Readings Lately
The Quiet Desperation Of Woke Fanatics (link)
Michael Shellenberger is a fantastic writer. His book Apocalypse Never (subtitle "Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All") should be read if you really believe all the doomsaying about global warming. If you can still dismiss what he says, so be it. He also wrote a good book about the homeless crisis in San Francisco.
In the Quiet Desperation Of Woke Fanatics, he uses Eric Hoffers "The True Believer" to excavate the psychology of the radical protester. They are engaged in a new religion born from nihilism. They are also frustrated narcissists.
You can see the connection to wounded pride. Many narcissists are seeking to feel relevant but lack the talent or stamina to become any good at their craft. They must thus resort to cruder actions that require courage but little creativity, or hard work, like throwing a can of tomato soup onto a Van Gogh painting, stopping traffic, or emptying milk onto the floor. It is notable the extent to which the first and last of those behaviors are typical of the temper tantrums of children. Konstantin Kisin aptly dubbed the climate fanatics as belonging to “tantrum groups.”
Here is an interesting quote from The True Believer which Shellenberger includes in his article:
“The reason that the inferior elements of a nation can exert a marked influence on its course is that they are wholly without reverence toward the present,” he writes. “They see their lives and the present as spoiled beyond remedy and they are ready to waste and wreck both; hence their recklessness and their will to chaos and anarchy.”
And with the elites at the top of society cheering them on, we can expect years of such tantrums. And they'll certainly claim some scalps. Whether it be communities choosing to impoverish themselves in a quest for purity, or entire nations doing the same, this will likely be an enduring pattern for the 2020s.
Why? Because the spoiled children slowly age, and eventually require pauses between tantrums. And in those pauses unprogrammed thoughts may come in. Through these thoughts, a human being who turned into a dynamo of destruction may yet be saved.
The Cost of Waging World War Trans (link)
Rod Dreher examines recent statements from Putin about the moral decline of the West.
Putin could have mentioned the recent European Court of Human Rights ruling that exonerated a French feminist who crawled onto an altar during a Catholic service, pretended to abort Jesus, then peed all over the altar. Look, I don't have any problem recognizing the hypocrisy here in Putin, who jails antiwar critics, but the man is not wrong about Western decadence and arrogance. The corruption of the messenger does not negate the truth of the message. Let me say to you once again that if you travel throughout the democratic countries of Central Europe, you will meet lots of people who used to love America, but who regard us now with wariness and even contempt. Why? Because of what we have come to stand for, and the way we, and our corporations, bully them into accepting wokeness.
Just for fun, Steve B and Portlandia
The man can't get out of the bookstore, just as we can't escape the overheated rooms of feminist ideology:
On the Perils of a Winsome Ministry (link)
I've become interested in the chattering of pastors and priests. Because if we look at the moral brokenness in America, it's natural to ask "why the hell happened to the churches? Aren't Americans religious people?"
Well, not anymore. And if they are, they practice "cafeteria Christianity," in which they pick and choose what to believe. My sister told me that she doesn't believe everything in the Bible. The problem with that attitude is that it sets you up as the judge of what is true and not true in that book. Now you can cherry pick. Something in there offends someone? (such that a man should not lie with a man). Cut it out! Outdated! So now people like you AND you get to keep a feeling of being good because you go to church.
So what are churches doing about this? Very close to nothing, which is interesting. It suggests their leaders have no real faith. The rot of materialism, of humanism, of nihilism goes deep.
Still, this article is full of good points about why pastors shy away from truth. They tend to "punch right, coddle left," mimicking the secular culture around them. The author develops a metaphor of sheep, wolves and fools that has real power to explain what is happening. And this historical incident with Saint Ambrose was interesting:
We can take inspiration from a famous instance in church history of courageous church discipline. In AD 390, emperor Theodosius, in a rage, slaughtered around 7000 people. Bishop Ambrose called him to repent, which Theodosius refused, in response to which Ambrose denied communion to the emperor. Eventually Theodosius did repent, accepting Ambrose’s terms for reconciliation, which included the promotion of a law which required a delay of 30 days before any death sentence passed could be enforced. In front of a crowded congregation, Theodosius took off his imperial robes and asked for forgiveness of his sins. Finally, at a church service on Christmas day, Ambrose administered the sacrament to Theodosius.
This was extremely dangerous for Ambrose. But he was faithful to the vocation, and bravely brought harsh love to the powerful church member. We need ministers to lead with this type of clarity, conviction, and courage.
I like this metaphor of small and big noses from the 5th century:
Gregory the Great (AD 540-604) wrote one of the most important works on pastoral ministry: The Book of Pastoral Rule. In it he provides a provocative metaphor related to this, focusing on nose sizes.1 A “small nose” represents the lack of discernment. Such a minister cannot deal with complexity, cannot take in sufficient relevant data. But there is also the problem of the “big nose.” Such a minister is overly impressed with his ability to nuance, to live in tensions and ambiguities. He can deceive himself by inflating his sense of his own wisdom and can deceive the flock by remaining in subtleties—thus failing to speak clearly about error and to deal firmly with wolves.
At the end of the article, the author removes the beam in his own eye:
When I was more influenced by the winsome model, I remember taking a group of college students through a Bible study on Ephesians. I got called out by one of them for completely skipping over the end of the book: the second half of chapter 6. I was fine with that. At the time I found the whole talk of “spiritual warfare” just a little fundamentalistic and overwrought. I have come to realize I was wrong. I don’t want Christians to be anxious; but I want them to be able to “stand”—the key term that is repeated through those final verses (cf. 6:11, 13 [2x], 14).
"You Still Have to Bake the Cake, Bigot" (link)
A review of Jack Phillips book The Cost of My Faith: How a Decision in My Cake Shop Took Me to the Supreme Court.
We see here the same alliance between the elite and the loser radicals at the bottom, this time in the form of queer activists and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
Phillips’s memories of the case make an interesting read: the justices barking questions over each other; the untold hours of trial runs conducted by the ADF; the justices grappling with the fundamental question: What is considered speech? Anthony Kennedy, the utopian who believed America could accommodate both same-sex marriage and religious freedom, gave the Colorado state attorney a grilling, consistently highlighting the animosity displayed towards Phillips’s faith. Outside the Court, others who had been persecuted, prosecuted, or fined for their faith waited outside with signs supporting Phillips, who represented them all. The case, he writes, was about his faith, and through it all his faith sustained him. He recalls looking out over a sea of cameras, microphones, supporters, and detractors in front of the Court after the arguments and feeling a sense of total peace. God was in control.
I'm reading the book now, and it's great.