Gavin Ortlund is poised to be the next Tim Keller in so far as he’s attempting to popularize theological liberalism and political Third Wayism. In her book Shepherds For Sale, Megan Basham commented on his ability to package liberal talking points to reach the next generation. In a recent video, Gavin Ortlund sets off to argue why his Third Waytism is not like the Thrid Wayism you’re used to.
To define terms, Third Wayism was popularized by Tim Keller as an approach to politics whereby he would argue that the Bible stood somewhere in the middle between the left or the right, calling this the “Third Way.” Often times this has resulted in Big Eva attempting to astroturf organizations like The After Party or the American Solidarity Party, which ran an abysmal third party campaign. The American Solidarity Party was an open borders Marxist party that said it believed in family values. Unsurprisingly, there was no market for that.
Gavin Ortlund began his video by criticizing Donald Trump’s Gaza video and Andrew Tate. He then laments polarization, using these as a springboard for his Third Wayism argument. The immediate problem is he has not demonstrated a problem.
The issues he cites as evils on the right are personality-based, not policy-based, and Third Wayism is generally about policy. Moreover, polarization in America is good. If America were not politically polarized, we would be content with open borders and endless wars. But alas, we have people that wanted bathroom bills who were laughed at long before it was cool because transgenderism was made a polarizing issue before opposing this degeneracy became mainstream as it is now.
Gavin Ortlund objects to Third Wayism as defined as finding the biblical solution to be in the exact middle. This is a straw man, because Thrid Wayism believes that the solution is in the middle of the right and the left. Whether it is directly in the middle or a 90-10 split is irrelevant. The point stands: Third Wayism is liberal.
Talking a lot about political bifurcation, Ortlund fails to realize that the Republican Party is the the left of the Bible on most moral issues. The Republican Party is compromised on abortion and homosexuality, but killing and grooming kids is a sacrament of the liberals.
Ortlund pretends that church history informs his view, erroneously arguing that Augustine and the fundamentalists of a century ago would be woke by today’s standards. He then says Christians should study their favorite past theologians to grasp his instincts of how he would act in the 21st century. He suspiciously chooses CS Lewis, who supported the communists of Spain. But this advice is not terrible. Many are doing it, especially Stephen Wolfe, who wrote The Case For Christian Nationalism. I guarantee Gavin Ortlund would hate it if people studied the Reformers for politics because we are already seeing many liberal YouTubers hate this.
n conclusion, Gavin Ortlund’s attempts to redefine Third Wayism may reflect a growing trend among certain theologians to navigate a middle ground in political discourse. However, his arguments demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of both the historical context of Third Wayism and the current political landscape. By framing polarization as a problem rather than a necessary safeguard against harmful ideologies, Ortlund risks promoting a diluted version of conservatism that fails to engage with the critical moral issues at stake. This, of course, is by design.
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I didn’t bother watching his video on Trump Gaza and Andrew Tate because its so obvious that both are trolling. I don’t believe Trump intends to buikd a giant goks statue of himself. And Tate ia already irrelevant now that he has no Bugattis left as Romania took them all. The answer to his famous “What color is your Bugatti?” flex, for him is now “clear.”