A Note on the Bryan Chapell Debacle

I was asked my opinion on this on X, so I gave it:

I have some friends and some old FV enemies on that list. But I respect many of the guys who opposed me over FV far, far more than I respect Chapell after this. At least those men were forthright about what they believe. They were honest and upfront, even if we disagreed.

Of course, there were also some liberals on the list, like Byrd. I don’t know what the common thread amongst the people on the list would be — perhaps it’s that they were all critical of the PCA (albeit in very different ways) at some point and Chappel took offense at that. Whatever the case, many of them were slandered by Chappel as has been pointed out many times now.

My friends really don’t need me rushing to their defense over this. Chapell has been exposed for what he is. The apology I saw posted earlier (assuming it was from him) was pathetic and far short of the kind of confession of sin a godly man would make in this situation.

The only thing I’ll add is this: Any man who keeps a list of enemies on his desk is petty and effeminate. This is not normal behavior for mature Christian leaders. If it was a prayer list, that would be different. But from the way Chapell spoke those on his list, that was obviously not the case here. He was keeping the list close at hand to nurture bitterness and self-righteousness, and that slipped out in the form of slander on the podcast. I’ve made many enemies over the course of 30 years in ministry but I never dreamt of keeping a list of them. You have to be thicker skinned than that to lead faithfully in Christ’s church. There is a rough-and-tumble element to ministry that soft men cannot deal with.

This whole episode reveals what everyone should have already perceived: beneath the surface of the “winsomeness movement” in evangelicalism, there is all kinds of vile cruelty, hatred, and hypocrisy. Soft words make for hard hearts. Those who are nicest in public are often the first to stab you in the back in private. Men who are squishy about real sin in public (as the punch-right, coddle-left winsomeness crowd has been) are almost always harboring pretty significant sins privately in their own hearts.