Another Famous Evangelical Apostastizes: What Does It Mean?
By Dr. R. Scott Clark - Posted at The Heidelblog:
Jon Steingard is lead singer of the CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) band, Hawk Nelson. My CCM days are mostly behind me so I confess that I am not familiar with his music but I do recognize that he is a significant figure to a generation. He has 27,000 “followers” on Instagram, which is symbol of a certain degree of influence. Recently on Instagram, he posted a letter (in a series of images) explaining why he feels compelled to declare his apostasy from the Christian faith. Just as he used to give his testimony as an part of the evangelical liturgy, so now he gives his testimony as an new atheist, with the same sort of sweaty, overwrought, enthusiasm one associates with evangelical revival meetings. In view of his influence it is worth asking about the significance of yet another evangelical “deconversion.”
According to his letter he grew up as a pastor’s kid doing what a lot of PKs do, singing in a Christian band, leading worship, and living in the Christian bubble. He testifies that he has been having private conversations with friends, who like Steingard, also harbor deep (but apparently not very well investigated) doubts about the Christian faith. He likens his faith to a sweater. He says that he has been pulling threads on the sweater and no there is no sweater left. His faith is gone because it could not stand up to scrutiny. His faith, he says, was really the product of a shared belief, that he has long had doubts that he suppressed until he could suppress them no more. What are those faith-killing questions?
According to his letter he grew up as a pastor’s kid doing what a lot of PKs do, singing in a Christian band, leading worship, and living in the Christian bubble. He testifies that he has been having private conversations with friends, who like Steingard, also harbor deep (but apparently not very well investigated) doubts about the Christian faith. He likens his faith to a sweater. He says that he has been pulling threads on the sweater and no there is no sweater left. His faith is gone because it could not stand up to scrutiny. His faith, he says, was really the product of a shared belief, that he has long had doubts that he suppressed until he could suppress them no more. What are those faith-killing questions?
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