Best Christian writers? Most of them are dead

The best Christian writers? Most of them are dead.

Andrew Murray. Charles Spurgeon. Oswald Chambers.

That's not to say, of course, that there are no good writers left, feeding Americans spiritual nourishment from the Word. A few remain. Although not purely devotional in nature (because, I think, what we need today are excellent apologetics teachers, first), the works of Ken Ham are solid. My friend Clara Hinton writes well about such things as surviving the sadness of miscarriage. Nick Harrison's devotionals are top-drawer.

So there are some.

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The problem is, there are so many bad books circulating among Christian bookstores, catalogs, and online that one wonders if things can be reversed.

Bloggers are also doing damage, as well. Self-proclaimed Christian writers are doing great harm, both in the religious and political worlds.

Take for example a new post from Dr. David Gushee, a "Christian ethicist" who teaches at Mercer University. Gushee (who, along with the late Glen Stassen from Fuller, tarred Christian Zionists as "sinners" for supporting Israel) is a left-leaning polemicist masquerading as a tolerant fellow. His new piece with Religion News Service is particularly odious, in light of the war forced on us by Muslims.

Writing in the wake of the Paris attacks, Gushee once again blames the victim in a post titled "After Paris: Remembering Christians Who Have Killed in God's Name."

Please, feel free to be outraged.

To start, Gushee inserts himself into the story:

My pen was quiet for the last two weeks, as I was lecturing in western Europe. My path took me to Paris – just 36 hours before the horrific terror attacks, my wife and I were in that grand old city, which seemed (at the time) sunny, happy, and brimming with life. I join with so many others in deploring the unspeakably evil attacks and grieving the terrible losses inflicted there.

(One can hope that Gushee's pen is quiet more often.)

He then launches into a diatribe – not against the barbarians at the gates, but rather at the victims, and notes:

It is sadly amusing to hear Christians pontificate online about what they think they understand about the inner reality of Islam. On what basis have they suddenly gained this expertise?

Traveling in western Europe, and looking at that continent as a Christian with some historical sensitivity, it is hard not to be reminded that Christians also have killed in God's name. To visit the grand old Christian cathedrals of Europe is to be reminded of the close alliance between church and state for centuries in waging all kinds of wars in the name of Christ and Christendom. Just look up at the stained glass windows integrating cross, sword, and crown. These wars claimed the lives of Muslims, Jews, and fellow Christians.

Is Gushee really comparing the Crusades to the current global existential threat posed by Islam?

He is. And, as all good leftists do, Gushee distorts the historical record to serve his purposes. He laments the murderous forces that sought to exterminate all Jews in Europe. But does he really believe – does he really – that the Nazis, most of whom were members in good standing in the Catholic and Lutheran congregations, were true Christians?

The bottom line is this: leftists have infiltrated evangelicalism. Writers like Jen Hatmaker, growing in popularity, promote socialists/Marxists like Cornel West, a virulent race-baiter and anti-Semite.

Then we have to endure even Southern Baptist operatives, like Trevan Wax, moving from purely advancing the Gospel to social activism. Wax, a LifeWay staffer who is managing editor of the Gospel Project (ironic), managed to try and convince readers that we should be compassionate regarding Syrian refugees – even though such "refugees" are murdering people in Europe.

Curiously, Wax was given a plumb platform by no less than the Washington Post recently: "Should we really close the border to refugees? Here's why fear drives out compassion."

Do you see what he did there?

The title itself is a tip-off that if we forbid Syrians entrance into our country, we lack compassion. Because, we're fearful.

I beg to differ. Americans in growing numbers are discerning and vigilant. Let me be clear: if it's a choice between the refugees and the safety of my family, I opt for the refugees to stay where they are. I won't allow Wax and his ilk to tag me as uncompassionate or fearful. He is constructing a straw man argument.

But then we have to remember that one of Wax's bosses, the interfaith dialogue dude Ed Stetzer, is getting chummy with Muslim radicals. And just try appealing to his boss, Thom Rainer, or even SBC prez Ronnie Floyd.

Nothing changes.

In his Washington Post piece, Wax states: "Fear leads to hatred; courage leads to convictional compassion. And convictional compassion means differentiating between the radical Islamists who would destroy us and peaceful Muslim neighbors who stand with us in deploring such violence."

Frankly, I don't believe he understands we are in an existential fight to the death with Islam itself. And if he wants refugees brought in, let them move into his neighborhood. Not mine.

(An aside: note that in general, true conservatives would never be given an opportunity to write for a left-leaning paper like the Post. Think about that. When you see evangelical leaders getting close to leftists, recognize they are at best strange bedfellows.)

The fact is, influential evangelicals are writing (to paraphrase the late, great David Bar Illan) the most mind-blowing nonsense.

Pray their influence will wane and not ascend. The next generation is watching and listening and reading.

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