Will Evangelical Leaders Succeed in Selling Out the American Church?
( This article is as important today it it was when written in the Summer of last year as we move into the 2020 election cycle -More to come on this important subversive effort from article posted June 2018 )
President Barack Obama & SBC’s ERLC President Russell Moore
By Rev Thomas Littleton
June 21, 2018
Last April, a group of self-appointed, self-important Evangelicals met at Wheaton College for what some have called a “Trump Bashing” and to determine the future of the Church. The list of attendees was not made available to the Evangelical community, whose future they are deciding, however, one attendee seems to be the designated spokesman. Jim Wallis was in his college days an activist in the radical left Students for a Democratic Society. Wallis later became spiritual adviser to President Obama and served on the Advisory Council to Obama’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Wallis’ lifelong political commitments are revelatory. Barack Obama was mentored by none other than William Ayers who was the leader of the 1970’s domestic terrorist Weather Underground, the revolutionary faction of the Students for a Democratic Society, which was discovered to be a Communist front by the FBI.
Hillary Clinton, Jim Wallis & Barack Obama
Following the Wheaton conference, Wallis wrote a revealing piece, which actually clarifies that the intended “bashing” was not for President Trump but for those Evangelicals who voted for him. Of the three main points discussed at the gathering, all three do mention Trump, but the problem as they see it are the Evangelicals who support or even voted for Trump. This political action, in their view, represented a “collective backsliding” (a term seldom used these days even by Baptists). Evangelicals have embarrassed us, they said, and are too dumb to know it. We owe “people of color” and the international community an apology and must explain ourselves. Because of Trump’s personal character flaws, we are then warned of the danger of “losing an entire generation of young people to the Christian Faith” and they, of course, have the statistics to prove it.
In fact, the use of the very word “Evangelical” continues to be called into question as the effort to further stigmatize it ramps up of late. At one time “Evangelical” described Christians who “evangelize” or share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the lost, however, we are now at the point where churches in the US and UK are abandoning evangelism altogether.
UK megachurch pastor: “You don’t have to evangelise anyone, just love accept and serve people. I didn’t build my church on evangelism (in fact I banned the word) but on love and service and we flourished.”
Jim Wallis: “The question this meeting is asking about the future of evangelicalism has been answered by the voices of color and women in this room (pointing to several of them). They are pointing us to the evangel, the good news Jesus said he would bring to the poor in his opening statement in Luke 4. That’s our future, let’s listen. As one of the white evangelical leaders in the Wheaton meeting had said to me before, ‘American evangelicalism is destroying the evangel.’ It is time for the evangel to turn white evangelicalism in America upside down.”
This Evangelical Monster Mash Began Years Ago
By 2014, Cultural Marxism was in full swing and, by 2016, was doing the full monty – flaunting its university erudition and cultural relevance in the Southern Baptist Convention and Presbyterian Church in America, both conservative denominations. Ed “numbers cruncher” Stetzer partnered with his “out” LGBTQ activist journalist friend, Jonathan Merritt, (and some companions) to discuss The Future of Evangelicalism on The Gospel Coalition blog. They assured us that, on cultural issues that face the Church – like where we stand on abortion, homosexuality and gay marriage – we were “like unbaked cookies that need to be placed back in the oven for 3-5 more years and then taken out to see where we are.” Well, it has been 3 1/2 to 4 years, so here we are looking at the cookies.
Assault on the Southern Baptist Convention
Stetzer and Merritt began their long-awaited cookie inspection by attacking one of the main ingredients in the SBC and Evangelicalism – the conservative movement and a leader of the conservative resurgence, Paige Patterson. Merritt called out Patterson on rather flimsy assertions for a MeToo moment, based on twisted narratives of pastoral counseling which Merritt, who is no position to call anyone out, sees as abusive. Stetzer joined the fray on the same day. Anyone who does not see the coordination is simply not looking. Merritt doubled down in The Atlantic, even though airing such grievances, if valid, in the secular press violates the Word of God (1 Cor. 6:1-7). Stetzer clearly received some feedback as he boasted and invited more “Hate Mail” following a shaming session of those in the SBC who dare to not agree with him and his “research.” What Christian leader likes to boast or joke about the amount of hate mail they receive? Perhaps the evil servant of Matt. 24:48-49 and Evangelical leaders who are paid to be nasty and abuse the body of Christ.
Of late, Russell Moore has chimed in on the MeToo allegations against the SBC conservatives by promoting his “Gospel Sexuality in a MeToo Culture” meetings at the upcoming conference in Dallas. Notably, young Merritt’s father is among the speakers.
So, what is this exhibition really about? Is it about the future of the Church? Well, in many ways, absolutely it is! But is the problem that Christians voted for and support the President? The professional shamers claim we are too political, but the fact is that we are too conservative for THEIR leftist political agenda. It simply cannot be allowed again for the Christian fold, in today’s culture shift, to break ranks with their valued leaders and vote en masse for someone they have not endorsed. In a nutshell, they view the Church as their property and this movement is nothing more than a long, forced march toward the progressive slave labor camps that others have been forced into for decades. Our leaders have also placed a for sale sign on the property THEY DO NOT OWN.
Assault AT the Southern Baptist Convention to Hide the LGBT+ Sell Out.
Making the Church fully LGBT-compliant appears to be a primary contingency for the sale property to the new progressive ownership and years of subtle efforts have gone into meeting that required “upgrade.” Now it appears the agents of change must finish the project and massive efforts to complete those renovations are underway. In early May, Gay Christian advocate for Tim Keller and Russell Moore and the combined efforts of TGC and ERLC, Sam Allberry, began promoting a radical LGBT+ Christian conference scheduled for July known as Revoice. This radical conference was heralded as the U.S. counterpart to Tim Keller’s upcoming London appearance at Allberry’s “Living Out” ministry to discuss “Identity in Christ” for Homosexuals. Allberry’s social media promo for Revoice boasted that it is “Promoting LGBT+ flourishing in historic Christian tradition.”
Revoice openly talks about Queer Christians, LGBT+ Christians, Sexual Minorities in the Church and in ministry; the churches becoming safe spaces for LGBT+ people, building allies for LGBT+ in the Church; and the virtues of Queer Theory, Queer Culture and Queer Literature that the Church has missed when tossing out its vices. Revoice also hails the “Treasures that Queer Theory, Culture and Literature will bring into the New Jerusalem at the end of time.” This radical conference has close ties to both Keller and ERLC’s Russell Moore besides the fact that Sam Allberry is promoting it. Those ties include long time preaching staffer and disciple of Keller, Scott Sauls, who is promoting Revoice as well. The Revoice Conference is being held in a PCA church (Memorial Presbyterian in St Louis) and has nearly a dozen strong ties with PCA’s Covenant Seminary there. The PCA’s June General Assembly saw Revoice become a topic of concern and the issue remains a priority.
Dr. & Mrs. Russell Moore at Obama White House Christmas Party in 2016
Equally disturbing are the Southern Baptist ties of Revoice with ERLC head and long time SBTS Dean, Russell Moore. ERLC Fellow, Karen Swallow Prior, promoted Revoice alongside Scott Sauls on the website, and doubled down on her support of the controversial event /movement in a recent interview with Dr. Robert Oscar Lopez. Another person involved as a speaker at Revoice is Brandon Polk, whose Arrowhead Advisors LLC is a consultant with Russell Moore’s ERLC for conferences like the ERLC 2017 “Christ Centered Parenting,” their recent work on prison reform and the racially-charged ERLC/TGC Memphis MLK/50 Conference. Polk is also a friend and huge fan/promoter of Todrick, a judge on the panel for the RuPaul Drag Race Drag Queen program on LOGO TV. Deeper Southern Baptist leadership ties to Revoice exist in the Founder and President of the conference/movement, Nate Collins, who carries two degrees from Dr. Albert Mohler and Russell Moore’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he taught New Testament and online course. Dr. Mohler replied to questions about Nate Collins and ERLC connections to Revoice in an interview for Worldview Weekend which is available at the end this article.
You can read more about the Revoice conference, its American Psychological Association DNA and connections to the PCA, SBC, TGC, ERLC, Tim Keller, Russell Moore, Albert Mohler and the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention, J. D. Greear, at these links.
My Experience of ABUSE at the Hands of SBC/ERLC Leadership Over Revoice Concerns
The ERLC and the Southern Baptist Executive Committee reacted strongly to this journalist when I traveled to the SBC 2018 convention on behalf of Southern Baptist members to report on the convention and feature concerns about Revoice to leaders there. On Tuesday afternoon an ERLC employee, Brent Leatherwood, attempted to physically restrain me from interviewing ERLC head Russell Moore in what Texas law would classify as a Class C Assault. Leatherwood, a former Tennessee Republican Party executive director, was hired by Moore at the ERLC after being exposed for his counter offensives as a “never Trumper” while at the Tennessee State GOP. A quick internet search will provide more than the average person will care to read about Leatherwood’s history at the Tennessee Republican Party.
On Wednesday afternoon, June 13, Leatherwood spotted me across the halls of the Exposition building just hours before the ERLC annual report was to be given at the main hall of the SBC Dallas meetings. Within two minutes I found myself face to face with two uniformed Dallas policemen and being removed from the building and the event without covering the main story I had remained for a third day at the Dallas meetings to cover. I was informed by Dallas PD that a complaint had been reported by someone in the event leadership, that I had “Threatened Someone.” Leatherwood met the officers and me as they began the long trek out of the massive Dallas Convention Center before thousands of fellow SBC messengers and attendees. Leatherwood came alongside the officer to my right and taunted me to provoke and escalate the situation he appeared to have set in motion. More details of this ABUSE and the history of dishonesty and false assault threat charges of Russell Moore, dating back to 2000 as a reporter for Baptist Press.
Exposure of Revoice has clearly inspired fear and reaction at the top level of the SBC and ERLC. Within 24 hours a totally false version of the above events was published in the Christian Post by a writer who never contacted me for comment. The false version from ERLC Press Secretary, Liz Bristow, was echoed by The Southern Baptist Executive Committee Member, Roger Oldham. You can find the false version of events here.
The Backstory: Peddling the Sheep to Obama
Early in the Obama administration, a cohort of progressive “thought leaders” took it upon themselves to auction off the Evangelical Sheep farm, and its conservative voting Christian sheep, to the lowest bidder. What we see now is that the listing has turned into a fire sale of whatever vestiges remain of the old conservative Christian right. The auctioneers are selling it cheap and fast, without giving notice to the sheep.
To market the Church, these hirelings must persuade the sheep that they go with the property and not to their Shepherd (spoken of in John 10). That is, they belong to the collective “Community.” Though hirelings are not the title holders by any stretch, per John 10:12, gatecrashers like Tim Keller, David Kinnaman of Barna, and a really relevant-looking 40 something with a skateboarder haircut, Gabe Lyons of “Q Commons,” set out to close the deal on the Third Way fire sale to the Obama White House early in his second term. (Reclaiming Hope, p. 186)
(“Third Way” is a political strategy to reconcile right-wing and left-wing positions by advocating a synthesis of center-right economic and center-left social policies.)
The Evangelical leaders’ desperation liquidation was a miserable failure as discussed in the book Good Faith: Being a Good Christian When Society Thinks Your Irrelevant and Extreme (a self-assertive title no doubt) by Kinnaman and “skater” Lyons. Moving further left by the hour, Tim Keller, who enjoys unchallenged protection in the very conservative Presbyterian Church of America, followed Gabe Lyons and other Obama-friendly pitch men who wrote a letter of intent to the President. This led to a presidential invitation to discuss the terms of the sale.
Who Are the Players?
Tim Keller appears to be the senior Evangelical statesman in this visitation committee. Keller is little known outside his denomination (PCA) and the slightly broader footprint of his Gospel Coalition organization. He erupted on the Evangelical scene in 2008 with his book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. Keller had come from an obscure church in Virginia to head the denomination’s flagship church plant, Redeemer City Church in New York City. In 2010, Keller launched his Emergent Missions movement called “MissionSHIFT” in partnership with the likes of Brian McLaren, Alan Hirsh, Dan Kimball and the ever edgy Ed Stetzer of Lifeway Research. This brazen effort, including a not so best-selling book aimed at redirecting the Church, faded with little notice. What was noted by the global audience was his address that same year at the Lausanne Consultation’s South African Congress. Subsequently, Keller has risen to the top of the Evangelical leadership ladder and is said to have filled the shoes and received the mantle of John Stott, the framer of the Lausanne Covenant, as one of the “great Christian intellectuals” of our time.
Don’t feel bad if you have taken little notice of Tim Keller. Secular journalists in NYC love him and he does run in all the right circles. Along the way, however, Keller has become wobbly on the issue of homosexuality, significantly since his meeting(s) with Obama. In a 2015 interview at the Veritas Forum he was unable to say in plain speech that homosexuality is a sin. Prior to that, in a 2013 forum with journalists, Keller said “Christians can support gay marriage in the culture, just not in the church.” Besides lacking Biblical support, this position reveals ignorance or disregard of the impact that the legalization of gay marriage would have on religious freedom and the spiritual institution of marriage. Is Keller ignorant of the dissenting opinions of the judges on the Supreme Court who protested the Obergefell decision? Or is he feigning ignorance to bring about social change? Not only is Keller vacillating on sexuality, but also on the authority of Scripture as a speaker and author for Bio-Logos. This postmodern think tank challenges the Bible with the authority of “science,” so we silly little believers can have a place at the table with the real thinkers.
David Kinnaman is now president of Barna Group which specializes in number crunching for mega church pastors’ growth strategies. These numbers are also used to remind average Christians through compelling data that they have either missed the latest trend or have no clue how to respond to it.
Gabe Lyons is a disciple of John Maxwell, the leadership guru of the corporate and Christian worlds. In addition to Good Faith, Lyons also wrote The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America and unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity…and Why It Matters. To facilitate the “end of Christian America,” Lyons founded “Q Commons” – which according to the promo “works to educate and mobilize Christians to think well and advance good in society.” “Q Commons” is more easily understood as a loosely “Christian” version of TED Talks or a quasi-Christian Dialectic. The New York Times describes “Q” as “Sophisticated and Orthodox representing a new generation of Christians.” Perhaps it is more appropriate to say “Q” is Progressive and unOrthodox, but we will pass on the word games and labeling for now.
These men, therefore, are the main players at the center of the “Good Faith Movement.”
On to the Oval Office
With hat in hand and armed with Barna statistics, these pillaging prophets made their way to the Oval Office to persuade President Obama that a new, more worthy kind of believer now populates the American pews. It is, as the book title asserts, the “Good Faith Christian.” These are those who are concerned about Social Justice and would “vigorously defend the rights of our Muslim neighbors to practice faith beyond the neighborhood mosque and of our gay and lesbian friends to publicly express pride in their identity” (page 105). The offer was placed on the table in exchange for some tokens and trinkets comparable to the $12 in beads to purchase Manhattan Island from the Native Americans. The team of “global thinkers” promised Obama that, if he would toss in a few assurances of exemptions guaranteeing religious freedom, then THEY were positioned to assure delivery of the “Good Faith” voting bloc as a “Third Way” hors d’oeuvre to the most ravenous progressivism our nation had ever seen in Washington, D.C.
The impetus of the Oval Office meeting had been President Obama’s sudden (?) change in support of gay marriage. Posturing as agents of “Principled Pluralism,” our self-styled leaders implored the Constitutional Professor / President to offer a classically defined assurance of Religious Freedoms. What he in fact offered was the most limited “in house” protections he had come to be known for, assuring only that Americans will always be free to worship in their houses of worship. The pretense of expecting the President to offer Religious Exemptions, especially on the LGBTQ/ marriage agenda, conceals the fact that the Human Rights Campaign and all “Equality advocates” fight any and all exemptions as “license to discriminate.” Or perhaps our Evangelical hirelings were messaging that Obama could low ball the asking price for the Third Way listing of the Church and acquire it for an even better deal – ZERO assurances. Either way the sale was never completed and the Principled Pluralists returned to the sheepfold hoping to keep the flock from scattering while they plotted a new strategy to make the sale.
Meanwhile back on the farm the sheep got restless as the primary season kicked into full swing. The flock had tired of the brown and dried out hay of the stable and began to graze in greener pastures. A field of GOP Presidential hopefuls came into the corral. Could Keller and company yet prove their worth to whoever it was that commissioned and funded them? Could they make good on their promise to deliver us all up as “Good Faith Christians,” fattened for the slaughter by Third Way hirelings to be counted on to abide by the conditions of sale, even though no buyer had yet agreed to the purchase?
Suddenly out of nowhere the unthinkable happened, causing total widespread panic. Though a stable remnant of “Good Faith” types remained devoted, like Deadheads at a rainbow gathering in the local national forest, the mass of the sheep herd bolted and voted for Donald J Trump, a brash New Yorker, casino owner and billionaire with a breathtaking beauty for prospective First Lady. The cabal of Evangelical sheep shearers had a collective cardiac arrest. This could not happen, they thought, and now they had to work even harder to liquidate the assets, lower the price and fire sale conservative Evangelical voters lest they act on their traditional values and dare to make “The Donald” President of the United States of America.
Loose the Prophets of Shame on Unsuspecting Sheep
What happened next is one of the most pathetic displays in modern Christianity. Third Way leaders like Tim Keller and Southern Baptists, Albert Mohler and Russell Moore, joined a host of their trainees in progressive groups like The Gospel Coalition and the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission in a concerted effort to poison the waterholes of the wayward flock and take cattle prods to the sheep. A relentless “Christian” media storm contrived to beat the wayward sheep back into submission continues to this day and has also impacted other elections like the conservative Southern Baptist Roy Moore’s Senate bid in Alabama. The agents marketing the Church to the lowest bidder were pleased as punch with Roy Moore’s defeat which in turn led to the election of a far-left candidate, Doug Jones, as U.S. Senator. The predictable outcome is that Sen. Doug Jones’ ties to the LGBTQ lobby were paraded as a trophy at a recent “big donor” fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign, at which event it was announced that Senator Jones was a co-sponsor of the radical LGTBQ “Equality Act” in the U.S. Senate.
What is Wrong with “Good Faith”?
To see what kind of fruit this Third Way-Good Faith movement has produced, let us look at some of the influence stream and contents of the book itself. Among the Acknowledgements on page 264 of those who “helped round out the rough edges and articulate why this book matters for today’s Christians” are some very left leaning and in some cases, radical leftists, posing as Christians. Examples include Preston Sprinkle who is attempting to move the conversation into the creation of safe spaces for LGBTQ in the Church which mirrors fully that of the progressive most hard core “gay faith activist” organizations. To this end, Sprinkle is pushing a Third Way dialog on the Church.
Another fruit is former Wheaton Chaplain office counselor, Julie Rodgers, who jumped the shark in her “untidy story over gay marriage” just hours after the announcement of Obergefell in June 2015. Rodgers, a once “celibate Christian Lesbian,” promptly abandoned her celibacy for full on gay affirmation in the Church while no longer advocating celibacy. She admitted that she had “quietly supported same-sex relationships for a while now,” though representing herself as committed to celibacy (all a false argument proliferating the progressive conversation like weeds in an untended garden). Rogers cited her concern for “the gaybees” (young LGBTQ “Christians”) in the pew who would be harmed by the condition of abstaining from gay sex in order to be accepted in the Church. Her untidiness is asked to be excused because Julie can find no way to make the Bible and its orthodox teachings on sexuality fit her newfound “conviction,” but she still expects full acceptance of it by the Church. Julie has clearly helped “round out the rough edges” of the Good Faith book and has maintained the approval of its authors and endorsers, including Tim Keller, throughout her untidy journey. She is presently engaged to be married to Amanda Hite who heads the organization Be The Change and according to Amada’s bio on its website, serves on Leadership Committees for the Human Rights Campaign. Julie is herself a friend, hero and mentor to many of the speakers at the upcoming Revoice Conference, including founder Nate Collins.
Likely the MOST telling progressive INSIDER involvement in the Good Faith Acknowledgments is that of Michael Wear, who was Barack Obama’s Faith Outreach team leader. At age 23, the boy wonder of the Obama Faith message came into the White House to help coordinate, with the President, the greatest advancement of LGBTQ and interfaith dialog in history. This was in large part facilitated by the overhaul and funding of the Faith Based Partnerships programs which placed Christian leaders of all stripes in close communion with a flood of tax dollars to work together for the common good. Funding is the FUEL of the Third Way strategy. Wear helped coordinate the Obama Faith-Based Partnership program with public and private funding – whether taxpayer dollars used for activism or the wealth of global giants in the corporate world of foundations sphere, the Evangelical landscape was flooded with cash.
Today it is fair to say that Wear now finds a home in the Tim Keller stable, as contributor of the “Good Faith” concept and as an editor and writer at Keller’s organization, The Gospel Coalition, which also promotes Wear’s memoir of his work with Obama, Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America.
Tim Keller played no small role in the production of Good Faith or the Third Way messaging of these visitors to the Obama White House, by offering to sell out the Church at bargain basement prices. According to Gabe Lyons, Keller’s “mentorship over the years has made me (Gabe) smarter, stronger and more confident that, no matter what happens in the broader culture, our faith (the Good Faith brand of faith) will last.”
New Age guru, Dallas Willard, is cited often in Good Faith as is James Hunter Davison and his concept of “Faithful Presence” which was born out of his Frankfurt School-inspired Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. Also frequently quoted is Kirsten Powers, a progressive journalist with Friends at FOX News and a convert of Tim Keller who turned to Catholicism. Powers was among the journalists who interviewed Keller in 2013 when he asserted that Christians could support gay marriage in the culture, again advocating an impossible exemption for the Church if gay marriage became law. It does get worse.
Good Faith authors sympathetically and inclusively interviewed Gene Robinson (page 168), who was the first openly gay Bishop to be ordained in the Episcopal Church in 2003. This ordination forced MILLIONS of faithful Christians out of their denomination and took the once strong conservative membership from over 5 million to under 1.8 million, and declining by the day. Former Bishop Robinson, who went on to work in leadership roles for the Human Rights Campaign, was invited by the authors to share his emotional “experience” and trials for inclusion for them to determine what makes a “Good Faith Christianity” fit for the auction block of the Third Way.
In Chapter 13, titled “The Gay Conversation” (page 170), Good Faith statistics other than Barna’s are presented from a very messy source to support what constitutes Good Faith Christianity. Cited are Gary Gates of the Williams Institute statistics which specialize in “Queering the Census” and tracking LGBTQ / Same-Sex demographics in the U.S. Gates himself is the protégé’ of Marxist Lesbian “urbanologist“ Jane Jacobs’ protégé’ RICHARD FLORIDA, whose ever creepy Gay Indexes and pro homosexual urban theories have found themselves at home with Tim Keller, Q Ideas, the SBCs Albert Mohler and a host of Good Faith (by their definition) Christians. The Human Rights Campaign then uses the wild assertions of Gates/ Williams and Florida to market the Municipal Equality Index to your mayors and city councils and county commissions.
Tim Keller and others in his Gospel Coalition have been long time devotees of the Richard Florida “inclusion” ideology with its Cultural Marxist roots in Jane Jacobs, which includes Keller’s Social Gospel project in Orlando with Reformed Theological Seminary that birthed an Urban movement, Seeking the Welfare of the City, around the “Polis Institute.” ‘Good Faith’ Christians must love Florida’s LGBTQ inclusion ideas because Tim Keller’s certainly does. The book’s endorsement and use of Gary Gates’ Williams Institute research is simply further indication of the inclusive approach to the ideology of Good Faith Christianity. In the quote they do admit to the low stats on LGBTQ population – 3 to 4 % – while at the same time asserting that “some Christians and churches have had a cruel homophobic streak.” This is the typical victim narrative for devaluing the Church in the conversation and applying pressure to make amends by becoming Good Faith partners with Keller and Crew.
In Chapter 14, “We Cannot Live Without Intimacy,” there is a sympathetic overview of the Bruce / Caitlyn Jenner saga. Good Faith followers are reminded that “Christians must not be hard hearted toward those who seek alternative identities. Their quest is a signpost pointing to deep desire to be truly, profoundly known.” (page 189) So the gender confused person or the cross dresser who wants non-binary access the bathroom of choice in Target or your child’s public school is a victim as well. A person whom Good Faith folk recognize as just wanting their true selves to be seen and known. Never mind their rebellion against God’s design and sovereignty (supposedly a core doctrine of Calvinist Tim Keller). To be truly Good Faith you must look beyond the emasculated Gold Medalist Bruce to see the inner Caitlyn and understand her need. That is the Good Faith Christian and those who buy into all the above make a tidy package for the sheep herd of the Evangelical farm being offered to the lowest progressive bidder and the Democratic Party.
Stellar job of hosting this OPEN HOUSE to sell off God’s HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH for the very enemies who want it removed from hindering the progressive agendas of the Left. If that is the call of God in Evangelicalism – if this is what it means to be GOOD in the Faith – then let the rest of us find the exit before the Fire falls! In no way are these Good Faith assertions of Keller, Lyons and Barna compatible with Biblical Christian faith and living in these or any other times. If Kinnaman finds mega church pastors and church retailers like Lifeway interested in statistics and polls then so be it, but neither he nor Lifeway Research nor Pew or any other change agents will change the mind and heart of Jehovah, Who we are reminded in Hebrews 12:29 is a HOLY and consuming FIRE. He does not put a holy finger out to determine the prevailing winds of culture nor is He undecided about the gender He made the victims of the latest Trans-fad. Acquiescence to the tactics of Keller and his Obama-friendly hirelings to sell the Sheep farm is NOT Good Faith. At best it is self-deception and, at worst, self-aggrandizement, arrogance and apostasy.
Thanks for Nothing – Reality Check
Though Biblically Conservative Evangelicals may have been willing to follow hirelings onto the Progressive plantation, a full-scale awakening now threatens the Cabal. The sting of the cattle prods continues by the increased amperage of the recent Revoice Conference for LGBT+ Flourishing in the Christian Church, Cultural Marxist rhetoric, Critical Race Theory, open borders Immigration advocacy, accusations of White Privilege, canonization of MLK and Malcolm X in our seminaries, Transgender bathroom rights, and even disowning the Evangelical identity, thereby changing the name of the Sheep farm. Hopes are high to finally bank their 30 pieces silver.
Wishful Thinking from a Weary Flock
In conclusion – the sale is not even pending. The value of the conservative Evangelical has proven steady, is likely appreciating and did help accomplish the impossible, preventing a Hillary Clinton regime. Sorry to disappoint Tim Keller, Albert Mohler, Russell Moore and other desperate Evangelical leaders. Your Third Way fire sale has failed and exposed massive fault lines between the Blue-Collar saints and your Elitist clique. Please, stop pointing fingers and blaming the sheep. Call off the dogs and tell the manure spreaders to cease and desist. Take YOUR “For Sale” signs off the property. It is NOT yours to sell. Don’t bother trying to act as spokesmen for us or for the Good Shepherd; just fulfill your obligations to those who bought you out and do it preferably somewhere else. Leave our institutions and our pulpits and stay out of the voter booth with us and, please, no more convening meetings to decide the future for us or our children. Stop having conferences and talking issues like Racial Reconciliation (something you, in reality, know nothing about…but only the crass language of division) and fake news MeToo feminist-driven revenge masked as the Gospel. Enough with your efforts to talk the Bride of Christ into embracing Homosexuality as “Christian.” No more Revoice Conferences or endless pro LGBT+ “celibate” victims events staged by ERLC/TGC or The Nines. Stop talking in muddled language about things the Word of God says in plain language. And no more dialoging or sleeping with the enemies of God in the name of “principled pluralism” or any other false virtue signaling labels some social sciences think tank has provided for you. Let us be done with you and leave us to follow our Lord, while you follow the destructive path you have chosen.
Leaders like Tim Keller and Russell Moore – Stop the madness of your empty rhetoric and false concerns and pseudo intellectualism. The poorly disguised progressive political agenda you serve wrapped in an ever-thinning veneer of false compassion and gospel integrity just does not ring of truth. It no longer passes the smell test but resembles the sour milk of aging men growing bitter at having been exposed as change agents, deceiving the easy mark on the planet – the trusting, loving flock of God. Stop abusing us. Stop using minorities and race and women and gays. Stop diverting the money and resources of the Church to your globalist views of human flourishing and a sustainable world. Stop the fake concerns for us hurting the Gospel.
Do Your One “Good Faith” More and Just Cease and Desist Already
And finally, though many of you love the sound of your own voices and the “chief seats” in the Temple, please BE QUIET and JUST LEAVE — and let us enjoy the golden silence and be still, knowing that the Lord is God and we are His People and the Sheep of His pasture. (Psalm 100:3)
Thomas Littleton Reporting from the SBC Annual Conference to Worldview Weekend