A Quiet Simple Life | Sallie Borrink

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23

A Quiet Simple Life

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Examining Biblical Theology

Negative World | High Profile Christians Bend the Knee & Embrace the False Woke Gospel


Many of my readers are a part of the historic Christian faith. I know many people who claim Christ as Savior and Lord have found the past several weeks to be bewildering. Their churches have started pushing ideas antithetical to the historic Christian Gospel. People are struggling to understand why so many high profile Christian leaders are bending the knee and embracing the false woke gospel. The answer can be found, in part, in a term called negative world by Aaron Renn.

I’ve spent a lot of time deep diving into these topics in an effort to sort out what is going on. I’ve shared a great deal of what I’ve found helpful. In this video, I go through Renn’s newsletter that I believe makes all of this much clearer and also add my own observations in the process.

Please watch it. It is 37 minutes long, but it’s vitally important. I will be referring to this video many times again in the future so if you want to understand my posts and videos in the coming months, you need to watch this video.

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8

This is the location of the newsletter I’m reading from in the video:

The Masculinist #13: The Lost World of American Evangelicalism

The Masculinist Newsletter by Aaron Renn 

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Why I’m Not a Christian Feminist and What I Am


I told several people close to me that for the first time I really feel like my site reflects who I am. I’m at peace with what I’ve created and where things are going. I’m more than at peace. I’m truly excited. Except there is one thing I have to address to be at complete peace and feel completely free. It has to do with women in the church, why I’m not a Christian feminist, and how I would describe my beliefs.

That’s why I’m writing this post. It’s a topic that people feel very strongly about and I would rather just address it head on. I don’t want someone to read a comment or something written about me somewhere and feel that I haven’t been honest. I wrote about it in Why I Closed My “A Woman’s Freedom in Christ” Website, but haven’t put it all in one post which I am doing now because most newer readers will never see it there. All I ask is that you read the entire post before you respond or click away.

So if you’ve read my site a long time none of this will be news to you. Some of you have walked through a similar journey, emailed with me about it, chatted with me in comments about it, etc. for many years.

If you are newer to my website, you may have zero idea I ever wrote extensively about this topic. I’m writing this post for the newer readers because I am compulsively honest and I want this on public record so there are no surprises or potential disappointment at some point in the future.

I’m going to try to keep this short, but please understand I’m trying to distill almost thirty years into one post.

Early Days of Christian Blogging

Way back in the early days of blogging, a Christian organization/company called Vision Forum drove so much of what happened online in the homeschool circles. I realized that something was seriously off with what they were teaching and spoke out about it on my site.

I promptly lost a lot of readers which was hard. I was basically shunned by many of the “big name” Christian and Christian homeschool bloggers. That was hard, too. A lot of early blogging was about networking, blogrolls, getting links, etc. and I was definitely deemed an unacceptable outsider because I had fallen away from the “true” path.

On the brighter side, time proved me correct when that ministry imploded in horrific fashion. So while I was sad (and angry) for all the horrible things that transpired with that organization, I also felt vindicated.

The Vision Forum thing really pushed me to study the issue of women in the church. It had been on my radar for a number of years (starting with my time on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship), but I started writing about it on my site and asking questions out loud as I tried to work it out.

I promptly lost a lot of my primarily conservative Christian readers over that, too.

A Woman’s Freedom in Christ

I eventually moved all of that content to another website called A Woman’s Freedom in Christ. I had that site for a number of years and wrote on it in fits and stops. I deleted it in 2018 and even let the domain lapse so I have no connection with it any longer. That site was where I basically thought out loud about the issues related to women in the church. I may be interested in many different things that come and go, but this topic is one that I stayed with for literally decades because I could never get a solid answer.

There were a lot of issues that drove this.

  • Being on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
  • Being single until almost age thirty
  • My brother (and only sibling) becoming basically an Anabaptist and requiring his wife and daughters to wear a headcovering and then cutting his family off from me and my parents for years because we did not do the same (to the point they did not acknowledge Caroline’s birth or inform my parents when they had new grandchildren) (Thankfully, even though they still practice these things, they have reconciled with us)
  • Being told that my speaking to mixed groups was not empowered by the Holy Spirit, but Satan
  • Watching the impact of Vision Forum on the Christian homeschooling world, especially online
  • Trying to find a church that was conservative and theologically sound, but not repressive in their treatment of women and how they use their gifts
  • Pastors and elders being dismissive of my earnest and legitimate questions
  • Watching my alma mater (Michigan State) being excessively targeted and raked over the coals by the #metoo movement for the Nassar situation and caving in ways I thought were wrong and unfair

So this was not some “Oh, she doesn’t want to follow the clear teaching of the Scriptures and so she’s trying to make excuses to believe what she wants” kind of journey. This was every part of my life being seriously impacted by this battle within the conservative church, the homeschooling movement, my work, my ministry, and my family.

I could not escape it.

In the end, I took the site down because I no longer wanted to be associated with anything even tangentially related to Christian feminism (even though I never called myself a Christian feminist). This came down to three big issues.

Three Reasons I’m Not a Christian Feminist

One, it became clear to me that many Christian feminists despise (or even hate) men, especially white men. They really do. I cannot support or be a part of anything that elevates women over men (or men over women) because to do so is blatantly unscriptural. Men and women are both created in God’s image and have equal value and access to Him.

Two, I was very uncomfortable with my blog posts being shared in some Christian feminist and egalitarian Facebook groups and the like. It seemed to me that those groups were increasingly populated by radical “Christian” feminists who tried to place a veneer of Christianity or the Bible on top of unbiblical views to make them acceptable. To be sure, there were some outstanding and thoroughly biblical egalitarians in those groups who I had grown to respect and would often link to in my research. But the solid research and scholarship was becoming increasingly drowned out by the radical feminists who were pushing intersectionality in exponentially rapid fashion. I didn’t want to have my name as a member of such a group and I didn’t want anything I wrote to be shared there. I did not want to spend my time arguing with people about these topics and things were developing so quickly at this point in our culture ( a few years ago) that I couldn’t even keep up with the woke terminology, etc. to respond to what was going on even though it was clear to me that it was wrong.

Three, I could not continue to immerse myself in the angry and sometimes even vile rhetoric that was increasingly taking over these groups. Some of it was due to hurting women lashing out verbally. I understand that some women have been very wronged and hurt by men and the church. I don’t deny that in the least. But as I wrote about on my other website in A Wise Woman Builds Her Home and Life Lessons From Warren Wiersbe’s Faith and Rachel Held Evans’ Deconstructing, there is a line women cross and then all bets are off regarding how far astray from the historic Christian faith they will go. For my own mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being I had to walk away from the anger, negativity, and vitriol.

None of the Labels Work for Me

Shortly before I took A Woman’s Freedom in Christ down, I had settled on the term conservative biblical egalitarian to describe myself and to purposefully distance myself from the radical Christian feminists. I didn’t love the label, but gave it to myself because it was the only thing I could come up with that came close to where I was in my struggle. I wanted to label myself before someone else labeled me.

At this point, I don’t call myself a complementarian even though I believe God created men and women and they are designed to complement each other. That term has way too much baggage associated with it now.

I don’t call myself an egalitarian either. Even with the “conservative biblical” in front of it, I still wasn’t comfortable putting the label of “egalitarian” on myself because it, too, has a lot of baggage.

The truth of the matter is I could never find anyone who could answer all my questions sufficiently enough that I could end up in one camp or the other. I agree with the complementarians on some things and I agree with the egalitarians on some things.

I find it distressing when there aren’t women serving as deacons in a church because I am convinced it is biblical, but I honestly don’t believe I would want to be in a church with a woman as the head pastor.

I think we do church all wrong (which is an entire additional subject that ties into all this) and that’s part of why this issue of women using their gifts is more complicated than it has to be.

So that’s where I am on this. I believe in the authority of Scripture. I believe God created men and women to complement each other. Overall, I’m conservative theologically and very much a traditionalist by default.

I believe that some of the leading complementarians have made some really big mistakes and done a lot of damage to Christian churches and families.

I also believe that there are some very strong arguments for a more egalitarian interpretation of the Scriptures where it concerns women using their spiritual gifts in the Body of Christ. But they can’t answer all of the questions and provide me with an airtight explanation.

The truth is neither view is completely defensible from the Scriptures and history and that’s why it has been such a struggle for me.

My Thirty Year Journey in One Post

So that’s my story. I feel better sharing it and having it all out in the open. It would be easier in some ways not to bring it up because I’m sure some of you will be disappointed to read this. You might even think it doesn’t fit with so much of what I write about on my site about women in the home, etc.

Welcome to my world. All thirty years of it.

I’m a conservative, thinking, gifted, traditional, home-focused, homeschooling, happily married woman who asks too many questions to “fit in” completely. That’s just who I am. And I honestly like who I am.

On the flip side, I’m guessing maybe a few of you will be encouraged by what you read here. I hope so.

The thing that matters to me is that I am truthful and honest. So I’ve put this out there as a record of who I am and what I believe. That way no one has to wonder or be surprised if something comes up in the future. I don’t plan on writing about this because I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve made peace with the fact that I will never get a satisfactory answer. That’s why I took the site down and let the domain ownership lapse. As far as I’m concerned, that season of my life is over. I’ve moved on and am much more interested in supporting women in their homes, families, marriage, homeschooling, parenting, etc.

(Although I confess I struggle with the idea of writing about marriage due to my inability to fall neatly into one camp or the other. I haven’t figured out how to do that which is why I’ve only written a few posts about marriage and none specifically about my marriage in detail. I have lots to say, but I’m not sure it is worth it when there are so many other topics I can talk about. It seems like no matter what I write about marriage will offend either the complementarians or the egalitarians. LOL!)

In any case, onward we go toward creating our cozy lives of peace, understanding, joy, beauty, and faith!

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Life Lessons From Warren Wiersbe’s Faith and Rachel Held Evans’ Deconstructing


I started writing a post last spring when Warren Wiersbe and Rachel Held Evans died within a few days of each other. To say their lives ended up being radically different is not an overstatement. I wrote a bit and then set it aside since I did not think it was the right time. Generally when this happens I discover later there is a reason. I think that reason is because there was more to say, but we hadn’t gotten there yet.

But now I do have some thoughts to share about not only Wiersbe and Evans but also some of the other Famous Christians who have announced with great public fanfare that they are no longer Christians or have radically changed their views to put them outside of historic orthodox Christianity.

There has been a steady trickle of them, but I’m not going to address each one individually because of time and space constraints. However, I do think they all have a few things in common. For this post, I’m going to focus on Wiersbe and Evans because I think they give a good example of what is happening.

Warren Wiersbe’s Lifelong Faith

Warren Wiersbe died two weeks short of his 90th birthday. He was a pastor, seminary professor, and prolific author. If you’ve ever been in a Christian church that teaches the Bible, you’ve probably been influenced by him many times. His books on the Scriptures are widely used by Bible-believing pastors, Bible study leaders. etc. I have some in my personal library that I’ve used when teaching Bible studies.

Wiersbe committed his life to understanding the Bible and helping others do the same. After he passed away, I saw nothing negative written about him – and I looked. By all accounts he was a kind man who loved Jesus, loved people, and loved writing about the Bible and Christian faith. His entire life was spent pointing people to the Bible and Jesus.

When I read about Wiersbe’s death, my first thought was, “Oh, it’s too bad he didn’t make it to 90!” My next thought was of how he had run the race, used his gifts, and was now able to rest from his work. From all I can observe, there was nothing complicated or concerning about his legacy. This summary of Wiersbe’s life (with some great stories from his life) shows that he followed Jesus, preached repentance and salvation from sin available in Christ, and taught the Bible. He was committed to giving God the glory.

Wiersbe finished well, something I have thought a great deal about in recent years.

Rachel Held Evans’ Deconstruction

Rachel Held Evans is a bit more challenging to describe. She was raised an evangelical and her father is a well-liked Christian professor. She was in her mid-thirties, from all accounts happily married to a good man, and the mother of two small children. (Her daughter was less than a year old when Evans died.) Her death was tragic, in part, because she was relatively young and left behind a husband and children.

Her death was also tragic because she leaves behind a confusing and troubling legacy. Evans’ legacy as a leading and vocal Progressive Christian is sobering. Instead of calling people to repentance from sin and salvation in Jesus according to the teachings of the Scriptures as Wiersbe did, she spent much time and energy calling the Scriptures into doubt.

Evans started out a number of years ago asking valid questions about things that many Christians through the centuries have wrestled with. But over time the questions became less and less about understanding the Bible and her faith and instead about leading people down the path to rejecting the authority of the Scriptures, doubting the goodness of God based on things in the Bible she did not like, and, ultimately, pointing people to a version of what she would call Progressive Christianity that does not fit the historical orthodox faith. Her books will stand as a lasting testament of her journey to deconstruct and remake her faith into something more comfortable.

When she died, there was a tremendous amount written about her – including her eternal state. I have no idea the state of her salvation and that’s way above my paygrade (and everyone else’s, for that matter). What I can see is what she wrote, what she did, what she rejected, what she embraced, and her willingness to embrace a view of Christianity that does leave me sincerely concerned regarding not only her eternal state, but the eternal state of those she claimed to try to reach with what she claimed was love compelled by her faith.

Unlike Wiersbe, I personally cannot write that Evans finished well. As a Christian, I find her legacy confusing, sad, and concerning regarding what she left her followers with in terms of her teaching. I wonder that if she knew that one of her tweets (for she was a prolific tweeter) was going to be one of her last if she would have chosen to implore people to repent of their sins and come to Christ instead of fretting about missing Game of Thrones. We will never know. Some people have an opportunity to leave the world with a last message. She did not.

The Public Response to Their Deaths

The reactions to the death of Wiersbe and Evans were interesting because there was a huge outpouring of grief and angst over Evans’ passing and barely a mention of Wiersbe. Now some of the grief over Evans was certainly warranted. It is tragic when a young mother dies, period. By comparison, Wiersbe had lived a full life span and so his passing seems less tragic despite the fact that it, too, is a loss to his family and loved ones.

But the online responses regarding Evans were honestly kind of crazy. Her followers were angry and vicious toward anyone who said anything that wasn’t 100% praise. They pressured a prominent Christian magazine to remove an online article written by someone who knew her because it wasn’t full of effusive praise and had the audacity to suggest that Evans wasn’t perfect. Even U.S. presidents have lengthy articles written when they die that point out their successes and failures. This was not to be with Evans. She was made a saint almost instantly. Her followers told people to “keep her name out of your mouth” if you don’t know her personally or don’t have anything positive to say. The responses to her death by both those who claim Christ and those who freely declare themselves non-believers, atheists, and many other things would make a fascinating psychological study. It was almost cultish in some ways and I don’t use that term lightly.

The coverage was also ironic given their status as authors. Evans received so much coverage at her passing because she was a prominent New York Times best-selling author and darling of the media due to her willingness to speak against traditional and orthodox Christianity. However, I’m confident that Wiersbe probably sold many, many more books than Evans ever came close to selling.

When Christians Cross the Line Into Error

I wrote A Wise Woman Builds Her Home on my other website several weeks before Wiersbe and Evans died. In that post I was reflecting on how people who get so much right about the Christian faith end up going so wrong in the end. I wrote:

It was when I realized that, far more often than not, women who allow their spiritual pain or abuse they suffer(ed) to significantly impact their beliefs almost always end up going wrong theologically.

I also realized that far more often than not, people who obsess about their sin almost always end up going wrong theologically.

There is a line a person crosses where they allow the event, abuse, or pain to become greater than the truth of the Bible. They view everything through a lens of abuse or pain instead of viewing their pain through the lens of Scriptural truth. For others, they view the Christian faith through the eyes of a prominent speaker or pastor who betrays their trust in him/her. When that line is crossed regarding the event, abuse, or pain, all bets are off as to how far the person will fall into error.

There is also something about living constantly in the thoughts of sin that warps a person’s theology and seems to make them open to other errors that our culture is rife with right now.

This is where I believe people are getting it wrong, especially those who claim to be “deconstructing their faith” as a way to become what they think is a more enlightened Christian.

This is where I believe Wiersbe got it right and Evans got it wrong.

A Christian must start with the Scriptures and the faith handed down through the centuries. Then you try to understand your life and your situation through the truth that our brothers and sisters in Christ have faithfully passed down through the ages. If you start with your pain and try to cram the faith into your life around your pain, you will eventually go wrong.

Wiersbe studied the Scriptures and tried to help people understand them and follow them.

Evans was seemingly increasingly consumed with the things in the Bible she found uncomfortable and the tragic stories of broken people, especially those who had been hurt by those who claimed to be Christians. In the process, I believe she tried to remake the Scriptures into something that made her feel comfortable. That truly is Progressive Christianity in a nutshell.

Truth and Love, Brutality and Hypocrisy

In closing, consider this well-known Warren Wiersbe quote:

“Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.”

Progressive Christians like Rachel Held Evans like to point out the failing of Bible-believing conservative Christians to love well. It is a constant refrain from Progressive Christians like Evans that other Christians are too full of legalistic rules and hate. Too much focus on sin and not enough love. Well, we do fail to love consistently. I’ve been on the receiving end of some massive failures to love by churches, church leaders, and other Christians. I’ve failed people as well. But it’s not as bad as Evans wanted us to believe. And it certainly doesn’t mean I walk away from Jesus. Humans will always fail us. The truth of the faith will not. A Christian or church failing to love well will never be a valid excuse for anyone choosing to reject Christ.

But loving without truth? Is it right for Christians to “love” people and not tell them the truth? Wiersbe called it hypocrisy. If you love someone, you will tell them the truth. This is what troubles me about Evans. She thought she was loving everyone, but I’m not convinced she told them the truth. Reading the tributes to her by atheist publications and reading tweets about how Evans basically freed people to continue to live unrepentant lives or even live confidently completely without Christ is deeply troubling. Will I call her a hypocrite? No, because I think her intentions were good. But I think she was wrong. If she was wrong, she was dead wrong in terms of failing to preach biblical repentance to her followers and leading them away from a true saving knowledge of Christ.

If I’m going to pattern my life after someone, it will be Wiersbe – loving Christ, loving people, and teaching people the amazing message of freedom from sin and redemption in Christ found in God’s Word.

May the Lord give you courage and wisdom as you follow Him.

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Dr. Douglas Groothuis, Biblical Egalitarianism, and Lament


I happened across the video below of Dr. Douglas Groothuis speaking at Denver Seminary on the topic of “The Lament of a Biblical Egalitarian.” Since I am always on the lookout for post, videos, and books by those who identify as conservative Biblical egalitarians, I was pleased to find this.

Dr. Groothuis first introduces the concept of laments in the Scriptures and then explains how that carries over into the experiences he and his wife, Rebecca, have had as leaders in the egalitarian movement.

If you aren’t familiar with the Groothuises, Rebecca Morrill Groothuis wrote Good News for Women: A Biblical Picture of Gender Equality and Women Caught in the Conflict: The Culture War between Traditionalism and Feminism. She was also an editor of Discovering Biblical Equality: Complementarity Without Hierarchy. Dr. Groothuis has taught, spoken, preached, and written extensively. You can learn more about him at his website.

They both hold firmly to the authority of the Scriptures. I laughed out loud near the end when he described their thinking about things being popular in culture since David and I are exactly the same way.

I hope you find this edifying.

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