Deconstructing Deconstructionism
When Scattering the Bricks Provides No Shelter from the Coming Storm
Dear Reader,
Last week, I invited you to share your feedback as a reader of Second Drafts. I’ve left the survey open and welcome additional input (it’s anonymous to me and everyone else) for those who would like to submit your thoughts, after which you can view the full survey results.
At the risk of skewing future entries), of the 25 responses (7% of the total) shared:
58% were women; 42% were men
50% were in their 40s; 21% were in their 30s; 13% were in their 50s
96% claimed Christian faith
82% placed themselves politically in the center or to the right of center
71% said the length was good; 29% said it was on the long/too long side
96% said they consistently read the newsletter introduction and feature in full
96% said they were also satisfied with the overall selection of topics covered
63% felt the treatment of the topics was “very honest and fair,” with the remaining 37% voicing that they thought the treatment was “honest and fair”
Only 38% said they had ever shared, tweeted, or forwarded the newsletter
Maybe you see yourself in these numbers, maybe you don’t. Folks shared comments, too, but I’ll save those for next week (or you can read them yourself after taking the survey now).
My hope is to gather more feedback, learn more of my audience and your preferences, and better discern what’s working for you as a subscriber. I’d especially appreciate hearing from those of you who may differ from the majorities in the numbers above. And, I’d be glad if everyone took a minute to share, tweet, or forward Second Drafts to others to grow its reach.
Thanks for caring enough to share your thoughts. And, as always, thanks for reading.
Craig
P.S.: As a reminder, you’re welcome and encouraged to email me directly with feedback, ideas, links, etc. at cmdunham [at] gmail [dot] com. Just know that, unless you specifically tell me not to, I may quote you here (though it will always be anonymously).
Hot Takes
“Mental Health Fears Cloud School Reopenings” - Now that it’s mid-May, it looks like American teachers unions (with the blessing of the CDC - or is it the other way around?) may finally be ready to go back to work.
“The Biden administration and teachers unions are mounting a campaign to return American children to classrooms five days a week.
‘Nothing should stand in the way of fully reopening our public schools this fall and keeping them open,’ said Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers president, in a speech last week. But she also emphasized that the full return won’t be as easy as reopening the school gates. Educators will have to address students' emotional needs on top of their academic setbacks.”
Anybody want to break it to them that they're a little late to the game? These clowns are only 10 months behind where they should have been with their new “push” to open schools and it's absurd (and frankly, obscene) how political and self-serving the unions have been in all of this.
In the words of Sally Stanford, San Francisco bordello madam of the 1940s,
“If you are being run out of town, get in front of the crowd and make it look like a parade.”
Weingarten and the teachers unions (with official cover from the Biden administration) are trying to be seen as getting out in front of the parade that most independent schools (who don't suffer union fools lightly) have been on since last fall - in person and in school - with good success.
Mrs. Dunham’s 1st grade class hosting lunch with Katie the Readasaurus.
“Russell Moore’s Departure from the Southern Baptist Convention’s Leadership Prompts Questions Over Its Future” - One of the more winsome and reasonable voices within Southern Baptist circles is out of that denomination’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). It seems the choice was Moore’s to make (though I’m sure not all Southern Baptists are sad he’s leaving).
“Moore was an early critic of [President Donald J.] Trump and accused other evangelical leaders of ‘normalizing an awful candidate.’ When other Southern Baptist leaders met with the then-presidential candidate at Trump Tower in 2016, Moore suggested they had ‘drunk the Kool-Aid.’”
A dynamic speaker, writer, and thought leader, Moore will be joining the staff of Christianity Today, where he will write content and help launch a “Public Theology Project,” hosting events and gatherings about theology, for which he has plenty of bona fides to do:
“During his time at the ERLC, Moore led the charge on key issues for Southern Baptists, including abortion and religious freedom, but he also befriended several Black Christian artists, openly advocated for immigration reform and led the convention’s response to allegations of sexual abuse within the denomination. In recent months, he has urged evangelicals to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.”
I’ll be interested to see what changes Moore brings to Christianity Today (which could use a little more of a spine these days, in my opinion), as well as how the SBC adjusts to not having him speaking to ethical policy and concerns on behalf of the denomination. My hope is that the new role with CT gives him more chances to speak into current events and an influence that goes beyond Baptists.
Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's policy arm since 2013, speaks at a 2017 news conference in Phoenix. (Angie Wang/AP)
Deconstructing Deconstructionism
Several months ago around Easter, a reader emailed me the following (I fortunately hung on to it, as I thought there might come a day when it would dovetail here):
“My wife and I had a discussion that made me think of you. At our church’s Good Friday service, we sang Audrey Assad’s ‘Death Be Not Proud,’ as we have for the past few years. Afterwards, we wondered: should her recent ‘deconversion’ —
— affect our relationship to the song itself? (The question of whether this should be sung in a service is a different one.) A negative use case being that someone might look up the artist of a song they like and find discouragement or even worse, someone to follow.
An easier target: if [PCA pastor and author] Tim Keller suddenly renounced his faith, would we toss his books in the trash? Or do his (ostensibly) Spirit-influenced words stand independent of his trajectory?
To put it more broadly:
How should a contributor’s current spiritual standing affect our relationship to material they produced in the past, in a ‘healthy’ (whatever that means and as far as we can tell) spiritual position?
Is static (as in, ‘published’) theology subject to a rolling evaluation of its author’s spiritual alignment with our own?
What obligation do we have as modern consumers, prone to sharing and reusing, to keep up with the spiritual states of public figures? (Though some treat it like a sport, it’s also a bit terrifying a thought.) And if so, where’s the line?
I think this touches on a notion of common grace in non-Christian art (great art exists outside the church), but haven’t thought all that out yet. Lots of questions.”
Lots of questions, indeed, particularly on the heels of another former Christian artist and pseudo-celebrity weaving a narrative of newly “deconstructing” his faith.
Exvangelical, Evangelical
This latest self-labeled “deconstructionist” is Kevin Max, former vocalist with the Christian “rap and rock” trio D.C. Talk. Max joins (among others) the likes of Assad, pastor and author Joshua Harris, as well as DesiringGod.org writer Paul Maxwell and pastor’s kid-turned-Tik-Tok cynic Abraham Piper in saying that the evangelical faith they once claimed is now the one from which they are walking away.
“‘Hello, my name is Kevin Max & I’m an #exvangelical,’ he tweeted Saturday, sparking a large response from many of his Christian followers.
Some praised the musician’s post claiming they were also exvangelicals, a term that has been used commonly in recent years to describe individuals who no longer identify as evangelicals.
Others on social media stated they had never heard the term, which has been associated with progressive Christians who have left evangelical Christianity due to theological or political reasons in recent years.”
For another take, here’s how The Friendly Athiest reported it:
“Uh-oh. Reading, thinking, keeping his eyes open. All of that’s very bad news in a religion that basically requires faith and obedience. That said, ‘exvangelical’ is not synonymous with ‘athiest.’ It’s possible to reject what Christianity has become in the evangelical tradition without rejecting all the religious beliefs associated with it.
But when a popular musician – who was as steeped in Christian culture as anyone could be – announces that he wants no part of that world anymore, you can bet there are many more Christians without a platform who are going through the same journey…and possibly going even further by ditching those religious beliefs entirely.”
Since “evangelical” seems to be the descriptor Max and others in the #exvangelical “movement” (if it can really be called that - I have doubts) are rejecting, perhaps defining the term accurately and historically is where we should begin. According to the National Association of Evangelicals),
“Evangelicals take the Bible seriously and believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The term ‘evangelical’ comes from the Greek word euangelion, meaning ‘the good news’ or the ‘gospel.’ Thus, the evangelical faith focuses on the ‘good news’ of salvation brought to sinners by Jesus Christ.
The website later elaborates on these more particular traits of evangelicalism:
“Historian David Bebbington also provides a helpful summary of evangelical distinctives, identifying four primary characteristics of evangelicalism:
Conversionism: the belief that lives need to be transformed through a ‘born-again’ experience and a life long process of following Jesus
Activism: the expression and demonstration of the gospel in missionary and social reform efforts
Biblicism: a high regard for and obedience to the Bible as the ultimate authority
Crucicentrism: a stress on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as making possible the redemption of humanity”
Historically, you won’t find the label in Scripture or Church history pre-18th century; it’s only really been in use since the 1700s, of which scholars like Mark A. Noll suggests that Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, and the brothers Wesley (John and Charles) were the movement’s progenitors (though it went through several different iterations in the fundamentalist years of the late 1800s and early 1900s before becoming the 20th century’s evangelicalism we old(er) Protestants might recognize).
With all this in mind, let me just say that I couldn’t care less whether Kevin Max (or anyone else) is or isn’t calling himself an “exvangelical” or “evangelical”; Christianity is not about a revised moniker but about our right relationship to the Messiah. My goal here is not to defend any presumed sanctity of “evangelical” Christianity, as even in its best and truest form in which the Word of God is honored as final authority, evangelicalism can be focusing but narrow, zealous but shallow (particularly historically) due to a preoccupation with (only) doing the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5). The evangelical who says that the only thing that matters is winning souls doesn’t understand the fullness of the Gospel message he or she proclaims in order to do so.
At its worst, evangelicalism can be hijacked by its own demand for action and attaching itself to power to get it. If you look at evangelism models of evangelical youth groups and organizations from the 1950s through the 20th century, the modus operandi was to convert popular athletes and influencers so as to reach those who might look up to them and follow suit. Billy Graham implemented the same game plan by pursuing association with every U.S. President from Truman to Obama, with ministry heir Franklin going even further in rallying evangelical support for Donald J. Trump.
On the flip side, however, neither am I going to pretend that those on the “exvangelical” trail are somehow more “enlightened” in their deconstructionism (it’s interesting how these deconstruction moments often align with the release of a new album or book). On the contrary, whether by way of prideful doubt or unrepentant assumption as to whether the Word of God is the Word of God (as well as an arrogance to assume they know better regardless), a more biblical term eventually tends to describe these critics and cynics: apostate, one who has abandoned the faith.
American Christianity is sadly filled with an ever-increasing number of apostate pastors and churches made up of congregants buying lies from the pit of Hell. Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 4 couldn’t be more prescient or current concerning the 21st century American Church:
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
What does “suiting our own passions” sound like practically? Some examples:
The Word of God is not the Word of God
“My” Jesus (not the Jesus of the Bible) is the real Jesus
God loves all people just the way they are
Community is optional and always on my terms
Order and roles don’t matter within the Church or the home
Identity is sexual (and sexuality can be whatever one wants)
Personal desires should always be affirmed and never denied
Truth is relative and conscience is never wrong
My body, my choice
If deconstructing one’s faith leads to embracing false doctrines like these and others, nothing will resemble true and biblical Christianity. Deconstruct all you want; what will be left is little more than scattered bricks and no shelter from the coming storm.
Living and Listening with a True Faith
Written in eight parts, The Christian Post’s 2019 “Leaving Christianity” series explored the reasons why Americans might reject the the faith of their childhood. The series featured testimonies and looked at trends, church failures and how Christians could and should respond to those who are questioning their beliefs.
In part six of the series, author Os Guinness suggested that apostasy shouldn’t surprise us; in fact, the New Testament tells us it does - and will - happen.
“When asked about the signs of the end of the age in Matthew 24:12, for example, Jesus, speaks of an increase in wickedness that will cause ‘the love of many [to] grow cold.’
‘Scripture tells us we can expect a lot of people to drop out,’ [Guinness] told The Christian Post. ‘Let's not use the fancy word ‘deconversion;’ they're just basically dropping out. It happened in the Old Testament, it happened in the New Testament. They are what the Soviets would call defectors.
‘In many cases, their understanding of the Gospel was incredibly weak. You find that they didn't have a solid grasp of the Gospel. So when the testing came, it fell through. And that's tragic.’”
In the same interview, theologian and scholar D.A. Carson gave this good advice:
“‘They [those leaving the faith] don't have labels on their foreheads,’ Carson told CP. ‘So it might be that they need listening to and praying over, praying with, and so on. They might come back. I could tell you some remarkable stories of people who wandered away and what we would call backsliding, who nevertheless returned to the Lord a couple of decades later. So you want to allow that as a possibility and not, in any case, be supercilious or condescending.’
‘It's all ‘good guys and bad guys' without discernment and recognition that the Bible pictures falling away and inconsistency in many, many different categories,’ the theologian added. ‘Repentance is possible, as well as a renewed commitment to the covenant. It doesn't have to turn out in a bad way.’
The proper response to deconversion stories, according to Carson, is humility and prayer, acknowledging that ‘but for the grace of God, go I.’”
To be sure, this is helpful counsel for relating to others living as an apostate and/or as part of an apostate church. Our goal should be to come alongside and lovingly communicate that, while our judgment matters not, God’s judgment still very much does, but through repentance and faith, salvation is always available for those who call upon the name of the Lord (Romans 10:13).
But what about ensuring that we don’t go over the apostasy edge ourselves?
Perhaps a simple illustration could be instructive. A few summers ago, our family took our first trip to Glacier National Park near Kalispell, MT. The park is much smaller but also much taller than Yellowstone (Mt. Cleveland is the park’s tallest peak, listed at 10,466 feet, with more than one hundred other summits rising above 8,000 feet).
When you drive the famous Going to the Sun Road, you are driving one of the most beautiful, dangerous roads in the world, with certain death merely feet (sometimes it feels like inches) away if you were to get lax behind the wheel.
The best advice for a safe journey? Don’t fool yourself into thinking that, just because you are a good driver, you can drive as close to the edge as you want without great risk to you and your passengers. Instead, drive as close as you can to the mountain - to what is sure, solid, and true - enjoying the amazing views as you go while respecting the boundaries that have been set up for you so that you may arrive in one piece at your destination.
I’ll let you draw the parallels.
So What About the First Questions?
So what about the first questions? I’m glad you remembered to ask. My best take:
How should a contributor’s current spiritual standing affect our relationship to material they produced in the past, in a ‘healthy’ (whatever that means and as far as we can tell) spiritual position?
As with any material (books, music, podcasts, etc.) with which we engage, it’s usually interesting and healthy to know some about the content creator, whether dead or alive. However, I’m not sure there’s any way we can truly know a contributor’s spiritual standing, so all we’re left with are the words, songs, or ideas presented for us to evaluate. 1 Corinthians 6:12 is instructive: “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything.” Engage freely, but engage carefully.
Is static (as in, “published”) theology subject to a rolling evaluation of its author’s spiritual alignment with our own?
Certainly, yes, but again, to what degree can we really know an author’s spirituality? For authors who have passed, we have their work, reputation, and the Scriptures by which to evaluate, and we have the same for those still living. Similar to above, I think we have freedom to read broadly and widely, so long as we are doing so with our eyes wide open. However, particularly for authors still writing, we should evaluate new work and reputation along with the old to help us discern if we should continue to associate. As 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Do not be misled: bad company corrupts good character.”
What obligation do we have as modern consumers, prone to sharing and reusing, to keep up with the spiritual states of public figures? (Though some treat it like a sport, it’s also a bit terrifying a thought.) And if so, where’s the line?
More than terrifying, the thought is also exhausting. Personally, I think we’re a lot better off “keeping up” with the Scriptures than with celebrities (Christian or otherwise), since there’s only so much we can really about them due to the distance between us. It’s like the story told of how federal agents are taught to spot counterfeit money; rather than spend time studying the innumerable amounts of ways somebody could forge cash, they spend all their time studying the real thing, against which counterfeit stuff sticks out like a sore thumb. 1 Corinthians 10:31 reminds us that, “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” We should apply that principle to ourselves as well as to those figures in public we admire.
For further reading tangential to these questions, I recommend this article for your edification: “Saints and Sinners in a History-Haunted Age,” by Matt Hoberg at the University of Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal.
Post(erity): “The Postmodern Wave”
Each week, I choose a post from the past that seems apropos of something (of course, you’re always welcome to search the archives yourself whenever you like).
This week’s post, “The Postmodern Wave,” is from April 26, 2007. An excerpt:
“And that's when it happened: randomly and without warning, Rob stood up and did his own personal Wave - ‘The Postmodern Wave’ I later dubbed it - as if to say that no one can tell him when and why to do the The Wave; rather, as a child born into postmodernism, he would do The Wave (or not) when he felt like doing The Wave (or not), and no one could or should try to convince him otherwise.”
Peaches’ Picks
Peaches and I have been reading this over lunch this week. Interesting memoir by a world-renowned physicist (look him up) who also happens to have been quite a personality in his day. The writing style's not our favorite, but Dr. Feynman has some fascinating stories (discussions with Einstein, worked on The Manhattan Project, etc.). Reading as background for a potential new writing project I'm considering taking on.
Fresh & Random Linkage
“A Perspective on the Next Generation of Invisibility Cloaks” - Apparently, they’re working on them.
“The Original Six American Girl Dolls As Instagram Influencers” - Funny. Our girls were big American Girl fans, at least of the original dolls.
This kid ended up scrapping her initial idea days before going in for shoulder surgery (and the weeks of recovery to follow - she gets out of her sling on Monday) before completely rewriting and presenting her junior thesis with aplomb. Much good counsel here on persevering through (and coming out of) the pandemic, made all the more credible by her own challenges of the winter.
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