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Anthony B. Bradley, PhD

@drantbradley

Mar 23

Watching Protestant debates about politics, gender roles, clergy qualifications, marriage, etc., it’s pretty clear that, in America, it just doesn’t work. “The Bible” isn’t the standard b/c it requires interpretation. Who decides whose exegesis is right? Whose views are right?

Because there’s no way for Protestants to adjudicate views, they are left with using inflammatory language about the consequences of various views as an appeal to authority. The inflammatory word of this century is “harm.”It’s not that views differ but some cause harm.

And who determines the definition of harm? How do we determine what represents actual harm? Harm accusations are now the standard way of pressuring/shaming people to reject certain views. Maybe harm is the authority. It goes something like this:

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Anthony B. Bradley, PhD

@drantbradley

Mar 19

Revivalist evangelicals who believe the book of Acts is normative (and not a narrative) should swap it out for the book of James. Send your kids to “Book of James Camp” this summer & cancel the apologetics/leadership camp. Maybe the book of James is what the revivalists need!

Imagine how different conservative WASPs would be if James was the center of shaping their lives and raising their children. For urban elites (work and faith types) or country club Christians, James 1:27 isn’t often an aspiration (& they have more money than most). Any idea why?

Imagine what would happen if the major evangelical celebrity pastor guys swapped out Acts for James. Imagine a James-centered evangelicalism. We should make James “The Great Commission.” Why not? It’s a random extra-biblical phrase anyway. James is the Great Commission folks!

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Anthony B. Bradley, PhD

@drantbradley

Mar 19

There are many Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran(LCMS), Presbyterian(PCA), etc. “complimentarians” who are wrongly conflated/associated with the Baptist-CBMW/evangelical expression b/c they are not loud & argumentative. Many are democrats, progressive, women, not misogynists, etc.

It’s really ridiculous to assume that anyone who believes women can serve in infinite church roles minus one or two “haven’t read the Bible,” “hate women,” are an abusively patriarchal, etc. Here’s the Lutherans discussion from 1985. They have Bibles. lcms.org/about/leadersh…

The PCA’s position.👇🏾 I know so many PCA men and women who hold to this view who voted for Obama, Hilary Clinton, & Biden, reject “the patriarchy,” etc. The silent majority on this view is drowned out by the CBMW nonsense. It’s really (really) unfair. pcahistory.org/pca/studies/20…

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Anthony B. Bradley, PhD

@drantbradley

Mar 4

Dr. Du Mez, Conclusion Chapt: Imagine creating a well-intentioned, multi-million $ movement & naively believing that it was immune to serving white conservative cultural idols. Their pride (“we are right”) left them vulnerable & they have no structural way of purging their idols.

This is story of Billy Graham’s evangelicalism that later became Reformed(not Dutch) Evangelicalism. They were so busy accusing liberals of accommodating progressive ideologies that they weren’t aware of the Trojan horse of US conservative socio-political ideology at their gates.

Anyone who’s read David Koyzis could have predicted this. The idols won & now they a fighting each other. TGC and Tim Keller are now considered “Woke.” The 1689ers only attack. The PCA is bleeding folks to the ACNA. Etc. The idols won. amazon.com/Political-Visi…

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Anthony B. Bradley, PhD

@drantbradley

Mar 3

Dr. Du Mez, chapter 16. I’m disappointed. Not at the book, but at critic’s hysteria. Chapter 16 is what WORLD mag always reported on. What’s the controversy? BTW, this book will have a Vol 2 in 10 years b/c their culture is not going to change. The tribalism is alive and well.

As the book demonstrates, and maybe this is the controversy, it becomes very, very clear that the SBC, their non-denom friends, etc. have been a massive liability to the reputation of evangelicalism. No worse than the mainline churches they critique—when we pull the curtain back.

There is no good news. It just “is.” B/c white conservative evangelical culture is personality driven & has no connectional/confessional limits, the dark trends that Niebuhr warned us about, regarding evangelical culture about, will only persist. That’s the moral of the story.

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Anthony B. Bradley, PhD

@drantbradley

Mar 2

Dr. Du Mez, chapt 11. This one was hard, personally. I was in the room when many of these conversations happened. Driscoll & I traveled together to the pre-TGC launch meeting. John Piper’s(&TGC’s) irresponsible platforming of Doug Wilson deserves attention. My racial attacks:

Several people tried to warn Piper & the DG/TGC world about Wilson’s neo-confederate views. His fans relentlessly racially attacked me for 11 yrs, with impunity (save one ARP deacon in Memphis). Piper’s Wilson actions poisoned the TGC world eventually causing an exodus of blacks.

Their response: “But he gets the gospel right.” What? As long as you get the gospel right you can teach disinformation about American. So yeah, that was the beginning of the end for many African Americans who were giving DG/TGC a chance. Chapt 11 should be it’s own book.

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