JD Vance set off a controversy among Christians by citing the teaching of ordo amoris. Vance’s ideas sound novel to many Christians yet it’s unlikely that Evangelicals, who voted for Donald Trump above 80%, would disagree with Vance spouting centuries-old Christian thought. While Jesuits are a source of Papist opposition, David Platt and his poverty gospel was a driving force in Evangelicalism inverting ordered affections.
In a theological context, ordo amoris can be understood as the proper ordering of one’s loves or affections, aligning them with God’s will and design. This concept is rooted in the idea that human beings are created to love God above all else and to love their neighbors as themselves (Matthew 22:37-39). When one’s loves and desires are rightly ordered, they lead to a life of virtue, fulfillment, and harmony with God’s purpose.
David Platt’s Radical was one of the most influential books in Evangelicalism in this century. The book has all of the worst qualities of the Young, Restless, & Reformed movement paired with the complaints of Gen X. David Platt has valid critiques against consumerism and its influence on the church. He is perhaps rightly disillusioned with the American Dream as many Gen X men are. Whilst a pastor of a megachurch, he describes his efforts to fundamentally change the culture there. However, David Platt’s solutions amount to a legalistic Poverty Gospel.
One of the boldest claims that Platt makes is that all believers are called to international missions. Ironically, this seems to only apply to Americans. There is no suggestion in the book that believers in jungle churches should come to America for international missions, as the Great Commission is pitted against the American Dream as the subtitle indicates. Platt assumes that third-world churches are carrying on the Great Commission superiorly despite America being the hub for international missions for over a century.
Additionally, David Platt argues that all believers should set a limit on how much income they need and to donate any income above that to missions or to alleviate poverty. David Platt employs emotional manipulation amounting to the “starving child in Africa” argument.
Suddenly I began to realize that if I have been commanded to make disciples of all nations, and if poverty is rampant in the world to which God has called me, then I cannot ignore these realities. Anyone wanting to proclaim the glory of Christ to the ends of the earth must consider not only how to declare the gospel verbally but also how to demonstrate the gospel visibly in a world where so many are urgently hungry. If I am going to address urgent spiritual need by sharing the gospel of Christ or building up the body of Christ around the world, then I cannot overlook dire physical need in the process (108-109).
Platt seems to believe that throwing away middle class savings so that 26000 people can have one day’s worth of food is good stewardship of resources.
Moreover, David Platt seems to celebrate wildly irresponsible decisions all done in the name of the Great Commission but might have been vainglorious. On page 176, David Platt celebrated a missionary who went to evangelize cannibals bringing his pregnant wife along. Months into their journey, she and her newborn died. David Platt hailed them as martyrs willing to die for the faith. But there is no indication that they were murdered in Platt’s writing. It was rather disturbing that Platt celebrated this. Because no matter how great a missionary this man was, he was a terrible husband and father. The Christian tradition has never encouraged believers to recklessly pursue martyrdom, and the Bible shows counterexamples as well. It is the neglect of family that is Radical’s most glaring weakness.
David Platt has had a career where his ability to do international missions has been subsidized by the giving of those whose incomes are not. Platt values traveling abroad to be with Christians overseas, but this is not sustainable for everybody.
It’s not a matter of aging poorly, as a book published in 2010 was written during poor economic conditions. This book was shortsighted when written and advocates elders in the church to throw away their children’s inheritance. Now in an apparent hypocrisy, David Platt’s tenure at the International Mission Board was characterized by reducing the number of missionaries sent. Moreover, David Platt is known for living a far more lavish lifestyle than the average American including first-class travel, a million-dollar home (albeit in an expensive real estate market), and being the pastor of a multicampus megachurch. David Platt’s most famous teaching is an emotional manipulation that if heeded is unsustainable.
David Platt teaches disordered affections. His work encourages people to hate their children and their children’s children by squandering their wealth on an unsustainable missiology. He taught Americans to hate the American church. Despite its flaws, the church in America is still more robust than in many places around the world, and this holds true for all denominations in my opinion. American Protestants have a great heritage that we need to be called to live up to, not denigrate in favor of romanticizing third-world poverty.
But in the inverse, David Platt’s highest calling to love is the unreached starving pagan in abstraction. This is a disordered love, but it is one all too familiar in the church.
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Sad. Mr. Platt should consider that Jesus made sure that his mother (and perhaps his younger siblings, as some of them might not have been grown up) had someone to take care of them, he did not do that for widow with two coins, who was poorer than Mary was. Also, for most Christians through the ages, international missions is impossible. Mr. Platt, on the other hand, is a wealthy man who is richer than almost everyone I know at close or medium range.
David Platt is a treasonous subversive, who specializes in twisting “Christianity” into a destructive, harmful, anarchist, cultural marxist, anti-White ideology.
Platt’s megachurch has reportedly experienced a very large drop in membership (some articles say a 40-60% decline) since he took over. Some articles claim that the membership has declined from 16,000 to 2,500 during Platt’s leadership. That’s an 85% drop.
Obviously, the congregants do not approve of the cultural marxist trash that Platt is spewing.
Undoubtedly, this Platt clown is a huge supporter of race-mixing and earthly imposter “israel”.
After the America First movement wins power, traitorous cucks such as Platt will win an all-expenses-paid luxury vacation to the “Camp Bonhoeffer” penal labor camp, where they will enjoy doing heavy manual labor for 12 hours every day (except Sundays).
Source claiming that attendance/membership at Platt’s megachurch has declined from 16,000 to 2,500 during Platt’s leadership:
https://capstonereport.com/2021/07/23/update-david-platt-confirms-huge-attendance-membership-drop/36708/
This article is from 2021, so it is possible that the membership has declined even further since then.
The Bible says that those who don’t provide for their own are worse than unbelievers.
Every White person has a Christian DUTY of racial loyalty to love, care about, help, protect, and defend the White race and their White racial kin.
Every single day, each White person should be thinking about what actions they can do to help their fellow White people, and the White race as a whole.