Tony Jones: Progressive Theologian/Abusive Narcissist

[Firiel]

Can we snark on Tony Jones for a moment?

He’s a progressive theologian. He has spoken up for the rights of women in the church. He has fought for the acceptance of gay marriage. Conservative Christians like to call him a heretic. He has the kind of Christianity most people here at FJ could get behind.

He’s also an abusive, misogynist narcissist, who I think has used the gay community as a table to stand on to further his career.

He is divorced and has used his position to silence his ex-wife’s voice by bullying people into deleting her comments. The story comes out in the comments on the post below. It’s a long read, but worth it. She is Julie M**** (I just don’t want Google to link her to this site in case she doesn’t want it). Once you find her name, it’s pretty easy to search for the rest of her comments:

nakedpastor.com/2014/09/tony-jones-on-mark-driscoll-what-came-first-the-thug-or-the-theology/

There’s some pretty nasty shit that she describes, specifically the collusion of friends, the crazy bitch campaign, and the silencing.

********************

His pleasant personality is also evident when you look at the way he responds to others.

Less than a week after calling for women’s equality within the church, he writes a post asking why women don’t read his blog (patheos.com/blogs/tonyjones/2012/11/28/where-are-the-women/). He gets nastily defensive in the comments and writes another post (patheos.com/blogs/tonyjones/2012/11/29/an-open-letter-to-women-readers/) where he whines that someone said he reminded her of abusive men in her past.

There have been two instances where people of color call him out on statements that have problematic racial subtexts. Both prompted whiny blog posts about how awful it is to be called a racist (patheos.com/blogs/tonyjones/2011/06/20/on-being-called-a-borderline-racist/ AND patheos.com/blogs/tonyjones/2013/05/16/im-tired-of-being-called-a-racist/).

After being called out for excusing the Roman Empire, he wrote a post complaining about the meanies who dared to disagree with him:

patheos.com/blogs/tonyjones/2014/11/04/what-we-can-learn-from-the-failures-of-rome/

As I expected, Christianity’s cultured despisers (many of them from within) took great offense at my daring to suggest that the Roman Empire was not unmitigated evil. Instead, I suggested that the legacy of Rome is ambivalent — good and bad. (As David Sessions brilliantly showed yesterday, hot-takes are swallowing the Christian blogosphere, on both left and right. Facebook and Twitter hot-takers gleefully troll me anytime I write a post that offends their sensibilities. This now comes with the territory of blogging.)

Nevertheless, anyone with a modicum of common sense cannot help but be impressed with the feats of the Romans, especially as you stroll through the modern city that is built upon the ruins of the empire.

*********************

Anyway, it’s a bit of a rabbit-hole, but I think it’s totally worth it. It’s a great reminder that while certain conservative values (specifically regarding women and their position in society) may be more conducive to abusive atmospheres, a narcissist (according to his ex-wife, Tony has been diagnosed with NPD) can take any theology or ideology and create a cult of personality around it and use it to further his/her own image and take down anyone that gets in his/her way.

We need to look at people’s actions and interactions to find out what they truly stand for, not just look at the church (or lack of) that they attend or the theology they say they believe.

[MamaJunebug]

Thanks for bringing him to our attention. The Bible passage about people who talk a lot thinking that people will be impressed "by their many words" comes to mind w/r/t his writings. I found a wedding photo which makes me cringe

loveunscripted.com/courtney-tony-wedding-in-minneapolis-mn/

Hipsters. Trying. So. So. Hard. And he, an aging hipster, to boot. He's cagey about his age, revealing only in his Wikipedia article that he got his A.B. degree in 1990.

Left his wife with three children under the age to six to hook up with and later marry a woman somewhat his junior, if my maths and his cloudy age ratchet up, and then took pains to have his ex- painted as a mental case. And now, if his wiki is to be believed, the children - in their early teens - live with him and Ms. Improbably Happy. I don't have the links now, but there are several dozen photos available that show him and his congregants in all their tattoo'ed, so-creative, so-real glory. Bless 'em.

I feel for all of them, and it's a reminder, as you said, Firiel, that just because somebody looks like "one of us" - no matter what "us" is - he/she can't be automatically trusted. By their fruits will ye know 'em. Broken marriages? Ex- and kids living in poverty? Hidden asset$ and controversy aplenty? Hmmm...

[MerryHappy]

The guy is a douchebag. He just doesn't get how relationships work and seems to take a great deal of pride in putting females in their place.

I was amused when he seemed genuinely surprised and offended when people called him on his sh*t over the 'where are the women' blog entry.

[Selah]

sometimes 'progressive theology' can just be used as an excuse to act like a douche and get away with it :angry-banghead:

(I say this as both a theology student and 'progressive' christian)

[mirele]

Can we snark on Tony Jones for a moment?

*snipt*

He is divorced and has used his position to silence his ex-wife’s voice by bullying people into deleting her comments. The story comes out in the comments on the post below. It’s a long read, but worth it. She is Julie M**** (I just don’t want Google to link her to this site in case she doesn’t want it). Once you find her name, it’s pretty easy to search for the rest of her comments:

nakedpastor.com/2014/09/tony-jones-on-mark-driscoll-what-came-first-the-thug-or-the-theology/

There’s some pretty nasty shit that she describes, specifically the collusion of friends, the crazy bitch campaign, and the silencing.

I knew TonyJ was an asshat back when he asked why women weren't commenting on his posts. Well, as it turned out, he wasn't taking women seriously. So derrr, why would women waste their time with him? *rolls eyes*

I read this post on NP back when it first came out two months ago and was pretty horrified by what happened. "Spiritual wife"? Hell, I heard that in Mormonism and never, ever, ever expected to see it said among progressive Evangelicals. The attempt to try and push Julie M****** into a mental hospital was also crazy. I also lost a TON of respect for the god of Emergents, a certain B**** M***** over his actions during this whole fracas. It would have been a different story had Tony and Julie amicably divorced, but Tony's been a right asshat about that as well, keeping Julie tied up in court for years and years.

It was an object lesson in why so-called "progressive Evangelicals" are, in their own ways, just as regressive towards women as their conservative and fundamentalist counterparts.

[Firiel]

I knew TonyJ was an asshat back when he asked why women weren't commenting on his posts. Well, as it turned out, he wasn't taking women seriously. So derrr, why would women waste their time with him? *rolls eyes*

I read this post on NP back when it first came out two months ago and was pretty horrified by what happened. "Spiritual wife"? Hell, I heard that in Mormonism and never, ever, ever expected to see it said among progressive Evangelicals. The attempt to try and push Julie M****** into a mental hospital was also crazy. I also lost a TON of respect for the god of Emergents, a certain B**** M***** over his actions during this whole fracas. It would have been a different story had Tony and Julie amicably divorced, but Tony's been a right asshat about that as well, keeping Julie tied up in court for years and years.

It was an object lesson in why so-called "progressive Evangelicals" are, in their own ways, just as regressive towards women as their conservative and fundamentalist counterparts.

Yeah, it was a good reminder to me to pay more attention to how someone interacts with those around them instead of just what they say they believe. I think if conservative Christians, progressive Christians, and anyone else of any other (non)religion scoped out their leaders this way, things might be better in the world.

[Walking Cat Bed]

It's only getting worse: facebook.com/stuffchristianculturelikes has been documenting various responses from the big names in the Emergent Church. Basically ALL of them are dismissive of Julie and treating this like a bitter ex-wife only wanting to dredge up a bad divorce for attention.

[Firiel]

I've been following it like a hawk. Julie's situation is so much like my own was (thankfully, a lack of children makes it "was" and not "is"), so this really hits home for me.

I'm very disappointed in a lot of leaders/writers that I had really respected, including Rachel Held Evans. The silencing continues, and for some reason, the NPD diagnosis is not even being addressed by the Emergent folks.

[Hane]

Back in the '70s, a "feminist" male professor from a nearly college presented a sermon at the UU church I now attend. I learned later that said "feminist" (and married) male was infamous for zeroing in on vulnerable women, banging them, and dumping them. He told one of them, "If you get pregnant, you're on your own." It sickens me to think about this.

[mirele]

Well, Tony's good friend Brian McLaren put up a document on Scribd last week and basically said he was going to sue "this woman" (that'd be Tony's ex-wife) for libel. A bunch of Tony's friends,including Tony's partner in JoPa (Doug Pagitt), Phyllis Tickle, Peter Rollins and the wife he turned in Julie for, Courtney, also posted at this Scribd site. Of course this caused a firestorm. Tony's also admitted to having been diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), but he's turned it into, "won't you pity me, I'm mentally ill?" On top of this, Tony refused to return the oldest child from visitation two weeks ago and Julie is going to have to go to court to get him back.

In the background, Naked Pastor's gotten threats from various people, but as he's in Canada, he pretty much can't be sued in the USA. As for the ladies who run the Wartburg Watch, I have warned them that they could be targets of a lawsuit as they've given Julie a space to talk. (I was in particular thinking of the lawsuit from the erotica publishing house Ellora's Cave against "Jane Litte" and the Dear Author blog.) The Wartburg ladies don't think they have a problem, but then again, I've observed Scientology for two decades and you can't be too prepared.

If I thought "emergent" was worth anything, it's been completely destroyed by the bad treatment of Julie.

[Firiel]

Tony's also admitted to having been diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), but he's turned it into, "won't you pity me, I'm mentally ill?"

The horrible thing is that he is completely dismissing his NPD diagnosis because "he's in therapy now so it's all good" while throwing false diagnoses of BPD and bipolar disorder at Julie in order to discredit her story. And the doubly horrible thing is that his rabid supporters (not the official ones, but the ones in the comments) always fail to mention his NPD diagnosis while claiming that people with BPD are really good at fooling psychologists, so Julie could still have BPD even without a diagnosis. What the actual fuck.

Hey, if we rag on Tony enough, maybe he'll start threatening Curious with a lawsuit and we can laugh in his face and dare him!

[Walking Cat Bed]

One of the Wartburg ladies is local to me, as is a pastor who had originally accepted what Tony et. al. had told him but realized he was wrong. http://frakyeahdoccottle.tumblr.com/pos ... ie-mcmahon, not broken because it's my tumblr. (See the cats? They're cute and sweet and evil.)

The Emergent leadership that refuse to consider that they're supporting the person who is actively, willfully doing harm are also doing harm.

[Jasmar]

I'd had extremely limited internet for the last month, so I just now finished reading a bunch of the comments at TWW about this. It rally bothers me that several high profile leaders among so-called progressive Chrsitians are standing up for this guy. It's sickening that people like Rachel Held Evans are giving him a platform for textbook NPD-style attacks on his ex-wife, using at least one of their kids as a tool to hurt her.

WTF is wrong with these people?? I've sort of come to expect this kind of thing in conservative Evangelicalism (although my own story has been an exception for the most part), but I'm shocked and very angry that the people who claim to be pro-woman are so deliberately choosing to prop up one of their celebrity mouthpieces rather than hold him accountable for the kinds of behaviors they claim to abhor among conservatives.

[Firiel]

wartburgwhiners.blogspot.com/2015/02/pouring-gasoline-on-tony-jones-and-ex.html

OMG, this site. It's an amazingly Conservative (capital "C" with sugar on top) opinion on the whole situation:

Commenters have grounded their accusations against Tony Jones based upon PARTIAL knowledge of a SECULAR psych assessment by a female which says, in its God like wisdom, that Tony Jones suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. For all I know, he does. [ I think, according to modern secular psychology, you could make the case that both King David and King Solomon suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Moses would surely be a candidate for that psychological diagnosis. However, I'm not thinking Tony Jones is to be classified with David, Solomon or Moses - ]

Welp, my day has been made.

[Walking Cat Bed]

wartburgwhiners.blogspot.com/2015/02/pouring-gasoline-on-tony-jones-and-ex.html

OMG, this site. It's an amazingly Conservative (capital "C" with sugar on top) opinion on the whole situation:

Welp, my day has been made.

I hope the head-pats from Tony are worth it, blogger person.

[Howl]

and this

[ One of the true ironies; TWW really despises the theology of John Piper. But, if Tony and Julie had agreed with John Pipers view on the roles of husbands and wives and that divorce is not to be engaged in, this current problem would not exist. But don't hold your breath for them to reference JOHN PIPER in a positive way.]

I don't hold my breath for ANYONE to reference John Piper in a positive way.

[mirele]

and this

I don't hold my breath for ANYONE to reference John Piper in a positive way.

John Piper is the asshat who said wives should bear abuse for a season. He can kiss my fat white hiney.

[Firiel]

Well, the evidence is out regarding Tony Jones.

rlstollar.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/the-evidence-against-tony-jones/

Unfortunately, I have little doubt that this will stop the circle jerk of Brian McLaren, Rachel Held Evans, and Nadia Bolzer-Weber, et al.

They'll probably say the kids were lying when they said that Tony pushed Julie down. Alternatively, they'll ask why they are being dragged into Tony's mistakes.

[Firiel]

thewartburgwatch.com/2015/02/26/a-sad-update-on-julie-mcmahons-situation

If anyone is following this story, Tony Jones slapped Julie with another lawsuit for custody. She can't afford to fight it and is giving up custody of her oldest son.

Fuck the patriarchy.

[Howl]

Back in the '70s, a "feminist" male professor from a nearly college presented a sermon at the UU church I now attend. I learned later that said "feminist" (and married) male was infamous for zeroing in on vulnerable women, banging them, and dumping them. He told one of them, "If you get pregnant, you're on your own." It sickens me to think about this.

Not the same dynamic, exactly, but In the documents released, Julie originally came to Tony for spiritual mentorship. Both Julie and Tony were in relationships with others at the time and Tony insisted she break up with her boyfriend and he did the same with his girlfriend. Nine months later they were married.

Also, from a superficial look at pictures of the guy, his clothes are as much of an affectation as Mark Driscoll's, although very different styles -- but both undoubtedly meant to telegraph depth of dude-ly hipness to followers.

[Firiel]

And here's Rachel Held Evans, posting about power dynamics like she actually gives a fuck:

rachelheldevans.com/blog/ferguson-justice-department-report

She dismisses an abused woman, telling her she needs to air her grievances through the "proper channels" on the one hand while posting on power dynamics and systematic oppression. She has NO excuse. She DOES know better. Things like this proves that she understands the problems at hand, but she chooses to ignore Julie and side with Tony.

Fuck you, Rachel, you hypocrite.

[Firiel]

GUYS!

We made the big news!

Tony Jones is trying to force his ex-wife Julie McMahon to remove from the Internet all discussions of his abuse. FJ is listed as one of the sites Tony's lawyer told her to contact:

scribd.com/doc/265151674/Jones-McMahon-Lawyer-Letter-5-12-15

I have one message for you, Tony and Co.:

:nenner:

The Internet is forever, fuckfaces!