Lighthouse Trails Research Journal
6
Christianity Today: “We are theologically conservative . . . committed
to the glory of God.”—CT History Shows Differently
BY LT EDITORS
n December 19th, 2019, Christianity
Today, the magazine that considers it-
self the “flagship” magazine for Christianity,
released an article written by the just-retired
editor-in-chief, Mark Galli, titled, “Trump
Should Be Removed from Office.” Accord-
ing to CT, the article set off a firestorm. And
by our estimates, millions have now seen the
article as scores of media outlets across the
country reported on the story. 1 However,
that article will not be the focus of this
Lighthouse Trails report. Rather, we will
be discussing something said in a December
22nd CT rebuttal article aimed at the crit-
ics of the 12/19/19 article. The 12/22/19
article, titled, “The Flag in the Whirlwind:
An Update from CT’s President,” was writ-
ten by CT president Timothy Dalrymple.
In his effort to defend and define Chris-
tianity Today, Dalrymple’s article states
that CT is “theologically conservative” and
is “committed to the glory of God.” Light-
house Trails hopes to show that in the last
20+ years, since the emerging “progressive”
socialist church was birthed, Christianity
Today has not been theologically conserva-
tive and has actually helped to propagate an
emergent socialist, very non-theologically
conservative spirituality that does anything
but bring glory to God.
O
Emergent Church Background
n Roger Oakland’s 2007 book Faith
Undone, he chronicled the birth of the
emerging church, dating back to the 1950s
with Peter Drucker who eventually inspired
another business guru, Bob Buford. Around
1998, Buford’s organization, Leadership
Network, with encouragement and enthu-
siasm from Leith Anderson, Rick Warren,
and Bill Hybels, pulled together a group
of youth pastors from around the country
to form what would be called Terra Nova.
Some of these young men included Brian
VOLUME 8—NO. 1
I
McLaren, Mark Driscoll, Dan Kimball,
Doug Pagitt. Chris Seay, and Tony Jones.
The Terra Nova group eventually broke
up, with each of these men going their own
way; but today’s postmodern emergent
“progressive” church was birthed, and much
theological and spiritual damage has been
done because of it. Countless young people,
raised in Christian homes and confessing a
faith themselves, were introduced to emer-
gent Marxist/socialist-leaning ideologies
by professors in Christian colleges, youth
pastors who were enamored with the Terra
Nova men, hundreds of books by Chris-
tian publishers, and Christian magazines.
Christianity Today was right there at the
forefront giving a major platform and thrust
to the commencement and continuation of
the emergent church. Many of the young
people who were taken down the emergent
path through these venues either became
emergent themselves or walked away from
the Christian faith all together.
Lighthouse Trails has documented this
tragic occurrence for nearly 18 years. So to
hear Christianity Today defend itself as a
“theologically conservative” magazine that
brings glory to God compels us to show the
role it has played in bringing about quite the
opposite. And as we described in our 2013
article, “They Hate Christianity But Love
(Another) Jesus – How Conservative Chris-
tians Are Being Manipulated and Ridiculed,
Especially During Election Years,” those
who have propagated the emergent church
(including Christianity Today) have had
political motives that are cloaked in supposed
theological and spiritual interests.
Our 2013 article stated:
In 2008, which was an election
year, books, videos, broadcasts,
and news articles were pouring
into mainstream America with
a guilt-ridden message that
basically manipulated conservative
Christians into thinking that
either they shouldn’t vote because
“Jesus wouldn’t vote,” or they
shouldn’t vote on morality issues
such as abortion or homosexuality.
Suddenly, all over the place,
there was talk about “destroying
Christianity,” or “liking Jesus
but not the church,” or “Jesus for
president” (suggesting that maybe
we could get Him on the ballot
but certainly we shouldn’t vote for
anyone already on the ballot). It all
sounded very noble to many. . . .
It’s hard to believe there was not
at least some political agenda in
this storm of “we love Jesus but
not the church or Christianity”
especially witnessed in election
years. And we believe this agenda
was aimed particularly toward
young people from evangelical
conservative upbringings who
had joined the emerging church
movement. In a CBS Broadcast,
anchorman Antonio Mora suggests
there may have been over twenty
million participants in the emerging
church movement in the United
States alone by 2006. 2 Even half
that number would be enough to
change the results of a presidential
election. 3
Our 2013 article also referred to the role
that the “social justice gospel” played, some-
thing that changed the minds and spirituality
of millions of young people, which inadver-
tently changed the outcomes of elections.
In 2011, we wrote an article titled “Chris-
tianity Today’s New 5-Year Teaching Series,
the ‘Global Gospel Project,’ May Have
Political and Emerging Objectives.” The
Continues on next page
SPRING 2020