A couple of weeks ago, WORLD published an Opinion piece entitled “Why we need a Joshua Harris rule: How about a moratorium on Christian self-help books from authors under age 40?”

You can read it here, but the title just might say it all.

Importantly, the authors recognize a real problem. And they offer a solution.

Unfortunately, both are grossly oversimplified:

The problem – by locating it primarily with the influencer, with little reference to the responsibility of the influenced.

And the solution – by advocating the removal of the influencer rather than the adjudication of truth, a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Part 1: Joshua Harris is not the problem. (We are.)

My candid contention is this: Joshua Harris is not the problem. We are. We don’t need a Joshua Harris rule. We need Jesus, His Word, and to be more discerning about all manner of Christian media.

Put bluntly, we have a propensity to make gods out of people and scripture out of their books and, in the worst cases, crucify them when they don’t turn out to be Jesus and their books the Words of life.

Generally, we must fight tooth and nail against this tendency. Specifically, we must be a more discerning people:

• Continually reaffirming our faith in Christ alone and His Word as our sufficient guide for all areas of life.
• Continually studying Scripture so that we might know God and truth to discern the wheat from the chaff – in culture, broadly, but especially with Christian productions, which are too often trusted/endorsed wholesale.
• Continually disciple – pastors, their flocks; parents, their children, etc. – so that the sheep will know the Shepherd’s voice, not be deceived by false teaching (whether prophets or parts), and be able to actively process and filter truth from lies, teaching others to do the same.

Above all, we need Jesus and His Word to be more discerning. But in the way of rules, we have a very helpful one in the example of the noble-minded Bereans of Thessalonica, who “received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11)

For the record, I think we should read Harris, Kondo, and the like – with the Bible in our right hand and their books in the other. And it can only help to do so on our knees.

Part 2: If an academic critique. (Some additional observations.)

Though these points have little to do with the far more significant issues highlighted above, they are nevertheless notable.

• The subtitle of the article is “How about a moratorium on Christian self-help books from authors under age 40?” Yet, the featured figure of the article – Kondo – is not known to be Christian, but is widely recognized for her Shinto roots and beliefs.
• As many of the commenters noted, the age argument is rather arbitrary, as the Bible, history, and common experience demonstrates.
• I obviously don’t agree with the age argument, but it’s not a little ironic that the authors don’t appear a day older than 40 themselves.
• The opening sentence is uncomfortably similar to the opening sentence of the first article cited/linked.