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From a legal point of view, it's probably not that wise for Brunson to go around calling someone a "sociopath."

Regarding his salary, I got at least a few dollars that says Brunson makes more at FBC Jax than he did at FBC Dallas. Given that FBC Jax is one of the largest megachurches in the United States, I have a hard time believing that Brunson is one of the lowest-paid megachurch pastors in the SBC. I guess Brunson knows that his salary info won't ever go public.

With all this media attention, I hope a lawyer in the Jax-area will give the Watchdog a ring and offer some free pro-bono legal services. Put all the facts on the table and I suspect there are a half-dozen, if not more, causes of action that the Watchdog could assert in a suit.

The story also ran on all three local networks news last night.

I do not know Mr. Rich, nor did I recognize him on the news.

Here is one.


http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/loca ... sJnAba0%3D

Since the church got into the courts system first, what are the bets that Brunson now gets hit with a defamation of character suit?

1 Corinthians 3

1.And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
2.I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able .
3.For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

The carnality on both sides is STAGGERING!!!!

Chapter 6 speaks to lawsuits among believers.

Baptist Planet provides a succinct summary of the issues in this case.

I don't know of a single megachurch in the SBC which publishes the pastor's salary (or staff salaries) along with all their perks. Right or wrong, they trust those decisions to be made by the Personnel and Budget committees that were duly elected by the church. I tend to think it works just fine and also keeps bloggers like the Watchdog from obsessessing in their spare time.

I never gave my opinion about whether a pastor's salary package should be known--it just isn't in megachurches as well in most churches I know of in Texas. The key committees and their members know and make those decisions but then its up to the church as to how they want to be structured. Obviously, FBC, Jax is structured in that manner and if someone doesn't like it, perhaps they should consider joining another church. The church members voted on their organizational structure.

Sorry about the spelling of obsessing. I must have been obsessessing when I wrote it.

I hardly consider the Watchdog an innocent victim in all of this. Just read his blog posts and they speak for themselves. Perhaps there would never have been the need for his blog if he had gone in and met personally with Mac Brunson. Instead, he blogged anonymously and continually derired the pastor and staff and even encouraged people to withold their giving. In my opinion, he got exactly what he deserved.

Mercy and grace certainly are the right options but its hard to extend them when someone is blogging and disrupting the church anonymously. I stand by my statement that most of this could have been avoided if the Watchdog had simply gone in and talked with Mac when he first got upset.

We will never know though since he didn't...

Another local article on the issue.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009 ... s_violated

Seems Mr. Rich is considering a lawsuit since he feels his "rights" were violated.

But I guess is it cool to post the address and pics of the pastors house on the WWW.

After thinking about this over the weekend, it seems Mr. Rich is doing his best to come across as the victim in all this.

The church never publically announced his name, it was only known by those involved in his removal from the church.

Mr. Rich is the one that told the world he was discovered and then went to the newspaper and TV stations.

Steve - I try not to post here, except when you come here with misstatements.

Mr. Rich did not go to the media. His identity was discovered by Jeff Brumley, reporter of the Times Union newspaper, from Mr. Rich's name that was on the one and only publicly available document on file with the JSO: the trespass papers filed against Mr. Rich and his wife on 12/10/08. Mr. Rich never intended to go public with this. It was the church's own action of filing the trespass paper that ultimately resulted in this going so public. Ask Mr. Brumley, and he'll tell you: he contacted Mr. Rich and told him that he WAS going to do a story on this from the angle of JSO's involvement, and Mr. Rich decided it was best to speak to Jeff to give his side of the story.

TV reporters contacted Rich the next day - one of them being a reporter of TV-12, which has deep connections to FBC Jax, so again Mr. Rich thought it best to tell his side knowing they would go to FBC Jax to get their side. And Mr. Rich didn't call Mac Brunson a sociopath or mentally unstable.

The church did not publicly announce Mr. Rich's name, but they sure did to all of the deacons two nights prior to the special business meeting, exposing him as the blogger and then linking him to criminal allegations...and the information leaked quickly from the deacon's meeting to the congregation...even to his new church...so many in the congregation knew who was being disciplined on that Wed 2/25 meeting.

Sorry William to bring this up here in your forum, but I feel the need to refute the misstatements of Mr. Wilcox when he tries to post here as someone with intimate knowledge of the facts at FBC Jax.

Ed: Steve WIlcox says in part Speaking of the no longer anonymous Watch dog, " But I guess is it cool to post the address and pics of the pastors house on the WWW" . Steve, I would like to see that house can you tell me where those pics are posted?


I don't see the problem, I have held membership in a number of churches, including 4 in Florida and I knew where each of those four pastors lived. My wife pastors a two church parish, the churches are both small and serve two distinct communities 8 mile apart but most everyone of what ever faith or those of no faith hereabouts knows where the Baptist parsonage is there is a sign on the porch.

Well, it looks to me like there was still a conflict of interest in the assignment of Det. Hinson to the case, though the Sheriff's department may not have been aware of it (and still may not acknowledge it), and where the "usual" investigator has a conflict of interest it would be more appropriate to use an unusual one. And it looks to me like there is a presumption of rightness (if not righteousness) on the complainant's part and a concomitant willingness to breach confidentiality in one direction. It would have been interesting to see how Det. Hinson and the department would have handled a similar case where the blogger turned out to be one of the subordinate pastors of FBCJax and the complainant was the Diocese of St. Augustine, or perhaps a mosque.