{"id":1209823,"date":"2022-01-12T00:04:44","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T05:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1209823"},"modified":"2022-01-12T00:04:48","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T05:04:48","slug":"clip-of-pastor-john-macarthur-had-critics-pouncingturns-out-it-was-edited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/clip-of-pastor-john-macarthur-had-critics-pouncingturns-out-it-was-edited\/","title":{"rendered":"Clip Of Pastor John MacArthur Had Critics Pouncing\u2026Turns Out It Was Edited"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fclip-of-pastor-john-macarthur-had-critics-pouncingturns-out-it-was-edited%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1209823&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A one-minute-and-forty-seven-second clip of influential pastor John MacArthur speaking about religious liberty began circulating on social media Monday. Some critics claimed it proved the longtime teacher of the Grace To You radio ministry doesn\u2019t believe the U.S. should protect religious freedom. Others insisted his words meant he advocates for fascism, state religion, and forced conversions.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mattsheffield\/status\/1480239102905569282?s=20\">clip<\/a> gained traction after being&nbsp;posted to a Twitter account belonging to Matthew Sheffield, a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mattsheffield\">self-described<\/a> \u201cformer right-wing activist\u201d now working to amplify \u201cvoices against fascism.\u201d&nbsp;It was taken from a sermon immediately after President Joe Biden\u2019s inauguration in January 2021. MacArthur shares that he wasn\u2019t impressed by an evangelical publicist who assured him the new administration would uphold religious freedom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t even support religious freedom,\u201d MacArthur says in the video. \u201cReligious freedom is what sends people to hell. To say I support religious freedom is to say I support idolatry. It\u2019s to say I support lies. I support hell. I support the kingdom of darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MacArthur then appears to take aim at the political lobbying arm of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest protestant denomination in the nation.<\/p>\n<p>Under the previous head, Russell Moore, the SBC\u2019s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission filed an amicus brief in favor of a Muslim community\u2019s effort to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baptistpress.com\/resource-library\/news\/erlcs-moore-defends-religious-freedom-for-muslims\/\">build a mosque<\/a>, with the rationale that supporting religious freedom broadly helps protect liberty for Christians. Moore also vocally defended devoting SBC resources to supporting the rights of Muslims at the denomination\u2019s annual convention in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>MacArthur seemed to contrast his church with Moore\u2019s approach, saying it has no plans to lobby the government. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to lobby for freedom of religion. What kind of nonsense is that? We are in the world to expose all those lies as lies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of political and religious pundits reposted the video to their large social media platforms. Political commentator David French tweeted the clip out to his more than 266,000 followers, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DavidAFrench\/status\/1480630203055497221?s=20\">calling<\/a> it \u201cdisturbing.\u201d He added in a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DavidAFrench\/status\/1480630204863242256?s=20\">second post<\/a>, \u201cThere\u2019s an astonishing arrogance in [MacArthur\u2019s] statements and an astonishing lack of respect for dissent from his version of the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Economist editor Jon Fasman <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonfasman\/status\/1480646679447617541?s=20\">said<\/a>, \u201cWhat does he support instead of religious freedom? Forced conversions? The banning and criminalisation of any faith other than his?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This interpretation was echoed by fellow Christians like Brooke Medina, vice-president of communications for the John Locke Foundation. Medina, who also sits on the SBC\u2019s resolution committee, felt MacArthur\u2019s comments implied he supports government establishing a national religion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know what saying you don\u2019t support religious freedom actually means \u2026 It means you think so little of the kindness of God, which leads us to repentance, that you would prefer the force of the State,\u201d she <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Brooke_Medina_\/status\/1480603467143995393?s=20\">said<\/a> in one post, later <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Brooke_Medina_\/status\/1480606468223254531?s=20\">adding<\/a>, \u201cIt also means you prefer outward conformity over inward heart change. History is littered with bloody, heinous examples of powerful people who used their opposition of religious freedom to imprison and kill their detractors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Numerous other SBC leaders, including Southwestern Seminary president <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamGreenway\/status\/1480902398289797126?s=20\">Adam Greenway<\/a>, Christianity Today editor <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/edstetzer\/status\/1480984451723182081?s=20\">Ed Stetzer<\/a>, and high-profile Southeastern Seminary professor <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KSPrior\/status\/1481018904814231553?s=20\">Karen Swallow Prior<\/a> tweeted and retweeted statements about religious freedom that appeared intended to criticize MacArthur.<\/p>\n<p>It turned out, however, that along misrepresenting the context of a more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_8kk3-mMgHk\">hour-long sermon<\/a>, the brief clip itself was edited to remove a middle portion that would have further clarified MacArthur\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n<p>In the full, unedited clip, after MacArthur says, \u201cIf the new administration supports religious freedom, get ready; persecution will be ramped up because the more supportive they are of the devil\u2019s lies, the less they\u2019re going to tolerate the truth of Scripture,\u201d he adds this:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe condemn every lie, and we call every person to this: there\u2019s one true God, \u2018Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You\u2019ll have no other gods before Me.\u2019 Right? There\u2019s salvation in one name and one name only: that\u2019s Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This, along with the rest of the sermon, suggests that MacArthur was speaking about who the church should look to for protection \u2014 not earthly powers, but God. Grace to You executive director, Phil Johnson, confirmed that this was part of MacArthur\u2019s intent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMacArthur is certainly not advocating the theonomic notion that Christians today should commandeer governments in order to force Christianity on the world,\u201d Johnson told The Daily Wire. Referring to Matthew 20:25-27 and Revelation 2:27, he further clarified the intent of the clip:<\/p>\n<p><em>Because Christ is perfectly righteous, He has the right and the authority to rule the whole world without tolerating the kind of spiritual free-for-all that people today call \u201creligious freedom.\u201d But because human governments are run by fallen people who tend to misuse power, we do not believe Caesar should have authority over people\u2019s consciences when it comes to the question of whom and how they worship.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Daily Wire reached out to French to ask if<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A one-minute-and-forty-seven-second clip of influential pastor John MacArthur speaking about religious liberty began circulating on social media Monday. Some critics claimed it proved the longtime teacher of the Grace To You radio ministry doesn\u2019t believe the U.S. should protect religious freedom. Others insisted his words meant he advocates for fascism, state religion, and forced conversions. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1209823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1209823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1209823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1209823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1209823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}