Naivete in the Evangelical Church

Russell Moore had an article within the last week or so that communicates how much difficulty he and other Christians ought to be having with the fact that Trump won the election. The Dissenter explores this in more detail.

Recall that Moore had been named the leader of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission around a decade ago. He no longer serves in that role. But the question arises as to how such a committed progressive would have been named to that position.

We can ascribe it to either progressives in the Convention’s power structure appointing one of their own, or naivete, or some combination of both.

Naivete was undoubtedly part of the mix somehow.

It turns out that Megan Basham has an article at the American Spectator that deals specifically with naivete within the evangelical church causing progressivism to infiltrate. She deals specifically with J.D Greear of Durham’s Summit Church (which founded Greensboro’s Mercy Hill Church). Recall that Greear used to lead the Southern Baptist Convention. Check out this excerpt:

(F)ormer Southern Baptist Convention President J. D. Greear, received pushback for his ongoing promotion of critical race theory, racial quotas, and Black Lives Matter, among other woke priorities, he… fell back on disclaimers.

In a long 2020 video that was almost entirely devoted to promoting the social justice positions of Black Lives Matter, and even adopted the slogan itself, Greear offered a brief aside in which he denied being ideologically aligned with the movement. “I realize that the Black Lives Matter movement and website have been hijacked by some political operatives whose worldview and policy prescriptions would be deeply at odds with my own,” he said. But the Black Lives Matter movement was not “hijacked.” It was Marxist from its inception. Greear’s argument that Americans needed to “take a deep look at our police systems and structures” was perfectly in line with the mission of BLM.

This is not to say that Christians ought to rake a pastor or leader over the coals for an ill-judged comment or two, but that is not what we’re discussing here. We are discussing pastors and leaders whose ongoing commentary consistently introduces unbiblical and/or debatable progressive ideology into the church. When they are critiqued, they fall back on insistence that they did not mean it. Why then did they feel moved to make these statements? They never explain. They only insist that the disclaimers are where the balance of attention should be directed. It is akin to the maniac of Proverbs 26:18–19 who shoots flaming arrows of discourse to deceive his neighbor and then, when the assault is acknowledged, claims to have been “only joking.”

Another passage from Proverbs 26 answers the finger-wagging claim that the Ninth Commandment requires Christians to overlook error, false teaching, and legalism where they are being denied:

Enemies disguise themselves with their lips,

but in their hearts they harbor deceit.

Though their speech is charming, do not believe them,

for seven abominations fill their hearts.

Or, as John Calvin put it, “Ambiguity is the fortress of heretics.”

Not every pastor or leader who is introducing progressivism into the church is among these disguised enemies, but they may be influenced by them. The better part of Christian love demands that we not swallow camels of meaning while straining gnats of plausible deniability. 

Basham also explains that one of Greear’s congregants– Neil Shenvi– is among evangelicalism prominent influencers who tend to be part of the same pattern.