Johnny Robertson jeopardizes son's criminal trial (Plus: REGISTER & BEE's shoddy "journalism")

I'm going to begin calling Johnny Robertson and his "Church of Christ" cult out for what they really are: domestic terrorists.

They just haven't killed anybody (yet). However in the name of "God" Robertson and his followers have and continue to conspire to deprive others of their right to religion, to peaceable assembly and to free speech.

So are Johnny Robertson, James Oldfield, Mark McMinnis, Micah Robertson and the rest of their ilk enemies of the Constitution of the United States? Yup. And I suppose that means others might also be considered willing collaborators, regardless of whether they are "true believers". Make of that what you may.

What precipitates this latest report about the goings-on of the Martinsville Taliban? A few things. The previous post seems to have had some effect, because several people noted that Mark McMinnis was struggling to subdue his silly grin during his broadcast this past Thursday night. But what is more intriguing is that Micah Robertson - son of "Church of Christ" tin-god Johnny Robertson - was conspicuously absent from the live broadcast! The official word: "He has the night off."

Yah right.

Because earlier that day out of the Martinsville feed the two-hour block that Johnny Robertson uses for his inane babbling was filled up with the "debate" between he and Shirley Phelps-Roper from 2005. Yup, that Shirley Phelps-Roper that I also referenced in my previous post! What was the reason for the replay? The two Robertsons had to meet with their attorney about the criminal trespassing charges pending against Micah Robertson, stemming from Micah's repeated attempts to interfere with the services at Westover Baptist Church in Danville, Virginia.

(Several people also noted that the replay of the 2005 "debate" also featured an appearance by Jason Hairston, who was once with Robertson's cult and even had his own hour-long live weekly broadcast until he became a dissident from the movement and was subsequently damned by Johnny Robertson. To this day Robertson the Mad refuses to address the issue but apparently has no problem with continuing to use Hairston to prop-up his cult.)

So Johnny and Micah went to a lawyer, because Micah is looking at a year in jail if he's convicted. And no doubt the attorney has strongly recommended if not outright forbid Micah Robertson from doing any more television appearances or live confrontations until his trial date. However that has not stopped Johnny Robertson from running his mouth without ceasing about it! Robertson devoted the entirety of his two-hour Friday morning show and then 90 minutes on Sunday night's broadcast trying to make his son out to be the victim of persecution.

I can hear the Robertsons' attorney now, the veins in his neck bulging out as he screams "DAMMIT JOHNNY SHUT UP YOU'RE BLOWING OUR CASE!!!"

Does Johnny Robertson want his son to go to jail? Does Johnny hope that Micah will become a "martyr for the cause"? Is this how far Johnny is willing to go in order to somehow "validate" his insane belief system? Is Micah ready to fall on the proverbial sword? Since this cult believes in salvation by human works, is Micah seriously considering this the price he'll pay to get into Heaven?

Robertson the Lesser's court date is May 7th.

Incidentally, The Danville Register & Bee has a report about Micah Robertson's arrest warrant on its GoDanRiver.com website... and in all honesty it's one of the most piss-poor news articles I've seen in the history of anything. "Journalist" Matt Tomsic turned in a story that apart from what's gleaned from the official warrant itself, is nothing but regurgitation from Johnny Robertson! From the article...

Micah Robertson works with his father, Johnny Robertson, for Religious Review Media, a group that tries to bring accountability to religion and to increase dialogue between different religious organizations, according to Johnny Robertson.

He said two Religious Review reporters went to the church event to speak with Elmer Towns, co-founder of Liberty University. One reporter pulled a video camera to record Micah Robertson speaking to Towns, Johnny Robertson said. As he did, church officials asked him to leave. Micah Robertson then pulled his video camera to film the confrontation, and officials told him to leave also.

Religious Review reporters travel with video cameras to document their interactions with others in case they’re accused of anything.

“We are very controversial in the sense that our message is that we should all be together,” Johnny Robertson said.

But Micah Robertson didn’t capture any video Feb. 28 because church officials grabbed his camera as he turned it on, Johnny Robertson said.

Hey, Matt Tomsic: There is no such thing as "Religious Review"! Religious Review is a sham operation that Johnny Robertson pulled out of his butt to give his harassment an air of legitimacy. Religious Review has no website, no printed publication, nothing but a YouTube channel that consists entirely of footage of Robertson and his minions stalking innocent people in the privacy of their homes, in churches and shopping malls, etc.

If I have no other purpose for writing this post, then it is because I am compelled to point out Matt Tomsic's atrocious reporting of this matter and to call out GoDanRiver.com, the Danville Register and Bee, and Media General for allowing this story to run at all.

(And as some have jokingly noted lately, this blog does seem to get more traffic than, ahem, some online outlets that have been referenced lately. Parse that as you will...)

What do I think is gonna happen? Honestly?

If Micah Robertson is found guilty, he will either go to jail for the minimum amount allowed by law (I don't believe the judge will give him a year, but who knows) or given suspended sentence. It'll still be a mark on his record. I like to think that he might even be ordered to remain 500 feet away from religious institutions that he is not personally affiliated with, much like how convicted sex offenders cannot be near schools or daycare centers.

If Micah Robertson is found not guilty, then Johnny Robertson will assume that this means he and his cult now have legal carte blanche to do all the harassment that they want, wherever and whenever they so desire. They will go crazy with their newfound sense of power. And then they will go too far and one or more of them will be hurt or worse.

I hate to say that, but I'm not usually wrong about this sort of thing. Call it nothing more than being a longtime student of human nature.

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"Hey let's watch that Johnny Robertson nut!"

This post will dovetail nicely with the update from earlier today about cult leader Johnny Robertson and his "Religious Review Multimedia". Which after tonight I have to ask aloud: has anybody heard Robertson or Oldfield mention this ever before the last two months? Because I've been keeping my eye on the "Church of Christ in Name Only" cult for a few years now, but "Religious Review" didn't enter into Robertson's public vernacular until November 2008. And from hearing him use it now, you'd think that it was always a part of his operation.

In comic book terminology, that is what is called a "retcon". Who'da thought that we'd see it play out in real life (apart from pro wrestling)?

Tonight two friends were over at the Knight Casa. Let's call them Friend #1 and Friend #2. One of them had read the post earlier today and just before 8:30 p.m. he suggested "Hey let's watch that Johnny Robertson nut!"

So that's what we did for the next hour and a half. Neither one of 'em had seen it before. And both of them asked a number of times during the show "What kind of a station lets someone that evil on television?"

Indeed.

Tonight's What Does the Bible Say? (which would be called What Does Johnny Robertson Demand? if there were "truth in titling" laws) started off with Robertson "recapping" quickly all the action that happened in 2008. He mentioned Larry Surber's appearance. He mentioned "The Sheik". He mentioned the Nation of Islam guys (that a few days later Robertson tried to frame for painting a bomb threat on the side of the Danville Church of Christ), he mentioned quite a few other folks...

...but he dared not name me.

Oh, he referred to the "Jedi Knight", referring to when I dressed in my Jedi costume to address the Rockingham County Board of Education in July 2007 on the issue of school uniforms, but as Friend #2 was quick to point out: "Yeah but you won!" The implication almost seemed that if one is not wearing what is apparently "Church of Christ" approved attire - namely cheap polyester suits and cowboy hats - then one is not "serious" enough. But I digress...

Robertson referred to a "hate site" that was out to "destroy" him. I don't know if "hate" is the right word but at last count there are no less than four blogs that have taken it upon themselves to document Robertson and Oldfield's spite-filled jihad against decent and sincere Christians in this area. There is Answering the Church of Christ, WalkingInLove's blog, the legitimate Religious Review blog, and the one you're reading now (which is devoted to pretty much everything in existence).

And then Robertson brought up "Religious Review Multimedia" again, which as was reported earlier he claimed went all the way back to 2002. Tonight Robertson pushed it back even further, claiming that "Religious Review" had been around for ten years. Sorta like how in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four that the Party kept pushing Big Brother's exploits back more and more.

(Friend #1: "I don't think even Johnny knows what Religious Review is...")

It wasn't long afterward that Robertson made a very startling admission, and I have to wonder if he understands how big of a goof this might have been. He said that in the years since he came to this area, first operating out of Collinsville, Virginia (which is a story for another time) that he had baptized "two hundred and fifty to three hundred individuals" into his Church of Christ (which is nothing like the real Churches of Christ that most people know and admire). Then he confessed that of those 250-300, that "only" 75 were currently attending worship services! What happened to all the rest? Robertson could not have been more clear in stating his belief: that they were "unfaithful" and thus were damned to Hell.

Let's study that for a sec: if Johnny Robertson had brought, on average, about 280 people into the "Church of Christ" and only 75 were still "faithful" enough, then that is an attrition rate of 75%, give or take. If we went with the most liberal estimate, then at one point 300 people were saved and going to Heaven, but then 225 of them fell away from Robertson's cult and now there are only 75 people, more or less, that are going to Heaven today.

A caller late in the show pounced on this and got Robertson flustered about how out of all the people in the Martinsville and Henry County area, that only those 75 members of the Church of Christ were going to Heaven. At one point Robertson even compared himself to Noah and how he and his family out of millions were spared by God.

The caller kept pressing the issue. And my friends at last got to see a glimpse of the real Johnny Robertson: the ecclesiastical bully who, in the words of the caller, has to "scare people" into accepting his way or no way at all. The Johnny Robertson who has taken it upon himself to declare whether others are "faithful" enough for God.

The caller - a gentleman - told Robertson that he only took the name "Church of Christ" but that neither Robertson or his group had anything to do with the real body of Christ at all.

And the gentleman is right.

That is all that Robertson has to pin his claim of spiritual authority on: that there's a shingle outside his building in Martinsville which happens to say "Church of Christ".

Heck, any congregation of followers of Christ can call themselves "Church of Christ" and they would be right. Just as any cult could call itself "Church of Christ" but if it is not seeking after Christ in love and sharing His mercy and grace with others, then it is worthless and doesn't matter what it calls itself.

Robertson also made quite a lot of goofs tonight that we caught. He claimed that Lydia was "raised from the dead" by Peter (she wasn't, see Acts 16) and he totally mangled the Catholic perspective on the role of the pope.

(Friend #2: "He plays on emotion... he's manipulative but not very intellectual." To which I replied: "Amen to that!")

With at least four blogs now documenting his lies and misdeeds, and a few others that I know of who have taken up some activism in the past several months against the cult, it was brought up "Why isn't Robertson fighting and debating in the blogosphere?" The thoughts of my friends? That Robertson can't. When he posts on Answering the Church of Christ, Robertson becomes a very crude, uncouth and unlettered man. He writes from his mouth instead of his mind. Which if he did stop to think about matters, he would at least have enough sense to realize that what is chronicled on the Internet will last much longer than anything he does on WGSR Star 39 out of Reidsville and Martinsville.

Why won't Robertson take me on again, either here in the online realm or in a televised debate (which I did give him the opporunity for after he asked for it): "You're better than him and he knows it," Friend #1 said.

"Yeah your name was like radioactive tonight" Friend #2 chortled.

Friend #1: "I noticed that he never prayed. Don't most preachers on television do that?"

Me: "Does he really have a God to pray to?"

Friend #2: "If God is for Johnny Robertson then why doesn't God let him be on WFMY or WGHP or any other of the much better stations?"

Friend #1: "Probably because none of the other stations wants him."

Me: "Yeah, there's only one station in the area that has management that is that desperate."

---

I'll close this post out by making one last remark about Johnny Robertson's show tonight. At one point he got into an extended argument with a caller about miracles in the modern age. Johnny Robertson does not believe that miraculous healing takes place anymore. He completely denies that there is such a thing as the greater spiritual realm which can and does interact with our physical world.

All three of us watching his show tonight knew, without even having to tell each other, that Robertson could not be more wrong. Because each of us has seen, on our own, a miracle take place. And in some cases, many more than one miracle.

We know who we put our confidence in. And it is not in the mad babblings of a man who demands that God be very, very small.

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Religulous Review: Johnny Robertson admits to "multimedia" schizoid sham... with a clip show?!

(With kindest regards to Bill Maher for coming up with such a great new word that I couldn't help but apply it to another bunch of loonies that he would probably laugh at as well...)

In late November this blog reported on local cult leader Johnny Robertson - of what I call "the Church of Christ in Name Only" - employing the services of what he referred to on his live TV show as "Religious Review Multimedia Group", and Robertson heavily implied that whoever "Religious Review Multimedia Group" was, that they were an independent outfit covering matters of faith.

Except the whole thing was something Robertson made up. And in the footage that he aired, that's his own teenage son who's now following in his old man's footsteps with the hidden cameras and "in yo face" confrontations.

"Religious Review Multimedia Group" was, as is so often with Johnny Robertson and which has been documented on this blog many time before, an outrageous lie.

By the way, at least one person has privately told me that for accusing one church of child pornography on live television, that Johnny Robertson "should be shot" and that for allowing such slander to be broadcast unquestioned and without research, that WGSR general manager Charles Roark should have his license revoked by the Federal Communications Commission. I can certainly see some merit to that. About the FCC anyway...

(Why did you let Robertson say such a thing anyway, huh Roark? Or do you simply not care what Johnny Robertson says? Is it true that Johnny Robertson owns your miserable excuse for a soul and that you don't have the backbone to stand up for journalistic integrity? Sadly, many of us know the answer to that question.)

So there is no such thing as "Religious Review Multimedia Group". Or there used to not be anyhoo... because as I noted last week it now appears that other folks are taking the initiative against the damage that Johnny Robertson and his second cousin/toady James Oldfield have been doing to north-central North Carolina and southside Virginia. I don't know who's behind it but the Religious Review blog is off to a fine start. And in its latest post, Religious Review (The Blog) provides hard evidence for Robertson and Oldfield's chicanery...

What are they trying to prove?

Apparently, Johnny Robertson and his second cousin James Oldfield are feeling a bit guilty about the recent public backlash against their misleading use of something called "Religious Review". Because tonight, on "What Does the Bible Say", they showed an old rerun of "What Does the Bible Say" with a banner below reading "Vintage RELIGIOUS REVIEW".

How much criticism must they have gotten for their dishonesty to devote an entire program to trying to prove that they aren't doing anything wrong? Why is this "Vintage RELIGIOUS REVIEW"? They were calling the program "What Does the Bible Say" even back then, not "Religious Review". More dishonesty!

Maybe the threat of legal action scared them into trying to prove themselves. Nice try, boys, but you didn't prove anything with this.

"What Does the Bible Say"...
effective computer usage since 2002

Yes folks, believe it or not: Johnny Robertson tried to hoodwink everyone into believing that "Religious Review" has been around since 2002... with a clip show!

(I didn't see that show personally, but I did manage to catch and chuckle at the "All Calls Special" that Oldfield had running in place of his usual show this past Thursday night.)

I've talked with a lot of people who have been following the Johnny Robertson cult for longer than I've been paying attention to it, and to the best of their knowledge "Religious Review Multimedia Group" didn't exist until the past couple of months. But in a bizarre statement that he made on the Answering Church of Christ blog, Robertson said the following (in his typical bewildering ranting style)...

keep up Walking in (not) love all anyone has to do is go back for the last 6 years and see that I have been doing RR for a long time

Religious Review was hated in Martinsville long before you fellows caught on to my work.Thanks for the advertising though

Can this man not make up his mind as to whether or not he is or is not affiliated with "Religious Review Multimedia Group"? First Robertson makes out as if they are some serious Web 2.0 outfit independent of him. Now, he says that he is "Religious Review Multimedia Group" and in an act of apparent time travel, he claims that they have existed for at least six years.

That is either a lie of omission, or a leap of insanity.

Either way, "walkinginlove" asked this of Robertson on the same thread...

As for the RR site, I have no idea who did it or why but I do know that you are falsely representing yourself and that is a lie Johnny, now in your belief system you may think it is ok, but do liars inherit the kingdom of heaven?

How indeed, Johnny Robertson? Can you honestly say that your behavior is reflective of a Christ-like life, or that this is the kind of attitude that is going to be rewarded in the Kingdom of Heaven?

I don't doubt that Robertson betrayed what his real motivation is with what he said a few days ago...

"we are revealing the evil behaviors of you all"

If you are not a member of Robertson's cult, you are "evil" and damned to Hell. That's what it boils down to.

But what is now becoming common knowledge is that Johnny Robertson is more like a "useful idiot" for the real cult leaders (like Shawn Paden) in and around east Texas. They're the ones (no matter how much Robertson claims otherwise) who keep sending the thousands of dollars for Robertson and his second cousin James Oldfield (gotta love how fast that tidbit has become well known too!) to be operating on the only television station that had management desperate enough to sell airtime and sell out to anyone with the cash. Without that, Robertson would have been a former imprisoned felon who, as one commenter on this blog put it, has "abandonment issues" from how bad his father treated him and his mother.

Johnny Robertson, you're from Texas. Maybe you've heard of the saying there: "You've got to rise above your raisin'." Those are wise words and you'd do well to heed them. Instead of running around the area acting like a liar and lunatic and ruining the lives of your kid and whoever else.

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About the "Religious Review" blog (Plus: How Johnny Robertson spends Christmas!)

In the past week I've received three e-mails directing my attention to Religious Review, a newly established blog. And it's been asked if I'm the person behind it.

I am not. And I didn't even know about Religious Review until the last several days. But I certainly have to applaud whoever it is who set it up.

As was reported on this blog last month, "Religious Review" is the name of the bogus outfit that local cult leader Johnny Robertson came up with in his continuing bid to harass and intimidate the legitimate churches in this area. He and crony/second cousin James Oldfield have already been known to confront innocent individuals with hidden cameras and such. Now Robertson has recruited his own son to go out in the name of "Religious Review" and do the same.

So what sayeth the real Religious Review?

Folks have been talking about "Religious Review" since it was mentioned on "What Does the Bible Say?" recently. It's been said that for a multi-media company, it is strange that "Religious Review" doesn't have any sort of internet representation.

This blog is not affiliated with Johnny Robertson's fake "Religious Review". We don't go into churches with video cameras under false pretenses and pretend to be something we are not. We don't lie and mislead people so we can get juicy soundbites for church of Christ television broadcasts. That is the fake "Religious Review". We're real.

Whoever this person is, he/she is not alone in going after the "Church of Christ in Name Only" loons. Mash down here for a somewhat more crude response to Robertson's acts of un-Christlike bullying. It certainly does seem that lots of other people are beginning to stand up to the cult leader/convicted felon Johnny Robertson, aye?

And since we're on the subject...

For the most part I've been away from this blog for the past several days, doing "Christmas celebratin'" stuff with family and friends. Still, I've kept a watch on the stats from time to time, partly because it's been interesting to see where the traffic has been coming from regarding the story I posted here on Monday about the "angel" photograph at a Charlotte hospital. Probably been the most visits this blog's ever received during the holiday season...

...And one person in particular couldn't stay away from it for very long. According to the stats, Johnny Robertson (trust me, it's him) visited this blog for the better part of half an hour on Christmas Eve night, and then came to it at least four times on Christmas Day.

How someone uses their time is their own business. But really: to have nothing better to do on Christmas Eve night than to obsess about THIS blog?! And then to keep coming to it on Christmas Day?

That is pathetic beyond measure.

How did my loved ones and myself spend Christmas? Being thankful to God for what He has blessed us with. Seems like at least one other person was spending it harboring spite and resentment. That ain't understanding why Christ came to this world at all.

Johnny, go outside and play. Quit trying to wreck life for others just because your daddy did you and your momma wrong. There's a whole lot of wonderful things that God has made for you to appreciate if you'd only allow yourself that indulgence.

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