Warren Cole Smith
{{short description|American Christian author and journalist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Warren Cole Smith
| image =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1958|07|11}}
| birth_place = Memphis, Tennessee
| occupation = President of MinistryWatch
| education = University of Georgia {{small|(BA, MA)}}
| spouse = Missy Smith
| children = 4
}}
Warren Cole Smith (born July 11, 1958) is an American author and journalist. He is the president and editor-in-chief at MinistryWatch.{{cite web|title=Leadership Team|access-date=October 30, 2024|website=MinistryWatch|url=https://ministrywatch.com/leadership-team/}}{{cite web|title=100 Influential Protestants You Ought to Know|website=Juicy Ecumenism|date=December 6, 2017|publisher=The Institute on Religion and Democracy|url=https://juicyecumenism.com/2017/12/06/100-influential-protestants/}} He is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books and more than 3000 magazine and newspaper articles, many of them for WORLD Magazine.
Career
Upon graduation, Smith worked for the Georgia House of Representatives as an attaché and the editor of the House Journal, an archive of the proceedings of the 1981 session. He then moved to Alaska to work for Wien Air Alaska, where he managed a fishing lodge, Brooks Lodge, owned by Wien.{{cn|date=May 2025}}
After three years in Alaska, he returned to the University of Georgia, where he completed a Master of Arts in English in 1985. He then taught high school English for a year at Athens Academy, a private college preparatory school in Athens, Georgia. He then served as the editor of North Fulton Magazine, a lifestyle magazine serving the affluent Atlanta suburbs of Roswell and Alpharetta. He also served for seven years as a marketing manager for the global accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Smith left PwC in 2000 to serve as president of World Newspaper Publishing, a company that owned seven Christian newspapers, mostly in the Southeastern United States, as well as the Evangelical Press News Service,{{cite web|title=World Newspaper Publishing Circa 2008|website=World Newspaper Publishing|date=April 11, 2008|access-date=November 12, 2024|url=https://www.worldnewspaperpublishing.com|quote=Warren Smith is the publisher of the Evangelical Press News Service.}} which at the time was used by more than 100 Christian newspapers around the country. He served as vice president and associate publisher for WORLD Magazine, an evangelical news magazine, from 2010 through 2015. He also served as the vice president of mission advancement for the Colson Center for Christian Worldview from 2015 until 2019.{{cite web|title=Author: Warren Cole Smith|website=The Gospel Coalition|access-date=November 8, 2024|url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/profile/warren-cole-smith/}}
Smith has served as the president and editor-in-chief of MinistryWatch since 2019.{{cite news|title=Warren Cole Smith to Lead MinistryWatch|website=MinistryWatch|date=October 16, 2019|access-date=October 30, 2024|url=https://ministrywatch.com/warren-cole-smith-to-lead-ministrywatch/}}
Controversies
=Mars Hill Church=
While writing for WORLD Magazine, Smith was the first to report on significant aspects of the scandal at and ultimate demise of Mars Hill Church.{{cite web|date=March 5, 2014|access-date=April 13, 2014 |url=http://www.worldmag.com/2014/03/unreal_sales_for_driscoll_s_real_marriage|title=Unreal sales for Driscoll's Real Marriage|last=Smith|first=Warren Cole|work=World Magazine|quote=Seattle's Mars Hill Church paid a California-based marketing company at least $210,000 in 2011 and 2012 to ensure that Real Marriage ... made the New York Times best-seller list.}}{{Cite news|url = http://www.worldmag.com/2014/08/acts_29_to_mark_driscoll_resign_and_seek_help|title = Acts 29 to Mark Driscoll: Resign and seek help: The church-planting network board calls on its co-founder to step down as pastor of Mars Hill Church|last = Smith|first = Warren Cole|date = August 8, 2014|work = World magazine|access-date = August 12, 2014}}{{cite news|title=Unreal sales for Driscoll's Real Marriage: Document suggests Mars Hill Church bought its pastor's spot on the New York Times best-seller list|first=Warren Cole|last=Smith|date=March 5, 2014|access-date=November 6, 2024|website=WORLD Magazine|url=https://wng.org/sift/unreal-sales-for-driscolls-real-marriage-1617422429}}
=''Shepherds for Sale''=
Smith found himself at the center of a controversy regarding the book Shepherds for Sale, by Megan Basham. The book made The New York Times Best Seller list despite being criticized for inaccuracies. A number of people mentioned in the book have publicly contested its assertions. Smith, writing for The Dispatch, suggested that the book was not journalism but propaganda.{{cite web|title=Which Shepherds Are For Sale? A new book about evangelicalism is really about Donald Trump|first=Warren Cole|last=Smith|date=August 3, 2024|access-date=November 6, 2024|website=The Dispatch|url=https://thedispatch.com/article/which-shepherds-are-for-sale/}}
Rick Pidcock of Baptist News Global cited Smith and said that Basham "resorts to lies and conspiracy theories to make her case."{{cite web|title=Who are the billionaires and celebrity pastors supporting Megan Basham?|first=Rick|last=Pidcock|date=August 15, 2024|access-date=November 6, 2024|website=Baptist News Global|url=https://baptistnews.com/article/who-are-the-billionaires-and-celebrity-pastors-supporting-megan-basham/}} According to Smith, the "fundamental flaw" of Basham's book is that "corrupting money is not on the evangelical left, as she claims, but on the populist right." Smith went on to suggest that the book "has many villains, but it has only one true hero: Donald J. Trump. He is mentioned more than 30 times in the book, all positively or defensively." Smith argued that Shepherds for Sale "purports to fight for the Gospel against heretics, but Basham is waging a proxy war, defending Trump against his evangelical critics."
=Aslan International=
MinistryWatch’s coverage of Aslan International Group became a national story, resulting in Smith being interviewed by NBC News.{{cite news|title=Pastor and family stole $8M from taxpayers in Covid scam, feds say. Why haven't they been charged?|first1=Laura|last1=Strickler|first2=Stephanie|last2=Gosk|first3=Rich|last3=Schapiro|website=NBC News|date=July 1, 2022|access-date=November 6, 2024|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/pastor-family-stole-8m-taxpayers-covid-scam-feds-say-havent-charged-rcna30379}}
Personal life
He lives with his wife Missy in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Selected bibliography
=Books=
- {{cite book |author1-last = Smith |author1-first = Warren Cole| title = A Lover's Quarrel With The Evangelical Church | publisher = Authentic Books | year = 2009 | isbn=978-1606570289}}
- {{cite book |author1-last = Smith |author1-first = Warren Cole |author1-mask = 3 | author2-last = Tschetter |author2-first = Marty| title = I Wanna Go Back: Stories of the Philmont Rangers | publisher = Philmont Staff Association Press | year = 2011 | isbn=978-0983049715}}
- {{cite book |author1-last = Smith |author1-first = Warren Cole |author1-mask = 3 | author2-last = Olasky |author2-first = Marvin| title = Prodigal Press: Confronting the Anti-Christian Bias of American News Media | publisher = P&R Publishing | year = 2013 | isbn=978-1596385979}}
- {{cite book |author1-last = Smith |author1-first = Warren Cole |author1-mask = 3 | author2-last = Stonestreet |author2-first = John| title = Restoring All Things: God's Audacious Plan To Change The World Through Everyday People | publisher = Baker Books | year = 2015 | isbn=978-0801000300}}
- {{cite book |author1-last = Smith |author1-first = Warren Cole|author1-mask = 3 | title = Print The Legend: The Previously Unpublished Memoir of Alison Stanton Bradshaw | publisher = Eagle Trail Press | year = 2017 | isbn= 978-0997426731}}
- {{cite book |author1-last = Smith |author1-first = Warren Cole| author1-mask = 3 | title = Faith Based Fraud: Learning from the Great Religious Scandals of our Time | publisher = WildBlue Press | year = 2021 | isbn= 978-1952225550}}
=Articles=
- {{citation |author1-last = Smith |author1-first = Warren Cole| title = The temple of Fido: How our worship of animals dehumanizes us | website = WORLD Magazine | date = March 30, 2019 | url = https://wng.org/roundups/the-temple-of-fido-1617226450}}
- {{citation |author1-last = Smith |author1-first = Warren Cole| author1-mask = 3 | title = David Foster Wallace Broke My Heart | website = Christianity Today | date = September 12, 2018 | url = https://www.christianitytoday.com/2018/09/david-foster-wallace-broke-heart-suicide/}}
- {{citation |author1-last = Smith |author1-first = Warren Cole| author1-mask = 3 | title = Which Shepherds Are For Sale? A new book about evangelicalism is really about Donald Trump | website = The Dispatch | date = August 3, 2024 | url = https://thedispatch.com/article/which-shepherds-are-for-sale/}}
References
{{Reflist}}
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Category:21st-century American male writers
Category:American evangelicals