Mark Stephens’ latest post says a lot of the right things.

Question your emotions.

Question your assumptions.

Question people who claim to speak for God.

Test everything.

Look at the fruit.

Accept truth even when truth disagrees with you.

Read things in context.

Ask where you need to repent.

Those are all excellent principles.

So here is the challenge:

Apply them to yourself.

Not theoretically.

Not through another 4,000-word Facebook sermon.

Not through vague references to mistakes, storms, growth, forgiveness, marriage, divorce, prophecy, or lessons learned.

Actually do the work.

Because the evidence is already there.

There is a lot of it.

And if Mark really means what he just wrote, he should be willing to question everything—including the version of his own history that is most comfortable for him to believe.

“Claims Aren’t Enough”

One of the most striking statements in Mark’s post is this:

“Claims aren’t enough. Look at what a person’s life actually produces.”

Exactly.

That should be the starting point.

Mark then asks readers to examine a person’s fruit:

Do they tell the truth?

Can they receive correction?

Can they forgive?

Are they humble?

How do they treat people when nobody important is watching?

Do they actually follow Yeshua, or merely talk about Him?

Those are not our questions.

Those are Mark’s questions.

And they deserve answers.

Not inspirational answers.

Not theological answers.

Not Facebook answers.

Real ones.

Question Everything

Mark tells people not to blindly believe someone because they invoke God.

Good.

So question Mark.

Question us.

Question Melissa.

Question court records.

Question doctors.

Question witnesses.

Question emails.

Question old messages.

Question current messages.

Question every public claim.

Question every accusation.

Question every excuse.

Question every convenient memory.

Then compare them.

That is what “test everything” actually means.

It does not mean searching until you find one fact that supports the story you already wanted to tell.

Mark himself warns against exactly that behavior. He writes about deciding what we want first and then looking for confirmation afterward.

He even has a phrase for it:

Putting a “GOD STICKER” on our decisions.

That raises an obvious question.

How often has religion been used to explain away behavior that should instead have been confronted?

How often has “forgiveness” been substituted for accountability?

How often has “God knows my heart” replaced the much harder sentence:

I was wrong.

Get Off Your Ass and Do the Real Work

There comes a point where talking about growth is not growth.

Talking about accountability is not accountability.

Talking about repentance is not repentance.

Talking about truth is not the same thing as facing it.

If Mark is serious about everything he just wrote, then here is the challenge:

Get off your ass and do the real work.

Read the records.

Read the messages.

Read the medical documentation.

Read what independent witnesses wrote.

Read the court history.

Read your own old posts.

Read what you said before.

Compare it to what you say now.

And do something that apparently remains extraordinarily difficult:

Consider the possibility that the common denominator might be you.

That does not mean accepting every criticism ever made against you.

It means honestly examining the evidence without beginning with the assumption that everybody else must be lying, conspiring, manipulating, persecuting, misunderstanding, attacking, or keeping something from you.

Can You Receive Correction?

Mark specifically asks this question:

“Can they receive correction?”

That is a particularly important one.

In Liam’s case, his treating child and adolescent psychiatrist documented serious concerns about Mark’s ability to understand the severity of Liam’s medical condition, weigh risks and benefits, understand the consequences of treatment delays, and recognize the effect his own words and behavior could have on Liam.

Dr. Rao also documented repeated conflict surrounding alternative health beliefs, medication concerns, ARFID, and proposed interventions that could delay Liam’s urgently needed nutritional restoration.

Those are not anonymous Facebook comments.

They are not memes.

They are not our interpretation of Mark’s personality.

They are documented concerns from Liam’s treating physician.

So test them.

Question them.

Review the evidence behind them.

But do not pretend they disappear merely because you dislike them.

If your new standard is, “Can this person receive correction?”

Then demonstrate that you can.

Want to Talk About Fruit? Look at the Fruit.

Mark tells people to examine what someone’s life actually produces.

There is documented testimony from people outside the immediate family.

Rob Peters wrote about an incident involving a specialty baseball hat belonging to a young batgirl. Peters stated that Mark was wearing a team hat Peters had not given him, that Nathan identified Mark as the person who had taken the missing hat, and that when another coach privately confronted Mark, Mark reportedly gave three different explanations for how he obtained it.

Peters also described a youth basketball game where a guest Mark brought shouted political and disparaging comments until other parents moved away and the game itself was disrupted. Peters wrote that Mark laughed, appeared to film the situation, and did not stop his guest.

Peters ultimately wrote that Mark appeared intent on “attention seeking, and/or creating chaos and division” at events he attended.

Again:

Question it.

Investigate it.

Compare accounts.

But if you are going to preach “look at the fruit,” then you do not get to look away when the fruit is uncomfortable.

Vague Confession Is Easy

Mark’s post contains a lot of generalized admissions.

“I’ve made mistakes.”

“I’ve done it.”

“I had to learn.”

“I wish I understood this earlier.”

Those statements sound humble.

But they are also remarkably safe.

What mistake?

Who was hurt?

What did you do?

What was false?

What responsibility belongs to you?

What have you repaired?

Whom have you apologized to?

What consequence have you accepted?

What behavior have you changed?

That is where accountability starts becoming real.

An unspecified mistake can be anything.

It allows a person to appear reflective without actually confronting the conduct at issue.

There is a massive difference between:

“I made mistakes.”

and:

“I did this. It hurt this person. It was wrong. I take responsibility for it. Here is what I am doing to repair the damage.”

The second one costs something.

That is probably why it is so rare.

You Asked, “Where Do I Need to Repent?”

Mark writes that during difficult periods we should ask:

Where am I prideful?

Where am I selfish?

Where do I need to forgive?

Where do I need to repent?

Where do I need to grow?

Great questions.

Now answer them.

Specifically.

Because this is not the first time accountability has been raised.

As far back as 2020, correspondence concerning Liam explicitly addressed Mark’s apparent inability to accept responsibility, including an apology that was reportedly being written but never materialized. The same correspondence described a repeated pattern of explaining Mark’s conduct by claiming other people “made him” angry or caused his actions.

That was six years ago.

So if this new post represents genuine transformation, show it.

Not with another post.

With action.

Truth That Disagrees With You

Mark writes:

“I want TRUTH now. Even when truth disagrees with me.”

That sentence matters.

Because truth that agrees with you is easy.

The real test is truth that makes you uncomfortable.

Truth that contradicts your preferred memory.

Truth contained in a doctor’s report.

Truth contained in court documents.

Truth contained in a witness statement.

Truth contained in an old email.

Truth contained in something your own child said.

Truth contained in your own previous words.

Truth that cannot be dismissed by calling everyone else bitter, angry, controlling, evil, deceived, worldly, ungodly, manipulative, or dishonest.

That is where the work begins.

Context Matters—So Use All of It

Mark repeatedly tells readers:

“CONTEXT MATTERS.”

Absolutely.

Then use the entire context.

Do not show one photograph and ignore everything surrounding it.

Do not quote one sentence and omit what happened before and after.

Do not tell the happy version of fatherhood while ignoring the difficult parts of parenting.

Do not preach accountability while omitting court orders.

Do not preach family while ignoring years of documented conflict.

Do not preach medical discernment while ignoring the treating specialists whose conclusions you rejected.

Do not preach truth while refusing to examine evidence that challenges your narrative.

Context does not mean adding more Bible verses.

Context means looking at all of the evidence.

Stop Performing Accountability

There is a difference between accountability and performing accountability.

Performance says:

“I’ve made mistakes.”

Accountability says:

“Here they are.”

Performance says:

“I’ve learned.”

Accountability says:

“Here is what I changed.”

Performance says:

“I forgive.”

Accountability says:

“I understand forgiveness does not erase consequences.”

Performance says:

“I want truth.”

Accountability says:

“I will examine evidence that could prove me wrong.”

Performance says:

“I have repented.”

Accountability asks:

“What have I repaired?”

That is the standard.

Nobody Is Asking You to Be Perfect

This is not about demanding perfection.

Nobody is perfect.

Parents screw up.

Marriages fail.

People get angry.

People make terrible decisions.

People hurt one another.

People believe stupid things.

People can change.

But change requires something more substantial than changing the vocabulary surrounding the past.

Real change requires confronting it.

And sometimes that means discovering that the story you have spent years telling yourself simply is not supported by the evidence.

That hurts.

Do it anyway.

If You Mean It, Prove It

Mark, you have now publicly challenged people to:

Be still.

Move slowly.

Test everything.

Read things in context.

Look at the fruit.

Accept correction.

Seek truth.

Repent.

Good.

We agree.

So start with yourself.

There are years of records.

There are messages.

There are medical records.

There are witness statements.

There are court records.

There are social media posts.

There are contradictions.

There are people who have been saying many of these things to you for years.

You do not have to take our word for anything.

In fact:

Don’t.

Question everything.

Verify everything.

Compare everything.

Read everything.

But have the courage to follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Even if it leads somewhere you desperately do not want to go.

Because if you only accept evidence that confirms the version of Mark Stephens that Mark Stephens wants to believe exists, you have learned absolutely nothing from the sermon you just wrote.

And if you truly believe:

“Claims aren’t enough. Look at what a person’s life actually produces.”

Then stop asking everyone to judge you by your latest words.

Let them look at the fruit.

And then get off your ass and start doing the real work.