I recently watched another Hollywood movie where the heroine achieves happiness and self-actualization by acting upon her sexual impulses. This is probably one of the most dominant themes produced by Hollywood today. It is also widely accepted at all levels of American society.
First, we are told to believe that the ultimate goal of life is personal happiness. That means, if something makes you happy, do it.
Second, we are told that finding happiness requires acting upon our personal desires, especially our sexual desires. The implication rings out like a drum beat in a marching band: self-denial is pathological; sexual proclivities mustbe acted out. It is the key to personal fulfilment.
Both of these premises, which seem to have acquired near universal acceptance in our society, are antithetical to the Christian faith.
Which is why it is always good to be reminded of what the Bible says about human sexuality and romantic relationships.
My good friend, Richard Whitekettle, has written one such article explaining (again) the biblical view of sexual intercourse and why it matters today.
Richard is an Old Testament professor at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is an accomplished biblical scholar and a careful thinker who can be hilariously funny when he wants to be.
My friend not only writes hard-core academic stuff, he also publishes popular articles analyzing current social issues. He recently published an article on human sexuality in The Aquila Report, which carefully lays out God’s original design for male/female relations according to the book of Genesis.
Love is not what valorizes a human sexual relationship in God’s eyes. Love, of course, is related to the idea of a deep and lasting bond between two human beings. But given how widespread the mantra “love is love” has become in valorizing various types of human sexual relationships, it needs to be mentioned separately. The rightness and goodness of a human sexual relationship is not to be found in the subjective feelings of the two human beings. Rather, it is to be found in the objective characteristics of God’s design for human bodies, minds, and relationships. If one is to find love in a sexual relationship, it will not be found in any structure of sexual relationship one chooses. Instead, it will be found by placing oneself within a sexual relationship designed by God.
Are American church/state relations in 2022 comparable to German church/state relations in 1933 when the Nazi party began its rise to power?
Eric Metaxas thinks so, and he wants to warn the American church of the existential threat it now faces.
Metaxas’ new book, Letter to the American Church (Salem, 2022; 139 pp., $22.99), begins by declaring that “the parallels [in the American church] to where the German Church was in the 1930s are unavoidable and grim” (ix). These “parallels” are most clearly seen as the evangelical church remains silent in the face of America’s own Nazi-like atrocities.
America’s atrocious sins, which are allowed to flourish in the face of evangelical silence, are comparable to Nazi preparations for the Holocaust. These sins are listed as abortion, globalism, Critical Race Theory, transgenderism, creeping communism, and the state-directed church closures ordered during the covid-19 pandemic, all of which express an “atheistic Marxist ideology” otherwise known as cultural Marxism (xii, xiii, 13-15, 91).
The only solution to society’s slide into increasing moral chaos, according to Metaxas, is for a new crop of Dietrich Bonhoeffer-like church leaders to rise up and protest – violently, if need be (more on this below) – against the country’s drift toward cultural oblivion. Metaxas’ biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer figures as the major source for this book’s political arguments, despite the very negative reviews Metaxas’ biography received from Bonhoeffer specialists. (see here, here, and here).
According to Metaxas, Bonhoeffer described a three-point solution to both Germany’s and America’s problems in his essay, “The Church and the Jewish Question.” They are [1] as the conscience of the state, the church must loudly protest against government wrong-doing; [2] the church must assist the victims of immoral state policies; and [3] if the state refuses to change its course, then the church must embrace political activism, shoving “a stick in the spokes” of the “rumbling machine of the state” (39).
The body of Letter to the American Church excoriates evangelical leaders for withdrawing from their obligation to agitate for public morality and, instead, cocooning themselves in an exclusive focus on evangelism. Metaxas’ attacks against “the idol of evangelism” (75-85) provide an important reminder (very positively, in my view) of the inherently offensive nature of the gospel and how easy it is for preachers to avoid difficult subjects like sin and judgment in order not to “offend” their listeners.
Unfortunately, Metaxas conflates his (a) justified critique of timid preachers who knowingly compromise the gospel message with (b) a highly dubious attack against evangelical leaders who will not rally their congregations to become outspoken, right-wing, Republican political agitators. Aside from Metaxas’ remarkable blindness to his own political, as opposed to truly Christian, partisanship, his apparent ignorance of American church history is surprising.
I can only assume that in wanting to write “a book for the moment,” Metaxas has restricted the horizons of his historical interest to the rise of Donald Trump and events subsequent to the 2016 presidential election. His complaints about evangelicalism’s political lethargy not only ignore the long, activist history of the Religious Right – a movement that finally threw its weight behind Trump’s campaign and carried him to victory – but seems to know nothing about the long history of evangelical activism in progressive politics, represented by people like Jim Wallis and the Sojourners’ community.
But then, Metaxas suggests that all Christians with a progressive political bent have been deceived by Satan, so their activism only contributes to the cultural Marxist dangers threatening America.
Metaxas also appears to be unaware of the wide stream of American dispensational evangelicalism-fundamentalism, going back at least to the early nineteenth century, that actively discourages Christians against political activism. Shunning politics hardly originated with those contemporary pastors now intent on putting out the fires of political divisiveness consuming their congregations.
But Metaxas is clearly in favor of churches dividing over partisan politics. In an obvious reference to MAGA-enamored churchgoers leaving congregations where their politics are not sufficiently affirmed, Metaxas says, “Many Christians are abandoning such churches for the few that are alive to the situation, where the pastors are less timid about saying what needs to be said” (36).
Certainly, the most disturbing aspect of Metaxas’ book is its subtle yet clear justification of violence for political ends. The argument is carefully, if subtly, constructed.
First, Dietrich Bonhoeffer is Metaxas’ model of Christian virtue not only because he openly criticized the Nazi regime – along with many others; Bonhoeffer was not alone in doing this – but because Bonhoeffer participated in a plot to assassinate Hitler. It is Bonhoeffer’s willingness to embrace violence as a political weapon, the very definition of terrorism, that makes Bonhoeffer a hero to Metaxas. And this is the exemplary aspect of Bonhoeffer’s life that Metaxas clearly wants his readers to emulate, for “Bonhoeffer understood that to eschew violence whenever possible did not mean that it was always possible” (109).
Though he never says it explicitly, the unavoidable implication of Metaxas’ argument, from beginning to end, is that faithful Christians will do whatever it takes to change society and move it in the right-wing direction of Metaxas’ preferred political agenda. This includes resorting to violence, if need be.
Metaxas lays the “biblical” groundwork for his call to violence-when-necessary with several specious arguments.
He begins by describing his Manichean view of the world. Everything is black or white. Anyone who dissents from his verdict on the evils destroying American society is categorized as “demonic,” a tool of Satan (96, 101, 113-114, 117). The American culture wars are a fight of good against evil, of divine forces against demonic opponents. As Metaxas draws up the battlefield, people like Jim Wallis (a Christian active in progressive politics) and Andy Stanley (a pastor combatting political division within his church) are on the Devil’s team.
Furthermore, Metaxas seems convinced that if society is in decline, then it must be the church’s fault. A faithful, protesting, politically active church would presumably carry the day and turn the tide of spreading immorality.
Metaxas anticipates the inevitable objections to his promotion of political violence by distorting the biblical view of God with his own (ironic!) version of “cheap grace,” the very problem Bonhoeffer famously attributed to the German church under Hitler.
According to Metaxas, God is not looking for believers who concern themselves with purity. Rather, God is seeking courageous, even reckless devotees who are willing to risk incurring guilt as they sin on God’s behalf. This component of Metaxas’ argument is so shocking that a few quotations are warranted to make the point:
Page 110 – To love unreservedly – which is God’s call to us – is to risk everything, our lives and our reputations. Bonhoeffer’s view of God’s real grace made it possible for him to trust Him completely. As long as he earnestly desired to do God’s will and acted from that motive, he knew the God of the Bible would see his heart and grant him grace, if it happened that he had erred.
Page 118 – (Bonhoeffer understood that) God was calling His people to something far above merely avoiding sins and keeping their noses clean. . . Being a Christian is not about avoiding sin, but about passionately and courageously serving God.
Page 120-21 – God is not a moralistic fussbudget or nitpicking God who is lying in wait. When we tell a lie for a larger good, He does not swoop in and say “Aha!” and condemn us. If we know who God truly is, we know that He is not against us, but for us. He is not Satan the accuser, looking for what sins He can find to condemn us. He is the gracious and loving God who sent His own Son to die so that we could be forgiven and saved. And when He sees us act in a way that is not calculated to protect ourselves but that is rather magnanimous and self-sacrificing for the sake of another, He rejoices.
In any other context, Metaxas’ words might sound innocent enough. But tied as they are to Bonhoeffer’s willingness to commit murder, Metaxas’ urgings for courageous Christians to behave radically, even to the point of knowingly engaging in sin, take on an ominous significance.
Since Bonhoeffer believed that God would forgive his role in Hitler’s attempted murder, Christians today should also understand that God will forgive them for whatever violent acts they commit in their “godly” efforts to redeem our society.
There is much more to criticize in Metaxas’ new book, but these are the most salient problems, in my view. I am sure that Metaxas would insist that I am wrong when I accuse him of fomenting political violence. He has constructed his book in such a way as to provide himself with “plausible deniability.”
But in today’s world, more specifically, in today’s America, my mind is not the only one that will read Metaxas’ book as a call-to-arms with a get-out-of-jail-free card neatly included.
So, beware the author who tells his readers that political violence can be the answer, describing it as a courageous act of the truly spiritual person who will be forgiven by God.
Katie Halper is an independent journalist and political commentator. Until last week, Ms. Halper was a visiting host on the news program The Hill.
That is, she WAS a regular guest on the show until she was summarily fired for reading her editorial spot explaining the details of Israeli apartheid.
Yes, Israel IS an apartheid state. It has always been an apartheid state, since day one. There is NO non-apartheid phase in Israel’s history because Israel was founded as a Jewish supremacist state.
If this is new information to you, then I encourage you to read my new book, Like Birds in a Cage: Christian Zionism’s Collusion in Israel’s Oppression of the Palestinian People (Cascade, 2021).
But the pro-Israel, pro-Zionist public relations machine works very hard to hide this fact from the rest of the world.
They have been working particularly hard in recent years since Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem have all published their own reports extensively cataloguing the ins-and-outs of Israel’s comprehensive, systemic, apartheid regime.
My friend Dr. Rob Dalrymple writes a blog at Pathos.com. He also hosts the DetermineTruthpodcast.
I encourage you to subscribe to both of them!
Rob recently wrote a blog post about the Focus on the Family initiative encouraging students to bring their own Bibles to school. Below is a short segment from the Christian Broadcasting Network explaining this nation-wide action.
Rob has given me permission to reproduce his blog post here at HumanityRenewed. Like Rob, I am also skeptical about the motives, the wisdom, and the possible consequences of this Focus on the Family endeavor.
No neither Rob nor I are anti- Bible reading!
But we are anti-. . . well, read the post below to discover what we are concerned about. . .
Rob’s blog post follows immediately after this 3:33 CBN explanatory video:
Bring your Bible to School Day: Maybe Not Such a Good Idea
On the positive side
I suspect that bringing a Bible to school and having it out so that others might see it—which I suppose is the point of “bring your Bible to school day”—might well provide an opportunity for conversations.
Others might ask, “what is that?”; or “what church do you go to?”; “why do you read that?” Such opportunities to have a conversation about the Bible, Jesus, or the kingdom of God is awesome.
I imagine that there are many Christian students who want to have conversations with others but they do not know how to go about it. There is likely a measure of fear—which is quite understandable. Starting a conversation about Jesus is not easy.
This may well be one of the primary benefits of encouraging students to bring their Bibles to school. Namely, it gives students an opportunity to overcome their fears and express their faith.
(I suspect that a “Bring your Bibles to work campaign” might have the same level of consternation among adults). In fact, why don’t they start a “bring your Bible to work day” also?
This campaign, then, may well help in the spiritual maturation of students.
In addition, I am sure that one student’s courage to bring their Bible to school might also encourage others to do the same.
On the neutral side
Shouldn’t we bring our Bibles every day?
As I watched and read through some of the promo materials for this event, I was a bit surprised that this was being billed as a 1-day a year event.
If, after all, the Bible is central to the Christian life—and I definitely believe that it is—then shouldn’t we always have a Bible at school/work? Shouldn’t every day be “bring your Bible to school/work” day?
Now, I suppose a valid response to this query might well be that we would love to have our students bring a Bible every day, but in order to do so, we must get them to do it one day first.
And this is fine, but maybe the campaign should be: “starting on Oct 6 we are encouraging students to bring their Bibles to school every day”? Or perhaps, “bring your Bible every Thursday”?
Don’t most kids use their phones these days?
Also, do kids even have Bibles? I mean actual, physical, paper Bibles.
I am sure they know that there are plenty of good Bible Apps available for download. And I bet they would prefer using them instead of carrying a Bible.
Now, although it may be more conspicuous, a conversation could still arise from someone coming up to a student, who is reading their Bible on their phone, and asking “hey, what ya reading?”
This approach, in fact, might even be more effective.
After all, not only does reading the Bible on your phone still present an opportunity for a conversation, it may be less likely to turn people away. What I mean is this: I suspect that many students will not engage a student if they see them reading a Bible.
But, if a student has the Bible on their phone, no one knows what they are reading until they ask.
On the flip side
Although I would affirm that the idea for the campaign is fine, I am actually quite concerned for a number of reasons.
NB: I am not saying that I would not encourage students to read their Bible while at school. I am just not sure that this campaign is the right way to do it.
Lack of emphasis on discipleship
For one, I saw nothing in the promotional materials for this campaign that stressed the fact that proclaiming the Gospel is something that we do with our lives.
Sure the presence of a Bible might alert someone else that you profess to believe in the Bible. But I would hope that we don’t need to bring a Bible to alert others that we profess to believe in the Bible.
I would hope that the way we live, the way we love, the way we care for others, and the way we speak would alert others that we are followers of Jesus.
In fact, if someone comes and asks, “what ya reading?” that person may be more willing to listen if they know that the other regularly manifests grace, love, kindness, and acceptance of others (I’ll return to this last item below).
We need to spend more time discipling our students and encouraging them to live and love like Jesus. I suspect that if we did this more effectively, we would not need to have a “bring your Bible to school day.”
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that those who are behind this campaign do not also believe that our character matters. I am saying that I did not see this in their literature.
I am also not saying that unless you have your life in order you should not let people know that you are a Christian. After all, none of us have our lives in order.
I am saying that the person who hasn’t lived in accord with the call of Christ needs to know how to engage in a conversation about Jesus, the Bible, and the kingdom. Here again, is the importance of discipleship.
Students need to know that they can be honest about how they are trying to follow Jesus, the Bible, and the kingdom, but they are struggling.
Certainly, this is a great way to have a conversation about the Bible. It may well be that the person who comes to ask, “what ya reading?” is also a Christian who is struggling to follow Jesus too. They can then bond and work together to learn how to better follow Jesus.
In addition, I would ask if those behind the campaign are preparing students for how they might respond if someone begins to mock them. The fact is that bringing a Bible to school will quite likely bring scorn.
The problem is that none of the promotional materials for this campaign focused on discipling our students and preparing them for living out the Gospel or how to have conversations.
They will know that you are my disciples–Love
I think that we are better served by putting a greater emphasis on discipling our students. That would include teaching them the Bible. But it would also include encouraging them to take part in some of the school initiatives that reach out and serve others.
Would not the witness of our students be better served if they worked at a food drive to help needy families in their communities? Or if they assembled resources so that students in inner-city schools might have access to better textbooks or even computers and technology?
Imagine if every church adopted a school in their neighborhood and let the administration of that school know that they were there to serve the students and their families, the teachers, and the administration. Wouldn’t the Church’s witness be more dynamic if schools knew that there were caring people ready to serve at any moment?
NB: Someone might push back on this by saying that schools would never call on a local church to help. To which I would respond: why don’t you find out? After all, I know of churches that are doing this very thing!
Other concerns
My primary concern relates to the root convictions behind this campaign. What do I mean?
The Focus on the Family website (which I understand to be one of the driving forces behind the campaign) under the tab, “For Parents,” has a list of “5 reasons students should participate.”
I find reason #4 deeply troubling.
Reason #4 is, “stand for your rights.” In other words, the campaign asserts that by bringing their Bible to school students are standing for their rights.
This reason, I believe, is nothing more than a dangerous assertion of Christian nationalism (we addressed Christian nationalism in a 4 part series on the determinetruth podcast in Nov-Dec 2021).
How so?
For one, we must understand that there is no inherent human right that demands that all persons should be allowed to “bring their Bibles to school.” It may well be a legal right of all Americans. But it is not a legal right in other countries. And I don’t suppose that we should be kicking down the doors of the UN demanding that Christian students in N Korea be permitted to bring their Bibles to school.
In addition, I suspect that many of the same proponents of the “Bring your Bible to School day” campaign would be outraged if a similar campaign to “Bring your Quran to School day” was endorsed by the Islamic community in the US.
After all, if bringing your Bible to school is an inherent right, then is it not also a right for Muslims to bring their Quran to school? If we say “yes” to the former and “no” to the latter, then we are espousing Christian nationalism.
This campaign also demonstrates a lack of awareness of the global church.
One website asserted that it was important to bring your Bible to school because “we should not be ‘undercover’ Christians.” The article went on to claim that “Jesus says to us in the book of Matthew to shine your light, don’t hide [it] under a bowl.”
Now, this might seem like a good response, but it both radically distorts the meaning of Jesus’ words and it shows no awareness of what life is like for millions of Christians around the world—let alone in the history of the church.
To claim that we must bring a Bible to school, work, or any other public setting because Jesus commanded us to let our light shine and not to hide it is an affront to millions of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who will be imprisoned, tortured, and even killed for doing so.
Sure bringing a Bible to school in America may well be a means of bearing witness to Christ. But in some countries of the world may well be the means of assuring your death.
Sure the idea behind this day sounds great. And I would encourage students to do so. I would not encourage them to do so, however, without discipling them. Without encouraging them to have a love for others that is modeled on Jesus’ love for us. At the end of the day, I cannot endorse this campaign because it is lacking with regard to a proper focus on discipleship and, more importantly, it is shrouded in the garb of Christian nationalism.
NB: I must say that I chuckled when I saw that the promotional materials made sure to include homeschooled students in the message: #noneleftbehind. I know that we don’t want to leave kids out, but it just seems unnecessary for kids to bring their Bibles to the table so mom may know that they are Christians.
I encourage you to read Mr. Hedges’ recounting of the many ways American democracy has been undermined over the decades. You won’t be wasting your time.
Recently, Chris Hedges was interviewed by Jimmy Dore and asked to explain what he meant by his claim that the USA is not a democracy. The clip is titled “Your Democracy Was Stolen Long Before January 6.”
Two journalists, Joh Schwarz and Ken Klippenstein, at The Intercept have an important article explaining the role of corporate price gouging in the current struggle with inflation.
Only such a rare, candid moment could explain the capitalist system in a nut shell.
Just as nothing will cause a heartless CEO to find religion as quickly as the prospect of a higher profit margin!
Halleluiah! Praise God! And pass the plate.
By his own admission, this corporate big-wig admits that, along with the current international supply-train issues, corporate price gouging is another major factor in driving up prices for American consumers.
Here is an excerpt:
As corporate profits reach record high, Iron Mountain executive tells Wall Street inflation is great for “the bottom line.”
THE CEO OF Iron Mountain Inc. told Wall Street analysts at a September 20 investor event that the high levels of inflation of the past several years had helped the company increase its margins — and that for that reason he had long been “doing my inflation dance praying for inflation.”
The comment is an unusually candid admission of a dirty secret in the business world: corporations use inflation as a pretext to hike prices. “Corporations are using those increasing costs – of materials, components and labor – as excuses to increase their prices even higher, resulting in bigger profits,” Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under Clinton, recently argued. Corporate profits are now at their highest level since 1950. . .
. . . It wasn’t a one-off comment by the Iron Mountain CEO, William Meaney. On a 2018 earnings call, he invoked a Native American ritual, telling participants that “it’s kind of like a rain dance, I pray for inflation every day I come to work because … our top line is really driven by inflation. … Every point of inflation expands our margins.”
Iron Mountain’s CFO Barry A. Hytinen also said on an earnings call this past April that “we do have very strong pricing power” and for the company, inflation is “actually a net positive.”
Ray McGovern is a retired CIA analyst who for many years gave US presidents their daily CIA briefings. He is also a specialist in the internal
affairs of the former Soviet Union – now Russia.
Mr. McGovern’s latest article at the Antiwar.com website is titled “Brainwashed for War with Russia“. He helpfully unpacks the step-by-step process of misinformation, distortion, and out-right lies that have been fed to the American public by our corporate media about the war in Ukraine.
The facts are simple but largely unknown by the average American.
First, he USA instigated this war by provoking Russia.
Second, the American news media is controlled by the military-industrial complex which wants to sell more weaponry to an every expanding war in Ukraine.
Therefore, we are propagandized to hate Putin, to cheer for Ukrainian neo-Nazis, and to remain catatonic as the US congress approves tens of billions of dollars in additional military aid to Ukraine.
Below is an excerpt from McGovern’s article (all emphasis is mine):
Thanks to Establishment media, the sorcerer apprentices advising President Joe Biden – I refer to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jacob Sullivan, and China specialist Kurt Campbell – will have no trouble rallying Americans for the widest war in 77 years, starting in Ukraine, and maybe spreading to China. And, shockingly, under false pretenses.
Most Americans are oblivious to the reality that Western media are owned and operated by the same corporations that make massive profits by helping to stoke small wars and then peddling the necessary weapons. Corporate leaders, and Ivy-mantled elites, educated to believe in U.S. “exceptionalism,” find the lucre and the luster too lucrative to be able to think straight. They deceive themselves into thinking that (a) the US cannot lose a war; (b) escalation can be calibrated and wider war can be limited to Europe; and (c) China can be expected to just sit on the sidelines. The attitude, consciously or unconsciously, “Not to worry. And, in any case, the lucre and luster are worth the risk.”
The media also know they can always trot out died-in-the-wool Russophobes to “explain,” for example, why the Russians are “almost genetically driven” to do evil (James Clapper, former National Intelligence Director and now hired savant on CNN); or Fiona Hill (former National Intelligence Officer for Russia), who insists “Putin wants to evict the United States from Europe … As he might put it: “Goodbye, America. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
Absent a miraculous appearance of clearer heads with a less benighted attitude toward the core interests of Russia in Ukraine, and China in Taiwan, historians who survive to record the war now on our doorstep will describe it as the result of hubris and stupidity run amok. Objective historians may even note that one of their colleagues – Professor John Mearsheimer – got it right from the start, when he explained in the autumn 2014 issue of Foreign Affairs “Why the Ukraine Crisis is the West’s Fault.”
Historian Barbara Tuchman addressed the kind of situation the world faces in Ukraine in her book “The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam.” (Had she lived, she surely would have updated it to take Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine into account). Tuchman wrote:
“Wooden-headedness…plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts.”
Six Years (and Counting) of Brainwashing
Thanks to US media, a very small percentage of Americans know that:
Click here to read the entire piece and discover what most American’s don’t know about Ukraine.