Religion · Myrtle Beach, SC Metro · August 31, 2026
Protesters renew scrutiny of Mercy Church pastor after Netflix documentary
What Alinsky tactic is being used
3 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 4
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
The pressure on Mercy Church works because a church holds itself to a published standard for its own elders and teachers, and the one sentence protesters keep pointing at is that JP Miller "continues to preach at Mercy Church" while under a federal indictment for cyberstalking his late wife and lying to investigators. The demonstrators do not need to prove anything about the death to make that point; they only need the church's own book of rules about the character of a pastor. Where the gap between stated standard and actual practice is real, this tactic needs no exaggeration to work.
Counter-Rule 4 · Radical Integrity
Close the gap between stated values and actual practice before anyone else finds it. This tactic only works where the gap is real.
This month, get a copy of your own congregation's constitution or bylaws and read the sections on elder qualification, suspension from the pulpit during an investigation, and who may act between congregational meetings — before any crisis makes it urgent. Where the document is silent or the practice has drifted from it, say so in writing to the elders and ask for the gap to be closed by a recorded vote. Closing your own gap is the only defense that does not depend on how a news cycle goes.
Rule 11
“If you push a negative hard and deep enough, it will break through into its counterside.”
The story contains two very different claims sitting side by side: a medical examiner's suicide ruling, and demonstrators saying "unanswered questions remain." Sustained pressure tends to push the negative past the record — from "he is charged with cyberstalking and false statements" to "he killed her" — and if that overclaim takes hold among Christians commenting on the case, an acquittal or a narrow verdict discredits everyone who said it, including those who were careful.
Counter-Rule 11 · Proportional Truth
Refuse to overclaim, even where it would help. One exaggeration hands the other side the only weapon that works permanently.
Write down, for yourself, the two lists: what is on the record (a two-count federal indictment, a not-guilty plea, a trial term, a sheriff's suicide ruling) and what is allegation or inference. Then refuse, in conversation and online, to say the second list as though it were the first — even when a stronger claim would help. Correct fellow church members gently when they blur the two; that is what proportional truth costs here.
Rule 8
“Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions.”
The closing line — protesters "intend to continue demonstrating as the case proceeds toward trial" — is the tactic stated outright: a schedule of recurring pressure timed to a docket that runs for months. A church facing that will be tempted to make decisions on a Sunday afternoon, under cameras, that it never thought through in advance.
Counter-Rule 8 · Institutional Resilience
Decide in advance, in writing, what the institution will and will not concede — so exhaustion cannot make the decision for it.
Ask your elders or deacons to settle in writing, now, the ordinary questions: who speaks to reporters, what the security and greeting plan is when demonstrators are lawfully on the sidewalk, and what step is taken automatically if a staff member is criminally charged. Ask that it be adopted by recorded vote and minuted, so exhaustion is not making the choice later. Refuse to be drawn into arguments with demonstrators on the sidewalk.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
Know where you stand
The free 4-minute assessment identifies your mountain and your institution’s capture phase — so alerts like this one arrive matched to where you actually stand.
Facing this yourself? Ask. Describe what is happening and get what the book, Scripture, and the law of your state say, with the exact words to use. Your first one is free.