Why Do People Reject Being Born Again by John Piper
A Pastor's Son Becomes a Critic of Organized religion on TikTok
John Piper is one of the most influential theologians in America. His son Abraham calls evangelicalism "a subversive, narrow-minded worldview."
Abraham Piper became a sensation on TikTok nearly overnight. He posted his showtime video in November, and he at present has more than 900,000 followers, many of them young people who thank him for capturing their experiences so precisely. His unlikely path to online stardom: irreverent critiques of evangelical Christianity aimed at others who accept left the faith.
"If yous just want to roll your eyes at how weird information technology all was, that's what I'm here for," Mr. Piper said, using a vulgarity, in a clip that has been viewed more than than 800,000 times since he posted information technology to the video-sharing site in February.
Mr. Piper is certainly not the but one to apply social media to talk virtually religion. But for millions of current and former evangelicals, there is an actress layer of meaning in his recent emergence as a critic: The household he grew upward in was headed past ane of the near prominent figures in American evangelicalism. Abraham'south begetter, John Piper, is a best-selling author and theologian who regularly appears on lists of the almost influential pastors in America; he retired as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis in 2013 subsequently 33 years.
Fame tends to develop faster online than in the pulpit. Within less than v months, Abraham Piper'southward follower count on TikTok has almost caught up with his male parent's one 1000000 on Twitter. His posts — more than 300 videos to appointment — tackle the idea of a literal Hell ("How are you going to take your family unit to Outback later on church while millions of people are burning live?"), the evangelical formulation of God ("unequivocal thumbs down") and the absurdity of youth group missions trips ("a white savior's evangelical vacation that other people pay for").
He delivers his monologues in a cheerful version of the didactic tone that thrives on TikTok. And his posts are visually appealing, besides, every bit far equally mini-lectures get. He often records while strolling through a formerly industrial area of Minneapolis, his long gray hair peeking out of a series of goofy knit hats. His other interests on TikTok include pop philosophy, linguistic communication and the jigsaw puzzle company he co-founded. (Mr. Piper as well co-founded and is on the lath of a media company chosen Brainjolt; he told CNBC in 2017 that the company expected to take in $30 one thousand thousand that yr.)
On a snowy day in February, Mr. Piper took 59 seconds to explain to his followers why information technology is absurd for Christians to brand their children read the Bible. "While other kids are learning to read with comics or whatever normal parents have effectually the house, here fundie kids are — 6, 7, 8 years old — devouring stories of Jezebel being defenestrated then eaten by dogs," he said with a bemused smile, using a slang term for "fundamentalist." The Bible is "basically 'Game of Thrones,'" he added, "except if you don't read it, you get to Hell."
Tyler Huckabee, a senior editor at the Christian magazine Relevant, described TikTok as a forum well-suited to post-obit a faith journey like Mr. Piper's. "He'southward borrowed a lot of tricks from his dad, in taking complicated ideas and packaging them in quotable, easy-to-understand sound bites," he said. Unlike the i-time weightiness of a volume or the one-dimensionality of text-based Twitter, Mr. Huckabee explained, TikTok can offer "an ongoing window into his thought process, and his evolution equally a person."
Epitome
He is also tapping into the growing appetite online for accounts of rejecting one's evangelical upbringing. If the New Atheist motility of the early on 2000s devoted itself to intellectual combat with the claims of Christianity, the more recent "exvangelical" movement elevates personal stories of people who have walked abroad.
Melissa Stewart, another popular "exvangelical" personality on TikTok, grew up in an Independent Central Baptist church in Minnesota. When she married at xviii, her pastor used John Piper'southward piece of work in premarital counseling sessions. She besides participated in a church group that studied his best-known volume, "Desiring God," which argues that joy is an essential piece of the Christian life.
Ms. Stewart is now divorced and in law school. On TikTok, where she has near 179,000 followers, she posts about feminism, sexuality and atheism. "To run into someone who didn't just come from that world but came from that family, who has clearly done the work to become out, and is so introspective and gentle and grounded" gives a lot of people hope, she said in an interview. "If John Piper's son can deconstruct and get to this place, I can exercise this, too."
For others, Mr. Piper'due south full-blooded is proof that ex-Christians should not be dismissed every bit people who were never really committed in the first place. "One of the common refrains is that these people were never Christian," said Blake Chastain, who popularized the term "exvangelical" when he named his podcast in 2016. "But the people who leave over these problems are the people who took information technology seriously. They were the youth group kids who were on burn down for God."
Mr. Piper is i of a number of children of prominent bourgeois Christians who accept publicly rejected elements of their parents' teaching. Jay Bakker, the son of the televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, is an advocate for L.1000.B.T.Q. acceptance in the church building. The five children of the combative evangelist Rick Joyner recently told the Times columnist Nicholas Kristof that they vote Democratic.
Abraham Piper was excommunicated from his father'south church at age 19 after rejecting the faith. "At first I pretended that my reasoning was loftier-minded and philosophical," he later wrote in a Christian magazine. "Simply really I just wanted to drinkable gallons of cheap sangria and sleep around." Iv years after, he returned to the faith, and was welcomed back at the church building in what his father has described as a "cute restoration service."
At some point after that, Mr. Piper departed again — this time, apparently, for proficient. In his videos, yet, Mr. Piper talks only vaguely nigh growing up in and rejecting what he describes as fundamentalism. He never mentions his lineage, and he declined to participate in this article. John Piper, also, declined to comment.
In his videos, Abraham Piper repeatedly insists he is not trying to convince anyone of annihilation. "Do you know how dull and soul-sucking it is to base of operations your whole life on making sure other people change to get more than like you?" he asked his followers in February. It'south not that nothing matters, he added. "But you get to pick what. You make up one's mind what matters. Lighten up, become laid, become bowling."
maldonadonegarace1958.blogspot.com
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/us/abraham-piper-tiktok-exvangelical.html
Post a Comment for "Why Do People Reject Being Born Again by John Piper"