The Church and Western Tribalism (2021), by Rollin G. Grams

The Church and Western Tribalism is a collection of essays by Rev. Dr. Rollin G. Grams on the challenge that postmodern, post-Christian, Western culture poses for the Church and Christians.  Part of the shift in Christian missions in the 21st century has been to stop thinking of missions as 'from the West to the rest,' and part of this change in thinking involves a clear understanding of what the Church's mission to the West (and all those areas of the world that have been shaped by it) is.  Persons interested in this book will find it on this blog's book shop (https://bibleandmission.blogspot.com/p/bookstore.html).  What follows is the book's preface and table of contents.

Preface

 Seismic shifts in Western culture have taken place since the 1960s.  We struggle to understand what these changes are and how to articulate them.  The argument in this book is that the present state of Western culture might be described as ‘postmodern tribalism’—a developed and late form of postmodernity.  Perhaps even the term ‘postmodern’ is itself ready to be discontinued.  This book, through a collection of short chapters, explores what a Western tribalism involves.

Having written on ‘postmodernity’ in the past,[1] by early, 2016 at the latest, I found that I needed a new term to describe changes that had been taking place over the past few years.  ‘Political correctness’ was in common use, and it did capture a socio-political development that went beyond the ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’ of postmodernity.  Social pressure to affirm some groups and oppose others could not be considered postmodern in its original sense.  The term ‘tribalism’ came to mind, and not long after I started to use the term it was being used by others—a number of people evidently came to the term independently.  This only confirmed to me the appropriateness of the term.  A variety of other terms have been invented to capture aspects of the West’s tribalism, such as, intersectionality, woke, cancel culture, homophobia, ‘black lives’, and ‘white privilege’.  Western tribalism grows out of postmodernity, but it is a post-postmodernity even as postmodernity was a development of and from modernity (some suggested calling it ‘most-modernity’).  Developments involve intensifying some elements of the culture being left behind and locating them alongside new concerns or characteristics, and a new cultural outlook is born.

We not only struggle to understand such developments in Western culture; we also struggle to understand how the Church is to exist in these changing times and what its engagement with postmodern tribalism should be.  Late modernity sought to fold the Church into an increasingly post-Christian culture. Early Postmodernity could essentially ignore a marginalized Church while beginning to express concerns and doubts about orthodox Christians—the Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelicals.  Late Postmodernity—Tribalism—is now out-and-out hostile to the Church.  The Church is suffering a concussion through this blow: uncertain, unsteady, and unready.

The book includes several short chapters under general headings.  The headings are categories descriptive of Tribalism, beginning with this term.  Following this are ‘Identity Politics’ and ‘Tribal Victimhood’.  The next section is a discussion of several ‘Changing Virtues’ as Western society moves to Tribalism.  Societal virtues can be discussed in terms of which virtues are primary, or cardinal virtues, what is meant by virtues by the same name, and whether something is still considered a virtue or not.  A chapter on the changing cardinal virtues of Western society is followed by discussion of sexual impropriety, harassment, and abuse.  Then comes discussion of truth, unity, tolerance, forgiveness, and diversity.  The ban on conversion therapy captures related ethical issues characteristic of Tribalism.  Several chapters on freedom and one on liberation conclude the section on virtues.  The next major category related to Western Tribalism is ‘Against Nature’.  A final section explores aspects of the Church’s engagement with Western Tribalism, and two chapters form the conclusion to this study.

Throughout the book, one question is kept in focus: how does the Church respond to these cultural changes in the West?  Much more needs to be said about this than is covered here.  Part of the issue is internal, since the identity of the Church in the West has changed in a number of important ways as the culture infiltrates the Church.  This has been so not only as mainline denominations have come to define themselves as representatives of the culture rather than either Biblical or historical Christianity, but also as Evangelical churches have lost their bearings.  In fact, the ‘cancel culture’ of Western tribalism expresses itself in what I would call a ‘cancel Evangelicalism’ in many sectors of Evangelicalism today.  One of the great losses in our time has been a concern with evangelism and mission in what is left of the Evangelical movement, and it seems the term ‘Evangelical’ will increasingly be used as a term to describe orthodoxy within denominations rather than a movement across denominations.  It might survive as a term for Protestant orthodoxy in general.  Yet the term is being wrestled by ‘Evangelical tribalists’ from its historical meaning where ‘missional’ becomes ‘multicultural’ and diversity replaces unity as a value.

One aspect of the trouble facing Evangelicalism is defining ecclesial identity in racial terms rather than in Church traditions.  Phrases like ‘black Church’ and ‘white Church’ are aspects of identity ecclesiology (tribalism) that should be challenged in any discussion.  Another problem is the growth of independent churches that conceive of theological enquiry in terms of the Bible and the contemporary, local church.  Present identities have little interest in history and theological tradition.  Such are the challenges facing the Church in this time of Western Tribalism.

Table of Contents

 

Preface …….……………………………………………………………..……….6

 

TRIBALISM

 

Some Characteristics of the West’s Postmodern Tribalism …………..………….8

 

Culture Wars, Worldviews, and the Church …………………………...………..15

 

Public Toilets and the New Rationality of Western Tribalism ………………….17

 

The Seven Demons of the West’s New Tribalism ………………..….………….22

Enquiry and the LGBT+ Debate:

From Teacher to Lecturer to Dialogue Partner to Warrior ……..…………….…26

 

After Western Tribalism, What? ……………………………………...………....29

 

IDENTITY POLITICS AND ECCLESIOLOGY

 

The Rise of Identity Ecclesiology ……………………………………….…....…32

 

When Use of the Diagnosis 'Spiritual Abuse'

Becomes a License for Bad Pastoral Care ……………………....……....37

 

The Misnomer ‘Homophobia’ and its Theological Implications ……....……..…40

 

Identity Ecclesiology: Regarding Willie James Jennings’

‘Can ‘White’ People be Saved?’, and a Positive Alternative in a

Biblical Theology and Ethic of Unity …………………………………………...42

 

Racism, and an Ecclesial and Missional Perspective …………………………... 53

 

TRIBAL VICTIMHOOD

The Ethics of Tribal Victimhood versus Biblical Vulnerability ……..………… 63

Tribal Victimhood and the 'New Justice':

A Reflection on the Kavanaugh Hearings …….………………..……… 66

 

Tribal Victimhood, the Changing Face of Justice,

and Paul’s Words to the Roman Church .………….………….....……... 74

Types of Racism, and an Ecclesial and Missional Perspective ………….…...… 78

 

CHANGING VIRTUES

The Changing, Cardinal Virtues of Western Society ……………………..…….. 88

 

Some Christian Thoughts on the Culture’s Recent Outrage

Over Sexual Harassment, Impropriety, and Abuse ………………..…..... 91

 

Functional Truth: A Question of Truth for the South African Church …..……... 95

 

Stay or Leave?  Is John 17 Grounds for Staying in

Mainline Denominations in Our Day? …………………………...……. 103

 

Biblical Bases for Christian Toleration ……………………………………....... 107

 

A Process of Punishment vs. A Process of Forgiveness ………………….…… 111

Is Diversity a Christian Virtue? ………………………………………….…..... 114

 

The Missionary Call of Christian Counsellors

and Pastors in the Post-Christian West ……………………..………..... 117

 

Conscience and Freedom ……………………………………………..……...... 120

The Changing Meaning of Freedom: From Conscience to Coercion …..…....... 124

 

Freedom: A Universal Human Right versus

        A Value within a Particular (i.e., Christian) Tradition …………….…….. 127

 

Christian Freedom in a Postmodern, Western World ………………….…........ 129

 

Misunderstanding Righteousness:

Liberation Theology and the Commands of God ……………….…...... 132

 

AGAINST NATURE

From Naturalism to Anti-Naturalism:

Understanding the Enemy in Today's Culture Wars …………....…….. 136

 

The Antinaturalism of Late Postmodernity ……………………………........... 144

When Marriage is No Longer Understood as a Moral Act ……………....….... 150

 

CHURCH AND STATE

Toward a Biblical Theology of Government and the Nations ……….…....….. 154

 

‘Isn’t Someone’s Refusal to Provide Services for

Immoral Celebrations Just Bigotry?’ ……………………..…….…..… 156

The Christian Wedding Cake Maker and the Supreme Court …………...….... 158

 

Biblical Teaching versus Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism …………. 161

 

ENGAGING WESTERN TRIBALISM

The New Tribalism of post-Postmodernity

and Christian Mission to the West …………………………………… 171

Christian Mission to the Post-Christian West ………………………...…….... 174

 

Post-Christian Culture and Changes in the Workplace ……………..………... 180

 

Christians Should Not Attend Homosexual Weddings ……………..……..…. 184

 

Adoption and Postmodern Tribalism ……………………………………….... 189

 

Christmas and a Post-Christian Culture ……………………………..……..… 191

 

How ‘Social Justice’ Becomes Idolatry in a

Post-Christian Culture and in Progressive ‘Christianity’…………………….. 195

CONCLUSION

Christ For Culture in a Post-Christian World …………………….………...... 197

 

Understanding Western Culture

and the Church’s Mission, in 1,000 Words …………………….……. 201

---

[1] Rollin G. Grams, Rival Versions of Theological Enquiry.  Prague: International Baptist Theological Seminary, 2005.

Biblical vs. Contemporary Notions of ‘Equity’ in Social Justice

 

In some circles today, ‘equity’ is being used over against the word ‘equality’ to suggest a different sort of social justice.  ‘Equality’ is used in reference to individuals being treated equally and not according to who they are or what group they belong to.  Thus, ‘equality’ means equal opportunity.  ‘Equity’ is now being used to mean ‘equal outcomes’ for certain groups, and therefore this form of social justice does pay attention to who people are in terms of the group to which they belong.  The word ‘equity’ does appear in translations of the Old Testament, and so we now need to ask if this new understanding of social justice for ‘equity’ is intended in the Old Testament.  Does it mean ‘equality’ before the Law or some special administration of justice for marginalized groups so that there are equal outcomes for all?  Or, is there a different understanding?

The word translated as ‘equity’ in the English Standard Version is, in the Hebrew, mêšār/mêšārim,[1] which the Septuagint usually translates as euthytēs, uprightness or justice.  All its uses in the Old Testament that are translated in the ESV as 'equity' will be considered.  (The Hebrew word is sometimes translated as 'uprightness/right' or some version of this: 1 Chronicles 29.17; Isaiah 33.15; 45.19; Psalm 9.8; 17.2; 58.2; Proverbs 8.6; 23.16; Song of Songs 1.4 (also note Proverbs 23.31; Song of Songs 7.9; Isaiah 26.7; Daniel 11.6 for some other translations)). Synonyms for mêšār are ‘righteousness’ and ‘justice,’ as in these two Proverbs:

Prov. 1:3 to receive instruction in wise dealing,

            in righteousness, justice, and equity; [ESV translation here and throughout]

Prov. 2:9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;

The Hebrew is equivalent to Akkadian, mīšarum, which was used in royal edicts that were issued near the beginning of an Ancient Near Eastern ruler’s reign.  The new emperor would send out a decree for justice to right the injustices that had become established prior to his rule.  Isaiah says of a promised, Davidic king,

Is. 11:4  but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

            and decide with equity [mîšôr] for the meek of the earth;

            and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

            and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

More often, when we find the term ‘equity’ in the Old Testament, it is used in reference to God’s rule as King of the heavens and the earth.  Kings of the earth were expected to rule, as God Himself, with righteousness, justice, and equity.  This is reflected in psalms that speak of God’s rule as King:

Psa. 67:4   Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,

            for you judge the peoples with equity

            and guide the nations upon earth.

Psa. 99:4  The King in his might loves justice.

            You have established equity;

             you have executed justice

            and righteousness in Jacob.

The reason that the nations can be glad about God’s judgement is that He shows no partiality among the nations in His justice.  Within Israel, God’s justice is equitably administered.

A number of times, the idea is also applied to God’s coming justice: when He comes, He will establish justice: it is eschatological.  Three psalms celebrate this:

Psa. 75:2   “At the set time that I appoint 

            I will judge with equity.

Psa. 96:10  Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns!

            Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;

            he will judge the peoples with equity.”

 

Psa. 98:9  before the LORD, for he comes

            to judge the earth.

             He will judge the world with righteousness,

            and the peoples with equity.

Jesus’ proclamation of the coming Kingdom of God, similarly, is a prophetic announcement that God’s justice was about to break out over the earth.  The righting of injustices are announced as blessings on the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, and those who are reviled and persecuted and had evil things said about them and who have been accused falsely on account of Jesus (Matthew 5.3-12).  This is Jesus’ royal edict announcing the coming of the Kingdom of God.  All these have awaited the new King’s coming to reign as they have not had justice on the earth.

From this study, the meaning of ‘equity’ in these verses seems to present us with an alternative to (1) equality as equal opportunity and (2) equity as equal outcomes.  In its use as a word to translate the Hebrew, mêšār, it refers to (3) impartial administration of justice to all.  Since many have experienced injustice, this impartial administration of justice means a great reversal as the righteous are finally given their reward and the unrighteous are finally given their punishment.  This third understanding can be found in two related texts of note:

Exodus 23:3 … nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.

Leviticus 19:15 You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.

There are applications of this study of justice for today.  ‘Equal opportunity’ will not equate with justice when injustices have been done.  However, neither will a special ‘justice’—a hand on the scales, so to speak—for certain groups of people bring about justice.  There is one justice administered by one righteous Judge.  Justice for those who have experience injustice is not a ‘justice’ of privilege.  It is not an ‘equity’ understood as equal outcomes for everyone.  Instead, it is the application of the same standard of justice for each person.  Those who have been unjustly treated by the unrighteous powerful will finally be given justice.  The wicked will no longer be able to prosper at their expense.

To make the point more clearly, take, for example, how people are debating a just approach to hiring people on a faculty.  An ‘equality’ approach to justice would want each, individual candidate to have a fair shot at the position.  An ‘equity’ approach—as the word is used today, not in the Bible—would want to identify candidates from perceived underprivileged groups and give them special standing.  This, however, is injustice for the individuals who have merited their strong resumes through years of hard study and work.  A Biblical concept of equity is different.  It would remove obstacles placed in the way of marginalized candidates, recognizing that these do exist in unjust societies.  This likely means giving candidates more than a fair shot at a job, such as by carefully making sure that the application process does not discriminate against anyone.  Thus, it does not mean hiring someone just because he or she is from a particular group.  It primarily means—looking at the Biblical texts—removing obstacles, but it could also mean proactively working to give individuals opportunity to succeed against the odds against them.  While still students, this would mean scholarships for the academically gifted who lack the finances to continue their studies.  It may mean offering a special scholarship to a father or mother or widow trying to raise a family while pursuing graduate studies.

This could also be applied to notions of ‘justice’ that have been applied to course syllabi.  An ‘equality’ approach might simply take all authors on a subject and find the best works to ask students to read.  An ‘equity’ approach in the contemporary sense might entail requiring faculty to put non-Western or non-white or female authors on their syllabi because so much has been written by white men from the West.  This notion of equity may well work directly against merit and quality and entail inequality in the name of equity.  A Biblical notion of equity would, first, make sure that authors are not being excluded because of who they are—whether because they are from some minority group or from the majority, white, male authors (assuming this is the case).  It may, second, involve trying to promote writing and publication opportunities for those who are quality authors but unable to devote themselves to scholarship in the same ways that others are able to do.

Where an individual’s merit is not critical for the discussion, as in academics or skilled work (doctors, mechanics, engineers, etc.), the Bible offers more consideration for society than equity. The Old Testament develops a notion of society that goes beyond justice.  Israelites were to think of one another as ‘brothers,’ and the language of ‘love’ is used to establish a higher bar than even equity.  God says, ‘you shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Leviticus 19.17-18).  How does this play out?  A few chapters later, speaking of the Year of Jubilee, treating someone as a brother when he has fallen into poverty means several very practical things: you should not charge him interest on loans or sell food to him for profit (Leviticus 25.35-37); you should not treat him as a slave when he is dependent on your employment of him (vv. 39-40); you should not be mean to him as he works for you (v. 43); he should be bailed out of financial trouble by his extended family (v. 49), and, if that is not possible, be set free—along with his family—in the Year of Jubilee (vv. 50-54).  This person might have fallen into poverty for any number of reasons, most of which would have nothing to do with assigning fault to him or to others.  Justice as 'equal opportunity' is not a helpful approach to his situation.  Yet neither is 'equal outcome' helpful.  His situation requires help that goes beyond merely talking about justice; it calls for loving one's neighbour.  When pressed on this, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), in which the definition of this was helping a person in need, not on the basis of race (Samaritans and Jews were not oppositional ethnic groups).

The contemporary notion of social justice in the term ‘equity’ has several problems.  It creates enmity between groups by privileging some over others, based on a certain understanding of history and society.  Whether that understanding is correct or not, it tries to employ inequality to establish equity.  It further fails to treat individuals as individuals.  Frankly, this version of ‘equity’ is often applied in racist or sexist ways in the name of trying to undo racism and sexism.  Thirdly, because it fails to treat individuals as individuals, it works against any appreciation of merit.  This is especially concerning in situations where merit needs to be valued.  Fourth, it involves someone’s or some group’s interpretation of where there are inequalities in society.  This may be inevitable, but in fact these determinations are made by people with their own perspectives pitted against those of others.  Who is to say that a candidate from a certain ethnicity should be preferred over a poor person with a disability of another ethnicity?  Judgements about people in terms of their group identities made by others with their limited categories for establishing something 'equitable' are highly subjective.  Fifth, equity as ‘equal outcomes’ fails to address root concerns for those who are underprivileged because of their financial situation, family situation, ethnicity, being male or female, disabilities, and so forth.  Biblical justice goes beyond equal opportunity and is not about equal outcomes but offers a far more radical approach to social justice.  Sixth, equity as ‘equal outcomes’ fails to realize that there are times when unequal outcomes are preferred.  When Paul collected money for the Jerusalem church from his churches outside Israel, he intentionally sought travelling companions from those churches to show the representation of many in the Gentile world to establish a unity between them and the Jewish Christians.  He did not take with him Jews from those congregations.  When there was a problem of unequal treatment of Hellenistic Jews in the Church in Jerusalem, seven deacons were chosen from among the Hellenistic Jews to make sure that the distribution of food was equal.  When Paul sought to establish overseers or elders and deacons in Ephesus  (1 and 2 Timothy) and Crete (Titus), ethnicity was not a consideration but soundness of doctrine and ability to teach.  The criteria in each case created conditions for unequal outcomes in the hiring process.  Equal outcomes are precisely what should not be valued in most situations.  Today's notion of equity as equal outcomes fails to accomplish social justice for a variety of reasons.

---

[1] The ESV also translates other ṣĕdākāh, righteousness, as ‘equity’ in 2 Samuel 8.15 and 1 Chronicles 18.14.

'What is Progressive Theology?' (2022). A Collection of Essays by Rollin G. Grams

  What is Progressive Theology? is a collection of essays (189 pages) written by Rollin G. Grams (available from the book shop on www.bibleandmission.blogspot.com for $1.99).  See https://bibleandmission.blogspot.com/p/bookstore.html.

Through 28 essays, this book explores how progressivism is dominating Western culture and being embraced by some Christians, including some Evangelicals.  The book aims to understand what this latest challenge to orthodoxy is.  After an anchor essay, 'What is Progressive Theology?,' the essays address various features of progressivism and provide some alternative responses in a variety of areas.

Many Christians have felt like deer in the headlights as the four-wheel, off-road, hunter's vehicle of Progressivism has suddenly appeared over the hill.  Some have melted in place, believing all the accusations against them.  Others have joined the hunt, as though they had no 'deer-identity' of their own.  And others have darted this way and that into the shadows, without direction, fearful, and hoping only to survive.  

This book, while by no means comprehensive, seeks to provide some better understanding of what this Progressivism is and how it is infecting the Church and its mission.  We need to reach deep into the bedrock of our Christian civilization in the Church and respond to this Progressivism with what is good and lasting in our faith.  The charge of racism in every institution must be met with the Bible's theology of mission and the long history of the Church's mission in the world.  Post-Christian sexuality is not an issue of justice but of perversion--a perversion of God's good creation, and Progressivism needs to be challenged not with dialogue and shared experiences but with the truth of the Divine Word and the historic teaching of the Church, including the Good News that, in Christ, sin is forgiven and sinners are transformed.  Christians need to affirm the convictions of Christian orthodoxy established in the time of the Church Fathers, affirm the convictions of the Reformation (sola Scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, solo Christo, soli Deo gloria), affirm Evangelicals' focus of belief on Scripture as God's Word, Christ, and conversion, and our focus of activism in light of these, and conserve our identity over against today's post-Christian Progressivism.

'Progressivism' is today's heir to several post-Enlightenment '-isms' in Western intellectual thought. While Western, it has taken firm root in cities, governments, and institutions throughout the world. 

Like Romanticism, it believes that the 'Noble Savage' (Jean-Jacques Rousseau) is essentially good, rejecting the doctrine of human depravity and the Church's understanding of sin, evil, and suffering.  It therefore wants to affirm sinful practices and orientations, claim the high ground of virtue in its tolerance and inclusion, and oppose conversion.

Like Liberal Theology, it distances itself from doctrine, considered to be divisive, and focusses instead on shared experience (cf. Paul Tillich's 'correlational theology').   As classically stated by Adolf von Harnack (What is Christianity?, 1900), Liberal Theology sought to represent Christianity in the most general terms as about the fatherhood of God, the 'brotherhood of mankind,' and the infinite worth of the human soul.  Harnack rejected any continued use of the Old Testament and any concrete theological content--notably any Christology or Soteriology--as well as any historical content in doctrine.  

Like Existentialism, Progressivism rejects the notion that humanity is created a certain way--having an essence--and instead believes that we are blank slates that must choose, form relationships, and act in order to create our own identities.  Existence precedes essence, as Jean-Paul Sartre, the atheist existentialist, put it.  Notably, Progressivism is anti-natural and anti-creational in promoting self-identities such as homosexuality and transgenderism.  Yet it opposes nature in a variety of other ways as well, including gene editing, interference in birth (abortion) and death (euthanasia), and the politicisation of environmental concerns.  

Like Postmodernism, Progressivism entertains an 'incredulity towards metanarratives' (Jean François Lyotard), although it inconsistently has adopted its own metanarrative in 'Wokism' or 'Political Correctness.'  It further opposes any objectivity, insisting that truth is constructed, local, and subjective.  This, too, contributes to a disinterest in history and doctrine except as tools that can be wielded to promote its own activist agendas.  

Like Marxism, Progressivism makes 'social justice' its primary concern, defines this in its own way, and opposes the idea that theology provides a ground and direction for social action.  Rather, theology is merely 'reflection' on praxis (Gustavo Gutierrez).  

Continuing with this trajectory, Progressivism affirms Critical Theory's project of liberation from all forms of oppression, not just political and economic.  It seeks to bring about a radical cancellation of past culture and rejects an interpretation of European history as 'civilisation'.  This 'cancel culture' is, like Critical Theory, not utopian in the sense of Communism, but it does approve a heavy, authoritative hand from government and a socialist approach to economics.  In this, it has increasingly sought to overthrow the Modern values of freedom and equality and introduced instead other social values.  In Early Postmodernity, its values were tolerance, equal opportunity, and multiculturalism. In Late Postmodernity (from about 2010), these values have evolved into inclusiveness (not just tolerance), equity (equal outcomes and thus unequal opportunities), and diversity (again in the sense of exclusion or undermining the roles of some, notably white males).  This Late Postmodernity is a Western form of tribalism--heavy handed, socialist, racist, conformist, subjective, and so forth.  

Following the trajectory of Marxism and Critical Theory further, Progressivism has latched onto a racist view of the world under the clever cloak of Critical Race Theory, seeing and treating individuals not as individuals but as members of their race--either undermining or promoting them accordingly.  Thus, quixotic activism is centered around race, although other activist agendas include 'climate change,' 'immigration' (actually, opposition to borders and any special notion of 'citizenship'), opposition to Christianity, extension of the sexual revolution of the 1960s to homosexuality and transgenderism (which, ironically, is an attack on feminism), and a peculiar version of socialism that includes an activist elite made up of technocrats, bureaucrats, and the wealthy.

Progressivism, then, is an odd contradiction in many ways, including in its being a Western version of post-Westernism.  Its promotion of non-Western religions for their minority status in the West means the undermining of Christianity without recognising the contradictory beliefs and practices of these other religions for its own agenda.  Its beliefs will eventually be challenged when the alleged, essential goodness of humanity meets with the horrors of war or the brutal and radical practices of certain religions, when its opposition to the family meets parents putting families first (e.g., in adoption and education), when its culture of death meets people who affirm life, when women are protected from men invading their uniqueness by pretending to be women, when its insistence on group conformity meets individuals who value freedom, when the Church reaffirms (or rediscovers) its Christ-centred identity in its community and mission instead of making race the catalyst for identity, community, and activism, when Christians challenge its post-Christian ethics with their affirmation of Christian ethics, particularly sexual ethics, when the Church affirms over against Progressivism the power of God to bring life-transforming conversion, salvation, and transformation, even for people with entrenched, sinful orientations and perversions.

Progressivism may well fail in the face of radical religions, warfare, and the disgust of decent people.  Yet it has made strong gains in Christian circles.  Mainline denominations had already undermined their Christian convictions and practices with Liberal Theology and have continued their decline through their embrace of Postmodern Progressivism.  There is very little 'Christian' still to be found in these once orthodox expressions of the Church, and there is no hope of bringing reform within them (as there still was in the 1980s).  

However, Progressivism has also established a foothold in some sectors of Evangelicalism, not least when pastors, seminary administrators and faculty, activist students at Christian colleges, Evangelical 'elites' (editors, writers, organisational directors, speakers, etc.--self-importantly saying that they are 'leaders') want the culture's affirmation.  Fearing to be labelled as 'racist,' they allow this interpretation of society and the Church to dominate and introduce agendas that focus the Church on 'social activism' led by the culture, turned away from any Christ-centred focus.  Spurred on by the failure of denominations of the past and the growth of non-denominationalism, they encourage Progressive activism over doctrinal depth and convictions.  They find the battles of the Church Fathers for orthodoxy or the hard-fought convictions of the Reformation to be, at best, interesting academic exercises but irrelevant in large part for the affirmed moral revisionism of the present day.  Lauded by their circle of supporters, these elite Evangelicals think themselves to be leaders of a moral reforming of the Church, even as they have little understanding of ecclesiology or missiology in the orthodox sense of these terms.  Instead, they are educated in little other than the news of the day.

These essays touch on these subjects, as the table of contents indicates.  The essays provide some perspective to the issues facing Godly believers who understand that the West's version of social justice is a threat to their determination to know Christ and Him crucified above all.  The book has been updated several times since publishing.  If you purchase the book online, you can find the additional chapters on this blog (or contact the author for an updated version).

Table of Contents

Forward

Progressive Theology

What is Progressive Theology?

Some Characteristics of the West’s Postmodern Tribalism

Enquiry and the LGBTQ+ Debate: From Teacher to Lecturer to Dialogue Partner to Warrior

The Heresy of Critical Race Theory

About Those New, Western Values—Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Biblical vs. Progressive Notions of ‘Equity’ in Social Justice

A Holistic Gospel or a Holistic Ministry?

Identity

The Rise of Identity Ecclesiology

Identity Ecclesiology: Regarding Willie James Jennings’ ‘Can ‘White’ People be Saved?’, and a Positive Alternative in a Biblical Theology and Ethic of Unity

Diversity

The Church is Not a Zoo: Unity, Not Diversity, is the Church’s Communal Value

Is Diversity a Christian Virtue?

How and Why Paul Avoided Celebrating 'Diversity' as a Christian Value--and Why This Matters for Us

Not 'Multicultural Diversity' but 'Cultural Transformation': A Christian Reflection on Culture

Racism, Politics, and an Ecclesial and Missional Perspective

Government and Freedom

The Challenge of the State

Conscience and Freedom

The Changing Meaning of Freedom: From Conscience to Coercion

Freedom: A Universal Human Right versus A Value

Within A Particular (i.e., Christian) Tradition

Against Nature

From Naturalism to Anti-Naturalism: Understanding the Enemy in Today's Culture Wars

The Antinaturalism of Late Postmodernity

When Marriage is No Longer Understood as a Moral Act

 

Some Alternatives

 

How Institutions Change Their Original Mission, Values, and Practices

Some Redirection: Peter Viereck and an Alternative to Ideological

Conservatism and Progressivism

 Should We Replace ‘Evangelical’ with ‘orthodox’ (small ‘o’)?

Christians and Academic Enquiry in a Postmodern Age

Rethinking Christian Education: Primary through High School, Colleges, and Seminaries