Jon Harris Gets Hired By The Gospel Coalition

Hey, I'm John Harris here for the gospel coalition interview. Hey, bro. Cephas of Arimathea.

Come on in sit right down Let's get down to beeswax. So I didn't get the chance to look at your resume.

Just totally busy, you know, life is crazy But you know,

I figured it probably more organic more natural to sort of just have you sit down Tell me about yourself and what you have to offer us, you know as far as you know,

I don't really like the word qualification You know, I prefer the word experience because you know experience is more realistic to what you actually are

You know and what what you who you are how you've been in the past. So tell me about yourself

Well, I I have two graduate degrees one in theology one in history

I also have some qualifications in philosophy and apologetics and I think maybe

I can Help you with the website a little bit. I've written a number of Blogs and articles and books and I actually have some to give to you today as samples in my portfolio

But you know, I'm a historian. I'm a theologian and somewhat of an amateur philosopher You know then

I'm glad you said that because we here at the gospel coalition are about One thing and one thing only and a bunch of other stuff as well, but mainly cultural engagement.

We are here to take the culture Put them in a box shake the box up take it out engage with that whatever's in there and You know

History philosophy, what are these? These are These are things that people do to learn and what is learning learning is growth and that's what we're all about Well, actually, my name is

John not Ben, but I did bring my portfolio So I have a few articles here that I've written and I think they're pretty good

One is on why borders are biblical I have another one on Jordan Peterson Responsibility and being a living sacrifice.

I have one on the free market and it's called the biblical free market and Why homosexuality is sinful and then another one on reform theology and traditional women's roles?

So I hope that maybe this helps you make a decision an educated one on whether I'm a good fit for the gospel coalition

Thanks, Ben Hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I see busy be there

You know There are some concerning things here You know just the vision of the gospel coalition.

There's so borders, you know, it's a word We're not we're not really big on Jordan Peterson, you know

You know not not not massive fans at this point, you know, and then there's some things, you know

You got to remember there's there's sort of cultural touchstones, you know free market There's you know associations that we need to be aware of with these things

Now you have homosexuality and sinful in the same sentence and we have a strict policy about that Reform theology and traditional women's roles.

We we can only use tradition when referring to slavery civil rights or Every once in a while stoning in the

Old Testament, but we have a very very strict policy about that as well But I can go over that.

It's it's it's not a problem. It's not a problem But there are there are a few issues here. You know what but what we have here more than anything else is grace

So that's excellent. Oh, well, okay Um, well, maybe you could explain to me a little more like fine -tune

Your objections to what I just handed you. I know you haven't read them all but you know

Maybe we could break it down by category and we could go over kind of like where the gospel coalition stands So I can understand and maybe you know, maybe

I can rework some of this stuff. So it will be Good for your audience and you'll like it

You know What might even be better than that is you know? you could look at some of the excellent work that some of our other writers have done and you know, you could sort of use that as a

As a Springboard to really get into what we're looking for and really what we believe that God is looking for You know, we have several different categories

Pop culture, you know, so for example Black Panther and the longing for home how to talk to your kids about Shazam Reform theology, obviously, we're an organization that that that values of reform theology, you know, so something like Let the church be the church

Calvin's theology of social justice something like that Politics, like I said, it's all about cultural engagement.

So is Black Lives Matter a The new civil rights movement that would be a good one to look at we await repentance for assassinating.

Dr King these are the kind of things that I think we really we really believe Can can engage with the culture in a way that will help the church

Okay, I think I see what you're saying I have an article that I wasn't gonna give you but Maybe I could rework it.

It's on the priesthood of all believers, you know, the Reformation doctrine which I know you guys are about here, but like maybe

I could rework it as kind of like an Egalitarian document because you know, it's all about like a quality before God and and being your own priest

So, I mean check it out, you know, maybe maybe this will work Hmm I Like this

I like this this is the kind of yeah, this is a little closer. There's just some some things

Okay I'm not sure what priesthood of all believers means or egalitarian or document But I think if we said something like maybe how

John Calvin Sowed the seeds of the me too movement. That would be something worth looking at I think it's you're kind of the same thing, but it's in more it's in language.

That's more culturally engaged Which I think is what we're looking for here Okay, well I do have another document that I wasn't gonna give you but this is just a blog

I wrote, you know For my personal social media accounts and it's on superhero movies and how they show us how bad our culture is getting so, you know

Maybe that's more culturally engaging. Would that work? hmm You know, I love love love the idea.

It's just the the language is a little harsh. I think for us You know, we want we want to be up we want to be a crowbar not a sledgehammer

How about this Spoiler warning five ways that Iron Man sacrifice at the end of endgame reflects the atonement

You know, I I think this could work little tweaking little moving moving around maybe some of your harsher language

All right is something that's a little bit more culturally engaging You know what we're looking for is things like this

Here's I'll read you a couple pitches that I've gotten just in the last couple of hours Hulu for the glory of God, for example

Game of Thrones borders and substitutionary atonement Ten ways avocado toast can impact your ministry how 19th century colonization of Africa still impacts your church plant church sound guy

It's okay not to be okay. And of course, the one is a little more controversial, but we're not we don't shy away from controversy

What if whiteness actually killed Malcolm X? You know, so these are the kind of things that we're sort of we're looking to explore

Okay, I think I actually get it now so The portfolio

I gave you like what if I change some of these titles like why borders are biblical? I could say something like why borders aren't biblical

And For the other one Jordan Peterson Responsibility and being a living sacrifice.

Maybe we could do it on every tribe tongue a nation except Jordan Peterson Or maybe the biblical free market we could say acts to Karl Marx and the need for economic equality in the church

Would that work bro? There's an IPA and the Upper Peninsula, Michigan. It's called UP balderdash.

You are smoother than that IPA Oh cool. Cool. I'm glad you like it. Okay, so Maybe for the one that I gave you on why homosexuality is sinful instead we could

Title it and I could just change a few things around we could call it Most homosexuals aren't actually cold -blooded blooded sinners they're just scared and Then for reform theology and traditional women's roles.

We could do one on Susan B Anthony Beth Moore and the struggle struggle for women's equality in the church

You got it. You got it. You got it. Tell you what? I'm gonna drop some papers We're gonna get you on board with us real quick real quick.

Oh Thank you so much. I'm so excited. Thank you for this interview. This has been I mean, it's more than just an interview

I think I learned something in this. I mean, I appreciate I'm indebted to you. No, man The pleasure is ours.

We're always looking for great tech. Well not talent, you know People that God is blessed with this gift