O'Sullivan's First Law.
An organization will drift left over time without explicitly striving to move right (O'Sullivan's Law). Church history provides sad affirmations of that observation,
and our current moment is not excluded.
Chris Larson, Ligonier Ministries
O’Sullivan’s First Law, named for John O'Sullivan, describes the leftward drift of many politicians, leaders, and organizations. First coined by John O'Sullivan, a British conservative political commentator and aide to Margaret Thatcher, it states: "All organizations that are not right-wing will over time become left-wing…Conservapedia. One hypothesis is that right-leaning people will tolerate and even welcome left-leaning people in an organization, but left-leaning people will generally not tolerate right-leaning people. Doctrinal drift happens primarily through indiscriminate hiring. Weak policies can contribute to the issue, as well. The number-one way to stop doctrinal drift is through courageous leadership. In short, leaders must be willing to part ways with employees with unsound doctrine. If an institution isn’t willing to do this, drift is inevitable. The pattern of doctrinal drift is so predictable that we have developed four stages to determine where an institution is in terms of its spiritual health. Think of these stages as a tool to diagnose an institution’s spiritual cancer. Learn about the three stages of doctrinal drift and how to prevent it here.
Fighting O’Sullivan’s Law: Stopping The Drift from Our Principles by Peter Lipsett (article) - the next generation rarely gets more conservative. The future spirals away from conservative and libertarian ideas. Yet, taking firm action can thwart that drift. The Pew Charitable Trust and the Daniels Fund had conservative founders and goals. As they grew, both saw a rising professional class come in and steadily guide grant-making in a leftward direction.
Avoiding the Danger of Doctrinal Drift: 3 Critical Steps to Keep Your Church, Ministry, or School Stay on Mission by Krista Bontrager (article) - maintaining fidelity to an institution’s founding vision and doctrinal roots requires strategic planning. Learn how to ensure a biblically faithful legacy for future generations. Another part of avoiding doctrinal drift should include periodic refresher training, possibly every two to five years. You might also consider a process for re-signing the statement of faith and position statement because sometimes people change their views over time.
The Subtle Lure of Liberalism by Timothy George (article) - God's sizing down dramatically affects how we study the Bible. Liberal exegesis and evangelical hedonism share a common approach to the Scriptures: both want to make the Bible “relevant” to modern men and women. Yet the Bible is not in the first instance a record of human thoughts about God; it is instead the revelation of God’s judgment on fallen humanity. The role of the exegete and preacher is not to make the Bible relevant to the modern world. It is to show how irrelevant the contemporary world is, and we have become in our rebellion against God.
Drift Happens: Strategic Drift and What to Do About It by Cameron van Orman (article) - how do you communicate the strategic vision and embed it into the hearts and minds of your team members so that it guides their discretionary behavior? Strategic drift is unintentional. It isn’t one person deciding to take the ship off course – it’s a series of decisions, actions, or lack thereof that result in unintended consequences. It’s people not being clear on the vision or making decisions without an understanding of the larger context that doesn’t align with the intended ‘big picture.’
O’Sullivan’s First Law Applied to the Christian Life by Sallie Borrink (article) - all people searching for God and Christian truth who are not fervently committed to the core tenets of the historic Christian faith will eventually deny it. Once you no longer trust God’s Word or God Himself, there is only one logical end. And that’s a steady shift toward liberalism, leftism, and often leaving Christianity altogether.
The War on Conservatives by Mark Dice: Review and Analysis (article) - this book presents a compelling narrative surrounding the war waged against conservatives by liberals and neoconservatives within the movement. It attempts to persuade the reader to embrace specific third-rail issues as a means of resistance to the liberal agenda. Dice offers an excellent deep dive into the gay agenda that details significant influences behind the ideology, like John Money, Harvey Milk, and Harry Hay. He details the progression of homosexuality in Hollywood and even children’s literature. What separates Dice’s analysis of the gay agenda that has become a social contagion is that he is willing to discuss the chemical elements that are potentially contributing factors.
Dr. Gary Miller shares wisdom based on decades in Christian higher ed about how to strategically hire so that a ministry, church or school doesn't get taken over by liberal ideology.
Can You Turnaround Your Progressive-Leaning Church? Do you send your kids to Christian school or donate to a favorite ministry? Or do you work for a ministry or church? Do you ever wonder how well it is maintaining biblical fidelity? Learn the four stages of institutional health when it comes to maintaining biblical fidelity.
Practical wisdom to diagnose the spiritual health of your Church or Ministry. Do you send your kids to a Christian school or donate to a favorite ministry? Or do you work for a ministry or church? Do you ever wonder how well it is maintaining biblical fidelity? This episode shares the four stages of institutional health for maintaining biblical fidelity. This rubric was developed after many difficult discussions with churches and ministries. There is a definite pattern of decay. See where your church or favorite ministry stands.
Dr. Gary Miller, former Provost at Biola University, shares wisdom based on decades in Christian higher ed about strategically hiring so that a ministry, church, or school isn’t taken over by liberal ideology.
Dennis Prager joins Megyn Kelly to discuss President Biden's "anti-American speech," the leftward drift in schools (and how to fight back against it), "secular extremism," COVID media coverage, the social justice focus of the press, generalizations of the left, Israel and American exceptionalism, the value of happiness, why the elite left won't debate their ideas, and more.
This episode outlines the intricacies of conservative and liberal ideologies within the Christian church. With the voice of theological wisdom, Pastor Terry Johnson of the Independent Presbyterian in Georgia steers the discourse toward understanding the impact of liberal drift in denominations and how it shapes the contemporary religious landscape. The episode peels back the layers of the fundamentalist controversy of the 1920s, where battles for denominational control underscored a pivotal shift in church dynamics.
Conservatives are under attack on numerous different fronts by a well-funded, highly organized Marxist movement. The war is being waged in public schools and universities, in corporate America, in the media, and on the streets. American symbols and holidays, Christianity and churches, and even the nuclear family itself are under siege. LGBTQ extremists are preying on children, while White people are being systematically demonized by Critical Race Theory—which is just antiwhiteism in disguise. And millions of illegal aliens have been allowed to invade our country. All while censorship on social media is being leveraged by cancel culture mobs to silence critics and those trying to fight back. Democrats are even inciting and endorsing violence against their opponents, using Antifa and Black Lives Matter foot soldiers, all while being cheered on by Hollywood celebrities. And there are even traitors in our midst—cowardly conservatives and RINOs who have sold out our principles for profit and power. Media analyst Mark Dice takes you to the front lines in The War on Conservatives.
How will the Christian faith survive in a skeptical world? Modernists in the early twentieth century considered the solution to be precise. Thinking the church needed to be rescued from irrelevance, they laid aside unpopular teachings from the Bible and recast Christianity simply as a way of life. Resisting these attempts, J. Gresham Machen gave an unbending response: Christian doctrine isn’t the problem—unbelief is. This one-hundredth anniversary edition of Christianity and Liberalism shows a new generation that God’s message of salvation is timeless. In defending essential Christian doctrines and exposing liberalism as a false religion, Machen reminds the church that we are entrusted with the truth that the world needs most.
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