While reading Alisa Childers’ book, Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity I had a Jerry Maguire ‘you-had-me-at-hello’ moment in the first chapter.
“Maybe you’re a Christian who feels alone in your beliefs,” she wrote.
I wanted to raise my hand high as if I were a student in her classroom. That’s me! Here I am! I feel alone right now in my beliefs among Christians.
I read on.
Twitter War
My loneliness started a few years ago on Twitter. I was following a Christian author I respected both for her bold viewpoints and her writing. One day she posted something about racism in the church, and I commented. My remarks were taken out of context, but instead of engaging me to clarify, she replied in opposition and retweeted my comment to her ten thousand plus followers.
Throughout the day, I heard the ping of another reply. Her followers were staging a Twitter coup against me. Instead of responding to explain, I decided to let it go. It would eventually die down.
When the comments began to claim I was a racist, I fought back. I went right to the source and called the respected author out for her reactionary retweet. “If you disagreed with me, why did you feel the need to notify all your followers?” I asked. She stumbled a bit in her reply. I tried to clarify my position, but the damage was done. I felt embarrassed, not for my original comment, but for how she publicly called me out. To her credit, she removed the tweet and we moved on. But it still stung.
What I didn’t understand then, was that I was facing a growing ideology in the progressive Christian world called critical race theory. My comment pointed toward the historical Christian definition of sin when dealing with racism. But the progressive view leans toward systemic oppression in the church. As Childers points out, “According to historic Christianity, sin against a holy God is what’s wrong with the world. According to critical theory, oppression is what’s wrong… fixed by activism, raised awareness, and the overthrow of oppressive systems and their power.”
I suddenly came face-to-face with the reality that the Cross was not enough in dealing with the sin of racism for some Christ-followers. And I felt like a social outcast in a Christian community.
Books, Bible Studies, and Personalities
For some time, I was feeling this shift in Christendom, but it was difficult to articulate. I would read or listen to something that didn’t align with Scripture from a favorite Christian leader and suddenly feel a lump in my throat. Then a Holy Spirit tug. Search the scriptures, Julie. Know what you believe and why. Seek me through the questions and doubts.
The Christian community was separating from me. It wasn’t a physical disconnect, but spiritually, I found myself at odds with some very mainstream Christian pastors, writers, and speakers. The Christian books that were becoming bestsellers read like a false gospel to me.
I know that to be a Christ-follower is about the words of Jesus to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24, NIV) But I read books that seemed to compel Christian women to embrace a type of ‘God girl-power’ that made Christianity into some sort of infomercial. Just tap into the God who will make all your dreams come true.
Even my favorite Bible Study leaders seemed to be drifting toward activism instead of discipleship. Women who encouraged me to seek the scriptures and fall more in love with Jesus were using their platforms to fight the church’s evils but ignoring the very words of the Bible that instruct on church discipline and how to navigate restoration of fallen leaders properly. I began watching a shift encouraging disciples of #metoo and #churchtoo movements instead of disciples of Jesus.
It’s what Childers refers to in her book as a cult of personality:
“Without most of us even realizing it, much of the current evangelical church has become a cult of personality. As human beings, we tend to put people on pedestals…especially pastors. We love strength. We are drawn to power. We innately want to follow the guy [or woman] who will stand up for the truth and say what needs to be said, no matter the cost.”
I get why people are attracted to bold personalities. We want someone to stand up for the little guy: the oppressed, the weak, or the ones hurt by the church. But the problem is, sometimes we fail to see the unbiblical reactionary response of these leaders. Too often, they go ahead of Scripture or try to add to it instead of letting the Bible guide them. Regretfully, this leads their followers to hold on to their every word instead of God’s Word.
Shaped by Worldview
Alisa Childers details her journey of being confronted with another gospel known as progressive Christianity. While she describes how God led her through the big questions of her faith, I began to realize the source of my own spiritual conflict. My faith was increasingly clashing with other Christians’ beliefs, and I felt like a stranger in my own community.
The feeling of not fitting in always brings me back to my high school years. I wouldn’t call myself a social outcast, but I certainly felt lonely in my junior and senior years. I was a new student who didn’t party because I was a Christian. I had a different worldview, so my values and moral codes didn’t align with those around me. I had to choose: my faith or friends.
I remember a discussion with the guy in my Chemistry class. He called himself an agnostic, which I had no idea what that meant at the time. He wore a Grateful Dead t-shirt almost every day and bragged about his pot-smoking binges on the weekends. “Your views on sex and marriage are outdated. Good luck with that,” he teased. Thirty years later, I laugh at his statement. My views on sex and marriage are still outdated, but I have a better defense of them from the gospel on which they stand.
Those were probably the loneliest years of my life, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Those pivotal years brought me closer to God. It turned out that denying myself and following Christ was worth it. It made my faith stronger. Was it difficult? Yes. But I found the joy of my salvation and a friend through Jesus Christ “who sticks closer than a brother [or sister].” (Proverbs 18:24)
In many ways, I feel like the Christian world today is much like my high school years all over again. There’s a secular worldview that is still in conflict with my faith. But now progressive Christianity is pushing the margins of that worldview and questioning obedience to Scripture.
Alisa Childers writes: “Through the ages, Christians have encountered unbiblical worldviews and philosophies that have competed for their obedience and loyalty. These ideologies produce the values, beliefs, and moral codes that shape culture, and their adherents almost always present them as being morally superior to Christianity. To disobey or deny these tenets can make us social outcasts.”
There is nothing easy about the world we live in. Our culture is shaping everything and everyone around us. As Christians, choosing to adhere to biblical authority often means loneliness. It means denying ourselves. And it means holding our beliefs and those Christian leaders we follow accountable to the historical truth of God’s Word.
Not Alone
After reading Alisa’s book, I decided to reread Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His words poured encouragement into my soul about the Christian community. I realized even though I have been discouraged with leaders, authors, and ministers who are embracing progressive Christianity, at what seems an ever-increasing rate, that all is not lost.
I began to get that lump in my throat, and tug of the Holy Spirit again. I know that experiencing these lonely feelings within the Christian community is not necessarily about me. In fact, I have become more mindful of how unrighteous and unworthy I am in a community of Christ-followers. I feel desperate for how God is working inside of me and making me more aware of what Bonhoeffer describes as an “alien righteousness, a righteousness that comes from outside of us.”
“The Christian lives wholly by the truth of God’s Word in Jesus Christ. If somebody asks him, Where is your salvation, your righteousness? He can never point to himself. He points to the Word of God in Jesus Christ, which assures him salvation and righteousness.”
What I realized after reading both books is that I am not alone in the Christian community. Yes, I have growing concerns about progressive Christianity. I believe it is hurting the church and leading those in Christendom away from the true gospel. You cannot call yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ if you are more rooted in a theory, movement, or ideology that does not see Christ’s death and resurrection and God’s atonement at its center. The Cross is enough, and it always will be.
Alisa Childers’ book is a wake-up call to Christians. Her struggles with the big questions of her faith are what we need to encourage in our brothers and sisters in Christ. Know what you believe and why. Search the scriptures. Our doubts and struggles are all answered in the pages of the Bible. We don’t need to add or take anything from it. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.” (Hebrews 13:8-9)
So, while I have felt alone in my beliefs, I can now articulate why with a new sense of hope for the Christian community. As Bonhoeffer encourages, “The Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth.”
We need more present-day truth-tellers like Alisa Childers. Writers who are willing to speak the hard truths and bring Christ-followers back to the historical definition of Christianity our Savior mapped out for His disciples over 2000 years ago.
And the best part about reading Another Gospel? is that as I closed the pages of her book, I immediately wanted to dig into the pages of the true Gospel more deeply than ever before.
“It is not the experience of Christian community, but firm and certain faith within Christian community that holds us together.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer