Jonathan Merritt is Out of His League Fooling With an Anglican

Anne Carlson Kennedy’s post didn’t sit too well with him, and he responded as follows:

From top to bottom, this “essay” is a mess. The giant, unbroken paragraphs are a slog to read, and the grammar errors and made up words (what is “Tragical” exactly?) are impossible to ignore. But the worst part, perhaps, is that you couldn’t even get the premise right. I didn’t argue that “Evangelicals deserve to be cancelled.” I wrote a piece explaining how a movement sparked by evangelicals is coming for them. Which is why you weren’t able to actually quote me saying such a thing. If you’re going to use words in public–and particularly if those words are going to be weighted down with such bald self-righteousness–I would suggest that, at a minimum, you do not use those words to bear false witness against others. Unlike LGBTQ relationships, lying is one of the big 10. Do better.

But she is not to be outdone:

So, first of all, I am the Director of Better. If anyone can do better, it’s me. Rest your mind on that score. Second of all, I feel that if you have to go after the quality of my writing, it must be because I upset you in some way. Third, “tragical” is a word much loved by those who read girly books like Anne of Green Gables. Of course, it’s not the sort of term one would use in most online “spaces,” but I have carved out my own niche here, mostly full of people who don’t mind a little wordiness. It’s not for everyone, if it were, that would ruin it.

Anglican blogs and websites tend towards the extended monologue (verbose) with the vocabulary that follows.  That’s probably why (in addition to my background) I’ve gravitated towards the Anglican/Episcopal world for the last score or so, and why my Pentecostal and Evangelical friends find me mystifying and ignore me whenever they get the chance.  When going online for instruction, I promised my students that I would be as rambling and incomprehensible online as I am in person, and I plan to make good on that promise.

Merritt has picked the wrong person to characterise as a blindly triumphalistic evangelical.  She and her husband Matt have paid the culture war price in their own church, having gone up against a malicious opponent.  She’s also good (as the above quote will attest) at the Anglican Put-Down, responding to which (as any street evangelist who will level with you will attest) is nearly impossible.

I’ve recently pointed out the Anglican/Episcopal world’s elevated demographics in this country, and how it’s inappropriate for them to go down the CRT path.  In this case, however, it pays off: Merritt’s out of his league in taking on this reader of Anne of Green Gables.