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<\/source><\/picture>For almost three decades now, Evangelical Christianity in America has been haunted by a single sentence. That sentence is the opening line of Mark Noll\u2019s 1994 work, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind<\/em>, which bluntly suggests that \u201cThe scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Noll continues: \u201cNotwithstanding all their other virtues, however, American evangelicals are not exemplary for their thinking, and they have not been so for several generations. Despite dynamic success at a popular level, modern American evangelicals have failed notably in sustaining serious intellectual life.\u201d<\/p>\n The reason this (largely inaccurate) assessment has so haunted the striver class of American Evangelicals is that, like all fallen humans, they desperately desire to be accepted by the so-called elites of society. They fear man, and thus they crave man\u2019s approval. They are embarrassed by the clear teachings of the Bible and so they try to downplay it in order to gain a seat at the table in the academy or have their opinions published in The New York Times.<\/p>\n But I\u2019m not here to talk about Noll (other than as a convenient foil) and why his thesis is wrong. I think there is a vibrant Evangelical mind, but it\u2019s one that submits to God\u2019s Word and views the Bible as inerrant, and then works all of its scholarship and cultural engagement out from that starting point.<\/p>\n When it comes to even more fundamental doctrinal issues of the Christian faith, such as the virgin birth of Christ, the veracity of His miracles, and the authority and inspiration of the Scriptures, faithful Christian scholars \u2014 truly bright scholars with new hearts, saved souls, and, yes, strong minds \u2014 must again stand strong on these commitments as \u201ctrue truth.\u201d Any effort to disguise our beliefs in order to garner a broader audience in the secular academy or to win praise from the world reveals a Christian mind that has forgotten the purpose of knowledge and scholarship, which is to find and affirm the truth and never to downplay or discount it.<\/p>\n When viewed rightly, the Evangelical mind is alive and well, but I would suggest there is a much greater scandal plaguing Evangelicals \u2014 the scandal of the evangelical spine.<\/p>\n And the scandal of the Evangelical spine is that there is not much of an Evangelical spine.<\/p>\n What do I mean?<\/p>\n I mean that our cadre of unelected \u201cevangellyfish\u201d leaders (to borrow a phrase from Douglas Wilson) have proven themselves to be blessed with a backbone consisting of the same fortitude as a mushy banana, which is to say, not much of one at all.<\/p>\n The anatomical purpose of our backbone, our spine, is to enable us human vertebrates to stand tall. Sadly, a survey of recent Christian anthropology in America yields results that would map much better onto a bunch of arthropods \u2014 the class of animals without a spine. You know, like worms.<\/p>\n When the winds of cultural change blew in fast and furious over the fruited plains, bringing the sexual revolution and all of its myriad sins and sophistries, far too many Evangelicals folded like a cheap suit.<\/p>\n Birth control? Why not. Freezing embryos? Sure.\u00a0 No-fault divorce? No problem. Abortion? Well, that\u2019s a knot that even many of the most morally flexible Christians couldn\u2019t quite tie themselves into supporting, but that didn\u2019t stop them from trying. My body, my choice, right? Wrong. Pornography? Well, Christians shouldn\u2019t view it, but it\u2019s protected by the First Amendment, so what can we do?<\/p>\n You could rent a spine, to start, and then walk back out into the public square and boldly decry the heinous evils of synthetic sex.<\/p>\n Then came the hurricane of civilizational destruction we now know as\u00a0Obergefell\u00a0<\/em>and the \u201clegalization\u201d of a same-sex mirage we so euphemistically call \u201cgay marriage.\u201d Even here, at one of the most critical junctures in the history of America, with nothing less than the pre-fall, God-ordained institution of marriage on the line, so many pastors, public Christian leaders, and people who claim the name of Christ couldn\u2019t manage to stand up against the lies of \u201cLove is love.\u201d It is? Well, water is water \u2014 so why don\u2019t you drink out of the toilet?<\/p>\n Instead, they bought the lie that sexual orientation is immutable and that what we really need to do is praise singleness, downplay marriage, and make everyone feel welcome. But as pastor and theologian Jared Moore \u2014 a man who does not suffer from the scandal of a missing spine \u2014 so aptly put it: \u201cSo, you believe Jesus can walk out of a tomb, but He can\u2019t change your same-sex desires? I don\u2019t buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t buy it either. And neither should you.<\/p>\n I could go on. In fact, I will.<\/p>\n When the lies of Ferguson and \u201cHands up, don\u2019t shoot\u201d birthed the Black Lives Matter movement, Evangelicals bowed before the false god of Critical Race Theory (CRT), social justice, and wokeness in record time. Never mind that James 2:1 clearly teaches to \u201cshow no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.\u201d Some partiality is apparently needed when deciding between \u201cAnglo 8s\u201d and \u201cAfrican American 7s,\u201d in a pastoral hiring search process, or so s<\/a>a<\/a>y<\/a>s<\/a>\u00a0Matt Chandler.<\/p>\n When #MeToo hit the airwaves, Evangelicals bowed before the false gods of \u201cBelieve all women,\u201d promptly throwing out the biblical standards of justice and due process as quickly as you could say \u201cSmash the patriarchy\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m with her.\u201d<\/p>\n When the government handed down tyrannical lockdown orders during COVID that told churches they had to close up shop while casinos and liquor stores could stay open, Evangelicals all across America promptly locked the doors to God\u2019s house and handed over the keys to the state.<\/p>\n Even worse, when an unproven \u201cvaccine\u201d became the price of admission for reentering polite society and earning a paycheck to put food on the table for your family, Evangelical leaders twisted Scripture and told us to \u201cLove your neighbor, get the shot.\u201d<\/p>\n Once again, I could go on, but I will pause here and point out what should, hopefully, be painfully obvious. The lowest common denominator uniting all of these examples, and it is low indeed, is that in each case, too many (though not all) of the men of God in our nation showed about as much courage as a church mouse. Even less, perhaps, as I trust the church mice continued to hold unmasked indoor church services during COVID.<\/p>\n If you were to look at the regime Evangelicals of our day, no doubt they look like men in full possession of an intact backbone. But when we put them, and their like, under the X-ray machine of God\u2019s moral standards and cross-examine them by what He expects from those who occupy seats of leadership in our Evangelical life, you would see a gelatinous blob of third-way platitudes just waiting to take on the shape of whatever the world demands of them next. Their backbones turned out to be made not of bone but of Flubber.\u00a0<\/p>\n But as with the Gospel, so with this scandal: We need the bad news first, and then the good.<\/p>\n What is the good news? For that, we must turn to the Good Book. The Bible is chockful of men of courage, godly men with spines of steel, who stood tall when it mattered most and refused to bow to the idols of their day \u2014 even at the risk of their very lives.<\/p>\n Enter one image of gold, three brave men, a mad king, and a blazing furnace.<\/p>\n In Daniel 3 we learn what it looks like to be men of God who stiffen their spinal column when it counts.<\/p>\n \u201cFurious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, \u2018Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?\u2019<\/p>\n Meshach and Abednego replied to him, \u2018King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty\u2019s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up\u201d (Daniel 3:13-18).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow before the golden image because it was a false god \u2014 it was an idol. And in God\u2019s good world, idols are meant to be smashed, not worshipped. They are meant to be broken, not bowed to. You can\u2019t bend the knee to the false gods of our day and their avatars while claiming to worship the King of Kings. No man can serve two masters.<\/p>\n But standing when everyone else bows, and smashing an idol in front of its worshippers, takes a spine that has been infused with a courage that can only be drawn from a well of fear \u2014 the fear of the One True God. This is indeed a paradox. Still, it is the choice that every Christian faces.\u00a0 We will either fear man and go weak at the knees when Nebuchadnezzar, Caesar, the government, our family, employer, or culture demand that we offer a pinch of incense to the pagan gods of our age \u2014 or we will fear the Lord and stand on the two feet He gave us, pushing all 33 of our vertebrae erect, stare them in the eyes, and say, \u201cI have no King but Christ.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n To help bring this all to a close I must enlist the aid of the famed Christian apologist C.S. Lewis. In\u00a0The Screwtape Letters, Lewis puppets the demon Screwtape and explains the crucial nature of true courage:<\/p>\n \u201cThis, indeed, is probably one of the Enemy\u2019s motives for creating a dangerous world \u2014 a world in which moral issues really come to the point.<\/p>\n He sees as well as you do that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality.<\/p>\n A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Courage is the testing point of every virtue. Courage is what makes it all count. Courage is what shows the world whether you actually believe what you say you believe \u2014 or whether your convictions are just another form of empty virtue signaling.<\/p>\n Courage is therefore necessary for the Christian life. Without it, we will be blown about by every wind of false teaching. Without courage \u2014 without a spine \u2014 we will, at some point, melt away into an indistinguishable bowl of lukewarm pudding. What does Christ have to say to those who are lukewarm?<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth\u201d (Revelation 3:15-16).<\/p>\n Bones are hard to bite down on. So grow a spine, and don\u2019t get spit out.<\/p>\n Yes, the world is filled with dragons. But Christians worship a serpent-crushing King. Whom have we to fear but God alone? We don\u2019t fear those who can destroy the body, but the One who can destroy both the body and soul.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the lack of an Evangelical mind that plagues American Christianity. It\u2019s the lack of a spine. We have chosen men without chests as our leaders and have suffered duly for our folly.<\/p>\n Flannery O\u2019Connor once called on Christians to \u201cPush back against the age as hard as it pushes against you. What people don\u2019t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.\u201d<\/p>\n You can only push back if you have a backbone. A backbone on which you carry your cross \u2014 like our Lord, who set His face like flint towards Jerusalem. If He endured the cross, can we not endure some social scorn for our faith? Lost jobs? Even imprisonment?<\/p>\n We can endure these and all other trials set before us if we just reach around and press the middle of our backs, find our spine, thank the Lord He put it there, and use it.<\/p>\n\n
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