Series Description
The time has come.
Yes, the time has come.[1] The time has come for me to put out there, hopefully in a series of clearly reasoned and described essays, a clear set of assertions in which I describe the major problems (as I see them) with Evangelicalism, a major branch of modern-day Christianity and the one in which I spent most of the formative years of my Christian life.
Why would I want to do this? And why now? Well, as for ‘why now?’, the unwelcome visit of two evangelists to my house, a couple of months ago, was the catalyst. Even before the time of their visit, I was already in a place where I was realising more and more the problems of Evangelicalism, already writing about them in my blog, and considering writing more on the subject. The evangelists’ visit was the last straw, and (to bring us to the question of why I would want to do this) in the aftermath of their visit, it got me thinking obsessively[2] of just how bad Evangelical Christianity really has got. I’d been thinking already along those lines, as I said, but now the gloves are off and it’s time to ‘go public’ with how I see things. Those evangelists came to me, proving that I’m not safe from the depredations of Evangelicalism even in my own home.
And so, I think it’s time for me to say something.
I have to say that, at the root of things, the beliefs and behaviours of many in the Evangelical movement do such a huge injustice to Jesus, Whom I love above any other, and my Heavenly Father (ditto), that it really is time to set the record straight. Yes, this may become a series of rants. Yes, this may even be presumptious; who is this Tony guy to tell the entire Evangelical world how wrong they are?
But as John Pavlovitz says, this is “Stuff that needs to be said”. It needs to be called out. They need to be called out. And in order to deny them any ability to respond publicly, which they would do because the Religious just can’t help themselves, I will say right from the start that I am also going to disable commenting for these posts[3].
In addition, so very many of Jesus’ teachings and sayings are examples of where He’s calling out the Religious of His time for the way they behave towards other people, usually those they consider less ‘worthy’ than themselves.
And so, I have decided to make completely public my problems with Evangelicalism[4] and describe what I believe are its faults and indeed its apostasy.
Hopefully, this will give an insider’s perspective[5] which may help others as a warning for those who may be considering joining an Evangelical church.
And it may also help those who are already trapped in there, and need some confirmation that they’re not the only ones who are feeling like Evangelicalism has some pretty serious issues.
And who knows, it may even help some blissfully-unaware Evangelicals to see how way off-beam Evangelicalism actually is; how far it has strayed from the things that Jesus taught.
In this series, I will be showing an eclectic mixture of contradictions, hypocrisies, cognitive dissonances, bad theologies, apostasies, heresies, behaviours, abuses, and all manner of other things wrong with Evangelicalism.
And much of this stuff I will present using arguments from the Bible. Why on Earth should I want to use the Bible, that book most beloved, and indeed in some cases deified and worshipped, by Evangelical Christians? Well, the main reason I’d want to present a Biblical picture is because many Evangelicals won’t listen to any reasoning unless it’s ‘supported by Scripture’. In my writing, I always try to support my ideas with Scripture because I want to show that my ideas can indeed be seen as Biblical if viewed without preconceptions[6].
I realise that there are many good people in Evangelicalism. And Christianity in general does a lot of good[7]. And for the rest, I prefer to believe that what they do and what they think is more the result of a lack of critical analysis of what they were told as a new believer. In fact, I am fully aware that the only reason I was able to break free from the thought patterns of the cult[8] is because God led me out of it. God revealed to me – almost literally in a flash – the true meaning of the concept of Grace, and once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it.On the other hand, I think it’s also the case that you can’t see it until it is revealed to you[9]. So I can’t hold it against the people who are still trapped inside legalism as espoused by Evangelicalism. But what I can do is to bring to the light what Evangelicalism is really like, and what its adherents believe under all the glitz and chrome of its public face. Although, given the behaviour of many modern Christians, that public face is also increasingly being seen for what it is.
Hence, this series. Much of what I write will come from hard experience: personal experiences in church environments; experience of helping people who have been damaged by the Religious; online discussions with hard-nosed Christian Pharisee trolls. And it also means that I will be writing some pretty dark pieces, where normally I love to be upbeat. Concentrating too much on the dark stuff is a sure way to getting a dark outlook; normally I like to concentrate on “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” (Phil 4:8). So, don’t be surprised if you detect a little bit of snark or sarcasm coming through, as well as some dry humour; humour is my way of coping with writing on such a miserable subject. And the articles in the series will also be interspersed with other articles, just to keep things light and also for variety 🙂
Please just keep it in mind that I am writing this series, really, to help people, OK?
For a bit of background, and for a couple of stories about spiritual abuse that has happened to me at the hands of Evangelicals, check out these two posts. You could even see them as being ‘honorary members’ of this series, in fact 😀 The posts are referenced in the above essay, but are included here again in order to emphasise their relevance:
Footnotes
⇧1 | The header image shows a scene from Star Wars – Episode III, Revenge of the Sith, with Emperor Palpatine issuing ‘Order 66‘; the order for his Clone Troopers to wipe out the Jedi, the warrior/monk religious class that had been the guardians of peace and justice in the Galaxy for thousands of years. His actual order is, “The time has come. Execute Order 66”. Interestingly, by that time in the history of the Star Wars Universe, the Jedi, while not actually evil, had become atrophied, hidebound, legalistic, culty, self-serving, inward-looking and largely ineffective. I will let you work out for yourself the parallels there with any modern religious organisations – and yes, there are more than one!
While my series will by no means ‘wipe out’ Evangelicalism, of course, (not that I’d even want to if I could!), it will expose in some small measure its problems, shortcomings and yes, I’ll even say ‘evils’. |
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⇧2 | It’s an Autistic trait |
⇧3 | In the past, I have even had Pharisee trolls trying to circumvent comment blocking by writing to me via the email address intended solely for reporting technical issues. Such commenters should be aware that all comments like that will mysteriously disappear forever, anything I do see of your ranting before realising it is not a technical query email will be disregarded, and all your time will have been wasted. |
⇧4 | By ‘problems with Evangelicalism’, I mean not only its beliefs and practices, but also the way in which it abuses people both inside and outside the group |
⇧5 | Albeit an ex-insider’s perspective, but, well, you know churches; they are so hidebound and ossified that they won’t have changed much if at all since last I went to one |
⇧6 | Not that I do ‘proof-texting‘, of course; proof texting is where people refer to isolated Scripture verses in order to ‘prove’ their assertions. No, I generally use Scripture by giving examples of the things I am talking about, rather than trying to ‘prove’ things from there. There is a subtle difference. The other way I use it – and this is definitely not proof-texting – is if I am discussing a given passage of Scripture, in which case I usually do proper commentary or even sometimes an exegesis. |
⇧7 | But in Evangelicalism’s case, it is usually with strings attached. Yes, here’s some free food, but you must let us preach the gospel at you before you can have it. |
⇧8 | Some Evangelical congregations are more culty than others, mainly dependent on their origins, background and leadership, but most Evangelical churches do in fact check the boxes for many of the criteria of a cult. |
⇧9 | You certainly won’t learn of it from others in Evangelicalism, unless a covert Grace-believer helps you with it. |