Mainstream vs Traditional

Recently, I have spoken several times about Christians who hold to the traditional faith being thought of as outside the “mainstream.”  We are often portrayed as “odd,” “eccentric,” “wrong-headed,” “extreme,” “bigoted,” or “fringe.”  Most often the insults are subtly delivered.

Religious denominations are spoken of by the “mainstream media” as “mainstream” (meaning progressive or liberal) or “outside the mainstream.”  This places those who are “outside the mainstream” into the same general category as the numerous obscure or strange sects and cults. It is an insult and I believe that it is a form of persecution which seeks to force us to “evolve.”  This is another insult which assumes that we are “cavemen” or “neanderthals.”

Persecution is not always of the “throw them to the lions” sort.  It also exists in the sideways snicker, in the assumption that traditional Christians are “simple” or intellectually inferior, or that we are socially backward, or that we are totally outdated dinosaurs not relevant to the modern world.

AND SADLY … this patronizing and insulting (I say heretical) thought often comes from the “mainstream’ churches and from movements such as the Emerging Church.  Listen to what the Bible clearly says.

“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Jude 1:3.  Jude was Jesus’s brother.

“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”  Romans 12:2

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”  Galatians 1:8.  The word which the translators have rendered as “accursed” is, in the Greek, ἀνάθεμα (anathema), from ἀνά (ana), meaning "on", and τίθημι (tithēmi), meaning "I put."  Originally this referred to a gift to God or to the pagan gods.  Echoes of the  Hebrew word "herem" (חרם) referred to something forbidden or off-limits, because it was dedicated for religious use and not useable in the common world. (Numbers 18:14; Leviticus 27:28-29); and hence the idea of “exterminating” or “dead” was connected with the word.  Various translations of the words anathema and herem have included "cursed," "disliked," "loathed," "banned," "excommunicated," "excluded," "denounced," "vehemently rejected," "off limits," and "devoted to evil."

Deuteronomy 7:26 calls a pagan idol a herem. Here it is: “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.”

Book Comment: If the Church Were Christian

Gully, Philip, If the Church were Christian.  Rediscovering the Values of Jesus (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2010)

Philip Gulley is a Quaker minister, writer, and television host.  He was born and raised as a Roman Catholic and won Emmy Awards in 2007 and 2009 for his work on Across Indiana for WFYI Public Television.

He contends that “we should never delude ourselves into thinking that today’s church sprang directly from the mind and witness of Jesus.”  In fact, he believes that the modern church doesn’t seem to share the same values as Jesus.

Gulley states that, “We can’t know what Jesus intended the church to be …” and that we can’t assume that the four gospels’ recounting of the Jesus story are historically accurate.  He points out that the over 39,000 Christian denominations all think that they most  faithfully follow Jesus.

Pastor Gulley represents the views of a significant and growing portion of those who describe themselves as Christian.  These people believe that large portions of traditional orthodox Christianity are outdated and irrelevant to modern life.  Of course, they think that they have the correct modern and relevant Christianity all figured out.

The name of this movement is Emergent Christianity and it is in line with the political movement known as Progressivism.  It is a continuation and extension of the Social Gospel movement begun in the mid-Nineteenth Century.  It is what the secular media now refer to as “mainline Christianity” or “mainline Protestantism” and is the religious understanding of many modern theologians.

The inclination of Evangelical conservative Christians (including those who don’t align themselves with “fundamentalism”) is to reject this version of Christianity as not Christian.  I, myself, do not believe that it is Christian.

Even so, they do have some valid criticisms of Christianity as it has existed over the centuries and as it exists today.

In a series of posts on this book, I will be giving a chapter-by-chapter response to Gulley’s book.  This is not a personal attack on Pastor Philip Gulley.  I’m sure he’s a nice guy.  Nice is great, but this isn’t about nice.  This is about considering challenges to traditional understandings of Christianity; acknowledging and responding to those which have merit  and rejecting those which are based on something other than Scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Your job is to read the posts, and hopefully the book, and then to make up your own mind.

To just avoid the controversy is to add weight to the argument that traditional Christianity is anti-intellectual, and, besides, Pastor Gulley makes it abundantly clear in his book that he won’t lose any sleep if you disagree with him.

This is part of a continuing chapter-by- chapter response to this book.  More to come.