{"id":1726,"date":"2011-12-12T15:55:49","date_gmt":"2011-12-12T19:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/?p=1726"},"modified":"2011-12-12T16:07:32","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T20:07:32","slug":"moving-right-is-sometimes-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2011\/12\/12\/moving-right-is-sometimes-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving Right is Sometimes Wrong: Why Ken Ham and Shelby Spong Are Equally Destructive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It is<\/em>, fellow conservatives, possible to be too<\/em> conservative. \u00a0And moving too far to the Right can be just as destructive as moving too far to the Left.<\/p>\n

Scot McKnight comments<\/a> at Jesus Creed that evangelicals with \u201cconservative\u201d theological commitments have a \u201cspecial radar\u201d for those who are moving Leftward. \u00a0He offers three points for discussion:<\/p>\n

Among conservative evangelicals moving to the right seems never to be wrong.<\/em><\/p>\n

Moving to the left, however, is either on the way to being wrong or is in fact already wrong (for the right).<\/em><\/p>\n

To the left is a slippery slope, to the right is faithfulness (even if it is extreme).<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These are great starting points for conversation. \u00a0Scot always offers his thoughtful best. \u00a0But these statements are not quite right \u2014 even though they\u2019re onto something very important that I want to affirm.<\/div>\n

In the first two statements, if you replaced the word wrong <\/em>with the word dangerous<\/em>, then they would be correct. <\/strong>Conservative evangelicals frequently act as though moving Right is sometimes wrong but basically harmless<\/em>, whereas moving Left is not only wrong but dangerous<\/em>. \u00a0Or, put differently (and in this sense Scot\u2019s principles could be correct), moving Rightward can be factually<\/em> wrong but not morally<\/em> wrong, whereas moving Leftward is both factually and morally wrong. \u00a0Let me give two examples:<\/p>\n

Example 1<\/strong>: Old Earth Creationists (who believe the Genesis account of Creation is mostly literal, but the cosmos is very old) will generally regard Young Earth Creationism (in which Genesis is literal and fixes the age of the cosmos at something like 6000 years) as an error but a basically harmless one; yet they will generally regard Theistic Evolution (which takes a less literal view of Genesis and believes God deployed the evolutionary processes that produced human beings) as not only wrong but spiritually treacherous. \u00a0OEC\u2019s will smile and nod at YEC\u2019s; they will (generally) not feel a burning need to convince YEC\u2019s of their error. \u00a0Yet they will feel a burning need to convince Theistic Evolutionists that evolution and Christian theology are incompatible. \u00a0Moving to the Right is harmless; moving to the Left is dangerous.<\/p>\n

Example 2<\/strong>: Evangelicals who are moderately conservative politically will often view their more conservative brethren (say, dominionists) as wrong, maybe even embarrassing, but benign, while they view their more liberal co-religionists as not only wrong but dangerously wrong. \u00a0If you are Center-Right, you may disagree with those who are very stringent on issues like crime and immigration, or who can go on for hours about the evils of Washington and government power, but you don\u2019t feel obligated to argue against them. \u00a0On the other hand, if you hear someone advocating open borders, or the legalization of marijuana, or someone who wants to massively expand the government (split infinitives are sometimes helpful), you think their ideas are trending in a dangerous direction.<\/p>\n

So, why is this? \u00a0Why do moderately conservative evangelicals (like myself) show little concern when someone goes too far to the Right, and lots of concern when someone moves too far to the Left? <\/strong> Let me offer three reasons.<\/p>\n

FIRST, it partly has to do with the very nature of conservatism. \u00a0One of the handiest ways of distinguishing conservatism and liberalism (and it\u2019s false if taken to an extreme) is that Conservatism believes that the True, the Good and the Beautiful are in the past, while Liberalism believes that the True, the Good and the Beautiful are in the future. \u00a0As a rule of thumb, conservatives are trying to conserve a heritage that was handed down \u2014 by God, by Moses, by the Early Church, by the Founders, etc.; liberals are trying to progress to an ever-better realization of always-evolving ideals. \u00a0It\u2019s conservation versus progression. \u00a0While conservatives allow that some changes and developments have led to better expressions of the truths and values that were given to us, they\u2019re instinctively suspicious. \u00a0Sometimes one has to step down the slippery slope just a little bit \u2014 but those \u201cold-fashioned\u201d views (i.e., Young-Earth Creationism or unforgiving attitudes toward law-breaking) are higher-up the slippery slope, while the \u201cprogressive\u201d views are further down the slope, gathering a momentum that may be hard to arrest.<\/p>\n

SECOND, it (also) partly has to do with the very nature of modern evangelicalism. \u00a0Modern evangelicals view the surrounding culture (and not without reason) as rife with temptation, sin and falsehood. \u00a0It is generally (again, note that this is a generalization) believed that Jesus Christ suffered persecution and crucifixion not because of an accident of history. \u00a0He didn\u2019t just happen<\/em> to find himself in a time and place when his message was rejected. \u00a0Rather, there\u2019s a fundamental opposition between the ways of righteousness and the ways of the world. \u00a0There are basically different values, profoundly different believes, and thoroughly different worldviews that animate the Church universal and the world.<\/p>\n

Since evangelicalism is generally more conservative than the surrounding culture, a movement to the Right is a movement further away from the world while a movement to the Left is an accommodation, and it establishes a harmful precedent of compromising with the world. \u00a0Isn\u2019t moving toward <\/em>the world, becoming more like <\/em>the surrounding culture, a surrender of our distinctness, a harm to our witness, and slinking in the direction of unfaith? \u00a0So evangelicals would rather fall to the Right than fall to the Left.<\/p>\n

THIRD, moderately conservative evangelicals are frequently warned of the dangers of straying too far down the slippery slope, of too much compromise with worldly values \u2014 that is, they\u2019re warning about the dangers of growing too liberal, but they\u2019re very rarely made aware of the dangers of being too conservative. \u00a0The truth is, of course, that becoming too conservative <\/em>can be just as damaging to faith, and just as damaging to our witness, as becoming too liberal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I have to agree with biblical scholar\u00a0Peter Enns<\/a>, for instance, that Young Earth Creationism, especially when it argues that a Christian cannot accept evolution, is both \u201cwrong and harmful.\u201d \u00a0The truth is: our minds and our hearts and souls all together can rejoice in the truth and redemption that are delivered by Jesus Christ. \u00a0But this kind of attitude creates a false Either\/Or for many young Christians: either they must accept what seems compelling to their minds, or they must accept what their parents are passing down to them. \u00a0Many youngsters raised in the church, given this false and completely unnecessary Either\/Or, will choose to leave their faith. \u00a0Anything less, they\u2019ll feel, would be intellectually dishonest.<\/p>\n

I would also agree with sociologist Bradley Wright<\/a> that when we insist on unquestioning conformity to traditional Christian teachings, we\u2019re going to lose our young people. \u00a0It is not so much faithfulness as it is fear when we encourage our children never to question the beliefs we\u2019re passing down to them. \u00a0It is damaging to our witness \u2014 hugely damaging \u2014 when we show fear of open inquiry and respond in reactionary ways to questions and criticisms about the faith. \u00a0We are called to conserve the fundamental truths and values that God communicated to us through Jesus Christ, but always also to reassess how we understand and apply those truths and values in the light of the best knowledge available to us. \u00a0That\u2019s why we understand, today, that it is more\u00a0Christian <\/em>to oppose slavery than to support it.<\/p>\n

The truth is, and this is where I agree with Scot McKnight on the deeper truth of the matter:\u00a0the slippery slope falls away on both sides of faithfulness. <\/strong>On the Left side, we fall toward conformity and licentiousness and abandonment of the faith. \u00a0On the Right side, we fall toward paranoia, legalism, and a cold and fossilized faith that is really no faith at all. \u00a0We cannot trust in the systems of the Right or the Left. \u00a0We cannot trust in systems at all. \u00a0We have to trust in a Person, not in a Predilection or a Philosophy. \u00a0That Person will lead us forward, along the ridge-top above the slippery slopes.<\/p>\n

I am conservative, measured against the American median. \u00a0But I don\u2019t seek to be conservative. I don\u2019t want to be conservative; I don\u2019t want to be liberal. \u00a0I want to be faithful<\/em>. \u00a0Sometimes that faithfulness will require me to hold fast to an ancient belief in the face of the world\u2019s mockery; sometimes faithfulness will require me to let go of my hidebound forms of understanding, and venture forth into an unseen and unstable future<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I hate to say this, but I sincerely believe that Ken Ham does just as much damage as Shelby Spong. \u00a0Neither one is harmless; both need to be corrected. \u00a0One leads people away from the faith by repulsion. \u00a0The other leads them away from the faith by attraction. \u00a0But the outcome is the same.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is, fellow conservatives, possible to be too conservative. \u00a0And moving too far to the Right can be just as destructive as moving too far to the Left. Scot McKnight comments at Jesus Creed that evangelicals with \u201cconservative\u201d theological commitments have a \u201cspecial radar\u201d for those who are moving Leftward. \u00a0He offers three points for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[782],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-understanding-evangelicalism"],"yoast_head":"\nMoving Right is Sometimes Wrong: Why Ken Ham and Shelby Spong Are Equally Destructive - Philosophical Fragments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is, fellow conservatives, possible to be too conservative. \u00a0And moving too far to the Right can be just as destructive as moving too far to the Left.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2011\/12\/12\/moving-right-is-sometimes-wrong\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Moving Right is Sometimes Wrong: Why Ken Ham and Shelby Spong Are Equally Destructive - 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