Russell Moore, the former President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, was announced as the new Editor in Chief of Christianity Today, effective September 1st, 2022. Readers will recall that Moore is a lifelong Democrat whose career was kickstarted by his internship under Mississippi Democratic Congressman Gene Taylor in the early ’90’s. And Moore’s Left-leaning sympathies have not changed for decades, given his vocal support for illegal immigration, Critical Race Theory, and the building of Islamic mosques. Meanwhile, Christianity Today has been publishing Woke-sympathetic articles for about two decades, as evidenced by their publication of pro=liberation theology articles, since at least 2004. This newfound relationship between Russell Moore and Christianity Today demonstrates that these two parties are, quite literally, on the same team. Russell Moore’s political and theological perspectives evidently match those that Christianity Today intended to forward when they hired him for the role of Editor in Chief.
Russell Moore’s Leftist Ramblings:
Russell Moore has published many articles on his website that serve as further evidence that he is, in fact, Woke. To demonstrate this, we have picked a few excerpts from his articles which highlight some of his absurdly Leftist perspectives. Readers should consider that, when Christianity Today picked Moore for Editor, they had access to such outlandish statements from Moore.
“Sadly, though, many black and brown Christians have seen much of this, not just in history but in flashes of threats of violence in their own lives. And some white Christians avert their eyes—even in cases of clear injustice—for fear of being labeled ‘Marxists’ or ‘social justice warriors’ by the same sort of forces of intimidation that wielded the same arguments against those who questioned the state-sponsored authoritarianism and terror of Jim Crow. And so, they turn their eyes.”
The Killing of Ahmaud Arbery and the Justice of God
Moore’s attempt to compare the killing of Ahmaud Arbery to the everyday experience of “many black and brown Christians” is textbook Critical Race Theory. When he wrote this article, the case was still fresh, pending any kind of actual trial. There was no way that Russell Moore could have determined that Arbery was, in fact, murdered at the time. Even today, many thoughtful Christians and concerned American citizens of all stripes hold serious doubts about whether the trial against the McMichaels could be considered remotely “fair” or unbiased, especially given that two of the three defendants did not shoot anyone or do anything that could have truly been considered illegal and given that the jurors were intimidated by Black Panthers standing outside the courthouse, armed to the teeth. But when the news first broke that Arbery had been shot, Russell Moore was totally convinced that the issue at hand was “racism.” Moreover, he accused anyone who would hesitate to accept the official BLM narrative about Arbery’s death of implicitly supporting “state-sponsored authoritarianism and terror of Jim Crow.”
“Again, I am not suggesting that every vaccine necessarily might involve unethical aspects of research, but simply that, even if some do, that fact does not mean that a Christian inoculated from disease by such a vaccine would be sinning to do so. Taking the COVID vaccine is morally right. ”
Is the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine Unethical?
In defense of the COVID-19 Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was developed utilizing fetal cell lines (i.e., tissue derived from the mutilated bodies of aborted human beings), Moore argued that Christians should rest easy and take any vaccine they wish, even if it was developed by utilizing the bodies of unborn babies. The reality, however, is that encouraging Christians to take such vaccines is effectively encouraging them to continue to produce the demand for the practice of abortion, which is the murder of unborn people. The notion that Christians should be able to take such vaccines scot-free, without hesitation, is one that effectively says: “What matters is that the vaccine will do you some good; pay no attention to the murder mills behind the curtain.” In reality, of course, Christians are morally obligated not to partake in the benefits of the wicked. Even though Christians themselves would not be directly guilty of murdering the unborn, the fact remains that they would be accomplices to, and complicit in, those murders. Christians should most emphatically not receive those vaccines. For those who were unaware of the use of fetal cell lines, there is no guilt in it, but for those who are aware enough to ask the question as to whether the vaccine is unethical, there is guilt. “Thou shalt not murder” entails not promoting murder by reaping its benefits, too.
“… [T]he way to reclaim the family is to crucify our family values. The dark powers would have us idolize ourselves and by extension our families, by which usually we mean the image we’ve cultivated of ourselves and our families. But if we receive family as a gift and not as the singular defining feature of our lives, then we are freed to love our families as they are, not as idealized extensions of ourselves. We need not force our families to conform to an image that only exists in our imaginations or resent them for falling short of our own idolatrous ideal.”
Putting the Family First Puts the Church at Odds with Jesus
The entire article from which this excerpt is derived is bizarre, but this is perhaps the most wild and convoluted statement contained within it. The notion that “family values”– that is, Christian devotion to one’s family– must be crucified in order to reclaim the family is a twisted notion, and it is found nowhere within the bounds of Scripture. While it is true that Jesus tells us that we must be willing to comparatively “hate” our family members, and even our own lives, to become His disciples, it is untrue that we therefore ought to abandon proper devotion and service to our family, just as it is untrue that we should literally commit suicide in order to follow Jesus. Paul had this to say in 1 Timothy 5:8: “But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” What Jesus’s teaching on family really boils down to is that we must be willing to face conflict with our family members, if those family members want us to do what God does not want us to do. That is not sacrificing family values at all; rather, it is upholding our family first, by treating them as God tells us to treat them, which will ultimately be for their betterment and wellbeing. The reality is that the Bible does place family first: God is our Father, and Jesus was firstborn among many, that we might be grafted into the family of God by adoption. God instituted and ordained the family, and therefore to say that putting family first puts the Church at odds with Jesus is a misunderstanding of the Biblical perspective on family.
Russell Moore’s Views Coincide with Christianity Today’s Leftward Drift:
The above excerpts are just a few examples of Moore’s Woke perspectives. For more, readers can peruse our profile on Russell Moore, whose Leftism extends far beyond the examples we provided in this article. Suffice it to say that Christianity Today and Russell Moore are a match for one another ideologically.
