About Punching a Protestor, Eric Metaxas Says “It Just Happened”

Well, he didn’t want his story to come out but thanks to a fellow named Paul Glader writing on a website called Religion Unplugged, we now have it confirmed that Eric Metaxas punched Portland activist Anthony P. Harrington after Trump’s acceptance speech last Thurday night. (See this post for background)

Metaxas emailed Glader with the information. Metaxas asked him not to disclose it but Glader treated the communication as on the record. Metaxas said he thought Harrington was menacing and the punch “just happened.” For his part, Harrington denies being threatening, pointing to the fact that Metaxas punched him from behind.

In the Glader article, I am identified as “left leaning” and on the other end of Rod Dreher. I am probably on the other end of Rod Dreher, but that just makes me right of center.

Weird Christian Twitter got a cameo in the piece with the Metaxas Backward Shuffle meme featured prominently. I feel sure #WCT will get a lot of mileage out of that.

See this post from John Fea for more on Metaxas’ response to the punch and run.

WORLD magazine has a bit of a disclosure from Metaxas as well along with an update from Harrington.

62 thoughts on “About Punching a Protestor, Eric Metaxas Says “It Just Happened””

  2. Comrade Throckmorton!

    Up the (peaceful and completely reasonable) Revolution!

    Just the other day, I was looking at clip of Comrade Reagan speaking about the richness brought to the United States by centuries of immigration.

  3. I thought he was reacting to a critic for pointing out how disgraceful his book on Bonhoeffer was.

  5. Nintendo Announces Surprise Partnership: “Eric Metaxas’s Gospel Punch-Out!”

    This week, Nintendo, famed makers of such video game hits like Donkey Kong, Metroid, and the Pokemon series, celebrated the 35th anniversary of the star Mario and the Super Mario franchise. In an unexpected bid to expand their reach into more homes across the country, Nintendo of America and Eric Metaxes have announced a partnership and tentpole new game called “Eric Metaxas’s Gospel Punch-Out!”. Players will take on the role of “Little Eric” as he battles wave after wave of liberal socialists, Cultural Marxists, and other unsavory characters. Throw off your blazer and dust off your gloves, crack your knuckles, and get ready to battle for the soul of a nation! The preview trailer revealed the first fight will take place against Glass Joel (Osteen). Other possible opponents include the Bald Bully (James MacDonald or Mark Driscoll, tbd) and the final boss fight was hinted at being the great anti-christ himself, Pope Francis. Dodge his swinging incense censor and censorship as you land sucker-punch after sucker-punch and drain that swamp!

    Releasing January 2021.

      1. Thanks! I remember a time when this was the sort of thing one could turn to the Babylon Bee for…now not so much

      1. Especially the homeschoolers! In fact, a copy will come bundled with every new edition of his buddy
        David Barton’s curiculum “Foundations of Character”

  6. also, Warren I’d describe you as a moderate, or right-leaning moderate. Maybe on the topic of lgbt issues, a left leaning moderate these days, but that would be about it.

    Maybe the fact you recognize there are other valid religious views besides your own is what makes you “left-leaning” these days.

    I do know if they looked up your stances on helping the poor (ex. with medical care etc). you’d be labeled a “socialist.”

      1. It appears to me that you resemble the views of President Jimmy Carter in terms of seeing that issues mentioned by Ken being compatible with the Christian faith.

        1. Jimmy Carter is excellent company for a person who calls himself a Christian–far better than most, even the ones who are most loudly “Christian.”

      2. I am one of those principled conservatives (with a wide libertarian streak) who was consigned to the political wilderness after The Orange Dear Leader got the GOP nomination. Many of us Never Trumpers are like that. Angry populism is NOT conservatism.

          2. B/G: Mystery Men is a superhero comedy where the main (and only) Celebrity Superhero of the city gets taken out early and all that’s left are the third-rate wanna-be supers with “crocked” superpowers (such as turning invisible only when nobody’s looking, farting on cue, flying into a rage (the above example) and Being Mysterious).

            Once on blogs I actually ran across a Christian version of “The Sphinx” from Mystery Men, i.e. the one who’s ONLY superpower was Being Mysterious. Guy kept talking about “Luciferian” conspiracies and how things were building up to Something Big. When pressed for references or specific examples (from news events he mentioned in vague generalities), all he would say was “Let Him Who Has Eyes to See, See. Let Him Who Has Ears to Hear, Hear.”

          3. If he was being funny or amusing then that is cool and a HT to a funny movie. If he was being serious, then that is a whole other story….

    2. I’m a fan of professor Throckmorton, and I equally admire the work of professor emerita Susan Thistlethwaite, the reverend Dr. Barber III, Dr. Benjamin Corey, the Franciscan Richard Rohr, singer-songwriter Bob Bennet, and even (gasp!) former pastors Nadia Bolz-Weber and Rob Bell.

      Regardless of how Dr. Throckmorton might describe his political location in relation to the above figures (all of whom have their own political complexity), Throckmorton is “left” of fundamentalist authoritarian neo-fascism (“White Nationalist Evangelicalism”) and therefore would certainly be dismissed as “socialist” in today’s climate as you correctly note. Those who engage in elementary-level reading comprehension and rational thought are indeed “left” these days.

      2. And now for Something Completely Different:
        The Larch!
        Actually, no.

        Just when I hear the name “Throckmorton”, what first comes to mind is a Victorian mad scientist type.

    3. I think it’s always useful to remember just how far to the right the Republican base has wandered since the Reagan years. Outside of the regressive regimes popping up in places like Hungary and Poland recently, conservative parties in most other nations are generally supportive of policies like national healthcare, gun control, welfare, worker and consumer rights, women’s right to choose, reducing carbon emissions and other environmental issues.

      And during the pandemic, support for furloughed workers has been far more generous than here in the US, where Republicans whined that $600/week unemployment would make people to lazy to work.

      It’s not as though conservatives in other places are in lock step agreement with the left — the British Tory Party’s vision for the National Health Services is very different than the Labour Party’s, but at least they’re not trying to sue it out of existence like the Republicans are doing with what is the merest shadow of socialized medicine (Obamacare).

      In a sane world, Warren might feel right at home in the Republican Party, because a majority of them would support, or at least would engage in debate over the policies he supports, but even when the Trump presidency is consigned to history, many of the problems will remain. The battle for the soul of the Republican Party will begin anew, and there are smarter, more dangerous ideologues (e.g. Tom Cotton) waiting in the wings to tap into the rich vein of resentment and grievance Trump has cultivated in the Republican base.

  7. Nintendo Announces Surprise Partnership: “Eric Metaxas’s Gospel Punch-Out!”

    This week, Nintendo, famed makers of such video game hits like Donkey Kong, Metroid, and the Pokemon series, celebrated the 35th anniversary of the star Mario and the Super Mario franchise. In an unexpected bid to expand their reach into more homes across the country, Nintendo of America and Eric Metaxes have announced a partnership and tentpole new game called “Eric Metaxas’s Gospel Punchout”. Players will take on the role of “Little Eric” as he battles wave after wave of liberal socialists, Cultural Marxists, and other unsavory characters. Throw off your blazer and dust off your gloves, crack your knuckles, and get ready to battle for the soul of a nation! The preview trailer revealed the first fight will take place against Glass Joel (Osteen). Other possible opponents include the Bald Bully (James MacDonald or Mark Driscoll, tbd) and the final boss fight was hinted at being the great anti-christ himself, Pope Francis. Dodge his swinging incense censor and censorship as you land sucker-punch after sucker-punch and drain that swamp!

    Releasing January 2021.

  8. “It just happened.”

    Of course it did. Eric had no control over his own fist at all. It just swung out there and hit that guy on the back of his head, so that he fell off his bike. Eric had no control over his own feet, either, so they took off instead of seeing if the fallen rider was injured and apologizing. I hope he has no control over his jail sentence, assuming he ever gets to serve one.

    1. “It just happened.”

      God Willed It To Happen Before The Foundation of the World.

      “If you question what I say or do
      YOU REBEL AGAINST THE FATHER TOO!”
      — Steve Taylor, “I Manipulate”

      1. But I don’t think Metaxas is a Calvinist of any flavor (even the poser light beer flavors that are those Calvinistic Baptists and Neo-Cals).

      2. But I don’t think Metaxas is a Calvinist of any flavor (even the poser light beer flavors that are those Calvinistic Baptists and Neo-Cals).

  9. So, going by right-wing Trumpian logic, if the bike rider had been armed, and had turned and shot and killed Metaxas immediately after the punch, he would be considered a hero right now…

  11. Gotta say, my wife would not be pleased if I were walking along with her at nighttime, took a swing at a passing loudmouth, and then scampered off, leaving her and an elderly acquaintance right next to a now-agitated young man I had determined was a potentially violent threat. “Menacing” would no doubt describe my wife’s glare at me during the car ride back to the hotel.

      1. Bizarre.

        Apparently, if you watch the extended video you will see this exchange immediately after:

        The tender-lover’s dad, Coun. Roy Christensen, then speaks up from his seat on the council.
        “For the record, that’s my son,” he says, triggering a wave of awkward laughter from his colleagues.

      2. Bizarre.

        Apparently, if you watch the extended video you will see this exchange immediately after:

        The tender-lover’s dad, Coun. Roy Christensen, then speaks up from his seat on the council.
        “For the record, that’s my son,” he says, triggering a wave of awkward laughter from his colleagues.

  14. I’ve wondered this, regarding this incident and based on watching the video that has before and after the swipe and shuffle… Why are all these white guys including court evangelicals like Metaxas walking down a public street where voila, they run into “protesters”… It just seems really weird… hate to sound conspiratorial, but it almost seems like a setup, in order to produce red meat for manly trumpian christians via some “spontaneous” incident? I mean I thought anybody with a ticket to this confab would be wealthy or connected enough, to at the least, walk from the WH, to a gate, jump in their limo, etc and speed away… But instead they’re walking down a long street outside the WH, where of course there’s going to protesters/etc… And just to be clear, I’m glad they do have to mingle with street joe’s… and get confronted, in this case by their own stupidity (ie Metaxas)… but still…. it seemed surreal and odd… ???

    1. You are not suggesting they deliberately sauntered down the street in order provoke a reaction and get some fisticuffs in to get some good PR for the MAGA-zombies?

      1. Ever heard of the term “Agent Provocateur”?

        Or the USSR’s Party Commissar for Spontaneous People’s Demonstrations(TM)?

    2. You are not suggesting they deliberately sauntered down the street in order provoke a reaction and get some fisticuffs in to get some good PR for the MAGA-zombies?

      2. I have no idea if it was deliberate… I’m kind of assuming not… but I just found the opening seconds of the video were odd, so I’m wondering. But if someone can show me clear evidence that Metaxas et al would normally leave this venue in this way (in the past, present or future) then I’ll accept that. Maybe this is the way people/reporters/etc wandered out of Obama WH confabs too, I have no idea really. Anyone in DC familiar with the territory and events like this? (Aside from the unprecedented fact that this was an illegal campaign event…)

  15. Methinks a criminal complaint is warranted. Alternatively someone can lay Metaxas on the ground with a surprise right cross at one of his public appearances…

  16. Methinks a criminal complaint is warranted. Alternatively someone can lay Metaxas on the ground with a surprise right cross at one of his public appearances…

    1. According to the RNC article He isn’t planning on filing criminal charges, but is considering civil charges.

      Personally I disagree with this, either he should file a criminal complaint or drop the issue, not look for a payday.

      1. Civil charges are warranted though. Even if he was uninjured, the intent to harm was clearly there, it’s on tape, and he’s essentially confessed to doing it. Metaxas would be unlikely to go to jail assuming this is his first offense, so hitting him hard in his wallet would be about as much as could be expected for a punishment.

        Of course, odds are, Metaxas will parlay any lawsuit into victimhood and raise plenty of money to fund his defense and penalty.

        1. That’s the problem. He isn’t filing a criminal complaint. My guess is he has a lawyer that has advised him not to, fearing if there was a criminal punishment (or even just a fine), it could negatively impact any civil settlement.

          What Metaxas did was criminal and stupid. however, he didn’t seriously injury Harrington. If Metaxas ends up having to plead guilty, publicly apologize and pay a fine, I’m fine with that. I think that is commensurate with what he did. I don’t think you should let your dislike of Metaxas effect your judgement of the seriousness (or lack thereof) of what he did.

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