In a recent article on Calling Christians Jonathan McLatchie was taken to task for the kind of person he “endorses as true Christian scholarship, someone he is not only willing to work with, but someone he is willing to promote and hold classes with” – that is to say Sam Shamoun who unfortunately suffers from chronic mental heath issues manifesting themselves in on-line bullying, abusive behaviour, and extreme hate speech. In an email dated Friday 19th February, 2016 Jonathan was asked to distance himself from Shamoun’s curses, abuses and insults of the Islamic Prophet of God, and of Dr Shabir Ally.
Jonathan responded by saying:
“my personal dealings with Sam are not your concern. I am accountable to God, not to you or anyone else.”
As a former Evangelical Christian myself I’m familiar with the New Testament’s teaching on a Christian’s accountability to their elders and the church. At a minimum Jonathan is accountable to his elders and pastors. And if he is an elder then he is accountable to his church. Consider this representative sample of teaching:
1 Thessalonians 5:12
Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.
Hebrews 13:7
Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith.
Ephesians 5:21
And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
1 Peter 5:2
Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly–not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God.
Categories: Christianity, Extremism
Blogging Theology 
Jonathans response comes across to me as very defensive in tone as if asking him to consider the company he keeps especially when that company is so easily documented to be an angry and deeply hateful man, as something that in itself deserves condemnation.
The only reason for this is because either he is in so deep that this kind of ‘culture’ and cannot see the clearing for the trees or he has no qualms with what Sam is doing because he himself shares these warped ‘convictions’ as not only fitting behaviour for a Christian but also as a human being speaking with other human beings that is to say that they have very little value and are most certainly not deserving of any respect or dignity that is at the heart of the teaching of Genesis 1. Man is made in the ‘image’ of God and therefore imbued with an inherent worth despite the decisions people make that we might not agree with.
How unlike Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) who spoke of peace, respect of other religions, and advocated for not just tolerance but friendship between Muslims and Christians. A fantastic example being that of the treaty with the Christians monks on Mt Sinai a monastery which still exists to this day.
Jonathan would do well to learn from him not Sam Shamoun and his internet ninjas!!
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It just occurred to me, if we were to adopt the mentality of the Islamophobes, we would ask: what is it in his scripture that makes Shamoun such a toilet mouth? We should read his book to find out what inspires and motivates his uncivil and despicable character. Much analysis and research is not at all required here since we immediately observe the following upon a cursory reading of the NT:
There are stereotypical abuses hurled towards opponents in II Peter (2 Peter 2:14; 2:17-19) and Jude (Jude 5-16). We also encounter insults and abuses in Paul’s epistles. Paul directs these abuses towards his rival competing preachers who exposed him wherever he went.
“There were some who preached ‘a different gospel’, or a gospel contrary to Paul’s (Gal. 1: 8f.; 2 Cor. 11: 4). These were worse than people who simply meted out physical punishment. Paul hurled a curse against those who preached a different gospel to the Galatians (Gal. 1: 8 f.), and he went on to wish that they would physically mutilate themselves (Gal. 5:12).” — E. P. Sanders, Paul: A Very Short Introduction, 1991, Oxford University Press, p. 7.
Paul condemns the competing apostles as “apostles of Satan” because they preached a different gospel (see rival competing Christians questioning Paul in: 2 Corinthians 10:10, 11:16, 11:4). Paul maligns his opponents as gluttonous reprobates: “whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, and who set their minds on earthly things” (Phil 3:19).
The author of the Pastoral Epistles abuses his opponents in a paranoid fashion. The author refers to his opponents as unruly, vain talkers and deceivers, who teach error for filthy lucre’s sake, liars, idle gluttons, evil beasts, abominable, disobedient and “unto every good work reprobate” (see Titus 1:10-16).
The author of 2 Peter believed his opponents were “false prophets” (2:1) who engaged in many “immoral acts.” The “immoral acts” being: “They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. . . . They speak bombastic nonsense, and with licentious desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error.” (2:14)
He proceeds with more abuses and slurs:
“These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” (2 Peter 2:17-19)
Nasty abuses are unleashed in the letter attributed to Jude. The opponents of Jude are maligned for their alleged perverse and licentious lifestyle. The author writes:
“Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals – these are the very things that destroy them.” (Jude 10).
Even though the author accuses his opponents of utilising abuses, he himself does not hesitate to liken them to “unreasoning animals” or “irrational animals!” His opponents are said to engage in “deeds of ungodliness” (verse 15), they are: “…grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves…” (verse 16).
The opponents are compared to the children of Israel, who after escaping from Egypt, indulged in acts of disbelief such as adultery and idolatry. The author also compares them to Sodom and Gomorrah, who “indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust” (verses 5-7). The author, however, never actually tells us what his opponents stood for. The letter is mostly filled with such invective, name-calling and stereotypical abuses.
Could this be the underlying inspiration and motivation for Shamoun’s filthy character? The Islamophobia mindset would conclude, “YES!”
Note: it is not my claim at all that this is the proper way to look at this issue. It definitely isn’t. Shamoun is mentally unstable and a genuinely filthy character. . I’m only trying to show the silly approach of Islamophobes. It can be very easily applied upon them.
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Insightful stuff Arif.
I’ve heard David Wood and Jay Smith using the example of Jesus according to the Gospels to justify their in-your-face brand of missionary activity. Just this morning I saw some hateful comments and outrageous insults on one of my YT vids from Mr Shamoun. Very sad. I wish I had mentioned some of these Bible verses you have cited in your comment.
Paul of Tarsus seems to contradict the following teaching (needless to say many Protestant apologists/missionaries such as James White, Shamoun and Wood also contradict this):
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.[Col 3:12-13]
Protestant apologists and missionaries on the net regularly tell me, via their behaviour (and beliefs), they are not being guided by the Holy Spirit. We really need to be more vocal about this stuff, how else will things improve? The net is full of so much nastiness directed towards Muslims, much of it coming from Protestant Christians.
A quick comment on Shamoun as you did suggest he’s mentally unstable. I think you were being serious and not trying to be mean as you seem like a serious person. I can tell you, a professional in psychology, somebody who knows Shamoun (and is friends with Wood) has personally told me he thinks Shamoun is bipolar. This should be taken into account when talking about and to Shamoun. Christians sadly do not really appear to be helping him from what we can see. Perhaps there is some behind the scenes activity taking place, I don’t know. Maybe he’s refusing their help. we don’t really know. I strongly believe Christians should be encouraging Shamoun to get assessed, get out into the real world (offline) and get a proper job – all this would be much more healthier, mentally and physically.
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Yahya, I agree. Paul was inconsistent, like all NT writers. Abuses, insults, name – calling, slurs of a stereotypical and paranoid fashion is common in a number of NT writings as shown above. I too have come across statements from these low level polemicists claiming to be applying the teachings of the Bible whilst abusing, mocking and insulting Muslims and their religion.
Of course, the scholarly and the more sophisticated Christians would not support this vile behaviour and would ask the readers to put the Bible on context and not blindly mimick some of its sections – that those authors (and other early Christians who were equally abusive) were writing in an environment and time when this was the norm and their opponents, likewise, uttered such abuses upon them).
Moving on, I think Muslims shouldn’t waste time on the likes of Shamoun. These are nobodys in the scholarly arena and occupy the lowest level of intensely silly level Internet polemics. Focus instead on the scholarly output. We need to grow and go beyond retards like Shamoun.
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I totally agree guys like Shamoun, Christian princess, David wood and johnny, we must ignore them completely. why waste time with a bunch of nobodies, just because some Christians take them seriously, it doesn’t mean we should too.
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Also, as long as Muslim apologists are talking about Shamoun, He has a proper job. If Muslim apologists totally ignore him, his fan-base will decline drastically.
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I don’t know about you guys, but I just sent Sam a pleasant email and I expect a completely sensible and respectable email in response.
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have you been smoking Mr Ahmad?
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Sir Paul Williams, i hope so.
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