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

Mercy Not Sacrifice

Home
About
My Book
Archives
More
- Theology
- Culture
- Politics
- Sermons
- Bible
- Devotions
- Daily Office
- Podcast

Home
Progressive Christian
Five #AlternativeFacts of toxic Christianity

Five #AlternativeFacts of toxic Christianity

Last updated on: January 24, 2017 at 6:31 pm by Morgan Guyton

Five #AlternativeFacts of toxic Christianity 2017-01-24T18:31:05-05:00 Morgan Guyton

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.

“Bible with Cross Shadow,” David Campbell, Flickr C.C.

While government officials have always distorted truth, the Trump Administration is the first to openly normalize the use of “alternative facts.” And it’s not because our post-truth president read too much postmodern philosophy. He doesn’t read books. He just thinks that his authority entitles him to proclaim a “truth” that has no correspondence to empirical reality. Trump could not have risen to power without the support of a massive Christian subculture that has been indoctrinated to understand truth as authoritative proclamation rather than empirical reality. People who are accustomed to accepting a priori maxims from their religious authority figures that deliberately pit themselves against the general consensus of science and civil society have already normalized alternative facts. Here are five particularly toxic alternative facts that are ubiquitous in popular American Christianity today.

1. That human nature is thoroughly wicked and utterly untrustworthy

The foundation for a culture of alternative facts is to presume the abject corruption of every possible source of information including your own intuitions and observations, except for the designated authority figure whether it’s your megachurch preacher, the Bible, or Donald Trump. No Christian doctrine has been more distorted and abused than the doctrine of original sin. Certainly, we are born into a social order that has been ruined and corrupted by sin, a corruption that none of us can avoid. But toxic Christianity takes it further. We are not just sinners. We are completely incapable of discerning truth or observing reality accurately on our own because “the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). We can only trust authority figures ordained by God (or the Republican Party) to interpret God’s truth for us. The Bible is officially the ultimate authority, but only according to the correct interpretation filtered through the preacher or trained small group leader who decides when and how Jesus’ commands are applicable.

Ironically, people who are trained not to trust their hearts’ intuitions do horrible things because they think they’re being obedient to their God-ordained authorities. They beat their toddlers with PVC pipes because Michael and Debi Pearl told them they needed to break their child’s will. They throw their gay teenagers out into the street because James Dobson told them their love needed to be tough. The nihilistic anthropology of “total depravity” becomes the basis for gas-lighting, manipulation, and abuse by authority figures whose doctrine of sin is the justification of their power.

2. That God is in meticulous control of every aspect of the universe

America is now on a frenzied course to destroy our planet because greedy, profit-maximizing corporate executives have found a convenient partner in the masses who believe that God couldn’t possibly allow climate change to happen. It is an article of faith that ocean levels cannot rise due to human causes, because God is the one who says to the waves, “Thus far you shall come and no further” (Job 38:11). The paradox of our doctrine of God’s sovereignty is that our own sovereignty is actually what’s in question. Those who need a God whose relation to creation can be explained and categorized exhaustively have a God who submits to the sovereignty of their theology. The truly sovereign God is the one whose involvement in our world remains a mystery to us. Whatever we might argue about God’s providence and sovereignty, if we destroy the atmosphere with our pollution, we should not expect God to bail us out.

3. That the most important question is where you’re going after you die

If it isn’t nihilistic enough to believe that your observations and intuitions can’t be trusted and that you cannot possibly damage creation because God’s in control, then you can add to that the belief that our entire world is a mostly irrelevant passageway to the afterlife that really matters. Not to mention the fact that God wants to torture the vast majority of the people on this planet in hell forever. That leaves very little incentive to do anything to improve the world. As the great evangelist Dwight Moody said, “I look upon this world as a wrecked vessel. God has given me a lifeboat and said, ‘Moody, save all you can.'” Hence, you end up with a nihilistic politics which has zero interest in the common good.

4. That justice is strictly punitive

I’ll never forget a conversation I had with a Southern Baptist pastor at my grandpa’s church. I told him that my faith was the basis of my pursuit of justice. He said, “If God gave us the justice we deserve, then all of us would be in hell.” Indeed, our criminal justice system, which has been heavily shaped by toxic Christian moralism, has nothing to do with making things right for the victims of crime; it’s strictly about punishing criminals. When we approach the Bible presuming to find justice as punishment, we distort Jesus’ cross to mean that retributive justice is the God-ordained order of the universe. The irony is that if Jesus’ cross does in fact provide penal substitution as a dimension of its atonement, that means the cross exhausts and therefore abolishes retributive justice forever. Otherwise, Jesus didn’t really pay it all. So those who define justice as punishment reveal that they haven’t yet accepted Jesus’ payment for the world’s sins. True biblical justice means the restoration of shalom, the peace where everyone belongs and contributes. A restorative account of justice recognizes Jesus’ cross and resurrection to provide both vindication for victims and redemption for their oppressors.

5. That God’s highest priority is enforcing gender norms

Has there ever been a greater stumbling block for Christian evangelism than the obsession with making sure that people who are born with penises wear blue their whole lives and only marry people who are born with vaginas and wear pink their whole lives? How many millions of young adults have been entirely lost to the concept of sexual holiness because Christians made it all about the gays? The obsession with gender norms is the greatest disaster of contemporary Christianity and it completely contradicts the underlying concerns of both Jesus and Paul with the spiritual fruit of holiness. What we do with our bodies matters not because of a decreed gender conformity but because we are temples where God’s beauty can be glorified. It’s hard not to conclude that the gays are being scapegoated by toxic Christianity as a tactic to avoid submitting to Jesus’ discipleship in all the other aspects of life that most Christians gloss over.

If you want to detoxify your Christianity this Lent or know a group at your church who would like to do so, please check out my book How Jesus Saves the World From Us: 12 Antidotes To Toxic Christianity.

Campus ministry is the future of the church. It is also the first extension ministry to lose its funding when times are tough. Please consider supporting our campus ministry NOLA Wesley by becoming a monthly patron or making a one-time donation.

Previous Post

January 14, 2017

Milo Yiannopoulos and misguided leftist censorship

Next Post

January 26, 2017 If the Dow Jones goes up, does that mean everything is just fine?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Beauty Will Save the World Bible Big Picture: Ephesians Bloggers Book Christian salvation and the Beautitudes Culture Daily Office Danceable Homiletics Deadly Sins Deep Roots: Genesis Devotions Dominican Republic May 2011 El Principio Misericordia (The Mercy Principle) Five verses God tattooed on my heart Fundraising FutureGospel Good Biblical Words Henri Nouwen Interview Jennings' Christian Imagination Jesus inside the beltway Jesus Is My Candidate Jesus vs the Pharisees Jesus vs. Plato Journey to Eternity Looking Back on 2012 Love Actually Monday Merton Monday Merton Music Occupy the manger On Earth As It Is In Heaven Original Sin Podcast Poetry Politics Prayer Psalm 119 Radical Jesus 101 Reviews Sermon on the Mount Sermons Spanish Bible study Special Series Spiritual but not religious Synchroblog Theology Things that made me think Thomas a Kempis Ugliness Into Beauty Uncategorized Viaje Dominicano 2013 Walking in the Valley (Lent) Welcome: It's More than a Mat Wild Goose 2013 Wrestling

Select a Month March 2022 January 2022 December 2021 September 2021 April 2021 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 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 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 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was Paul's original name?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Simon Levi Matthias Saul