Canadian psychologist, professor, author, and speaker Jordan Peterson has nudged many people to the right over the past decade. While the forces of the progressive left have been preaching a message of despair, obsolescence, and surrender to personal vice and self-loathing, especially young men, Peterson has encouraged the men on the receiving end of that spiritual onslaught to shake off the shackles of despair and stagnancy in favor of accepting greater responsibility for their own happiness and success. To do so, Peterson has appealed to the authority of timeless myths and narratives, and he has not been shy about drawing on the Bible in particular.
Peterson’s sparring matches with progressive liberals, atheists, socialists, trans activists, and other assorted enemies of the Christian Right in America have earned him an audience among that group. Sadly, while Peterson may be a valuable belligerent in the fight against the American Left, he is no true friend to Christendom, as a couple of recent flops have especially highlighted.
Peterson’s Flops
A few weeks ago, Peterson aired an episode of his podcast on the Daily Wire with James Lindsay to talk about the so-called “woke right,” Lindsay’s manufactured slur for what we might call the “Christian right.” In fact, only a few days before the dialogue between Peterson and Lindsay, Lindsay had gotten into a very public spat on social media with Peterson’s fellow Daily Wire host Matt Walsh after attempting to label Walsh “woke right.” I won’t go into the details of that interview (you can find a nice analysis of it here) but it’s fair to say that it put a sour taste in the mouths of many men like me who have followed Peterson for years while also becoming ever more firmly rooted in the Christian right.
Then, only a few weeks later, Peterson engaged in a debate on the YouTube channel Jubilee which was titled, (until they changed it) “One Christian vs 20 Atheists.” In the course of this debate, Peterson refused to so much as positively affirm that he is even a Christian.
For any Christian who has followed Peterson at all closely, this came as no surprise. If Jubilee, the show that hosted the debate, wanted to make Christianity look bad, they made a shrewd choice in inviting Jordan Peterson. In every way that matters, there were twenty-one atheists in the “debate.”
That being said, the public stumbling of Jordan Peterson provides an opportunity to reflect on the risks and opportunities that come from his influence.
The Petersonian Threat
The damage that Peterson has done has been to allegorize and relativize Christ and the Bible into oblivion in the minds of many of his listeners. If you watch Peterson’s lectures and read his books without a pre-existing grounding in Scripture, you would walk away thinking that the Bible is a remarkable collection of stories that provide spiritual and psychological insights into how to live a virtuous, happy life. What you will not hear is the gospel.
Whether it’s revealed by refusing to confess Christ in a debate or by weeping openly in terror and dismay at the very thought of acknowledging the literal reality of the risen Christ as Lord, Peterson’s flirtations with Christianity have only ever been a tease. He is self-aware enough to know that he is limited and that there is something beyond the material, but in his sin, pride, and fallenness, he substitutes the living God for a mere narrative archetype. Petersonian Christianity is no Christianity at all, but just pragmatic self-help
Peterson’s disciples, however, will not see the problem with this. They have been taught that this interpretation of Scripture is not denying its truth, but acknowledging it as “meta-true.” In that way, they deny the literal reality of a living God while still claiming that they believe the Bible is true and important for those who want to live a good life.
There is a crucial distinction to understand here. While there are many teachers, influencers, and public figures who profess that Jesus is a good teacher or a good example for us to follow, most of them will respond to an assertion of the literal truth of Scripture by saying that you are taking the Bible too seriously. A disciple of Jordan Peterson, however, will likely respond by saying that you aren’t taking the Bible seriously enough! They have been taught to think that “literal” truth is more lowly than the “meta-truth” of allegory and narrative.
The Petersonian Opportunity
As real as the threat Peterson presents to the Christian Right is, the opportunity he presents may be even greater. As a consequence of Peterson’s work, there are millions of young men who will not scoff, roll their eyes, and tune you out the second you mention Christ and the Bible in conversation. In many cases, they will lean in and become even more interested. They will actively encourage the conversation to continue. When you make some statement of Biblical truth, they will ask you to explain in greater detail, and they will listen intently when you do.
This is a monumental opportunity. Peterson and his disciples have had their vision clouded, but they will sit still and listen to you preach the gospel to them. They will sit there and listen while you tell them that they are sinners in need of a Savior. And they will listen when you tell them that the Savior has come and that His name is Jesus Christ, who was born to a flesh and blood mother, who died on a physical Cross, rose bodily from the dead, ascended into a real Heaven, and will return on a particular day in history to judge the sins of men and to usher in His everlasting Kingdom. However hardened these men may be, Peterson has not solidified them so much that the power of God’s Word will not shatter their stony hearts like chalk and fill them with His Holy Spirit.
How to Appeal to Peterson’s Disciples
Upon reflecting on my experiences with these kinds of men – mostly in my workplace – I realize that the first step in reaching them is simply to keep my ears open. If they are around, they will let you know. Even if they’re not talking about the Bible, they might be talking about aliens, conspiracy theories, or ancient megalithic structures. They’re already talking about religious things, even if they don’t realize it. They will likely be open to hearing what the Bible has to say about whatever topic they’re interested in.
Another important step is to be open about your faith at all times, in all places. More than once, men at work have asked me what I think about some social, political, historical, or philosophical question just because they know I’m a Christian. With a little bit of wit, it’s easy to not only answer their original question, but to press the conversation towards the gospel. I have had conversations that began with asking whether aliens are real, and ended with me appealing to my colleagues to repent of their sins and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
If you do engage a Peterson disciple in a conversation about God and the Bible, the main thing you will have to contend with is their habit of allegorizing everything. On the bright side, they already share a fair bit of explicitly Biblical dialect with you, so you can speak pretty frankly. But when you bring up sin, they will turn it into “failure to live up to the Universal Ideal.” When you mention Jesus, they will try to turn Him into “the archetypal Hero who descends into Chaos and is reborn, able to assume responsibility” or some other such fluff. The task of the Christian evangelizing a Peterson disciple is the task of patiently, insistently repeating the simple truth that Christ is exactly who He says He is, not who Jordan Peterson says he is. The man you’re speaking to will resist it. He will dodge and deflect and retreat into allegory and psychobabble. But he will hear the truth, and God’s Word will not return void.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the gospel according to Jordan Peterson is a very sad tale. It is one among countless man-centered narratives that seek to make a hero out of the individual, minimizing sin and depersonalizing God and the devil in favor of the all-consuming, all-important Man. It is a philosophy that asks a million interesting questions while answering none. It is an almost belief that will have you weeping, acknowledging that it must be true while refusing to commit out of terror at the uncertainty of what will happen if you do.
Peterson may well be able to teach men to clean their rooms, but he can’t lead them to everlasting life. He cannot give them hope, because he has none himself. But the hope that he and his disciples are searching for, you and I possess, and every day we have opportunities to share it with them. Let us not neglect this fertile soil. Let us preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to these men who have ears to hear. And let us pray for Jordan Peterson, that he may be humbled, that his eyes may be opened, and that he may finally know the God from whom he has been fleeing for so very long.
