Let me preface this by saying that my personal interaction with JD Hall was always pleasant enough. There was a time many years ago when he was going to make me a contributor to Pulpit and Pen, the predecessor to Protestia. We had polite enough email exchanges and things were progressing. Then they discovered that I was not a Calvinist and the TULIP hit the fan. Mr. Hall was still polite but explained that he could not longer consider running my ministry work because of this doctrinal disagreement. Everything was polite and professional. There were no hard feelings or resentment and with the benefit of hindsight, I can honestly thank God for protecting me. Maybe it was all predestined to be. At the time, there was plenty to like about Pulpit and Pen from a discernment point of view but there was always this undercurrent of mean-spiritedness and a bent towards the very NAR dominionism that was really starting to infect the church. I think 2012 was when we first started to see how much the GOP and the NAR had infiltrated the church when the insistence was that we must vote as Christians for the Mormon. By the time we rolled into 2016 and Trump, the takeover had been complete. It is worth noting that while my experience with Mr. Hall was perfectly cordial, it was not so with Protestia. At one point someone from their organization was stalking my Facebook page, you know, the same one that had my mom as a friend. Oh, in Jesus name, wink wink.
I say this to say up front. I have no personal animosity or skin in the game here. I do not wish Mr. Hall any ill will. I am glad to hear that he has overcome the addiction issues he faced with Xanax, which I know can easily destroy lives. I have friends who have had the same battle. Hall's addiction problems came to a head when he was arrested for DUI while carrying a concealed weapon. Around the same time, Hall had to legally admit that he had fabricated an entire story about a Trans activist and pay a $250,000 fine. Here is part of what I wrote at the time:
"These stories encapsulate the core problem over at Protestia in that they confuse the absolute truth of God with their ability to act absolutely however they wish, as long as they believe they are in the right. In other words, their behavior is never considered separate from what the issue at hand might be. For example, Hall tried to resign from his Montana church after these revelations but his church openly refused his resignation by claiming they knew the truth, he had nothing to be ashamed of, and they do not care what the world thinks. Did you get that? Due to legal proceedings, Hall was forced to admit that he lied and completely fabricated a story about someone but his church not only thinks that is cool, but refuses his resignation. The same church in response to his arrest publicly claimed that Hall suffers from a vitamin deficiency that replicates being drunk. Uh-huh. Hall told his church to be ready for what "the enemies of Christ" will do with his situation. Please, enough, stop. It is not the enemies of Christ JD. You spent your ministry tearing down any dissent and yeah, some might come back now that there is blood in the water but this is not about them. It is about you. You are the one who allegedly drove drunk while carrying a concealed weapon. You are the one who concocted a story about someone to defame them. The enemies of Christ had nothing to do with these things. You did." - Anthony Wade
So, after all this JD Hall went away to deal with his addiction and how his life had taken such a drastically bad turn. That was two years ago. One of the things that we always criticize in discernment is how quickly fallen leaders seem to heal up and get back in the game. That is why this story is important. It is hypocritical. That is because JD is back. Well, Protestia now refers to him as Jordan Hall, I am assuming because maybe Google searches then will then not bring up all of the scandals. So, Jordan came back this month as a writer for Protestia. No hoopla or fanfare. Hall has written two pieces so far this month. The first a long article that appears to be for the purposes of excusing away everything that had happened. Everything seems to be someone else's fault, or the media, or the Xanax. For example, here was Hall's summation of the admission of defamation:
"The mea culpa (Latin for "my bad") I had to offer was then characterized by the mainstream media as "Pastor Admits to Fabricating Story" which, of course, is not at all what happened." - Jordan "JD Hall
Yet back when the case was settled, it was noted that on the Montana Daily Gazette website the following statement was issued by the same Jordan "JD" Hall.
"Adrian Jawort filed suit against Jordan Hall in response to a claim published in the Montana Daily Gazette that Jawort harassed Senator Butch Gillespie in the State Capitol. This information was false. Hall has agreed to retract the false information in the original article and publicly acknowledge that Jawort had no involvement in any such incident. Hall has issued the following apology: "I apologize to Adrian Jawort. The information I published about Adrian was false. Adrian did not threaten or harass Senator Butch Gillespie. I regret the error and sincerely apologize to Adrian for publishing it." - Jordan "JD" Hall
