Recycled Protestant Liberalism

Here is a quote from Os Guinness’ book Fool’s Talk  about how the evangelical world is filled with theological liberalism:

Full blown revisionism was once the natural preserve of extreme Protestant liberalism, and its proponents still lead the field by miles. But they no longer run alone. “Emergent Evangelicals” have emerged and aged until now only nostalgia or denial allows them to claim that they are emergent. But as their emergent sell-by date has passed, they demonstrate the effects of being weaned on the diet of their day-postmodern uncertainties, a relentless rage for relevance and a burning desire to be always seen as “innovative” and “thinking outside the box.” Not surprisingly, the result in the extreme cases is an Evangelical revisionism that is a recycled Protestant liberalism with the same feeble hold on the Bible and truth, nonchalance about authority, a patronizing stance towards tradition and the church catholic, and a naive idea of their own importance as heralds of newer, fresher gospels, and an uncritical stance towards the future.

Guinness’ description is spot on. Much of what passes for evangelical today is nothing of the sort. The assumptions of many evangelicals line up nicely with those we saw during liberalism’s great day in the late 19th and early 20th century. In particular, their “feeble hold on the Bible and truth.” Evangelical denominations, conferences, seminaries, and publishing houses are full of those who shave Scripture to fit their agenda, deny Scripture’s inerrancy, or blatantly ignore the plain teaching of the Bible.  Evangelical pastors are not much better. And perhaps the worst part is we don’t even know we have been gutted. We walk along, whistling merrily, believing we are alive when we are just a carcass.