With any blog come trolls. It's an inevitable fact of life. Often simply ignoring them will make them go away, but it's sometimes difficult to resist the temptation to respond and even more difficult persuading others not to respond. Give them a little attention, and they always return to the scene of the crime.
In the early days of this blog we were occasionally visited by "RM," aka Randy McDonald, who claimed to be a Ph.D. pastor from Texas (a graduate of SWBTS). It wasn't difficult to find Dr. McDonald. He advertised his little church (that he started) as well as his "Christian counseling" service.
RM's comments (a "collection" of the best is here should anyone be interested) were usually caustic and seemed to only be meant to taunt and hurl insults at me and others posting comments. After a while he seemed to grow tired of us and faded into the sunset.
Then we were joined by "Brady." "Brady" didn't claim to be anything. In fact, a pastor is about the last thing I would have expected this potty-mouthed character to be. (He sent an obviously fake photo of himself to someone once and claimed his name was "Brady Davis" while rebuking me and others for not revealing our "real" names.) Most of his early comments were published, but after a while they were so over the top I began rejecting them. However, as with all controversial comments, I directed them all to a special folder where I didn't have to see them. Here is a collection of "Brady's" rejected comments and some personal e-mails to me and others. (Where's that bar of Lifebuoy when you need it?) All I knew was the e-mails were coming from a suburb of Dallas, Texas and that we were getting frequent hits on the blog from someone in that same suburb. You never know when something that seems meaningless today might prove to be useful in the future, and so "the Brady collection" was stored away, largely forgotten, in the nether regions of my hard drive for all these months.
Back in the spring of this year, a new blog came on the scene. The Wartburg Watch, authored by "Dee" and "Deb," two women in North Carolina, deals with a variety of topics with the underlying theme being abuse in the church. A couple months ago a new commenter calling himself "Cooper" appeared on the WW (not to be confused with R.E. or Ralph Cooper, another occasional but friendly commenter on that blog). Immediately I knew I recognized "Cooper" from somewhere, and it didn't take me long to remember where.
"Brady" often resorted to certain unique phrases. One of his favorites for me was "o purveyor of filth" or "o purveyor of dirt." Not "oh," but "o". He harped on "why don't you request a meeting with Dr. Gaines" and sarcastically called people "spiritual giants." RM used the same tired arguments, using much the same wording, not only with me but with Tom Rich of the FBC Jax Watchdog blog. Now, "Cooper" was using some of those same catch phrases on The Wartburg Watch. His "pet name" for them was "o glorious wenches." Again, not "oh," but "o". Here is a collection of some of "Cooper's" work. More than once he claimed he is living on welfare.
It was evident from all these men's writings that they were especially angry towards women. Perhaps they had issues with their mothers. Or perhaps there was an ugly divorce in one or more of their backgrounds. Whatever the reason(s), the venom just dripped from "Brady's" comments and e-mails to me. And I just smiled, knowing that eventually he'd slip up.
Well, folks, it took a while, but a few weeks ago he slipped up.
Randy McDonald's "church" seems to be no more. In fact, the phone number in the ads for the church turned out to be his personal cell phone number, and the address for the "church" changed several times.
Dr. McDonald's main occupation seems to be refereeing tennis matches for high schools and small colleges, and he has a blog. Perusing the front page recently I discovered this gem:
"In order to fully enjoy all our blessings, I am taking my two children (Brady on the left, and Phoebe on the right) to the lake today so they can chase ducks and swim all they want... "
"Brady," huh? Coincidence?
Recently an anonymous poster calling himself "Plano Man" showed up on Christa Brown's blog. Want to guess where RM lives now that he's single again? Here are some of his comments. Note his use of the phrase "o glorious Pharisees."
If there was any doubt at that point, the pieces all came together when McDonald posted this collection of articles on his blog. (Or here should those articles mysteriously disappear.)
I suppose you've figured out where I'm going with this. If it isn't obvious by now, "RM," "Brady," "Cooper," and "Plano man" (and I strongly suspect some others who've recently posted on the WW -- "Maude," "Jeff," and "Silly Boy") are one and the same. The same man who claims to be a Southern Baptist pastor and a personal friend of Dr. Rogers.
Many more interesting tidbits were learned about Dr. Randy McDonald by simply perusing the internet and further evidence of his multiple personalities was uncovered, but I think you've gotten a good idea of the heart of the man. It seems "truth in advertising" is an area Dr. McDonald stuggles with. In this 2001 letter to the Baptist Standard he claimed to have been the president of the SBTC (Southern Baptists of Texas Convention) board of directors for two years and a board member for five years. He was promptly called out by two people the following week, one being the man who actually was the first president of the then-three-year-old organization. Talk about having egg on your face! Not a pretty sight, is it? This kind of behavior was bad enough coming from A CErtain 20-year-old kid. Coming from a 62-year-old Ph.D.'d "pastor" it's beyond belief.
Today is Randy McDonald's birthday. Maybe it's time to "man up" and start acting your age, RM/Brady/Cooper/Plano Man/et al.
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