The recent dust up between the Steve Deace Show personnel and James White is a great opportunity for an object lesson regarding defending people who aren’t necessarily your friends and the standard we apply the false teacher label.
Starting with the former, if James White is familiar with Evangelical Dark Web, I doubt he’s fond of us. I know the president of Alpha and Omega Ministries blocked me on social media for celebrating them for being rid of Michael O’Fallon. Nevertheless, I circled the wagons for James White against Todd Erzen because the large platform of the Steve Deace Show is on a dangerous and woke trajectory. Erzen’s ego prominently displayed itself when comparing James White to a temple money changer. In one sense, Todd Erzen and Steve Deace, by extension, are a much more pressing concern than the disagreements with James White.
And this is hardly the first time we’ve defended someone who was not a direct friend. We largely wrote favorably about Josh Howerton for doing nothing wrong when bringing about the ire of sex-hating feminists. Even Matt Chandler, someone we’ve labeled a false teacher was defended when his elders displaced him over a non-sin issue. On this it’s easy to point out how feminism is a much more pressing issue than Matt Chandler and Josh Howerton. The same is far more true for James White.
On the false teacher label, Todd Erzen applied it over Protestant characterizations of the Roman Catholic Church. To call James White a false teacher for that is to anathematize all true Protestants. I’ve also had a recent interaction with Redeemed Zoomer where he stated that he didn’t think Side B Theology was heresy. Whereas James White’s comments do not come close to threatening a core teaching of Christianity, Side B Theology undermines the definition of sin and repentance, and appeases the most degenerate sects of western society. This is clearly a threat that will be met with a fist rather than an open hand.
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