AMERICAN EVANGELICALISM IS A MENTAL GHETTO--Part IV Size and Scope of the Problem

BREADTH OF THE PROBLEM IN THREE CENTERS OF RELIGIOUS LIFE.
1. The Schools.
Things have changed. There was a time when "Christian" seminaries and colleges were institutions that not only trained their students, but they filtered them. The filtered out those who didn't have the mental chops to learn the material and, most importantly, they filtered out those students who were heretical. No longer. Now they filter out all students who are intent in living holy lives.


As a seminary grad and a fellow who taught for five years part time at a "Christian" college, I am sad to say almost all graduates coming out of "Christian" colleges and seminaries aren't to be trusted.

Sound preporsterous? Not only is this true, but many of the schools work very hard at making sure you don't know what many of you are supporting with your money and the lives of your sons and daughters. And it's been my experience that, when shown the truth about the sorry state of "Christian" higher education, many pastors and folks in the pew wish to remain ignorant. So this part of the post is for those of you brave folks who aren't staying the Mental Ghetto.

First, my experience. I taught at a small school called Yellowstone Baptist College. Its president is Dr. William Phillips. At the college, textbooks were used that were indecent. Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline was used. It is full of new age mysticism. As late as just last year, Howard Clinebell's Basic Types of Pastoral Care and Counseling was the text for the pastoral ministries. Mr. Clinebell's book approves of homosexual marriage and ridicules any moral code that is solid and unchanging. In addition, for a number of years, that school employed a fellow named Bruce Gourley. Gourley taught that the Bible was full of errors, that anyone who held to inerrancy was an idolator and that women were to be pastors.

So I exposed some of these things. I was a hero, right? No. I was fired and put out of my church. The Mental Ghetto is full of folks who don't like knowing things because knowing these things would require doing something about them.

And this isn't a one-time, odd thing. It's common for colleges and seminaries to have courses in the new age practice of spiritual formation. And it's all the way to the top. Big time schools are corrupt. Moody Bible is heading for the trash heap. To see how the new filter works, read this from Lighthouse Trails about a young lady who wished to maintain biblical holiness, but wasn't allowed to at Moody:

Lighthouse Trails has been contacted by the family of a young Christian woman who was enrolled at Moody Bible Institute, where she hoped to obtain her nearly-reached degree. This week the young woman learned that the college (and at least one of the classes she was registered for) was promoting contemplative spirituality. Upon learning this, she spoke with various school officials about the situation. After coming to the conclusion through these meetings that Moody would at this time continue in the direction it was going, the young woman prayerfully decided she could not compromise her faith by receiving a degree from an institution that was promoting these teachings. This week, she withdrew herself from this fall's upcoming classes and will now search for another Christian college. We commend this young Christian woman for her courage to stand. Although her words may have fallen on deaf ears, we believe the Lord has seen her faith. We pray that the leaders and professors at Moody Bible Institute will also take a stand to defend the faith by renouncing contemplative spirituality.

Two of the books being used by MBI that the young woman challenged are In the Name of Jesus, by Henri Nouwen (in which he says we need to move from the moral to the mystical and that Christian leadership should turn to contemplative for direction)and Captivating, by John Eldredge. (1)

So the young lady in this story wasn't able to finish school, but what does that mean for the pulpits in America? This lady could have finished Moody, but she would have had to sin to do so. She would have had to fellowship with false teachers, sit under their teaching, help pay their salaries for spreading their false doctrines, and actually worship and pray with them in chapel. She wouldn't do that and now there is quite possibly a godly young lady who WON'T MAKE IT TO THE MISSION FIELD. And why? Because Moody filtered her out.

I can tell you from my own experience the same is happening to young men. The only ones who make it to the pulpit are compromisers. Think about this: BECAUSE OF SCHOOLS LIKE MOODY, ONLY MEN WHO HAVE CHOSEN THEIR RELIGIOUS CAREERS OVER OBEDIENT LIVES WILL MAKE IT INTO AMERICAN PULPITS.

Think that through...and weep.

But Moody isn't the only big time used-to-be-Christian school to sin in this fashion. Wheaton College near Chicago, once a stalwart among giants in the land, has had Emergent and pro-homosexual speakers brought to campus. If you give to Wheaton, ASK FOR ALL YOUR MONEY BACK. And doesn't that raise quite a moral question? While parading as still-orthodox, these organizations accept money from conservative churches and individuals. And they get their kids, too. Isn't this fraud? Shouldn't these folks go to jail? If I take money from you for a pension and spend it on something else I go to jail. If Wheaton takes money from folks who expect to see it used to teach young people the Scripture and spend it teaching things of which the donors don't know or even approve, isn't that lying to obtain money?

Let's call fraud in the name of God what it is--fraud. Most of our schools are no better than Benny Hinn or Bernie Madoff.

The list of Wheaton guest speakers reads like a who's who of religious rogues. In February of 2008, Wheaton welcomed Jim Wallis, a left-wing ME advocate for homosexual causes, calling the topic of special rights for homosexuals a "justice issue". (2) Earlier Wheaton actually invited "gay Christian" Harry Knox to speak. (3) In 2006, Wheaton had Tony Jones of Emergent Village. (4) He was back again in April, 2007 to say that orthodoxy is and event and occurs inside a person. It's not objective. (5)

Interestingly, if you check out the documentation, each of these speakers was brought to Wheaton by its Center for Applied Christian Ethics. IRONIC.

So then, no one recently graduated from Wheaton has kept themselves clean. Those who would live holy lives are filtered out by schools like Wheaton and Moody Bible Institute. Only the charlatans and the morally weak are left to climb into the pulpits of ME churches.

2. The Pulpit.
ME preachers today don't know God.

What? Yes, I mean that. I've considered it for years. I believe it and I'm not exaggerating at all.

"You're just saying that for shock value," you may say. It's shocking, but that doesn't mean it isn't true.

Symbiosis is the process in which two organisms thrive by living off of each other or off the product of the other's activity. When preparing this section of this post I needed an example of a symbiotic relationship. I wanted something like maggots cleaning the wound of a wildebeest. The wildebeest doesn't get gangrene and die. The maggot lives and multiplies. Win win. On the list I found this interesting item as an example of a symbiotic relationship: humans and domesticated animals. An animal is domesticated when you can have it on your property and live in daily interaction with it and it doesn't bite you, gore you, or maul you. The schools start the domestication process.

ME preachers don't know God. And that's true for two reasons and in two ways that correspond with those reasons. First, they don't know God intellectually. They haven't put in the man hours with Scripture. Who's at fault? The preacher mainly, but also the schools who spend the vast majority of class time on things ovther than Scripture and learning to study it, and folks in the pew who don't demand excellence in the pulpit. The interplay of all these factors is so complex and SO profound that it's not possible to discuss this well here. God willing, I'll post an article on that in this series. However, until then, ask any preacher these two questions: What is the proper understanding of "Don't judge..." in Matthew 7? What is the point of the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13? You will almost certainly get at least one wrong answer. The easiest one to check out is the parable. The answer you will almost always get is "Don't put folks out of the church". But simply reading the rest of chapter 13 will reveal that Jesus said the field was the world, not the church, so the point is an explanation for why the wicked live as neighbors with the righteous and will do so until the end of the age.

The second way ME preachers don't know God isn't intellectual, but emotional and personal. They don't have a personal knowledge of God as a Father, Friend, and Potentate. They FEEL God is gooey, not righteous, mistaking sentimentality for scriptural love. More on that in the future post mentioned above.


3. The Pew.
As in most organizations or bodies of people, the real power is in the population. We in the pew want a domesticated dog, not a smart dog. He must roll over and play dead upon command. He must never be harsh. He must always be affirming and demure.

And THAT is the ME preacher. Many go to ME schools with zeal for Christ, but come out unable to bring themselves to name and denounce our sins. They don't bite. BUT the preacher is groomed for the crowd at the dog show, prancing with long, flowing hair cut and combed and a nice bow perched upon his head.

And that works well in the Ghetto.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins
(1) http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=786&more=1&c=1
(2)http://americansfortruth.com/news/wheaton-college-invites-lefty-evangelical-jim-wallis-to-speak.html
(3)http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=67733
(4)http://www.wheaton.edu/CACE/ejournal/ejournal0106.htm
(5)http://theologica.blogspot.com/2007/07/tony-jones-on-orthodoxy.html


STILL TO COME IN THE MENTAL GHETTO:

Part V More on the Size and Scope of the Problem
DEPTH OF THE PROBLEM IN FOUR CATEGORIES OF INTELLECTUAL LIFE.
1. Biblical ignorance.

2. Ignorance in general knowledge.

3. Ignorance in how to think.

4. Ignorance about the biblical command to practice precise thought.

AND Part VI of the MENTAL GHETTO Pulpits, Parishioners, and Payoffs.