The Narcissism of Small Differences – A Brief Defense of Gavin Ortlund

Over the past few weeks a lot of attention has been paid to Gavin Ortlund due to the release of the book: Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda by Megan Basham. Before this latest development, I’d never heard of Megan, but I’ve been extremely familiar with Gavin for years now. This includes reading several of his books, writing my longest book review on his most controversial book, reading and corresponding with him through his blog, reading many of his articles, watching his YouTube videos, listening to him at a conference, meeting him in person, and finally supporting him on patreon. I think with all these interactions and this level of engagement over years, I’ve developed a good understanding of his theological positions and overall character (as much as one can with these types of things anyway). 

Further, I’m by no means a blind follower of Ortlund. To name just two areas where we differ: I believe in baptizing infants and he does not, and I’m far more convinced of the credibility of Intelligent Design science as a whole than he tends to be (mainly as it relates to evolutionary biology). So we at least differ on a major area of faith and science (my own pet area of study), and on infant baptism. In some circles, this is enough for a double anathema. But you know what? I don’t care. 

What We Have in Common

Don’t mistake me, any reader of my blog will know how greatly I care about ID science and any theological belief I hold. But here’s the thing, Gavin Ortlund has helped me better understand and apply the Gospel. He’s been used by God to strengthen my faith and conform me more into the image of Christ. He’s strengthened my beliefs in the truth of Protestantism, the Trinity, the substitutionary atonement, the resurrection, the virgin birth, and my belief in the necessity of pursuing truth with love. So, in light of these things, what Christian on earth should care about a few disagreements here and there? It’s so easy to focus on the few areas where we diverge and to forget about the massive core of common ground. Consider John Steinbeck’s outsider perspective on this given in East of Eden:

The sects fought evil, true enough, but they also fought each other with a fine lustiness. They fought at the turn of a doctrine. Each happily believed all the others were bound for hell in a basket. And each for all its bumptiousness brought with it the same thing: the Scripture on which our ethics, our art and poetry, and our relationships are built. It took a smart man to know where the difference lay between the sects, but anyone could see what they had in common.¹

God help us all when we forget the great common bonds of faith that bind Christians of various denominations and perspectives together. We all know there is a time for division, but historically Christians have grossly failed Christ in our downright eagerness to divide. Once more, we are not talking about the differences of fundamentals and core beliefs. For instance, the types of beliefs that separate Christianity from Mormonism are issues of core doctrines that can only leave the two systems of beliefs opposed to one another. But here we are talking about relatively small differences when compared to what is outside the Church.

Those Pesky Small Differences

While this drama has been going on about Ortlund, I haven’t been able to get a phrase out of my head. The phrase is: “the narcissism of small differences.” I read those words earlier this year in Susannah Black Roberts’ article for Mere Orthodoxy where she brought C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape back to life. Not surprisingly Susannah and Screwtape were considering division within the American Church. Here’s the section (remember this is Screwtape the demon doing the talking):

Your patient is an American evangelical— let him by all means focus most of his vitriol on American evangelicals very slightly to his left or to his right. This narcissism of small differences creates, to my palate, one of the more piquant deformations of soul. Of course, your patient must never be permitted to reflect that one of the things that he is doing in his attacks on those whose friends he may share, whose writings may appear alongside his in journals, is an attempt at market differentiation. There has been nothing so helpful to our strategies in these areas as the creation of a marketplace of personal brands, of potentially profitable public profiles among those who profess our Enemy’s name; this is in fact one of the areas of psycho-technological research and development in which I have been investing most heavily of late, and I advise you to do the same.²

I don’t know what else is in the book Shepards for Sale, and I don’t care. Because what I do know is that seven pages of chapter one are devoted to tearing apart a faithful and gentle Christian witness primarily over his position on climate change. You heard that right, climate change, not the resurrection, the virgin birth, the Trinity, the nature of God, not even baptism or homosexuality, but climate change. A view that Gavin holds with humility and generosity toward others despite what Shepherds for Sale would have you think. Just watch his original video if you have any doubts.

One Body

This post isn’t about bashing Basham. I know nothing else about her and I don’t have the interest to do any further research. My intent here is simply using this current controversy to offer a warning to us all. There is certainly a narcissism present when we laser in on the peripheral. The action is ugly and unbecoming. There has been way too much of it in the past and there is still way too much of it today. I’ll end with an exhortation from Dietrich Bonhoeffer which I find fitting to consider in light of the Ortlund controversy and, even more, the Evangelical atmosphere that allows it to exist (lower-case “catholic” just means “universal”):

In other words, life together under the Word will remain sound and healthy only where it does not form itself into a movement, an order, a society, a collegium pietatis, but rather where it understands itself as being a part of the one, holy, catholic, Christian Church, where it shares actively and passively in the struggles and promise of the whole Church.³

Notes:

1. John Steinbeck, East of Eden (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2002), 215
2. Susannah Black Roberts, “Screwtape Considers the Culture Wars,” Mere Orthodoxy, January 9, 2024, https://mereorthodoxy.com/screwtape-considers-the-culture-wars
3. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community (New York, NY: HarperOne, 1954), 37

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