Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
The Gospel at Gun-Point

The Gospel at Gun-Point

Last updated on: February 8, 2020 at 9:46 pm by Vance Morgan

The Gospel at Gun-Point 2020-02-08T21:46:31-04:00 Vance Morgan

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In the religious world of my youth and adolescence, Billy Graham was a rock star. He was the publicly recognizable and telegenic face of the version of Christianity in which I was raised, an conservative evangelical faith in which the whole point of being a Christian was to evangelize, to get other people to be our sort of Christian, thus increasing the number of people ultimately going to heaven and reducing those headed for hell (a zero-sum game if there ever was one). Billy Graham’s “Crusades,” held in venues holding thousands all over the world, were often televised—they were must-see TV for everyone in my religious circle of reference. We rejoiced as hundreds flocked to the front of the venue during the altar call, racing to see who could be first to officially turn their lives over to Jesus.

Image result for billy graham crusade

I thought about Billy Graham for the first time in many years the other day when I stumbled across a brief reference to a 1960 meeting between Graham and Karl Barth, the highly influential Swiss Protestant theologian whom Pope Pius XII once declared to be “the greatest theologian since Thomas Aquinas.” Although I am a philosopher rather than a theologian, Barth’s monumental body of work has frequently intersected with classes I have taught over the past three decades, primarily because of his influence on Dietrich Bonhoeffer (my favorite theologian), his involvement with the Confessing Church in Germany during the Nazi period, and his authorship of the Barmen Declaration in which he sought to establish a line of resistance to the increasing influence of Nazi ideology on the German National church.

I had no idea that Billy Graham, the evangelistic rock star, and Karl Barth, one of the most important theologians ever, had met in person. As it turns out, Barth’s son Markus introduced his father and Graham while Billy was in Europe for a series of his crusades. Barth reportedly described Graham as “a jolly good fellow, with whom one can talk easily and openly . . . he is even capable of listening which is not always the case with such trumpeters of the gospel.” But Barth’s opinion of and attitude concerning Graham changed drastically when he went to one of Graham’s crusades two weeks later and observed the evangelist’s influence on the crowd. Barth said that

I was quite horrified. He acted like a madman and what he presented was certainly not the gospel. It was the gospel at gun-point . . . He preached the law, not a message to make one happy. He wanted to terrify people. Threats always make an impression. People would always much rather be frightened than joyful. The more one heats up hell for them, the more they come running . . . It was illegitimate to make the gospel law or ‘to “push” it like an article for sale . . . We must leave the good God freedom to do his own work.

I leave it to theologians, professional or amateur, to argue about the nuances of the differences Barth is describing between himself and Graham. What Barth’s words do for me is take me back to my youth, when as a child I was perpetually afraid that God was angry at me and that my feeble attempts to “get right with God” were undoubtedly not good enough.

From my earliest memories I learned about a God who reportedly loved everyone and wanted everyone to end up with him (always a “him,” of course) in heaven, but who was also willing to condemn those who didn’t respond to his love properly and convincingly to an eternity of hellfire and suffering. I learned a lot about original sin and God’s judgment. The remedy was to be “born again” as Jesus described to Nicodemus in John 3 or, as we more frequently put it, “being saved.” Our church was small, no more than a hundred at a well-attended service; new people almost never came to church. Still, virtually every service ended with an altar call, an opportunity for people to come forward, commit their lives to Christ, and become “saved.” No one ever came forward; apparently, the regulars were secure in their saved-ness.

But I wasn’t. I was sure that I was unacceptable to God on the face of it, and was unsure that I was “saved.” I had said the words before, but felt just as unacceptable afterwards as I had before. The church we attended was ten miles or so from home. Frequently, on the drive home, I sat in the back seat whispering heavenward the “sinner’s prayer” that people who wanted to be saved were supposed to say, just in case it hadn’t worked any of the dozens of time I’d said the prayer before.

Karl Barth’s horror at Billy Graham’s “gospel at gun-point” resonates with me, because I recognize the fear and terror that energize the “get saved or you’re going to hell” version of Christianity that Graham was preaching. I recognize both the terror and the attraction of the message—who wouldn’t want to “get right with God” when one’s eternal soul is at stake? It took me many years, decades even, to uproot the angry and judgmental God from my psyche. I no longer believe that God is looking for reasons to send people to hell; more importantly I don’t believe that God is angry at me—or at any of us.

A few days ago, a new Twitter acquaintance challenged people to “sum up the Bible in one sentence.” It took me less than a minute to respond

God used to be angry at me, but God isn’t angry at me anymore.

I’m not sure how well that works as a summary of the arc of Scripture; I expect a blog post reflecting on it will be forthcoming. But it does, in one sentence, summarize the arc of my own faith journey, from a person who sought both love and acceptance from an all-powerful deity whose strategy was to drive me through fear toward a conditional love, to a person who is continually astounded by the idea that the divine seeks relationship rooted in unconditional love with human beings, both collectively and (especially) individually, a relationship that, once chosen, I cannot destroy. The overall theme of this blog over the past seven-and-a-half years has been to track both the history and implications of this change. To steal a metaphor from Dr. King, the arc of faith is long, but it bends toward unconditional love.

“The Gospel at gun-point” is a striking description, but for one raised in the world of evangelical, conservative Christianity, it is not an overstatement. Karl Barth was right when he observed that fear is a great motivator. But we are told in First John that “perfect love casts out fear”—that’s the true energy of the gospel. I choose to adopt the working hypothesis that God is not angry at us, even though we might deserve it. God, instead, chooses to invite and welcome each us with love into relationship. And that opens up an infinity of possibilities.

Previous Post

February 6, 2020

No Sacred Cows: An Exchange Between an Atheist and a Person of Faith

Next Post

February 11, 2020 Spiritual Punctuation

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Advent AI Angels Artificial intelligence atheism attention baptism Baptists beauty belief Benedictines Bible bicycling Big Bird books Bovina Camaldoli hermitage Canada Catholicism cats certainty change Christianity Christmas Collegeville Covid-19 creativity Development of Western Civilization dogs doubt Easter Enneagram Epiphany Episcopal ethics Eucharist evil extroverts Facebook faith family fear flowers forgiveness freedom friends God goodness grace happiness heaven hell history Holy Spirit Holy Week hope human nature humility humor idolatry incarnation introverts irreverence Islam Jeanne Jesus Joe Biden joy Judaism justice Kamala Harris knowledge Lent listen literature liturgy love Marsue Memorial Day miracles movies music mystery mythology NPR Old Testament optimism paradox peace Penguins philosophy piano podcast politics power prayer Protestantism Providence College Religion Rhode Island sabbatical sacrament science seeing silence Simone Weil Socrates soul sports St. John's College stories suffering tattoo teaching technology television theology thinking time tolerance transcendence travel trees trust truth Uncategorized Vermont wisdom wonder writing

Select a Month May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz