Can anyone else see what’s wrong with this tweet?

“I choose the Australian church for my first “mission trip” because no one cares about white Christian Westerners.”

Michael Foster is an American Pastor who is coming to Australia later in the year on a mission. Apparently no on cares about ‘white Christian Westerners’ in Australia and the issue is so pressing that we need an American to fly across the Pacific and bring salvation. 

Foster has never visited Australia, and yet in recent days he issued a series of clarion calls on what is wrong with Australian Christianity and he has the guts to fix our ills!

“Im spending two weeks in Australia in September.

I never planned to leave my country.

I love it here. 

But then 95% of the church in Australia caved to totalitarianism in ‘20.

So I count it privilege to fly out there and encouraged the 5%. 

May God grow their numbers.”

Leaving aside Foster’s superficial take on the cultural and Christian landscape of a nation he’s never spent time in, what point is he trying to make when he alleges, ‘no one cares about white Christian Westerners’ and what is his mission?

Does this American not realise that Australia has the highest percentage of migrants of any country in the Western world? Is this a bad thing? 

That aside, what does this tweet suggest to the huge numbers of Asian, African and Middle Eastern brothers and sisters who belong to our churches and who are amazing and vital members in the work of the gospel here?

What is Foster trying to say about churches in Melbourne that don’t speak English or who are majority Chinese or Persian or Korean and Vietnamese? 

One of the places Foster is due to speak is a Melbourne suburb where 55% of residents were not born in Australia. More residents are ethnically Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Indian and Sri Lankan, than of Western descent. What kind of message is Foster’s tweet sending to this local community? 

Does Keysborough need rescuing from some white American dude? And do white Christian Westerners require some kind of protection or assistance from this American preacher? If anything we can be learning lessons from our brothers and sisters in China and Iran and Nigeria. 

If Michael Foster’s mission to Australia isn’t enough to throw up a red flag, there’s more. Foster is apparently coming to fight for the small number of Aussie churches who railed against Romans 13 during the COVID pandemic. 

Titus 3:1 tells Church leaders to “remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good”. Foster has another mission.

Yes, the pandemic was an incredibly hard season for all Australians. Yes, the pandemic response has created all kinds of social, health, and economic pressures we will be addressing for years to come (as early as 2020 it was clear that prolonged lockdowns would have this effect). Yes, not everyone agreed with every Government policy. Yes, mistakes were made (hindsight is an easy tool to wave around).  Yes, Christians have many responsibilities and our attitudes and decisions should be informed by multiple theological threads. Christians hold together multiple responsibilities at the same time. Yes, Christians have some warrant for concern by Government overreach on different issues. Yes, some Christians acted selfishly and promoted anti-authoritarian and even dangerous ideas. There were of course a few churches filled with self-taught epidemiologists and prophets who were able to discern that Covid was fake news, or at most, just a really nasty virus. The majority of churches however chose a different path, one that neither blindly disobeyed Government and one that didn’t cave into totalitarianism. 

Foster’s shallow and even misinformed view of how Australian Churches lived through the pandemic is easy to call out. Although he doesn’t seem to be the type of guy who’s up for conversation.  When I pushed back on him yesterday, he insisted that I be ‘defrocked’! Can you imagine defrocking a baptist pastor?! 

I wouldn’t have known Michael Foster was visiting Australia later this year, nor would even know his name except that a friend messaged me yesterday and reminded me of an American Pastor who has a nasty habit of denigrating women.

The first time I came across Michael Foster was last year and once more a few months ago. The context was an online exchange between Foster, Douglas Wilson and others. I was appalled by how he spoke about and to women. 

And before a reader asks, is Foster a complementarian? No, he is not. He rejects complementariansm and his online attacks (those I’ve seen) have been aimed against complementarian women.

Dr Dani Treweek is (in no particular order) a theologian, a Sydney Anglican, a Deacon, a complementarian, a woman, and single! Dani is a thoughtful and engaging academic who has recently published a significant work, The Meaning of Singleness: Retrieving an Eschatological Vision for the Contemporary Church. Dani is a gift to the church and her study on the subject of singleness is a blessing to Australian Christianity. 

Last year, Dani challenged views expressed by Michael Foster and Douglas Wilson on a podcast.

“Wilson and Foster embark on a shared lament about the impending crisis facing churches whose pews are soon to be filled with lonely, unlikeable, tubby spinsters who have nothing in their lives and so spend their days endlessly seeking the benevolent attention of their ever-patient but extremely busy and very important senior pastor.”

She sums up Foster and Wilson’s views on single women as:

• the reason women are single is because “Baby […] You can do better than this. You’re not likeable” or because they are too “tubby” to be considered of marital value to the men around them (at least the ones they haven’t driven into the arms of Islam);
• single women are derogatorily dismissed as a “bunch of old spinsters”
• anyone not married by the time they are 40 are issued the dire warning that they ‘will be lonely’
• elderly widowed women are depicted as a tiresome burden upon the senior pastor’s time and energy
• the only valuable and valid expression of love in action is if it is directed towards someone’s own offspring and then their offspring
• single women are the harbingers of “chaos”
• unmarried women don’t “have anything” in their lives”

If your pastor holds these kinds of attitudes toward single women, please save yourself and find another church. 

Someone shared Dani’s material with Michael Foster over on Twitter and his initial response was this,

“I find all exegetical criticism suspect from any woman who calls herself a “Reverend.”

Thankfully several people pushed back on his tweet, including this,

“Really poor form to start your response to a carefully argued and Biblically sound critique “I find all exegetical criticism suspect from any woman who calls herself a “Reverend.” You could start by reading her article & repenting of your cavalier attitude to a godly sister.”

Sadly, this wasn’t a one off bad moment on social media. In an exchange this year, Michael Foster presented a tirade of condescending and sexist comments including these, 

“Ma’am, I’m not interested in more of the same.

I’ll spend my time gutting this nonsense, normalizing marriage, & equipping couples to live happy & fulfilled lives serving God.

The trendiness of pandering to lifelong singleness is coming to an end. You’ll soon need a new trend.”

And this…

“Yes, it is you who needs me. The sun is setting on your ilk, Rev. Dr. Ma’am.”

And let’s not forget…

“Don’t let heartless PhD mislead you.”

And once again…

“My last word to you is God will hold you accountable for those who mislead. 

It’s heartless and cruel to tell both men and women that the state of singleness is the same as a gift of celibacy.”

Condescension? Absolutely. Misogyny? Certainly sounds like it. But I’m told that Michael Foster has written the manual for men! 

As it happens, I have many American friends. They are godly, thoughtful, and generous people. I love my American friends and spending time with them is a great joy. We in Australia have also benefited much from Christian men and women from the United States who share their gifts and time with us. We can and do learn from them. But let’s be honest, the United States is also famous for exporting some ideas and people that we can do without. 

The last time an American visited our shores to preach about all that Aussie Churches were doing wrong, we listened politely and tried to find a useful strand amidst the straw. I don’t think we need another.

So why I have bothered putting together a few words about an American far far away? Because I think Foster’s online presence gives Christians a bad name and  I think men who speak to women in the manner that he does, should be called out. Perhaps those inviting Foster are unaware of some of his ideas and words? I don’t know.

Of course, Christian organisations and churches are free to invite whomever they wish. Churches have a freedom to align themselves with teachers and teachings. Not everyone agrees with everything I write or every conference I’ve helped organise. I get that. No doubt, there is a market, albeit a small one, for Foster’s views about women and defence of ‘white Christian Westernism’. It is also appropriate for others to send up a red flare to signal, do we really need another preacher fostering these kinds of attitudes Down Under.