A “Response” to the Stone Choir Boys
I put response in quotes because it’s not a response in the technical sense. Neither Corey Mahler nor Ryan Dumperth have mentioned me and I don’t ever expect them to because I’m just a writer with a tiny little audience of my friends. But as a Christian and as a leader within my community I feel a responsibility to voice my concerns over the growing popularity of the Stone Choir podcast in certain circles, especially certain “Reformed” circles. And before I begin, this is not a post targeting anyone specific in my life, I write this because I have a growing pit in my stomach that’s been there for going on almost a year now. As Summer Jaeger from Sheologians likes to say: Unless I’m talking about you, I’m not talking about you. This post will serve as a general warning against SC and their beliefs but if you feel convicted after reading it, that’s a sign you should do some introspection.
For those of you who don’t know, Stone Choir is a podcast run by two allegedly Lutheran men, Corey Mahler and Ryan Dumperth/@treblewoe. They claim to discuss things that the mainstream church doesn’t want to talk about, especially when it comes to race, feminism, and other topics. The thing is, Corey is an excommunicate from his LCMS church, and this fact is public knowledge. The video of his formal excommunication can be found here: https://protestia.com/2023/05/03/video-watch-as-lutheran-racist-troll-is-excommunicated-from-denomination/#google_vignette
So what was he excommunicated for? Spewing racist pro-Hitler nonsense all over his Twitter. I am not exaggerating. This is not a far left overuse of the term racism. I am talking literal Nazi propaganda. If you don’t believe me here’s some documentation of some of the worst, and viewer discretion is advised, these tweets are truly vile: https://protestia.com/2024/11/07/a-repository-of-racist-tweets-by-corey-j-mahler/
And his co-host is not any better, here’s a repository of some of his most awful stuff, with no signs of repentance or backtracking. And again, please use discretion, these posts contain some very vulgar language, including sexual and derogatory comments about women, racial slurs, and celebrating racial violence: https://protestia.substack.com/p/stone-choir-co-hosts-private-chat?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I condemn in the strongest possible terms the beliefs outlined in the above links. They are wicked, evil, unbiblical, and spiritually poisonous beliefs and anyone holding to them and advocating them ought to repent. And I have noticed a tendency among certain kinds of theo-bros to “yes, but” this kind of thing. To say “Yes the racist stuff is bad, but he has other good stuff to say” which to be perfectly honest I think is ridiculous in this case. The displays of bad fruit are so evident and the things being proposed so obviously contrary to natural and special revelation that it will inevitably taint everything else the person is saying. If you can’t make obvious distinctions when it comes to discussing theology or race then how could I possibly trust anything you have to say? And if you aren’t racist, why listen to something so spiritually oppressive? There are so many other better sources of content and commentary.
In our current political climate I think it is imperative that the shepherds of God’s flock take seriously their responsibility to protect their sheep from poison like this. No half measures are going to be good enough, no “yes, but”, no tacit agreement to “go along to get along” to avoid rocking the boat or losing congregation members. This had to be addressed and it should be addressed clearly. Corey and Ryan ought to be marked and avoided (Romans 16:17-18). Pray for their repentance before they cause more harm than they already have.