Lane’s next point concerns my statement of loyalty to my friends.
“Fourthly, regarding Wilson’s loyalties. He states, ‘So my loyalties to my friends and felloow laborers in this reformational ministry have not budged, nor will they’ (pg. 4, 2nd column). This is really too bad. This means that Wilson will continue to stonewall for his friends.”
Note that Lane said that my statement of loyalty meant that I will continue to stonewall for them. This does two things. First, it ties into the point already discussed, where I pointed out the reality of stonewalling, describing it as a temptation, and not as something to be defended. It shows that Lane actually is lumping me in with a pattern that I was actually condemning. Second, what Lane predicts I would do with my loyalties is very different than what I actually did with them. He said that my loyalty meant continued stonewalling. What did I say that my loyalty would result in? Let’s take a bigger swath of that section of the article than Lane did.
“So my loyalties to my friends and fellow laborers in this reformational ministry have not budged, nor will they. But I do want to urge my fellows in the FV trenches to take heed with regard to the following things. I have seen issues that concern me, and so I want to caution against them. Some of this I have already addressed in private conversations, and all of it needs to be said in public.”
And what followed was a detailed article on the temptations and failings that have been apparent within FV ranks. Now tell me, what are we to make of the common criticism that FV types never admit to having been wrong about anything, anytime, anyhow? When I write about problems in FV circles I don’t do it in lemon juice. So why is it invisible to our critics? It is invisible because it is inconvenient. Their talking points are not a great host to begin with, and they can’t afford to lose any more of them.
In short, Lane said that my loyalty would result in stonewalling when he took that statement about loyalty from an article that was admonishing my friends. And it was an admonition, incidentally, from which I do not exclude myself. In fact, on the basis of it, I went back and deleted a sentence in the previous paragraph.