Well Trained Dogs

Everyone has seen it, some of you in your own households. A pint-sized descendant of Adam begins to misbehave. His weary and aggrieved mother expresses her wish that he would pursue a path of virtue, but to no avail. The child’s invertebrate father tries to look stern but fails. The mother pleads. The father attempts to rebuke, but it comes out as a whine. Finally one of them begins to count. The child is screaming like a banshee, not in pain but in rage, because the cat declined to participate in the toddler’s plan to give him a ride inside the dryer. And the parents have decided this is an excellent moment to demonstrate to their aspiring juvenile delinquent that they can count to three or, if that doesn’t work, to five. You thought you would never use what you learned in math class. Little did you know it was actually a course on parenting. Meanwhile, the little terrorist continues his jihad against parental authority, confident no one in the family has any or the will to do anything to him.

Behavioral conditioning is easy and effective. Reward whatever you want more of, disincentivize whatever you don’t. In the above example, the child has been thoroughly trained, trained to do as he pleases, trained to manipulate his parents at will, trained not to fear the authority of big people. Their determination to recite the 1+1 table has never hurt him at all. The parents have also been trained, just like a dog. When counting doesn’t work, they will become angry. When anger fails, they will begin to despair. If they are in public, embarrassment will grow. Eventually the child will be bribed. He’s not holding out just to see how much math his parents know. He’s in it for the candy, and he knows from long experience that if he holds out a little longer, he’ll get some. Any parent who counts will bribe. If the tot-sized tyrant is really strong, he may even get ice cream.

These are not parents. They are hostages, slaves of an unrelenting despot. When he screams, they jump. If he demands, they comply. Their policy is appeasement. They only hope to keep him quiet until he turns 35 and moves away from home.

Elizabeth City, NC has been on lockdown, but not because of violent protests. The city went on lockdown before the protests began, because city officials assumed protests would begin. A black man, Andrew Brown Jr., was shot and killed by police. The opening paragraph from the Associated Press introduces us to the man we must assume to be the victim.

Andrew Brown Jr.’s easy smile, which belied hardship, loss and troubles with the law, was memorable for his dimples, his relatives said. He was quick to crack a joke at the family gatherings he tried not to miss after losing both of his parents. He encouraged his children to make good grades even though he dropped out of high school himself. Above all, he was determined to give them a better life than he had. --AP, April 22, 2021

Brown had a thirty year history with law enforcement and a 180-page rap sheet. The warrant being executed when he was killed identified him as a dealer of crack cocaine, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines. A confidential informant affirmed he had been buying drugs from Brown for over a year prior to the bust. Evidently drug dealers have dimples too.

Mr. Brown is dead, and time will tell whether shooting him was justified or not. The family has already announced his death was an “execution.” If the officer(s) involved were not justified in shooting Mr. Brown, they should be arrested, tried, and punished. If further details emerge which prove his shooting was justified, Mr. Brown’s family should repent and publicly apologize for slander. In either case, the Brown family should apologize for their recklessness.

This brief reflection is not about Mr. Brown’s death. It is about the city’s reaction to it. When it was announced that bodycam footage of the incident would be shown to the Brown family, city leaders immediately began shutting down parts of the city in anticipation of violence. They took for granted there would be peaceful protests, the kind of peaceful protests that involve vandalizing, looting, and assault, the kind that require businesses to board up, hunker down, and hope their establishment will survive. They locked the city down before anything happened, because they assumed it would, because they agreed to show bodycam footage to the family, the same family that already knows enough about the case before the investigation to assure us it was an execution.

If you assume your two year old will be terrible, he will be. If you expect your teenager to rebel, she will. And if you expect violence in a city in the aftermath of a police shooting, you will have it. City officials closed streets, established a curfew, and warned protesters they had to go home when it was over. The magistrates had a very stern expression on their face when they said it. Obviously they really mean it. There is no word on whether anyone had to count.

You may say the authorities are only being realistic. So is the parent of a toddler in the middle of a meltdown. Of course you cannot give them whatever they want every time they pitch a fit, but we have to do what is necessary to survive the moment and get out of Wal-Mart with mom and dad’s dignity intact. We don’t want other people to think we have bad children or that we are ineffective parents.

City officials might have considered another approach in the aftermath of the Brown shooting. They could have offered their condolences to Mr. Brown’s family and informed the public that there will be an investigation, as in every other police shooting. The investigation will seek to identify things known as facts. This will involve evidence, due process, and accountability to the chain of command and external systems of review. At the end of the investigation, a decision will be made. If the shooting was unjustified, the parties responsible will be appropriately disciplined or charged. If the shooting was justified, the matter will be closed. At no point in the process will violence be tolerated. Constitutionally protected speech is always welcome. Demonstrations must be peaceful. Local businesses should not be impeded. Local citizens should not be threatened or harmed. There should be no reckless accusations which might further inflame the populace and incite violence, such as characterizing the shooting as an execution. That would be irresponsible prior to an investigation. If demonstrations are not peaceful, those responsible will be cited and fined for disturbing the peace. If there is looting or vandalism, those who participate will go to jail. If there is violence, officers will use force to stop it, up to and including the use of deadly force. Tantrums will not be tolerated. Act up, and you will be put down.

You should not mollycoddle toddlers who are acting like terrorists. You must not treat angry and irresponsible citizens that way. The magistrates of Elizabeth City had an opportunity to lead with strength and exercise authority in a godly and beneficial way. Instead, they boarded up the town in anticipation of a tantrum. They have been well-trained. --JME

I wrote along similar and complementary lines last year in “Cultivating Indifference.”

A Perfect Prayer

On Monday, January 4th, the 117th Congress celebrated its opening session with a prayer of invocation by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, an ordained minister in the Methodist Church. His prayer got a lot of attention, largely because of the unconventional way in which Rep. Cleaver closed it. Treating Amen as a gendered term, our highly esteemed representative balanced the scales by adding “awoman” to the closing line. It must be seen to be believed.

Here is the uncorrected transcript of the entire prayer provided by C-Span.

LET US PRAY. ETERNAL GOD, WE BOW BEFORE YOUR THROWN OF GRACE AS WE LEAVE BEHIND THE POLITICALLY AND SOCIALLY CLAMOROUS YEAR OF 2020. WE GATHER NOW IN THIS CONSEQUENTIAL CHAMBER TO INAUGURATE ANOTHER CHAPTER IN OUR ROLLER COASTER REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. CONTROL OUR TRIBAL TENDENCIES AND QUICKEN OUR SPIRITS. THAT WE MAY FEEL THY PRIESTLEY PRESENCE EVEN IN MOMENTS OF HEIGHTENED DISAGREEMENT. MAY WE SO FEEL YOUR PRESENCE THAT OUR SERVICE HERE MAY NOT BE SOILED BY ANY UTTERANCES OR ACTS UNWORTHY OF THIS HIGH OFFICE. INSERT IN OUR SPIRIT A LIGHT SO BRIGHT THAT WE CAN SEE OURSELVES AND OUR POLITICS AS WE REALLY ARE, SOILED BY SELFISHNESS, PERVERTED BY PREJUDICE AND INVAGUELED BY IDEOLOGY. NOW MAY THE GOD WHO CREATE THE WORLD AND EVERYTHING IN IT BLESS US AND KEEP US. MAY THE LORD MAKE HIS FACE TO SHINE UPON US AND BE GRACIOUS UNTO US. MAY THE LORD LIFT UP THE LIGHT OF HIS COUNTNENCE UPON US AND GIVE US PEACE. PEACE IN OUR FAMILY, PEACE ACROSS THIS LAND AND DARE I ASK, O LORD, PEACE EVEN IN THIS CHAMBER. NOW AND EVER MORE. WE ASK IT IN THE NAME OF THE MONOTHEISTIC GOD AND THE GOD KNOWN BY MANY NAMES AND FAITHS. A MAN AND A WOMAN -- AMEN AND AWOMAN.

It seems appropriate to offer a few brief observations in response to this piece of public piety by one of our elected magistrates.

First, by adding awoman to the close of his prayer, he misgendered amen which is a loanword from Latin which transliterated the Greek αμήν (which also transliterated an earlier Hebrew word) and which translated means firm, certain, or so be it. Misgendering is a serious offense in these very serious times. I scarcely need to point out how inappropriate a gender binary is in closing a public prayer like this. Is our esteemed leader unaware of the many other gender categories now accepted and represented among his constituents? This error displays Rep. Cleaver’s cisgendered assumptions and intransigent male privilege. We hope an apology will be forthcoming from his office. We decline, however, to hold our breath as we hope.

Second, it is possible Rep. Cleaver is more intelligent and sophisticated than us all and deliberately misgendered amen in order to make a dramatic statement regarding the equality of women. However, since amen, so interpreted, would be a plural masculine reference, the inclusion of awoman creates a further imbalance by introducing a singular alongside the plural. Women were not represented by the Representative, only a-woman. This likewise is a serious offense in our very serious times, and we look forward to a clarification and correction from Rep. Cleaver’s office. We decline, however, to hold our breath while we wait.

Third, we admire and commend the Representative’s desire that the proceedings of the 117th Congress of the United States not be soiled. It was a noble petition, albeit a vain one. Perhaps he should have prayed, “May these proceedings not be further soiled once I finish what I’m doing here.”

It has been observed by others for some time that satire is becoming impossible in our society. If Rep. Cleaver set out to compose a parody prayer highlighting the most absurd, blasphemous, and contemptible features of the Democratic Party’s current agenda, he scarcely could have done better. “Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:22). Indeed. There are, however, two serious points I wish to suggest for the believing Church, i.e. the Church that has the sense not to allow Rep. Cleaver to lead a prayer or serve as a minister.

First, the Church should lament and pray that such blasphemy is celebrated in the halls of government. “Rivers of water run down from my eyes, Because men do not keep Your law” (Psa. 119:136). Rep. Cleaver’s prayer will not bring divine blessing upon our nation. Pray as those to whom God has promised to listen. The prayers offered from the podium in Congress may not be received in heaven; your prayers offered in your congregation and closet will be. Pray for Rep. Cleaver’s repentance. Pray for God’s mercy upon a sinful nation, laden with iniquity. And pray for God to restrain, reform, or entirely remove those who would advance a godless, unbiblical, and destructive program.

Second, the Church should laugh with scorn and rejoice in the inevitable triumph of the Son. We must tread carefully here. No doubt some will take offense. I do not say we should treat Rep. Cleaver with scorn, only his worldview, platform, and prayer. This is the kind of foolishness the prophet Elijah mocked on Mt. Carmel, and he did so in terms far less polite than would be tolerated by many enlightened evangelicals on social media. If you imagine yourself to be more enlightened, polite, and Christian than God’s prophets, it is time to put down the device on which you are accessing social media, and pick up a Bible. The former is making you stupid. The latter can make you wise.

And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention. (1Kings 18:27-29)

This is what you fear? These are the people who cause you to wring your hands and lose sleep at night? Seriously? You tremble because so much of our nation is embracing a godless, anti-Christian agenda, yet you cannot see that such a program is doomed to destruction by the foolishness of the very people who promote it? The Lord will not have to knock this kingdom down; he only has to step out of the way. These are ideologues who think that Amen is a gendered word. They believe a boy can decide he is a girl and the rest of the world must not only go along with his madness, they must approve of it. They believe protecting sea turtles eggs is a moral priority and so is allowing a woman to kill her unborn child. Civilizations that declare sodomy as marriage, transgenderism as sanity, and abortion as healthcare have lost the right to use the term civil as a self-designation. Societies that make a sacrament of barren sex and abortion are signing a Do Not Resuscitate order on the day they appear. They will not last. They cannot. They do not believe in children.

Turn off the news, and read your Bible. Love your wife and have lots of babies. Pray, sing, and study Scripture with your family. Catechize those kids to the point they start seeing things in the Word of God you haven’t yet noticed. Be part of a faithful church. Work hard. Spend less than you make. Enjoy creation and all of God’s good gifts. Live joyfully every day. Rejoice that the sun is still shining even if it is hidden for a while behind clouds full of rain. Rep. Cleaver has given believers a tremendous reason to be encouraged at the beginning of this new year. Do not miss the opportunity to rejoice that Jesus is and always shall be King! --JME

Inexcusably Silly Ideas and Truth-Telling

“My mother said violence never solves anything.”

“So?” Mr. Dubois looked at her bleakly. “I'm sure the city fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that. Why doesn’t your mother tell them so? Or why don’t you?”

… 

“You’re making fun of me! Everybody knows that Carthage was destroyed!”

“You seemed to be unaware of it,” he said grimly. “Since you do know it, wouldn’t you say that violence had settled their destinies rather thoroughly? However, I was not making fun of you personally; I was heaping scorn on an inexcusably silly idea — a practice I shall always follow. Anyone who clings to the historically untrue and thoroughly immoral doctrine that ‘violence never settles anything’ I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms.”

--Jean V. Dubois, Lt.-Col., M.I, from Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers (1959)

Starship Troopers should be required reading for every young person, and it is at several of the US service academies. It is also recommended reading in two of the military branches. Do not speak to me about any movies that may share the name. The book has never been made into a movie, and that point is not debatable. If you want to debate it, you have only demonstrated that you never read the book or, worse, did not understand it. But every young person should be required both to read and to demonstrate through recitation and examination that they understood the book. If we cannot require citizens to be landowners and veterans in order to vote, we might at least require that they read a shortlist of important works on moral, historical, and political philosophy before casting a ballot. Starship Troopers would be on that shortlist if I were allowed to contribute to it.

There are many important themes, compelling ideas, and memorable passages in Starship Troopers, arguably Heinlein’s greatest work. The above quotation, one of my favorites, is full of ideas to ponder and discuss. Does violence really resolve issues of conflict or only terminate them? Is violence a moral solution or only a pragmatic one? How might historical context inform political and moral philosophy? Should it? The book will entertain those who like action-packed stories, but if they are thinking people, they will find it far more than an entertaining diversion.

One of the ideas that should stand out in the above exchange is Dubois’s commitment to “heaping scorn on an inexcusably silly idea.” Notice that he is not mocking the student, though she may have felt otherwise at the time, and he was not belittling a silly but excusable idea. We have those all the time. Good teachers, like Dubois and Heinlein, help us discover our errors and repent of understandable but no longer tolerable silliness. But Dubois does not believe in giving deference to blatantly absurd, indefensible, and self-destructive ideas whether propounded by winsome wolves or puerile parrots. Neither should we if we wish to be moral people.

Granted, the cause of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness is not well-advanced by its advocates and defenders acting like jerks. But there is a big difference between respecting a person and respecting his or her ideas. The former is always appropriate; the latter sometimes is and sometimes is not. An SS officer of the Third Reich taken as a prisoner of war should be treated in accordance with the appropriate conventions of civilized warfare and given due consideration with regard to human rights. His arguments in favor of the Final Solution and his justification of genocide on the grounds of following orders should be summarily dismissed and treated with righteous scorn. It can be difficult to distinguish the person making an argument from his argument, but that it is difficult does not make it any less necessary.

If a person is sincerely convinced of even the worst ideas and is willing to reason, he should be given the benefit of the doubt and opportunity to learn better what he ought to think. I am happy to debate even the most perverse ideas if I am convinced of an opponent’s sincerity in dialogue. But if he is simply parroting ideological slogans that are without merit, demonstrating he neither has critical thinking skills nor cares that his views undermine his own existence, then he ought to be treated like the child that he is, morally speaking. He should be patted on the head (or more forcefully on the rear) and told not to think that way lest his moral and philosophical cancer become contagious. People like the student above are not engaging in rational dialogue. They are using a motto as a mantra, a motto which if ever taken seriously would destroy the civilized world.

No one in the modern world may without objection express the opinion that existence would be bettered by the absence of Jews, blacks, Muslims, or Englishmen. Why, then, is it virtuous to propose that the planet might be better off, if there were fewer people on it? I can’t help but see a skeletal, grinning face, gleeful at the possibility of the apocalypse, hiding not so very far behind such statements. And why does it so often seem to be the very people standing so visibly against prejudice who so often appear to feel obligated to denounce humanity itself?

--Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (Penguin, 2018), 297

What kind of a world do we live in when the argument that human beings are parasites and a threat to the planet is treated with deference as academic and admirable, but arguments that an unborn child should be accorded human rights, including the right to life, are characterized as immoral and unworthy even of conversation? Our civilized society gives greater protection to sea turtle eggs than to a human fetus with fingers, face, and a heartbeat. Certain ideas are manifestly wicked and dangerous, whether the persons propounding them are or not. They may be simply naive or deceived, or they may be personally evil and a threat to society.

Many people have embraced the (foolish and demonstrably untrue) idea that the most important characteristic in human discussion is kindness. Hogwash. If a brown recluse spider is crawling up my neck, I don’t need a polite observation but a quick, strong, clear warning. As usual, Chesterton hits the nail clean and hard.

That peril is that the human intellect is free to destroy itself. Just as one generation could prevent the very existence of the next generation, by all entering a monastery or jumping into the sea, so one set of thinkers can in some degree prevent further thinking by teaching the next generation that there is no validity in any human thought. It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all. If you are merely a sceptic, you must sooner or later ask yourself the question, "Why should ANYTHING go right; even observation and deduction? Why should not good logic be as misleading as bad logic? They are both movements in the brain of a bewildered ape?" The young sceptic says, "I have a right to think for myself." But the old sceptic, the complete sceptic, says, "I have no right to think for myself. I have no right to think at all.

There is a thought that stops thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped. 

                    --G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (1908)

Tone is important, but it is not more important than truth. Be as kind and polite as you can be, but if politeness prevents getting the point across, there is no point. We must “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15). Again, the cause of truth is not advanced by being a boor, but neither is it advanced by sweet and kind people who never get around to saying anything of substance. We need less humility of the wrong sort, the humility that is too humble to say some ideas are foolish and wrong, and more courage to heap scorn on inexcusably silly ideas. The rationality and survival of our world may depend upon it.

--JME

Cheerful Annoyance

Is it possible to be frustrated by circumstances, annoyed by difficulties, concerned about possibilities, and cheerful at the same time? Not only is it possible, to whatever extent the former may be appropriate, to the same extent the latter must be mandatory. We often speak of Christian joy as an attitude based on objective, transcendent, and immutable realities. In other words, Christians rejoice in all circumstances because God’s Word and work is true and unchangeable. Our peace, joy, and hope are grounded in who God is, what Christ has done, and what he has promised to his people. Christian joy is a conviction, decision, and disposition, not an emotion. We can and should rejoice no matter our present circumstances or how we feel at any given point in time. But we must be careful not to divorce this spiritual joy from temporal and personal emotions. The two are distinguishable, but not separable; they are different, but closely related. Christian joy is a decision, expressed in action, and it will transform our emotions.

The Christian’s joy is an attitude that gives priority to what is eternally true over whatever may seem, feel, or even be true at a given moment. My shoulder is sore, but Christ endured the pain of Hell and quenched God’s wrath against my sin forever. Both are true. Which truth will dominate my heart and mind and determine my attitude today? My child fell ill with the same chronic affliction that has been a defining feature of my life for more than 31 years, but Jesus has promised to return and put an end to the curse, to heal every sickness among his people, and to wipe away every tear from our eyes. Both are true. Which truth will I meditate upon each day? I sometimes feel as though my work as a minister accomplishes very little, that hours spent in study, teaching, and pastoral care make almost no difference in the lives of God’s saints, that these labors are no more than beautiful music that people love to listen to but which makes no difference in their lives, but the Lord has urged his servants on to steadfastness, called us to labor for the glory of God and not for earthly fame or fruit, and assured us that no labor in Christ’s Name will ever be in vain. No matter how I may sometimes feel about ministerial labors, I must choose whether to walk by faith or by feelings. Faith is determined by God’s Word, not the ups and downs of my emotional experience. Walking by feelings makes my ever-changing emotional state the arbiter of truth and determiner of reality rather than the revealed Word of God. Who knows what will be true on any given day if my feelings decide it.

I did not inherit a cheerful disposition as a biological birthright, and I can’t say it was modeled particularly well in my formative years. But God has called his saints to joy, not to lives of sorrow, and so even though there must be tribulations and many tears will be shed on the way to Zion, believers have a duty to fight for joy and to deliberately delight in the things of God. When our complaints are set in the context of Scripture and the historical experience of God’s people, most are revealed to be pathetic and rather petty. I do not mean that we should be naively perky and oblivious to the real suffering in our world. It is not spiritual to laugh when we ought instead to weep. “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

We will have tribulation in this life, but we can and should be of good cheer in the midst of it. How is this possible? By remembering and rejoicing in the fact our Savior has overcome the world. This is not naive optimism; it is Christian optimism or cheerful realism. Jesus has come and has overcome sin, death, and sorrow. That changes everything. The world is not getting worse, even if certain segments of human society are or appear to be. The world is not going to Hell in a handbasket, only the ungodly are being sent there. Jesus is keeping the world for his Church and preparing a renovation project like you have never seen. Our bodies may accumulate aches and pains, but this is only the approaching death of a decaying form that will soon be reborn and renewed in immortality. Our hope is not escape but resurrection. We do not surrender the field to the enemy; we wait for the King who comes to claim and clear the ground he has already won.

Do we really think our pains, political chaos, or public degradation are worthy of comparison with what Christ has already begun and will one day conclude? We should be realistic, yes, and not oblivious to the real suffering, sin, and sorrows that characterize our pilgrim life. But we should also be cheerful, even when troubled. Not embittered, not depressed, and certainly not fearful. I may be annoyed by my present circumstances, but by God’s grace I can and should be cheerfully annoyed and able to smile in the darkness because the morning has dawned. --JME

I Am Convinced

 Someone has been vandalizing Trump-Pence road signs in Apache Junction. The first time they spray painted “Tax Cheat” across the placard, communicating more about the artist’s understanding of economics than anything about the candidates being advertised. The sign was replaced, and a few days later it was spray painted again, this time with one word: “Clown.” I’m not sure if the artist was signing his work like a painter or expressing his support for performers which many people think are creepy. Before that sign could be replaced, another one a mile up the road was similarly vandalized. After those were exchanged, the first one was vandalized again for a third time, this time with an expression that was simultaneously too crude to print in a church newsletter and too obscure to be clear in its meaning. I’m still not sure what relationship was being drawn between a national fast food chain and prostitution. Clearly our local artist is too erudite for me. I’ll simply have to be content to live in the presence of creative genius and greatness.

Yesterday I saw cell phone video of two women in masks screaming in the faces of people who were holding Trump-Pence signs. Actually, they weren’t screaming. They were barking… like dogs. It was odd. I’m not sure if anyone in the crowd sought medical attention for them. It certainly seems like a call to the mental health authorities would be the neighborly thing to do.

You may think these are simply examples of bad or disordered behavior, but in fact they are what folks in the 21st century call political discourse and strategy. You may find them unpersuasive, but I have decided I am convinced. Not convinced to support their preferred candidate who they did not identify. Not convinced not to support the candidate whose roads signs and supporters have been the targets of their attention. No, I have become convinced that there are no political solutions to spiritual problems, and that’s most certainly what we have here: a spiritual problem. It might also be described as a lack of virtue, a dearth of propriety, or beastly behavior better suited to savages than to civilization. But sin makes you stupid, and while I can think of several other words that might describe our current climate, I can’t think of one more fitting.

I plan to vote on November 3rd, and I am sure many of you do as well. But every supplication you make to the God of heaven between now and then and after is immeasurably more powerful and important than any of our votes will be. We do not trust in princes, whether pious or profane. We do not hope in parties, whether virtuously or viciously aligned. We do not rest in electoral outcomes, which usually seem to be a choice between those that will destroy the nation by poisoning and those that will destroy it by a bullet to the brain. Our hope is in the Lord, even though a peaceful and righteous result may be impossible to imagine. Jesus is still Lord of all lords and King of all kings, no matter who sits in the White House, or controls the Senate, or makes judgments on the Supreme Court. That court isn’t supreme after all. Their decisions to justify violence against the unborn, sanction sodomy, and uphold a host of other intrusions upon God-given rights and offenses against God’s moral law is nothing but spray paint on a sign. Decrees of men which contravene the decree of God are nothing more than mad barking. It may seem ferocious, but don’t be alarmed. Eternity will prove its foolishness and vanity. The Lord reigns. Let the Church rejoice. --JME

Cultivating Indifference

These really are remarkable times in our nation, remarkable for their immaturity, insanity, incivility, and idiocy. The reports of continuing protests over the weekend include the perimeter of a courthouse being breached by violent protesters in Portland, courthouses in Oakland and Aurora being set on fire, and another courthouse in Los Angeles being vandalized with graffiti and broken windows. Protesters used an explosive to blow a hole in the wall of a Seattle police precinct. More than twenty cops in the same city were hit by bricks, rocks, and other projectiles. Across the country cars were smashed, fires were set, and businesses were vandalized in various ways. A Starbucks in Seattle was destroyed, though who knows if this was a protest against racial injustice and police brutality or against overcharging for cups of burned coffee? At least one person was killed. (It is unwise to approach an occupied parked car in Texas with a rifle in your hands. The occupant of the car may shoot you.) Spray paint, bricks, fires, and obscenities are the symbols of the resistance. America is branded as a fascist state by those too young, too illiterate, and too indoctrinated to know what real fascism is. (Read a book. There were many examples in the last hundred years. Most of them were socialists. They bathed the twentieth century in blood.)

 

When Kirstie and I counsel the parents of young children, we often advise them to cultivate indifference. We do not mean they should be indifferent to the welfare of their children or to their ungodly behavior that may endanger said welfare. On the contrary, parents must learn a particular form of indifference in order to rightly prioritize and pursue their children’s welfare. Unfortunately, parents get upset about the wrong things. They are hurt by how their child’s behavior impacts them, the parents. They view temper tantrums--which ought never to be tolerated--as a personal offense, disobedience as disrespect, and whining as an inconvenience and annoyance. Of course, such behavior is all of those things. Disobedience is disrespect, and a child’s whining demands are inconvenient and annoying. But that is not why parents must correct that behavior, and it certainly is not a proper or helpful frame of mind for correction. If you rebuke and punish your child’s disobedience because they have disrespected you, then you have simply taught them that it is appropriate to use force to compel others to respect them. If a parent becomes angry because he is annoyed by his child, he is not parenting properly. He is reacting selfishly. Parents should act, never react to provocation.

 

Therefore, a wise parent will cultivate indifference, not to their child’s behavior or welfare but to how that behavior affects them as his parent. Parents are not allowed to have hurt feelings, and if your feelings are hurt, your child should never know it. It will only get in the way of good parenting. A parent who disciplines a child when he is angry is unwise; a parent who disciplines a child because he is angry is acting like an abuser. Should a parent be angry because of a child’s sin? Of course he should, in a holy and righteous way. But that holy and righteous anger is dispassionate. Remember, God is “without body, parts, or passions.” He does not discipline his children because he lost his temper. He disciplines his children with perfect calm and wisdom, in keeping with his love and their best interests. If you are getting upset, your head is not in the right place. Take a step back or a step away. Take a breath. Refocus. What are your priorities? What is the goal? I am not trying to win my child’s submission to me. I am trying to train my child to submit to Christ. I am not seeking compliant behavior. I am seeking a submissive heart. If when the child is corrected and sent to his room he stomps down the hall and slams the door, you are not done. You have not won the child’s heart. You are only hardening a rebel. But why is he reacting that way? Might it be because he learned to huff and puff and stomp and slam from you? Too often both parties in the parenting process are way too thin skinned and emotionally invested. It is understandable when a two year old is offended that his demands are not being met. It is inexcusable when a thirty-two year old parent is similarly offended.

 

Get over yourself. You have a child to raise for God, and you will not have him for long. Stop taking everything so personally. Are you really so hurt by what a pre-kindergartener said to you? And if it is your teenager popping off, then they learned it was acceptable to do so long ago, but it is never too late to repent and start doing your job. You cannot fix them, but you can ask the Lord to help you work on you. Keep your eye on the ball. The goal is not in this room or this moment. The goal is glory, and as God’s parental minister, your job is to preach Christ to your offspring, “warning every [child] and teaching every [child] in all wisdom, that we may present every [child] perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col. 1:28). But you can only do this while you are “striving according to his working which works in [you] mightily” (Col. 1:29). You will not form your child in Christ while you are wearing your emotions on your sleeve, and you certainly will not succeed so long as you are primarily worried about what they think of you.

 

It may seem that we have gotten a bit off-track. After all, we started with the violent breakdown of civil society in cities across the country, and now we are talking about how to dispassionately parent. But there is a connection, at least, in my mind. It is easy to look at the headlines and to take away the wrong message. “The country is going to Hell in a handbasket!” That’s not entirely true. There are not any handbaskets to be seen. The country is simply going to Hell. “This nation will no longer be a safe place for us and our children to live!” That may be true, but that only means the insulated bubble inside which we have lived most of our lives is now disintegrating. If you remain in that cocoon you will be safe. You will also have the moral and spiritual constitution of a slug, and that’s probably unfair to slugs. Creatures in cocoons do not need skeletons, muscles, teeth, or claws. The good news is that once removed from the cocoon you will begin to grow a backbone, build muscles, and learn how to properly defend yourself--though the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (cf. 2Cor. 10:3-5; Eph. 6:10-18)--or you will die. “We are obviously living in the last days!” Of course we are, and I am glad you finally noticed. We might have already learned from the New Testament that these days began almost two thousands years ago (Acts 2:17-22; Heb. 1:1-4; Jas. 5:3; 2Tim 3:1-5; 2Pet. 3:1-7), but better to learn it late than never. “No, Pastor, I mean the last days, like the very last ones there will be!” Well, I suppose we might hope that is the case. But Christians in almost every generation since the time of the apostles thought the same thing. I suppose one of these days some generation will be right. Actually, whether any of these reactions to current events are true, none of them are the lesson we need to take away.

 

What we are witnessing in the violent breakdown of our society is the frantic, desperate, ultimately futile temper tantrum of spoiled children who have more than a little of the Devil in them. It is dangerous, yes, undeniably destructive, and has the potential to radically and permanently alter this nation as we know it. So what? Is maintaining the status quo our highest priority? Are we most concerned to keep America quiet, prosperous, complacent, and politely wicked for the sake of our comfort and convenience? Our nation has been slaughtering children in the womb with the government’s blessing since 1973, but at least we said “please” and “thank you.” We have sanctioned sodomy and renamed it marriage. We have opened women’s sports to men with mental illness and gave those same mentally ill perverts access to the women’s restroom. We have decided marijuana dispensaries are essential services for the community, but churches are not. We have a President who thinks it is presidential to be crass on Twitter, and an opposition party that openly plots to completely transform the United States. They may succeed. If they do, it will simply be the next stage of God’s judgment upon us. But what is our priority?

 

Believers must learn to cultivate indifference, not to the violence of the mob, not to the wicked schemes of ungodly persons, but to the immediate and inconvenient impact this behavior has on me. We know how to deal with temperamental two year olds, and it is not by having a temper tantrum ourselves. Cultivate indifference, not to their rage, but to the fear and offense and discomfort it creates in you. Think globally, not just locally. Jesus came to save the world. If the Devil burns down a few Starbucks, remember there will be better coffee in the new heavens and earth anyway. Think about the kingdom, not about individual castles. Our citizenship is in heaven, and we are not the first Christians to live in the midst of violence. I do not want to live in a violent, socialist state. I also do not want to have to wear glasses or have joint pain or cope with an ileostomy every day of my life. We do not always get what we want. But we are supposed to be the adults in this house. We are supposed to be able to see the big picture. It’s understandable the angry children outside cannot see it. They were probably raised by easily offended parents. But you and I do not have to be unsettled by their temper tantrums.

 

We can be dispassionate because we know the rest of the story. The goal is not saving the nation; it is redeeming the world. And on the last day, whenever it comes, that is exactly what Jesus will do. He will deal with the temperamental totalitarians who never received the discipline they so evidently needed. He will wash the world, not merely of graffiti stains but of the blood of innocents, both born and unborn. He will silence the mob, subjugate oppressors, and save his Church and this world from all enemies. I have never understood a parent who lived in fear of the outbursts of a toddler terrorist. He has no more power than you choose to give him. The mob cannot make you afraid. You choose to be. Revolutionaries cannot rob you of peace. You surrender it to them. Current events cannot unsettle your soul. You simply take your eyes off Jesus and start looking at the waves. But you know better. You are the adult in the room. Act like it. --JME

Where Outside Ourselves?

Every person needs a purpose. This is a fact of life, not a dogmatic proposition. This need for purpose lies behind the inevitable and rampant idolatry in our world. If we do not worship and serve the true God, we will make some other god or cause the object of our devotion. Ultimately, the purpose of our life cannot lie within ourselves. Some do attempt this, but it always fails, sometimes in spectacular and catastrophic ways. We must look outside ourselves for a transcendent cause, a purpose greater than ourselves, something worth giving ourselves entirely to advance and uphold. That is what social justice warriors, advocates of Planned Parenthood, transgender rights activists, and those opposed to religious freedom are doing. (Forgive my redundancy, I just gave the same group four different names.) They are looking outside themselves for a cause to serve that is greater than their own lives. It would be commendable if it were not already inevitable. There are no points for unselfishly serving an external purpose. Almost everyone does, sooner or later. It is as virtuous as breathing, eating, and sleeping.

The question is not whether we will find an external purpose or even whether it will ultimately be inside or outside ourselves. The question is where outside of us will we find it? Idolaters find their gods and religion on a horizontal plane. This is why the social justice movement presently captures the affections of so many. It is the largest idol on the horizon since we successfully saved the whales. But true worshipers must inevitably find their purpose by looking up, not around, and certainly not ever within. It is only when we understand our relationship to God as Creator, Redeemer, and King that we can then properly understand our relationship to the world and finally have a proper view even of ourselves. We will seek justice, because we have come into the service of the just One. We will love and serve our neighbor, because we have been loved and served by our Lord. We will even care about the environment and animals, because these were created by our Father, and he made us their caretakers. But we will not make any of these horizontal concerns into gods nor our service to them into a religion. They are duties, not deities. They are our work, not our worship. Only when we are vertically aligned can we properly relate to everyone and everything on the horizontal plane. --JME

Watching the World Burn

“Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

Over the weekend a statute of Frederick Douglass was vandalized and toppled in New York. Yes, that Frederick Douglass: minister, orator, author, social reformer, statesman, also a former slave, a black man, and an abolitionist. Maybe you thought the only statutes that would be torn down were those honoring Confederate generals and founding fathers who owned slaves. Maybe you felt sympathy for the grief and moral outrage such monuments were said to cause. Your heart was in the right place, but your sympathy was misguided.

The civil unrest, moral outrage, and (not so peaceful) protests we are witnessing around the nation are not about what the agitators, advocates, and apologists in the media claim. This is not about racial injustice, ongoing oppression, or restorative justice and reconciliation. This is about anarchy. The enemy is not white supremacy; we all agree in condemning such evil. The enemy is not police brutality; we all agree in standing against such violence. The enemy is tradition, history, and the present order. That is what must be deconstructed, destabilized, and finally destroyed.

“This is the revolution. Change is coming.” “Now, we transform.” Those are the slogans posted on the homepage of Black Lives Matter. It’s not as though they are hiding the agenda. On the contrary, they are proud to say the quiet part out loud, because they are empowered and protected by those who lack the moral conviction and courage to speak truth.

“We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.

“We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).” --https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/

Tradition is regarded as evil. History must be erased and rewritten. Violent revolution is in order. That is the world in which you live. These are the ideals that a significant number of Americans, and sadly many professing Christians and leaders in the visible Church, are supporting. But there are two things we ought to bear in mind.

First, those who seek to burn the world down and re-make it in their own image will not succeed. They may destroy America. Our society may never recover from recent events. But creation is larger than any one nation. Nations rise and fall. Movements develop and then die. But the purpose of God stands forever. It cannot be thwarted.

The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.

The counsel of the LORD stands forever,

The plans of His heart to all generations. (Psalm 33:10-11)

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,

For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD

As the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)

Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:

“We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,

The One who is and who was and who is to come,

Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.

The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come,

And the time of the dead, that they should be judged,

And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints,

And those who fear Your name, small and great,

And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”

(Revelation 11:15-18)

Second, the visible Church must maintain her spiritual, otherworldly, boldly confessing identity in the face of social turmoil and change. We are not a political action group. Our hope is not in the Republican (or Democrat or Libertarian) party. We will not be spared temporal persecution or eternal judgment by capitulating to and compromising with the spirit of the age. If they are willing to tear down statutes of Frederick Douglass, do you suppose they will be content to leave your congregation alone because you agree that black lives matter? Our hope is in Jesus Christ. We must stand upon the Word of God and behind the cross. As history and tradition are attacked all around us, the Church must re-dig her fathers’ wells. There has been far too much of the world in the Church for far too long. We don’t need more pastors in skinny jeans, more praise teams that rival the local rock band, or more worship programs that feel more like a social mixer than an ancient service of prayer in the presence of God. Now is not the time for the Church to forget her history, but rather to remember, learn from, and cherish it. “We are God’s people, the chosen of the Lord.” Let’s not only say and sing it. Let’s be sure we sincerely mean it. --JME