Letter to the Editor
August 18, 2021
Dear Editor:
This evening I read It’s Time to Pay the Piper, by David Bumgardner and found myself troubled by the way in which these critiques were delivered. Whether I agree or disagree with the content of said criticisms is not important; rather the article’s saddening lack of gentleness, charity and temperance are what prompted me to write.
It’s safe to say, the Piper was not only paid, but shot for good measure.
Bumgardner writes of Piper’s sermon Helping Each Other Endure to the End: “It is still (a sermon) that I will listen to whenever I have lost sight of the vision of the ministry to which I believe God has called me.”
Clearly John Piper was a major help in the formative stages of this gentleman’s walk with Christ.
Despite this, “theological rot,” “corrupt … woman-whipping Christianity” and an “abysmal finish in Christian ministry” are some of the harsh and inflammatory terms attached to Piper and his work in this article.
As Bumgardner aspires to the ministry, he ought to heed the words of Paul in 2 Timothy 2:24-25: “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.”
This article could have been used to rebuke John Piper gently and call the Baptist News Global audience to pray for his return from his wayward teaching. Instead, the article seems to pronounce a proverbial curse on every word that has or will proceed from the mouth of John Piper in a critique fit for Adolf Hitler himself, but wildly inappropriate for an erring brother in Christ.
Jesse Walsh, Queensland, Australia