Erin Benziger created quite a stir last week with her soul-searching blog post, Please Don’t Call Me A Discernment Blogger.I’ve spent this past week thinking about her comments on the matter, hoping to develop perspective on my approach to The Outspoken TULIP. Although I haven’t yet come to any hard and fast conclusions, I wanted to present a few of the thoughts I’ve had thus far.
For starters, I most definitely agree that many so-called discernment blogs show anything but Biblical discernment. Having tangled, a few short months ago, with a self-proclaimed discernment blogger who believed John MacArthur, Al Mohler and Steve Lawson deserve to be denounced as false teachers with questionable affiliations (largely basing her claims on rumors that have either been debunked or never had credible substantiation to begin with), I can attest that discernment blogs often devolve into gossip tabloids. Additionally, I subscribe to a couple blogs that go overboard in their attempts to serve as watchmen against heresy, and sometimes I wonder if they honor Christ. Sensationalism sells, and bloggers know it.
I know it!
Like Erin, I’ve noticed that I attract the most readers when Beth Moore or Rick Warren appear in the title of an article. And yes, I’ve exploited their names whenever I wanted more hits. As much as I’d like to shift the blame to my readers’ apparent appetite for scandal, I need to take responsibility for whetting that appetite. Am I much different than Barak Obama, who never lets a crisis go to waste? (What a chilling comparison!)
But the problem becomes complicated by the glaring lack of discernment in churches that claim to be Bible-believing and conservative. Evangelicals in the 21st Century do need to be warned about popular teachers and trends that deviate from the clear teachings of Scripture. Neither Erin nor I contest that point. Like her, I draw on Jude 3-4:
3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (ESV)
Just yesterday I listened to a podcast that lamented a disturbing trend engulfing young evangelicals. Quite rightly, the guest and co-hosts attributed the popularity of this trend to the ignorance of doctrine that leads to the lack of discernment that opens people up to unbiblical worldviews. I nodded in agreement with most of what they said…until they promoted a conference featuring a speaker who is known for doctrinal error in her own right. For all their talk about how discerning they are, the hosts and their guest flabbergasted me with their eagerness to sit under this false teacher.
So yes, we need bloggers brave enough to speak out against false teachers and doctrinal error. Admittedly, the Church has always battled perversions of the Gospel, and it has faced darker days than it faces now (remember the Middle Ages, when Roman Catholicism denied people access to Scripture). Yet today’s Biblical illiteracy, which is much less excusable, proliferates over the Internet with astounding force. Obviously, we desperately need Christians who will stand firmly against deception in the Church.
But, dear sisters in the Lord, there’s a big difference between contending for the faith and using Beth Moore to attract readers. I regret doing so, not because Erin’s article exposed my sin, but because I’ve acted in a manner that dishonored the very God I claimed to represent.
Again, let me be clear: Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer, Rick Warren, Sarah Young and many other false teachers need to be called on the carpet for ways that they deceive evangelicals. I’m not finished writing about them, because people aren’t being warned. Likewise, I have more to say about Holy Yoga, Charismatic churches, contemplative prayer, the evangelical embrace of psychology and other disturbing trends. As I said earlier, these very serious problems must be addressed.
But they must be addressed for the right reasons. I know that my blog’s stats always skyrocket when I type Beth Moore’s name in the title. I also know that they plummet when I blog about Jesus Christ. And while that certainly says something sad about my readers, it says something even worse about me! It says that I’m willing to capitalize on false teachers and doctrinal error for the sake of making a name for myself.
The Outspoken TULIP exists, first and foremost, to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping women to stand for Him as the Church faces increasing persecution. Discernment is part of that equipping. But Biblical discernment goes much deeper than exposing false teachers and doctrinal error. Ultimately, we develop discernment by studying and obeying God’s Word. Maybe I’ll never be a big-name blogger by deciding against using Beth Moore as bait to hook readers, but hopefully the Lord will tell me, when I stand before His throne, that I served Him well.
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Most of my readers probably would have no problem with me denouncing 50 Shades Of Grey (book or movie), despite the fact that I’ve never read anything more than Wikipedia’s synopsis of the book (which was bad enough). In fact, if I had read the book itself, a majority of those same readers would most likely write me off as a hypocrite for writing so much about personal holiness and then reading such pornography.
Since I’ve been blogging about the various problems with many discernment ministries and discernment bloggers over the past couple years (and especially in recent weeks), some of you may have the impression that I look down my nose at discernment in general. If so, you’ve misunderstood me. I actually value discernment quite highly as something every Christian absolutely must exercise. The Word of God says that Christians should grow in discernment.
Responding to a recent Tweet by Joyce Meyer, Elizabeth Prata writes 
The Outspoken TULIP 