Christians Respond to Newsweek Story Encouraging Americans to 'Forget the Church'

April 4, 2012

This week's Newsweek cover story, written by Andrew Sullivan, encourages Americans to "forget the church" and just "follow Jesus" instead. Sullivan argued that "Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests and get-rich evangelists" and specifically attacked politically active Christians. Trevin Wax of The Gospel Coalition responded to Sullivan's piece with the following statement: "[Sullivan] wants to return to the simple message of Jesus as if that message can be divorced from the Man who delivered it. Despite his protests against a politicized faith, Sullivan is saying we should follow a Man whose primary message concerned a kingdom. You can't get more political than that. ... It's interesting to see how those who advocate a return to the words of Christ often display a frightening ignorance of what Jesus actually said. The primary message of Jesus was not love -- at least, not love in our sense of the word. The message of Jesus was Love with a capital 'L' -- meaning His message was about Himself. It was about His kingdom, His identity as king, and the cross that became His throne. So when Sullivan says that Jesus would have been 'baffled' by current debates over homosexuality or abortion, I would counter that Jesus spoke to both these issues and more, albeit indirectly."