Joshua Harris Kisses Christianity Goodbye

[Maverick]

"Christianity and Ethics" might be the wrong board for this post, so feel free to move it, natman.

Well-known Christian author, purity advocate, renounces his faith: ‘I hope you can forgive me’
by Caleb Clarke, Fox News


Author Joshua Harris, after announcing the end of his marriage, is now kissing his faith goodbye.

Harris, the author of the best-seller "I Kissed Dating Goodbye," a book he authored in 1997 that he later renounced after shaping purity culture for many millennial believers, revealed that he is stepping back from his faith. In an Instagram post, he also apologized for his previously held views, including "bigotry" to the LGBTQ community.

"The information that was left out of our announcement is that I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus," Harris wrote.

"By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian," he added, "I am not a Christian."

The former pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md., recounted several things he has apologized for in the past: "my self-righteousness, my fear-based approach to life, the teaching of my books, my views of women in the church, and my approach to parenting to name a few."

But there's one group he specifically wanted to add: "the LGBTQ+ community."

"I want to say that I am sorry for the views that I taught in my books and as a pastor regarding sexuality. I regret standing against marriage equality, for not affirming you and your place in the church, and for any ways that my writing and speaking contributed to a culture of exclusion and bigotry," Harris wrote. "I hope you can forgive me.⁣⁣"

Harris received mixed reviews -- support and some pushback -- for his latest announcement.


My initial thoughts are as follows:

1. Though I've never dated anyone, I've never been able to get on board with the idea of not dating prior to marriage as Harris promotes in his book. (He was only 21 years old when he wrote the book, anyway—something else that's made me skeptical of his advice.)

2. A lot of people who have read Harris's books are going to feel disenchanted, maybe even cheated, and start doubting the authenticity of his teachings.

3. Sadly, he is another casualty of legalism and modern-day Puritanism. I've noticed a trend (throughout history, mind you) of children brought up in overly-legalistic households (Christian or otherwise) swinging far to the other side. A pendulum suspended at one end will swing to the other when released—or when the force holding it back can no longer counter the force of gravity.

I'm curious to know what my fellow Villagers think about this. Fire away!

[NudeDude92]

1 John 2:19:
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

The Bible is clear. He was never a christian, and instead was a pretender like Judas. He needs to be saved, simple enough. He needs prayer. He needs to be witnessed to. The problem is, since he knows the Bible and has rejected it, it's likely he will do so permanently. Those who hear and reject tend to die in that condition.

[Petros]

I would not go so far as to say he was never a Christian - I know othing about him that is not in the post above. I think there is a good probability he is a casualty of listening to authorities sans discernment, both in his writing and preaching and now. I think there is a good possibility God will use tis and get him in the right boat.

When you listen to the voices of the world, whether in or out of the church, you can expect confusion and misdirection. That's why God has is sheepdogs.

[Jim]

He still has values and a sense of morality (even if I differ with him in some areas). He may well start pondering the source of morality and come (or come back) to Jesus. We can pray for him.

[nudie66]

It also sounds like he has been pulled underneath the wave of what society says should be celebrated, but what God says is an abomination.

Society cannot dictate our beliefs. Society constantly changes; our Creator is steadfast and trustworthy.

[NudeDude92]

I would not go so far as to say he was never a Christian - I know othing about him that is not in the post above. I think there is a good probability he is a casualty of listening to authorities sans discernment, both in his writing and preaching and now. I think there is a good possibility God will use tis and get him in the right boat.

When you listen to the voices of the world, whether in or out of the church, you can expect confusion and misdirection. That's why God has is sheepdogs.

I don't know, the Bible seems pretty clear to me....

[OzTech]

Three possibilities here:
1. That he was never a Christian and that he considered himself one because he did all the Church law-based things that he assumed meant that he was a Christian.
2. He has genuinely been saved and has been 'swept away' from his faith by the wiles of Satan and the voices of this world's morality.
3. He was saved and that he has now chosen to support the work of Satan (this would be anti-Christ stuff) for the totally selfish benefits he might receive here and now.

The passage in Rev 12:1-6 talks about a great red dragon whose tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven. This is often taken as meaning the dragon threw down a third of the angelic host in heaven but since, in Rev 1:20, Jesus identifies the seven stars in His right hand as the angels (messengers) of the 7 churches within Asia and then addresses those angels in the writing of the next 2 chapters it could well be that the stars the red dragon drew in are, in these later days, a third of the believers within our modern day churches. Joshua Harris might only just be another to be deceived by Satan and the media that is controlled by him. We could be seeing this happen a whole stack more with people of a greater or less profile within the Christian churches.

[NudeDude92]

Welp, now he's gone marching in a pride parade... kinda confirms what I'm saying.

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/entertainm ... ide-parade

https://www.christianpost.com/news/josh ... unity.html

[Petros]

Of what precisely is he proud?

I take pride in all kinds of things - like detecting a typo in asny book I pick up in whatever language. But I do not march about it.

[Jim]

I take pride in all kinds of things - like detecting a typo in asny book I pick up in whatever language. But I do not march about it.

You detect typos? Then let them stand in so many of your posts?

[Petros]

I dfetect typos whenj I read [those are genuine, not synthetic, by the way). Whe I write, I am watching my finger (I am a 3e digit ypist) moving on the keyboard and MOSTLY I do not read after ward. NOT the same as spotting a missing shadda in Arabic.

[Maverick]

Just to add on to what's already been shared, Albert Mohler wrote (I thought) a good analysis and response to Joshua Harris's "fall,": https://albertmohler.com/2019/08/01/joshua-harris

[New_Adventurer]

I dfetect typos whenj I read [those are genuine, not synthetic, by the way). Whe I write, I am watching my finger (I am a 3e digit ypist) moving on the keyboard and MOSTLY I do not read after ward. NOT the same as spotting a missing shadda in Arabic.

Don't worry too much about it. English has so much redundancy that you could leave out a third of the letters and still get it right most of the time from the context. Also, typography is so redundant you can leave off half of the letter and still figure out what it is. Take a printed page and cover either the upper or lower half of a line of text and see how much you can understand. Note, you cannot cover up both the upper and lower half.

There was a problem I had when in college 50 years ago, a printed book by IBM had a program listing made by a chain printer that was not properly adjusted, the right side of the letters was missing. A digit one and a capital letter I looked the same, and it took me a week to figure out the mistake. In Fortran I=J+1 is not the same as I=J+I, but the printing on the page was not good enough to tell them apart. The book was their Scientific Suroutines Package and I was trying to use the Fourier Analysis function for an array of sampled data.

[Petros]

Our capacity to process Garbage in into Data out is also handy for a Bostonian talking to folks in Dallas. Not perfect, but it helps.

[Maverick]

Our capacity to process Garbage in into Data out is also handy for a Bostonian talking to folks in Dallas. Not perfect, but it helps.

Now that's the truth, speaking from the Dallas end of things.