1998, my sermon: “How to Become A Reformed White Supremacist.” Motivation: watching a then PCA pastor at a conference defending US slavery. Realized that RUF in college wasn’t open about PCA culture. 23 years of explaining racism as a US Reformed historical norm. What’s crazy?👇🏾
When you explain to PCA, 1968er, SBC Reformed Baptists, Act29, etc. that American Calvinism has never not been coupled with racism against blacks in US history, you’re called “a lair”/“woke” even though 1000s of pages of historical documents prove it. Here’s what even crazier:
These same folks don’t have the humility to admit that their version of gospel Calvinism is tragically flawed because it has no way of addressing past racism without dismissing it as, “it’s a discipleship issue” 🤦🏽♂️🤬 or “it’s was misapplied.” Or “they weren’t *true* Christians.”
Great Commission Calvinism also has no way of addressing racial thinking other than trying say it’s a “gospel issue.” Gospel issue vs. non-gospel issue is an abysmally terrible way of going about personal & social ethics. What has CRT exposed?
There are no ethicists in those circles. You have lots of biblical studies types posing as ethicists. You need theology & philosophy to address social ethics, not people throwing random Bible versions shouting, “gospel, gospel, gospel…” Believing the gospel won’t end racism.
The CRT discussion reveals 23 years of possible wasted time.🤷🏾♂️ I heard these same “concerns” about racial discussions 23 years ago. Same people quoting Thomas Sowell & Shelby Steele to avoid talking about American Calvinism’s actual history and how Christians should respond.
Great Commission Calvinism doesn’t employ the OT’s philosophical framework to address these issues. Starting with Paul has never worked, for important reasons. This is how blind they are to the flaws in their understanding of redemption accomplished and applied. We need the OT!
NT and OT specialists don’t have the tool box for macro-level social ethics. That’s neither their expertise nor training. It’s ok! Gospel Calvinism can’t admit flaws. The CRT discussion exposed the lack of social thought *principles* to guide the analysis. Biblicism won’t work.
So, I watch a new batch of minority voices & white guys publish books on race who aren’t saying anything new that wasn’t already said by Tom Skinner (1970s) & Carl Ellis (1980s/early 90s). Why this cycle, with no conceptual significant progress? Because they don’t listen to us.
Exhibit A: Kevin D. Young wrote a TGC piece on racism & doesn’t quote a single black or Latino theologian to provide guidance. From Skinner to Bacote. They don’t listen to us. Great commission Calvinism’s individualistic approach recycles the blind spots. media.thegospelcoalition.org/wp-content/upl…
(For the record, I’m not saying Young should have cited me. I know how some of you are. I was blackballed by that world a long time ago so I’d never expect to be cited. It’s totally fine. Trust me! I don’t care. But dozens have published from Skinner to Bacote, yet 🦗)
Whites keeping looking for the next black guy to MLK evangelicalism through race issues. But they have yet to address Gospel Calvinism’s conceptual & methodological flaws. In fact, they don’t even know their own flaws & remain under the impression the *only* flaw is application.
Now we have folks building careers talking about race issues but they have no idea that no one’s really going to listen them. The anointed spokesman don’t do theology in community so blind spots recycle, progress isn’t made. I’m a realist. 23 years of watching this develop. #23
Internal theology flaws exist within Great Commission Calvinism but there’s no discussion of those. No theological ethicists leading. And we have all these master’s degrees tweeting about but they still can’t develop a list of social thought principles to guide Christians. #23
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Therapist Jim Brillon on “Mother and Son Enmeshment.” You’ll never hear a church leader discuss this. We talk too much about “father wounds” but lots of young men fail to launch because of their mothers. This is a huge trend in the South. “If mama ain’t happy, no one is…”
I’ve had male college students over the years who had moms that required their sons to talk them every night. True story. These were Christian moms from conservative churches. Many moms look to their sons to get the emotional support they need & don’t have from their husbands.
Enmeshed moms make their sons their surrogate emotional boyfriends. The overbearing, emotionally enmeshed mother can produce sons who are extremely misogynistic or red-pillish because the boys make a silent vow to never be emotionally controlled by a woman ever again.
Thoughts? Can we stop whining about young Christian guys following Peterson, Rogan, Tate, etc. These men aren’t a problem. Neither is YouTube. The problem is that the other men in the lives of teens aren’t compelling. Youth group/Christian schools infantilize boys with moralism.
Also, the problem is that many of their own fathers aren’t speaking greatness into the core issues in their son’s lives. Fathers aren’t empowered or encouraged because, for some silly reason, we think teens need to listen to a 24-year-old who is “cool” and “fun.”🤦🏽♂️
Peterson, Rogan, Tate, etc. say hard things and they don’t coddle lads. They’ve all tapped into the fact the boys want significance, ambition, & achievement. All good things! Sadly, many Christian lads are told that greatness is missions & church work. “Make your life count!”
I *almost* approached a dad in a restaurant yesterday to ask him for an interview about being a dad. The way he was interacting with his three sons, esp. his teen son, was really beautiful. I actually choked up. I debated approaching but I didn’t want to interrupt what I saw.😂🤷🏾♂️
The reason I choked up is that his teenage son is probably clueless about how rare it is for a dad to be *that* engaged (eye-contact), affectionate, & joyful with sons in public. Read the data! When they got up to leave, the teen was beaming with self-confidence!!
The way the middle son kept walking over to drape himself over his dad’s shoulder was really special. I was like “wow.” These kids really love this man and they all felt fully comfortable with public closeness. They whole family was actually sitting really close to each other.
If church men are policing women about being “immodest,” women should started telling guys to stop looking like slobs. I recently had to tell a young guy to stop wearing hoodies & jeans everywhere. I pointed him in the direction below and 3 things happened: 1) ⬆️self-confidence
2) girls started saying “yes” when he asked them out. 3) He walked into a job interview and nailed it. He noticed that people automatically treated him differently with greater respect when his shirt was tucked in and he looked like a professional.
A few weeks ago, I walked passed a nice restaurant and looked in and saw a bunch of young couples where the women were super dressed up and all the guys where wearing jeans, hoodies, sneakers. Guys didn’t even bother matching her energy. It seemed so dishonoring to these ladies.
I've changed my mind, I used to think that conservative evangelicals valued the role of fathers. I no longer believe that. A 30-year study shows that the most important determinant of faith persistence in kids is the *relational* warmth of fathers, then grandfathers.
I cannot name a single pastor or church in America, that structures children & youth programming around this fact. Conservative churches wrongly focus on fathers as "spiritual heads" when fathers as relational & affection heads matters 100x more than leading a family devotion.
The data is clear that the father's role trumps the mothers. So, we have all of this data about the role of fathers so what is it about pastors and church leaders that prevents them from acting on what the data says? anabaptistworld.org/family-warmth-…
My advice to churches searching for their next pastor: hire the guy who is a no-name, has no social media presence, whose sermons are faithful to the Text but doesn't "wow," is faithful to the Lord, his wife, his kids, and loves all of those people *more* than the church.
You want someone who will not "put your church on the map" because he's too busy doing home visits and sending elders into hospitals. You want the guy who does not speak at conferences and does not write articles & blog on ministry websites.
If he's written no books, that's great! If he doesn't want a DMin degree just to be called "Dr"; or if he has one he doesn't go by "Dr," hire *that* dude immediately. You want the guy that no one's heard of. When they Google him, nothing comes up. Yeah, him! And, pay him well.