Evangelical elites

Robert A. J. Gagnon shared a post.

Having just posted an unfortunate piece by Michael Horton expressing views favored by the bigwigs at CT, I now post an outlandish interview with Rev. Matt Chandler, pastor of the Village Church in Dallas, that is so much worse than Horton's article that it makes Horton's piece look spot-on by comparison. Now I'm sure that Rev. Chandler is a nice Christian with whom I could have good fellowship, were we to break bread together. However, his rhetoric in this piece employs self-righteous slander toward fellow Evangelicals (and that, apparently, to outsiders), characterizing Evangelicals who knew what they were doing in supporting Trump (as opposed to Evangelicals who were either too dumb or too scared to know what they were doing, due to the media "whipping them into a frenzy") as having "sold their soul" (presumably to the devil).

Moreover, he betrays a bit of delusion of his own regarding what is coming down the pike in terms of abridgment of free speech, free exercise of religion, forced indoctrination, and a coercive mandate to promote sexually immoral acts, all of which he either minimizes or does not know. His habit at the MLK Conference of referring to those who disagree with him as "fools" is everywhere the subtext here when he is being his most charitable.

"People are frightened at the speed at which things are changing culturally so I think they began to grasp for something that might help. The Obama presidency -- great man -- some of his policies ... really, really scared Evangelicals ... the news media whipped people up into a frenzy and made them feel desperate."

So Obama was "a great man"? Chandler gives no recognition of the harm that Obama perpetrated in supporting whole-hog the "LGBTQ" and abortion agendas, in undermining free speech and the free exercise of religion, in two bad SCOTUS appointments that gave us "gay marriage" and hundreds of other federal court appointments, among many other bad decisions. Those who voted for Trump are just delusionally frightened, fearful of any "cultural change," but without having any basis in reality? This characterization is itself delusional.

He has no problem focusing on domestic violence and racial reconciliation, matters that are good to deal with but for which one will receive only kudos from the dominant left-wing media and entertainment industry. But for the issue of homosexuality, where it actually takes courage to speak out, there is only criticism of the church:

"We're quick to say that it is a sin, which I'm not going to disagree that I would think from the Scriptures that that's not what ultimately God intends. But to pretend like we're not talking about human beings with souls who sometimes are deeply conflicted is just a great error. To be right the wrong way is to be wrong."

Chandler never specifies in what policies about the "LGBTQ" agenda Christians have been wrong. But one would presume he is referring to things like providing religious freedom safeguards for religious persons who do not want to contribute their artistic talents to promoting immorality; or to Christians not promoting "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" laws that lead to their own persecution and the persecution of their children at school, places of employment, and the use of social media to express their views.

Who exactly thinks that people with same-sex attractions are not human beings with souls? Can he name a single Evangelical leader that thinks this? His remarks create an incredible caricature and then weakly describe homosexual practice as "not what ultimately God intends." Ultimately? Would he say that incest of an adult-committed sort is not what God "ultimately intends"? Doubtless he would respond that to compare homosexual practice to adult incest is a hateful response since adult incest is (allegedly) so much worse. To which I respond: Not from a biblical standpoint it isn't. If anything, the writers of Scripture depict homosexual practice as an even greater violation of God's standard for human sexuality.

He goes on: "People were terrified by that bathroom bill. More than anything else, the thought that their children were going to be in a bathroom with the opposite sex, right? -- and I know all the arguments around that but I'm using the language that would make the most sense to conservatives -- that that made them go 'Whoever is the opposition to that I'm going to vote for,' and then they lost their soul in it, many of them did," an obvious allusion to voting for Trump.

The way Chandler words this is incredible. First, he makes it sound like Christians made an unimportant matter -- males entering private female spaces -- important. Second, he appears clueless about the entire range of coercive measures associated with the "gay" and "transgender" movements, encompassing every aspect of life, not just the "bathroom" issue (and we haven't even dealt with the abortion question). Third, he seems to suggest that men who identify as women are not really the "opposite sex" to women but he (Chandler) is just using those terms to make a connection with scared Evangelicals.

I don't think that Evangelicals who voted in the last presidential election, whether for Trump or Clinton, "lost their soul." However, a Clinton victory would have done far more for promoting immorality and abridging basic human rights for generations to come than the Trump victory did. For Chandler to chide those who disagree with his "Obama is a great man" politics as being in some danger of damnation for not supporting Obama's heir apparent is grossly insulting and just plain foolish.

Chandler characterizes Evangelicals who disagree with his brand of politics as people "who try to reach the world by becoming like the world" while he and those who agree with him are those "who hold fast to the orthodox Christian faith in a way that is compassionate and kind." It is so good to know now that for the past 43 years of my life I have not been holding fast to orthodox Christian faith in a way like the Church Fathers of old that is compassionate and kind. Rev. Chandler and others now at long last will show us the way to true Christian faith, "weathering the backlash for all the wrong that's been done in the name of Jesus the last 50 years." What arrogance.

I would be more than happy to debate Rev. Chandler publicly over the proposition that Evangelicals who supported Trump en masse more or less "sold their soul" or (if they were too dumb or too scared to know what they were doing) at least were deeply delusional. Rev. Chandler's rhetoric is just face-saving nonsense to make him look more avant-garde in relation to the previous generation and less objectionable to the left-wing despots controlling the secular narrative. Yet it does little for the unborn, a male-female basis for marriage, a biological basis for identifying one's gender with one's biological sex, the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, and a judiciary that interprets rather than amends the Constitution.

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