And Then There Was One
In a previous post, I mentioned how the only two currently-scheduled speakers at Joel Webbon’s upcoming Trashworld conference who had any denominational oversight whatsoever were Calvin Robinson of the Anglican Catholic Church and Dusty Deevers of the Southern Baptist Convention. In a followup post, I gave an overview of how many speakers were featured in, and subsequently promoted, a video full of spliced-in Nazi propaganda, and how several of them continue to defend its creator. I also detailed how Zachary Garris, who pulled out of the conference last year, is facing a potential revocation of his license to preach by the Presbyterian Church in America, over his defense of chattel slavery, his liking of several racist social media posts, and his private imprint, where he publishes kinist Jan Adriaan Schlebusch.
Since then, a major development has occurred in the question of Whose denomination will actually hold them accountable? At the National Pro-Life Summit this week, Robinson mimicked the salute that Elon Musk gave at the presidential inauguration, which uncannily resembles the Sieg Heil, to cheers from the crowd.
In response, the College of Bishops of the ACC summarily defrocked Robinson. In a statement posted on their website, they wrote, “Mr. Robinson had been warned that online trolling and other such actions (whether in service of the left or right) are incompatible with a priestly vocation and was told to desist… we believe that those who mimic the Nazi salute, even as a joke or an attempt to troll their opponents, trivialize the horror of the Holocaust and diminish the sacrifice of those who fought against its perpetrators. Such actions are harmful, divisive, and contrary to the tenets of Christian charity.”
With this decision, the only pastor speaking at Trashworld with any remaining ecclesial association beyond his own schismatic church is the SBC’s Dusty Deevers. I can’t help but wonder what it is about my “denomination” that would make us the last line of ecclesial legitimacy this conference has. What’s keeping our leaders, like SBC President Clint Pressley, from at least making a public statement that it’s inadvisable for SBC pastors to be publicly involved with such an event? When the response to Robinson’s trolling salute from the conference’s organizer, Joel Webbon—who has his own controversies around the Holocaust—is to joke, “Looks like he’s been [training] for our conference,” what degree of moral cowardice does it take to continue to stick one’s head in the sand, knowing that Deevers will almost certainly show up at this year’s Southern Baptist Convention and try to push an agenda?