• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Randal Rauser

Home of progressively evangelical, generously orthodox, rigorously analytic, revolutionary Christian thinking (that's what I'm aiming for anyway)

  • About
  • Books
  • Articles
    • Articles (single)
    • Articles (in series)
  • Audio/Video
    • Audio Interviews, Lectures, and Debates
    • Video Interviews and Lectures
    • Powerpoint Slides
  • Blog
    • Current Posts
    • Blog Archives
  • Podcasts
    • The Tentative Apologist Podcast
    • Archived Podcasts
    • Reviews

Is Owen Strachan guilty of theological malpractice?

May 22, 2014 by Randal

I’d like to add a footnote to my article “Hunting heretics ’cause you’ve nothing better to do“. That article was written in response to theologian Owen Strachan taking to Twitter a few days ago to accuse popular progressive evangelical and female blogger Rachel Held Evans of heresy because she once referred to God as “she”. Here’s Strachan’s original tweet:

Strachan on heresy

Heresy, straight up?!

This strikes me as incredibly ironic. You see Strachan is obviously trying to position himself as a theological doctor for the church, one who is truly serious about doctrine and spiritual health.  That’s what he’d like you to think, anyways. But his behavior directly contradicts the very impression he wishes to convey.

To put the matter into a context, imagine that an oncologist reads the following on the blog of an acquaintance named Jones: “I’ve had a persistent cough for a month now. That’s strange.”

Based on that statement in a post, our oncologist tweets the following:

Let’s stop pretending like all’s okay. @Jones has a persistent cough. This is cancer, straight up.

What would you think of that doctor rendering a diagnosis of Jones on that amount of evidence … and doing so through Twitter!? Reprehensible. You’d call it a form of medical malpractice or misconduct.

So what should we think of a theological doctor rendering a diagnosis of heresy on the barest evidence of a single reference to “God Herself” … and doing so through Twitter?

This is theological malpractice, straight up.

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: fundamentalism, heresy, orthodoxy, Owen Strachan, Rachel Held Evans, theological malpractice

Footer

Against Malaria Foundation

Against Malaria Foundation

Support Kiva

Support Kiva

Search this website

Archives



Copyright © 2022 • Randal Rauser • A Steady Site