Deconstruction is the rage in some intellectual circles and the word itself has several definition. The definition that will be used in this article deals with the tipping of some sacred cows. That is deconstruction is critical approach used to try to upend or disprove traditions and traditional ways of thinking (click here and see the popular usage of the word). Here we should note that tradition and traditional ways of thinking can be relative to one's location and one's ideological circles.
Joshua Ryan Butler (click here for a bio) has written an accessible pop assessment of the deconstruction of the Christian Faith for the Gospel Coalition website. That is we are talking about efforts to disprove and/or discredit the Christian faith. In that article, Butler lists 4 causes for attempts to disprove the Christian faith. And unfortunately, he missed the most important 5th cause for those efforts: Church history (click here for the article ).
The first cause for deconstruction is somewhat related to the 5th cause. The first cause is the pain that comes from being disillusioned by those leaders in the Church whose behavior eventually revealed that they may not have been real Christians. Butler gives some examples but it isn't important to display them here. The point is that some Christians have been deeply hurt by the double lives or abusive ways of treating others by those whom were trusted Christian leaders.
The second efforts to deconstruct the Christian Faith is because of poor teaching. Like the first cause, this cause might be related to the fifth cause. That cause is poor teaching in the Church. One example that Butler provides deals with a proper understanding of Genesis 1 in the light of science. Another example is the teaching that God takes pleasure in taking revenge on those who displease Him. For how can the Christian Faith be true when it serves that kind of god?
The third cause for attempts to deconstruct the Christian Faith has to do with the sinful desires those who are either doing the deconstruction or believing the deconstructive work of others. It is that they are looking for the freedom to sin. So because of their lusts and so forth, they are looking for an excuse to see the Christian Faith as false.
The final cause that Butler lists for attempts to deconstruct the Christian Faith is that it is popular to do try to disprove Christianity in too much of America and today's world. According to Butler, that is why we are seeing an increase in testimonies of those who have fallen away from the faith.
In reality, Butler misses one of the major causes for attempts to deconstruct the Christian Faith. As stated before, that cause is Church History. This cause is related to the first cause except that the range of the people involved in disillusioning or abusing people is much wider. For while the first cause involves those who professed to be Christians but whose actions put such a profession in doubt, Church history provides many examples of disillusionment or abuse caused by Christian leaders who are looked at as pillars of the faith. Here we could include both Martin Luther and John Calvin as they abusively responded to those who disagreed on theological points and who either sorely persecuted or called such persecution of certain groups outside the Church. But we see further examples in the American Church in the well-respected persons of George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, J. Gresham Machen, and even a bit in Billy Graham. All had questionable views or practices with regard to race with some having far more questionable views or practices than others.
In addition, we have the Church's sometimes brutal anti-semitism, the religious wars, their other disputes with science, and eventually belief in white supremacy by many true believers coming out of Europe. That belief in white supremacy was exhibited in Europe's colonialism, imperialism, embracing of slavery, and embracing of segregation such as in Jim Crow. Church History has significantly contributed to Post Modernism with its rejection of the metanarrative of Pre Modernism: interpreting the world through faith.
As mentioned before, a contributing factor to attempts to deconstruct the Christian are the large number of abuses that are in Church History. We could add to that the number of examples of significant parts of the Church siding with wealth and power. Such examples were seen in the pre-revolutionary times of France, Russia, and Spain. They are being seen here in America with the kind of support that my fellow Evangelicals are giving to political leaders who support an economic system that has caused a decades long increase in wealth disparity and a disregard for Climate Change as exhibited in their support for cutting environmental regulations. And then there is the evangelical support for America's military ventures in the name of patriotism.
Butler's list for causes for attempts at deconstructing Christianity has huge blind spot when it comes to the many examples in Church History where legitimate Christian leaders have supported some real horrible practices and even atrocities. And though we should agree with him regarding the truth of Christianity, we must be more honest regarding the failures of many of our Christian heroes and the Church in general as being a cause of attempts to deconstruct the Christian Faith.
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