An Apology to Todd Pruitt

In the wake of Aimee Byrd’s cancellation from the Mortification of Spin podcast by the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, I wrote two blog posts around the matter.

Todd Pruitt, one of the other presenters of the podcast, subsequently contacted me and we emailed each other, as he said (publicly) that I had slandered him on my blog posts. His son had seen my posts on Facebook, and had been upset about the comments about his father.

My comments around Todd were directed at the role he plays on the podcast and came across churlish.  They were designed to be cheeky, but in reading them back they come across as rude.  Todd was offended by them and I asked for his forgiveness privately, and am doing so publicly.  The gospel would require such an action. I am certain Todd, also in light of the gospel, forgives me.

I have a commitment that whatever platform the comment was made will also be the platform the apology is delivered. There’s nothing worse than a banner headline on page 1 followed by a page 8 apology in small type.

I am also not going to delete the comments as part of the problem in a cancel culture is that we photoshop ourselves to look good, and others to look bad.

I stand by my assertions on both blog posts about the manner in which Aimee was treated, and the deeper issues that raises, but given one of the key factors was the trash talk on a Facebook page by those who are purported to be elders in good standing in churches, then any direction down that same path would be unseemly.

Todd himself has made a public statement on behalf of he and Carl Trueman around the matter of Aimee’s departure, as has The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.  I continue to believe that both responses are inadequate, but that in no way renders my initial comments about Todd appropriate.