The main cause of the vitriol against Du Mez et al is that the TGC, SBC, DG, 9 Marks, Acts 29, Calvinist etc. world never saw itself as a sociological object of critique. There is now an entire academic world focussed on their failures & Reformed men are losing their minds.
The TGC/DG/etc. world is a Christian culture lacking epistemic humility and discourages self-critique. Internal critics are called “anti-gospel.” They built an entire platform based on critiquing *everyone* but themselves & taught an entire generation of pastors to do the same.
Modern white Calvinists, in their arrogance, conflated their religious culture with “the gospel” itself. To critique their religious culture is somehow equivalent to critiquing Jesus, the gospel, the Bible, etc. It’s unreal!
So now their hyper-critical chickens are coming home to roost by army of PhDs who are equipped with analytical tools exposing them every side. Calvinist culture missed Jesus’ point about the speck in the eye. They cheered like sports fans when someone said, “Farewell, Rob Bell.”
In their blindness, they believed themselves to be united theologically when, in fact, American evangelicalism (Puritans to Edwards to the present) was always first and foremost a sociological coalition cloaked in theological language about “the gospel,” “inerrancy,” etc.
Because evangelicalism has always been a sociological coalition, not a biblical nor theological one, it’s entire American history was in direct opposition to racial freedom for blacks & black Christians from slavery through Jim Crow.
In the 1950s, they abandoned the cities (esp. adjacent to black neighborhoods) and built institutions in the suburbs, built by the government, to support white middle-class thriving. It reinforced their arrogance about being right. They’ve always believed themselves to be right.
So, when you teach your children that “all Christians are wrong *except for us*,” and an army of scholars pull the low hanging bad fruit of errors throughout your history, your prideful, and sadly immature, response will be “counter-attack and defend the tribe.”
I remember this back in 2004 when white Calvinists started calling me, “Nigger,” “Anferny,” etc. when I started critiquing them. I’m not sure where all these scholars were back then but I could have told them what to expect. That world will not change. Ever. It’s a fool’s errand.
I’ve seen it over the years & the response to Du Mez, Jones, Perry, Coley, et al is not surprising. Critiquing white evangelicalism will never change white evangelicalism. If that were true, we wouldn’t be here today. Black theologians had these critiques, in print, 100+ yrs ago.
So now, because their chickens are coming home to roost, they are only left to play their victim card and whine like pre-schoolers. They are fragile. As soon as *their* plank in the eye is pointed out, they pout and say, “Stop hurting us.” They coddled themselves & their kids.
The teams are set. “White evangelicalism” is about to get a bunch white scholars tenure. White Calvinism will feed off the perceived attacks and circle their wagons. Articles & counter-articles. Books & counter books. Conferences & counter-conferences. This will last for years.
At the end of the day it’s same debates between Graham, Niebuhr, and Tillich 2.0. What will be accomplished? Not much, as history shows. It’s why I returned to family & public policy issues. I’ve already experienced these topics bearing little to no fruit. amazon.com/Aliens-Promise…
If you’re a racial minority, don’t feel like you have to make “white evangelicalism” your life project. There are more important issues to address & the attention feeds their narcissism. The devil is active in lots of other spheres. You’re free to focus on many of those as well.
For minorities, these intramural debates are lively but eventually you’ll get bored and/or discouraged (trust me!). “As far as the curse is found” means that we need people’s thoughtful energies to address race & Christianity issues but much, much, much, much, MUCH, more!
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One of the largest influences on traditional black church music during slavery was the Scottish Hebrides Gaelic Lined-Out Psalm singing tradition. The Scots-Irish & enslaved blacks were so integrated as “lower-class” people that slaves learned & adapted lined-out Scottish forms.
This is what the original Scottish Gaelic Psalm singing sounded like.
Lined-out Scottish forms emerged in contexts where hymn books were not available. This tradition arrived with the Scots-Irish in Appalachia and across the Deep South. In fact, the Scots introduced the slaves to something called, “fried chicken.” The rest is history…
Evangelicals are gullible because they lust after social power and the influence of people "in high places." The GOP has been using white evangelicals as a political pawn to maintain power since the 1970s. Donald Trump is signaling that he could not care less about evangelicals.
Revivalist evangelicals, for some reason, were led to believe that being brought into the "halls of power" would influence America's faith, morals, and politics. The black church did not fall for this evangelical approach, given evangelical's history on race during Jim Crow.
Donald Trump's GOP does not care about evangelicals because they know that, no matter what, conservative evangelicals, are not going to vote for Joe Biden. The democrats have moved too far left on social/moral issues so the GOP has conservative evangelical voters locked in!
Is “Christian Masculinity/Raising Boys” the new $$ hustle? This guy wants to charge y’all $65 to teach y’all how to have friends and conduct a rite-of-passage programs for your sons. Dads, you don’t need this. I can tell you how to do this for free! 😂😂😂
You guys are not helpless children. You can figure out how to have fun with each other & your sons on your own terms. No website needed! 😎 1) How to have friends: do stuff together on a regular basis (work, fun, study, listen) and “encourage each other daily.”
2) Rite-of-passage has three ingredients: a) separation from an environment of ease, comfort, and familiarity. b) initiation—introduce challenging obstacles to overcome that requires boys to find new strengths and demands encouragement from peers and elders. Meaningful + fun!
One of the biggest differences between the PCA and the PC(USA), is that the PCA is full of pastors like Rev. Zachary Garris who believe that the transatlantic slave trade is supported by the Bible. He’s a graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS.
Rev. Garris only believes that the abuses of slavery were wrong, not chattel slavery itself. This raises several questions. 1) How did he graduate from RTS holding these views? and 2) How did he pass his ordination exams holding these views?
Currently, less than 2% of the pastors in the PCA are African American. Why on earth would anyone encourage black men to pursue being a pastor in a denomination where pastors still believe there was no difference between OT & NT slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade?
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!”