Tony, Doug and a third friend, Mark Scandrette, rolled into church sanctuaries and basements across the country where religious thinkers lined chairs and stretched out in aisle-ways to talk, argue, laugh, and craft new ways of living faith together. The roadshow brought new allies together and became the first of many efforts to come that combined innovative content with relational events.Since then, the scope of JoPa’s events has grown to include several annual events and a host of other offerings.Each year, Church Planters Academy and Christianity 21 will add to the national faith conversation by inviting smart, progressive, and often provocative thought leaders to share their latest ideas and practices.
The questions being raised about Tony Jones are centered on the serious allegations of emotional and physical abuse by his ex-wife, Julie McMahon. I first learned about these disturbing allegations in the comment thread of this post by David Hayward. Earlier this week, the discussion about these allegations ramped up after the announcement that Rachel Held Evans would be launching a new conference “Why Christian” organized by Tony Jones and the Jopa Group.
Nadia Bolz Weber and Rachel Held Evans have announced an all-female lineup at their new conference ‘Why Christian?’ this September. Held in Minneapolis, the conference will seek to explore why we continue to follow Jesus in the wake of corruption, hypocrisy and televangelists.Their announcement has been greeted with much anticipation on Twitter:
The subject of the email “retweets” refers to these 2 tweets that I retweeted:
This is what Sovereign Grace said to victims. “@sonorantheo STG sponsors @Christianity21 bc we’re in no position to judge such allegations.”
— Stephanie Drury—SCCL (@StuffCCLikes) January 14, 2015
This is what the Catholic church said to victims. “@sonorantheo STG sponsors @Christianity21 bc we’re in no position to judge allegations.”
— Stephanie Drury—SCCL (@StuffCCLikes) January 14, 2015
Here is the original tweet in that conversation:
@sonorantheo why do you sponsor @jonestony‘s JoPa group? Seen how he treated ex-wife Julie McMahon? #WX15 #WhyTonyhttps://t.co/HaJQsoH2hJ
— Tim WB (@twbtwb) January 14, 2015
Towards the conclusion of her email, Amy Jacober describes my RT as perpetuating the “violence.”
Date: January 14, 2015 at 10:19:34 PM CST
To: watchkeepamy@gmail.com
Subject: retweets
@watchkeep And how does this person know what the “full story” is? #WhyTony
— Kinnon (@kinnon) January 15, 2015
I am truly shocked by this email to you. There is no mention made of the violence done to a victim. It is all about the "organization." It sounds more and more like a progressive version of the conservative church which hides abuse. No difference. Sad.
This is very peculiar. If I had the email address of someone who was posting erroneous information, grave concerns about how the erroneous information was going to affect victims, and evidence that the erroneous information was just that, erroneous, I would send the evidence to the person I was emailing. I might first attempt to establish my bona fides, but I wouldn't make that the subject of most of the email, followed with, "and oh, yeah, I know this is not true".
Most odd! When did the possible violence against Julie McMahon became less important than any damage to the STG?
Most odd! When did the possible violence against Julie McMahon became less important than any damage to the STG?
We left our church where we served on staff and in many ministries for 20 years. A new priest came and began to target us with lies, manipulation, slander, gossip and alienation. We left one year later. Since then, I have learned that those clergy who have been convicted of child abuse exhibit traits of being narcissistic and grandiose, which this man had. I am very interested in knowing the early signs of abuse, targeting good people to get them to leave, and the denial of the congregation to the truth and evidence of wrongdoing BEFORE the sexual abuse happened. Can you give any insight into these questions?