Lux Lucet

The Pathetic Mess That is Christianity Today Magazine

I’m somewhat ashamed to admit this, but I subscribe to Christianity Today magazine.  For what it’s worth, I subscribe, not because I agree with its editorial stance – Christianity Today (CT) is the New York Times sprinkled with Bible dust in an attempt to fool undiscerning, supposedly Bible believing Protestants into thinking that the publication actually presents a Biblical worldview – but principally so I can get advanced notice on the latest of bit of “Evangelical” nonsense being pushed by “Christian thought leaders.” The sort of thing that I’m expected to swallow whole, the sort of thing that has a way of subtly creeping into sermons and, if left unopposed, has a way of subverting not only individual churches, but entire denominations.  Reading this stuff is one of the hazards of the call to be a Christian blogger, but it’s a hazard I gladly bear if it means being able to warn my brothers and sisters in Christ about the false doctrine of today’s evangelical wolves in sheep’s clothing.     

This writer is not alone in his dim view of CT.  For example, John Robbins commented on that neo-Evangelical publication twenty years ago. If what he said twenty years ago was true – and it was – it is even more on point today.  Wrote Robbins,

“Unfortunately many American Christians have ignored the Bible’s instructions on discipline and non-collaboration with non-Christians. One example of this disobedience to Scripture is the Neo-evangelical movement. It repudiated the separationist—derogatorily called isolationist—theology of the fundamentalists and began to collaborate with those who were not Reformed, were not Protestant, and were not Evangelical. The evangelist Billy Graham became one of the leading Neo-evangelicals of the century, inviting theological liberals, Roman Catholics, and churchmen of all sorts to cooperate with him in his “crusades.”  The results of this sin of collaboration surround us: Christianity Today, the leading publication of the Neo-evangelicals, is a hotbed of feminism, heterodoxy, Arminianism, Pentecostalism, and liberalism; there is widespread apostasy in the Evangelical churches; feminism and socialism reign in Neo-evangelical educational institutions; the Neo-evangelicals are promoting union with Rome through Evangelicals and Catholics Together; the Roman Church is by far the largest in America, and growing rapidly; and Evangelical pastors are defecting to Rome in significant numbers.  The Neo-evangelicals thought they were smarter than God and could infiltrate liberal institutions in order to win them over. By collaboration with non-Christians, they lost their Christianity (Robbins, “The Church Irrational”).”

Since CT is a, “hotbed of feminism, heterodoxy, Arminianism, Pentecostalism, and liberalism,” it should come as no surprise that it has essentially become the Evangelical voice for the mainstream media (MSM) and Black Lives Matter (BLM), faithfully regurgitating their talking points, which consist, on the one hand, of calling white Protestants sinful wretches for America’s legacy of slavery and, on the other hand, demanding that the sinful wretches fork over their money and impair their children’s futures to satisfy the supposed justice of heaven.

Now to hear such rhetoric from Marxists and other unbelievers is not surprising.  One cannot expect those who do not know God to articulate a consistently Christian view of politics and economics.  But to read an article in a putatively Christian publication describing a career criminal of the likes of George Floyd as if he were a great saint, or to read calls from the same publication for reparations to black Americans, none of whom suffered from slavery paid for by white Americans, none of whom held slaves, that is disturbing and requires some commentary.

The pathetic mess that is CT has made both arguments recently.

Saint George  

On May 28, just three days after his death, CT ran a very sympathetic article on Floyd titled “George Floyd Left a Gospel Legacy in Houston.” The article begins, “The rest of the country knows George Floyd from several minutes of cell phone footage captured during his final hours. But in Houston’s Third Ward, they know Floyd for how he lived for decades—a mentor to a generation of young men and a “person of peace” ushering ministries into the area.”

Worth noting, the same article mentions that “Big Floyd” was regarded as an “OG” (slang for “original gangster”). This, it would seem, was not an idle saying.  We don’t learn this in the CT piece, but Floyd had been arrested nine times before he supposedly became a Christian in or about the year 2010. 

What the article doesn’t mention is Floyd’s eight arrests, including his 2007 arrest for armed robbery in which he helped break into a pregnant woman’s house and held a gun to her stomach during the robbery.  There are some questions of timing here, as Floyd was sentenced to five years in prison for the robbery in 2009, but the CT article states that he met a Patrick PT Ngwolo, a pastor at Resurrection Houston, who held services in Floyd’s neighborhood in 2010. 

Further, this article from AP notes that Floyd was “the father of five children from several relationships.”

Now someone may object to bringing up these points by saying that Christ came to save sinners and that all who come to him, even hardened criminals, even those who have lived immoral lives, can be saved.  They will get no argument from me on this point.  They may further object that these points are irrelevant to the charges filed against Minneapolis police officers.  That also is true.

But these details are relevant to the public debate over George Floyd’s death, in particular, the debate concerning the appropriate response to these events from governments, businesses universities, etc. When CT deliberately highlights facts that support a man’s claim to be a Christian while leaving out evidence to the contrary, that strikes some of us as less than honest. 

Consider, when Floyd was arrested, he was,

• High on fentanyl
• Had the police called on him for allegedly passing counterfeit currency at a convenience store
• Had been driving while high on fentanyl
• Resisted arrest
• Had recently used methamphetamine

So, was George Floyd a Christian?  Ultimately, the only person whose answer counts is Jesus Christ.  God alone knows the heart.  But if we look at his actions in the last hours of his life, there is certainly no fruit of the Spirit evident.  In my opinion – and it’s just that, an opinion – there is a good deal of evidence to suggest that Floyd was not a Christian.  And for CT to write what amounted to a hagiography of the man, one designed to portray him as an innocent victim of racist police, one which deliberately left out significant evidence that suggests he was no Christian at all, is, in my view, dishonest.

CT Calls for Reparations    

“Justice Too Long Delayed” is the title of an editorial by Timothy Dalrymple published by CT on June 10, 2020. The editorial is an open call for reparations to black Americans, presumably, although not explicitly stated, by white Americans.  Citing no Scripture is support of his opinion, Dalrymple asserts that what was once a fever dream in the minds of socialist radicals is now the Christian duty of white Americans.

It’s not surprising that Dalrymple fails to even attempt to make his case from Scriptures, for there is no argument from the Bible that can be made in support of reparations for slavery, a practice that ended in the United States long before anyone alive today was born.  Dalrymple, contrary to the teaching of Scripture, seems to believe in the concept of blood guilt, that the children can be held guilty for the crimes of their parents. 

What Dalrymple proposes is nothing short of using the government gun to steal from living white Americans for the sins and crimes, real or imagined, of generations past for the supposed benefit black Americans who have never been slaves.  This is a form of involuntary servitude, which is prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment, “except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”

Maybe Dalrymple really does believe two wrongs make a right.

There are other problems with Dalrymple’s scheme.  How does one apportion said reparations, both on the cost side and on the payment side?  What about exemptions for Americans whose ancestors fought on the Union side?  My great, great, great grandfather Hiram Bennet Matthews fought for the Union as a member of the First Indiana Heavy Artillery.  Do I get a reparations discount for this?  On the other hand, some on my mother’s side of the family fought for the CSA, so maybe that takes away my discount.  What about whites whose families immigrated after slavery ended?  Should they have to pay?

And on the payment side, there’s the problem that not all blacks living in the U.S. had slave ancestors.  Is their portion of reparations reduced because of this? 

Another question, how long do reparations go on?  Are we talking here about a single lump sum payment, or does this go on for years?  At what point do our righteous betters – men such as Timothy Dalrymple, for example – decide when the deplorables have paid enough?

What about the massive welfare transfers to the black community that have already taken place, or the costs of affirmative action that have been born by white Americans, white men in particular, for over fifty years?  Do these not count as reparations already paid?  Apparently not in the eyes of Timothy Dalrymple and CT.    

What about the astounding amount of black on white criminal violence that takes place all the time but is almost entirely ignored by the news media.? See the example below from Minneapolis in which a gang of black youths severely beats and strips a white man. 

This attack took place on August 3, 2019, less than a year ago, so we’re not talking about ancient history.  Did you ever see a story in the mainstream media about this attack?  Was there any national outcry over what was done to this man?  Were any sermons preached as a result, ones decrying racism and racial violence?  How about protest marches or riots? Were there any unctuous denunciations of racism issued in the form of corporate press releases? Any cries for reform from big shot CEO’s?  More to the point, did Timothy Dalrymple or CT pay any notice to this crime? The answer to this last question is, I very much doubt it. Indeed, if we listen to Timothy Dalrymple and follow the advice of CT, we must conclude that the gang of young black men who perpetrated this outrage are the real victims, and that their white victim is, in fact, the perpetrator, one who owes reparations to his tormentors. 

Further, given the fact that this country is in the middle of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930’s, and one that may ultimately prove worse than the Depression, where is the money going to come from?  Timothy Dalrymple didn’t mention the reparations price tag he has in mind.  Perhaps he agrees with the figure proposed recently by Robert L. Johnson, who called for a $14 trillion package.  Our debt is exploding on all government fronts, at the federal, state and local level. Debt on the personal and corporate level is soaring.  Where does the money come from?  Does the Federal Reserve just print it?  Probably.  Of course, that would just destroy the value of the dollar, including the value of the dollars saved and earned by black Americans.  It may just turn out that black Americans will end up paying reparations to themselves.  But Dalrymple and Johnson either lack the understanding of basic economic and monetary policy or are too dishonest to make this fairly obvious point in public.    

Closing Thoughts

The clear teaching of Scripture is that Christians are not to be racist.  We get this, for example, from the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the despised foreigner is the only one to help a severely injured Jewish man and from Paul’s teaching that. “[God] has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth.” Many other passages could be cited, but these will suffice for our purposes today.

If there is any hope of healing America’s long running racial wounds, it begins with the preaching of, and belief in, the gospel of Justification by Belief Alone.  Next, we must turn away from the foolish wisdom of this world and turn to the truth of the Scriptures and what they say about justice.  Not social justice, which is another way of saying socialism, but Biblical justice. 

It is deeply concerning to this writer that so many individuals and organizations that claim to be Christian engage in the same dishonest tactics – advocacy journalism and calls for more government socialism – that one would expect to hear only from unbelievers.  Perhaps individuals such as Timothy Dalrymple are merely confused.  That is, they are believers who have never been exposed to consistent Scripturalist thought of the sort one gets from Gordon Clark and John Robbins.  Perhaps they really are not Christian at all but are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

In either case, whether they are erring believers or unbelievers, the writers at CT who pen articles of the sort discussed above and the editors who put these stories out have, by collaborating intellectually with the world, in the words of John Robbins, “lost their Christianity.”  It is the job of Christian writers to expose the lies of CT, its erring writers and editors, as well as writers and speakers everywhere, who, on the one hand, name the name of Christ, while on the other, deny his doctrine.        

Pages: 1 2