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I’m Thankful for Joshua Harris
And why I’m glad I waited until age 40 to enter the seminary
I never knew Joshua Harris existed before catching wind of him through the headlines this last week.
I guess the skinny is, he’s an ex-fundamentalist/Evangelical pastor who wrote a popular book in 1997 (he was 23 at the time) that fueled the fire of Christian anti-LGBTQ sentiment and purity culture for people my age (I was 18).
Now, at the ripe ole’ age of 45, after his divorce (and whatever else he’s privately been going through) Harris is repenting for his past work. He claims that it “contributed to a culture of exclusion and bigotry,” and that he has “undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus.”
Writing on Instagram, he added: “By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian.”
“I have lived in repentance for the past several years — repenting of 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,” Harris wrote in the post.
Fundamentalist Evangelical Christians are having a field day bashing his name all over the internet. And so are Liberal Christians. Hell, I guess most everyone is hating on Harris right now.
