The Christian Bridge Too Far

May 11, 2017 by Jill

by Rod Dreher, The American Conservative:

The liberal Baptist theologian David Gushee makes if official: he has left Evangelicalism. He explains why in this column. Excerpt:

What happened? A love affair with Jesus that for the great majority of forty years was spent in Southern Baptist and evangelical contexts, until my own sense of moral and intellectual integrity forced me to take stands leading to my exit from those worlds.

Everybody’s story is different. Of course millions of American Christians remain quite happily situated in Southern Baptist and/or evangelical Christianity. I wish them only the best, and am done fighting with them.

But millions of others have made their exits, or had their exits made for them, and now wander in a kind of exile. I think that my story might connect with that of many others who find themselves post-all-of-that, perhaps helping chart a way forward.

I now believe that incommensurable differences in understanding the very meaning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the interpretation of the Bible, and the sources and methods of moral discernment, separate many of us from our former brethren — and that it is best to name these differences clearly and without acrimony, on the way out the door.

I also believe that attempting to keep the dialogue going is mainly fruitless. The differences are unbridgeable. They are articulated daily in endless social media loops.

He’s right about that. Andrew T. Walker, a conservative Southern Baptist, explains why.

Read here