The Pain of Being Blackballed by @Challies and @TGC: The TRUTH Comes Out

Yesterday, I lamented my having been blackballed by Tim Challies and the Reformed Illuminati known as The Gospel Coalition.  Through years of faithful blogging I have been disregarded and mostly unnoticed. 

Hopefully you caught the humor in what I was doing and nobody actually took me serious.  I love Tim Challies, The Gospel Coaltion, and all those involved.  I’d be part of the Reformed Illuminati if they’d let me in.  I wrote what I did yesterday because I hoped to make a point today.  (Hopefully my point is not lost on anything that I wrote yesterday). 

Proverbs 18:17 says, “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him”. 

Everything that I said yesterday could, theoretically, be true.  It really could be possible that there is a conspiracy within the ranks of Challies and TGC.  They really could have read my stuff and somehow decided that I am a dangerous blogger that they should not give an audience to.  It really is possible.  And if you only read my side of the story from my very limited perspective (and if I hadn’t written it in such a ridiculous fashion) then you very well could have bought into this little conspiracy theory. 

Reality

There are two possibilities, though, that I absolutely refuse to accept that would refute my conspiracy theory.  The first possibility is that Challies and TGC have actually read a few of my posts and they are simply not up to the quality that they would like to feature on their blog.  Maybe my writin’ ain’t good enuf. 

A second possibility is that even though I follow Challies, TGC, and others on Twitter and Facebook and even though they may have me as a “friend” on their facebook account, or have seen my name appear on comments, they actually have no idea who I am.  They have honestly never read my blog.  Maybe an article here or there, but not enough to actually catch their attention.  They aren’t snubbing me—they just don’t know I exist.

What about Challies not saying hi to me at Band of Bloggers?  First of all, I doubt very seriously he would even know me, much less have a reason to say hi.  Secondly, I’m not sure many people on the internets even know what my face looks like.  You’d have to do some digging.  My Facebook profile is usually something ranging from Don Knotts to Gary Coleman.  And my twitter profile picture has been Ron Swanson and/or Prison Mike for the last few months.  Even if they knew my name they’d have no idea what I look like. 

My Point

Be really slow to jump on stories of conspiracy on the internet.  I have been involved in church discipline cases were it would have been wrong to have aired every aspect of a grievance.  Often times because people only hear one side of the story the assumption is that there must be some sort of mass cover up going on.  While that is certainly possible, and churches and Christian gatherings like TGC are not immune to power-gluttons, it is also quite possible that these are humble men and women that are simply using wisdom.

What appears to be “going on” is not always what is actually reality.  This does not mean that only “insiders” ought to be blogging or asking questions.  But it does mean that those who do not have a good majority of the information and are not privy to both sides in an issue should be very cautious and careful about making assumptions. 

What this also teaches us is that even in our everyday relationships we can wrongly assume that somebody is mad at us, blackballing us, ignoring us, giving us the silent treatment, etc. but in reality they have no idea what is even going on.  I have witnessed relationships be destroyed just because of a perceived offense or snub.  If you really do feel like you have offended a brother or if a brother has offended you the gospel calls us to make every effort at peace and reconciliation. 

If I really were offended or really were blackballed by Challies and TGC the method for reconciliation would not be to blog about it and expose them for all the world to hear my side of the story.  Reconciliation should happen by me emailing them and asking if my crazy theory is correct. 

Of course if I’m loony enough to believe such a conspiracy theory I am probably going to think that their gentle “no, there is no conspiracy” is really part of the conspiracy.  But at the end of the day I am still to make very effort to be at peace with them.  And if they are blackballing me (which they are not), and I have made an effort to reconcile, and then they do not reconcile, that is on them.  I don’t serve the Lord by exposing them.  I serve the Lord by praying for them and entrusting them to the work of the Holy Spirit. 

The Pain of Being Blackballed by @Challies and @TGC

I have been blogging now since 2007.  Early on I was just getting my feet wet in blogging and nobody knew who I was.  Things have changed.  I now get to blog for SBC Voices which is a massive power blog of the SBC.  Seriously, we get things done at SBC Voices.  Thanks to the leadership of the green-suited Dave Miller we are THE voice for the SBC. 

Yet as I have been faithfully plodding away writing about all things gospel there are two places my blog has yet to appear: Tim Challies and The Gospel Coalition.  NOTE: Yes, one time a quote from Andrew Fuller that I posted was linked to by Jared Wilson.  But he is not, as far as I know, part of the conspiracy.

Since 2007 I have hosted numerous giveaways and other things that are very similar to what Tim Challies usually puts on his A La Carte.  Every morning I check Tim’s blog thinking that perhaps the curse has been lifted and they will let me in to their inner-circle via a link to their blog.  And every day I get the same response—NOTHING.  I have even emailed Sir Challies and asked him to post a link to a book giveaway.  He responded with some sort of quick response—“I’ll take a look at it”.  Yeah, sure you will Tim.  You’ll look at it, laugh, and then pass it on to your cronies to laugh at as well.  (To think that I even defended Tim Challies way back in 2008.  It’s worth noting he didn’t link to this article either).

The same thing has happened on Justin Taylor’s blog and a few of the others at The Gospel Coalition.  I have commented numerous times on his blog.  And not stupid comments either.  Really high quality comments and ones that encourage him to check out my blog and bask in my awesomeness.  Yet from the ninth wonder of the internet world, known simply as JT, I received the same response as Tim Challies—NOTHING. 

One especially painful experience has been the snubbing by Trevin Wax.  A couple years ago Trevin was kind enough to offer me some linkage love on his blog Kingdom People.  Now it is hosted by The Gospel Coalition.  Has Trevin linked to me since then?  Nope.  Once he began being hosted by TGC he apparently forgot that I existed and deleted me off his list of blogs to check out. 

It has become painfully obvious to me that I must have done something to tick off the Reformed Illuminati.  They have the power in the blogosophere and these turkey’s will not share it with anyone.  I assume that those that do get linked to by Challies and Taylor and the other big guns must be in on the conspiracy somehow.  Perhaps they have towed the line and they aren’t as dangerous of a blogger as yours truly. 

I had been praying about whether or not to expose this conspiracy.  Part of me wants to just let it die and build traffic the hard way.  I went to Band of Bloggers this year in Louisville, KY.  It was represented by folks from TGC (like Justin Taylor and Colin Hansen) and Tim Challies.  I figured that I would show up and enjoy watching them get nervous in my presence.  I wondered what they would do.  Would they address it?  Would they say hi?  Would they nervously glance away? 

The Snubbing Continues at Band of Bloggers

My friend Jason and I were waiting patiently outside the portal to enter Band of Bloggers.  We showed up a little early and ended up being some of the first ones to enter.  After a couple of minutes I noticed a guy that looked eerily familiar walking up the steps.  It was none other than THE Tim Challies.  He stopped and very arrogantly stood no more than 3 feet from me.  I could not believe that he was so brazen as to do this.  After all the snubs.  He didn’t even look at me, he didn’t acknowledge my presence, he didn’t even say “Hi, Mike”.  Once again from Challies I received—NOTHING! 

Perhaps Justin Taylor or the others on Band of Bloggers would be nicer and actually mention their snubbing the little guy.  That’s okay I could have handled even a veiled apology.  What did I receive from them?  NOTHING! 

So here I am exposing the conspiracy.  I’m not going to stand for it any longer.  I’m exposing these guys and getting tons of traffic as a result.  I cannot handle their snubs any longer.  These men must be exposed for the power-gluttons that they are. 

Now that you know the backstory of why I am doing this…Tomorrow I will expose these jokers for who they really are and explain what is REALLY behind this conspiracy. 

The irrelevance of preaching man’s myths

A little known web gem is that Themelios (the journal now operated by The Gospel Coalition) is available free of charge.  Check out back issues, here.  This morning, while reading through some back issues, I came across this quote by C. Rene Padilla:

“If Christian preaching is often regarded as obsolete, the solution is not to adapt the message to the mood of the day, but to let preaching be molded by the Word of God.  It is at this point that preachers for whom relevance is the most basic consideration in preaching are frequently mistaken—they fail to see the link between relevance in preaching and faithfulness to the gospel.  It is only in the degree in which preaching is allowed to be an instrument of God’s Word that men and women can receive it as a word from beyond, breaking into the human situation and acting with saving power.  There is nothing more irrelevant than a message that simply mirrors man’s myths and ideologies!”

What a great quote! You can read the full article here: God’s Word and man’s myths.