What is "Third Way Christianity?"

A necessary reframing for the Christian in our present sociopolitical moment.

First, a Summary

First popularized by Tim Keller, the term "Third Way" for Christians means to move beyond the rigid 'either/or' of modern politics and culture. It is neither Left, nor Right.

Instead, it is an invitation to elevate the Gospel as a distinct way of life with Christ as the standard, holding the failings of both left-wing secular progressivism and right-wing MAGA politics to scrutiny against Scripture, with allegiance to neither.

Christ alone holds our allegiance, not corrupt human institutions of politics, which will often manipulate our faith for their own nefarious purposes.

Third Way Christianity rejects Secular Progressivism, it rejects MAGA politics, and it even rejects Christian Nationalism. Here’s what it speaks to each of those.

Rejecting Secular Progressivism

The evils, false promises, and flawed worldview of secular progressivism are largely known and acknowledged in the American Church. Progressive ideology on gender, sexuality, abortion, and more often tells you one thing:

“You are your desires, your desires are good, and you should generally get whatever you want.”

Christ tells us differently:

“The heart is deceitful above all things.”

“You are more than your desires.”

“You are made in my Image.”

“As your Creator, I have desires for you that are better than your own. Walk with me.”

What Causes This Misperception of Self?

Many of the flaws of Secular Progressivism can be tied to an error of Marxist worldview, separating humans into two categories: oppressed (innocent) and oppressor (depraved). There are no moral boundaries besides just refraining from “oppressing” others.

However, the world does not consist of a binary of the innocent "oppressed" and the depraved "oppressor."

In the mid-20th century, political philosopher and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote in The Irony of American History:

“Invariably those who suffer from the arrogance or the power of others wrongfully assume that the evils from which they suffer are solely the consequence of the peculiar malice of their oppressors; and fail to recognize the root of the same evils in themselves.”

Niebuhr points to this externalization of evil and false perception of one’s own innocence as a dangerous risk to Marxism and other ideologies. I think he’d point out the same risk in much of Progressivism today.

According to Christianity, we are all alike born predisposed to the same flaws of excessive elevation of self, sinful impulse, and exercise of control over others.

Whether you call this Original Sin (Protestants & Catholics) or Ancestral Sin (Orthodox), we all know the human condition is in need of repair. That comes through Christ, not redistribution or self-realization.

Secular Progressivism makes the mistake of diagnosing the human condition only in a select handful of humans: those who have had the most opportunity to exercise the worst of their evil desires.

What it fails to acknowledge is that, given the same opportunity and no outside moral restraints, we would commit the same exact wrongs, finding our own ways to justify them (as was found time and time again in the nations in which Marxism flourished in the 20th century).

And even if your sins are never aimed at others, they can be aimed at yourself. God’s ways are for our good, intended to rescue us from not only destruction of others, but also destruction of self.

Progressivism calls for some good things, but it can easily risk a constant flipping of oppressed to oppressor when not metered by objective moral bounds and a critical self-awareness and humility. Christians must hold it accountable to objective truth.

Rejecting MAGA Politics

Many Christians today argue that the ends justify the means, that the evils of the Progressive Left are so significant that any degree of moral compromise in support of the Right must be acceptable.

If 1 million babies are murdered per year, how could you ever vote for the party that has enshrined abortion? While reasonable at face-value, this approach to politics fails in that it gives unceasing loyalty to one political party with zero accountability or moral boundaries.

This undying loyalty is extremely easy to manipulate, and has turned the Church into a political pawn to be played by empty rhetoric.

Our Faith is Not a Fiddle to be Played

For example, many voted for Trump in 2024 because he was supposedly more pro-life than Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris' elevation and promotion of abortion as "healthcare," framing elective abortion almost as a moral good to be desired in a moral society, was extremely concerning. However, we can see a year into Trump's presidency that his own rhetoric was no more than vain manipulation.

Preliminary data shows abortions either slightly increased or were flat in 2025, an outcome that likely would have occurred with either candidate. No actual proactive efforts are being made to reduce abortion by the Right at the federal level today. The topic has been reduced to a rhetorical box to check, not lives to advocate for.

“The most recent data from the Society for Family Planning’s #WeCount project show that the average monthly abortion volume during the first half of 2025 was higher than the monthly average in 2024. From January to June 2025, there have been more than 590,000 abortions compared to 1.14 million abortions in all of 2024 and 1.06 million abortions in 2023.” - Abortion Trends Before and After Dobbs, Diep at al., 2026

Contrast this with the previously steady decline in abortion rates successfully realized under both Presidents Bush and Obama (and Clinton), as they each made their own proactive and intentional efforts to reduce abortions during their presidencies. That trend reversed under Trump’s first presidency. We’ve been played, y’all. Democrats have abandoned “safe, legal, and rare,” and Republicans have abandoned anything besides checking a box on political legislation. There is no longer a pro-life party willing to do the real work to advocate for the life of the unborn.

Mere legal battles won’t win our nation over to goodness. We have to persuade. We have to inform. We have to reach people with truth personally, and we have to demand our politicians take proactive action to reverse this new decade-long trend, helping address root problems behind it.

Enough about that one topic, though. In the meantime, the American Evangelical Church, as one of Donald Trump's most reliable, stalwart, and unwavering blocks of political support, has deeply compromised our own witness on other matters.

As we turn a blind eye to violations of the rights of our neighbors, unrestrained and manipulative greed, and even (ironically) the breaking down of the rule of law (e.g. immigrant violations of law being used to justify ICE’s own violations), we are being revealed as hypocrites whose goal was not a moral society, but one in which we rule at the cost of any moral compromise.

That cannot be what the Church is known for. Christian Conservatism has been too easily manipulated and compromised.

We Need to Follow Christ's Narrow Way

The Church has always been supposed to stand as a prophetic voice to the powers of the world (even before the New Testament, when the Elect was still restricted to the Jewish people).

The Major and Minor prophets are filled with powers being held to account to the standards of God, both in matters of "social morals" and "personal morals." God is concerned with our sexual practice AND with how we treat the poor. God is concerned with our respect for rules and order AND with evil men consolidating power to themselves.

To follow the Narrow Way of Christ is to hold all powers of our day to account, utilizing the same prophetic voice that led to John the Baptist's execution.

P.S. Third Way Christianity rejects Christian Nationalism

Many seem to want to make the United States into a “Christian Nation” purely through civic action today. Friend, this massively misunderstands what it is to be “Christian.”

Things are not Christian. People are.

A nation is not made a Christian one by laws, but by hearts. The "Christian" Puritan colony of Boston was lead by religious magistrates, who mandated church attendance and religious observance. Yet they also burned Mary Dyer at the stake for minor doctrinal disagreements.

We risk repeating the same mistakes when we view ourselves as benevolent philanthropists to society, deserving of full accumulation of state power due to the virtue of our religious nature.

As Niebuhr quotes from John Adams, “Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all of His laws.”

It is true that many of the original US colonies had state churches. These were abolished for a reason, though, as the fledgling Americans observed how European Christians had killed each other in the millions over doctrinal disputes taken advantage of by those seeking power and influence.

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries." - James Madison

Fusing Church and State doesn't redeem the state. It hollows the Church. We know this from many examples of history. A nation with entirely "Christian" laws with few Christian hearts will itself come undone. A nation full of Christian hearts will naturally trend towards Christ's ways.

The order matters. Win souls to win the nation. Don't win the nation to win souls.

We Christians must stand for the Gospel and participate civically in our nation with hope, but never compromise our faith for political influence.