David McDonnough: The Best/Worst Christian Apologist in America

The author of Applied Faith, David McDonnough, is the living embodiment of why today the evangelical brand is toxic… and for that, I salute him.

The product of an American Bible school masquerading as a “University,” his often hate-filled, factually laughable, scientifically-illiterate, mean spirited, aggressively absurd right-wing articles are a blazing beacon for why 280,000 young Americans jettison evangelical Christianity every year (John S. Dickerson, The Great Evangelical Recession, p. 26). His articles are, in short, genius, even arguing recently that Christians are, in fact, still bound to the Law of Moses because that whole Jesus thing just interfered with the evangelical love of guns and violence.

His latest effort, Why “LGBTQ” is a Dangerous Slur – Considering the ACP Report, is true to form. This preposterous 1,600 word salad is a veritable showcase of unhinged Christian apologetic thought, and it exemplifies just why ridicule is the only possible adult response to apologists like David. It begins:

The American College of Pediatricians dropped a massive truth-bomb on the LGBTQ advocacy industry on March 21, 2016.  In very direct, factual and clear language, they declared “Gender Ideology Harms Children.”* The publication of this direct warning has had a tremendous ripple effect on the entire tapestry of imaginary “facts” that militant LGBTQ advocates advance.

Powerful stuff. He continues:

To fans of scientific fact, as well as fans of the Bible, the release of the ACP transgender report is a blast of oxygen to people being smothered in a blanket of ideological fallacy.  The foundations of the entire LGBTQ ideology are built on the sinking sands of an extremist political ideology that has run completely amok toward any who would challenge it.

And that’s about as far as anyone needs to go. When an evangelical Christian pens the words “scientific fact” any rational person knows the train is no longer on the rails. You see, David’s entire argument here is based on an article published by the impressively sounding ACP: The American College of Pediatricians. It sounds like a genuine professional body, an organisation whose thoughts should be taken seriously, but like American Bible schools masquerading as actual “Universities,” the ACP is in fact little more than a façade trying to give an air of legitimacy to a tiny body of radical right-wing Christian doctors who the Southern Poverty Law Center have classified as a Hate Group with “a history of propagating damaging falsehoods about LGBT people“.

Demonstrated time and time again, Evangelical Christians, like David McDonnough, are not shy when it comes to lying, and the ACP is in many ways pretending to be the AAP, the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP is a real professional body with over 60,000 members. The ACP has somewhere between 60 and 200 members. No exact figure is available because the ACP is not an actual professional body. They do not publish a journal, as any professional body should, they offer no certification, nor do they offer continued education for their members, which all professional organisations must.   As explained by Warren Throckmorton in a 2011 article:

“A hallmark of a profession is the provision of training, certification, and continuing education. The ACP does none of this independently. The ACP has been around since 2002 and the AAP since 1937. Annually, the AAP spends millions on professional publications and continuing education; the ACP receipts in 2008 were less than $60,000.”

So, David McDonnough’s entire argument is based on the apparent legitimacy (“scientific fact”) of an article published by a tiny fringe evangelical Christian hate group pretending to be a professional organisation.

And evangelicals wonder why no one takes them seriously?