Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Tim Keller and "Social Justice"

Below is an excerpt of an excellent article by my friend Jonathan Cousar that was originally posted on the Freedom Torch website:

"I was so surprised to see an article posted here - on my own website about my former pastor, Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York city!  I went to Tim Keller's church for nearly 20 years and in fact I left just last year because of my growing concern that the church and Tim were far more liberal, theologically and ideologically than I had ever imagined. 
However, I never intended to write anything about it here because it just didn't seem like a relevant topic on FreedomTorch.  But since conservative FreedomTorch members are writing about him and doing so in a most positive way, I feel I must warn my conservative political and conservative Christian friends that Tim Keller, despite all claims to the contrary, is not a theological or an ideological conservative and he is most definitely not a traditional Evangelical.  He is in fact very liberal on both counts.  As J. Gresham Machen so well put it in his book “Christianity & Liberalism” liberal Christianity really isn't Christianity at all.  And I might add the corresponding political statement that liberal Americanism isn't Americanism at all either! 
The Christian media is fond of telling us that Tim Keller is an Evangelical Christian… just like us, they seem to imply.  So one thing Christians need to know about Tim’s teachings is that they are really anything but what we have come to know as “Evangelical” or conservative Christianity.   To sum it up most succinctly, you should know that Keller says "the primary purpose of salvation is – cultural renewal – to make this world a better place."  Whether you agree or disagree with that statement – it’s certainly not an “Evangelical” or conservative Christian belief." (Continue reading article here.)