As a mother of young children in this changing world I read your article and it has a lot of good points, but I see some problematic generalizations that bother me at the same time.
Outrage for the sake of outrage is obvious folly. Just anger over the corruption at the federal, state, and the public judiciary level is righteousness. There remains a biblical way to channel outrage righteously. I like Allie Stuckey’s words when she says “Christians should care about politics because politics change policies and policies affect people.” I believe there comes a point when Christian men need to rise up in bold action—not violent, not volatile— but in faithful, bold, and strong leadership. This isn't a time for gentle attempts to speak to a group of people who hate you. They want your children to attend satanic camp after school, and you to not be able to do a thing about it. They are past reasoning, there is no objective truth in their lives…
No, sadly this is a time for the harder conversations that aren’t as fun as football stats and backyard jokes. These are times for organizing meetings, teaching younger men important masculine life skills, going to the city council meetings to discuss issues in your local cities, being a representative of Christ in every aspect of your life (not excluding hospitality and all the rest that you listed). The people you work with should all know you are a Christian man, it’s not the time for a privatized little faith.
While emotional outage without biblical conviction or self control is easy to attack… I’m afraid this kind of message can easily discourage those types of men who might incline to be leaders and try to bring up important issues, but fear being labeled as an foolish insurrectionist or conspiracy theorist by a pastor or elder of their church. And it can, in turn, help to further coddle the apethetic men who would prefer to turn on NBC and tune out all the “crazy clown world” around them.
Isn’t now the time for good men to try and stand up for truth? Isaiah says it well when he writes that “truth has fallen in the street”. In America today you can legally claim you have two genders, you can identify as a cat, you can claim you’re minority attracted, you can pretend drag queen hour for kids is wholesome and healthy.
Where is our hope then in a falling civilization? Christ has conquered! So let Christian men rise up in faithfulness boldly and live out the gospel, not just in the safe, easy, and comfortable ways but in the hard moments when it really matters. I would argue that the problem with much of the Presbyterian church and CREC across America is a love of comfort. It’s so much easier to ride the middle ground and try not to get involved with anything sticky like politics or leadership. But men, it is the time to get involved! As a mother of small littles I wish I saw more men taking up the cross to fight for we are more than conquerors through Him. But that does not mean our children can’t be targeted, we can’t be persecuted— nor does it mean that it is wrong or outrageous to take preventative action to protect your families and children in whatever ways you are enabled by God!
I may be a woman, I may be young and dumb but I have seen that there are two pitfalls to the camp of outage and you are mainly focusing on the one. David’s men knew the times and acted accordingly.
I do not dispute anything you said. I don't think you read the article charitably. I am arguing for a hierarchy of outrage, rather than a flattened version.
"Biblicized outrage is pastorally aware of who the target is and strategic about how to approach the target. To be persuasive means to speak effectively amid the cacophony of outrage and be the mediating voice of reason. Sometimes our outrage is just too loud, and our points are clouded out by our rage. We should desire a Christianized outrage like a fine single-malt Scotch sampled slowly. Too much of it no longer becomes a gift but a vice. It can be a great prophetic gift if we don’t confuse Ahab with a faithful brother down the street."
Thank you so much for reading, James. The concept I am advocating is that certain environments will make it more suitable for the prosperity of the Church in her evangelization. In other words, the nominal SBC is not a threat to the Church's freedom. The pagan is. And while nominal folks may be more difficult to evangelize, they will at least tolerate nominalization. Further, I am also arguing that forms of nominalism are still Christian in identity, whereas no form of paganism is.
This is good counsel. I haven’t taken a firm stand yet in the CN debate. But I did wonder as I was reading that you preferred the nominalism of the south to the paganism of Oregon, whether this stance didn’t lean in a different direction than Jesus condemnation of lukewarmness, and his chastisement of the outward righteousness of the Pharisees.
It is very difficult to evangelize the nominals, hard to sort out their true spiritual state. No doubt pagans are difficult as well, but at least there’s the clarity of knowing where they stand.
In terms of which world I’d rather live in (because it’s easier, more pleasant) I get it. In terms of advancing the life changing gospel I’m not so sure how much weight to give this preference.
On the coronation, not to go all conspiracy, have you seen this:
As a mother of young children in this changing world I read your article and it has a lot of good points, but I see some problematic generalizations that bother me at the same time.
Outrage for the sake of outrage is obvious folly. Just anger over the corruption at the federal, state, and the public judiciary level is righteousness. There remains a biblical way to channel outrage righteously. I like Allie Stuckey’s words when she says “Christians should care about politics because politics change policies and policies affect people.” I believe there comes a point when Christian men need to rise up in bold action—not violent, not volatile— but in faithful, bold, and strong leadership. This isn't a time for gentle attempts to speak to a group of people who hate you. They want your children to attend satanic camp after school, and you to not be able to do a thing about it. They are past reasoning, there is no objective truth in their lives…
No, sadly this is a time for the harder conversations that aren’t as fun as football stats and backyard jokes. These are times for organizing meetings, teaching younger men important masculine life skills, going to the city council meetings to discuss issues in your local cities, being a representative of Christ in every aspect of your life (not excluding hospitality and all the rest that you listed). The people you work with should all know you are a Christian man, it’s not the time for a privatized little faith.
While emotional outage without biblical conviction or self control is easy to attack… I’m afraid this kind of message can easily discourage those types of men who might incline to be leaders and try to bring up important issues, but fear being labeled as an foolish insurrectionist or conspiracy theorist by a pastor or elder of their church. And it can, in turn, help to further coddle the apethetic men who would prefer to turn on NBC and tune out all the “crazy clown world” around them.
Isn’t now the time for good men to try and stand up for truth? Isaiah says it well when he writes that “truth has fallen in the street”. In America today you can legally claim you have two genders, you can identify as a cat, you can claim you’re minority attracted, you can pretend drag queen hour for kids is wholesome and healthy.
Where is our hope then in a falling civilization? Christ has conquered! So let Christian men rise up in faithfulness boldly and live out the gospel, not just in the safe, easy, and comfortable ways but in the hard moments when it really matters. I would argue that the problem with much of the Presbyterian church and CREC across America is a love of comfort. It’s so much easier to ride the middle ground and try not to get involved with anything sticky like politics or leadership. But men, it is the time to get involved! As a mother of small littles I wish I saw more men taking up the cross to fight for we are more than conquerors through Him. But that does not mean our children can’t be targeted, we can’t be persecuted— nor does it mean that it is wrong or outrageous to take preventative action to protect your families and children in whatever ways you are enabled by God!
I may be a woman, I may be young and dumb but I have seen that there are two pitfalls to the camp of outage and you are mainly focusing on the one. David’s men knew the times and acted accordingly.
I do not dispute anything you said. I don't think you read the article charitably. I am arguing for a hierarchy of outrage, rather than a flattened version.
"Biblicized outrage is pastorally aware of who the target is and strategic about how to approach the target. To be persuasive means to speak effectively amid the cacophony of outrage and be the mediating voice of reason. Sometimes our outrage is just too loud, and our points are clouded out by our rage. We should desire a Christianized outrage like a fine single-malt Scotch sampled slowly. Too much of it no longer becomes a gift but a vice. It can be a great prophetic gift if we don’t confuse Ahab with a faithful brother down the street."
Thank you so much for reading, James. The concept I am advocating is that certain environments will make it more suitable for the prosperity of the Church in her evangelization. In other words, the nominal SBC is not a threat to the Church's freedom. The pagan is. And while nominal folks may be more difficult to evangelize, they will at least tolerate nominalization. Further, I am also arguing that forms of nominalism are still Christian in identity, whereas no form of paganism is.
This is good counsel. I haven’t taken a firm stand yet in the CN debate. But I did wonder as I was reading that you preferred the nominalism of the south to the paganism of Oregon, whether this stance didn’t lean in a different direction than Jesus condemnation of lukewarmness, and his chastisement of the outward righteousness of the Pharisees.
It is very difficult to evangelize the nominals, hard to sort out their true spiritual state. No doubt pagans are difficult as well, but at least there’s the clarity of knowing where they stand.
In terms of which world I’d rather live in (because it’s easier, more pleasant) I get it. In terms of advancing the life changing gospel I’m not so sure how much weight to give this preference.
On the coronation, not to go all conspiracy, have you seen this:
https://open.substack.com/pub/naomiwolf/p/weird-things-about-king-charles-coronation?r=oqw3q&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post