Virtue Remains Essential for Building Institutions

What G3's Josh Buice's tells us about the need for virtue

In 2024, I wrote an article called "Institution Building Requires Virtue" at Mere Orthodoxy. At that time, I had already seen the effects of vicious institutional building. It destroyed lives. It ruined institutions. And it dishonored God.

G3 Ministries

Sadly, we have yet another reminder that vice cannot sustain the long-term health of any institution. On May 12th, G3 Ministries released a statement that indicated that its founder, Josh Buice, had "for the past three years, operated at least four anonymous social media accounts, two anonymous email addresses, and two Substack platforms."

His anonymous accounts allowed Buice to act viciously in secret while pretending to walk in the light in public. As the release has said, "These accounts were used to publicly and anonymously slander numerous Christian leaders, including faithful pastors (some of whom have spoken at G3 conferences), several PMBC elders, and others." As he slandered others, the report notes, "These actions were not only sinful in nature but deeply divisive."

For example, Buice anonymously attacked Tom Ascol of Founders Ministries while at the same time producing content for their platform. Founders responded by removing Buice’s content from their website. G3 on May 13th also updated their statement and decided to remove Buice’s content from their platform as well.

Over the years, some suspected he ran anonymous accounts. G3’s release explains that Buice denied any knowledge of these accounts. Yet eventually, the evidence became too great for him to continue lying. His sin found him out, and his lies could no longer explain away his vice.

This is an important point. Creating an anonymous account or five is not inherently sinful. But lying about them for years to your church and non-profit board and using them to slander Christians obviously is.

Buice has now "acknowledged his sin, expressed sorrow, and asked for forgiveness." We should celebrate his repentance and lament that his sins have repercussions. For example, G3 decided to cancel their bi-annual conference after both Buice and another speaker, Steve Lawson, fell into scandal.

It is hard to see how G3 could have run their conference this year when two of their main speakers sinned seriously and only repented after being confronted and after lying about their sins for years.

Building Lasting Institutions

We must walk in the truth to build institutes that last into eternity. Yet as the lamentable story of G3 illustrates, a virtuous man is hard to find.

For the sake of institutional building, we must retrieve real wisdom—wisdom that informs our minds so that we can be full of courage, justice, and self-control.

Or as Paul reminds us, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22–23). In the social media economy, kindness, gentleness, and self-control have lost their lustre. Occasionally, such virtues are seen as ineffective given the negative world in which we live. Yet I find myself unconvinced. Wins obtained through vice seem virtually always to end up as short-term triumphs followed by long-term defeats.

The Empire of the Holy Spirit, to borrow a phrase from Gregory of Nyssa, expands across the globe through the Gospel and the virtues that spring forth from it. God even now brings about the end he has decided through the means he has commanded. Hence, we no longer judge Christ or anyone according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (2 Cor 5:16).

Since God has defined the future end through the means he has chosen, we can say with confidence: the future awaits those who, with the Spirit’s aid, master self-discipline. The future embraces individuals who speak not with malice but embody virtue. The future rewards those who harbor within their hearts the treasures of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The future belongs to those who establish enduring institutions because they construct them upon virtue.

Institutions may have money and run “successful” events, but the end of vice is always destruction. Vice can build for a short time. But virtue is the only way to build something that will last into eternity.