Recently, Jeff Wright published five posts about Josh Howerton. In these posts, he critiques Howerton’s initial response to George Floyd, his understanding of the purpose of the Gospel, toxic empathy, his approach of accommodation to false worldviews (Social Justice), and his approach to egalitarianism and Paula White.
In this post, I will try and sort through some of this, and add rebuttals and some context to a few things.
Josh Howerton has repented of his accommodating and social justice strategies as far back as 2018, and up to 2021 (those are the dates he expressly mentions).
In this clip, Josh describes what his approach was, how he realized it was wrong, and that he repented of it.
In this longer clip, he is much more specific about his repentance, and how it came about.
As for George Floyd specifically, I think it is important to remember how Donald Trump responded to it his death. It was really hard to figure out how to respond, and I think that the Social Justice stuff, and not anything else, is the issue to be repented of (which Howerton has repented of).
“It’s very hard to even conceive of anything other than what we did see. It should never happen. It should never be allowed to happen. A thing like that.”
Now, on the issue of toxic empathy: yes, in the video Wright posted, it’s undeniable that that is what he was falling into. However, in the video below, Josh Howerton clearly takes Charlie Kirk’s position on toxic empathy (see timestamp 1:39:00).
On the racial component Josh said was the goal of the Gospel… Is the unification of people from all nations a consequence of salvation? Yes. And I would use many of the same arguments Josh Howerton did in the video Wright posted. But is it THE goal? No. Can it be said to be A goal? I think so. Just like sinlessness can be said to be a goal of God saving people.
Now, that is very different from the Social Justice version of racial unification, which Christians should never adopt, and which Josh Howerton has repented of (as far as I can tell as someone who only watched his YouTube videos and isn’t a member of his church).
As for Paula White and Josh’s approach to egalitarianism… yep, that’s an issue. However, it is clear that Josh thinks that Paula White does get the true Gospel across. Is Josh wrong? That’s for another post. For now, you can find the whole video below:
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