A Doxer Unmasked and James White Humiliated: The Full Story

On the May 20, 2025 episode of The Dividing Line, Dr. James White declared his attention to dox the pseudonymous 𝕏 user known as Defiant Baptist over a “no homo” joke that was made at White’s expense. For the full background on this, we covered the story here.

The Doxing Begins

Unfortunately, five days later, he was indeed doxed. Several of his in-real-life colleagues were contacted twice via e-mail by an (ironically) anonymous person that called himself “Holmes Investigates.” The letters were detailed, complete with all of his alleged misdeeds on 𝕏, as well as a long list of known associates, Evangelical Dark Web being one of them. There were also screenshots of multiple tweets that were out of context, provided as proof of his evil thoughts. Holmes was especially keen on framing Defiant as a Corey Mahler apologist, which is laughable for anyone that follows his feed. It is a fiction that has been repeated enough times to become etched in stone. Funnily enough, the “no homo” tweet that started all this was not included. Obviously, the joke was just a pretense used to destroy Defiant Baptist.

Fighting Back

A new follower and friend reached out to Defiant, offering his assistance. The two men got to work, with Defiant’s friend acting as a deacon (hereafter called “Deacon”) from Defiant’s church, tasked with evaluating the claims that came from Holmes Investigates. Holmes was very communicative with Deacon and seemed to fully accept the ruse, building instant rapport. Holmes was very glad that his work was taken seriously.

Unfortunately, Holmes was cagey and careful. We were unable to obtain any information about him through correspondence, despite Deacon’s professional skills in this realm. We seemed to have hit a wall, and we needed a break.

That break would materialize on May 28, 2025. Defiant Baptist logged in to his Substack account. He doesn’t create any content on Substack, but rather uses it to subscribe to others. As such, anyone that came upon his Substack would easily be able to link his real name to his 𝕏 handle. Upon logging in, there was an alert for a new subscriber from four days prior. Four days prior was actually one day before the first doxing letter was sent out, so the chances were high that the subscriber was in fact the doxer. We will also add that the first doxing e-mail was heavily reliant on Defiant Baptist’s Substack in confirming his true identity.

Upon pulling up his subscriber list, Defiant found that it was empty. Whoever subscribed had quickly unsubscribed. So, he went to his e-mail to look for the alert, which thankfully had been sent out. And there it was, the personal e-mail address of JOSEPH ELIJAH MCGOWAN, known as Eli McGowan on 𝕏. This was just the break we needed.

For those unfamiliar with McGowan, he has developed a reputation as a doxer and accuser of the brethren. He’s especially fond of going after any Christian online that listens to the Stone Choir podcast. Despite being an outspoken supporter of Palestine/Gaza, Eli is obsessed with exposing anti-semitism in the church. He seems to see himself as the Holy Spirit of 𝕏. McGowan first rose to notoriety in 2024, when he leaked the Zoom call between Joel Webbon and Tobias Riemenschneider and later in 2025 a confidential document wherein Joel Webbon detailed his past sexual sin and repentance.

Editor’s Note: Since the publishing of this article, we’ve received solid evidence from Eli McGowan that he is not in fact the anonymous doxer known as Holmes. Mr. McGowan contacted Defiant Baptist directly and even worked with him to unmask Holmes. We greatly appreciate his help in this regard, even though such efforts were unsuccessful. With all that said, we extend our sincere apologies to Eli and ask his forgiveness, most especially Defiant Baptist himself who is directly responsible for the accusations made in this article. Regarding the anonymous doxer, his identity remains unknown. In an act of cowardice, he has allowed Mr. McGowan to take the rap for him while continuing to conceal himself.

Next Steps

Deacon continued to keep Holmes busy, while Defiant Baptist worked to come up with a plan. Eli’s tweets could now be viewed in a new light. We are sharing as a screenshot in case this tweet is deleted later:

Note that McGowan says that he did not reveal or report the identity of Defiant Baptist. This will become a common theme, as McGowan feels assured that his identity has remained concealed. There’s a great deal of irony to be found in a doxer failing to remain anonymous while doxing an anon.

At this point, Defiant felt that he could blow the story wide open, but the prospect of only exposing Eli did not seem like a satisfying victory. James White was obviously involved, but how could this be proven?

Operation Fake and Gay

That’s when a eureka moment struck like a lightning bolt. Defiant Baptist would direct Deacon to send a fake “public” memo from Defiant’s church, announcing a formal investigation into his behavior on 𝕏 as well as a temporary suspension from his teaching role at the church. Anyone acknowledging the existence of this letter would be the doxer or in league with the doxer. One of Defiant’s associates had the brilliant idea of making the first letter of every paragraph spell out FAKE GAY, for trolling purposes. This letter was sent to Holmes on June 6, 2025. Defiant also locked his account on this day, in order to create the perception that he was hiding his tweets from his church. Two days later, Eli did indeed acknowledge this letter, leaving no doubt as to the identity of Holmes Investigates:

Just as an aside, we find it interesting that Eli chooses to do his doxing work on Sunday, a day which most Christians reserve for worship, family, and acts of mercy. The first doxing letter was sent out to Defiant’s associates on a Sunday, and the fake church memo was acknowledged also on a Sunday. Normal Sabbath stuff, we suppose.

And remember, McGowan doesn’t believe in anonymity.

Eli Escalates

On the same day that the fake letter was sent out, McGowan decided to incite some harassment of Defiant Baptist. He began sharing the doxing information he had collected with his brood of vipers, and they began sharing Defiant’s information freely and openly. We will not be displaying those tweets here, but once again, Eli’s public comments condemn him. He pretended to be a dispassionate observer to the harassment, continuing to deny any involvement.

Unfortunately, the locking of Defiant Baptist’s account was not initially viewed as a response to the fake church letter. This was indeed a setback.

James White has a Burner Account?

It was also at this time that Defiant Baptist started being harassed by a brand new anonymous account that went by the name “Dot” and used the handle @DWDWPeculiar. We strongly believe this account to be a burner being run by Dr. James White, based on strong circumstantial evidence:

• “DWDW” would seem to refer to “Dr. White Dr. White.” (Defiant Baptist used to go by Peculiar Baptist.)
• Dot’s first post was referring to Defiant’s prior support for Dr. White’s ministry, six years prior.
• Dot speaks in a very similar way as James White, using the phrase “Really?” along with very cringe attempts at humor.
• Dot refuses to answer directly whether he is a James White burner account or not, when asked.
• The timing of Dot’s most recent post (6/7/2025) occurred less than 10 minutes after James White’s first post on that same day. The idea here is that James White logged in to his main account, saw that Defiant’s personal information was being discussed publicly the night before, and then logged in to his Dot account in order to pile on.

This is not 100% confirmed, but we find the evidence compelling. It would be very brazen for James White to engage in this behavior less than a month after Josh Buice was humiliated and fired from G3 for the exact same actions. Relevant tweets are posted below:

A Gentle Nudge

There was no activity the following week from James White that would indicate he had seen the fake letter. On June 11, 2025, an additional message was sent to Holmes, explaining that Defiant Baptist was refusing to cooperate with the investigation and that the investigation was hindered by the fact that Defiant had locked his account. But because of the circumstantial evidence, the church leadership decided to suspend Defiant from all teaching roles indefinitely. Once again, this letter included a hidden message: U R ELI. The idea here was to entice James White to address the matter and claim victory, as this second letter played into all of his negative feelings about anons: cowards that are terrified of accountability. As before, it was expected that this second message would be seen on the following Sunday and hopefully passed on to James White.

Leaking the Fake Documents

With no activity from either White or McGowan, the decision was made to leak the fake church documents through a third party, someone that Eli would pay attention to. This gentleman expressed frustration that Defiant’s church had punished him for his social media activity and tagged McGowan. Within minutes, Eli made his own tweet with both documents, celebrating his alleged win.

Of course, he should have examined them more closely. Not only did they include hidden messages, both were written in a very amateurish fashion, never mentioning Defiant Baptist by his real name. This was done deliberately so that if anyone shared the letters publicly, they would not do any harm.

All of Eli McGowan’s associates celebrated this alleged victory, most notably Dr. James White:

Eli, while clearly elated, also sought to distance himself from the documents, despite acknowledging their existence almost immediately after they were sent out. This exchange is a good example:

The problem is that Eli already declared that he doesn’t believe in anonymity (see above), so if he’s not the doxer, he’s protecting an anon, against his stated principles. This also does not account for his subscription to Defiant’s Substack the day before the first doxing email went out or his admission that he knew about the first church discipline email two days after it was sent, only to the doxer.

Conclusion

Eli McGowan fancies himself a journalist in the church, exposing deeds of darkness, but McGowan himself operates in the shadows. He relies on others to do his dirty work for him, whether it be providing information that crazy people on the internet will use to harm believers or trying to get people canceled in real life. James White, seeking payback for the “no homo” joke was all too eager to also encourage others to do his dirty work. Eli McGowen plays journalist, but he’s too Millennial to pick up a phone and verify the information he is peddling. In pretending to expose others, he has been exposed. And I’m proud to say we caught him.