Andrew Isker is a thought leader in the Christian Nationalist movement. The announcement that he was to be interviewed on Tucker Carlson made a lot of the right people mad and ultimately envious. Andrew Isker wrote The Boniface Option, which aims to help identify what he calls Trashworld and offer solutions to specific problems facing Christians. Tucker Carlson interviewing Isker is an optimistic development for the movement.
The actual interview is a little different from what was expected. Isker was called on to discuss the Ridge Runner Highlands project, which is a real estate venture for Christians to form a community in Tennessee. Isker is leaving his roots of six generations to participate in planting a church for the project. The project has gained national notoriety and contrasts with a Mulsim project in Texas.
Tucker, not realizing that Isker was a pastor at the moment, asked for his read on how wokeness permeated Evangelicalism. Isker discussed the liberalizing of culture in the late 20th century led to the seeker sensitive movement pioneered by Rick Warren, and he also names Tim Keller.
This is a bold take by Isker, but he’s not wrong. Isker explained that Tim Keller was the seeker sensitive movement in New York City for aspiring middle-class liberals.
Andrew Isker expounds upon Keller’s unwillingness to confront homosexuality and other liberal sins.
Isker explained after the interview, responding to backlash:
Tim Keller’s entire career was affirming what the Bible says as minimally as possible while making Christianity as maximally attractive to PMC striver libs. He was Rick Warren for people who read The Atlantic.
Andrew Isker understates the issue with Keller. Tim Keller was wildly influential via The Gospel Coalition in boosting Side B Theology. The Gospel Coalition issued a white paper for their campus ministries that advocated the position that homosexual desires and identity are not sinful. Thus, multiple Side B and even some Side A theologians credit Keller with their views.
The comparison between Rick Warren and Tim Keller seems farfetched at first, but both pioneered separate seeker-sensitive methods for their respective markets. Tim Keller was simply more erudite about it. But both avoided offending people and sought to put butts in seats. Rick Warren’s target and methods simply had broader application outside Southern California.
Tim Keller’s legacy has been debated for years now, and Andrew Isker adds a meaningful comparison to the debate.
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3 Responses
It all traces back to Schleiermacher, doesn’t it?
I was taught in seminary that who you are attracted to sexually is how God made you and thus not a sin. It’s what we do about any sexual desires that may involve sin.
That seemed logical and fair to me, far more so than the fellow seminarian who felt justified in sleeping around with 300 different men a year because his church wouldn’t let him marry another man. What he refused to see was that his church wouldn’t approve his sleeping around with 300 women either.
God saves people.
No one is ever a seeker of God on their own so we should not organize our church activity around something that doesn’t exist