This post is not a defense of progressive Christian theologian and police chaplain Tony Jones.
It is, rather, an encapsulation of the defenses offered on his behalf over the years.
I became involved with advocacy for Jones’ former spouse, domestic violence survivor Julie McMahon, in 2014 and 2015 through a fellow survivor advocate. At that time, I was leading Homeschoolers Anonymous, a narrative-sharing platform for survivors of abuse and neglect in homeschooling communities. As a former researcher, journalist, and editor, I was experienced with taking people’s stories and evidence and putting them into narrative form.
When I first received the evidence about the abuse Julie experienced, the multiple sources of which I have never disclosed, I received it under the condition of keeping it private. I respected that. For several weeks, I wrote about the situation without referencing the evidence. The only reason the situation changed, several weeks later, is because Tony Jones and his apologists dramatically escalated the situation with a public attack campaign they called “#WhyTony.”
When the allegations against Jones derailed Rachel Held Evans’ Why Christian Conference due to Jones’ involvement with the conference, Jones’ apologists launched several social media accounts, all called #WhyTony. On these social media accounts (which included Twitter, Storify, and Scribd), one found many declarations for Jones and against McMahon by progressive Christian celebrities. Everyone from Nadia Bolz-Weber to Brandon Robertson, from Phyllis Tickle to Brian McLaren, closed ranks and declared they stood in solidarity with Jones against McMahon. The accounts even commandeered Twitter hashtags created by McMahon’s friends and advocates, such as #IBelieveJulie, to promote their pro-Jones statements.
Examples of the social media accounts are below:
Twitter:
Storify:
Scribd:
And here are recreations of some of the original declarations in defense of Tony Jones:
There were others besides these statement authors who also used the website to attack and discredit McMahon. For example, Rachel Held Evans personally messaged the link to the #WhyTony website to several people, explaining to them that the website “reflects many of our experiences.” Here is a Twitter message she sent to me personally:
Despite the allegations against him and his friends’ highly inappropriate responses to those allegations, Jones continues to be welcomed in and celebrated by progressive Christian circles today, including exvangelical ones. Most recently, Jones helped lead the Nones Project with religion researcher Ryan Burge and was platformed for the last few years by Theology Beer Camp, enabling him to speak alongside folks such as Pete Enns and Mason Mennenga (both of whom support Jones and disbelieve McMahon).