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First,
I'm in very good company. Darwin Fish has also denounced virtually every man
of God in the annals of church history as a liar and deceiver. I am frankly
flattered to be categorized with men like John Calvin, John Owen, the Puritans,
Charles Spurgeon, and John MacArthur—all of whom have influenced me
greatly, but none of whom I am worthy to be compared with.
Second, notice that Darwin seems incapable of believing anyone might ever
be mistaken or miscommunicating. And he doesn't appear to recognize that language
can sometimes be misunderstood or ambiguous. So when he reads or hears a statement
he disagrees with, he immediately insists the other person is guilty of "lying,"
"deceit," "false teaching," or some similarly abominable
misdeed. His Web site targets me in particular with a laundry list of ungodly
accusations about "lying," "deceit," "slander,"
and truth-twisting. I have responded to some of his specific accusations by
correcting or clarifying my own statements to remove ambiguities or unintentional
inaccuracies. But Darwin's response in return was merely to suggest that I
"changed some of [my] deceit"—ostensibly out of wicked motives.
Here is one example of how unreasonable Darwin's incessant finger-wagging
about "deceit" can be: In the original version of this FAQ, I wrote,
"Darwin has been known to show up on Sundays in the Fishmobile at Grace
Community Church, with his entire 'congregation' in tow. They stand on the
streets surrounding the church . . ." The sentence contains an unintentional
ambiguity: The participial phrase "surrounding the church" naturally
modifies the noun closest to it (streets); but it could be read as if it modified
the main verb of the sentence (standing). I meant it in the former sense:
Darwin and his group stand on the streets and sidewalks that surround our
church. Darwin insisted on taking it in the latter sense, as if I were claiming
he had brought a group big enough to link arms and surround our church's entire
campus at once. He wrote, "[We] stood on the public sidewalk near the
front of the church. We in no way surrounded the church (it's too big!)."
Since I had already stated that Darwin's congregation is a small, living-room-sized
group, my meaning would have been perfectly clear to most readers. But Darwin
insisted on citing his misconstrual of my words as "proof" of my
"deceit."
The truth is, if I wanted to reply in kind, I could accuse Darwin of "lying,"
because some of his followers have also stood and passed out their literature
and insults from behind our church (not just "near the front" of
it). But I'll extend him a courtesy he rarely extends anyone else: I'll assume
his inaccuracy was neither deliberate nor essential to the point he was making.
In any case, I do not intend to be goaded by Darwin Fish into wrangling about
words to no profit. But I do invite readers to analyze his accusations carefully
and notice that despite the harsh and insistent tone of his complaints about
my supposed deceit and duplicity, his "proofs" are without any real
substance. Notice also that he loves to nitpick about the incidental details
of his critics' statements, but he consistently misses the big picture.
Update: Apparently, sometime after 2001, Mr.
Soto quietly removed most of the material "exposing" my "lies"
from his Web site. Perhaps it was pointing too many prospective converts to
this FAQ, where they were fueled with questions Soto and Fish had difficulty
answering. I'm not certain what led to its removal. I certainly never complained
about their little "expose." I am quite willing to wear any odium
they want to pour on me (Matthew 10:25-26).