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john-todd

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on May 20, 2006 at 9:08:21 am
 

John Todd

The following article is from "Fantasies, Legends, and Heroes: What You Know May Not Be So and How To Tell The Difference", Copyright 1990 Bob Passantino.

 

How many of you remember John Todd, who claimed to have been a "Grand Druid" of witchcraft and a member of the secret high council of the "Illuminati"? Todd claimed that there was a secret conspiracy to take over the world and destroy Christianity. He had his time in the limelight as a traveling speaker in churches and as one of the people promoted through Jack Chick Publications. Todd implicated Christian leaders such as Walter Martin and Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel. For example, he claimed that, as a courier he delivered $8 million worth of checks to Chuck Smith to start Maranatha! Music as a satanic plot to deceive Christians. He made outrageous claims based on what he claimed was his "personal experience," but could provide no objective or empirical documentation for his claims. In fact, any evidence that was adduced to disprove his claims, he said were manufactured by the conspiracy. His story was neither verifiable nor falsifiable, and was thus untrustworthy for research.

In fact, his story fit the first kind of legend: Investigation showed that the story was false. Listen, for example, to the contrast between Todd's unprovable allegations and Pastor Chuck Smith's response:

Maranatha Music was actually started with my own personal investment of $3,000.00. The first album was made on a 4-trac(k) tape recorder. The first distribution was out of the trunk of the car to the local bookstores. If we had a $1 million budget, or $4 million, or $8 million budget, you can believe we would have started out fancier than we did . . . . . . Even to the present date (October 5, 1978), Maranatha Music has not done a total of $8 million in business, and this also can be easily verified and confirmed, and any reputable person is welcome to look at the books of both Calvary Chapel and Maranatha Music in order to prove the statements I make are correct.

Pastor Smith's "story" can be checked out -- it has both explanatory power and empirical adequacy, and is therefore trustworthy for research.

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