This entire kerfuffle boils down to one thing: in 2022, white people, esp. males, fear being called “a racist” above anything else. Racism is a mortal sin. The psychology of how this functions on the right & the left is extraordinary. Both are driven by anxiety.
Progressives will make sure they have #BLM, etc. in their Twitter bio even though they don’t have actually black friends, as seen in their wedding photos. They make a point to signal that they read current on black opinions, etc. “Oh, yeah, I’ve read X…”, etc.
Conservatives will avoid the topic like the plaque or will socially isolate themselves in spaces where they can talk about race without being called “a racist.” Or they’ll find a black person who says what they believe. “A black person says what I think, so I can’t be racist…”
The anxiety about avoiding the charge of being “racist,” and the concomitant anxiety about potentially being called such, undermines civil discourse because whites today have to *prove* that they aren’t racist. Both individuals & institutions must publicly prove this or else.
What’s the “or else,” it can range from being cancelled, people assuming your org is racist, or living with the fact that people believe you to be an immoral or bad person. This is why Mr. Wolfe sent the frantic email to Mr. Meador. Wolfe’s response: “no, I’m not a bad person.”
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Finally got around to the Renn piece. Here’s the flaw: evangelicalism is not the sum of Christianity. Just because Americans are hostile to white evangelicalism does not mean it’s hostile to Christianity. Ex: Rev. Raphael Warnock was elected to the senate. firstthings.com/article/2022/0…
The three worlds of evangelicalism is only about evangelicalism. The article wrongly conflates evangelicalism with “Christianity.” Those stages are irrelevant to current US cultural dispositions toward the mainline church, black church, the Catholic Church, Orthodox Church, etc.
If Renn wants to narrow the discourse to only evangelicalism, then, yes, he has great points but Christianity is much larger, diverse, and differentiated than his US evangelical narrative. It’s a blindspot in the whole Keller/anti-Keller debate.
Here’s one huge reason why comparing the US to “Europe” or Australia is irrelevant on most issues. Those countries don’t find themselves at the nexus of Latin America drug cartels *and* Asian organized crime combined. Several US cities are run by this intersection. It matters.
When looking at crime in the US, and all pathologies correlated with crime (all of them from broken families to education outcomes to violence and more), only compare the US to countries in Europe, etc. whose urban centers are run by international drug cartels & organized crime.
Only compare the US with other countries with the exact same drug cartel activity and shares a border with a country that’s exactly like Mexico, for ex, *then* we can’t compare crime data and all pathologies derived from US drug culture. Otherwise, 🤫. therecoveryvillage.com/drug-addiction…
The gun debate was dead on arrival as soon as the word "control" was introduced. There's such profound international ignorance of US cultural history that people won't understand why that was the *worst* word to use. amazon.com/Not-Quite-Whit…
This is also why international comparisons with US gun culture are irrelevant. The cultural histories aren't even close to being the same. Only compare the US to a country with 1) a 2A equivalent *and* 2) a disenfranchised slavery/Jim Crow white society. amazon.com/Masterless-Men…
(and if you don't know why #2 matters, then you really don't understand America cultural history much at all)
I've been teaching first semester college freshman for 12 years and it becomes glaringly clear during the first semester, for most students, which students are confident that their parents love them not b/c of performance & which ones have a proper self-confidence. For guys,
(which is the area I'm researching for my next book), what his father (or another male figure that he loves) thinks him of usually determines his son's self-confidence and decision-making skills during those first few weeks of school.
If you're a father and you have a son whose graduating high school & going to college, here are five things you need to spend time explaining to your son before he leaves for school. Do this in a location that's not at the house. Take a day to do a road trip or something:
Why was this so controversial? I don’t get it. The psych data on this is so definitive. Boys learn empathy more from their fathers than their mothers. Dad-deprivation increases the likelihood that boys will end up in violent, in prison, low grades, mental health disorders, etc.
A book worthy lament of 1990-2020, is the number of black men who were encouraged to turn their backs on the black church and black women for the “better, expository preached, Reformed gospel” & “racial reconciliation” only to find out that evnglclsm was theologically bankrupt.
So many brothers are (1) walking around deeply wounded, (2) no longer in ministry at all, (3) needed to “leave loud” as a way of healing, (4) feel betrayed, (5) feel like they wasted their best years, (6) etc.
The theological bankruptcy was exposed between Michael Brown’s death & the end of Trump’s presidency. It led to a mass exodus of many potential history-changing leaders. The #SBCtoo sex abuse news exposes even more bankruptcy. They thought Reformed Hip Hop would lead to revival.