Carl Truman’s article, coining the phrase “Gig Eva,” is a laughable notion that has since backfired on social media. But it’s worth zooming in on one of the biggest absurdities of the article which is lauding the merit by which members of Big Eva gained their acclaim.
This is the choice paragraph of Carl Truman that is simply ahistorical.
There are some obvious differences between the Big and the Gig. Even in the world of Big Eva, the headline acts were generally men and women who had first established their reputations through service of local churches or talented writing for established publishers. They had a certain authority that predated their rise to Big Eva influence. In Gig Eva, anyone with the time to spend living online can become a celebrity without having proved himself beforehand in any real service to any church. But there are also similarities, such as in the matter of accountability. Big Eva gurus were accountable only to each other. Their heirs in Gig Eva are accountable to nobody. To put it another way, both tend to marginalize the actual church by making their own platforms and declarations the source of all wisdom, but Gig Eva has only intensified the problem that led me to coin the term “Big Eva.”
And while my colleague, pointed out that the Christian media and publishing industries routinely cater to DEI, this is far from the only lack of meritocracy that characterizes Big Eva.
The path to Big Eva is rather simplistic, although difficult in its own right. The surest way to be welcomed into Big Eva was to be a megachurch pastor. And the surest way to be a megachurch pastor was to put out corporate slop messages that play well to wide audiences. Thus most megachurch pastors, and their aspiring counterparts, water down the gospel and biblical teaching to put butts in seats.
Rick Warren’s purpose driven drivel, Andy Stanley’s shallowness and emaciation, and Tim Keller’s new city seeker sensitivity, are all examples of watering down the gospel to become like the world around them. After all, JD Greear doesn’t have abortion clinic workers, whose intentions he lauds, at his church by way of preaching the whole counsel of God. Most of Big Eva got their by way of following the example of Joel Osteen and those who came before him.
Alternative to the megachurch pathway is outlandish, novel theology. John Piper is perhaps the clearest, noneschatological example of this, whereby he invented Christian Hedonism. David Platt, who also came from a megachurch background, conjured “Radical” theology.
Many players in Big Eva are ladder climbers, like Al Mohler, but these men are minorities in the guild of Big Eva. A subcategory of this are the nepobabies.
In stark contrast, so-called Gig Eva arose through online channels, such as social media, podcasts, and videos. But a failure of Carl Truman is that most of Gig Eva are local pastors. Team Evangelical Dark Web is a minority in this respect, as none of us are pastors.
Nevertheless, social media provides a purer meritocracy than what the traditional Big Eva pathways did. A Christian with a Bible knows more than a seminarian, a fact made clear on X every day. Social media is the public square, where ideas are debated. Big Eva can astroturf and gaslight their audiences, but ultimately, they get crushed on social media regularly.
Gaining prominence on social media does not require watering down the gospel. In fact, leaning in to the more culturally transgressive teachings of Christianity is rewarded on social media. Taking courageous stances, naming names, and pithy messaging are rewarded on social media. Compared to butts in seats, this is a marked improvement in meritocracy.
Social media roots out many frauds, Patriarchy Hannah being a recent higher-profile example of a fraud exposed. Accountability is more rife on social media than it ever was in Big Eva whereby wokeness went overwhelmingly unpunished. A Big Eva pastor would have to cheat on their wife or get arrested to get canceled. A Gig Eva figure needs only to crash out, doubling down on bad ideas and descend into lolcow status.
The idea that in Big Eva, there is accountability is laughable, as only Alistair Begg was promptly held accountable for his teaching, the only pastor in recent years. The rest of Big Eva only falls by scandal, and sometimes, as is the case with JD Greear and David Platt, no amount of evidence of corruption will get Big Eva to hold them accountable.
Gig Eva is an improvement upon Big Eva in every conceivable way, and understandably, there will be a lot of butthurt over the next few years as the shakeout unfolds. Elites are always going to exist, even in Christianity, and it’s better that social media vet them than seminaries, publishers, and NGOs, as we have seen how this plays out.
One Response
Maybe it’d be better to say “It’s better that social media vet our elites than for seminaries, denominations, publishers, and NGOs not to vet them.” After all, the problem isn’t that churches are vetting pastors, it’s that they’re doing a horrible job at vetting pastors–when vetting happens at all.