New Calvinist Civil War: Protestia, Friel, and The Gospel Coalition

Protestia, the newest incarnation of JD Hall's Pulpit and Pen clickbait factory posted a broadside attacking The Gospel Coalition. The 'news' article used this critical 'tweet' from Justin Taylor as a platform to launch their attack:

Interestingly I went looking for the tweet but couldn't find it. It seems to have been removed.

Protestia (which apparently is no longer directly headed by Hall) came to the defense of New Calvinist clown Todd Friel who continues to label everything he disagrees with and doesn't understand as being Marxist. Justin Taylor who is associated with The Gospel Coalition was calling out Friel for his irresponsible smearing of various New Calvinist para-church organisations. Protestia agrees with Friel and thus went after Taylor and his associates.

Where to begin? The tweet struck me because just a couple of days before I was listening to a Friel podcast dealing with 'Marxism'. Something about the title caught my eye and I decided to listen. Normally I deliberately ignore people like Friel but this time I was curious. I ended up shutting it off after about ten minutes.

I first encountered some Friel videos on YouTube a few years ago. My first reaction when seeing them was an attempt to determine if it was some kind of joke or parody. Apparently he's quite serious. Friel represents the hip, slick and the buffoonish aspects of New Calvinism – the real Evangelical flavour that undergirds the unfortunate movement. Frankly I can't take him seriously and I fail to understand how anyone else could either. I listened to the podcast to see if he had changed any over the years but no, he hadn't.

I suppose he like many others formed his method and technique on the foundations that were laid by Right-wing talk radio and the FOX channel – especially the vein and style pursued by the likes of Glenn Beck. Sensationalism and hysterics along with juvenile voices and inflections – these are not serious people. It continues to disturb me how much I hear the influence of Glenn Beck in a lot of New Calvinist and Evangelical circles. I am still reeling over how this Mormon charlatan gained such a hold over Evangelical and even Confessional circles. He built a money machine and it wasn't hard for him to find sellouts like David Barton and Peter Lillback that were quick to sign on and seek his endorsement – effectively endorsing him at the same time.

Friel is an incapable and incompetent theologian and in terms of history, civics and social commentary I can safely say he's worthless and even dangerous. He obviously has no clue as to what Marxism is if he thinks the 'revolution' is going to be brought about by 'big money politicians'. One is right to be critical of The Gospel Coalition and men like Dever and yet they're not Marxists – not even close. I guess when you're kind of a simple person and your audience is comprised of people that think Facebook is a good place to get news or that Sarah Palin is an intellectual and capable leader –then painting opponents as Marxist is a convenient if dishonest tool.

It's no surprise the JD Hall franchise Protestia has stepped up to advocate for Friel. These are ridiculous people, genuine fools. I'm not name-calling but rather I'm making a moral judgment. They are blind leaders of the blind. More often than not they don't even know what they're talking about. They claim labels they have no right to and falsely accuse others of being what they are not. They claim the Scriptures are on their side but as is too often the case it's clear that they neither know them nor even understand some of the most basic concepts of their interpretation. Their exegesis is often wild, shaped by cultural assumptions and there's a real failure to understand basic themes, not to mention the overriding Christocentricity revealed in the New Testament. They literally cannot see the forest through the trees.

That said, The Gospel Coalition is not really any better. Taylor was right to condemn Friel as far as that goes. These people need to be rebuked.

And far from promoting Marxism (this charge has really become tiresome), the organisation does rigorously promote a form of ecumenical worldly Dominionism. Usury, feminism, ethical and theological compromise are its hallmarks. The movement is about transforming culture and thus it has theologised the necessary compromises in order to do this. Ostensibly Calvinist, The Gospel Coalition and indeed the larger New Calvinist movement is in reality a wave of Evangelicalism dressed up in a Five-Point hipster suit and little more. It's led by rock stars who think the Calvinist and Puritan legacy is best represented by pop music liturgy and a market driven ecclesiology. Whatever good the movement is generating is canceled out by its compromises. Having attended a quasi-New Calvinist congregation for several years my perspective on the movement has changed from wariness and doubt to cynicism and even hostility at times. While I'm hardly a fan of Confessional ecclesiology I can safely say the fears expressed in those circles of New Calvinism being a force that is undermining the Church and supplanting it with a para-church model are justified.

There's a battle raging right now and we see this in figures like Friel, JD Hall and outlets like The Gospel Coalition. The battle is mostly political with the added layers of conflict over emphasis and style. Confusion reigns because in many cases the conservatives of today aren't really conservative. Right-wing thought dominates but few have understood how that can often differ from traditional conservative attitudes. Trumpism, Bircherism and libertarian-style theology and ethics are often employed to combat the Social Justice focus of groups like The Gospel Coalition. While The Gospel Coalition can hardly be considered in line with historic Reformed Confessionalism its attempt to bring about the Kingdom through cultural transformation (and yes, concerns for forms of justice) has historical-theological precedent.

The Bircherite theology of Hall and others does not. And yet they are hardly the non-activists they pretend to be. They are reactionary activists that have (despite their denials) equally politicised the Church and focused on forms of 'justice' and 'social' interest in their defense of the status quo – but a defense that isn't even traditional. They are blind to the ethical shift they have embraced as well as many of the ethos and style elements of the New Calvinism they profess to despise. Ignorant of historical Calvinism and its foundations they are solidly within the New Calvinist circle they are criticising. They may be on its 'right'-leaning side but they're in the circle to be sure. Instead of hipster suits some wear cowboy hats and put NRA stickers on their pickup trucks. The style is different but they're just the flipside of the same coin. It's a case of suburban values and style versus ruralism and provincialism and that's about it.

And this is part of the confusion. In many cases we find figures within New Calvinism speaking critically of New Calvinism as if they're not part of it. We see this not just in figures like Hall, Challies and perhaps Friel but also with figures like Piper and MacArthur. The latter were already well established before New Calvinism arose but they along with other movement leaders like Carson, Mohler and Keller had (in their ministries) already embraced a shift in thinking – a shift away from older forms of Confessionalism. They actually gave rise to the New Calvinist movement and then rode its wave and thus they too are properly identified within its sphere. Indeed what we really have is a New Calvinist civil war.

The battles are all a form of distraction because in the end, they're all Dominionists varying only in degree and style. What is often viewed as some great existential conflict, one that defines the very soul and identity of the Church is in reality an intramural and internecine struggle within the already fatally compromised movement of Evangelicalism. It threatens to expand and indeed the struggle is already affecting Confessional circles. But the battles aren't between Capitalism and Marxism or even Theological conservatism versus liberalism. It's a battle between conservatives and libertarians, conservatives and Bircherites, Establishment capitalists and market libertarians, Atlanticists and isolationists, Establishment historians and radical revisionists, and in many cases there is an echo and projection of old cultural battles harking back the American Civil War. Some factions believe repentance requires cultural and legislative expression while others are intransigent and defiant regarding the glory-narrative of the nation and socio-political order they idolise and mistakenly confuse with the Kingdom of Christ.

The so-called Left fringe of the larger movement is flirting with Centrist forms of Social Democracy (not Marxism) but the Right-leaning elements are increasingly at risk of straying into the fascist orbit. As with all American politics the faux Left-Right divide is all shifted to the Right and takes place in that context. No one in The Gospel Coalition is calling for the break-up and nationalisation of the banks, the dismantling of Wall Street, or the abolition of the American Empire. No one is calling for nationalisation of factories, mines, oil fields, forests and the like. At best these 'socialist' movements are calling for patronage on the part of the super wealthy, the strengthening of the bourgeoisie, and for some crumbs to be passed from the rich to the poor and disenfranchised. It's more akin to a genuine compassionate conservatism (as opposed to the phony Olasky-Bush model of the early 2000's), it has nothing to do with socialism or Marxism.

On the one hand I confess that I laugh at the larger movement and hardly lament that it's tearing itself apart. The fact that people have turned to low-brow pop culture Glenn Beckish sillies like Friel, James White and JD Hall is to put it simply – judgment. While these people carry the Calvinist banner in many respects they're just Evangelicals. Others are driven by their Bircherism into a more Fundamentalist style but they're just as shallow.

I don't wonder that some old school Calvinists are tearing their hair out but in many cases the so-called stalwarts and defenders – men like Mohler, the now deceased Sproul and even the likes of Joel Beeke seem to flirt with the movement and are more than willing to compromise. The crowds and the money are (seemingly) too much of a temptation and in the case of men like Mohler it has clouded their judgment and compromised their thinking. They fit very comfortably into mainstream circles of thought – the places where the power, money, and influence are to be found.

I personally am very put off by The Gospel Coalition and all it stands for. At best it's kind of a Reformed-lite think-tank, a watered down and utterly compromised movement that seeks standing in the mainstream and the broadest possible audience and influence. Seeking the sacralist grail they've utterly lost their way. Whatever good foundations existed have been undermined and lost in the mud.

While I can laugh at the actors and the antics, this New Calvinist spectrum is entirely repugnant and in reality there's nothing funny about it. It's tragic as these people have huge followings and the factions that have developed will continue to tear the larger Church apart. They can wage their silly misguided war over their treasure of sacralist fool's gold but the collateral damage is of a tremendous magnitude that we cannot yet fully understand. Many of their followers will ultimately lose their way. That's a hardly a daring prediction. They will fall into either theological liberalism via the worldly compromised Evangelical route or others will turn Christianity into a form of Right-wing violent political nativism. And I fear when the fad loses its lustre we will find large numbers that abandon the Evangelical sphere altogether. Those seeking more solid ground will migrate into things like Catholicism and yet many will abandon the faith and fall into functional or actual apostasy.

These are perilous times but not for the reasons the false teachers claim. They hear the thunder of the coming storm but they're looking in the wrong direction and rather than leading their people to shelter, they are leading them into the valleys that will soon be overwhelmed by flood waters.