I happened to catch a news story the other day about Amy Grant and how she has completely caved to the Sodomite ethos that now dominates this culture. She is hosting her niece's lesbian wedding at her house. We've certainly come a long way from the early days of CCM. That now seems innocent, wholesome, and even steadfast.
In truth, such a compromise is not altogether surprising and
yet from my standpoint it's still a somewhat unexpected move by someone that's
old enough to remember when things were very different – and Grant is older
than me. I guess some either fail to reflect on their lives and the culture or
others just grow soft and compromise over time. It's one thing to grow in
wisdom and understand that things are sometimes more complicated than what they
seemed when one is young and idealistic. But what Grant is doing is not an
expression or outworking of wisdom, it's just selling out. Or in other cases
maybe it's a case of weariness.
I thought her justificatory comments were telling.
Essentially it comes down to 'grace' and nothing else really matters after
that.
In some respects you could say this is the final destructive
end of Evangelicalism's Cheap Grace gospel – the real legacy of Billy Graham. I
continue to find it so striking that many of these men that are lauded as the
heroes of the faith are in fact the sowers of its destruction. The fact that
Franklin Graham would criticise Grant is just laughable. He has no moral or
theological standing as he represents the very Evangelical forces and
trajectory that have brought the movement to its point of utter compromise and
spiritual ruin. He's every bit as bad as she is – if not worse.
For today's Evangelicals, faith is watered down and grace is cheap
– and with it comes an assurance that has nothing to do with the New Testament
teaching on that point but is instead a form of presumption – even swagger. And
so in the end, whatever you do with your life, it really doesn't matter as long
as you made that decision for Jesus as they say. This pseudo-gospel then
becomes a canon within the canon and everything else the New Testament has to
say (even the myriad passages that directly contradict this teaching and
framework) are subordinated and explained away.
Right around this same time I happened to make one my rare
forays into the world of social media. Every once in a blue moon I will go on
Facebook and check up on people from my past. I think it's something that many
of us do from time to time. I thought about an Evangelical family I knew from
many years ago. Back in the 80's these folks might have been lumped in with the
Jesus People. They weren't quite ex-hippies but definitely people who had
exited the 60's-70's counter-culture. He was an ex-biker type with tattooed
arms – which was highly unusual and disreputable back then. His tattoos would
have made people stop and stare back in the 80's but would seem mild, tame, and
hardly noteworthy in today's decadent context. She still had her long straight
70's style hair and they were kind of agrarian-nature types, or seemed so.
Their rough-and-tumble kids were cute but kind of dirty and with tangled hair.
I don't mean to paint a negative picture of them. I'm simply referring to a
'type' that some will be familiar with.
But they had become Christians and were quite 'on fire' about
it if you'll pardon the expression. I've thought of them often over the years –
in positive terms.
I found them on Facebook. The Mrs. is still in the faith it
would seem but it looks like they're divorced. I'm not sure what's happening
with him but he doesn't look like he's in a good way. The children (obviously
now adults) look (to me) like they're all more or less pagan at this point and
the one daughter I remember best looks like she's turned lesbian or something
and it seems that most of her associates are part of the transsexual community.
It's tragic to see how that family has collapsed.
Likewise I hunted down some people from high school. It's
interesting to look at some of the posts and to see how many of their kids are
now in early adulthood and often look remarkably like their parents did at the
age I remember them.
I saw a girl I knew from school proclaim on her page that one
of her kids is 'trans' now and uses they/them pronouns or something to that
effect. And she also made it clear that she was willing to sever all ties with
anyone who had a problem with that. As I had no desire to re-establish contact
with this person, there was no temptation to compromise. She can have her
pronouns.
I knew this girl rather well in school and spent quite a bit
of time at her house and with her family. It just boggles my mind to think that
they've come to this point. They weren't Right-wing types to be sure or very
conservative but there was definitely a veneer of Christianity in the home.
Once again cheap grace is exposed for what it really is – faith that is reduced
to platitude and empty (if sometimes emotional) religious expression.
My wife and I just reel when we look at her side of the family
and even the extended family. We have nieces that took up with pagan boyfriends
and two of them recently married these unbelievers. The divorced mother in the
one case is far more concerned with making sure her daughter is never made to
be upset or uncomfortable and thus did everything she could to block attempts
by anyone to challenge her course or reach out to her. She lied and covered for
her when it came to family and friends, and yet all the while she attends a
quasi-Fundamentalist church. And while her other daughter can sleep over at the
pagan boyfriend's dorm room – at least she doesn't drink or smoke. It's
literally that ridiculous – and that sad. She didn't want her to work at a
convenience store because she would have to sell cigarettes but in the meantime
she can stay over in the pagan boy's dorm room for the night. She's convinced that
nothing was happening – as if (and as ridiculous as it is) that would make it
okay?
The husband (ex-brother in law) used to be a deacon in the
church, which in Baptist world is the equivalent of an elder. Years ago he took
up with a woman from work and walked away from his family and the faith. Now, after
many years and many women later he sometimes feigns a form of Christianity – but
he also has completely re-written his own history and created a fantasy about
how all these events transpired. Sometimes this apostate seems to think that he
was a good Christian father that provided for his kids. When someone speaks of
being 'handed over' or someone having a 'seared conscience', I always think of
him. He can't understand that he did anything wrong. Yet, another broken and
shattered Evangelical family.
When it comes to in-laws of in-laws – not quite part of my
wife's family but we do have common nieces and seeing them at many family
gatherings, know them well enough – the situation with that Evangelical family
is even more tragic. There are two daughters who grew up in the Church. One
married a pagan and the family seemed to have no real problem with that All the
Christians in the family (including my direct sibling in-law) went to the
wedding and celebrated it and so forth.
And the other daughter has now turned lesbian and yet the
same family members (all Evangelicals) go to the send-off party (as the pair were
moving overseas), and the mother posts pictures of them on Facebook and
recently went over to visit them in Europe and stay at their apartment. Now,
they've come home for the holidays and everyone's getting together and
exchanging gifts – the Christians even buying presents for the lesbian
girlfriend.
As I've often said to my wife – is there any red line? Is
there anything their kids could do that would drive the parents to actually say
'no' and apply that negative with some kind of consequence?
A generation ago even pagans wouldn't have accommodated this.
Your lesbian daughter might be welcome enough in your home but she wasn't going
to bring her girlfriend along. They certainly weren't going to be allowed to
stay in your home and participate in meals and holidays. In every case the
message is clear – yeah, maybe we're a little upset but it's not that big of a
deal.
The gospel of Evangelicalism no longer divides father from
son, mother from daughter. No, there's no antithesis, no sense of separation
from the world, no change in allegiance.
In other words, no gospel at all.
While some have tried to blame this cultural shift on pop culture
and politics, the truth is much deeper. Sure, TV shows and movies have played
their part in softening up the culture to such changes and the public schools
are pernicious pagan temples to be sure – but they always have been even when
people didn't realize it. But why did all of this affect the Church? Did merely
partaking of these TV shows really foster that kind of deep and profound
change?
As I've argued in addition to the false gospel of Cheap Grace
there is the problem of what I call Evangelicalism's Accommodationist Triad of
divorce, feminism, and psychology.
The culture has made a hard shift on these points and if the
Church were to make a hard stand on them there would be a real dividing line.
Any congregation that rejects the cultural norms and
acceptance of these elements will quickly lose numbers, dwindle into cultural
insignificance, and likely be reckoned a cult. It's that simple. If psychology
is rejected, feminism is preached against and held accountable, and if divorce
is rejected and made to have consequence, people will leave in droves. And understand
there are corollary issues as well – economic, questions of schooling and the
like. The implications are significant.
Everyone can crow about Scripture Alone but without a robust
doctrine of Sufficiency – it becomes meaningless. And I don't mean sufficiency
in terms of a contrived unified theory or syncretistic worldview which happens
to incorporate Scripture, but sufficiency in the sense that the Scriptures are
reckoned as sufficient for directly addressing all questions of the Christian life
and our place in the world. That notion – which is what Paul is getting at in
not just 2 Timothy 3 but in his larger body of writings – is wholeheartedly
rejected by the Evangelical movement.
At this point in time, if your church isn't reckoned a cult –
a sectarian body representing extreme and out-of-mainstream beliefs, then you
probably need to re-think what church you belong to and whether or not it has simply
made peace with the world.
Middle class people don't like being associated with a sect
or cult. It goes against the grain of that ethos and its values. The problem is
middle class values (such as security and respectability) are incompatible with
New Testament Christianity which calls us as pilgrims to reject mammon, take up
the cross, and bear witness by embracing persecution. And yet contrary to the
Scriptures, the Evangelical movement has actually attempted to sanctify these
values and Christianize the sword and the coin. And so it faces a real dilemma.
It's noteworthy that for those Christians who are unwilling
to follow through on this New Testament call to separation and antithesis have
two paths before them:
1. Make peace with the world and continue to compromise, adjusting
beliefs and practices to fit within (if perhaps on the edge) the spectrum of cultural
norms and orthodoxy. Or,
2. Turn to violence. This first can come in the form of increasingly
radical politics but as these attempts fail or disintegrate, the inevitable
result is to either give up and turn to option 1 or to become violent. We see
both camps in pretty clear terms at this point. And yet it needs to be
understood in the clearest of terms – both are unacceptable. Neither
represents a Christian path or option. And in case you missed it, the great irony
with option 2 is that even as they attempt to ward off such worldly compromise,
they ultimately end up in the same place. Faith becomes about standing in
society, status, power, and once again we're right back to not just plots,
scheming, and revenge, but the quest for mammon and all the pride and power it
stands for. You cannot serve God and mammon.
There is another way and that is what I'm advocating – to
live as second-class people, to live as pilgrims and subjects and abandon any
notion of 'citizenship' in terms of active participation in the social order on
the basis of standing and respect within the society. It's one thing to claim
citizenship to keep from being subject to punitive measures or to shame those
who arrogantly and hypocritically abuse their power, but nowhere does the New
Testament suggest a positive view of the concept in terms of advocacy for or
the improvement of society. Our presence is positive in itself, though the
world will not recognize that and more likely will consider us detrimental and
subversive. So be it. We take up the cross and are called to be witnesses. We're
engaged in a conflict they cannot understand. This option (the New Testament
option), has absolutely zero appeal to the flesh and to the culture and thus is
not 'workable' in terms of the Evangelical project. There's no way to market it
or make it attractive. Even a sound system and light show can't pull it off. Adherence
to this faith is based solely on conviction or faith.
I have another branch of Evangelical in-laws and their kids
are still in the Church but there are deep problems. Aside from their church
being more or less modeled on the Accommodationist Triad – its meetings a
combination of pop music and pop psychology dressed up with some Scripture,
it's evident that America's cultural decadence has made deep in-roads that are
evident in the lives and values of these people and now that grand-children
have entered the picture, the rotten harvest is plain to see. It's hard to
imagine these children continuing in the faith given how they're being raised
to be self-indulgent and given the parental attitudes and values about
everything from psychology, and feminism, to mammon.
Evangelicalism made peace with the world and watered down the
gospel and now as this imperial culture has followed the historical pattern and
turned to rank decadence – the Church gates are open and that decadence has
marched in and met little resistance. Those who maintain numbers by means of
cultural gimmickry think they've scored a victory but in a generation those
numbers will be gone and even circus acrobats freebies won't bring in the
people – let alone get them to stay.
And we must not forget the other spectre looming in the
background – mammon. As Ezekiel makes clear, mammonism is the precursor to
decadence which always (historically) has resulted in sodomy and other forms of
perversion – or its soft endorsement. Evangelicalism embraced mammon
generations ago and now it owns them and shapes them and is in the process of
dismantling their movement. It's somehow tragic, fascinating, disgusting, scary,
and sobering all at the same time.
See also:
https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2021/02/mammon-and-accommodationist-triad-of.html