Rusty Pipes: Destroying His Credibility, One Sentence at a Time

In a group blog called “talk2action” a writer who goes by the name of Rusty Pipes has taken issue with the work of CAMERA’s Dexter Van Zile. Apparently, with the help of Google, Rusty has discovered the following about Van Zile:

…Dexter Van Zile is not just “a layman in the United Church of Christ” or “Boston’s extraordinarily talented pro-Israel Christian researcher”, but an employee of the David Project (which reproduces Jacoby’s column with an interesting graphic). Van Zile is the President of the Judeo-Christian Alliance, an Initiative of the David Project, and an Executive Committee Member of Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East (a great number of whose resources are authored by him). Speaking of resources, several other backgrounders on Sabeel in the Israel Lobby, have been authored by him — including this one in the ADL. Unsurprisingly, CAMERA (the organization co-founded by Jacobs of the David Project), has a response to this Sabeel Conference written by Van Zile (of the David Project) […]

One paragraph, four sentences, five errors.

First, Dexter Van Zile no longer works at the David Project. He works at CAMERA and has worked there for over a year.

Second, Dexter Van Zile is no longer affiliated with the Judeo-Christian Alliance, an initiative of the David Project.

Thirdly, Dexter Van Zile was the JCA’s director, not its president.

Fourth, Dexter Van Zile did not write the ADL backgrounder attributed to him by Rusty Pipes.

Fifth, CAMERA was not founded by Charles Jacobs, but by Winifred Mieselman.

About the only thing left from this paragraph that the reader can believe is that indeed there is someone named Dexter Van Zile who writes stuff that another writer disagrees with. Wow.

Judging from his online bio, cyberpunk novelist William Gibson appears to have the same problem with “writers” who believe everything they read on the Internet: “Google me and you can learn that I do it all on a manual typewriter, something that hasn’t been true since 1985, but which makes such an easy hook for a lazy journalist that I expect to be reading it for the rest of my life.”

Update 10:08 a.m., Oct. 31, 2007 : CAMERA has been informed that Rusty has been referred to as a woman in postings on Street Prophets, prompting the title change. Once CAMERA determines definitively which gender pronoun is the proper one to use, the headline will be changed to reflect reality.

Update 12:38 p.m., Oct. 31: Correspondence from Frederick Clarkson, one of talk2action’s co-founders, indicates that Rusty is in fact, a male. The headline has been corrected. Readers may now return to the debate regarding gender-inclusive language in scripture and hymnals. (Cf. Rev. James Crawford.)