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Empathy vs. Sympathy

the difference between sympathy and empathy was the difference between objective truth and subjective felt “truth.”

Empathy as the Headwaters of Cruelty, Pastor Douglas Wilson

In an article this week addressing the pro-Hamas and pro-Gaza riots, Pastor Doug takes a moment for a sermon against untethered empathy. While I could high five his points on the riots and the conflict at hand, I find the human core more important.

Doug references a video that he did with Joe Rigney about empathy. I watched that video a couple months ago and it made a major impact on me and my understanding of current events. More coming on that some other time.

When you see someone drowning in the river, the virtue of sympathy requires that you help him. In the metaphor, you help by keeping one foot on the bank and you extend a hand, or throw a rope.

So what is the difference between empathy and sympathy. Sympathy is a Christian value. God shows us sympathy, standing on the rock and reaching a hand out to us to pull us from the muck and mire. In a class that I was in earlier this week, the instructor accidently said that God was empathetic. Obviously many believe these words to be synonyms. They are not. I kindly corrected the instructor and pointed out that for God to show empathy, God would have to negate His other divine attributes.

[T]he empathetic one needs to take a header into the river, identifying completely and entirely with the drowning person. The empathetic one offers no judgments, no assessments, no evaluations. The empathy is by definition untethered. Unless you sink to the bottom with him, it is obvious to everyone that you don’t really care.

Agree with me on everything, disagree on nothing. Do not tell me that I am wrong. Do not tell me that I have sinned. Do not tell me that I walked all the way out here and am now drowning despite Your pleas that I stop, Your clear warnings of what would happen if I didn’t, Your clear signs along the bank with graphic iconography. I am drowning because I was born this way. I am drowning because You made me this way.

Now join me in the water and agree with me. Anything less is abject hatred.

This sounds familiar to literally anyone paying attention to the world. It also should sound familiar to any parent, as this is how children act. And your job as a parent is to stand on the riverbank and pull them out, dry them off, and teach them a lesson. That is what God does for us.

Unfortunately, the modern world isn’t taking that lesson well and is throwing a tantrum to make their parents look bad.

It follows that if such a person is your client, then they are in the in group, and they are in that in group all the way. Anyone who is playing the role of their adversary—or perhaps we should say persecutor—has to be treated with relentless savagery. This is because that adversary is challenging the victim’s sacrosanct right to be affirmed in absolutely everything. To criticize the victim is to throw a dead cat at the high altar. To be the recipient of empathy in this system is to be utterly and completely beyond criticism. And because we live in a world where trade-offs necessarily happen, this means that anyone who gets in the way of what that recipient of empathy demands is dead meat.

One of many reasons why I don’t like therapy. Watch the video with Joe Rigney and you’ll understand a bit better, but the gist is that the relationship doesn’t encourage the therapist to criticize the client or in any way understand and take the side of their persecutor.

Suppose the empathy-claimant is a twelve-year-old girl who was raped by her stepfather. As long as she is affirmed absolutely by an empathetic counselor, she can do whatever she wants to anyone else, including the baby. […] And an empathetic judge can send the stepfather to the penitentiary for twenty-five years, which turns out to have been unfortunate, because he actually didn’t rape anybody. Empathy toward one is necessary cruelty toward another. But empathy, like Gallio, cares for none of these things (Acts 18:17).

Liars can use this system to get empathy for the supposed actions of others and therapists don’t ask enough clarifying questions to understand those that supposedly persecute their clients. Further, they show empathy by joining their lying clients in the muck and mire, they join the rage against their abusive persecutors.

They fuel it and reward it.

This is a system that has allowed narcissists to get fed energy from people by lying about others. This reward creates a cycle where the lies have to get worse and worse. They are a victim, they are being persecuted, they are being attacked, their family is abusive, etc. And you cannot get in the way of their lies, you cannot question their lies, because it is their “truth” and questioning it is victim blaming, or some other made up sin.

Further, all their actions against their persecutor is justified as they are a victim. Don’t ask them if what they are saying is true, don’t stay silent, you must affirm, cheer them on, and celebrate their actions.

This is the complete opposite of a Christian ethic. When my daughter claims that a boy hit her, my natural instinct is to destroy him. That is my natural instinct. But sanctification has brought me to the point that I have to ask her to explain. Turns out, it wasn’t a malicious hit, it was an accident and he felt super bad, apologized, and I don’t need to hang him by his boxers on the flag pole as an example of what not to do to my daughter. Vikings gotta viking, but righteous men of Christ have to live by mercy, grace, and love.

That stepfather in prison is there because empathy absolutely refused to let anyone raise the question of his possible innocence. There is no way to raise the question of his innocence without simultaneously raising the prospect that the stepdaughter was lying, and how would that make her feel? So even to raise the question of possible innocence was to be guilty of the crime yourself.

This is the conundrum that empathy has made for you. If you choose to show empathy for someone that claims abuse, you cannot raise the question that their abuser is potentially innocent. By raising that question, you are— by the nature of the question— raising the question of whether the accuser is lying. That will abuse the abused, thus making you an abuser too.

There is an alternative.

You can have sympathy for the person that is claiming abuse, you can reach a hand out and help them out of the water, talk with them and understand their perspective. Instead of fueling the rage, instead they need to get better. They are in fact getting bitter if they stay in the water, staying in the rage. Empathy will never make them better, only bitter. And for the narcissist, it encourages this behavior and they very well may be the abuser.

Empathy and sympathy are not the same thing. One could rightly argue that empathy is sinful as it can require you to lie or have untethered anger against someone in an ungodly way. Yet, in the modern age, we are told our only option is empathy and “this means that anyone who gets in the way of what that recipient of empathy demands is dead meat.”

So to finish with one last quote:

In short, we cannot say that we haven’t been warned.

Empathy as the Headwaters of Cruelty, Pastor Douglas Wilson

Christo­fascism

Christo­fascism

I learned a new word this week: Christofascism. This term was lobbed my direction. So, like any curious person does, I looked it up. Modern argumentation is heavily reliant on insults and pseudo-insults that make people not want to engage in argument or to recoil and defend themselves. Look at any of the recently concocted phobias. It is a way of saying “there is no debate allowed.” Christofascist looked like one of these terms, so I looked it up. And it’s a curious one.

First, it was coined by Dorothee Sölle in the 1970’s. She was a liberation theologian. To most Christians that know their history, that is a heretical Marxist break-off from Christianity that has spun out many dangerous— and theologically grievous— cults that are in no way orthodox Christianity. Just look through her Wikipedia entry and you’ll see we wouldn’t allow her anywhere near a church conference.

Second, the term was specifically coined to describe “fundamentalists” and frankly, orthodox Christians. Tom F. Driver stated that “[w]e fear christofascism, which we see as the political direction of all attempts to place Christ at the center of social life and history.”

Third, the term was described by George Hunsinger— a reformed theologian— as “a sophisticated theological attack on the biblical depiction of Jesus.” He criticized the theology of opponents of Christofascism as extreme relativism that reduces Jesus Christ to “an object of mere personal preference and cultural location”.

So to be clear, this term was coined by liberation theology Marxists to insult orthodox Christians. And the insult comes down to “you ugly!” It doesn’t actually criticize orthodoxy, it just coins a new term for it.

“You don’t want to be a fascist, do you?! Then you cannot believe in a Jesus that is the only way to Heaven or should be King of all, center of social life and history. That is fascism. Don’t be a fascist.”

I’m gonna break it to you lightly, “NUH-UH!”

These childish neologisms to shut down conversation and shut down debate by guilting people into shutting up are tiresome. Christian, be curious and keep debating.

Taking Parenting Advice From Dragons

Taking Parenting Advice From Dragons

Scorpions strike, vipers bite, and dragons burn cities.

Washington State just passed a law that allows the government to take your child away if your child wants to be sterilized and you say “no, you are a child”. These arguments are being made by demon-possessed people that slaughter their own children at the altar of Molech and have the audacity to ask Christians if they are sure they want more minorities born as that is what will happen when we outlaw the murder of babies. These slithering serpents now complain that the upright are having too many children while they make eunuchs of themselves in some grotesque cosplay.

The dragons smell, tongue flitting at the sulfuric air, their demise and know that what is coming is the upright outnumbering them. The demographic studies make clear that outside the religious, population is in decline. If we raise our children in the faith, prepare them to push the dragons back, the dragons see that we will win. Their “progress” is about to be rewound.

The whispers are getting louder.

The Accuser is saying that we are targeting children, that we are committing genocide, that we are bringing death, all while his unholy acolytes sacrifice their own at his throne and mutilate themselves to end their lineages.

Who is leading them to slaughter and who is trying to prevent it?

Word of advice, Christian parents, don’t let those that call evil good and good evil give you parenting advice. Don’t let those that are sterilizing the children they have and murdering those they don’t want tell you that you are a bad parent.

Stay the course. Raise your children in the Word. Prepare them to take up their cross daily. Dragons prowl near. Prepare them to push back the dragons for the good of the Kingdom.

But for all your words, O man
all your clever follies, and
Your babels piercing clouds
You’re just dust and potter’s clay
Kiss the son, lest in his way
He dash you to the ground

Such Clever Follies by Brian Sauvé

America’s Inchoate and Disinte­grating Soul

America’s Inchoate and Disinte­grating Soul

Speaking out in terrible taste now seems like the good old days to us. Tennessee had recently outlawed trans-surgery on minors, and so the hot takes after the Nashville shootings were running along the lines of “straight Tennessee had it coming.” This is not politics anymore—this is something else entirely.

That Acrid Taste of Damnation by Douglas Wilson

Let’s go.

The idea is to believe in oneself, to reach deep down within one’s own heart, and there to discover a treasury of infinite riches. So goes the lie. But what we have discovered instead is that we have become a vacuous people with hollow souls, empty minds, and grasping hands.

Vacuous. Emptied of or lacking content. A commenter on YouTube put it this way, “this is angry Doug.” Yes, yes it is.

If you are reading this, and you are one of those who has been surgically torn apart by such lies, and you are still miserable, that misery has to do with your relationship to the God you are still rejecting. Your misery has nothing to do with the fact that some people in the red states disapprove of what you have done. They cut off your breasts in San Francisco, and you are not spiritually empty because somebody in Tulsa disapproves. You feel spiritually empty because you are spiritually empty, and Oklahoma has little or nothing to do with it. Not only so, but the surgeon who did this awful thing to you is spiritually empty as well, and the medical profession certified him is as hollow as a jug. Looking to them for answers is like drinking from the dry and broken cisterns of ancient Israel, the ones that were dry in Jeremiah’s day.

Let me speak clearly.

I spent my week in worship to temper my words. To temper my hands. To pull my punches. I would guess that Pastor Doug did the same. Tongues should not be unrestrained. But restrained tongues, something necessary for every Christian man and woman— by which I am including everyone as there are only men and women—, still must speak truth in the darkness, still must call evil evil, and still must call for the hearts of man to turn from darkness and repent.

This week we saw an unrepentant, monster of a woman walk into a school seeking to kill children. And she did just that. Three kids the age of my daughter and three adults my parent’s age slaughtered by a vile snake. And all week I saw the media raise her up. Glorify her. Why? Because she was a victim too. Her parents didn’t “love” her the way she needed, the church rejected her, Tennessee had this coming by passing laws that prevented sexual dance shows by cross-dressing freaks around children. I have read think-piece after think-piece about her. I have read the tweets from lunatic, loathsome, lousy Leftists saying that she was executed by the police. And then there are the protests. Extremists stormed Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Nashville, Kentucky, and Montana’s capitols over the last couple of days, attacking police and holding “die-ins,” a practice by which the protester lies on the ground and acts as if they are dead. Either no self-awareness or a complete callousness to the reality that one of their tribe murdered children literally days before in the name of their cause.

These people are evil, wretched fools.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

Luke 17:2

Let me speak clearly. I support the laws passed in Tennessee. And the message this week has been loud and clear. If you support these laws, don’t be surprised when your children are murdered. But this is the logical conclusion of years of rhetoric that includes calling those that disagree with you “fascists”, saying that we want to “send you to a concentration camp”, that we want you “dead” and “murdered”. This is what comes when you ask questions on TikTok like “when are we going to start treating the fascists like the world did in the 1940s?” You convince a group of people that they are victims, that they are being attacked, that “words are violence,” that “silence is violence,” and that “disagreement denies your existence” and then tell them that those oppressing them are Christians and that we need to kill the fascists and it’s no wonder that eventually someone takes your no-one-could-actually-take-this-bullshit-seriously bullshit seriously and decides that killing children is the way to affect change.

And then these extremists, who charge people to kill in their name, claim she is a victim too.

See, last week I would have said this was partisan saber rattling intended to cause discord. But then I read on CNN that Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz said we are focusing on “[banning] books touching on gender issues” but “dead kids can’t read.” I spent a month, as things escalated in my personal life, writing about comfort in persecution, not striking back in persecution, and taming the lions. I think God needed my head down, buried in worship, and Scripture when this persecution came to fruition.

Vengence is not yours, Christian. Protect your children. Preach the Gospel and fight for laws that keep our children safe. But do not do it out of vengeance. Be angry. Angry at evil. Angry at those that would see children die. Angry at those that would see children sin. But then pray for resolution, for resolve, for repentance, and for restoration.

As they started the pandemic with singing, they are coming for your children. They are actively posting this.

So as to not get called out for blaming the actions of a few on an entire group, this is not all of the LGBT people. Some want to live their lives and leave our kids alone. Most are likely abhorred at what transpired this week. These extremists don’t and aren’t. And unfortunately, the message of the extremists is being parroted by the media and the Democrat party. Comply or die.

America is going down a dark path right now. Pray for its soul. Pray for America to repent. Pray for mercy for a bit longer.

Culture Saturday: Tame the Lions

Culture Saturday: Tame the Lions

Let’s close out Spurgeon’s sermon on Psalm 57. Two weeks ago we looked at finding comfort when lions— vicious, blood-thirsty, non-believers— abound. Last week was patience, “[t]he less they love you, love them all the more. Baffle the lions.”

The ungodly are lions, and you are not; do not try to meet them in their own line. You will never roar as well as they do. If you are a Christian man, you have not the knack of roaring. Leave them to do it. Your way of meeting them is not by losing your temper and abusing your antagonists, and so becoming a lion yourself; but you must conquer them with gentleness, patience, kindness, love. I pray you, dear brothers and sisters who have to bear a good deal for Christ’s sake, do not get soured in spirit. There is a tendency in a martyr age to become obstinate and pugnacious. You must not be so. Love, love, love; and the more you are provoked, love the more. Overcome evil with good. I think it necessary to mention these cautions, because I know many require them.

Among Lions, sermon by Charles Spurgeon

I want to call out a few things here.

“Your way of meeting them is not by losing your temper and abusing your antagonists, and so becoming a lion yourself; but you must conquer them with gentleness, patience, kindness, love.”

Don’t become a lion to deal with the lions. Ill-tempered, abusive, taunting. You should be gentle, patient, kind, and loving. That is how we are to conquer.

There is a tendency in a martyr age to become obstinate and pugnacious.

Stubborn and quick to argue. Pugnacious is a juicy word. Sorry, I’m a word nerd. We cannot, as Christians, be these things. Proverbs is full of advice on how to argue, how to avoid arguments, when to argue, and probably more important than anything: when to shut up. The human ability to talk ourselves into arguments that we do not belong in and then stubbornly stay in those arguments when we do not belong there and have no ability to either win or bring glory to God through them is hubris.

Love, love, love; and the more you are provoked, love the more.

Christian, we are called to be unlike the world. We are called to do many things that go against the grain of the world. Loving no matter what and loving more when the world hates is quintessentially Christian.

[T]he braver thing is to ask for grace to stop with the lions and tame them.

Sometimes you are called to endure persecution— the taunting, the backstabbing, the slander, the lies— because you are there to show Christ’s love. You are there to show Christ’s patience. Christ’s mercy. Christ’s grace. And slowly soften the lion. Beg their curiosity.

Sometimes the Christian man should say, “No: God has made me strong in grace; and I will stop here, and fight it out. These are lions, but I will tame them. I believe that God has put me here on purpose to bring my fellow-workmen to the Saviour, and by his grace I will do it.”

Steadfast. Christian, be steadfast. Loyal to the cause. Steady and resolute. If God calls you to stand amongst lions— whether they are coworkers, classmates, or family members— then you stand amongst the lions.

I hope that we have some drops of that grand Christian blood still in our veins; and if we have, we shall feel that we could go to the gates of hell to win a sinner. You are not like your Master unless you would die to save men from hell.

Spurgeon is a world-favorite preacher and this makes me think of another quote from him.

If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.

If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for. One of the many reasons you continue here after finding Christ— instead of just being yoinked into Heaven for safekeeping— is to reach others for Christ. Tame the lions. Pray for them. Warn them. Preach the word to them. We should be willing to do everything to win a sinner including dying. Look to your history Christian, look to the martyrs of our faith. How many walked into plague-ridden hospitals to win sinners, how many walked into cannibal tribes to win sinners, how many traveled to distant lands and faced down those that wished them dead just to win sinners. Look at how many of our brothers have had their throats slit by Muslims, how many were used as candles by Nero, and how many have been burned alive at the stake for not rescinding their Lord’s name and worshiping gods of wood and stone. Christian, that grand blood is still in our veins. And it calls for you to die to show others that they may live. To truly live.

It will be a grand thing for you to come one day to the church-meeting with two or three of your neighbours whom you have been the means of converting to Christ. I like to see a man march, if he can do it, with a tame lion on each side. When a man has by God’s grace brought some of those that were drunkards and swearers to the feet of Jesus, oh, it is a grand triumph.

Christian, tame the lions. Bring them to the feet of Jesus.

This sermon should be read in full if you have the time. Charles Spurgeon was a man of good words. I could grab so many words and phrases from just this one sermon and learn. But I find it is very important in an age where the lions are begging more for our blood, demanding that we lose our jobs because of our views— views that remain unchanged over thousands of years—, demand that medical licenses be removed, demand that they not be allowed to teach students, and even dreaming of us being burned alive at the stake. Yes, this sermon is as important as it was the day it was preached, just as true today.

Culture Saturday: The Anvil Never Strikes in Return

Culture Saturday: The Anvil Never Strikes in Return

When there is a hard word spoken do not notice it; or if you must hear it, forget it as quickly as ever you can. Love others all the more the less they love you: repay their enmity with love. Heap coals of fire upon them by making no return to a hard speech except by another deed of kindness. Very seldom defend yourself: it is a waste of breath, and casting pearls before swine.

Among Lions, sermon by Charles Spurgeon

Love others all the more the less they love you. This doesn’t feel like the way of the world. It didn’t when I was a kid and it’s gotten even more, unlike the world. Enmity today is cyclical. Both sides spew lies about each other, both sides slander and demonize. But, Christian, we are called to repay enmity with love. We are called to break from the circle. Because often a response other than love is a “waste of breath”. Those with hate in their hearts cannot hear. They have already drawn their conclusions because they are being drawn to their conclusions, like pawns in a game. So love them. They may shout back. They may still swing their flimsy swords. But love them.

The anvil is struck by the hammer, and the anvil never strikes in return, and yet the anvil wears the hammer out. Patience baffles fury and vanquishes malice.

Patience.

Something that smacks me frequently is that the reason I am called to patience, mercy, and grace for those that raise spears against me is that when I raised my spear against God, he showed patience, mercy, and grace for me. In high school, I raged against His people. I didn’t believe the Bible to be true. I argued for hours with Christians. And they showed great patience with my curiosity, my arrogance, my strong-headedness. Why? Because God was doing His thing in His time. And that time came for me in college when I heard His voice: read Genesis. And so, after a bit of protest, I consumed His Word. I learned. And all those arguments came back and what should have appeared as pearls before swine all those times were all sowing to the moment when God knocked.

Christian, have patience. Slow your heart and remember your Savior. He forgave you. You did nothing for that forgiveness. You couldn’t. You were but a slave to sin. You were unforgivable by all worldly terms. But He went to the cross for you nonetheless. Be patient.

God will not quench the fire of persecution, for it consumes our dross, but he will moderate its power so that not a grain of pure metal shall be lost. The lions are chained, dear friend; they can go no farther than God permits.

God permits. No one acts of their own will. Not truly. Your God has a plan, dear Christian. And that plan is good. For some, you will be on the run until you are called Home. For others, it will come in waves. But this is to plan. The lions are only permitted to do that which God permits. Trust your Lord.

In this country the most they can do, as a rule, is to howl, they cannot bite; and howling does not break bones; why, then, be afraid? […] Talking will not hurt you. Harden your spirit against it, and bear it gallantly. Go and tell your Lord of it if your heart fails you; and then go forward[…] The lions can roar, but they cannot rend— fear them not.

Recollect here that Spurgeon is not speaking in the figurative, the metaphorical. He is speaking in the context of London in 1879. As of that time, the drunkards could do no more than howl. They were bound by law. This is not meant figuratively in that “during the age of the Church, the lions are chained and can only howl,” as he acknowledged earlier that the old howl of “Christians to the lions” would return to the streets of London. Slander is one thing, but now Christians are being arrested in London for praying silently on the street. Now Christian students are being arrested from Canadian Catholic schools for not worshipping gods of wood and stone. There is a difference here. But even so, the lions are only permitted that which God permits. God permitted Paul to be in prison. He had a plan.

Christian, if your heart is hurting take it to Him. Pour it out. Cast your burdens. And then move forward. That’s not to say that is easy. For some it is. For others, it is not. I can say that I continue to struggle here. But bury yourself in His Word. Get closer to Him. He has you.

[W]hen your soul is among lions, there is another lion there as well as the lions that you can see. […] If your faith be as it should be, it will be a great joy to you to know that he is always with you, that he is always near you. If he is ever absent from others of his servants, he is never away from his persecuted servants.

Flimsy swords and dragons. Your Lord is with you. Feel His warm breath. Feel His peace. If He is not afraid, why would you be? Take a big deep breath.

There can be comfort among the lions. That comfort comes from God and His people. Yes, there will be gnashing teeth. Yes, there will be howls that shake you to your core. Go forward, good Christian, and love. And the less they love you, love them all the more. Baffle the lions.

Culture Saturday: Comfort Among Lions

Culture Saturday: Comfort Among Lions

Last year our pastor, during our Summer in the Psalms, quoted from Charles Spurgeon. This week I looked up the 1879 sermon on Psalm 57 that he was quoting from.

In it, Spurgeon talked about being among lions. And he didn’t sugarcoat it.

My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts— the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

- Psalm 57:4

It would be all too easy to say that persecution is what happens to them and not to us. Or say that real persecution— the good ol’ True Scotsman argument— is not happening here. And this was 150 years ago. Christianity was even more encroached in the Western culture. But Charles didn’t go that easy route. He addresses the working men of Britain that are under persecution by coworkers.

They declare that they never will be slaves; but they are slaves — slaves to their own ungodliness and drunkenness— the great mass of them; and only where divine grace comes in and snaps the chain do men become free at all.

Not driving the point, but “only where divine grace comes in and snaps the chain do men become free at all” is an excellent phrase. If you don’t know that divine grace, you are enslaved to Satan. Period.

If one serious man sets his face steadfastly to serve God the baser sort seem as if they must get him under their feet, and treat him with every indignity that malice can devise. It may be all in sport, but the victim does not think so.

I once looked up the word sarcasm. The word comes from Greek sarkasmos, literally meaning “to strip off the flesh”. That is what sarcasm is doing. Jeering, poking fun, mocking. None of it builds up. Now some guys, that is how their relationships work with each other. But one always has to check themselves.

Do not tell me that persecution ceased when the last martyr burned. There are martyrs who have to burn by the slow fire of cruel mockings day after day; and I bless God that the old grit is still among us, and that the old spirit still survives, so that men defy sneers and slander and hold on their way.

“Burn by the slow fire of cruel mockings.” I feel that. There are those that seek to destroy. There are old ways of pulling good men into the streets and throwing them into pits of lions. And there are new ways of ruining their reputations, ruining their careers, ruining their lives. And for good men— good men that in death would be freed of the sorrows of this world— this can be much worse.

Why did the psalmist call them lions? “Dogs” is about as good a name as they deserve. […] The lion is not only strong but cruel; and it is real cruelty which subjects well-meaning men to reproach and misrepresentation. The enemies of Christ and his people are often as cruel as lions, and would slay us if the law permitted them.

This was 150 years ago and might be only getting more true. The dogs, the lions today still seek to destroy. Where 150 years ago the drunkards mocked the well-meaning man, today they have contrived ways to destroy people more systematically. They push ideologies that are contrary to that of Christians. They require all to agree and for those that do not, they come up with new words to throw at them. Homophobic, transphobic, bigot, worse. And, like devils before, they try to convince the world that their ideology is no ideology at all, but just how the world works. Satan doesn’t exist, after all. And the names aren’t the worst of it. They lose meaning. No, they are in fact taking you out of the public square. Your views are not allowed. It’s not safe for you to be around children. They come up with rubrics to weed you out during their hiring processes.

You need not be ashamed to be pelted with the same dirt that was thrown at your Master; and if it should ever come to this, that you should be stripped of everything, and false witnesses should rise up against you, and you should even be condemned as a felon, and taken out to execution, still your lot will not be worse than his.

But our lot? It isn’t worse than that our Master was given.

Nor was your Master alone. Recollect the long line of prophets that went before Christ. Which of them was it that was received with honour? Did they not stone one and slay another with the sword, cut one in pieces with a saw, put others to death with stones? Ye know that the march of the faithful may be tracked by their blood.

Man, Charles. Where’s the hope? In Christ, we are safe, right? They’ll know we are Christians by our… blood trail.

Of all the gallant shows the Roman Empire ever saw, that which excited the populace beyond all things else was to see a family— a man and his wife, perhaps, and a grown-up daughter and son, and three or four children — all marched into the arena, and the big door thrown up, that out might rush the lion and spring upon them, and tear them to pieces. What harm had they done? They had forgiven their enemies. That was one of their great sins. They would not worship the gods of wood and stone. They would not blaspheme the name of Jesus whom they loved, for he had taught them to love one another, and to love all mankind. For such things as this men raised the cry, “Christians to the lions! Christians to the lions!”

Good Christians loved. Worked diligently. Gave to their communities. Adopted children. Helped the homeless. Didn’t blaspheme— to speak of God in an irreverent, impious manner. “They would not worship the gods of wood and stone.” And for that, the streets cried out “Christians to the lions!”

Good Christian, you are not called to be friends with the world. “You may pick up a fashionable religion, and get through the world with it very comfortably; but if you have the true faith you will have to fight for it.”

Just now the merciful hand of providence prevents open persecution, but only let that hand be taken away, and the old spirit will rage again. The seed of the serpent hates the seed of the woman still; and if the old dragon were not chained he would devour the man-child, as he has often tried to do. Do not deceive yourselves, in one form or other the old howl of “Christians to the lions!” would soon be heard in London if almighty power did not sit upon the throne and restrain the wrath of man.

I fear the hand of God is being taken away in the West. The old howl is returning. But while comfort cannot be had in this world for good men, in Christ and His Church it can be.

You should do what your Master did— make his church your father and mother and sister and brother; nay, better still, make Christ all these to you and more. Take the Lord Jesus to be everything that all the dearest of mortals could be and far more.

As I’ve said before, grabbing my instrument and going to church brings enough comfort to get me through my weeks. Go back to Psalm 57. David, holed up in a cave, surrounded by dragons, spears seeking his mortal flesh, grabbed his lyre and belted out worshipful thanksgiving in defiance of the dark.

Christian. Defy the lurking dragons, defy the dark.

Culture Saturday: Teachers with Biblical Values Are Not Safe

Culture Saturday: Teachers with Biblical Values Are Not Safe

Scare tactics that emphasize an us-vs.-them dynamic are an easy way for powerful people to control people by keeping them distracted and by preventing them from uniting. But as someone who has had his job directly threatened by a member of the far Left, I know that this isn’t that.

A school board in Arizona has cut a contract with a Christian university that had sent teachers-in-training to the Arizona schools. Why?

My concerns, [is] when I go to Arizona Christian University’s website, [ they are] ‘committed to Jesus Christ, accomplishing his will and advancements on earth as in Heaven.

Fox News

And:

Part of their values is… [to] ‘transform the culture with truth by promoting the Biblically-informed values that are foundational to Western civilization, including the centrality of family, traditional sexual morality, and lifelong marriage between one man and one woman.

These are direct quotes from the school board. The problem they have is that this university is Christian and teaches Christian values, including the value of sharing the gospel.

“Proselytizing is embedded into how they teach. And I just don’t believe that that belongs in schools.”

Let’s just define “proselytizing”:

the action of attempting to convert someone from one religion, belief, or opinion to another

Lack of self-awareness is astonishing sometimes. Christians that are taught to proselytize are not welcome here, but these folks that do nothing but proselytize— attempting to change the opinions of people, students, and families they disagree with— are welcomed with open arms.

This woman in cat ears— go read the article— ran for school board, won, and is now using her newly acquired power to remove Christian teachers from her schools.

These folks are coming for your job, Christian. I can attest first-hand. Clear as day, I do not mean all “these folks.” I mean there is a crowd of people united on one goal and that is the eradication of Christians and Christian values from the public square. These folks are coming for your job.

Christian, be of good reputation, stand firm in your faith, be a good employee, and be a Christian. When they come, continue to do the same. And if God wills, they will fail.

And Christian, it might be time to take back land. Not to retaliate, but to hold to the values of free speech, freedom of religion, and more. Run for school board. Take a job at your local library. And proselytize.

Culture Saturday: Good News and Hope for De­transition­ers

Culture Saturday: Good News and Hope for De­transition­ers

One of the things you may have noticed about the new site— if you have been following me a while— is the content has been less politics- and culture-related over the last two weeks. Part of that was intentional. In migrating all the content, I got to add great features like tag pages and nested tags and similar posts.

These features gave me great insight into what my focus points have been and let me chart out where I want my focus points to be. For one, I want to write about what I do more. Web development, woodworking, etc. And I’ve done more of that in the last two weeks than I have in the last 8 years of this site. Another is music. I play a lot of music. Instruments and songs. Looking back at the Christmas songs over the years that have impacted me and why is great.

Ultimately, I am trying to share more evenly across many categories. I am writing a lot and saving drafts to publish later. I am coming to a sort of strategy. And culture and politics are part of that. The intersection of culture, politics, and faith is of particular interest to me and that leads us to Culture Saturdays.

Douglas Wilson, who you’ll find on my Blogroll, has been one of my favorite preachers over the last decade. Specifically, I love his willingness to address the cultural zeitgeists in a way that a shepherd should: wolves looking to kill his sheep need to be shot. That oft means uncomfortable conversations, especially in an age when tolerance is hammered with words that end in -phobia.

In an article last week, Douglas addressed a fictional— though plucked from the headlines real— young gal named Candace, who— after burning bridges to much of her family and friends in transitioning to living as a boy— has come full circle and is transitioning back after an encounter with Jesus. And there is so much good in this article, you need to go read it.

One of the temptations that comes to those who are seriously repenting is that they overshoot. In recognizing that their sin went far beyond the boundaries of God’s law, they assume falsely that their sin also went far beyond the reach of God’s grace.

Douglas Wilson, Good News and Hope for Detransitioners

The is so much importance on a proper understanding of grace. Heard someone ask the other day why “good things happen to bad people,” and I responded that if good things only happened to good people, good things would never happen. The grace of God to extend a hand is not conditional on the quality of the individual needing a hand, as then no one could qualify. While your sin has cast you very far from God, well…

[…] God’s grace does not live snugly in a little heavenly bungalow—God’s grace is a ranger, lives out in the badlands, and rounds up outlaws. God’s grace is a bounty hunter.

He’s coming for you.

But then, after He has apprehended the fugitive and brings him in, He surprises everyone by calling for the best robe, a fine ring, good shoes, and he orders that the fatted calf be killed. Then he tells the head servant to go hire a swing band. So your sin, however great it was, is no match for the kindness of God. This is something you need to fix in your mind now, and you need to make a point of hanging on to it. In Christ, God saves sinners.

Someone said the other day to me that what we see in the Bible is not Man trying to get right with God, but God trying to get right with Man. The reason we don’t see Man trying to get right with God— if you exclude all the many cases of exactly that in the Bible— is because we are totally depraved and consumed with sin. We cannot make a good decision if our lives depend on it, because our lives do in fact depend on it, and yet… Yeah. God is not, then, in fact trying to get right with us, but to get us right with Him. He is pursuing, He is wooing, He is trying to bring us home.

So the good news is that Jesus Christ died for sinners, and you qualify.

One of many reasons that I love Wilson. I listened to this article first as I was driving to work this week. I nearly spit my coffee all over the windshield with this quip. You qualify.

But we have to look straight at the nature of this good news, because there are two different kinds of good news, and we must not confuse them. […] But the second kind of good news does have prerequisites—and that is that there needs to be an antecedent understanding of the bad news. […] You receive news that the governor signed a pardon meaning that you will not be executed in the morning—but you need to have understood that you were going to be executed. Otherwise the good news makes no sense. Certain kinds of good news make no sense at all apart from the related bad news.

The threat of Hell is real. Wilson’s analogy of receiving a pardon but understanding that you were going to be executed is important. There is punishment for sin. A just God cannot allow there not to be. But, in mercy, He gives us a gift of Salvation and we must confess it, take up our cross, and follow Him. We get it for free in the sense that it cost us nothing— as there is no way we could pay the cost— but also it costs us everything. Surrender and follow. This can cost us jobs, family, friends, and so much more, but if we do not, the ramifications are eternally worse.

Many of our sins are socially complex. […] In your case, your sins were a player, but the whole thing was a group effort. There was the media propaganda. There was the social contagion of the other girls at your college doing this […] In other words, there was no shortage of sin, and plenty of sin to go around. You need to acknowledge the sins of all these other people as a theological truth, but then as a practical matter you must focus on your own sin, confessing that sin as though you were the only one at fault.

This is the addressing of the uncomfortable. Our culture is pressuring young people— children— to make life-altering decisions before they are capable of understanding the life-altering nature of those decisions. Folks that detransition are often faced with their new reality that their voices are changed forever, their reproductive systems— if they didn’t have them removed— will never function properly again, and worse. We are talking about the chemical castration of children at the altar of a societal god.

But. We are individually responsible for our choices, our actions, and without euphemism: our sins. We cannot just blame our sins on others. Others very well may have pushed us there, but we are responsible. And remember, in that responsibility and repentance we acknowledge the wages of our sin (Romans 6:23) while also receiving the grace and forgiveness that only Christ can provide.