The Sins of Josh Buice

How a pastor trolled pastor trolls and the trolls got big mad that they were trolled by a pastor troll (probably, maybe, allegedly).

The Christian inter webs are abuzz with news that Josh Buice (Christian author, podcaster, President of G3, and pastor at Pray’s Mill Baptist Church) has been publicly ostracized by his church, many of his friends, and the ministry he founded.

In the interest of time and my personal sanity, I’m not going to delve into other people’s posts hypothesizing about what went wrong. Instead, I’m going to respond directly to the press release posted by the G3 board. In it, they publicly accuse Josh of slander, saying:

“In recent weeks, the elders of PMBC [Pray’s Mill Baptist Church] uncovered irrefutable evidence that Dr. Buice has, for the past three years, operated at least four anonymous social media accounts, two anonymous email addresses, and two Substack platforms. These accounts were used to publicly and anonymously slander numerous Christian leaders, including faithful pastors (some of whom have spoken at G3 conferences), several PMBC elders, and others. These actions were not only sinful in nature but deeply divisive, causing unnecessary suspicion and strife within the body of Christ, and particularly within the eldership of PMBC.”

A few paragraphs down they conclude:

“On May 8, after some members of the board privately encouraged Josh Buice to resign, the board received and unanimously accepted Josh Buice’s resignation as President of G3. In light of these events, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the upcoming national G3 Conference and all 2025 workshops. All registrants, exhibitors, and publishers will receive a full refund of registration fees. G3 plans to continue G3+, G3 Press, the G3 Student Retreat, and other media content. As we look to the ministry’s future, we will prioritize the publication of helpful biblical content …” yada, yada, yada.

So basically they fired him, took over his ministry, and destroyed his career.

Over tweets.

To be completely transparent, every time I hear church leaders cry “slander” I immediately look for signs of spiritual abuse. Why? Because in every single church abuse or corruption case I’ve ever dealt with or even heard about the abuse victim and any whistle blowers are accused of slander or gossip. Always. No exceptions. It’s like Psychological Abuse 101.

Let’s start off by defining slander.

slander - noun

1. knowingly speaking false accusations and lies to defame and damage another person's reputation.

2. a false and defamatory oral statement about a person.

Without even knowing what Josh posted, I can guarantee to you that he did not use anonymous online accounts to slander anyone. Slander is spoken. In print, it’s libel. Clearly, these dudes have never watched Spiderman.

So, right off the bat, G3 is communicating inaccurate or untruthful accusations. Rather ironic, that.

Did Josh commit libel? Maybe. I don’t know. G3 has accused him of slander, but so far produced no evidence and offered no explanation. Who can say?

But even if Josh did commit libel, why cancel the entire conference?

It was scheduled for September 11-15. That’s about three months away. People have already bought tickets, airfare, booked hotels, and made plans. Why put so many people through so much hassle over a handful of anonymous accounts, when nobody seems to even know which accounts they were or what his posts were about?

If Josh needs to resign, fine. But why can’t someone else fill his role for the conference?

The G3 Staff includes Virgil Walker and Scott Aniol. The Board of Directors includes Tom Buck, Buck Braswell, Adam Burrell, Matt Broome, and Jonathan Frazier. Pray’s Mills Baptist has multiple pastors, including Matt Sikes and Dylan Joyner. Are none of these dudes available to MC? Can none of them preach?

It makes no sense.

But wait, it gets stupider.

Founders Ministries decided to stick their ore in. In a statement on their website, they write:

“We have been informed by the G3 board and the elders of Pray’s Mill Baptist Church, and Josh Buice himself of his sinful, deceitful, and slanderous activities engaged under the cover of anonymous accounts, emails, and substacks over the last several years.”

As Jonah J. Jameson said, “I resent that. Slander is spoken. In print it’s libel.” I am telling you NONE OF THESE GUYS HAVE WATCHED SPIDER-MAN AND IT SHOWS. But I digress. Founder’s concludes:

“Because his actions demonstrate his disqualification for spiritual leadership, we have removed all of Josh’s content from our Founders website.”

Huh.

Founders Ministries is headed up by G3 speaker, Tom Ascol.

The very same Tom Ascol who publicly called Mike Cosper of Christianity Today, “Malakoi,” which is Greek for effeminate and implies homosexuality.

Tom even created a list on X of men he disagrees with, calling them, “Malakoi bois.” I wish I was making this up, but that would be libel (not slander).

Justin Peters, a G3 speaker, publicly accused me of not understanding the Gospel because one time I met an unbelieving friend for lunch and she asked me to say grace for our food, so I did.

Tom Buck, a G3 board member, has a multitude - and I do mean a LOT - of posts ranting about Russell Moore and accusing him of being a Democrat, a political operative, a false teacher, yada, yada, yada. I’d take no issue if he was arguing theological points in good faith, but if you search his account for Moore’s name, there are so many results it’s embarrassing.

And all the above is just the tip of the iceberg with these guys.

I could go on sharing example after example of bad takes and libel (not slander) from pastors and teachers affiliated with G3, but you get the picture.

So, why are they blackballing and degrading Josh Buice over behavior they themselves are infamous for on X?

It’s quite the conundrum.

Remember what the press release said?

Josh’s “accounts were used to publicly and anonymously slander … faithful pastors (some of whom have spoken at G3 conferences), several PMBC elders, and others.”

Do you think if Josh had trolled or libeled Russell Moore, Beth Moore, or some random stay-at-home-mom who says grace while eating lunch with unbelieving friends, that he’d still have a position in leadership right now?

I wonder …

The only logical explanation I can think of is that all this drama and hoopla is not about “church discipline” or “pastoral qualifications” at all.

It’s certainly not about slander since they apparently don’t even know what the word means.

It’s about making an example of a pastor who dared to troll the trolls.

Probably. Maybe. IMHO. Allegedly.

All of this is me reading between the lines and making observations based on publicly available information and a handful of unpleasant interactions, but I can’t make it make sense any other way.

What do you think?

Jenn