Brannon Howse of Worldview Weekend (WVW) is under fire once again. Those of you who are unfamiliar with what’s been going on can read about it here. The reason for the latest brouhaha is that Howse allegedly failed to fact check before sending his WVW newsletter to thousands of subscribers. There are a lot of twists and turns in this story. Find out the details over at Pulpit & Pen:
Well, the financial solicitation letter newsletter for Worldview Weekend has made its way out to their supporters, and to a few people who are not supporters, which is why we have it. It has all the doom and gloom, Elijah-complex sensationalism that one would expect from any ministry selling survival supplies. You may not know it, but Brannon Howse is the last line of defense against the Muslim hordes invading our shores and churches in a global jihad. That’s right. He and his supporters are the last line of defense – unquote – against the imminent Islamocalypse.
To be clear, Brannon Howse’s newsletter – like his reporting on James White – has some truth to it. What he has to say about Yasir Qahdi seems to be very accurate. And to reiterate (yet again), we do not like Interfaith Dialogues (IFD), we do not promote Interfaith Dialogues, we think they are stupid, in some cases sinful, and in most cases very naive. You can read more about our views of Interfaith Dialogue in this post, here. And – again to be clear – Pulpit & Pen is as popular with James White as lamb chops are at a vegan picnic. We have absolutely no reason to stick up for James White, who has actually been quite more contentious towards us than Brannon Howse.
We do, however, desire to be impartial in our judgments. That being said, there are some factual self-contradictions – or untruths – in the solicitation mailing.
1. Worldview Weekend did not come under attack for breaking a story, because Worldview Weekend did not break a story. This may seem like a small matter of inconsistency with the facts, but it’s one that the Worldview Weekend donors need to be aware of. This was not a secret cloak and dagger meeting held in the basement of a Masonic Lodge somewhere in Memphis. It was advertised ahead of time. It was written about afterward. It was talked about by James White on his program, which has substantial listenership. And, a number of blogs and opinion givers complained about it when it happened – which was nearly half a year before Howse “broke the story” at Worldview Weekend.
Breaking a story is what Pulpit & Pen did when we released Alex Malarkey’s Open Letter to Lifeway. It’s what we did when we released documentation showing Louisiana College paid off its Southern Baptist president’s gay assistant in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement. It’s what we did when we dropped the hammer on Clayton Jennings’ concerning the women he abused. Talking about something six months after it happened because you just happened to hear about it is not “breaking a story.” So, point of order on that.
Saying that Worldview Weekend broke the White-Qahdi dialogue story is like covering the 1969 moon landing on the front page in 1974 and saying you broke it. However, when you say that YOU broke a story, it makes it seem like – whatever the story was broke about – was a sinister and secretive affair with the audience dressed in black hoods coming in the back entrance down a dark alley.