The Evangelical Slide: the review of a publisher and a book

Christianity has never been without wolves amidst the flock. Whether it is a Judas, or "wolves" attacking the Ephesian church, or rotten priests at the time of Martin Luther, there have always been those who have attempted to bring destruction to God's people from within by pretending to be one of them. Today, though not exclusively, this infamous position is largely held by the so-called "Emergent Church". The signs of this have never been more clear. Baker Books, long a conservative publisher many evangelicals have relied on, have fallen prey to this insidious disease within evangelicalism. While the Emergents run around trying to convince everyone that they are just like us, but more "relevant" and "cutting-edge", they know that the public defense of their position is not where their victory will be found. They have learned well the lessons of the last generation. Evolution was combated, not because it was wrong, but because it was a direct assault on the beliefs of many. While evolution is still wrong, had the proponents of the system found more circuitous means to spread their ideas, they would probably have been ignored until it is too late (or at least nearly too late). Liberalism almost succeeded at taking down the entire edifice of Evangelicalism in this way, and in truth, evangelicals took a stand, really almost at the cusp of disaster, to salvage their conservative, biblical ideals. The Emergents have learned from all this, and are now using those same devious means to mislead and misdirect so that they can slip their ideas in without others noticing. This is where Baker comes in. In 2004 they published a book titled Alternative Worship: Resources from and for the Emerging Church. Why is this a problem? Well, first, Baker, according to their own website (here) states that their mission is "to publish writings that promote historic Christianity, irenically express the concerns of evangelicalism, and reflect the diversity of this movement." The problem is, there is nothing historic about the "Christianity" in this book, nor is there any true allegiance to the evangelical movement by the authors of this book, despite what they may say. A simple evaluation of their ideals and theology reveals a gross disparity with traditional evangelical thought. Second, Baker was founded by Herman Baker with the intent to produce "conservative, scholarly, biblical material--a book that had more than an even chance of becoming a standard reference work" even from his very first book (here). If this publication is in keeping with the intent of the founder then Baker must intend this work to be biblical, conservative, and a standard reference work. If they are the source of so many trusted resources, like Haddon Robinson's Biblical Preaching and Millard Erickson's Christian Theology, should we not demand that they hold fast to their mission statement and not produce the works of wolves in sheep's clothing? I understand there will always be differences of opinion, yet those who deny universal truths and metanarratives, and there-by the meta-unifier status of Jesus, must always be considered as outside the camp of conservative evangelicalism, not merely another voice from within. The real tragedy arises when those who are unaware of the rampant influence of both Feminist and Liberation theology upon those who created this system of "Alt Worship" as Baker will promote this book to anyone, not just those who are prepared to do battle with postmodern thought. Our Christian book stores are not always staffed by those who are able to weed out every erroneous book, and our churches are certainly not filled with those who are able to do so either, unfortunately. Too many people trust our "conservative, evangelical" publishers to provide only those works that are both reputable and trustworthy. Too many others, those who know what is going on, are letting the buck pass, and not saying something about it. Were it not for the cries of the few watchmen on the walls in the past other issues like Liberalism and evolution would have swamped the evangelical movement, and we are in the same situation today. If we do not stand up and declare that Baker must change their ways or lose business, then we are neglecting our duty. If Christian authors do not refuse to have their books published by those who are so willing to give in to these "other gospels", then they are remiss, for making a buck is never worth the compromise, and we ought not publish books with publishers who compromise on the essentials with one side of their mouth and claim to hold those same essentials of the faith with the other. We must educate the people in the pews, we must stand up for what is right, and we must tell Baker, and anyone else who decides that standing firm is not worth the effort, that we will not follow them down this slide into heresy.