My wife is mystified at my TV habits.
She gets it that I’m glued to the Cincinnati Reds game nearly every night during summer, baseball highlights afterward, Georgia football in the fall, even occasional Seinfeld reruns. All that makes sense to her.
But she finds one of my favorite categories for binge watching difficult to fathom is old western shows: Bonanza, Gunsmoke, the Big Valley, the Rifleman. I could watch them serially for hours on end. As I tell her, those shows are like a Hallmark Channel for guys: gun fights, saloon brawls, cattle drives. The cowboy always rides away with the girl. What’s not to love about all that?
I love those shows, in part, because I grew up watching them, so there’s definitely a good dose of sentimentality involved. I also enjoy them because I find the good guys attractive as manly role models: Ben Cartwright and sons, Marshal Matt Dillon, Heath Barkley (played by the Six Million Dollar Man himself, Lee Majors), former Brooklyn Dodger Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain. The good guys.
Good and evil, lawfulness and lawlessness, light and darkness are clearly on opposing sides in those shows. And the good guys always win. During the show’s last 10 minutes, the bad guys get their comeuppance — every time. It’s how we wish the world worked (it will again someday).
WE’VE MET THE BAD GUYS, AND THEY ARE US
There was a time in our country when evangelical Christians and their faith were seen similarly: No, we weren’t viewed as heroic, but we were the good guys. We were respected and more or less viewed as an agent for good among those who didn’t share our worldview. We were good people, good neighbors, the guys and gals wearing the white hats. Many didn’t understand us, but they didn’t want to cancel us.
That is clearly no longer the case. Whereas my generation asked the question “Is Christianity true?” Gen Z (and likely millennials) is asking “Is Christianity good?” The consensus has come back with an overwhelming, “No. Christianity is destructive and Christians are toxic.”
We are no longer the good guys. I’m not saying being considered the good guys is good for us, because it certainly can — and has, historically — led the church to be at ease in Zion.
I was reading a 2021 book by Australian pastor Stephen McAlpine last week while on the road at the SBC Annual Meeting, “Being the Bad Guys: How to Live for Jesus in a World That Says You Shouldn’t,” which got me to thinking about this reality. Obviously, we’ve been living in a post-Christian culture in the United States for some time, and McAlpine points out that secular culture despises us mainly because of its undying commitment to self-determinism (expressive individualism) and identity politics. The core Christian message of a sovereign God who determines our identity, our times and seasons, cuts deeply across that grain.
We believe there are only two genders by God’s glorious design: “Male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). Cultural orthodoxy says gender is fluid and open to self-definition.
We believe one’s gender identity is settled at birth, that it is the ultimate in self-idolatry and arrogance to say, “God made a mistake in having me born a man/woman. I will fix it.” Cultural orthodoxy says choose your adventure.
We don’t buy the ridiculous, facile argument that abortion clinics provide “access to women’s health care.” No, they murder God’s image-bearers in the womb because cultural orthodoxy says the baby might be a medical problem that demands access to medical cure.
We believe marriage is a permanent, exclusive covenant relationship between a man and a woman, that so-called same-sex marriage is not marriage, no matter how earthly courts redefine it. Despite the secular media’s evident surprise that evangelicals define marriage in a “traditional” way, such has been the case for 2,000 years. There’s nothing new here.
We believe that to hold drag-queen story hour for children (or for any age group) at the library is to open a little can of hell on earth before innocent watching eyes, that it is pure wickedness. Cultural orthodoxy celebrates it with TV shows that present cross-dressing as being as mundane and as normative as shopping for groceries.
And there are other issues on which the culture says we’re “on the wrong side of history.” Our views and our Bible from which they arise are dangerous and bad guys are the dangerous guys. Evangelicals aren’t respected, aren’t seen as good by the broader culture. We’re not Matt Dillon or Hoss Cartwright or John Wayne — we’re the bank robbers, the banditos, the desperadoes.
WHY ARE WE SURPRISED?
We should be anything but shocked. Jesus said this day would come:
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:18–20b).
And that day is here with a vengeance. While Christians are not yet persecuted widely or blatantly in our country, they are being demonized and marginalized for their views on gender, sexuality, the sanctity of life, the exclusivity of Christ. We’re out of touch, intolerant, bigoted, and evil. What the Bible calls darkness, our sin-dizzy world calls light. What God hates, the world loves. It seems the tension between God’s Word and what the culture calls normal is at an all-time high.
Naturally, if we are faithful Christians, we will be seen as a threat to the prevailing mores and secular worldview of the day.
But if we’re honest, we don’t enjoy being the villain; we’d prefer to be Marshal Dillon. We want to be seen as nice, friendly, kindhearted, and agreeable. Deep down, we enjoy respect and a nice seat at the table of the marriage supper of cultural influencers.
EMBRACE THE ‘WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY’
But we must crucify these tendencies.
A strong desire to be a good guy can lead us to subtle (or not-so-subtle) compromise, and, indeed, we’ve seen it in the unprincipled pragmatism that has pervaded evangelical (and yes, SBC) churches in recent decades. We’ve been tempted to:
• Soften our stance on biblical complementarianism and look the other way when a few scattered churches ordain female pastors. We don’t want to be accused of being witch hunters, because that’s not very nice. After all, only a few churches have gone egalitarian. While it’s never, ever an occasion for celebration or joy, the SBC did the right thing at this year’s annual meeting in voting that FBC of Alexandria, Va., is not in friendly cooperation with our denomination. Sad, yes, but the courageous, biblical call. The right thing is almost never the easy thing.
• Soften our stance on the whole LGBTQ+ complex. We invent descriptors like “gay Christian” that sound benign and inclusive in the ears of the broader culture. We talk about “revoicing” the conversation to make gay people more comfortable with us and our churches. We unhitch from the Old Testament because, well, the God who roams that part of the Bible has a real anger problem.
• Use worldly means to draw a crowd to our churches in the name of outreach. We certainly do want the lost to be found and want our unconverted neighbors in our churches to hear the gospel, but we must remember: What you win them with is what you win them to. Is the Bible sufficient? Does Scripture regulate our worship services and ministry methods?
REMEMBER: WE’RE ALIENS AND STRANGERS
Christians were never supposed to fit into this world. Scripture calls us aliens and strangers here (1 Pet. 2:11). Augustine rightly pointed out that we are simultaneously citizens of two cities — the city of God and the city of man — but we must remember that two very different loves animate those cities (love of God vs. love of self) and our time in the city of man is to be preparation for our final home in the eternal city.
How can we be the best bad guys? I refer you to McAlpine’s book for a fuller, helpful guide, but at the very least, we must:
• Dare to be a Daniel. He famously refused to worship the king, even though his job was on the line. We must refuse to capitulate in even small ways to the reigning cultural orthodoxy. Be bold and clear while standing firm upon the inspired, inerrant, authoritative Word of God. Now is no time for compromise.
• Dare to be a joyful and gracious Christian. There is no hope in our culture’s orthodoxy; where there is no hope, there is no joy. Let the world see that being in Christ makes you happy. And fully follow the wisdom of 1 Peter 3:15, always being ready to share the glorious gospel, but with gentleness and respect. Be full of truth and grace, just like Jesus.
The world will never embrace the faithful Christian. As we draw closer to our Lord’s second coming, Christians will increasingly lose favor with both professors and students of the reigning orthodoxy. Let’s be the best bad guys for the glory of God.
— Jeff Robinson is editor and president of The Baptist Courier. He also serves as an adjunct professor of church history at North Greenville University.