Or Lose the One We Have

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I was reminded yet again this morning about how worldviews work. For those who want to read a bit more on this, you can check this out.

One of the reasons conservatives have been outmaneuvered on the same sex mirage deal, even while knowing it to be a mirage, is that they have not engaged in every place where the battle was being fought.

A worldview wheel has four spokes — and all worldviews (in order to be genuine worldviews) must necessarily have all four. We have only been using one spoke, which means we have had to treat it like a jerry-built pogo stick. And that, in turn, means we cannot roll. We have not yet progressed to the development of the wheel. This means we must either regain the other three, or lose the one we have.

The four spokes are catechesis, lifestyle, narrative, and symbol/liturgy. We have generally wanted to fight a catechetical battle about lifestyle (which is not the same thing as living a lifestyle). Generally we have neglected narrative (or have accepted the left’s narrative and tried to work within it, which cannot be done), but that is another topic for another time.

The thing I was thinking about this morning was the potency of symbol, the meaning of signs. Think about how much of this has been driven by signs and logos — in the last few weeks, we have all been at daggers drawn over the Confederate flag, the Redskins trademark logo, the rainbow flag and all rainbowy other things, bridal gowns, the American flag, and wedding rings.

Battles over such things include two aspects — offense and defense. In a real battle, the point is to make your adversary embarrassed by his signs and your own people proud of theirs. And this is why all the big city shame parades are called pride events. I don’t know. When a middle-aged guy in a thong and a feather boa prances out of the Castro District for the big event, the word pride is not the first thing that should pop into your head. The phrase ludicrous fatuity is more like it — but the reason he gets away with it is that he is covered by more than that leopard spotted thong. He is “covered” with all the culturally assigned signs and symbols. He is covered over completely by a big metaphorical rainbow sheet.

A prophet, one of your own, once said this:

See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy that’s his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he’s a millionaire.

Now I wouldn’t use language like that myself, but I do have the song in my playlists, so I suppose I am culpable to that extent. The reason radio stations will now frequently drop that verse when they play Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing is that the risible must not be allowed to be shown up as risible. The left knows the potency of symbol, and they fight accordingly. We don’t yet.

These tactics — offense and defense both — have been employed non-stop, 24-7, by our adversaries against us. The most conservatives will do is offer up lame defenses of some of our symbols, in a kind of Okie-from-Muskogee way, in a way that leans into the cheesy charge that our enemies have successfully made stick.

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Art
Art
8 years ago

“Full lyrics on Google play” have apparently dropped the verse too.

Nord357
Nord357
8 years ago
Reply to  Art

Lyricsfreak however has not. Yet anyway.

PerfectHold
PerfectHold
8 years ago

Our liturgies are powerful offense.

And so was this from you: https://dougwils.com/s8-expository/a-crec-declaration.html

Lately you’ve been performing like a gatling gun.

Ian Miller
8 years ago

The two Christian responses to the consciously fictional narratives of the culture have been a major failing – by either completely ignoring the way narratives have shaped attitudes and values towards sex and marriage, or passively pigging out on it, we’ve offered silence where there should have been much noise.

Wesley Sims
Wesley Sims
8 years ago

Wilson said, “..The reason radio stations will now frequently drop that verse when they play Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing is that the risible must not be allowed to be shown up as risible.” Well, George Takei illustrates that the “risible” WILL be shown to be risible IF you define a sitting black Supreme Court justice–a “clown in blackface” to use his words–whose words you either twist or don’t understand and with whom you disagree as being “risible.” Does this show that sexual preference is to be reverences and privileged above ethnicity, or simply Wilson’s principle that those who are… Read more »

doug sayers
8 years ago

Symbols tend to be over-rated. Even the few that were instituted by God can be temporarily hijacked (like the rainbow). Substantive Truth will win the day.

The strength of this blog has little to do with its branding/symbols.

timothy
timothy
8 years ago
Reply to  doug sayers

I have not verified this, but….

God’s rainbow has 7 colors.. 7 being the number of perfection.
There are 6 colors in the gay rainbow.

you do the math.

Matt Massingill
Matt Massingill
8 years ago
Reply to  doug sayers

The argument is not that the actual strength lies inherently in the symbol, but rather than the symbolic effect is to communicate and instill some message, ethic, pathos, etc. and that communication has a genuine effect.

timothy
timothy
8 years ago

We are dealing with a Romans 1 culture; I don’t think this matters.
The country that follows this one should build into its “media culture” checks and balances that serve the same purpose as the (now failed) checks and balances built into the American Republic.

This discussion will have merit then, and should be had now with an eye to then, but I do not see it ‘fixing’ anything today.

Sara F.
8 years ago

Please, please write a follow-up post expanding on the idea of a four-pronged worldview. Every time I read something from you, I think,”This makes perfect, biblical sense. How have I never heard this before?!?” -Sara

Mike Bull
8 years ago

Isn’t this a bit like claiming that Moses was outmanoeuvred by Pharaoh because he hardened his heart after every plague? Certainly, conservatives are not divinely inspired, but Pharaoh’s (and the Herods’) rage was a *product* of the Gospel, not the evidence of its failure. Also, I guess you would say all these four spokes constitute Gospel witness (and I would agree), but the New Testament focusses on legal testimony. There are certainly multiple fronts, but I think Federal Visionism is a defensive parry which takes the focus from offensive witness (and our testimony is getting more offensive by the hour).… Read more »

Nate Long
Nate Long
8 years ago

I would argue that the four spokes should be: catechesis, lifestyle, narrative, and symbol. And that liturgy embodies all four.

whatdidJesusdo
whatdidJesusdo
8 years ago
Reply to  Nate Long

Can you please recommend any additional resources to learn more about your viewpoint Nate? Thank you sir.

Tim
Tim
8 years ago

What’s been helpful for me in this ongoing discussion is the forceful use of language. Doug reminds us that this is a mirage or apparition…and likens the “decision” to declaring that triangles have four sides, or water can now run uphill. Some lawyerly-types I know in respectable positions have completely fallen for the “marriage is a constitutional right” utterance…and then quickly pull the same-sex, subjective love thing out of their posteriors before anyone notices. They need to be called on it. This is on a level of declaring all Newtonian physics null and void, or that plate tectonics is a… Read more »

Rev. R. W. Shazbot
Rev. R. W. Shazbot
8 years ago

See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy that’s his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he’s a millionaire.

These days, that could just as easily describe a megachurch pastor as a rock star.

Matt
Matt
8 years ago

“When a middle-aged guy in a thong and a feather boa prances out of the Castro District for the big event, the word pride is not the first thing that should pop into your head. The phrase ludicrous fatuity is more like it — but the reason he gets away with it is that he is covered by more than that leopard spotted thong.”

How silly. What exactly is he “getting away with” here? What do you want to happen to him? Is a beating good enough or should there be a hanging?

nineleven
nineleven
8 years ago

my first time here. nice ideas expressed. seems like militant organizations or entities going to war develop a host of signs and visual symbols to deploy along the battle lines and within their ranks to move them forward. the nazis in ww2 were excellent at this propoganda level brainwashing and unifying and preparing their culture for its mission of death. the church of Christ has a great set of symbols that can speak to all and resist all darkness and has worked pretty well for 2000 years: rags (our filthy self-righteousness); the cross (not used much anymore); the throne of… Read more »