One of the sharpest far-right defenders of the faith — and accuser of everyone from Southern Baptist Convention leaders to Baptist News Global — has been accused of assault with a weapon and strangulation of a partner or family member, according to a police report. The alleged victims are his wife and 10-year-old daughter.
The latest troubles for Jordan “JD” Hall come on the heels of a disclosure by his church that Hall had been abusing the prescription drug Xanax. On May 11, Hall was arrested for driving under the influence. Although the police report says Hall tested 0.00 during a blood alcohol test at the stop, he performed “very poorly” during a field sobriety test. Hall blamed his lack of coordination on a Vitamin D deficiency.
The latest revelations against Hall came in a June 23 report filed with the Sidney, Mont., police department. Hall has been pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Sidney but has been “disqualified” for that position, according to a statement on the church website.
In his role as publisher of the website Protestia, Hall published virulent attacks on those he considered “woke” or “feminists” or “liberals.”
In his role as publisher of the website Protestia, Hall published virulent attacks on those he considered “woke” or “feminists” or “liberals” or in any way deviating from his strict construct of a male-dominated, ultra-conservative Calvinism. He also was well-known in his community for acerbic accusations, one of which resulted in a libel suit brought by a Native American activist. Hall eventually admitted the story he published in his Montana Gazette was false, and he filed bankruptcy as a result of the $250,000 settlement.
The website Protestia remains online but appears to have converted some of Hall’s previous writings to the byline “Staff Writer.” A statement from Protestia said Hall’s writings would be removed from the site and archived. Protestia also has separated itself from Fellowship Baptist Church.
Protestia was created by Hall after his original website, Pulpit & Pen, was blacklisted by Google, Facebook and Twitter for spreading false and incendiary information related to the 2020 presidential election. Hall called this “big tech censorship.”
Hall and the team of contributors he assembled around him — all under the imprimatur of Fellowship Baptist Church — became so outrageous in their content and accusations that even other leaders within the conservative world of modern-day Calvinism publicly rebuked them.
In 2014, Hall was accused of inappropriately interacting with a teenager on social media — a teenager who subsequently took his own life. That teen was the son of another Southern Baptist pastor and educator who had been targeted by Hall for criticism. Hall also was involved in a 2014 controversy at Louisiana Baptist College.
Hall has viciously attacked prominent SBC figures, including Russell Moore, former head of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and best-selling author Beth Moore.
He amassed a multi-layered empire of websites, podcasts and social media platforms, all addressing perceived liberalism or “wokeness” in religion and politics. All these outlets appear to have been ministries of Fellowship Baptist Church. A search of the IRS website shows no filings or recognition of nonprofit tax-exempt status for any of the primary names used — Pulpit & Pen, Protestia, or Gideon Knox Group.
According to a statement on the Protestia website, Protestia no longer is a ministry of Fellowship Baptist Church and the Polemics Report podcast previously hosted by Hall has been suspended.
Although Hall was a regular critic of the SBC, Fellowship Baptist withdrew from the SBC in 2018 “over liberalism and their approval of Critical Race Theory and Cultural Marxism,” the church website reports.