American Protestantism’s Need for a Paradigm Shift

It’s not exactly a secret that mainstream evangelical theology has left many of its adherents wanting more. The problems range from church services that are virtually indistinguishable from night clubs, to preachers telling young people they must believe the Earth is 6,000 years old, to KJV-Onlyists ripping NIVs apart from the pulpit (I personally know somewhere that this happened). Deconversion stories abound to the point where there is now a full economy of “deconstructionists” whose entire brand is centered on how bad their evangelical upbringing was.

Of course, many of these famous influencers are fueled more by their own narcissism and/or political leftism than an authentic desire to see evangelicalism become more historic or orthodox. I’m still not convinced that Kyle J. Howard is a real person; I think his Twitter feed is run by an AI programmed to parody the Christian critical theorists. Not all are this way though. In my ten years of vocational ministry within what could be described as at least evangelical-influenced churches in three different states, I have conversed with many who have undergone a kind of deconstruction for legitimate reasons. The faith they were often taught during their formative years was anti-intellectual at best, and certainly unable to withstand many modern scrutiny’s. For these young people, apologetics essentially amounted to proving that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time.

The mainline Protestants are in worse shape. Their memberships continue to decline, with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Disciples of Christ being hit the hardest, as both are down 40%, from 2009 and 2010, respectively. While I think they have their theological problems, they tend to exhibit less of what may be referred to as fundamentalism in the realm of theology. The more glaring issue for the mainline traditions seems to be in the realm of Christian ethics. Specifically, many have abandoned historic Christian thought as it concerns sexuality and gender. This has become so extreme in recent years, that some mainline churches have ordained “trans pastors.” Some have gone as far as to declare that “God is queer.” Clearly, large swaths of the mainline tradition have become captured by the neo-Marxists via Queer Theory.

Certain portions of evangelical churches and a majority of the mainline Protestant denominations have become enamored with a worldview that can be described as at least being consistent with that of Critical Race Theory. This became rather apparent in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd and the subsequent riots that rocked the country to the tune of two billion dollars’ worth of damage. I personally listened to several sermons of pastors decrying police officers as ungodly and racist. I know of several churches who lost large amounts of people as a result of such “preaching.” Even the CEO of what was once every Christian’s favorite restaurant in America dipped his toe into the CRT waters when he declared that white Christians should shine the shoes of black people, and feel a sense of shame and embarrassment at the racism they and their communities have partaken in. Of course, when Lecrae, the well-known Christian rapper whose shoes were shined by Dan Cathy in that now famous video, joked about maybe getting some stock in Chick-fil-A as well, Cathy didn’t really respond. A useless virtue signal will have to do!

Are there churches who have avoided these issues? Yes, they are certainly out there. However, even for many churches who have consciously refused to participate in such nonsense, they themselves have largely offered no pushback to these leftist ideologies. For instance, the Christian Standard recently published an article covering a new study done by Dr. Jody Owens, a professor of Bible and congregational ministry at Johnson University, which asked Christian leaders if they have addressed issues of sexuality and gender identity within the last year at their churches. Now, this was a relatively small sample size, as 57 leaders responded to the survey questions; however, the results are certainly worth a look. 75% of the leaders said that these were “critical issues facing their congregations.” However, only 26.3% had actually addressed these issues in their congregations within the last year. So, even among churches who likely want no part of the neo-Marxist takeover of their congregations, most do not offer much, if any, pushback against such destructive ideologies that are on the minds of most Christians today, especially young families. For at least the last few decades in America, many evangelical churches have viewed politics as a neutral endeavor, perhaps as something they should stay away from, at least in an official capacity. We are seeing now that neutrality is increasingly untenable as people are searching for truth. This doesn’t mean churches should tell people who to vote for in the Republican primary, but it does mean we should probably tell our teenagers that men cannot become women.

So, is there something between “you need to believe the Earth is 6,000 years old” and “God is queer”? Are there Protestant churches that stand against both anti-intellectual fundamentalist theology and neo-Marxist ideologies like Critical Race Theory and Queer Theory? I’m sure they exist, but they are far too rare. I suppose before we can move to the congregational or denominational levels, we need to start at the individual level: we need Christians who will demand theological rigor and political courage from Christian leaders, both locally and nationally. The Aletheia Initiative believes there are, or at least there could be millions of individual Christians who want something like this, and we are here to give those people a voice. By God’s grace, we will help to foster a paradigm shift within American Christianity.