Co-Belligerence, TBN, and Fulton Sheen

Trinity Broadcasting Network or TBN is the haunt of Evangelical apostates. No serious Biblically-minded Christian would have anything to do with that highly corrupt and heretical organisation and in saying so I do paint with a broad brush.

There are many affiliated with the channel, that are recognised as heretical by conservatives and Confessionalists and yet there are many more that appear on its shows that are appreciated. They need to be denounced for the sell-outs that they are. Even if doctrinally speaking they stand on better ground that Osteen, Meyer and the rest, their affiliation with the channel shows that in the end they're Mammonists and deceived deceivers at best. They've lost their way and certainly their testimony.

I don't pay a lot of attention to TBN. It has been some years since I had looked into them and seeing the list of names associated with them was a little eye-opening I must say. The list of heretics and functional apostates grows longer by the day and it only reveals that American Evangelicalism's real religion in most cases is Mammonist Americanism – the sanctification of Enlightenment ideals, money and power, sometimes with a Christian veneer or communicated through a pseudo-Christian matrix.

I've always felt the channel was a vehicle for Anti-Christ, a kind of vision of a future dystopian Christianity. Well, it's only gotten worse as more and more people who would have once been viewed as relatively sound or orthodox have fallen in with them. The pull of mammon and all it brings is too great and they're willing to sell their souls to get it. It's similar to the way in which ostensibly conservative Christians clamour to get onto FOX or The Blaze.

But what got me looking was that I had heard that TBN is now broadcasting Catholic teachers as well and I discovered the rumour is true. They do host Catholic priests and are even re-broadcasting old Fulton Sheen programmes. Sheen who died in 1979 was a pioneer of Christian broadcasting who got his start on radio back in the 1930's and would later move into television. More or less Right-wing in his outlook, he was actually a very early proponent of ecumenism and sought to reach out to both the Orthodox and Protestant worlds.

The corrupt Sheen would fall out with the even more corrupt Cardinal Spellman who is usually blamed for forcing him off the air and semi-blacklisting him in some Catholic circles. They also fell out over the Vietnam War which Spellman zealously advocated and he played a significant role as something of a liaison between the US government and South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem.

The larger story and context is interesting but in terms of a Catholic broadcaster bridging the gap between Rome and Evangelicalism – Sheen would seem a good fit and it is not surprising that his programme was chosen.

Of course this is tragic but given that the Evangelical movement set itself on this course more than thirty years ago it's hardly surprising. This is the outcome of Francis Schaeffer's Co-Belligerence at work, a concept given structure and teeth by Charles Colson in 1994 when he brought 'Evangelicals and Catholics Together' or ECT as the agreement is known.

As I've written elsewhere I remember that time well. I was converted in 1995 and immediately encountered the debate – it was still being hotly discussed. I was shocked to see some like JI Packer sign the document though I would later understand that his participation shouldn't have shocked anyone. I was encouraged by those who opposed it but later came to understand that their opposition was also something of a veneer. In principle many Evangelical and Reformed leaders support the concept of co-belligerence. Their real hang-up (as it were) was with regard to some kind of formal arrangement or agreement. That they could not do as they viewed it as a betrayal of the Reformation.

Only later did I understand the issue is actually more complex. In some respects ECT was a betrayal of the Reformation and in other respects the principles of culture war and the quest for a sacral society and the preservations of Westernism was an old cancer at work within the Magisterial Reformation's tradition. Given Enlightenment Materialism's triumph over culture in the twentieth century it's not all that surprising that many would (in a moment of desperation) seek allies from unexpected quarters. It's a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. A good worldly-wise tactic to be sure, but one that has no place in Christian thought or ethics. But sacralism has never really been concerned with New Testament teaching and so there it stands.

Now nearly forty years after the death of Schaeffer and thirty years after ECT we face the fallout and its legacy of chaos and confusion as many Evangelicals I talk to and interact with are no longer clear about what a Christian actually is, the place of Roman Catholicism, and they are even less lucid when it comes to the doctrine and teaching of the New Testament.

Is it any surprise then to find that many are becoming confused about Mormonism? To them Glenn Beck 'sounds' like a Christian and since the heart of Evangelicalism is really Americanism anyway – then can't he also be a 'believer'. The pernicious outworkings of this thought continue to permutate and the story is far from over.

For so long Theological Liberalism was viewed as the vehicle for a global ecumenical movement and its resulting apostasy. It's clear now that declining theological liberalism will only play a part in this. The Evangelical movement and the general commitment to Westernism – Liberalism, Capitalism and the like is proving a far more potent and effective vehicle for the forces of darkness to operate.

All the supposed conservatives who have affiliated themselves with TBN and feed from its trough are part of that legacy and bear the blame for it. They are not stalwarts. They're traitors to Christ's Kingdom.

See also:

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2019/02/apocalyptic-roman-catholicism.html