Book Review: "Shepherds for Sale," Megan Basham
Some people just like to fight. They're looking for a heretic behind every door, and suspicious of everyone who doesn't think like them...
Robert Godfrey has reportedly said that no denomination has remained true to the Gospel for more than 200 years. Like a gravitational pull, all churches and denominations tend to veer to the left, away from orthodoxy, and are "carried about by every wind of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14). This is what Megan Basham talks about in the controversial "Shepherds for Sale," which has generated a fair share of both praise and criticism since its release on July 30..
Basham's purpose is to show how some luminaries in the evangelical Christian world have adopted positions on issues such as climate change, illegal immigration, abortion, covid policies, the MeToo movement and LGBT that seem to "punch right and coddle left," as the saying goes. Basham's contention frequently is not so much that these leaders are dead wrong in the views that they hold, but that they frequently present leftist views as if they are obvious and indisputable. "Why have so many well-known evangelical institutions and leaders in recent years started promoting causes that no plain reading of Scripture would demand, like lobbying for fossil fuel regulations or dismantling white privilege, while issues that unequivocally call for Christian clarity find them silent and stymied?" (p.XXI). I've wondered that many times myself.
For instance, megachurch pastor Rick Warren is quoted during the covid pandemic as saying that "wearing a mask is the great commandment," and that a pastor's "job" is to tell their people to get the vaccine (p.105). It is not necessarily a leftist position to wear a mask, and of course we should all be inclined to weigh the evidence as to whether the vaccine is/was advisable, but to present these as divine commands? As if a Christian is disobeying God if he/she refuses the vaccine? That is definitely not the pastor's job.
Warren is one of many high-profile names that Basham targets in the book. Others include Russell Moore, Andy Stanley, Ed Stetzer, David French, Curtis Chang, Matt Chandler and J.D. Greear. Greear was president of the Southern Baptist Convention, which gets the majority of attention in the book, but the PCA is included also, particularly with regard to the Revoice controversy (p.220-225). And the most well-known PCA pastor, Tim Keller, also got Basham's attention for implying that since we don't make idolatry illegal, perhaps we shouldn't make abortion illegal either (p. 59). I am forever indebted to Tim Keller as an influence on my own ministry, and know that we all misspeak from time to time, but his logic here is less than sound.
"Shepherds for Sale" is a work of investigative journalism, not an academic treatise, so often Basham tells lengthy and interesting stories of people who were disappointed to discover their church had gone woke, or who got sucked into in the LGBT movement. Without inside information on all of these anecdotes, I can't judge as to whether Basham's reporting is reliable, but I did follow the PCA's Revoice controversy closely, and can say that Basham's account of it was fair and accurate. She didn't throw the PCA under the bus, but did rightfully note that the PCA was slow to oppose "soft LGBTQ affirmation” (again, a fair description) in its midst (p.224).
Some people just like to fight. They're looking for a heretic behind every door, and suspicious of everyone who doesn't think like them. Maybe Megan Basham is that kind of person, I don't know. But I do know that the Bible warns us that the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but instead will follow teachers to suit their own passions (2 Timothy 4:3). I guess we shouldn't be surprised when we find that this comes to be true even in the evangelical church.
NOTE: If you want to hear Megan respond to some of the criticism she has received, check out the Aug. 30 edition of the podcast, “The World and Everything In It."
Book Review: "World Within a Song," Jeff Tweedy
As a music lover, I have always been fascinated by what musicians say about other people's songs…
As a music lover, I have always been fascinated by what musicians say about other people's songs. That means this book by Jeff Tweedy, formally of Uncle Tupelo (one of my favorite bands) and currently in Wilco, is the perfect book. Tweedy writes short chapters on his favorite songs, not by way of scrutinizing analysis, but by connecting the songs to his own life experience and demonstrating how his favorite songs remind him that he is not alone in this world.
Tweedy seems like a respectable person – a guy who loves his family, who makes a point to encourage all of his warm-up acts, who even regrets lost opportunities to show "grace and acknowledgment" to others (p.116). And his song choices throughout the book demonstrate an eclectic range of musical tastes – everything from the Undertones to BTO's "Takin Care of Business" to the Minutemen's "History Lesson Part II" to "Free Bird" and even "You Are My Sunshine."
The chapter on Abba's "Dancing Queen" hit close to home. Being roughly Tweedy's age, I remember the pressure when I was a teenager in the late 70s to hate disco, especially if you were into hard rock, and "Dancing Queen" definitely qualified as disco. So did I really hate this song, or did I just convince myself that I hated it? I can't imagine how, because it is so clearly an irresistible pop tune. Abba taught Tweedy (and me too, I guess) a lesson: "It taught me that I can't ever completely trust my negative reactions . . . I truly recommend spending some time looking for a song you might have unfairly maligned. It feels good to stop hating something." (p.71).
Sometimes, however, the idealism of the artistic mentality can be a little frustrating. Tweedy dismisses the existence of Satan, calls religion a "delusion," and yet acknowledges the regrettable existence of everything "in the world that sucks, all of the evil, all of the greed, all of the phoniness..." (p.99). So is there any hope that evil might be overcome in this world? Tweedy says it's the teenager in his bedroom listening to music (p.100). Really? That seems really naïve to me. Music might give that teenager a lift, and even inspire him/her to start a band, and maybe even make a lot of money, but we need something supernatural to overcome all of the evil and all of the greed in the world. Tweedy makes the mistake that Paul talks about in Rom. 1:24-25 – looking for something in creation to worship, rather than to the Creator.
But maybe I’m being too critical. In most cases, Tweedy with great sincerity and heartfelt prose reminds us how powerful music can be – that it can function for many as a "consciousness filling the void of isolation." (p.106). He is absolutely right, and I am grateful for the ways this book has reinvigorated my love for my own favorite music. But I'm not expecting my favorite songs to save me. They might change my life in some ways, but they won't save it. Only Jesus can do that.
Book Review: "The Person of Christ," Stephen Wellum
Much of the content of this book will be novel and perhaps confusing to many, maybe most, Christians, which is a tragic thing if author Stephen Wellum is correct in stating that "there is nothing greater than to think rightly about our Lord Jesus Christ."
Much of the content of this book will be novel and perhaps confusing to many, maybe most, Christians, which is a tragic thing if author Stephen Wellum is correct in stating that "there is nothing greater than to think rightly about our Lord Jesus Christ." (p.144).
In other words, more important than fighting racism; more important than voting for the right presidential candidate; more important than living your best life now; more important than feeling the Spirit move in your heart, according to Wellum, is understanding who Jesus is as the eternal divine person of the Son who has assumed an unfallen human nature in the incarnation in order to accomplish our salvation.
Basically the book tells us how to answer Jesus’ most vital question: “Who do you say that I am?”
Wellum uses lots of heavy theological words, and takes us through centuries of church history (but briefly) to explain the thorny issues that have naturally arisen in the task of understanding who Jesus is — the relation between his human and divine natures (often called “Christology”), as well as the eternal interrelations among the three persons of the Godhead — but Wellum does so with clear prose and great precision. And it’s hard to over-estimate how important this is, because wrong views on Jesus’ human and divine natures have been classified as heresy throughout church history.
Be forewarned that the chapter on “current challenges” to orthodoxy is not concerned with divergent views you might find among celebrity pastors or in contemporary Christian culture, but is instead a highly nuanced and in-house academic debate on the question of kenoticism. Don’t feel bad if you don’t follow.
It’s true that not every Christian is an academic, but every Christian is a theologian. For that reason, this book is important, at least so we can be introduced to what are the most vital questions Christians should consider about their savior.
Book Review: "Hannah Coulter," Wendell Berry
I heard someone say once that if you want to know how to be a pastor, you need to read Hannah Coulter. It's an odd thing to say because the book really has nothing to do with pastoring, but it does have a lot to do with people…
I heard someone say once that if you want to know how to be a pastor, you need to read Hannah Coulter. It's an odd thing to say because the book really has nothing to do with pastoring, but it does have a lot to do with people -- not real people, since this is a work of fiction, but people in the imagination of Wendell Berry, who has an extraordinary gift for observing for us the deep workings of the human heart with all of its hopes, dreams, pleasures, disappointments and sufferings.
Hannah Coulter is one of several Berry books that are written from the different perspectives of different residents of the fictional Port William, Kentucky. These are hard-working people of the land who stick close to one another, trust one another, eat meals together, go to church together, and try to maintain an old way of life that resists the pressures of modernity. They are people who "aren't going any place, (and) aren't getting ready to become anything but what they are." (152). They are, humanly speaking, good people living ordinary lives in an increasingly extraordinary way as their old way of life slowly disappears.
There is not a lot of drama in the plot here, just a woman reflecting on the ups and downs of her life, like a fictional autobiography, all through the lens of a melancholy hopefulness, like a Sigur Ros song, beautifully written, full of insight and gratitude, sometimes funny, and worthy of emulation.
Every now and then, Hannah offers some straightforward advice, borne out of her own struggle and sorrow. This is a wise old and godly woman who has learned a lot about life and how to live it. "You mustn't wish for another life. You mustn't want to be somebody else. What you must do is this: 'Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.' I am not all the way capable of so much, but those are the right instructions." (113)
Book Review: "Critical Dilemma," Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer
The most pernicious false teaching infecting our society and the church today is not liberalism, atheism or communism, but a very broad and complex ideology called contemporary critical theory…
The most pernicious false teaching infecting our society and the church today is not liberalism, atheism or communism, but a very broad and complex ideology called contemporary critical theory, which seeks to understand how power operates in societies to "shape, produce and reproduce social inequalities and inequalities." (p.67). If you are familiar with terms like white supremacy, intersectionality, privilege, social binary, critical race theory, queer theory, oppression, hegemonic power, microaggression, or social justice, then you have encountered an expression of contemporary critical theory.
Shenvi and Sawyer offer a thoroughly Christian and biblical assessment of this ideology, and they do everything in their power not to be overly simplistic, reactionary or unfair in their analysis. Not only are they honest about our nation's very regrettable history of racism (chapter 2), and not only do they encourage Christians to be intentional about educating themselves and being proactive in confronting racism in the church and society, they even offer a full chapter enumerating some of the positive insights of critical theory. (ch.7).
In the end, however, the authors are clear in sounding the alarm that the basic elements of critical theory are simply incompatible with Christian teaching and must be rejected. In describing a Christian's approach to critical theory, the proper analogy is "not eating the meat and spitting out the bones, but attempting to eat the meat and spit out the poison. Notwithstanding the elements of truth it contains, ultimately, CRT is poisoned meat because the majority of its fundamental assumptions cannot be reconciled to the Christian faith." (p.352).
One of the most helpful chapters is titled, “Ideas That Will Devastate Your Church,” in which common social justice slogans – such as “sin is oppression,” “the Bible was written from the perspective of the oppressed,” and “whiteness is wickedness” – are all addressed. One of the slogans most often heard in some pockets of the church is “justice is part of the gospel.” This statement gives the impression that there is no Gospel where there is no active pursuit of social justice. Shenvi and Sawyer respond by reminding us that the Gospel is not an imperative (a command to do something), but rather an indicative (a statement about what is already done). It is a threat to the purity of the Gospel to mix the two. “We agree that God commands us to seek justice. But we must not insert this command, or any other command, into the Gospel.” (p. 425).
The material in this book needs to be taught extensively to the evangelical church so we can better understand and profitably address the confusion, division and dissension that is not only destroying the church but is dividing our nation. This book not only presents persuasive biblical reasons for rejecting critical theory, but offers many practical suggestions for how to move forward boldly and charitably.
Book Review: "Love Thy Body," Nancy Pearcey
This is an excellent companion volume to Carl Trueman‘s “Strange New World” for understanding our current cultural moment…
This is an excellent companion volume to Carl Trueman‘s “Strange New World” for understanding our current cultural moment. Pearcey’s argument is that there is a profound degrading of the body in postmodern thought that is at the root of most of the most pressing ethical issues of the day. “The key to understanding all the controversial issues of our day is that the concept of the human being has been fragmented into an upper and lower story. Secular thought today assumes a body/person split….” (p.15).
Pearcey goes on to show how this neo-gnostic idea informs the issues of abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, the hookup culture, and euthanasia. If we dismiss what God is telling us through our physical bodies, then pretty much anything goes in all of these areas, and moral chaos results. And without any transcendent standard informing our convictions, the state will naturally fill the vacuum and make decisions for us regarding who has value and who does not. So the stakes are high.
Even Christians can be duped by the secular winds blowing through our culture. Believers should realize that their faith is not just a private spiritual experience that comforts them in hard times, but an alternative worldview that provides “not only a message of salvation but also a lens through which we view all of life – the human person, history, nature and society.” (p.108)
Book Review: "Personal Declension," Octavius Winslow
Profound spiritual insight, theological and yet utterly practical, and passionately Christ-centered…
Octavius Winslow lived in the 19th century, putting him technically outside the category of “Puritan,” but this book reads just as you would expect from a great Puritan work: profound spiritual insight, theological and yet utterly practical, and passionately Christ-centered.
The purpose of the book is to alert the reader to the “incipient” (in its early stages) signs of spiritual declension in areas like love, faith, prayer and doctrine, in order to prevent one from slowly drifting away from Jesus. “No child of God ever recedes into a state of inward declension and outward backsliding, but by slow and gradual steps.” (p.3).
An example of Winslow’s insight into the human heart is in the chapter on faith. He makes the point that the person whose faith is declining into constant doubt has more of a problem with pride than humility. “The moment a believer looks at his unworthiness more than at the righteousness of Christ – supposes that there is not a sufficiency of merit in Jesus to supply the absence of all merit in himself before God, what is it but a setting up his sinfulness and unworthiness above the infinite worth, fullness, and sufficiency of Christ’s atonement and righteousness?” (p.82).
As with all writings in the Puritan style, there are no punches pulled. The person with a tender conscience should be careful, because you will not finish this book without feeling deep conviction in your soul. But Winslow concludes with a chapter on the Father, Son and Holy Spirit working together as the keeper of His people, and assures us early in the book that “whatever be the departure of a backsliding child of God, it is recoverable: not a step has he lost but may be retraced; not a grace has decayed but may be restored; not a joy has fled but may be won back.” (p.22).