I’m Not On The Bus

 
August 3rd, 2007 by Michael Spencer

UPDATE: The comment thread is closed.
The excitement is building around here. A good number of adults have been to the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky and they are singing its praises.
I’m sure it’s worth the trip and expense, and is dedicated to the cause of evangelism. No question.
Pretty soon there will be trips organizing and buses will be rolling to see what Answers in Genesis has done with 25+ million dollars.
I won’t be going. Ever. I’m not much on these pilgrimages.
Years ago, a senior adult group I was working with took a trip to a “Bibleland” kind of attraction, with a huge recreation of Jerusalem used for a cheesy “Passion” play. It was King’s Island in the Millennial Kingdom.
I hated it. Every moment of it. Even the parts about Jesus, as sincere as they were, distracted me with all the technology and Hollywood additions. Jesus flying over the roofs on a cable is an image I’ll never forget.
I’m not guiltless. I enjoy going to a good monastery with a library and lots of room to walk, but that usually gets me away from most people, and I have yet to see the kind of schmaltz at any monastery I’ve seen at Bibleland or its progeny.
I’m easily distracted from the Gospel, and I don’t want to be. I want to be single-minded about the gospel. Evangelicals these days WANT to be distracted. They are on buses of every kind, and I don’t want to be on any of them.
They are on the culture war bus. I have no hope that Christians can save the culture through politics. All that money could feed the poor, start churches, fund missionaries and mercy ministries. Giving it to ads on TV and Radio in hopes of making America a “Christian” nation is a waste of time.
Evangelicals are on the family values bus. Various kinds of fascinations from courtship to homeschooling to large families have evangelicals’ attention these days. I’m not interested. I believe the family is fundamental to God’s creation order, but I don’t believe I am going to save the world or even my children by following the blueprint of some family values guru. The notion that women and men can undo the fall by the various stratagems of the family values crowd amounts to a different plan of redemption, one where Jesus gives us principles for raising kids.
I’m not on that bus. Justification is by Jesus, through grace and faith. No one is justified by cultural wars or family values.

I’m not on the creationism bus either. The Bible is the story of redemption, and the point of its account of creation is to tell us who God is and who we are. I’ll give creationists the benefit of the doubt and I’ll agree that secular scientists have a far weaker case than they assume, but I don’t believe we save anyone by creation science. I don’t believe the age of the earth is the test of Biblical orthodoxy. I don’t believe creationists do very good science. I don’t think intelligent design is a trick of the devil.
All these creationism buses seem to have the not-so-subtle subtle message, “Get on or we’re going to run over you.”
I want to be all about the Gospel. It’s my one interest in this business. I truly fear the totalizing tendencies of so many evangelicals who believe anything they do, think, write or sell is a moral obligation for real Christianity. I fear the people who are so easily manipulated by what they hear, read and see that they will mount a mini-crusade against those who differ with them. I fear the increasing assumption that in evangelicalism, there is a group-think bus for every topic from Harry Potter to feeding schedules for your infant.
Suddenly, the Bible isn’t the story of redemption. It’s the instruction manual and complete encyclopedia for every sphere of life and every human activity. Not in telling us to do all we do in the name of Jesus, but in telling us the age of the earth, the dos and don’t of birth control and how to vote in a political environment the Biblical writers never dreamed of.
Mostly, I am weary of Christians- so many of them my brothers and sisters- who can’t give breathing room to a Democrat, theistic evolutionist or advocate of public schooling. These buses are for pilgrimage, and the seats are only for particular kinds of pilgrims. Christ doesn’t require us all to be alike in all these ways. We’ve built this evangelical subculture and made it an ultimatum. Very bad idea, that one.
Through this web site, I’ve learned that there are thinking Christians all over the world who agree and disagree with the various issues in evangelicalism. Many of them differ from the “get on the bus” mentality that presides in evangelicalism today, but they are quietly going about their lives, work and study without making an issue. I get to be the gadfly who says, “I’m not riding your bus, but I love and believe in Jesus.”
God bless all those people who love Jesus, his church and his great story of redemption. And God bless all you guys on the bus to the creation museum. I love you, but I’m not going on this pilgrimage.

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