It’s Not About You — Evangelical Life in the 21 Century (The Disclaimer)

That’s the sticker they robotically glue on the inside flyleaf of every book you buy at the BJU Campus Store. Even the Bibles!

That’s their litigious-ish way of washing their hands of your presumed offense at their dangerously idea-laden books.

So this is mine.

I’ve had another project brewing for some time. A project whose research got me so blue last May that I had to stop reading. I’m ready to start up again. And this is my sticker:

Disclaimer: I’m not talking about you. No, really. I’m not.

I’m talking about us. Which does include you. And me. And millions of other people who fall under the umbrella of Evangelicalism — from fundies to Pentecostals, from Calvinists to Arminians, from soul-patch-wearing-and-coffee-drinking types to their culotte-donning opposites.

But if you think I have you and yours in mind, you’re incorrect. I don’t. So forget the nitty-gritty you and think about the more abstract-and-one-contemporary-sliver-of-the-invisible-Church us. Or stop reading. That’s always an option.

In fact, this whole project could fall under the heading of “It’s Not About You.” So that we Evangelicals get so easily offended at point-blank critique or that we can think of one exception to the general rule or that we can turn every critique into a tu quoque fallacy . . . well, that is really proof of the problem.

But I’ll save that more for a later post.

Consider yourself warned.