LIVING IN THE BACKLASH

From fundamentalism to progressivism and back again.

Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash

All around these days, evangelical Christians, find themselves living in “backlash Christianity.” Churches, challenged by culture, go on the defensive. They react by trying to protect their own cultural version of Christian living. In the process, they coerce their traditional Christian values on the congregants via stuff like guilt, shaming, fear, intimidation, or false promises. No questioning allowed. They become the fundamentalists. This results in a backlash that is equal to or greater than the original force employed to keep people “in line.” The backlash swings people in the opposite direction to what they learned in fundamentalism. We label this group progressives, or the ex/post evangelicals. And this leaves many of us in the middle of a backlash between the fundamentalists and the progressives.

I learned from Critical Theory (in graduate school days) how cultures are driven by a dialectic of sorts. To oversimplify, either on the basis of the ‘Geist’ at work in a culture (Hegel) or the material economic circumstances (Marx), a back and forth goes on within a culture whereby a culture is shaped, formed and even advances over time. ‘Antagonism’ is part of the way a culture develops (Chantal Mouffe). Backlashes, in other words, are the normal process of the progress of a culture. But if the practices of dialogue and conversation are not tended to in the antagonsim, a culture can run amok. Instead of a given antagonism being fruitful, it gets dugs in, and the culture stops developing. And the resulting unresolved antagonism blow ups (leads to a world war) and self-destructs. On the other hand, if the antagonism is entered into, engaged, it can result in an eventual revolution that births a new world. Is evangelicalism facing a moment like this? Will evangelicalism explode and self-destruct under the weight of its antagonisms? or will these moments lead to a new faithfulness, a richer thicker way of life, a birth of vibrant Christian witness to the Kingdom?

There are too many of these backlashes within the evangelical/post-evangelical frame to list here, but here’s a few on my mind. The question is, will we enter these backlashes, be present to the challenge, dialogue, listen so that Jesus can birth something new, or will we blow up?

1.)   SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT – Coming out of the Euro Reformation, substitutionary forensic atonement was central to 19^th century American revivalism. This view of atonement was attacked by German liberalism in 1920’s. They advocated for other historical atonement theories. Fundamentalists dug in, ADDED SOME COERCION, doubled down on substitutionary atonement with a little hellfire and brimstone thrown into the mix. The resulting Backlash? Progressives write off any representative aspects of the atonement, losing the wherewithal to see the overcoming of sin, violence, evil, and the setting of things to right that was accomplished through Jesus on the cross. Let’s have conversations about this, tend to the moment, N.T. Wright, Rene Girard, etc. for a deeper, thicker, richer encounter with the atoning work of Christ on the cross.

2.)   PURITY CULTURE – The sexual ethics of traditional Christianity was challenged in the culture (big time in the 60’s). Evangelical fundamentalists took it on by taking the historical Christian wisdom concerning faithfulness/chastity before marriage, etc. AND ADDED COERCION in the form of guilt-based rules- consequentialism (promising euphoric sexual experience in marriage) – never dealing with the underlying cultural mal-formations of sexuality/gender in the church (including patriarchy, sexualization, toxic masculinity, etc.) The resulting Backlash? Progressive evangelicals rejecting in toto the traditional Christian sexual wisdom and replacing it with the ethic of authentic self-expressivism of sex. The result, we perpetuate more of the same in another form. We must tend to this moment, listen to the hurt, unwind the broken formations of sexuality and gender in the church, and seek a deeper thicker richer faithfulness in Christian sexuality, marriage and celibacy.

3.)   THE BIBLE IS INERRANT IN EVERY WORD -The historical veracity of Scripture got attacked in the 1920’s (by those German liberals again). Evangelical fundamentalists reacted, took a very important Christian belief that the Bible is authoritative, given to us from God via Christ, the apostles and the prophets, AND ADDED COERCION – the Bible is inerrant no matter what historians or anybody else says and to disbelieve that is apostasy!! The resulting Backlash? Many progressives, and people like Bart Ehrman (and others) spend a lot of time showing how historical accuracy standards of the 20th century prove there are mistakes in the Bible. Therefore, for many progressive evangelicals, the Bible is relativized, made into a book of aspirations, not to be taken seriously whenever its moral junctures are contradicted by the prevailing culture. We must tend to this moment, recognize the fallacy of applying modern scientific historiography to guarantee truth and seek a deeper thicker richer experience of the authority of the Bible for Christian living.

4.)   THE BOOK (OF) REVELATION IS ABOUT BIG GOV’T/666 AND THE RAPTURE – The historic faith in the second coming of Christ was challenged in the 1920’s. The pushback resulted in dispensationalism et. al. Evangelical fundamentalists then took the last book in the canonical New Testament, ADDED SOME COERCION, and used it (‘Thief in the Night’) to turn eschatology into scare tactics to cause people to live more holy and stay apart from the world. The resulting Backlash? Many progressive evangelicals no longer see eschatology, the physical return of Jesus to consummate the Kingdom, as relevant theology for their lives. We must tend to this moment, read Gorman, McKnight etc. on Revelation, start preaching it and teaching it as the great revealing of God in our midst taking history to its conclusion in Him.

5.)   SAME SEX ATTRACTION IS EVIL - Evangelical church slowly absorbed the romanticistic assumptions about sex and marriage from the culture post WW2. Then they placed ultimate value (and idolatry) upon the nuclear family, and said it is God’s plan for your life. If you didn’t attain this, the unspoken message was your life is less than ideal. When people didn’t fit in, couldn’t have those magical romanticist feelings, didn’t look like the magical postcard of the attractive youth pastor and his wife, and looked for all that in other non heterosexual relationships, COERCION SET IN, and they were told this was wrong and to be disgusted. The resulting Backlash? Now many progressives see self-expression of sexuality, all attractions (except pedophilia) to be affirmed and created in the image of God. We must tend to this moment, unwind the anger and hurt, examine the sexual formations – starting with heterosexuality – we have deemed as orthodox and offer the world a new discipleship into the ways of Jesus, His Lordship over our bodies.

6.)   THERAPY IS A SIGN OF WEAKNESS. YOU NEED TO DEPEND ON JESUS MORE - The development of psychology was dismissed early on by evangelical fundamentalism. Depression, social anxiety, mental struggles were deemed signs of spiritual weakness. COERCION SET IN and a strong-arming fundamentalism promoted a culture where if you did talk about mental struggles (as opposed to physical struggles) you would invite looks of judgement. The resulting Backlash? Now many progressives separate therapy as from spirituality entirely. Mental illness, depression, anxiety must now be seen in clinical terms only.  This moment we must also tend to. Perhaps just as we do not separate physical illness from God’s healing work in our bodies, so also in we must be wholistic is our approach to mental illness, and mental suffering.

7.)   SCIENCE AND EVOLUTION ARE WRONG - Evangelical fundamentalists reacted to evolution, and various other attacks on the creation narratives of Genesis (in the 1920’s, 30’s 40’s)  AND ADDED COERCION asserting that to affirm evolution is fasle and the source evil worldviews. The resulting Backlash?. Now many progressives go to the opposite extreme. Science can be more trusted than the Bible. Evolutionary science, medicine, etc, are truth. Many are now incapable of seeing how science itself is limited knowledge, has been used ideologically and politically to achieve injustice. We need to tend to this moment, engage scientific questions with good discernment, for the Kingdom of God.

In summary, Christians are living in a backlash. Especially those under the influence of evangelicalism, we are in need of leadership that can be present in these antagonisms, resist going to extremes, skilled to ask the good questions, facilitate good conversations, grounding our lives carefully in Scriptural faithfulness, awareness of our history, leading congregations into a way of life that follows Jesus, living under His Lordship.