In Memory of Joseph Hinman, aka Metacrock, My Brother in Christ

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Just over a week ago, I received a phone call from a woman in Texas. I didn’t recognize the number, so I let it go to voicemail. The voicemail the woman left told me that Joe Hinman, a man who posted on the Internet under the Pseudonym of Metacrock, had graduated to be with the Father in Heaven. I was asked to come to the funeral and share some memories about Joe. I don’t plan to go to the funeral – it is a long way from where I live, and I have other obligations on the day in question – but I didn’t want to pass up on the moment to share a few thoughts on Joe.



I never met Joe face-to-face. We did talk on the phone a few times, but never for very long. And I haven’t talked to him either over the phone or on the Internet for 10 years - not because I didn’t like him, but because my interest in doing apologetics online had waned for a number of reasons I won’t recount in this post. (I am still strongly Christian, so please don’t take my loss of interest in online Christian apologetics as somehow becoming a weaker Christian. I believe I am as strong – if not stronger – of a Christian now than I was at the height of my posting online.)

Joe and I got to know each other when we were both active in debating with atheists, skeptics and other non-Christian folk on CARM. I appreciated Joe’s vast understanding of philosophy, and he liked my legally-trained mind and more accessible approach to apologetics. He told me he had started a group of apologists who had been engaging in debate on CARM and other Internet sites. He had a vision of us joining forces to share our skills and understanding. It was the beginning of the Christian CADRE – a group named by Joe.

Debating with the CADRE was fun for a time. It was great to have other people chime in when I was at a loss of what direction to go. None of us knew everything about Christianity or theology – no one does – but having a group who could supplement posts with valuable input in the comments made the experience so amazing. Moreover, we came in at the start of the New Atheists – a group that served as a perfect foil since their ideas were so bad that I saw us as quite successful at beating back their claims. And Joe was there. He handled a lot of the pure philosophy questions with an incredibly broad background in a number of areas. It was a pleasure to have him on out side.

Don’t get me wrong. This was not paradise. Joe and I didn’t ordinarily see eye-to-eye. He was much more in the liberal vein of Christianity than I was (and still am). He could be very insulting to the people with whom he engaged – a practice that I contended was largely counter-productive. (I actually tried to follow his lead in a couple of posts on the CADRE Comments, and people rightfully reprimanded me for it.) Despite these differences in tactical approaches to defending the faith once for all delivered to the Saints, I loved Joe’s knowledge and his dedication. I mean, he had three websites going where he argued very strongly for Christianity – The Christian CADRE, Metacrock’s Blog, The Trace of God, Resistance is NOT Futile!, Need More Shovels, Religous A Priori:Social Sciences, Silver Age of Film. The Religious A Priori, another Religious A Priori, Our Cities Vanish: Poetry by Ray Hinman, and Atheistwatch. For a while, he also maintained Doxa: Christian Thought, but that site appears to no longer have anything on it. He even wrote a book – the Trace of God - which is what one of the forementioned blogsites focused on promoting. His output far exceeded my own, and while I was not always a fan of what Joe said, I never doubted the intellect, the passion and the joy behind his writings.

I could say more, but I would rather Joe speak for himself. I encourage everyone to take the time to read through his posts on this site because I believe that Joe wrote with an open heart. What he said in his posts was Joe. While his writing can be hard to read from time-to-time due to his life-long dyslexia, it is worth the effort to work through his posts and see where his brilliant mind led.

I do want to add that I think that my relationship with Joe presented an example in one area: Christian unity. As I stated above, Joe and I saw things quite differently. But we were partners – with several others, but we were two mainstays on the CADRE site for quite a number of years. We saw the mission – to vigorously spread the truth of Christianity to people who were hardened against it. To try to find ways to create cracks in the walls that had been set against the truth, and exploit those cracks so that the truth might begin to seep in.

The fact that I held conservative views and Joe didn’t was irrelevant because I saw Christ in him – even while I disagreed with him. And Joe saw Christ in me. We were brothers who never met. I would love to see more of that in the broader church. Let’s not let differences like Arminianism versus Calvinism or pre-trib versus pro-trib or any number of other debates within the body cloud the fact that we both put faith in God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

I love you Joe, and I will miss your brilliance, your passion and your friendship. Say hello to Jesus for me, and I look forward to eventually meeting you face-to-face when I join you on that side of the heavenly curtain.

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