(Summary of posts concerning Voddie Baucham.)
I prayed often for his healing, and I usually think of him when I read quotes and content from Alice Miller, the child psychologist who opposed "the black pedagogy" of child abuse. He read like a page out of her textbook that described wounded children who grew up to become intolerant of the behavior of children or outright abusers themselves. He worked so desperately to be acknowledged, seen, powerful, and important. His wife has lupus pretty severely, and I hope that she remains as well as she can.
But at the same time, I feel like one of the biggest, meanest, most manipulative bullies of this genre is now gone. The people whom he cruelly intimidated and manipulated, lording his education and position over them in intimidation and what sometimes sounded like anger... those people can feel free today. They don't ever have to worry about running into him somewhere, and they can know that he can no longer hurt them again in any way.
Many people love him, but they don't know what it's like to be someone he decided to use, tearing them down as an example so he could feel powerful, right, and so much better than them. (he tried with me but never succeeded, thanks to the grace of God and the power of truth. How ironic that his death falls so swiftly behind Kirk's. I saw a comment in an announcement about Baucham's passing that asked, "Will they put me on a government watch list?" because they had nothing good to say about him.
He lied about me online and personally insulted me -- and then started writing to me, lying to me and about me, following that up with more lies as time went on. He'd told at least a dozen different people that he was suing me (which was another lie). He claimed that I lied about him, which always went poorly for him. He published a miserable fable about me in a book that others encouraged me to sue him over. Instead, I said that he wasn't that important. Because he wasn't. However, when I read his emails, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
I didn't get any backlash from him when I wrote about him on No Longer Quivering in 2020, choosing to acknowledge him as a fellow believer with some aberrant beliefs, and someone whose perspective and epistemology differed from mine. I called for unity through love, while still acknowledging the theological and philosophical differences between us. But I affirmed him as a fellow Believer. I don't believe he ever responded, if he ever took notice.
I will not see Voddie in Vahalla, but I hope to be happily seated with him in unity at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb one day. Soon after he "slammed" me on his blog, I went there to see if I could find the post to quote it, but he'd deleted it. He deleted all of them before it ever occurred to me that he would do such a thing. Instead, I found a sweet picture of him holding a baby, announcing that he'd just adopted a little girl. I found it commendable and rejoiced. (Other cohorts of his would only adopt boys.) I'm glad that he dared to do that back then, and that's the picture of him that I've continued to hold of him in my mind's eye. He expressed great love in that photo with a tiny baby, and I always prayed that God would multiply it. It was lovely and seemed genuine.
Our lives are but a vapor, and in that sense, I hope that I will soon see Voddie. As people tell of glimpses of heaven, loved ones come to meet new arrivals when we make our way to that undiscovered country. Should I be found faithful, I hope that Voddie is among those who gather to greet me.
