It is unclear, at the time of publication, whether White is leaving Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church as elder and member, however, dual-membership is not really something that happens regularly in Reformed Baptist Churches.
(Pulpit & Pen) Apologia Church is the congregation that became embroiled in a controversy after the Christians News Network posted an article about a number of questionable fundraisers undertaken by the church. On two separate occasions, church members hosted separate events that exchanged booze and tattoos (respectively) for money designated to a Hawaii church plant. Christian News Network found a video posted online under the church’s affiliated media ministry (by the same name), in which a man was receiving a tattoo on his arm in exchange for charity to the church. …
Phoenix apologist, James White, became enraged, as the church was that of his daughter’s and the man receiving the tattoo in the video was his son-in-law. Furthermore, that tattoo was designed to match one already received by the Reformed Baptist statesmen, his father-in-law, James White. The entire controversy stemming from this is referred to as the “Booze and Tattoos Debacle of 2016.”
Christian News Network questioned the wisdom of associating what most consider a vice – alcohol – with a church function. The fundraiser included a “beer flight” (a sampling of various alcoholic beverages) as a part of an event pre-planned and advertised on church fliers. In that original article by Christian News Network, entitled Tattoos for Jesus, Pastor Sonny Hernandez was quoted as to the perceived lack of wisdom of flaunting Christian liberty to those who may struggle with alcoholism. Polemics Report posted an article about the Christian News Network post, entitled When “Reformed” Theology is a Cloak for Debauchery. White continued angrily decrying Christian News Network, Pulpit & Pen, and anyone else who questioned the wisdom of combining vice with religion, calling our (factual) reporting, “Yellow Journalism.” He was joined on his Dividing Line podcast with Jeff Durbin, who insisted that the articles consisted of “misrepresentation” and “mischaracterization” of Apologia Church.
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