Carl Trueman offers a no-holds-barred takedown of Joshua Harris, and the celebrity evangelicalism that he represents.
You may remember Joshua Harris. He is the author of the book "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" and an eventual megachurch pastor. A year or two ago, I don't remember when exactly, Joshua Harris renounced his faith, to great fanfare, on social media.
That his announcement was accompanied by fanfare was not an accident. Harris was using his loss of faith as an opportunity for self-promotion. Among other "tells", was the picture he chose to accompany his announcement. (Actually, that he chose to post any picture of himself on such an occasion is perhaps revealing in ways Harris didn't intend.)
Harris' picture, which you can see above, is an artistically styled picture of himself standing in the sunlight, face pointed outward toward the wilderness, hands-on-hips confident. "Joshua Harris, heroic explorer and adventurer" the photo seems to say - especially when coupled with his written words of sycophancy and self-congratulation.
It turns out that Harris' new venture involves getting people to pay for more of his "insights". As it happened, Harris' earlier written "insights" came with an undisclosed expiration date. He has apparently not given full consideration to the possibility that the insights of someone like himself - someone with a demonstrated propensity for repudiating his own insights - might depress the sales of any additional books containing his...um...insights.
Carl Trueman, author of the The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, takes a dim view of what Harris has for sale. Trueman offers a no-holds-barred takedown of Joshua Harris, and the celebrity evangelicalism that he represents.
Carl R. Trueman
