June 15

763 BC – Assyrian astrologers record a solar eclipse that is later used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history.

1215 – To make peace between the king and a group of rebel barons, King John of England is forced to affix his seal to Magna Carta, a declaration of certain rights protected from the power of the English throne.

1389 –The invading army of the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Murad Hüdavendigâr, barely defeats an army of Serbs and Bosnians led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović on the east central plain of Kosovo. Both leaders are killed as both armies are nearly wiped out.

1502 – Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Martinique on his fourth voyage.

1520 – Pope Leo X threatens to excommunicate Martin Luther in Exsurge Domine.

1607 – Virginia colonists finish building James’s Fort – later Jamestown – on the James river southwest of modern Williamsburg, to defend against Spanish and Indian attacks.

1648 – Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1776 –Delaware votes to suspend government under the British Crown and separate officially from Pennsylvania.

1804 – New Hampshire approves the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratifying it.

1836 – Arkansas is admitted as the 25th U.S. state.

1844 – Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.

1846 – The Oregon Treaty of 1846 extends the border between the United States and British North America, established by the Treaty of 1818, westward to the Pacific Ocean.

1859 – Ambiguous language in the Oregon Treaty due to incomplete mapping of the region, leads to the “Northwestern Boundary Dispute” between American and British/Canadian settlers.

1864 – Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres  of the Arlington estate formerly owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee are officially set aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.

1877 – Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.

1878 – Eadweard Muybridge takes a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs; the study becomes the basis of motion pictures.

1904 – A fire aboard the steamboat SS General Slocum causes it to sink in New York City’s East River killing 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board.

1916 – President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America with a federal charter.

1934 – The United States Great Smoky Mountains National Park is founded.

1944 – During World War II, the U.S. invades the island of Saipan, capital of Japan’s South Seas Mandate.

1970 – Charles Manson goes on trial for the Tate–LaBianca murders.

1992 – In the case of United States v. Álvarez-Machaín, the Supreme Court rules in that it is permissible for the United States to forcibly extradite suspects in foreign countries and bring them to the United States for trial, without approval from those other countries.

2012 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first person to successfully tightrope walk directly over Niagara Falls.

2022 – Microsoft retires Internet Explorer after 26 years and introduces a new browser; Microsoft Edge.

The phrase “I’m deviating from the script, and I going to get in trouble” raises alarming implications, particularly when considering the presence of a puppet master. The notion that someone is pulling the strings, manipulating events is deeply unsettling and demands careful reflection. @DamianNB

MAN SHOT, KILLED BY TULSA HOMEOWNER IDENTIFIED BY POLICE

A man that was shot and killed by a Tulsa homeowner over the weekend during an argument has been identified by police.

The Tulsa Police Department said Blake Williams was found dead in the backyard of the home Sunday morning near 1200 N. Toledo Ave.

TPD conducted an investigation and concluded that Williams approached the homeowner around 10 a.m. as he was doing yard work and became aggressive.

Police say the homeowner, who was not identified, asked Williams to leave several times before he was eventually cornered in his garage and attacked with lawn trimming shears.

During the fight, police say the homeowner escaped and grabbed his gun before forcing Williams to leave.

As he was leaving, police say Williams turned around and attacked the homeowner again. Williams was shot and killed.

Tulsa Police say the homeowner is not under arrest at this time.

How We Protect Our Children At School

What does it mean to protect our children at school? For the past decade, I’ve been following a program that protects school children from celebrity-seeking mass-murderers. This program teaches school staff to be first responders who provide both armed defense and medical first aid. We’ve learned a lot over the past decade, but there are still unanswered questions.

Protecting our children at school actually covers a lot of ground. Being “at school” is really a shorthand way of saying we want to protect the children when they are out of their parents care. That includes when they are off campus and on the school bus before school starts. It includes the school events after the last class period ends. We want to protect our children from the ball field to the classroom and into the parking lot.

Once you see the scope of the problem, you realize why a single uniformed School Resource Officer is only the beginning of a safety plan. One defender, no matter how well-trained or effective, can’t be everywhere all the time.

First responders must be near the children because we don’t want to give a murderer time to kill. That means an armed defender has to be within a few hundred feet of every child. The number of defenders that we want depends on the size of the campus and the layout of the buildings. A one-room school house takes fewer defenders than a sprawling K-12 campus.

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Maine Democrats fail in initial try to push gun control through House

AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine House of Representatives defeated a measure Tuesday to enshrine a 72-hour waiting period before gun purchases.

Maine sticks out nationally as a Democratic-controlled state with a strong hunting culture that combines loose gun laws and  high levels of gun ownership with lower levels of gun mortality, although federal data from 2021 showed the latter was the highest in New England. Voters in 2016 rejected a referendum on mandatory background checks on private gun sales.

House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, is proposing a similar law this year. The waiting period bill from Rep. Margaret Craven, D-Lewiston, which would have Maine join seven states with similar laws, was a test to see whether the party could display unity on the fraught issue.

But Republicans and a small number of Democrats defeated the waiting period bill in a 73-69 vote on Tuesday evening. It goes to the Senate for additional votes. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, has taken a dim view of gun control recently.

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Defense Distributed Once Again Proves Gun Control Obsolete With A 0% Pistol

Defense Distributed Once Again Proves Gun Control Obsolete With A 0% Pistol

AUSTIN, Texas — In 2013, Cody Wilson printed the Liberator. The Liberator was the first 3D-printed firearm. His goal was simple. It was to make all gun control obsolete.

DA: Woman commended for protecting herself, kids in shooting, killing man in self-defense in McMinnville

MCMINNVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – A woman was commended for her bravery after shooting and killing a man that posed an imminent threat to her and her kids in McMinnville on Monday, according to District Attorney General Chris Stanford.

Stanford said just before noon the Warren County Sheriff’s Department and McMinnville City Police Department responded to a shooting on Grandview Avenue in McMinnville.

Law enforcement determined that Maurice Malone, 38, had been shot in the chest and died due to the gunshot wound. Through further investigation, law enforcement said that the woman who shot him had an honest and reasonable belief that the then occurring and previous actions, threats and behaviors of Malone posed an imminent threat to Desiree Mears and her minor children.

The shooting death of Malone was deemed justified as self-defense and defense to third parties, according to the DA.

“As a result of the clear case of self-defense and defense of a third-party present here, no charges will be brought against Desiree Mears in connection with the shooting death described herein,” Stanford said in a press release.

“I also want to commend Ms. Mears for her bravery as she acted under extreme pressure yet decided to protect herself and children from the imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death that she was imminently facing. It is never easy for victims of violence to stand up to those that are trying to hurt and kill them. However, Ms. Mears’ bravery last night likely saved her life and the lives of her children, and she is commended for her courage.”

Lastly, the DA asks the public to respect the victims’ privacy during this difficult time, “It is never easy to take a life, even in the instance of a justified killing, such as this one.”

June 14

1158 – The city of Munich is founded by Henry the Lion.

1775 – The Second Continental Congress establishes the Continental Army, which later becomes the U.S. Army.

1777 – The Second Continental Congress passes the first Flag Act, adopting the Stars and Stripes as the Flag of the United States.
Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.

1789 – HMS Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach the island of Timor after a nearly 4,600 mile journey in an open boat.

1846 – Anglo settlers in Sonoma, California, start a rebellion against Mexico and proclaim the Republic of California.

1863 – A Union garrison is defeated by the Army of Northern Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley town of Winchester, Virginia.

1864 – Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist and neuropathologist is born in Marktbreit, Bavaria

1914 – Adlai Stevenson I, 23rd Vice President of the United States dies in Chicago.

1926 – Brazil leaves the League of Nations.

1937 – The House of Representatives passes the Marihuana Tax Act.

1940 –The German occupation of Paris begins.

1946 – Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States is born in Queens New York.

1949 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rides a V-2 rocket launched at Holloman Air Force Base’s Alamogordo Guided Missile Test Base, New Mexico to an altitude of 134 km, becoming the first mammal and first monkey in space but dies on reentry.

1951 – The Remington Rand UNIVAC I computer is dedicated for use by the U.S. Census Bureau.

1954 – President Eisenhower signs a Joint Resolution of Congress into law that places the words “under God” into the United States Pledge of Allegiance.

1967 – The Mariner 5 probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, for a fly by of Venus

2002 – The 240 foot diameter, Near Earth Asteroid 2002 MN, discovered in 2002 by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts, misses the Earth by 75,000 miles, about one third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

2017 – During practice for a charity baseball game in Alexandria, Virginia, Republican member of Congress and House Majority Whip, Steve Scalise of Louisiana is shot by a follower of Senator Bernie Sanders.

‘Vigilance’ in Haiti.
Don’t think it can’t happen here, because in the past it has. And there are indications that people living in places where the local goobermint doesn’t seem to care all that much about ‘law and order’ will start taking care of business if goobermint won’t. We may not go as far as necklacing, but you never know what’ll happen if things start going kinetic.

“Fear has changed sides” in Haiti as street justice takes hold

Haiti may not be hell on earth, but it’s at least one of its suburbs. The island nation has been absolutely gutted over the decades, first by the despotic rule of the Duvalier family, and more recently by the power vacuum and near total absence of government authority in the wake of the assassination of Jovenel Moïse two years ago.

Crime is rampant, police are few and far between and in many cases, work alongside or in cooperation with the gangs that are the de facto authorities in many communities. At times the streets of Port-au-Prince have resembled a war zone; specifically a civil war pitting Haitians against Haitians in a deadly fight over control of a few square blocks of territory.

But as the New York Times reports, gang violence and violent crime has dropped dramatically in recent weeks as a new power has gained strength on the streets: the “bwa kale” movement, described by the Times as “a citizens “self-defense” movement. Over the past six weeks members have delivered their own brutal form of street justice against the gangs that are causing so many residents to live in fear, killing an estimated 160 suspected gang members.

“Before the 24th, every day someone passed by and demanded that I give him money because of my little business,” said Marie, 62, who sells shoes on the streets of Port-au-Prince. The Times is withholding her full name and those of other residents quoted in this article for their safety.

“When I had no money, they took whatever they wanted from my table, and this happened at any time of the day,” she said.

But two weeks ago, members of the “bwa kale” — crude slang for erection — burned a man believed to be a gang member alive in front of her shoe stall.

Though she sees the revenge movement as “God beginning to make things right,” Marie has misgivings.

“I support vigilance groups, but I don’t like the way they do it,” she said. “He could have been punished in another way. He could have been arrested and put in jail.”

The outbreak of mob justice is worrisome, Haiti experts say, because it could easily be used to target people who have nothing to do with gangs, and could lead to an explosion of even worse violence if the gangs seek retribution.

That it took a movement of self-appointed vigilantes to bring some semblance of calm to parts of Port-au-Prince underscores the chaos engulfing a country where no president has been elected in two years, and underpaid and outgunned police have fled in large numbers.

Even as vigilantes set people ablaze and set up checkpoints, many Haitians support them and consider them a natural consequence of an acute power vacuum.

It’s almost unfathomable to think of living in circumstances so awful that you shrug off or cheer on someone’s immolation, but I’m not sure many of us can truly comprehend what daily life is like for the average Haitian.

“People lived like rats who only came out of their holes to eat,” said Arnold Antonin, 80, a Haitian filmmaker living in the Dominican Republic who fled last year when his wife, Beatriz Larghi, was kidnapped and gangs took over his neighborhood, south of the capital. “The gangs were like the cats.” (His wife was released unharmed after three days, when a ransom was paid.)

On April 24, residents decided enough was enough. The 14 presumed gang members had been arrested and taken to a Port-au-Prince police station. Police officers watched helplessly as neighbors beat the suspects and used tires doused in gasoline to set them on fire, according to the report by the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, known as CARDH, which used a combination of field investigators, local authorities, witness accounts, media and verified social media reports to compile its data…

“The reaction of the population, after years of gangs imposing their law, can be attributed to self-defense,” said Gédéon Jean, the executive director of CARDH. “Gangs are supported by certain authorities, politicians and business people. At almost all levels of the police force, gangs have links with police officers. The police do not have the means to systematically and simultaneously confront the growing gangs.”

The “bwa kale” movement has led to a significant reduction in gang violence, according to the report. In May, 43 murders were recorded, most in Port-au-Prince, compared with 146 in April, Mr. Jean said, adding that there have been almost no kidnappings.

“Fear has changed sides,” Mr. Antonin said. He plans to return to Haiti in the coming weeks now that his neighborhood is back in the hands of the community.

It wasn’t white-helmeted UN peacekeepers who have the gangs trembling in fear, but pissed off and fed-up citizens who’ve been pushed to the breaking point. I can’t say I agree with every one of their tactics, but then, I’m not living in a hellhole where the police and gangs are often on the same side and law and order is nowhere to be found.

“The people who are doing this are not criminals,” said Robert Maguire, a retired professor at George Washington University who has studied Haiti for decades. “They are just ordinary Haitians who are fed up, frustrated and frightened. And they want some kind of security. If they have to do it themselves, they’ll do it.”

It may not be pretty, but life is hardly beautiful for most Haitians these days. They’re in a fight for survival, and for the moment it looks like they have the upper hand over the gangs that have been waging war on them since the country descended into anarchy.

Survey: 54% of Protestant Churches Rely on Armed Congregants

U.S.A. — A stunning survey that revealed more than half of Protestant churches across the country rely on “armed congregants as part of their security plan” has just recently been reported by Lifeway Research, even though the poll was taken last September.

The revelation comes 3 ½ years after a gunman opened fire at the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, only to be shot dead by armed parishioner Jack Wilson just a few seconds later. The shooting, which was live streamed at the time—the video warped across social media—shows at least a half-dozen armed citizens in the church sanctuary with drawn guns after Wilson fired the single shot that stopped killer Keith Thomas Kinnunen before he could wreak more havoc.

At the time, Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, ripped into anti-gunners.

“The gun control crowd has been predictably silent,” Gottlieb said following the December 2019 incident, “because the use of firearms by private citizens in defense of themselves and others—especially a large crowd of worshippers in a church—just doesn’t fit the extremist gun control narrative.”

He even had some blistering remarks for then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and fellow Democrats for their “deafening silence.”

However, Biden had been critical of Texas gun laws in September of that year, which earned the Delaware Democrat plenty of scorn from gun rights advocates, including Gottlieb. At the time, Biden contended the relaxed Texas gun law was “irrational.” The December shooting demonstrated otherwise as Wilson and other armed churchgoers were able to immediately react.

But the Lifeway Research report, now coming to light nearly nine months after it was conducted, has some other revelations that might elicit silence from the gun control crowd.

As noted by Fox News, “Approximately 81% of churches — or four in five pastors — said they have at least one security measure to prevent potential attacks.”

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Governor Abbott Signs Key Pro-Second Amendment Bills into Law!

Over the weekend, Governor Greg Abbott (R) signed important legislation protecting the privacy rights of lawful firearms purchasers and strengthening the state firearms preemption law. Both measures will take effect on September 1, 2023:

House Bill 2837, by Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler), prohibits financial institutions and credit card companies from requiring licensed dealers to use a firearms-specific merchant category code (MCC) to categorize retail gun purchases, rather than using a general merchandise retailer code or a sporting goods retailer code. It protects the privacy rights of lawful purchasers of firearms or ammunition by preventing payment card processing systems from collecting and misusing this data to surveil, report or disclose these legal transactions.

Gun control advocates successfully pressured activist banks on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to create a unique MCC for licensed gun dealers. Now, they are pushing lawmakers to require credit card companies to use these MCCs to gather data on and track lawful firearms and ammunition purchases. Since the federal government is prohibited by law from creating and maintaining a registry of gun owners, they are attempting to outsource this effort to the private financial sector.

HB 2837 ensures that this will not happen in the Lone Star State! Texas joins Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia in taking swift action this year to enact laws protecting lawful gun purchasers’ privacy when using credit cards at firearm retailers.

House Bill 3137, by Rep. Carrie Isaac (R-Wimberley), expands the state firearms preemption law to prohibit municipalities or counties from requiring firearm owners to obtain liability insurance, preventing such costly, California-style local regulations from being imposed on law-abiding Texas gun owners in the future.   

Governor Abbott had already signed a third pro-Second Amendment measure into law back in May: House Bill 1760 by Rep. Cole Hefner (R-Mount Pleasant). The current prohibition in the Texas Penal Code on firearms possession at school-sponsored activities could be interpreted to include countless locations where school field trips, school organization fundraisers and after-school programs occur, including public and private venues that are not owned by, or under the control of, a school. HB 1760 makes it clear that License To Carry holders and permitless carriers in possession of otherwise legal firearms at these locations would not become felons simply because students are present on the same premises. The bill clarifies that it is only an offense to carry a firearm where school activities are taking place if they are being conducted on property that is owned or operated by a school. 

Montana hunter kills grizz in self-defense encounter

ENNIS, Mont. — On June 5, a hunter in Montana’s Madison Range killed a grizzly bear in self-defense after being charged, according to Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks (FWP).

The person was hunting black bears on a remote parcel of private land.

According to FWP, the hunter notified the proper officials and a field investigation was conducted. While the investigation is ongoing, the bear’s behavior appeared to be defensive due to the surprise and close encounter with the hunter.

The grizzly was identified as a 15-year-old female that had previously been captured for research in 2013 and had no known history of conflicts with people.

The encounter is a reminder to folks recreating in the backcountry to carry bear spray and be prepared to use it.

Other ways to avoid human-bear conflicts include:

  • Travel in groups whenever possible and make casual noise, which can help alert bears to your presence
  • Stay away from animal carcasses, which often attract bears
  • Follow food storage orders from the applicable land management agency
  • If you encounter a bear, never approach it. Leave the area when it is safe to do so.
  • Keep garbage, bird feeders, pet food and other attractants put away in a secure building. Keep garbage in a secure building until the day it is collected. Certified bear-resistant garbage containers are available in many areas.
  • Never feed wildlife. Bears that become food conditioned lose their natural foraging behavior and pose threats to human safety.

For hunters:

  • Carry bear spray and be prepared to use it immediately.
  • Look for bear sign and be cautious around creeks and areas with limited visibility.
  • Hunt with a group of people. Making localized noise can alert bears to your presence.
  • Be aware that elk calls and cover scents can attract bears
  • Bring the equipment and people needed to help field dress game and remove the meat from the kill site as soon as possible.
  • If you need to leave part of the meat in the field during processing, hang it at least 10 feet off the ground and at least 150 yards from the gut pile. Leave it where it can be observed from a distance of at least 200 yards.
  • Upon your return, observe the meat with binoculars. If it has been disturbed or if a bear is in the area, leave.

Grizzly bears in the lower 48 states are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Management authority for grizzlies rests with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

June 13

313 – The Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and co-emperor Valerius Licinius, grants religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire.

1525 – Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns.

1774 – Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain’s North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.

1777 – During the Revolutionary War, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette arrives at Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.

1805 – Scouting ahead of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River in north central Montana.

1881 – During the exploration of the Artic, the stranded USS Jeannette is crushed in an  ice pack.

1893 – At the beginning of his second term in office, President Grover Cleveland notices a rough spot in his mouth and on July 1 undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw. The operation was not revealed to the public until 1917, nine years after the president’s death.

1927 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh receives a ticker tape parade down 5th Avenue in New York City.

1966 – In the case of  Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court rules that the police must inform suspects of their of their 5th Amendment rights before questioning them.

1967 – President Johnson nominates Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the Supreme Court.

1971 – The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers, the classified Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force.

1983 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune.

1994 – A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, finds Exxon corporation and Captain Joseph Hazelwood responsible for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.

1997 – A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

2002 – The United States withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.

2015 – A man driving an armored van opens fire outside the police headquarters in Dallas, Texas and is killed in a gunfight with police after a vehicle pursuit ending in Hutchens, Texas.

2018 – Volkswagen is fined one billion euros over the emissions scandal, where the on board computer is programmed to change engine performance to meet exhaust standards when a vehicle is being tested.

Suspect Allegedly Fires Shots at Victims After Forced Entry into Jonesboro Apartment

JONESBORO, Ark. – An alarming report filed this week with JPD alleges that a suspect forcibly entered an apartment at gunpoint and fired shots at two victims.

The incident occurred between 2:45 PM and 3:15 PM on June 8 at the 600-block of Gladiolus Drive. According to the police report, two residents were inside the apartment when the suspect forced entry. The report states that the suspect discharged a firearm at both victims, fortunately causing no injuries.

Upon receiving a report of shots being fired, multiple officers were dispatched to the address at 5:05 PM. Subsequently, Robert Hayden Kash Sanchez, a 21-year-old resident of Jonesboro, was arrested in connection with the incident. He now faces several felony charges, including aggravated residential burglary, aggravated assault, and terrorist act.

The probable cause affidavit, which was released to NEA Report on Friday afternoon, provides further details about the incident. According to the affidavit, a male and female victim were inside their apartment when they heard a knock on the door. Choosing not to answer, they observed a white female walking back to a white SUV parked in the lot. Moments later, a male suspect, later identified as Sanchez, emerged from the SUV. The male victim reported seeing Sanchez armed with a handgun as he approached their apartment door. Allegedly, Sanchez forcefully kicked the door open, leading to an exchange of gunfire between him and the male resident. Fortunately, no injuries were reported, and the suspect fled the scene.

During the interview with law enforcement, Sanchez reportedly confessed to traveling to the apartment with the intention of confronting the victim, engaging in a physical altercation, and stealing his money. Police assert that he admitted to kicking in the door and firing the weapon into the apartment.

Going woke is simply exchanging one religion for another.

MEGACHURCH PASTOR RICK WARREN GOES SCORCHED EARTH IN EFFORT TO PUSH SOUTHERN BAPTISTS DOWN THE SLIPPERY WOKE SLOPE

Southern Baptists are meeting in New Orleans for their annual convention this week. Megachurch Pastor Rick Warren, author of the bestselling book The Purpose-Driven Life, is waging war with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), hoping to push the denomination to the left on the issue of female pastors.

Warren has been all over Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube this past week, viciously attacking his opponents (while calling for love and reconciliation). He’s become increasingly combative, calling his opponents “angry fundamentalists,” “angry fighters,” and “legalist showmen.” (I’ll leave it up to readers to determine who’s playing the role of “showman” in this debate.)

Warren also issued a veiled threat to leaders who oppose him. During a recent podcast with Christianity Today Editor-in-Chief Russell Moore, he warned, “We [Saddleback churches] don’t need the Southern Baptist Convention. They need the 6,000 purpose-driven churches that are in the Southern Baptist Convention in our fellowship, but we don’t need the Convention. It would be for the benefit of others, not for us.” In other words, if he doesn’t get his way on liberalizing the doctrine of the SBC, he’ll take his churches and go home.

As background, in June of last year, the SBC Credentials Committee determined that Saddleback Church was “not in friendly cooperation with the Convention,” essentially disfellowshipping the church for having a female “teaching pastor.” Southern Baptist churches are officially self-governing, but blatant violations of the Baptist Faith and Practice (BF&P — the SBC’s statement of faith) can be cause for removing a church from membership.

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