The Rotten Fruit of Cultural Christianity

https://truthscript.com/church/the-surprising-fruit-of-cultural-christianity/

Harris is arguing that cultural Christianity is a gospel means – because in the Bible Belt, people go to church. This in turn led certain Right-wing folks that had left New York for Tennessee to also attend church and ultimately become Christians. It's almost a kind of soft peer pressure that he thinks is valid and helpful.

 

And so to what Christianity have they been saved? Were their Right-wing proclivities simply re-affirmed? If Right-wing ideology is Christian (which it's not) then how could unbelievers gravitate toward it? Does the New Testament present the truth as something attractive to the unbeliever? Is the gospel something compatible with the world's wisdom and the fleshly desires of the lost?

At best Right-wing ideology with its nationalism, mammonism, and humanistic regime of 'rights' is just another form of worldly wisdom that is incompatible with the ethos of the New Testament and at times utterly hostile to it.

It's not surprising that lost people find its hubris-driven individualism, socially Darwinist economics and utilitarian ethics appealing – but it's not Christian. But if it were, then explain how people without the Spirit would find it so attractive?

The problem here is simple – the cultural Christianity Harris is celebrating is a counterfeit and in many cases is but a veneer, and in others dressed up apostasy. He thinks people having their ears tickled is something to get excited about.

I am suspect of this gospel that these people found so appealing. It's possible they are saved but that would be in spite of everything Harris is trumpeting.

Far be it from me to agree with the likes of Christianity Today or The Gospel Coalition – nor do I agree for even a moment with Harris' misguided assessment of those organisations and yet, I would agree the faith he thinks is so wonderful is largely inauthentic and fake. I encounter it regularly in Evangelical circles. People are confused and divided in terms of their loyalties and despite what they say, the Bible is not their primary authority – far from it.

His mention of hypocrisy takes me back once again to the error espoused by Cotton Mather – better a hypocrite in the Church than profane.

This is what is being espoused by Harris. It's sacralism, the ideology of Christendom.

And yet where can we find even a hint of this thinking in the New Testament?

And he makes no sense when he argues that places like Texas and Florida are more free – allowing Christians to live in line with 1 Thessalonians 4.11 – the call to live quiet lives, mind your own business and work with your hands?

Does he honestly think that this is what cultural Christianity is doing in these states? This is the guiding ethos of the Evangelical movement in these states?

Is Harris a serious person? How are we supposed to take his article? Was this meant to be published on some kind of parody/comedy website? These cannot be sincere arguments.

And just when I wondered, we're told a ridiculous story about former atheists fleeing the much exaggerated unrest in Portland only to land in yes – a Cowboy Church.

This must be a joke. I wish I could say it was funny.

Harris seems to have no sense of the New Testament's call to be counter-cultural and that the Kingdom is always in a state of antithesis with the world and its goals and values. His model obliterates the critical vigilance that's required regarding internal ecclesiastical threats – this would be a case in point. And ultimately his understanding is limited at best in only seeing a problem with Left-wing politics and so-called 'Left wing' states. The Right is just as problematic and because it makes inroads into the Church – largely due to sell-out pastors and false teachers who baptize it – and it presents a real danger in that it is able to deceive people into thinking its ideals and values are compatible with New Testament Christianity.

What seems a harmless little article is in fact yet another beachhead for one of the great heresies that has plagued the Church for most of its existence. If you're looking for truth, then I would suggest avoiding Truthscript.com.