into:

• Hits are well over a quarter million
• 137,000 words in 568 posts, 123,000 from me, 14,000 from Downing
• 480,000 words in 4,230 comments, 49,000 from me, 40,500 from Tommy

Assuming a typical reading speed of 225 wpm, it would take you two straight days to read everything here (though I don’t recommend doing it in one sitting).

If you want to get a flavor of what PP is, here are a few places you might consider visiting.

My favorite posts:

• What’s special about Simeon?
• Defending Christian against the Christ-follower label
• Why I write this blog
• Why Jesus doesn’t care about being famous

Theological posts:

• The meaning and purpose of baptism (a three-part series)
• The purpose of church
• Why worship is more important than evangelism
• Why far from God is an inaccurate description of sinners
• Why we don’t attack Satan
• How we hear from God
• How we can be certain about Scripture

Other definitive posts:

• Holy rage at the ‘Spring (the harassment story)
• In praise of denominations
• Defining the Turnstile Church
• Is this movement really a reformation?
• Building nurseries for heretics
• The danger of visionary leaders
• The value of heresy hunting
• The false comfort of fatalism
• In praise of NewSpring

So, there you go. We’re done.

Oh, one more thing.

You should know that when it comes to retirement announcements, I have a soft spot for Brett Favre.

Heh.

You deserve it.

It has been quite chilling to see this response in the comments, though it’s not surprising that some NS members interpret Noble’s statements and actions as endorsing this view. The comments tend to take the same shape as NewSpring’s statements–they do acknowedge that Maxwell went too far, but they’re not sorry that it happened to me.

This is the attitude that sustained Maxwell’s campaign and why so many NewSpring insiders didn’t see enough wrong with what he was doing to throw a flag on it. Sure, Maxwell may be bad, but Duncan is worse. He deserves what he gets.

NewSpring’s lack of curiosity about how badly I might have been harmed suggests that I deserved whatever I got. On October 30, I had emailed Jason Wilson, NewSpring’s executive pastor, to ask for a meeting with Noble to to tell them what had happened, and suggested that Noble’s reassurance to his congregation that they not worry about Maxwell’s actions told me that they really didn’t know what he had done. On October 31, Wilson sent this response:

If you feel that there are other situations that may cause us to “worry” that have not been addressed, please let me know via email.

Note the quotes around worry. His message was that they still weren’t worried. Would you send an email detailing the serious and profoundly personal complaints that I had to someone like this? Me, neither.

You started it.

This is an argument more suited to an elementary school playground, but, because it still appeals to some, I suppose I need to answer it. Here’s an example of that sentiment from the a comment from “Bob.”

By your own admission this whole series of events began two years when ‘you’ initiated your opinions and criticisms against NS. You took issue with a billboard sign and some of the youth activities at this church which offended your personal sensibilities. In response, you submitted an article to a local newspaper and started a blog campaign about this church. It was your prerogative to do so. From there it’s apparent that things snowballed, escalated, and got very ugly on both sides.

Has the thought ever occurred to you that if you had simply said nothing and not concerned yourselves with NS and its activities, then none of this would have happened to you, your family, or them?

If you really want to go back to the beginning of the beginning, it was when I and many other Andersonians were subjected to NewSpring’s very public and disheartening attack on parenthood on the main roads in our city. I attempted to talk to Noble about that by emailing a friend in the church, then, when there was no response, by communicating with him in the same public forum that he was using (he on the highways, me in the newspaper).

(An aside on meetings. If you happen to scan through some of the discussions on this blog, you’ll see that a common attempt to cut off debate is to lecture us on the need to communicate with Noble face to face. If you can’t say this to Perry’s face, the lecture goes, you shouldn’t say this in public, to which I respond that I have attempted to meet Perry to say these things to his face. May we forever put to rest the idea that Perry Noble will ever meet with a critic? If he won’t take a meeting with someone who is complaining of criminal harassment from his church’s staff, or won’t meet after he has found that claim to be correct, he will never meet anyone at any time for anything. As it is, the whole meeting thing works against me whatever way I present it. If I say there’s a wall around Noble that I can’t breach, I’m accused of not even trying and told to shut up. If I say I’ve taken a run at the wall and dashed myself against it, I’m accused of being a celebrity stalker who just wants Noble to pay attention to me, so I should go away and shut up.)

The key issue here is forum, not chronology. As much as Noble wants to characterize bloggers as jackasses, he’s a pretty big one (blogger, that is) himself. He uses his blog to daily lecture pastors around the world on how they can build a church like his and have a ministry like his. Noble is more often to be found talking to other leaders on his blog than his own flock, though he realizes they are reading too. This is a man who is using the Internet to redefine the church in a way that goes much beyond his own particular church.

An important part of Noble’s redefinition–he calls it reformation–effort is tearing down the traditional church. You don’t have to look far on his blog or listen long on a Sunday to see him besmirching the honor, motives or practices of other churches in the community. Pastors are commonly described as prostitutes, and churches as elitist country clubs that give the middle finger to their community. Church goers (not his own, of course) are characterized as religious bigots who don’t know Jesus.

So long as Noble never offers specifics about who he’s talking about in these moments (and he never does), these anti-church and anti-Christian rants stand against every other church and most believers.

This is why I’ve always imagined that Pajama Pages is playing defense. I am trying to argue for the beauty and integrity of the local church in general. If you search through these pages, you’ll see that I never identify my own church; I’m arguing for all churches, not just my own. I love denominations for their mission of preserving important truths and modes of worship, even though I don’t agree with them all. I love the different styles of worship and preaching that you’ll find in churches all over town, even though I wouldn’t personally enjoy or endorse all of them myself.

This is a bad witness.

The idea behind this objection is that people will be less likely to come to salvation if they see disputes in the church. We should keep our disagreements hidden. (For NSers who embrace this position, you’ll need to ask Noble why he wanted this on the front page of the paper.)

Disputes aren’t ideal, though they’re nothing we need to be ashamed of or try to hide. The New Testament epistles are full of public disputes including instances where Paul calls Peter out as a hypocrite, condemns a particular group of teachers, and reports on persecution at the hand of a specific person. Unless we’re prepared to hide the Bible from the world, we need to acknowledge that personal and theological disputes and debates have always been a part of the church and were so important and profitable that they’re part of Scripture.

But they don’t help us with evangelism, you say. It sounds like a good theory, but I’m more concerned with what God says about that. If you will, read through 2 Timothy 3 with me. In verse 11, Paul reminds Timothy of the persecutions and sufferings he has endured, often at the hands of other believers whom he refers to as evil impostors. (Shush, Paul, we’re not supposed to talk of such things.)

In the next sentence, Paul instructs Timothy on the value of Scripture.

From infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation though faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:15-16)

All Scripture includes the bits about nasty disagreements, which, according to God, can bring people to salvation. Paul doesn’t say, “All Scripture, except for the stuff that will make the unsaved folk wonder why we can’t get along, is God-breathed and useful.”

NewSpringers, if there’s a rule against disagreeing, what will you do when a flaming heretic comes into town and draws a crowd of 30,000 people? Will you say anything? If so, when would you start? If not, why wouldn’t you care? And, no, I’m not saying that Noble is a heretic, just that there are times when it’s important to speak up. You and I might have different triggers, but I hope that you do at least have a trigger.

There are some controversies that aren’t worth engaging, though the example of the church fathers shows us that there are times when public disputes are necessary and profitable.

You and your blog are full of hate.

Again, this is a complaint that is modeled by NewSpring’s leaders. Look at that Duffey-Maxwell conversation again, and you’ll see it. Duffey’s response to Perry Noble’s assistant, who wants to make me a “_____ dog on a chain,” is:

don’t read… he just hates on Pastor Furtick, @bcoop & @perrynoble… i’m in really good company!

I can be ignored and insulted because I hate. It’s also after this comment that Maxwell goes searching for his gangland beating posse.

Noble uses the idea that his critics are hateful to justify ignoring what they say.

If you are willing to ignore those who hate you then you can truly focus on THE ONE who loves you, called you and knows you!

The idea that I was a hater, clearly communicated by the church’s leadership, was likely what motivated Maxwell and friends to start their hateful campaign in the first place.

Not that hate is justification for any of this, but I am curious exactly how Noble and his supporters find hate in these pages. Surely the fact that I disagree with him is not hateful, for that would make him even more hateful than me (he publishes more “hateful” words that disagree with me to more people).

For those who find PP and me hateful, I invite you to scour these pages for examples of hate. Comments by others don’t count, and you can’t just say “all of it,” because it’s not all about Noble or NewSpring. The whole blog is fair game, but I’m especially interested in examples from before May 21, when Duffey was so sure I hated everyone.

The comments are open for you to show us what you find. Go for it.

UPDATE: After seven days and 70 comments, there is not one instance of someone pointing out anything hateful on this blog. For all the times I’ve been accused of hate and all the words that I’ve published on this blog, I would have thought someone would have come up with something.

The silent response is somewhat reminiscent of this other challenge I gave to Perry Noble’s fans.

I’ve learned that they actually sent their statement as a press release to the local newspaper, intending to get this on the front page last Saturday, though after I told my side of the story their communication apparatus has completely stalled.

Although the staff on every campus have been told they may not visit this site, there must at least be someone who has taken a peek at my rebuttal of their statement. Their official blog is still displaying exactly the same text as it did on Friday. Here, in order of ease of correction, is what I’m waiting for them to fix.

1. The meeting was in April, not February. This is a no-brainer, and anyone who goes back to my February posts can see that NewSpring wasn’t even on my radar. You can also see Brad Cooper’s comment from March 7 inviting me to meet him for coffee. This is such an insubstantial change, why wouldn’t they make it, unless they want to pretend that my rebuttal doesn’t exist.
2. There were four active harassers. I really don’t understand why they repeatedly refer to three rather than four harassers. Was this just a mistake? Is there one they dare not talk about? If they really believe there were three, perhaps they’d have been smart to have asked me for a few more details on the day they fired Maxwell.
3. I didn’t seek to denounce the church from the pulpit. Their insistence that I did could only have been arrived at through a torturous process of misinterpretation. I challenged their attorney on this point on Friday night and told him that I expected them to correct this. The longer they leave this unfounded accusation on their site, the more it appears they really want the world to believe this about me.
4. I didn’t email Wilson about the adoption. A search through their email archives will make this obvious. They probably understand how that error puts their claim of noninvolvement in question, so they might be reluctant to acknowledge their mistake by being seen to correct it.

I don’t expect to agree with every aspect of their statement, but these are four points that they already have enough evidence on hand to fix.

It’s been six days since they asked everyone to read it.

How many more days will we need to wait until they bother to get it right?

He starts by asking whether I hate NewSpring and Perry Noble. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know my answer to that.

I describe the beginning of the harassment and some of the implications of the Twitter messages.

Rosebrough plays a clip of Noble talking about jackass bloggers, which I had not heard before, which starts a discussion on dealing with critics.

Here’s something you haven’t heard before: I tell about my offer to Perry (through Brad Cooper in April) to join him in writing a book that answers the common criticisms against churches like NewSpring. For all who continue to think I hate NS and PN, ask yourself why I would offer to write something defending them.

In my favorite part of the interview, we talk about the beauty and sufficiency of Scripture, also of how there’s no need to jazz up the Bible or to reinvent the church.

Finally, we talk about “discernment blogging” in which I recommend that everyone starts such a blog.

This is the Paranoid Pastors post that promoted Duffey’s “love the rage” conversation.

Duffey suggests that running over critics is a useful tactic. Now you know why I believed him.

From July 16, this post about how pastors interpret challenges against them as rejection of God. An excerpt:

What are you communicating to your own followers about the worth and dignity of Christians who are outside of your movement and, based on their own commitment to the Word of God, question the beliefs and methods of these charismatic leaders? When you call us sons and daughters of the Devil, what kinds of passions do you unleash and endorse among your true believers?

The weekend that Maxwell was fired prompted this announcement from Noble.

Here’s an excerpt from that post:

Perry’s warning against fighting isn’t terribly persuasive, especially given what else he said. He starts the illustration by asking God if he could fight a young woman at a fast-food restaurant who wasn’t even talking to Perry. The only reason that he didn’t is because God told him, after Noble sent up a quick prayer request, that he couldn’t. He then claims that his critics are sons of Satan, then he tops off the whole performance by wanting to hurl food at the young woman after hearing the testimony another young lady.

If this man were your boss, what kind of response to critics do you think would impress him most?

To those of you who attend NewSpring, my complaint is not with you or the many other people who also attend. It is strictly with a set of staffers and insiders who seem to have lost their senses in dealing with me and my family. We have friends and neighbors who attend NewSpring that we continue to love and support.

If you’re worried that I might think less of you because you go the NewSpring, I don’t and I won’t. If you don’t believe me, then just don’t tell me. For most of you, I have no idea what church you attend, and our class discussions never make it necessary for us to reveal that kind of information about each other.

To my former students who work at NewSpring, I still love you guys and don’t want you to be shy about talking to me. You, more than most, know who I am beyond this blog. I understand if you don’t want to, but if any of you want to call or meet for coffee, I’d love to do that. In terms of what you do with media (the area we learned together), I am continually impressed with what you do.

To my current students, a lot of people will be asking me questions in the next couple of days. You can cut in line. If there’s anything that you want to ask me, come by my office and we can talk there, or maybe we can gather a few of us together at Java City.

Oh, and perhaps now you understand why I’m not a Twitter fan.

I don’t know how many people noticed this in my narrative, but Maxwell was identified because Twitter responded to a subpoena and gave his IP to the detective. A second subpoena to Blackberry identified the person who was using that IP.

That’s a story in itself. Twitter won’t check your identity, but police can find it if they need to.

Retailers shouldn’t always ask why you’re returning an item.

After we came home after the adoption surprise, we had several hundred dollars worth of baby supplies and clothes to return to retailers in Anderson and at the outlet mall in Commerce, GA. Anticipating that it might be too traumatic for my wife, I took that task on myself.

If you’re a clothing retailer, might I suggest that you not ask why someone is returning infant clothes. It’s hard enough to make the return; its even harder to have to explain why. I know there are other parents who have to give even sadder answers than I gave.

Don’t ask so that we don’t have to tell.

Target, they never ask. If you need to shop for baby clothes, Target is tops.

Perry Noble preached on how to hear from God today. We’ve chronicled problems with Noble’s extra-biblical view of revelation many times on this blog, but today’s statement probably takes the cake.

All too often we seek answers in the Scriptures when we should be seeking Jesus…because HE will ultimately BE the answer to whatever we are facing.

Exactly how does one find answers from Jesus if not from Scripture? Perhaps we ask the portrait of Jesus we have on our wall? The imaginary Jesus we keep under our bed?

Jesus is the Word. To suggest that he has a message that is outside Scripture is–how else to say it?–blasphemy.

Noble’s construction lets believers ignore Scripture altogether and make desisions based on their gut or based on their imagination of who Jesus is. Wearing a WWJD bracelet is not the same thing as knowing and studying Scripture.

After denigrating Scripture, Noble finds another way to hear God’s voice (a point he appears to have added to his sermon at the last minute).

Circumstances are often God’s megaphone that HE is using to scream to us. It’s amazing to many how many times in the Scriptures that God spoke so clearly and revealed who He was during a storm!!!

What could Noble’s circumstances divinity possibly be telling him right now?

What was the same divinity screaming at me this summer?

We know that Noble and Brad Cooper routinely monitor messages coming into their Twitter accounts by people who send them messages. These messages appear in their accounts whenever someone drops their Twitter name into their own messages, so a tweet that said, “@perrynoble you rock!” would appear on Noble’s personal page. We know that he reads these because he often replies to them. For an example, look at his response to MrJaceBreeback that I referenced in the Tied to the Mast post. Noble only follows 30 people, and MrJaceBreeback is not one of them. Cooper does the same thing.

Josh Maxwell often directed his messages in my name to Noble and Cooper. What follows is a list of those messages with their posting date. Every one of these appeared in their Twitter account, which we know they read regularly.

How did they not notice these, especially when they all had my name attached to them?

Messages to Noble:

• heres to hoping for a koolaid summit with @perrynoble and NS! maybe @tommyfrederick can delay his “business” trip (8/3)
• i also love the fact that @bcoop may one day preach naked from stage. truly hoping @perrynoble never does that, for someone may confuse… (8/3)
• cant wait to see what @perrynoble says about Pavlogs Dong (8/2)
• wish newsprings would do another sign campaign so i can have something to write about. maybe a sign with a shirtless @bcoop and @perrynoble (8/2)
• ron wears nicer clothes than @perrynoble (7/17)
• @perrynoble i dont hate u becuz u preach at NS , i hate u becuz u look so damn good in those shirts! (7/12)
• @perrynoble u should preach without u shirt on! (7/12)
• @perrynoble sorry for the incident @samsclub (7/12)
• dear @bcoop @perrynoble @garylamb @stevenfurtick i apologize for being a short, fat, low life, obsessive compulsive, snaking eating… (7/12)
• assuming @perrynoble will talk about Jesus today – ill find some way to rip him. and if i dont @tommyfrederick will (7/10)

Messages to Cooper:

• i also love the fact that @bcoop may one day preach naked from stage. truly hoping @perrynoble never does that, for someone may confuse him with chewbacca or grizzly adams. @bcoop on the other hand is hottttttt, with 7 t’s! (8/2)
• oh or more love post about @bcoop and him taking his shirt off. those are my fave. mabye i should get on mcdzl next (8/2)
• @bcoop i suppose u never got the invite to the party tonite. pnoble didnt show either. (7/29)
• cannot wait to see what @bcoop said at fuse. gawd i hope he preached without his shirt on and cursed loudly from stage (7/29)
• @bcoop when i free myself from my captors can i be the drummer @fuse? we can even keep my hands tied together! (7/28)
• @bcoop who u marrying? (7/25)
• gonna jog to Ingles and back @bcoop hurry up and get back from the gauntlet. im ready for a shirtless run (7/23)
• going for a shirtless run @bcoop wanna join? (7/19)
• @bcoop is now using the word cooter. i must admit it is better than bamf (7/12)
• @bcoop u are one BAMF! i hope u take my offer of going for a run one day… maybe the noble PN can join. it would be super fun (7/11)
• running naked @ 12pm with @bcoop (hopefully) (7/10)
• hope ur preaching bare back @bcoop. (7/10)
• @bcoop shirtless run at midnight. my house, down midway to harriett, to Ingles, loop back through Oakmont, end @ hospital. (7/9)
• going for a run down midway. ill be the guy without his shirt. @bcoop wanna join? bring PN! (7/9)
• @bcoop i was hoping to see shirtless preachers! still waiting i suppose. xoxo (7/9)

What was their response? You’ll need to ask them.

• Did they read them and just ignore them, not noticing their content? How do you not notice something askew in these messages?
• After reading the first few, did they block messages from jamesduncanAU from showing on their pages? If so, why? If they thought these messages were really coming from me (and they knew who I was), they should have used them to destroy my reputation. If they realized these were coming from someone who had appropriated my identity, why not try to get this person to stop? Simply blocking would have been a pretty weak response.
• Did they read them and think they were funny?

One way or another, at least some of these messages passed by their eyes. Ignorance of Maxwell’s content is not a rock-solid excuse for their passivity.

Here’s the other thing. Maxwell knew that Noble and Cooper read these. How did he interpret their silence? The same way that he interpreted Moorehead’s silence, perhaps?

As approval.

This came in from Albert Lance on Friday night, after NewSpring’s announcement, though I’ve blanked out a few of the details for obvious reasons.

The owner of this blog:

JAMES DUNCAN
999 Xxxxx Xxx
Anderson, South Carolina 29621

(864)-999-9999

Such friendly folk.

This was one of the first responses to my argument that Noble has created a culture of hate that tolerates attacks on people like me.

You are truly a psychopath. You claim to be a Christian. I don’t believe it says anywhere in the Bible that you are to spend all your time and energy trying to destroy others. Do you not ever tell anyone about the Gospel? It’s idiots like you who give Christians a bad name and cause nonbelievers to stay far away from church. I attend NewSpring. We are obviously doing God work. Otherise, we would not be experiencing such a strong attack from Satan (James Duncan). God will deal with you for trying to crucify His people. You are a pitiful excuse for a human being. I do have to say, though, the more people who read your blog, the more people find Jesus by way of NewSpring.

I’m not sure that really helps your church, Candy, though Maxwell and friends might be encouraged to know that they weren’t alone.

This one I might just frame somewhere.

JD. I’m praying for you. I have been out in the wastelands with my Christianity until a month or so ago when I found your blog. Since then I have had a thirst for the word that is unparalleled (just so that I can provide an argument to what I believe and voice my opinions here.)!!!!!!

Thanks, Simon. That’s what this site is all about, so it’s encouraging to hear reports like yours.

Finally, for all the commentators who preface their comments with “if this is true,” it might help you to read this comment from my wife’s best friend, which she submitted unsolicited by us.

I want to post on here but I’m a single mother and I’m not sure if it’s safe to add my two cents for fear of what NS might do to me! You think I’m joking? Those thoughts went through my mind – however Dr. Duncan’s wife is my best friend. I have known her since we were teenagers – and I have known James from their first date – I was in their wedding and his wife and I were roommates. I have known about this terrible thing that has been taking place since this summer.

James’ account is completely accurate – our heart broke when they were not able to bring their son home from the hospital and he was adopted to the NS pastor instead. I live in another state and came to stay with James’ wife when he went to New Zealand – this account is real and truthful. All along James and especially his wife have examined their motives, and have meticulously tried to follow God’s wisdom in dealing with conflict. They have been treated shamefully by the staff of NS – but still have forgiven them.

When James’ wife realized that the information about the adoption would be public – she worried about the adopted parents of the child and wanted to make sure that they were not afraid that they had any ill will towards them. She especially wanted to make sure that this child knew how much they were loved and wanted and never would have to feel any shame or pain from this situation. These are real people – If anyone from NS ever reads this post – I wish they would understand the full gravity of what they have done. James may disagree with your doctrine, but he would never attack your family or threaten you children.

Because I can attest that these events are completely accurate, it is unbelievable to me that Perry Noble and his staff would further victimize this family in their misleading press release. It’s a bit like saying, ya – the guy shouldn’t have raped that women – but did you she what she was wearing? Blaming the victim is never a smart move. I hope that people at NS will lovingly and rightly so demand transparency from their leaders and will consider anything less a breech of covenant relationship. In regards to the money – it was never about money – James wanted nothing more than to meet with these guys and work it out. Now they have to move houses, upgrade security (have you seen some of the responses to this post?) and wait to be able to adopt again. They have lost financially, a sense of security, and their child.

But more importantly unless this type of behavior has a consequence to it, it will continue – they are right to agree with the lawyer to discuss compensation – I know that lawyers can be down and dirty, but to turn that around and for Perry Noble to act like they are greedily seeking compensation is deceitful and disgusting – especially after all that they’ve been through. Since NS people keep on pointing to the fruit of all the people who are changed as proof of their legitimacy – how come no one is concerned about the bad fruit that has been produced? From the hateful posts here and the people who perpetrated this harrassment and the leaders who encouraged and took part – THAT is the fruit of the leadership as well – it goes both ways.