Joshua Abbotoy 🇺🇸

On Friday, @UsaRidge purchased a very special farm that I'm thrilled to now announce. I love everything about this 450-acre farm, but most of all I love how it will provide a perfect miniature demonstration of our Charter Community model. 🧵

@aaron_renn St. Louis is a great American city and I’d love to see it recover.

Looks like St Louis city is still shrinking, but at a slower rate. Not a bad showing in a year where urban core counties didn’t do so well in the population stats.

@AliensExist0 Imagine it with mature chestnut trees and a park-like forest terraformed by megafauna.

Must have been absolutely gorgeous before interstates and fast food restaurants

One thing that I think has significantly improved in Tennessee in the last 20 years since I was a kid is that litter and roadside trash has dropped off quite a bit

@aaron_renn In general, most of the urban growth in the last five years has been attributable to immigration, legal or otherwise. I believe Brookings has data on this.

I'll have to do a proper analysis later, but it looks like growth in the Indy suburbs held up while the city fell substantially. Probably indications that the crackdown on illegal migration is having an effect.

My meta theory of what’s going on in SBC life: “The Moderate Institutionalism of the 1970s gave way to the Conservative Resurgence of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, which in turn gave way to the Cultural Engagement regime of the 2010s and 2020s. At each stage, leaders became more entrenched, less open to outside correction, and more practiced at using the machinery of the convention to protect their position.” christoverall.com/article/concis…

Nathan’s reflections pairs well with @Byzness article at @Christ_OverAll on the oligarchy in control of the SBC. christoverall.com/article/concis…

@BaptistBlogger Agreed, it’s a major problem, although I’m probably more concerned about the downgrade of convention voting and the very high degree of insider participation. Everything else down stream of that IMO.

@BaptistBlogger There is so much that could have been included. There wasn’t time/space to bring in everything, but I hope if overall diagnosis is accurate people can fill in details based on experience

“The SBC has not escaped the iron law of oligarchy by changing tribes. It has merely demonstrated, once again, how a democratic body can repeatedly generate its own new establishment.” —@Byzness christoverall.com/article/concis…

@BaptistBlogger Thanks

Big thanks to the excellent team @Christ_OverAll for running this piece and making it better with their edits. Be sure to check out other pieces in their series.

This is very good. I've been intrigued with the Iron Law of Oligarchy since reading James Burnham's book on Machiavelli as a defender of liberty. Will do a longer thread on this later when I have more time.

This @Christ_OverAll article from @Byzness is the best thing I've read all week. Even if you're not Baptist, there is much to glean here, as the dynamics shaping the SBC today can affect virtually any denomination. Tolle lege, tolle lege 👇🏻 christoverall.com/article/concis…

What is it going to take for the Southern Baptist Convention to experience genuine renewal? Joshua Abbotoy (@Byzness) answers that question with one of the most insightful essays I've read on the current state of the SBC. christoverall.com/article/concis…

@Digitalliturgy This is like a subtweet within a subtweet. It’s obscure to the point of being inscrutable. I know you don’t like naming who you’re talking about but at some you have to make concessions to the reader.

@TimelessTrvlr Hey now, there’s at least 3-4 southern cities on that list

Southern Living just ranked the 20 best small towns in the South… I don’t agree with #1. Do you? 1) St. Augustine, Florida 2) St. Simons Island / Golden Isles, Georgia 3) Fredericksburg, Texas 4) Fairhope, Alabama 5) Gatlinburg, Tennessee 6) Hilton Head Island, South Carolina 7) Destin, Florida 8) Beaufort, South Carolina 9) Blowing Rock, North Carolina 10) Tybee Island, Georgia 11) Pigeon Forge, Tennessee 12) Bardstown, Kentucky 13) Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama 14) Oxford, Mississippi 15) Blue Ridge, Georgia 16) Anna Maria Island, Florida 17) Southport, North Carolina 18) Williamsburg, Virginia 19) Sanibel Island, Florida 20) Fernandina Beach, Florida

So true

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@PNightcrawler @PerfInjust Yes, not a fan

@PerfInjust It also co-opted Abbotoy’s viral turn of phrase in a way I’m sure he didn’t appreciate.

I’ve known Michael for many years. I don’t recall when we first met in person, but we became friends over three years ago. For much of that time, he lived near me. We’ve been to each other's houses. Our families have had dinner together, and our kids have played together. On a few occasions, he volunteered to help me with projects on the property: building a deck, moving felled trees, and other things. His wife is kind. He has good kids. Michael was repeatedly kind to me. I’ve spent more time with him than 99% of his critics, though I haven’t seen him much in the last year or so. I once said that Michael is a “friend” and “a good man”—-something used against me for nearly a year now. No critic has asked what I meant by it, and my default response is to ignore such people. I was referring to his kindness and generosity to me, and to his concern for my spiritual well-being, which surpassed that of many people in my life. Mindful of this history, and out of loyalty to a friend, I did not denounce or openly distance myself from Michael as he began to embrace positions that I reject. This came at great personal cost, not only for me but especially for my family. Online agitators and tale-bearers, most of whom are incapable of argument, insinuated that Michael and I are “fellow Nazis,” despite my numerous articles, videos, and books contradicting that claim. I do not expect any session or presbytery to correct these sinful accusations (WLC 144), despite several coming from those vowed to maintain the “peace of the church.” Michael knows the cost of being associated with him. He knows that anything he says places burdens upon others. I chose to endure them. An elderly man at my previous church—known and well respected in both the OPC and the PCA—encouraged me to remain friends with Michael for his sake, and I did. But the post below is a turning point for me. It represents a complete disregard for those who bear the costs of any degree of association. When consideration of others goes repeatedly unreciprocated, there comes a breaking point. It begins to look like exploitation. Obviously, “Christian prince” is a term I retrieved from the Protestant tradition, and it immediately recalls my work. Michael had to know that I, yet again, would be dragged into accusations of Naziism, even from those of decent will. He chose words (when there are alternatives) that instantly recall “Stephen Wolfe.” It is an act of betrayal. He has not considered how his actions affect others. He could have easily added, “I know that Stephen Wolfe does not agree with me.” But he did not. As I’ve said for years now, I have no interest in retrieving Naziism, nor do I want a “Protestant Hitler.” Michael knows this, as I’ve said to him (among others) that revising 1930s German history is unnecessary to critique the “post-war consensus”. I am right-wing, but I am an American. By today’s standards, American history is right-wing, and it contains all the resources for recovering a manly, moral liberty and a Christian society. Anglo-Protestantism, despite its faults, is still the core tradition of America. Our fight is to recover it. I have a high tolerance for differing opinions. I do not shy away from references to Marx, Nietzsche, Hegel, Heidegger, or “critical theory.” Viewing everything with the good/evil binary, or relying on a set of scary words to categorize intellectual history and various individuals, is unserious. I even use Marx in my MA philosophy thesis. But I would not say that we need a “Protestant Marx” or a “Protestant Heidegger”. We need a George Washington. Given Michael’s behavior—his disregard for my position and the effects of his actions—I can no longer consider him a friend. But I will not take on a mission to destroy him. I will not toss epithets at him or make quips for spectacle. I simply cannot continue in what I consider an exploitive relationship. I pray that Michael and his lovely family would live well in godliness.