I have studied all aspects of the controversies about RZ, talked with many witnesses to the issues and events involved, and also used a leading private investigator who is a friend. I did not do all this in order to prove Ravi guilty or innocent. All things being equal, I wanted him to be what he claimed, an apologist with total moral integrity. I took pains in all this investigation in order to figure out truth. My ultimate aim was pastoral.

I want to make a confession of sin. Just moments after hearing the first reports of Jacob Blake's shooting, I went numb. The litany of shootings, violent protests, politicized racial vitriol, and non-stop lament since Ahmaud Arbery ("say his name") had numbed me. I recognize this as both evidence of white privilege and the result of personal complacency.

Over the weekend, that same friend e-mailed me to say he was wrong. This story just appeared in Baptist Press. You should know going in that Robby Gallaty is a very influential young Southern Baptist pastor. Excerpts:

Robby Gallaty, pastor of Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tenn., said he views the impact of COVID-19 on ministry not as an interruption, but instead as a disruption to the way things have typically been done in the local church.

I came to faith under Evangelical leaders such as John Stott, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, J.I. Packer, Carl Henry and Francis Schaeffer. To be evangelical was defined theologically, not politically or culturally, and these were people of deep devotion and absolute integrity. Previous generations of my family were friends of John Wesley, William Wilberforce, the Earl of Shaftesbury, William and Catherine Booth, Hudson Taylor, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, D.L.