John West is doing a lot of interesting interviews about his new book, Stockholm Syndrome Christianity. There’s plenty of fascinating stuff in this new one, with interviewer Becket Cook. I was not, for example, familiar with megachurch pastor Andy Stanley who sounds like he’s stumbling down a path toward Marcionism, belittling the Hebrew Bible as the “Obsolete Testament.”
Dr. West underlines that institutions devolve unless the people who run them are really on top of staying true to their mission. An example is the Christian college where West was a professor for a decade. Or there is another well-known pastor, the late Timothy Keller, with a popular church (pictured above) in Manhattan, who though he also “did a lot of good,” became a “tragic figure” in West’s view. In part, this seemed to follow from his friendship with Francis Collins, which may have colored how he saw the debate about intelligent design.
Among the temptations we face as humans, friendship — otherwise such a beautiful thing — doesn’t get the attention it deserves. The dynamic, being “friends with Francis,” or fill in the name of some other famous person, is a powerful one. The prestige of your friend rubs off just a little on you. To think your friend could be wrong about a profound subject may be, for some, too much to ask. Oh, my friend Francis is a renowned scientist and such a wonderful Christian. He couldn’t be wrong about that! Watch: