Category 5
Verdict: Wolf in wolf’s clothing
Preface
Evangelical Dark Web is a discernment ministry that generally operates by taking in reader questions about prevalent teachers. You can make a request here and see our answered verdicts here. However, this verdict was an exception in that it was not reader suggested but was the biproduct of research conducted by Evangelical Dark Web. Such initial findings led to Dr. David Anderson being researched in more depth.
Background
Dr. David Anderson is a multicampus pastor of Bridgeway Community Church operating in Reisterstown/Owings Mills and Columbia, Maryland. He is both this church’s founder and senior pastor. Additionally, he operates a podcast called Real Talk with Dr. David Anderson which is a radio broadcasted program on a DC “Christian” talk radio station WAVA. David Anderson is a liberal regional standout compared to their nationally syndicated Focus on the Family, David Jeremiah, and Robert Jeffress programs. Anderson is perhaps best known for his views on race, he calls “gracism.”
Bridgeway Community Church
Anderson’s church is a big tent congregation with a boilerplate faith statement and no official stance on secondary issues, as he sees it. Unsurprisingly, Bridgeway CC has female pastors and elders. A stated 5000 people attend this church each week.
Branch Covidianism
What makes David Anderson stand out among other similar pastors is perhaps his connection to Biologos. Biologos is an organization founded to promote Darwinian Evolution in the church. It was founded by Francis Collins, one of the men responsible for the coronavirus via funding it through gain-of-function research. Therefore, any pastor who affirms an evil man such as Francis Collins should be called into question.
In 2021, Biologos published a statement that states that it is loving your neighbor to get gabbed with the unsafe and ineffective jabs, to fight coronavirus.[1] This statement affirms the lockdowns, masking, jabbing, and even Francis Collins himself. Going even further, the statement calls on Christians to “correct misinformation” which means that they should fight the truth and peddle the lies of Francis Collins.
David Anderson is one of the only pastors promoted by the statement. This must have been the result of his rampant Branch Covidiansim prior to the statement, as well as the Biologos seeking a black pastor to prompt up as a signer.
Homosexuality and Transgenderism
David Anderson claims that his church is gay “engaging” in a sermon on homosexuality that give credence to side a theology.[2] There is no call to repentance much less the view that homosexuality is a sin. David Anderson simply says that he just cannot celebrate it. Anderson teaches that gender and sex are completely different phenomenon. In explaining his view on gender, he describes a story with a lesbian member of the church. Despite not performing gay weddings, David Anderson is undoubtedly gay affirming.
Anderson minimizes transgenderism by saying “we are all psycho.” Additionally, he legitimizes transgenderism and homosexuality by equating them to eunuchs. When it comes to sin, David Anderson levels all sin, tolerates seemingly all sin whether in his church or outside. He teaches to simply trust God to transform others, but this is a clear copout from preaching repentance and the truth, as is his charge of a pastor.
Wokeness
Under the banner of “gracism” David Anderson teaches his Social Justice Gospel. “Gracism” was a concept that predated the death of George Floyd, but the Gracism Creed[3] was an attempt to rebrand and Christianize Black Lives Matter after the tumultuous summer of 2020. Part of the creed reads:
In order for us to confront racism, collectively, we must first commit to uncovering where it still exists, personally. Whether in my private life, in systems I benefit from, in traditions I have become comfortable with, or in institutions where I have influence, like a cancer surgeon, I commit to identifying the pervasiveness of this painful reality, and I commit to remove this corruption until there is no trace left behind. I will not absolve myself from necessary introspection by making the blanket claim “I am not racist.” I recognize this will be a lifelong journey of Christ’s sanctifying work in my heart.
In not-so-subtle terms this creed imputes the signer, especially if white with guilt. David Anderson is creative with his wokeness if nothing else.
Conclusions
Though seemingly a small figure, David Anderson has some street cred with some higher up liberal players. Being one of the initial signers of the Biologos Statement indicates a willingness to sell out for clout and or the ability to network with figures in Big Eva, like NT Wright and Timothy Dalrymple[4] Still, they could have found many woke black pastors to peddle poison under the guise of Christian witnessing, yet David Anderson was one of three pastors to be among the initial signatories.
David Anderson seems to know what he’s doing with a radio program and a Maryland megachurch operation expanding to marketable locations. Owings Mill/Reisterstown are about a half-hour from his other location in Columbia, MD at a good time.[5] On top of that, there is no direct road connection between the two. This indicates that his church is not expanding because of customer base but because his teachings are viable in two separate locations. Most multicampus megachurches create franchises from to divide an overcrowding audience at their initial location. Bridgeway saw a market opportunity.
There is some skill to be recognized here. Will David Anderson ever rise to a TD Jakes level? Probably not. But the fact that Biologos took interest in him demonstrates a potential that merited this verdict.
The red flags of egalitarianism, supporting the Francis Collins agenda, woke teaching, and antinomianism adds up. This pastor does not believe in preaching repentance and therefore is a wolf in wolf’s clothing.
[1] https://statement.biologos.org/
[2] The Splendor of Gender / Respecting Gender Identity Mar 17, 2019
https://youtu.be/s–6YCG2IPM
[3] https://www.bridgeway.cc/gracism-creed/
[4] CEO of Christianity Today
[5] The author of this verdict is highly familiar with the geography at play here.
