(Watchblog) Squared

Apprising Ministries Assumes Rather Than Checking Facts November 7, 2009

The reason why I call “Christian Research Network” the “National Enquirer” of Christianity is that it rarely does any serious research.

This Seeking God: The Way Of The Monk DVD, which we assume formed the basis of what Susan Castillo–who continues “to embrace her ‘inner monk’”–teaches in this regard was produced as an:

examination of the strange life of the Benedictine monks at New Mexico’s Monastery of Christ in the Desert, presents the traditional chants, seasonal rituals,… (Online source)

First item left out of the Apprising Ministries blog posting which this quotation comes from is that Susan Castillo was a college student per my understanding with a temporary assignment at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. She appears to be no longer listed in the Redeemer Presbyterian Church directory so maybe she has returned to college student status.  She was not a full-time permanent member of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church staff per my understanding of information from the Redeemer Presbyterian Church website.

I took the time and effort to do  real research by sending an email to Susan Castillo which is something that the researchers at Christian Research Network is too lazy to do.   I got the following response from Susan Castillo:

Greetings, Ron,

These are my sole comments on this matter…

Great care was taken during this class to differentiate between that material which was presented to provide historical background/ an understanding of other denominations and that which might be considered appropriate and useful in the context of the Protestant, and particularly the Reformed, community of faith.  Anything that was endorsed was biblically based, theologically sound, and in no way violated the spirit of those reflections of Luther as they appeared in the article. For the record, I have never before heard of the DVD of a coincidentally similar title on which I was accused of basing my class.

Sincerely.

Susan Castillo

“The Way of the Monk” course was a one time course which is no longer offered by Redeemer Presbyterian Church per the Fall 2009 course schedule.

I continue to be amazed at how many members of the Christian Research Network make assumptions or speculate rather than carefully checking the facts before posting a blog article.  Few newspapers in the USA would be so sloppy with the truth as it would soon result in a loss of credibility.

Too  much of the time what is published by members of the Christian Research Network is simply gossip that was never checked to see if it was accurate information.