Russell D. Moore, You Gentlemanly Scholar!

Dr. Russell D. Moore is a one of a kind Christian scholar. For the most part, I've tried to get through his books and his lectures, but they're just too boring. I've often had trouble with current Christian scholarship and Dr. Moore is no exception.

EXCEPT FOR HIS AMAZING BLOGGY.

That guy is an ace. When Moore needs to be concise (or as he puts it, "Moore to the Point." Hilarious!), he is a dream to read. For all of the blog posts and sermons that helped the church recognize how to think about 9/11, Moore was there to put it into words so perfectly. When we were confused by the earthquake in Haiti, Moore was helpful in dismissing the thoughts of Pat Robertson and elevating the God of the Bible.

Here, yet again, Moore respectfully and profoundly dismisses the political church of America: both the Left and the Right.

His post, "God, the Gospel, and Glenn Beck," is suuuuuuch a goooooood read. Why are so many Christians following Beck? Do we blame Beck like so many on the Left do?

Ahem:

Beck isn’t the problem. He’s an entrepreneur, he’s brilliant, and, hats off to him, he knows his market. Latter-day Saints have every right to speak, with full religious liberty, in the public square. I’m quite willing to work with Mormons on various issues, as citizens working for the common good. What concerns me here is not what this says about Beck or the “Tea Party” or any other entertainment or political figure. What concerns me is about what this says about the Christian churches in the United States.

It’s taken us a long time to get here, in this plummet from Francis Schaeffer to Glenn Beck. In order to be this gullible, American Christians have had to endure years of vacuous talk about undefined “revival” and “turning America back to God” that was less about anything uniquely Christian than about, at best, a generically theistic civil religion and, at worst, some partisan political movement.

I honestly have no idea how else to say what Moore says here. Let's have another, shall we?

Rather than cultivating a Christian vision of justice and the common good (which would have, by necessity, been nuanced enough to put us sometimes at odds with our political allies), we’ve relied on populist God-and-country sloganeering and outrage-generating talking heads. We’ve tolerated heresy and buffoonery in our leadership as long as with it there is sufficient political “conservatism” and a sufficient commercial venue to sell our books and products.

Too often, and for too long, American “Christianity” has been a political agenda in search of a gospel useful enough to accommodate it.

Glenn Beck is a brilliant entrepreneur, but he is in no way a representation of what it means to live life in the Kingdom of God. In his message that is filled with vague rhetoric of "restoring America" and "restoring honor," I hear nothing of the gospel. So why are there so many Christians following him?

Where there is no gospel, something else will fill the void: therapy, consumerism, racial or class resentment, utopian politics, crazy conspiracy theories of the left, crazy conspiracy theories of the right; anything will do.

It’s sad to see so many Christians confusing Mormon politics or American nationalism with the gospel of Jesus Christ. But, don’t get me wrong, I’m not pessimistic. Jesus will build his church, and he will build it on the gospel. He doesn’t need American Christianity to do it. Vibrant, loving, orthodox Christianity will flourish, perhaps among the poor of Haiti or the persecuted of Sudan or the outlawed of China, but it will flourish.

And there will be a new generation, in America and elsewhere, who will be ready for a gospel that is more than just Fox News at prayer.

Read the whole thing here.