The Gospel Coalition is like one of the SBC’s Lifeway bookstores. There are a few good resources, but there are so many bad resources and falsities that a discerning pastor should hesitate to send a young undiscerning believer there. Pin-pointing unconventional sources of idolatry seems to be a favorite past-time of TGC authors. While western society grappled with the deconstruction of the nuclear family, one rocket science of a TGC author decided to tweet about the problematic nature of the Christian family becoming an idol, and then followed the tweet up with an article that identified idolatry of the family as a pressing issue for evangelical Christians. It is undeniable that anything in life can become an idol. John Calvin aptly stated, “The Human Heart is an Idol Factory.” Pointing out idolatry of family in the context of the deconstructing state of modern western society, however, is equivalent to straining a gnat and swallowing a camel.
In keeping with the TGC tradition of offering shoot-from-the-hip-Twitter-hot-takes on important cultural issues, John Starke, TGC Author and Pastor of Apostles Church Uptown in New York City recently offered an atrocious theory on deconstruction and idolatry.
Apparently, according to John, the deconstructing apostates who claim to have lost their faith on the road to embracing sexual debauchery, secularism, leftist views on infanticide, and Marxism; were all just experiencing the sanctifying work of “removing the cultural idolatry” from their faith.
If one follows Starke’s statement to its logical conclusion, deconstructionists like Josh Harris are merely growing in their faith by casting off the “conservative idolatry” of fundamentalism (ie everything that constitutes orthodox teaching in the church.), by embracing all that the world has to offer. At best, Starke’s position on deconstruction takes Christianity, guts it of the Gospel and all its scriptural implications, creating a rotting corpse of a body of faith-the creation of a latitudinarian. At worst, Starke presents true Christianity as the complete opposite of how Christianity is presented in scripture, with evil being good and good being evil.
To his credit, Starke doesn’t hide that his position is leftist, claiming leftism as his “camp”, unlike some TGC authors who masquerade as conservatives. Starke doesn’t pretend to be a complementarian or conservative and regularly aligns himself with such leftist woke Big Eva types as Thabiti Anyabwile (Ron Burns), Beth Moore, and Kristen Du-Mez.
For those who would claim that Starke is far removed from his TGC days, TGC continues to platform Starke’s previous body of work, and even recommends that you follow him on Twitter, effectively inviting TGC’s audience to seriously consider his heretical view on deconstruction.
Editor’s Note. This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia
