Introduction
I want to offer a “get yourself oriented” explanation for the lunacy that has apparently descended upon virtually everybody. A fogbank of dunsical folly, stretching the length of the entire East Coast, has worked its way across the nation, and so it is that we hear distant, muffled cries, from out there in the fog somewhere, “Who’s to say what a little boy is?”
Change the metaphor. The degradation and collapse of our civilization proceeds apace, and while millions of Christians in that civilization think that “something is wrong,” few of them have any idea of just how wrong it all is. And we have erstwhile leaders who have assumed the role of reassuring us, trying to make us think that, provided a culture is unbelieving, there is no appreciable difference between its rise and its disintegration. Take a glance to the right in order to check out a recent promo vid on a glossy web site for one of those Big Name Christian Conferences.
And so let’s begin with the theopolitics of this, and then move on to cite a few illustrations of it snatched from today’s headlines. I won’t say what these examples are about exactly, but one of them rhymes with Sal Planken.
The Tie That Binds
Every social order requires an arche, a point of integration. That point of integration ties together a society’s beliefs, symbolic customs, shared narratives, and lifestyles. If that point of integration fails, then you don’t have a society that exists as a counter-example to my statement, but rather you have a failed society. For a society to cohere, there must be an adhesive. If these elements are not held together, then what you have is a non-society. Now this point of integration, this adhesive, is what I call the “god of the system.”
For the Muslims, this is the will of Allah. For the Philistines it was Dagon. For the Jews it was Jehovah. For the Greeks it was Zeus. For the Amorites, it was Martu. For the Egyptians, it was Ra. I use the phrase “god of the system” to indicate that this reality of societal cohesion is shared both by worshipers of false gods and worshipers of the true and living God. To appeal to Henry Van Til’s formulation, culture is religion externalized. All cultures are some religion externalized.
For secularists, this point of integration is Demos, the people. The catch for them is that they want to believe that their Demos is a predictable god, just as the Christian God is. Our God is immutable, without variation or shadow due to change. Their god is fickle, but they still like to pretend that what “everybody knows” will always remain that way—when it transparently will not. Stability is a feature of the older order that they have been busy replacing without knowing it. Demos has violent mood swings; Demos needs to be sedated sometimes. Jehovah is constant, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
So for Christians, the arche is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who holds all things together. “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning [arche], the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Col. 1:18). He holds everything together; He has the preeminence in all things; He is the arche.
Christians assert that the claims of Christ are universal and transcendental. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. He has authority over everything He created, and He created everything. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). There is not a quark or a photon anywhere in this cosmos that was not spoken into existence by the Word of God, who is the Lord Jesus. In short, He is no tribal Deity. And His omnipresent authority does not mean that He is rolled out thinly over everything, stretched out to cover it all. No, all of God is present in every place.
It angers Him when the impudence of men tries to “isolate Him,” tries to locate Him in one place to the exclusion of another. “And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the Lord, Because the Syrians have said, The Lord is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the Lord” (1 Kings 20:28).
It is also great folly to fall into the trap of the “religious,” those who think they can get God to stay put in a decorated box called a sanctuary, provided they layer it with enough gold.
“Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things?” (Acts 7:48–50).
Christ is therefore a universal king. He is not Lord of one place, and not of another. He is not Lord of one category (sacred) and not of another (secular). He is not the king of one religion and not of another. He is therefore the king (thus far unacknowledged) of the Jews, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, and all others. Our task as Christians here on earth is found in the Great Commission. We are commanded to disciple every Muslim nation, every Hindu nation, the one Jewish nation, every Buddhist nation (Matt. 28:18-20).
And will that happen? Of course it will. It is happening now.
“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. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, Which shall stand for an ensign of the people; To it shall the Gentiles seek: And his rest shall be glorious” (Is. 11:9–10).
God’s instrument for accomplishing this is the proclamation of the gospel, the preaching of the crown rights of King Jesus, with His eternal throne established on the everlasting foundation of His shed blood, His three days in the tomb, His resurrection in power and glory, and His royal reception by the Ancient of Days. Preach that, and you will find that that will preach.
God’s instrument for accomplishing this is not a craven and cowardly demeanor on the part of His servants, going out into all the world to find common ground, to split the difference, to search out the lowest common denominator, to seek the peace of Gomorrah, or to tell the world that their deepest felt needs were the compass that Christ steers by.
So Christ’s saving authority is absolute. It is universal. It is transcendent. It is consummate, final, complete, simple, unlimited, total, and utterly unrivaled. Thus far the Christian gospel.
Now when worshipers of false gods seek to approximate and counterfeit this, they have to take their local deities on some kind of a promotional tour. What this means is that the local deity has to become the god of some empire or other, and the followers of Christ must be harried, persecuted and marginalized. In centuries past, this promotion of a local god was done by means of overt conquest . . . in these times, it is done by the lying tricks of the cultural Marxists, the sitcom laugh track being just one of them. Gramsci called for the long march through the institutions, in just the same way that drywood termites commence their long march through the floor joists. Their idea was to get Demos to stop trying to make sense, and to just follow the gonads.
So What Is Truth?
Truth is that which serves and worships the Deity. Christians believe that truth is absolute because their God is absolute. Truth is an attribute of the eternal God. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Pilate asked what truth was when the final and ultimate answer to that question stood bleeding in front of him (John 18:38). True truth is that which therefore honors the true God, which it has to do, being an aspect of His Being.
The world is structured in such a way that devotees of localized religions and finite gods, despite themselves, have to function in the same way. Truth will always be defined as service to the god of the system. When someone say that “that is true for you, but not for me,” what they are doing is confessing their faith in a finite god. Your god requires you to say and do certain things, as does mine. This approach is polytheism—and the political name for that is pluralism.
And when the false universalism of empire, or of globalization, fails—either fails to cohere, or coheres for a time before collapsing—what is the result? The result is that all unbelievers default to their respective natural tribes. These tribes may be ethnic, national, ideological, or political. And truth becomes whatever the god of that little system requires. But little systems requires the truths to be little truths. “That’s true for me.” “That’s true in our faith community.”
Absent a universal arche, there is nothing whatever that can be done to stop this—it is a necessity. Courses in logic won’t fix this because man is of necessity religious, and truth is always a matter of religious dogma. Examples to follow, further down.
Tribal Truth
So when the god of an empire fails, or the god of the cosmopolis no longer commands the respect of the people, if the people have not in the meantime been converted to Christ, then they will necessarily default to their local baals. Nobody thinks the United Nation has any religious mojo anymore. Neither does the federal government. Those centers have lost their adhesive powers.
And so when it defaults, it defaults to locally congregated groups. For some it is ethnicity. For others it is ideology. Truth is what serves the interests of Black Lives Matter. Truth is what advances the hard leftism of Bernie Sanders. Truth is what reinforces the assumptions of the alt-right. Anything but Jesus.
Now some might object and say that I am lathering too much theology over the top of this. We have always had hyper-partisanship, have we not? And isn’t that what you are talking about? People who are so “into” their cause that absolutely anything is pressed into the service of that cause?
Yes, we have always had that, but such fanatics have been outliers. When a society is intact, the center holds, even if it is a false center. But when a culture starts to balkanize, and the hyper-partisanship becomes standard operating procedure for most groups, then local tribal truths start to play smashmouth with other local tribal truths. And when someone points out a contradiction this has the effect of just highlighting the conflict, which is the whole point, and the other guy just doubles down. And the conflict intensifies.
So we have always had people who could not be convinced by any evidence whatever. There is the story told about the guy who was always critical, never saw the good side of anything or anybody. This exasperated his friends a great deal, so imagine the delight of one of those friends who bought a retriever for his duck hunting, and discovered on his first outing that his dog knew how to walk on water. His first thought was that this would impress his critical friend. So he took him out duck hunting the next day, shot a duck, and the dog ran out over the surface of the water, and returned to the blind with the duck. The critical friend said nothing. This happened two more times, and still the critical friend said nothing. In the truck on the way home, the exasperated man asked in frustration whether his friend had noticed anything. “Well, yes,” the man replied. “I didn’t want to mention it because you all never want to hear my perspective. But since you asked, I did notice that your stupid dog can’t swim.”
We have all known people for whom no evidence was sufficient. But what is happening when this is descriptive of all the major factions in a culture?
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
And This is Why . . .
So let’s start with the Franken example. The point of this is not the tawdry scandal itself, but rather the way people are talking about it, how they process it, how they rationalize after the fact.
I saw a reporter in the White House press corps, pressing Sarah Sanders on why the president had tweeted something rude about Franken, and hadn’t done the same thing concerning Roy Moore. Isn’t this inconsistent? Well, no—whether or not you believe that Moore is guilty or innocent.
For the reporter, it was simply a matter of “a” sexual accusation made against a member of his tribe, and there was also “a” sexual accusation made against a member of the opposing tribe. The fact that they were wildly different situations was totally ignored—and here is the different. The one person denies it ever happened, and in the other instance we have a photograph of him doing it.
That kind of difference doesn’t matter if truth is whatever advances the cause of your tribe. If there is any kind of semi-plausible argument that can be made, and enough people are willing to push it for the sake of the tribe, then that is what truth is.
This works when we are talking about the true and living God. Truth really is what pleases the triune God. But this approach results in absurdities everywhere else. All local gods of necessity come a cropper, all of them face plant like Dagon.
Blocking Your Own Teammate
Another example of this problem is something I have seen in nominally conservative circles. One similarity between two disparate individuals is picked out, the whole thing is flattened, and that one similarity is regarded as the only relevant thing. For example, I have been told before that my satiric language, directed at the forces of secularism and unbelief, is equivalent to the cutting language used by Euodia on Syntyche. Elijah mocking the priests of Baal is equivalent Shimei mocking David. After all, are they not both “mocking?”
This objection reveals that the true tribal allegiance is to the referees (falsely understood), and not to one of the teams. Many professing Christians have fallen for this. They know enough not to cheer for the devil’s team, but they don’t know enough not to cheer for what they believe to be the “neutral” refs. But everyone pretending to neutrality is on the devil’s team, whether they intend it or not.
So this is like saying there is no difference between your left tackle blocking the man across from him, and your right tackle pulling and blocking your own right guard. Are they not both blocking? Or if your running back gets spun around, and starts running with the ball in the wrong direction? Is not the essential thing that he be running, and maintaining good ball control? Well, that is essential to his task, but it is not the only thing that is essential. Running in the right direction is also suggested.
The Grace of Privilege
All the talk we hear about white privilege, or white fragility, or ubiquitous white racism, is an example of the same kind of thing. And, by the way, I am not here talking about blacks and whites who know that the only true possibility of ethnic reconciliation is to be found in the gospel of Christ—the teaching that blacks and whites are equally trapped in sinful rebellion against God, and are offered forgiveness on equal terms, which is to say, on the basis of the blood of Christ. That is real reconciliation.
But there is a tribal truth version of ethnic reconciliation out and about. In this version, being white automatically entails guilt. Possessing any kind of privilege at all (parents not divorced, taught math as a child, growing up in a crime-free community, etc.) is considered to be a mortal offense against underprivileged groups, instead of being what it actually is—a gift from God. Egalitarianism is driving this, and envy is what drives egalitarianism. The tribal god is demanding that the happiness of people in other tribes be denounced.
And then when certain whites, suffering from what can only be called incurable whiteness, join in with this, and call upon fellow whites to recognize their inescapable racism, this is what is happening. Contrary to the opposing tribe, which would be the alt-right, the whites who do this are not being race-traitors. It is far worse than that. They are reality-traitors.
The problem is not that they are betraying their people. Rahab did that, and was thereby justified (Jas. 2:25). The problem is that they are betraying the arche that rules over all nations, all ethnicities, all tribes, all men. Truth is not what serves and helps blacks. Truth is not what serves and helps whites. Truth is not what helps the progressive left. Truth is not what helps the reactionary right. Truth is the belt around the waist of Messiah the Prince.
Conclusion
We are caught in a maze of confusions because we continue to insist that secular democracy, which of necessity denies any ultimate arche, is a viable system. It is not. It is moribund, defunct, teetery, doomed, done for, and perishing. It is lying on its back in the pasture of its discontents, with all four feet pointing toward the sky. In the great words of that Monty Python parrot skit, it has joined the choir invisible.
Football Analogies! Hooray! That’s an excellent treatise on truth in current perspective. Frank Dreben and Pilate! Clear as a bell. It’s so difficult when Tribe A decides to play for keeps against all costs and throwing off the chains of truth to abstain from engaging in the tribalism that seems to be winning the day. (Did you see the new WJ Clinton allegations?) The ear itches for the red meat of tribalism and is bored by the steady hand of wisdom in truth. How does the Christian keep his/her leaders’ eyes on truth and the prize when media and the… Read more »
This is excellent work, good sir. Thanks for the very insightful work.
Hallelujah! It is about time.
Now if we can just get you off that libertarian nonsense, we would be in good shape. Calling it theocratic doesn’t help, either.
All wordly statism is open (if not inviting) to sabotage.
Secular democracy is perfectly “viable” for the devil and his minions.
Except it is theocratically libertarian, or theocratically conservative. The only reason people don’t like defending that form of theocracy is because we’re always accused of that other more insidious “theocracy” with the scare quotes. And it’s not the “neo-Marxist libertarianism,” it’s the other kind, the one defined by the Bible. We tend to shy away from terms or words when we personally feel like the negative connotations are too great to defend, but we end up opening wide the door to the neutrality of secular democracy and pluralism.
Throwing buzzwords together to make things sound appealing is not helpful. The Bible simply does not advocate any kind of libertarianism.
The political philosophy of libertarianism seeks to maximize the social freedoms of the individual. But man is inherently sinful. Give him enough policital freedom rope and he will hang himself and anyone close by with him. The Bible sees human government’s job as restraining evil. They run in opposite directions.
If the buzzwords don’t seek to better edify and explain, and are primarily used to unbiblically cause offense to people we shouldn’t being causing offense, then yes, I agree with you buzzwords aren’t helpful. But if the buzzwords merely explain the liberty we are advocating for and the form of government under the authority of the One and True Living God, and they biblically and appropriately cause the right kind of consternation by all the right people, then I will respectfully disagree with you. If we’re talking about THAT kind of neo-Marxist social libertarianism, then I absolutely agree with you.… Read more »
“Christian libertarianism” is about as meaningful as “Christian Marxism” or “Christian feminism”. The worldview and social universe of the Bible and the Church is completely incompatible with that of libertarianism, conservatism, or any other strain of liberalism. True Christian liberty cannot be found in a society that believes in political “freedom” of any kind.
Ah…ashv, how long I have missed thee!
Malachi
ASHV is correct. True liberty can only be found in a culture/society governed by the King and His Law. He is not elected-no politics necessary. Liberty is the joyful embrace of that which the King declares “Good”.
Amen!
As Christians, we are slaves to Christ. We seek His glory in our every action, we don’t seek freedom to pursue our selfish desires.
Christian Libertarianism is an oxymoron.
I have to say, I am perfectly fine with Tribalism. We are different from the world, and while I totally agree that our Christian tribe is multi-ethnic and centered around our baptism into the covenant, we would be foolish to think that this is some Christian version of multiculturalism. We have defined boundaries even within the covenant, most notably the family, but I would also argue that nations are included into that.
‘ we would be foolish to think that this is some Christian version of multiculturalism’
Perhaps we could say that multiculturalism is the godless heresy that is trying to emulate Christian unity?
You seem to be against multiculturalism. Can you please explain why? I honestly would love an answer, because I have been confused about why people hate it my entire life. Maybe also may I ask what your definition of multiculturalism is? I have always been confused because my definition of multiculturalism is people from many different cultures and languages living together in harmony, and I love it. My church is half Asian, and I love learning about and experiencing their culture. My girlfriend of three years is Korean, and I am now trying to learn Korean. I speak Spanish, and… Read more »
Problems with multiculturalism… 1. it tends to treat all cultures as morally equivalent, which is not true 2. multiculturalism can stand in the way of moral improvement of any particular culture 3. having a strong culture can benefit an individual in ways that dabbling in many cultures can not If multiculturalism means being blind to the faults of each culture it will do great harm by confusing the moral compass of those trained under it. On the other hand, if multiculturalism means appreciating the strengths of multiple cultures, comparing and contrasting to reveal their various flaws with a discerning eye,… Read more »
Hmm, I can see your position. I think that all cultures are not equal, however there is on single best one. Also I was raised very multiculturally, and I think it caused good not harm. For me it taught me that the world was bigger than America. Unfortunately I had many friends who did not understand much of the world because the only people they talked to were Americans, raised in American culture, in their socioeconomic class, which you can see gives you a limited perspective. Can you understand how learning and experiencing many cultures could help your perspective and… Read more »
“Also can you make an argument for why growing up in only one culture can be so beneficial?” I’ll try to describe two ways in which a strong, single culture benefits individuals. The first is that cultural institutions and customs teach us lessons. Some of the lessons are not easily learned, but require consistency and repetition. (This varies somewhat from person to person.) When the society around you speaks with one voice on some facet of life, that is very powerful. In some sense it is more powerful when it appears arbitrary. That is, ceremonial unanimity makes a more powerful… Read more »
“The first is that cultural institutions and customs teach us lessons. Some of the lessons are not easily learned, but require consistency and repetition. (This varies somewhat from person to person.) When the society around you speaks with one voice on some facet of life, that is very powerful. ” Whether that is good or bad depends on the institutions, the customs, and the voice. Some are best abandoned for better options. Culture that is ossified and cannot amend itself is bound to be a bad thing. More to the question at hand, the same thing is probably true for… Read more »
I think it’s crucial to always bear in mind that forced multiculturalism can backfire in unpleasant ways. George Orwell commented once that there was no social class as xenophobic as the British working class, and that the strongest indication of that was its tendency to see all foreign food as disgusting. As long as the working class Brit can think of foreigners and their food at a safe distance, he is willing to be benevolent. Make him share a dinner table with someone eating frogs’ legs and he will respond with loathing. It’s not especially rational coming from a people… Read more »
Rod Dreher had an interesting take on that theme:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/sandwich-david-brooks-culture-class/
I will use your examples itself.
Multiculturalism is terrible, if you move to another country behave like them.
Koreans move to the west- speak English- they should not be allowed without English.
Eat English /western food.
Coming to the west and establishing a mini korea/China is only going to get hatred because that is no integration, that is invasion
People do not like being invaded.
Go tell the Chinese to be fine with Japanese migrating there in the name of multiculturalism…
I’m sitting with my Japanese friend right now, and he is laughing his head off right now. He just said that you should talk to the native americans about invasion, and that you sound really racist. Now from me. You sound like you are just afraid of other cultures and languages. I love china town. And why in the hel do you want them to eat your food. My girlfriend is third generation Korean, doesn’t speak Korean, but eats almost only Korean food. And it’s really really good. Why are you going to require then to eat the food that… Read more »
You are uniformed to think Japan is multicultural…. look at their population data…
Japanese are not fine with multiculturalism….
if you move to another country, you need to adapt, if you can’t do not cry when the local population hates you/wants you to go back
that is not racism
that is your refusal to integrate and an indication that you want to replace the local culture – which basically causes people to think you are an invader
yes of course the Japanese would laugh… from a Chinese perspective the Japanese have no conscience .
That is actually not how it works at all. So you are saying you hate people who don’t act like you?!?! Whats wrong with you. You sound like the type of person to yell go back where you came from at Mexican Immigrants. Where is the love of God. Do you have no soul, no heart for people who are different than you? Do you love anyone who isn’t white?
Also my Japanese friend is cussing you out, as am I. He says you are hypocritical af. Our ancesters littlerally killed the culture that was here before.
“My Japanese friend is cussing you out, as am I” – “Where is the love of God”.
When you consider what he said about Japan maybe you can understand.
If your girlfriend is third generation Korean then she is American. Denial that anyone of non-European descent can be American is a problem, and one you may observe on this blog. It doesn’t help when descendants of immigrants hold the nationality of their immigrant ancestors as central to their identity.
This is America. Learn to speak Cherokee.
You seem to have missed the point that we literally came and killed or drove off everyone who was here. So someone being worried about Chinatown is absurd.
exactly, they refused to integrate
by your logic the Cherokee people should have welcomed their “immigrants” who refused to eat cherokee food and adopt the Cherokee way of life
aka they were invaders.
you get shocked then when the local population thinks Asians/Mexicans who come here and do not integrate are invaders?!!
Yes I’m shocked! I had no idea that there were actually chirstians this hateful. I don’t care if they don’t integrate. They are amazing people, I speak Spanish, ofc the people who speak Spanish and no English aren’t taking over the culture. They are amazing Christian people who I love. And it isn’t the general population that hates them, just loons like you. My girlfriend doesn’t eat American food, and she isn’t a threat, shes increadible. More people like them, and less hateful people would sure improve our culture.
No
making America mini mexico or mini Korea will only degrade our culture.
Our culture is infinitely superior to that 3rd world nonsense.
they need to integrate, unless they do you will see more white people railing against them
aka Trump will win again
lol, Korea is not third world, that is an absurd claim, neither is mexico. And no, Ive seen both cultures, ours in not superior at all. We are individualistic materialistic, and shallow. I love Mexican culture, its fantastic. And only the horrible white people will rail against children and yell at them like that. you are a monster.
Malik,
Whether you agree or not, I think Mexico is usually considered Third World. So is North Korea, but not South Korea.
No, I’m referring to a group of white people. And Mexico isn’t third world, maybe Venezuela. and bdash, what is wrong with you, they eat with chopsticks and that makes them barbaric. How ignorant are you. you odviously have never experienced their culture at all. and there are more criminals who are native born than immigrants, some statistics say 10 times, others only two, but that’s a fact. You think that America is so great and everyone copied us? what an egomaniac.
due the data is on my side, the facts are on my side
America is awesome
and everyone copied us, the ones who did not have failed…
look at the race of those people committing the crimes…
I have experienced more cultures than you have.
I also lived in the worlds most diverse city for 8 years….
calm down.
sure you have bud.
do you even speak more than just English and Spanish?
Horrible white people?
Are you stereotyping?
their food is and they still eat with sticks…
Economically yes, they are nearly first world- I wonder why?
oh wait
South Korea copied a WHITE economic system and a WHITE form of government.
Yes the rapists and Gangs in mexico are FANTASTIC
they really care for their poor
White people are horrible?
I am a monster?
and I am the one scaring people from joining Church?!!
“…we literally came and killed or drove off everyone who was here.” Or just married them, like my great-great grandfather who married a Cherokee woman, which is why I am art Cherokee.
America was not founded by Cherokee?
are we in Cherokee nation?!!
No, they were here, and then we invaded, to use your wording. Take a history class.
exactly!
They were invaded, they did not want to integrate.
You are shocked then when the local population gets pissed off that the mexicans refuse to integrate?!!!
they see it as an invasion
it is not racist for them to want them to go back to their countries…
IDC what they see it as, the objectively are not. And yes it is racist to yell that at someone. Did you not hear what I said about the amazing Mexican Christians I know here. YOu make me sick of America, and white rich people, and the church.
brilliant if you do not care
then stop pretending to care about the Cherokee people
because they feel the same way as them
yes there are many amazing Christians in many parts of the world.
but Just like Jesus submitted to the Roman and local Jewish customs, dressed likethem, ate their food etc
your invading Mexicans need to do the same
I docare about the Cherokee. Whats your problem. And my invading Mexicans? I thought all the people like you died in the 1950s, I guess the left is right, America still is rascist. you realize you are the case and point of the left.
Malik, if youre new to this board then I wouldn’t start a debate with bdash.
But his point is if you are concerned about how the English invaded the US and overtook the Cherokee then, by the same logic, you should be concerned about the immigrant Mexicans taking over the US
Okay, is he just a troll?
this should amuse me if I were a troll
this only shocks me and makes me sad
And I hardly think mexico is planning a genocide on the US
they are already doing it
keep denying that white people won’t retaliate
they will
Genocide means the intentional killing of an entire group of people because the group is considered undesirable. It is different from ordinary crime where a member of one race or ethnic group kills someone of a different group. If I kill a Mexican intruder, I have not committed genocide. The area represented by my zip code is 20% white. I have learned a lot of Spanish so I can interact easily with people whose English is not that good. Learning a fourth language has been a benefit to me. Nobody knocks on my door demanding that I eat empanadas and… Read more »
Taking over a country and genocide are not at all even remotely analogous or synonymous. They aren’t the same thing.
you got my point
Malik’s ideas have no logic
The 1950’s were the golden years
American has not reached the level of equality the 1950’s had even today….
It was the decade people started to realize segregation was a bad idea.
is it racist to protect your family from foreign rapists?
Where is the sin of racism in the bible>
The sin of racism is in the form of malice/animosity and pride.
That is really desperate
I can’t believe anyone is condoning racism. You dress up in a white robe on the weekends or something?
You may not be aware of this, but the Romans were imperialistic conquerors in the most blatantly literal sense, so when you tell people to imitate Jesus in the way He accepted their presence (a fine thing, certainly) what you’re really telling them is to accept “invaders” in their societies and personal lives, which does not seem to square well with your other claims, but hews much closer to Biblical Christianity, the kind that tells slaves to submit to their masters, Jews to pay in their idolatrously minted coins to Caesar’s double-dipping taxmen, and Jews to stop holding to their… Read more »
exactly, they were conquerors , they did not adapt Jewish customs they imposed their own.
Which is exactly what the Mexicans and Asians are doing
bdash’s explanation of the problems of multiculturalism is terrible and not at all edifying or helpful. Nathan James does a better job of communicating that real humanistic problems with multiculturalism.
Can you explain how you view it? He just kind of threw humanism in at the end and didn’t explain. It isn’t a humanist movement as much as a state of being. That is in lots of churches I may add, and is beautiful.
If humanism is a state of being, a mindset, a worldview and it is in lots of churches, then I suggest high tailing it as fast as you can away from those heretical churches.
Sorry I was not clear. I was saying multiculturalism is more of a state of being that is in many churches.
white knight alert
That is ridiculous, bdash. I don’t like Korean food but plenty of regular white-bread Americans do. If you don’t care for it, you don’t have to eat it. Why does it bother you what other people choose to eat?
By the same token, do you resent people eating pasta, wienerschitzel, perogies, quesedillas, and Belgian waffles?
imposing it on the local population
and setting up mini Korea/s Chinas etc is what will cause the local population to think they are invading.
you think it is fine for Koreans to come over here and NEVER adapt?
That depends on what you mean by adapt. They should learn English. They should follow our laws. If there are any cultural habits, such as blowing smoke in people’s faces or spitting on the sidewalk, those habits should be abandoned. But I don’t expect them to speak English at home, give up their cuisine, or have the customs of Middle America. And Koreatown in my city is a hot tourist destination because of its famous cuisine. (There is also Thai Town, Japantown, Little Armenia, Little Ethiopia, Filipinotown, and Little Saigon. ) You would hate it.
yes
each culture trying to establish their own country in the west
Ah, Jill, all those places are some of my favorite parts of living in Southern California. I have fondness memories of going to the mall in Little Saigon and smelling all the medicine in the shops. The border between Thai Town and Little Armenia is like no other place I have been, too. Ahh. Will make it hard to leave, if I ever do.
Sam, I hear you. Right now, as I sip my coffee on the patio, the sun is glancing off the palm fronds and the birds are wrapping up their dawn chorus in the eucalyptus tree on the other side of the wall. The muted thrum of the freeway sounds like the surf pounding off Malibu, which saves me the trouble of actually spending an hour on said freeway to go there myself. This morning I had to dig out my winter wear to cope with the early chill: a plush hoodie. And I think of people who, even as I… Read more »
Los Angeles has incredible food and those places are the reason why.
Little Ethiopia, Koreatown, and various Mexican/Greek/Italian/Thai/Japanese/Chinese/Indian/Jamaican joints spread throughout the city were all ENORMOUS favorites of mine. Our wedding was catered by a legendary Lebanese restaurant.
Having gone vegetarian has really cramped my style, but I love Lotus Vegan in NoHo.
@Jill Smith, he probably does resent people eating those foods.
Especially if they use those heathen chopsticks! Does he think Jesus and the disciples had sterling silver knives and forks?
did I say chopsticks were sinful?
I said they were backward
big difference
The answer is quite long. I have work to do. And I don’t like typing on my phone.
Multiculturalism celebrates cultures for the sake of it. Loves diversity for diversity’s sake. Thinks pluralism is intrinsically good. Forces people to interact even against their conscience.
Christianity celebrates Christ. Joins all men together in him. Recognised the good elements of a culture. Despises the bad elements of a culture. And enjoys the indifferent elements.
Multiculturalists want the benefits without the core. And they force men to accept their dictates.
I can agree with celebrating diversity for diversity’s sake. It’s really fun and cool to have so many people together which such different backgrounds. Do you see with as contodicting to the bible? And I don’t think multiculturalism forces anyone to do anything, except not hate people for solely being different. Am I understanding correctly?
it forces people to accept foreign customs and backward thinking in their lands…
you are naive to think all it affects is acceptance.
We can accept them- in their country
nice, you got a downvote for your hate.
again
what God thinks matters
not Man
are they not teaching this to you at Seminary?
You should be begging the South Koreans to come here. On the most recent PISA IQ rankings, they score 8 points ahead of the US.
yes they are so intelligent , that is why they have a crazy dictator right next to them.
they can not even defend their own nation, they come to the USA begging for help.
Without the USA South Korea is nothing.
The USA has no need to beg a society populated with WEAK men regardless of IQ to come over here….
How about Singapore; their nation IQ is even higher.
not if you count the almost million foreign wage slaves….
we do not have slavery anymore in the USA…
and Singapore again depends on the USA, and has merely copied economic policies from the states and American/western economists…
IQ is not a measure of a successful society.
lets compare the IQ of San Francisco to Singapore?
I wonder how much the undeducated mexicans drop the American IQ?
Bdash, can you give a specific example? If Americans started to perform honor killings because they thought that some Asians had the right idea about how to treat disobedient women, I would agree that acceptance of that cultural element was a terrible idea. If Americans started peeing in the street because they saw foreigners do it and they thought it would save time, again, a terrible idea. If Filipinos had the power to insist that I eat a pig’s head on major holidays, I would be up in arms (actually I would be in the bathroom being sick). But give… Read more »
they should adapt to our culture when they are here….
not bring their third world nonsense from overseas.
You repeated yourself, but you didn’t answer. How does it harm you or me if the Koreans living next door eat kimchi instead of french fries? How are you harmed if the kids at the local park play soccer rather than football? Should I be offended that the church across the street holds services in Spanish? Who am I to say that they should all act like characters out of the Donna Reed show?
you are a citizen of America
defend your country and culture
yes eating 2 month old cabbage is backward…
even God told the Jews to defend their culture
This argument is a large part of what is wrong with many cultures, and something I especially hate about America. “Defend it because you are from here.”. No way, I’ll defend what is true and right, I’m not defending America simply because I was born here, that’s rediculous. Should I defend abortion because hey, it was in America when I was born? No!
you are against abortion?
what about women’s rights?
you do not care about women?
see how ludicrous I sound
that is how your statements on white privilege sound
of course i am for womans rights, but i don’t believe that abortion is anyone’s right. This is different from claiming that everyone deserves a fair chance at life and should not be discriminated based on their race.
Depends what you mean by culture, Bdash. It is part of some kinds of American culture to eat until you feel sick, wait an hour, and go back and eat more. This is a kind of gluttony many people in the world would find revolting. Should this part of American culture be defended? One-third of Americans are seriously overweight, suggesting a culture of eating insane amounts of fats and sugars? Should this be defended? It is part of American culture to drive half a mile on a beautiful day when one could walk. Is this defensible? The part of the… Read more »
yes, they should live like the local population
if the local population hates them, they should not cry but adapt
if they do not want to
leave
it ain’t their country
You have a problem with sauerkraut now? Pickles? Other traditional preserved foods?
Or just ones your mommy didn’t feed you, so they’re “weird”?
Jane,
Food that you did not grow up eating is almost the definition of “weird”.
For most people then, kimchi really is very, very weird. Even sauerkraut is a little weird by the standards of traditional British and Irish cuisine.
I can sympathize with bdash’s intent here. It’s important to “defend your country and culture”.
As an example, a Korean factory’s cafeteria can feature an impressive selection of cuisines from around the world, but still offer you free, all-you-can-eat kimchi – because a Korean lunch is incomplete without it.
Bdash is yearning for an equivalent type of effort here.
no
I have a problem with immigrants not behaving like the local population and bringing their third world cultures here
enjoy your halal and wife beating
Bdash, when my daughter’s two closest Indian friends reached puberty, their parents sent them to a convent school because of the high value they placed on virginity. Is this some of the third world nonsense they should have left overseas? I mean, why not just adopt the free and easy sexuality of many North American girls?
wait they are Feminist Virgins?!
lol
hahahaha
If they cared about their virginity they would not have sent them to Harvard
It seems that bdash has lost all semblance of intelligent speech.
Malik, we celebrate diversity because we celebrate things that others love. We don’t celebrate the fact we are diverse for its own sake. I like variety but novelty isn’t good if it is sinful. I like the variety that fills the world with millions of species. Not the variety of a thousand diseases. Diversity for diversity’s sake doesn’t distinguish.
No we shouldn’t hate for being different. But neither should we punish for affinity for what we know best. And we mustn’t force men to interact with others or celebrate what they disagree with.
Okay, I see your point, we didn’t disagree, just had different definitions for diversity for diversities sake. Ofc I reject the sinful parts of cultures, including American and Korean et
Could you expand on “forces people to interact even against their conscience?” I am curious what you mean there.
@sam, I don’t think people should have to buy and sell from people they do not want to. I think clubs should be free to include and exclude who they wish. I don’t think we should be forced to say things and act in ways that we think are incorrect. So if someone wants to have white group, or black group, or yellow group, or men born on Wednesdays, then what do I care. Forced interactions do not break down prejudices, they reinforce them.
Thanks bethyada.
I love those things you describe as well. So tell me, where in the world do we see that cosmopolitan like existence, generally?
I see it in many churches here, mainly south city and new city. I see it at my college where 20% are international students and there is no friction caused by it. And in my other friend groups, most of which are multicultural. And I’m glad you like it too, its really cool :)
Where? Which countries?
They are from about everywhere, I have friends from all over asia, Europe, south America, from norweigh, to japan, Thailand, panama, spain, the list goes on.
They are predominantly Western countries and those influenced by them recently.
Not India, China, Africa, etc.
I know people from all of those places as well actually. The people from india and china are actually very, idk how to say it, civilized and well mannored, as well as kind, etc.
people from India are civilized?!!!!
bwahahahahahahahaha
My friends from India are civilized and astonishingly well educated. At a minimum, they are fully fluent in three languages (English, Hindi, and the language of their home state such as Gujurati). The ones I know work as surgeons, radiologists, and scientists at Cal Tech. Their children are invariably at the top of the class, and two of my daughter’s Indian friends went to Harvard. So I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Go to india- it is not civilised
where the majority of Indians are
you base an assumption of a race on the majority, not the minority.
are these the submissive, homemaker wives who are the surgeons and scientists?
the ones you keep talking about….
They are not Christians. I don’t think there is a cultural insistence on women staying at home as opposed to having a career.
Oh so these are the house husband ones that give you ideas on how men should servant lead?
if they were INdian there is a cultural insistance
which leads me to question if these Indian friends are real or not.
What I have noticed is that the wives are not submissive to their husbands but they are very submissive to their inlaws, I have not seen Indian men helping around the house, although they play with the children. But, when both husband and wive are working at very high paying jobs, they can hire someone to do all that stuff. But the fear of the husband’s mother is something I have seen quite often.
yes
that makes sense
Mother in Laws rule the home in India
they are a patriarchal society form the outset but on the inside it is Matriarchal
albeit with unusually strict gender roles
I’m not going to lie, but bdash is worse than MeMe.
Trey,
For some reason, I find bdash easier to ignore than MeMe.
sentence fragments
easy to ignore.
There is a strange poetical quality to them sometimes.
I keep trying to work them into haikus.
OKR, she wrote about you on her blog today, by name and not very pleasantly at that. You might want to wander over and have a look. I suppose my own turn will come!
Jill, Yes, I saw that. Did you really think it necessary to state “not very pleasantly”? I considered it a given. :) There is, of course, so much wrong with what she wrote. I note that she left out “MeMe has also been rebuked by many women”. I am surprised that she didn’t get an outburst of sympathetic responses from her cadre of followers, devoted to her, but ignorant of her true character. There were only two in the first three hours. I hope you won’t be disappointed, but, unless you interact with her on other blogs or she returns… Read more »
Havard is the pinnacle of success?
the university that thinks male and female are just identities not biological?!!
is that debauchery civilised?
@jill Agreed. But that’s not my point
We should note that India was heavily influenced by Western ideas when it was controlled by Britain.
Something like 10% of American doctors are from India, not to mention a huge percentage of scientists and computer programmers, and bdash trying to claim that Indians are uncivilized?
Indians had been practicing civilization for 5,000 years while your ancestors were illiterate war-mongering hunter-gatherers building huts in the forest.
Not that that should reflect poorly on you, it’s just that calling Indians who have settled in America “uncivilized” is at worse a ridiculous, racist lie, and at best some race-baiting code for something else completely different.
How true that is. As somebody famous said, the Chinese were painting vases while my ancestors were painting themselves blue. (Actually, I’m an Anglo not a Celt, but you get the idea.)
The chinese were killing each other while America went to the moon
People all over the world, including the Superior and Favored Europeans, have all spent most of the time through all of their history killing each other.
Americans kill each other a lot, too. I’m sure there were Americans killing each other right when the moon landing was being broadcast.
have you ever lived in India?
please
actually visit or live in those countries.
Civilized is the LAST word that comes to mind
People that still poo on the road side and not in toilets are NOT civilised
bdash, if I answered, “Yes, I have, for a significant period of my life”, I am certain that would not make the slightest difference to you. So why challenge me with something that makes no difference? And what do the poorest people in India have to do with the doctors, scientists, engineers, computer programmers, etc. who are immigrating to America? Do you think those people can’t afford toilets either? There are plenty of Americans without toilets too. Americans have a larger homeless population than any other developed nation, and one of the largest rates of homeless people among developed countries.… Read more »
Most Indians do not have toilets…
Compare by the majority not the minority
to call people who cannot use forks and knives, poo wherever they like, build houses from cow poo civilized is silly
Bdash, where I live there are numerous encampments of the homeless mentally ill. They use the streets as their toilet because they have no other. Do you really think the poor in India would refuse to use toilets if they had them?
again majority
not minority
get a better example
Yes
just like they refuse to drive properly even though there are laws and roads
Yes they are. But the cosmopolitan cultures are Western. India is not very cosmopolitan. Neither is Africa.
So what is it about the West?
actually
India is more cosmopolitan than the west
considering there are 3 races
24 official different languages ( not dialects)
Christianity and the Gospel’s influence on the West.
Christianity had a huge influence on non Western countries too. Hudson Taylor in China for example. Korean is way more Christian than America. In Africa Christianity is rapidly growing.
And so do I, here! But those places (ie in India) are not very cosmopolitan.
India has had a lot of Western influence because of the United Kingdom.
Yes, the Western influence, that is, Christian influence (I know that they are not identical), is where we have far more acceptance of multiculturism.
so apart from Japan
all wimp /woe is me countries
that explains a lot
Sydney, Montreal, New York City, Los Angeles, Singapore.
That’s a good way of putting it, bethyada.
I’m okay with this thinking, as long as we understand what we mean by Christian unity.
Christian unity does not obliterate certain distinctions. Secular multiculturalism seeks to do just that.
I actually would say that there isn’t much difference in the different types of multiculturalism. And none of them try to obliterate distinctions. Everyone recognizes the differences in the cultures.
“I actually would say that there isn’t much difference in the different types of multiculturalism.” Malik, I’m not sure what you’re saying there. If there isn’t much difference then how are there different types of multiculturalism? It matters. Any distinction that Christian unity does not obviate is a distinction of secondary importance, or one that should not be made at all. That said, it is not Christian mission in the world to bulldoze all cultural distinctives. I would think that would be opposite the goal of multiculturalism. However, I think part of the opposition on the part of conservative white… Read more »
I’m not sure I follow you. I think any form of multiculturalism not condemned by the Bible is fine/great if that answers your question. And yeah, I’ve noticed most people against it seem to just be afraid.
This is great post, that makes a lot of sense. One thing though is that I think you have mistaken what people think is white privlage. No one would say that you have commited a sin or are racist for your white privlege. However you can not morally benifit from an injustice and and not try to fix it. To go along with the football metephore, if you were to make the football team, and find out that another kid didn’t, who was just as good as you were, but you made it and he didn’t because your father is… Read more »
Malik,
Go work for any major American corporation. You’ll quickly discover that the true hierarchy of privilege favors any race except white and any sex (including imaginary ones) except male. You will also discover that saying this to the wrong person will get you an immediate security escort off the premises.
No, you will find that decent business owners are trying to right the wrong of the imbalanced employment and wage difference by race. In a study reported on by covenant college in Georgia, they sent out a multitude of resumes that were identical, half with black sounding names and half with white sounding names. The black names got less than half the number of call backs as the white sounding names. How does this fit in with your white people are under-privileged ideas? You have to, have to realize that white privilege is a thing. If you don’t come to… Read more »
with due respect business owners only care about money. they ain’t trying to right no wronfs If the left wing media did not keep hounding them about making workplaces more flexible so lazier women/ people of colour with less competence can get senior roles the number of white males being discriminated against would crash. The black names got half the number of calls backs- of course, that is not racism- black people on average perform poorly, if the want to be equally hired- change your reputation- do not expect a hand out. I am perpetually amazed at the amount of… Read more »
You are insane, you basically just tried to justify racism, as well as making the very racist claim that Black people on average perform worse. I’m ashamed to be of the same religion as you. The system is rigged against them not for them. I’d like to be on the civil rights side of history, not the white southerner side. Now we think back and hate the people against MLK, I’d like to not be on the hated side, the side so obviously standing for hate and injustice. I want to be able to look my children in the eye… Read more »
Black people do perform worse on average. The fact that blacks have an average IQ roughly 15-18 points lower than whites is not even controversial within academia. Blacks are less intelligent, have less impulse control, and are more genetically predisposed to violence than white people. These are not my opinions; they have been proven. Look, if you were to get rid of all non-whites in this country, would America still be America as we know it? Of course it would be, just as surely as it WOULDN’T be if we got rid of all the whites. Minorities may make certain… Read more »
“…if you were to get rid of all non-whites in this country, would America still be America as we know it?” In the literal sense, if in no other way, obviously it would not be American as we know it, since America as we know it includes a very large population of non-whites. At the level of individual states the difference would be negligible in some, Iowa for example, and quite dramatic in others, Mississippi, or Hawaii, for examples. Anyway, in your mind, what makes an American an American? Don’t say simply “ancestors came from Europe”, because that makes no… Read more »
remove the Europeans you get NO America
remove the colored people you get the majority of what America was
that is the difference
If Christianity and the Gospel had predominately spread throughout Africa. It would’ve been some African Kingdom that had a global empire (not the UK) and it would’ve been some African Kingdom that would’ve sent Christian explorers to the New World. The color of the “African colonies” and then the United States would’ve be a predominately different color than it was. The point is it was Christianity that built the West and it was Christianity and biblical law that established a “common law” system. Common Law wouldn’t have been known as “English Common Law,” it would’ve been some “African Common Law.”
Tell me, Ben, in your daydreams do the Jews have to leave as well? America would lose much of its leading edge in health care and medical research.
Whatever might make up America’s core identity, whiteness doesn’t make up mine. Faith, intelligence, virtue, and character all matter more than race.
I’m struggling to find where you mentioned it, but you said you speak four languages. Which ones do you speak?
Well, English, obviously, My French is reasonably good thanks to the generosity of the Canadian tax payer. I’ve lost a lot of my spoken German because I have no chance to use it here, but I can still read it pretty well. And my Spanish has done quite well, although my friend who speaks pure Castilian shudders to hear my Salvadoran Spanish! I had five years of Latin, again thanks to the Canadian tax payer, but I need a dictionary now to do much with it
That’s really cool! I love learning new languages.
Again with the performing poorly you forget the resumes WERE IDENTICAL.
yes but black people are more likely to be poor workers
so the resumes were actually not identical.
That is not racism.
you cannot guilt people who are using data to maximize return and make rational choices
That’s really messed up, you are sick. Do you know black people? Or the world, or what the heck fair even means? You seem to have no compassion, and are inconsistent with you religion.
you ever run a business
the goal is to maximize return with minimum time
aka
when choosing who to hire, one minimizes the chance of getting duds to interviews
which means
they will or their software will
eliminate people based on demographic performance
eliminate pregnant women
it is unfair to expect businesses to consider everyone equally, that would literally be inefficient.
Religion?
by your logic Jesus should have never delegated anything to his disciples.
again this all comes back to the fact that we live in a fallen world.
at the cost of morality, sounds like a not so Christian business. And by my logic what? that doesn’t make any sence. We weren’t even talking about delegation. Yes we live in a fallen world and we are supposed to try to fix it, not help the problem.
delegation is a system of efficiency
it would have been FAIRER if Jesus did everything…
morality?
There is nothing immoral about being efficient and using common sense.
Many Christians discriminate against female employees – they believe the bible calls women to support their husband
are they immoral now?
morality is based on the bible
not SJW nonsense
Look at the data on Black truancy…
it is not sick to point out statistics
you sound like the Christian pastor in this interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI3FE4pI_kw
I have not made a single personal accusation about you
yet you have called me
immoral
sick
hypocrite etc
and I am the unchristian person?!
No you haven’t but you have insulted everying I love, it seems. from chopsticks, to my invading bible study Mexicans, all of my friends countries. and there is nothing immoral about efficiency, but discrimination there is
Where did I insult chopticks lol!
I did not insult a country
culture yes, not country.
nothing wrong with discrimination
God is going to discriminate against his followers and enemies as well…
Malik, All I’m telling you is what I experience first hand. If you want to be promoted, being black or female puts you on the fast track. If two guys show the same level of talent and achievement, every Fortune 500 company will hire or promote the black over the white every time. It’s like getting into Harvard. A non-black has to score far higher on the SAT or ACT than a black just to get equal opportunity. This same thing is going on in the corporate world big time. If you don’t know that, then I am fairly certain… Read more »
exactly
the hatred for males is disgusting
Just because they have this advantage doesn’t mean that there is no white privilege. This is the only counter argument I’ve heard.
“seminary educated, extremely smart, extremely Christian, and white chemistry teacher stopped class once and took the entire hour to talk to use in a Christian school about white privilege.”
Ugh. That sounds like someone living in their own little privileged bubble…who doesn’t have to carry the load of non-white males on a day-to-day basis like some of us.
Whoa there bud. How about not assume you know about people. He worked his ass off, is incredibly smart, he could be working making six figures as a nuclear engineer, but he chose to make a tiny salary teaching at a small Christian School. Next who the hell are you carrying. The hardest worker ik is Puerto Rican, he owns a construction company, and when I worked for him we worked 12 hour days and he never even took lunch. You carrying him? How about my girlfriends parents who are Asian and super skilled doctors, you carrying them? You seem… Read more »
Wow, straight into personal attacks. You remind me of someone who used to comment here. And you and Bdash sound like trolls from opposite sides of the same coin. I didn’t question your friend’s sincerity–but seminaries and private Christian schools are hardly real-world environments where you see the fruits of affirmative action and SJW multiculturalism gone awry. I know plenty of hard-working Hispanics and Asians myself. I never addressed either group. In fact, Asians have it worse than whites as far as being discriminated against in college admissions. My biggest issue have been black females. Now, I’ve known some really… Read more »
Incredible that anyone would accuse Malik of sounding like a troll or comparing him to the ridiculously offensive and anti-Christian things that bdash habitually promotes. Whether you agree with him or not, he’s clearly posting personally and honestly from his own experience without trying to hate on entire genders or races.
Incredible that someone would defend Malik’s pompous tone, personal attacks (you seem to think pretty highly of yourself”) and liberal use of “ass,” “hell” and other choice words to sound all salty and tough.
You did claim to be carrying other races, which is a pretty prideful stance, however my wording was in called for and I apologize. How ever I still object to you claiming to be carrying other races. As to me be indoctrinated in college, please do not insult my views like that. I came to my conclusions from my personal experience, and for a lot of personal reflexion, thought, and research. As for my language, if you were in the military I’m sure you can handle the most mildly offensive words in English. And as for me using them to… Read more »
Yes, because I’m honest and objective, I made that claim. Not only myself, but many, many others besides me are supposed to do their fair share and then some–because others will play the race card and get away with it. And usually, they don’t even need to play it–it’s simply assumed. If the truth bothers you, so be it.
I can certainly “handle” your language, and have been around people much more crass, rough and tough than you. My point was how the other poster likes to selectively choose what bothers him.
Lol, anyone can make a crazy claim with no evidence, just a belief. And one can select what bothers them because some things bother people and others don’t lol, that’s kind of common sense bud.
By the way I appreciate what you said about Asian people having it rough in some ways. That’s very true.
I have plenty of evidence, but it’s not something I can just take videos of and post on Youtube. Nor can others in similar situations.
Fair, but pardon me for not just talking your word for it. Also you do realize one of the main points of living in a society is to support each other right? I don’t at all mind paying an extra fee dollars a month for people in need to have health care welfare social security etc.
“Also you do realize one of the main points of living in a society is to support each other right? I don’t at all mind paying an extra fee dollars a month for people in need to have health care welfare social security etc.” When you work somewhere (even a government job), you have certain expectations by contract. It’s not my duty to “support” people who’d rather lounge around, look at their phones and chit-chat while I do my work and theirs. I’m done here. I’ve got other things to do, and you keep changing the goal posts. I do… Read more »
Also, it’s not just my word. It’s also the word of quite a few other Christians here. You can choose to believe it, or stick to the MSM/government schools/pop culture narrative–that’s unfortunately slithering it’s way into some parts of conservative Christianity.
I apologize for my spelling but I’m dyslexic and it has nothing to do with my arguments. And I think Christianity is much better for the turn to compassion to other races, wether u think they are good or not. And I’m not going to believe something just because a bunch of Christians say it’s true. If you prove it to me from the Bible or evidence that something is true I will gladly accept it. But I have gotten very few convincing arguments. Most have been racist, un informed, or just empty claims.
“‘Incredible that someone would defend Malik’s pompous tone, personal attacks (you seem to think pretty highly of yourself”) and liberal use of “ass,” “hell” and other choice words to sound all salty and tough.” i didn’t defend any of that. You called him a troll and compared him to bdash, and I replied that he clearly was posting personally and honestly, and didn’t deserve any comparison to bdash at all as he wasn’t being remotely as offensive and was even apologizing when he went overboard or said something wrong. “My point was how the other poster likes to selectively choose… Read more »
Malik active SLANDERING for white people is offensive
Nothing I said was
All I did was give you facts.
Malik, you are obviously an earnest young man. That is a good thing, but it comes with certain pitfalls to be avoided. You might have noticed that the people who comment on this board are a pretty diverse bunch themselves, and they have also come to conclusions as a result of personal experience, reflection, thought and research. As Christians, we know that there is only one truth, and therefore if we differ, somebody must be wrong and it will not always be the other guy. We need humility, and we need to see others as brothers and sisters who are… Read more »
Wise words, Indighost, and very gently delivered.
Thank you very much, that was definitely meaningful, and I will take it to heart.
Glad to be of service. It’s unfortunate that you happened to chime in on a topic that brings some obnoxious views out of the woodwork. For the record, I would not lump JP Stewart in with that crowd. His experience is apparently very different from yours, but different experiences are to be expected in a country as large as the USA.
I agree, I definitely disagree with him in places but he’s coherent and not just a troll, even if maybe in my view somewhat extreme.
name one anti Christian thing I promote?
Dislike for people who are different from you.
who did I dislike and where and when?!!
news to me!
all I am pointing out is that all this nonsense is really sorted by the Gospel.
Envy is a sin
we are all fallen
What actually bothers me about that is that students who needed qualified instruction to learn chemistry were shortchanged. Save it for current events class.
Lol, it was one class, and my school was so small we had few opportunities such as current events class, we didn’t have that class. And don’t worry about our chemistry, he was one of the best teachers I’ve ever had, we more than covered the chem topics. And what is the point of a Christian School if the teachers do not engage the kids about important topics.
As an educator, I have to be on Malik’s side here. The vast majority of subject matter that is taught in high school is not retained, and the vast majority of what is retained is useless and never benefits the student in a meaningful way going forward. I’m not saying that 0% of subject matter education is useful, but maybe….2%? If you asked 100 people what the 5 most significant things they ever learned from a high school teacher were, I’m guessing that 50% or more of the answers would fall outside of subject matter education. And even if your… Read more »
Spot-on. That’s been my experience. It’s been the same for many other “privileged” white “toxic” males in various fields across the private and public sectors. I talked with some friends the other night and we had some horror stories–especially for those with double-minority status. When you can allege racial and sexual discrimination in the same breath, there’s not much anyone will do–even if said persons do little to nothing all day.
That said, I’ve known hard-working people from every demographic. I’m not saying everyone takes advantage of their minority status, but some sure do.
Great attempt at a straw man Malik. But of course, like all straw men, it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. This one is especially poorly done though. Your straw man suggests that all white people are the descendants of slave owners, or at the very least that all white people’s ancestors profited from immoral acts (” you made it and he didn’t because your father is friends with the coach and payed him to let you on the team”). How about changing the analogy to that of one boy making the team because his father spent time teaching him the… Read more »
First of all, thank you for the first coherent counter argument that I have gotten on this blog. No not all white people were slave owners, but all white people have white privilege, at least in places with a substantial black population, therefore in some ways it is our responsibility, because we benefit from it. Also let me ask you this. I assume you are a Christian, and therefore believe that one of the very importiant issues to Jesus, and what should be all Christians is to help those who are worse off than them. So whether you are obligated… Read more »
anyone who is part of the murderous black lives matter movement is not a believer
but then this blog has comm enters that believe pro baby murder individuals are genuine believers as well…
White privilege?
omg really
hahahahahahaha
what so now can white people complain about Black privilege when it comes to music/basketball
so much whining….
Um the dean of students and covenant seminary is part of it, I’m pretty sure he is a Christian. What is wrong with you, why are you so hateful. And yes, white privilege is a thing. I’ve seen it, I’m white, and I hate it.
I did not want to go there but I have to
many Christians were Nazi’s
where they genuine believers as well?
you cannot support a satanic murder movement full of ENVY and hate and be Christian
You are rediculus compairing the head of the foremost seminary to a Christian nazi. He isn’t supporting murder, he is supporting equality. Do you really want to be remembered like this. Preaching against equality. Youll die and be on the wrong side of history?
I suggest you just ignore bdash. If you don’t, it will be like feeding a troll.
sigh….
a Christian blog is the place where I learn that pleasing Man and being on the right side of history is more important than pleasing God
and I am the troll
hilarious!
Thank you, I will.
I am against equality now because I do not support murderous thugs? Yes, if you claim the head of the supposed foremost seminary ( Keller lol) supports BLM I doubt I would see him in heaven unless you find the verse in the bible that tells me God approves of disruption, envy,hate, unruly behaviour and police murder Wrong side of history? actually as the west castrates itself with this leftist nonsense history will be written by the enemies of the west the countries that are not diverse India, China, Russia- maybe Mexico and they all know the multiculturalism does not… Read more »
It’s not equality he’s supporting…it’s the same sort of social “justice” that’s eventually led many other denominations into the toilet. And again, if you want a serious discussion (not clear at this point), ignore Bdash. He’s a troll and I’m not sure if he even believes the things he types.
“Um the dean of students and covenant seminary is part of it”
And that’s very troubling. I think the “PC” part of “PCA” is changing its meaning….for the worst.
I realize that you don’t know the dean so you would not know better, but the idea of him being PC is absurd. He’s a huge tough vet, I believe he was in the special forces, and he’s not all PC and soft spoken in any way. He isn’t PC, he believes in the cause.
he is a VET?
that means nothing
name one war America has one in the last 50 years….
i bet this Vet was part of feminizing the military
Wow, what happened to respecting the military? Do you just use it as a tool to say people shouldn’t kneel for the national anthem? So u want people to respect the military only when it is convenient for you? Also nothing you said has anything to do with the fact that this man is not in any way PC.
He was a reserve officer and chaplain from what I’ve read…hardly special forces. And there is plenty of PC nonsense in the military. It was bad in the 1990s and is at near-insane levels now from what I hear. It’s certainly not an “absurd” idea that he could be PC.
It may not be reading about him, but it is once you have heard him talk and preach. some on this blog could use some time in stl downtown, especially the churches. It takes christianity out of the sterilized suburban environment, and puts it in a place where the gospel can actually shine. It is a really great thing to see.
Malik, when you said, ” why don’t you just help impoverished families, black and white, out of love and compassion. Why not help people who are oppressed. Is this not what God has called us to do?” you had me. I agree 100%. But then you lost me. Why bring race into it at all? Why cannot it be Christian Compassion or Christian Charity? As a Christian, that should be all that is needed as a motivation. But I can tell you the real motivation behind the left’s push to get everyone to acknowledge “white privilege” and it has little… Read more »
Yes but what causes even more problems is people with privilege flaunting it and not aknowleging it. I would respond to the rest, but maybe later, I’m going to get off line before I get the cross lasered off my shoulder. I do appreciate your civil tone. and I see you point, but I would disagree in that I think white privilege is not a leftist idea, my mother is living testament to that. and that white privilege is odvious and true, and that I have seen it and have compassion on the people who experience the discrimination. I’ve seen… Read more »
Hard to effectually flaunt something that does not exist in reality, but only as a political ploy. To acknowledge a lie as truth is to make oneself a liar. God bless you and your mother for being so innocent and naive as to believe that the “white privilege” scam is not a leftest ploy. On the other hand I need to point out a couple category errors. You just equated white privilege with discrimination. (” that white privilege is odvious and true, and that I have seen it and have compassion on the people who experience the discrimination” [sic]) That… Read more »
My mother is staunchly Republican, she was convinced by what she saw, not some ploy. And yeah, I apologize, I know what the gospel is, I mean Central to the gospel, you get my meaning. And I was just using the part about the tattoo to mean after talking to bdash I don’t want to be identified as that type of Christian. I understand what you are saying. And white privilege is in part that you are not discriminated against on the basis of race, thus discrimination against black people and not white people means white privilege is a thing.
Malik, Are the Koreans, (by citizenship or ancestry) you know likewise discriminated against on the basis of race the way black people are? Do you observe people of other Asian backgrounds, or Hispanics, suffering the same disadvantages and indignities as black people?
JohnM- In my experience yes and no. For Mexicans most of my experience with them we were working construction or in a Bible study, so there weren’t many racist people around, but ofc I’ve heard plenty of racist comments. As for Asian people, again, my contact with them has mostly not been around racist people. But my girlfriend has talked about a few things. They aren’t blatent like with black people, but some times it’s small things like people not really treating you like a person, just like another Asian girl to use her words. And there there are some… Read more »
Malik, In this day and age black people, to the extent they are disadvantaged and discriminated against at all, are so vis-a’-vis other non-whites as well as white Americans. I think a better term term to describe the problem you perceive would be “black disadvantage”, rather than “white privilege”. That would be more accurate and possibly
less antagonistic. It is the difference between saying “we have a problem” and “somethings wrong with you!”.
Black disadvantage is not imaginary, but it is exaggerated, and the causes are not entirely beyond the control of black Americans.
JohnM, you make a good point, and though I have argued with Malik in this thread that there is no such thing as “White Privilege”, I can accept that there is such a thing as “Black Disadvantage.” However the very term White Privilege is, as I said before, a tool of the left to cause division. What if I cry “Wealthy Privilege” about every one in the country who is better off financially than I am. That would be just as valid as White Privilege, but it seems that the U.S. has been too blessed by God with prosperity and… Read more »
I believe there can be such a thing but it is subtle and hard to define. When I ride the bus in LA, I am usually one of the very few (if any) white women on board. When I first came here and was still young, I was alarmed to see that Hispanic women of all ages stepped back to let me on first. That is an example of white privilege that embarrassed me and led to many “No YOU go first exchanges.” Now everyone lets me on first because I am old!
However a disadvantage implies an advantage. I have a feeling many people try to change the term merely because they hate the left, call it what you would like I guess, but to communicate with others you have to work on common terms.
John, I have seen some of this for myself. In the inner city, there is often intense black resentment toward Koreans who, disproportionately for their numbers, run liquor stores and payday loan outfits. Among the white people I know, there is puzzled (but I hope good-humored) surprise at what I would describe as Korean rigidity. A few I have known have been a bit too openly critical of what they see as our lax morality.
Do they resent the fact that Koreans run *liquor stores* and *payday loan outfits*, or do they resent the fact that *Koreans* run liquor stores and payday loan outfits? The answer to that question will tell you a great deal about the nature of the problem.
Good point, John. I think that any group which runs liquor stores and payday loan companies in severely deprived areas will be resented by the locals. Jews used to be hated when they worked in that niche The language barrier and perceived Korean “rigidity’ can exacerbate problems. From the Korean point of view, a service is being provided that many other people won’t offer. From the black point of view, the Koreans are exploiting a poor community with harmful products and predatory lending. From the Korean point of view, everyone who comes in to the store is likely a thief.… Read more »
From the Korean point of view, money is good to have, and it is easier to make money where the rent is cheap and there is less competition from the native born. Like business people generally, they are fairly indifferent to the effects of their product or services on their customers. From the black point of view, there would be nothing to resent if few people in the community chose to patronize businesses that deal in harmful products or predatory lending. That includes “respectable” grandmother, in a liquor store, spending her money on lottery tickets.
Your characterization of white privilege is mistaken.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/magazine/white-debt.amp.html
Just so I am not misunderstood, i was responding to Malik’s claim that people peddling white guilt do not equate it with being racist. The NYT article I linked makes that claim. One of its claims among many is those who benefit from white privilege while denying its existence are worse than white supremacists. I find the article repugnant and do not agree with any of it but it is a good representation of the thought behind white privilege. The writer is irrational and hopes to make white people into moral slaves. These people while calling others racist are hypocrites… Read more »
Firstly, I think you have mischaracterized this article, he says he wonders if that is true. And one op ed can’t speak for the entire movement. Second, this article says what I said, you need to recognize white privilege. If you don’t you are perpetuating the problem. Also let me ask you something. You characterize this movement, all of you seem to, by saying that its a leftist movement. In stl, it’s a most people movement. I can think of so many churches off the top of my head that march in protest, and do work days every Saturday in… Read more »
Malik, white privilege is a lie. I am Native American. I grew up raised by drug addicts. We were poor. I spent many days waiting in the lobby of plasma donation centers so my parents can get enough money to buy drugs. I grew up in the southern USA moving between poor dumpy trailer parks and ghettos. I have done work in the inner cities giving out clothes and food to the homeless. I worked hard and through God’s blessing worked out of poverty. I have known white kids who had less opportunity than black kids. The white privilege movement… Read more »
White privilege is no lie, come to stl and see it for yourself. My mom thought it was a lie until we moved here. She is ultra conservative, but has seen white privilege first hand. Ill give you a first hand example, and trust that I can give many more. I work for a very rich white church, and a few years ago there was a black girl on staff. Every day I worked with her I had some old white guy walk up to me and ask if she worked for the church. She was cleaning bathrooms with gloves… Read more »
aww
you met a few mean white people and now all white people are privileged?!!!
No, not all white people are, but you odviously are, and there are plenty of them. You sound like the bully on the playground, how old are you, 6? Do you love anybody, care about anybody besides other white people. Plus you made no coherent argument, just arrogant sarcasm. Nice Christian going there bud. Ministering Gods love to the world, five stars. Now I wanna come to church.
you are the one that made an accusation against white people using your logic about Christians you don’t sound very welcoming either actively SLANDERING an entire group of people The group of people that taught the world how to lift the majority of the population our of poverty. The group of people that created modern medicine is looking after the poor and sick evil now? The group of people you want to replace with inferior backward cultures also a Christians job is not to trick people into church God ain’t going to tell the unbeliever oh , the Christians were… Read more »
You were just slandering the Mexican americans and Korean americans. I “slandered” not white people, not chirstians, but the ones who have no compassion for people. Yes I would replace our culture if hate and people like you is what our culture is. I would replace it with one where compassion still means something, to Christians of all people, which it does in my church. and no god wont say that, but what will he say to the Christians that drove out nonbeleivers.
The stats are on my side….
God does not command us to establish a hippy commune
in fact he hates it
Tower of Babel?
Malik, isolated instances of racism do not mean that there is systematic white privilege. Certainly we can find in any subculture in America a hatred for people unlike themselves. The issue of claiming white guilt is 1 it is false 2 it is used to advance leftism 3 it becomes a way of enslaving an entire group of people morally. Another issue with idea of white privilege or guilt is there is no way that the white people could ever replay it if it were true. Not to mention the racist nature of the claim bye broad accusations to see… Read more »
I messed up on the end of my last comment. Instead of “I’ve also seen many whites get passed over for jobs because they weren’t I can find the every instance of what you would call white privilege or racism”
It should have said, I’ve seen many whites get rejected for jobs because they were not part of an approved minority. For every instance of racism by whites I can give you instances of racism by minorities against whites. The bottom line is the peddlers of white privilege and guilt are engaging in racism and hatred.
First of all, with you’re list. You have to do better then “it is false”, saying it does not make it so. Ik you go on to explain, but it’s not very intelligent to just throw that out in this way. For number two, you can’t say that because something advances the left side it makes it untrue, that isn’t a good argument. Jesus didn’t wear a GOP hat so to speak. Three, you don’t even give any backing to this nor did you say why it is relevant, you just kind of throw it out which is bad form.… Read more »
Malik, I’m the one that pointed out black disadvantage is a better term than white privilege. Two reasons: 1. It doesn’t really accurately describe the situation. The advantages you call privilege – to the extent they exist – are also enjoyed by some non-whites, notably east Asians for example, as well as whites. The degree of discrimination black Americans experience they experience as compared to other ethnic groups besides just European descended Americans. It’s not so much that whites are particularly privileged as it is that blacks suffer a particular kind and/or degree of disadvantage. Or course as I also… Read more »
I mean, I guess call it whatever you want, but it means the same thing. It kind of seems rediculous to me though to argue about what to call it, and since everyone uses one term, to effectively communicate it’s better to use the term that most people recognize. Also the fact that it sounds anagonistic is irrelevant, many things sound antagonistic to people, and you guys were just arguing that white privilege is too PC, yet people are antagonized by it?
Malik, everyone does NOT use the term to effectively communicate. If they did you would’t find yourself arguing about it. The fact that it is antagonistic is on irrelevant if you are more interested in waving a tribal banner than actually changing minds, behaviors, and circumstances. What do you want to accomplish?
Fair point, not everyone, but a majority, so it is odd that other people try to change the term in order to make a politicized point and (in my mind) distract from the point. I’ve tried to have too many discussions with people and they try to argue the terms not the argument, which doesn’t lend itself to anything productive. And what am I trying to do? I don’t really know. I didn’t come here to talk to people who agree with me, I have lots of friends who agree with me more, and I knew people here wouldn’t agree… Read more »
Not the majority either. Only a minority of people think/talk in terms of “white privilege” in the first place, and that minority is not communicating effectively with the majority.
Malik, the first priority of any debate is to define one’s terms. It’s not possible to have a fruitful conversation or even a coherent argument unless you and your opponent can agree on the definition of the terms you are using. That is why people have been engaging you to distinguish among terms like racism and white privilege; for clarity rather than to derail. I agree that it’s healthy to spend time with Christians who think differently . We tend to get ourselves into echo chambers, which might be why it seems to you that a majority of people use… Read more »
To Malik,
Let me make a suggestion. You are talking a lot about white privilege, but you are using it to mean a variety of different things. It’s not possible to have a meaningful conversation about any of those things without distinguishing between them.
It seems you have meant at least these three things:
1. discrimination against non-whites
2. relative advantages of whites over non-whites
3. indifference towards bias or discrimination
We can’t even think about how they relate to each other unless we recognize them as separate things.
I think one and two go hand in hand, but fair point on number three.
I’ve written a giant blog post myself on white privilege. TLDR: It doesn’t exist as it is termed. It’s actually majority privilege, and it exists in every society in world history. The skin color doesn’t matter. Take a Chinese boy and put him in a school in Japan and he’ll get treated differently. The only reason to attach “white” to it is to pretend that it’s somehow a unique fault of white people, an argument which is itself racist. I have never in any capacity heard any significant use for the concept of white privilege. I’ve never seen it used… Read more »
Do you have a link to your “giant blog post” still?
I thought of including it at the outset, but didn’t want to seem interested in self promotion. I treat Huffington Post a little with kid gloves here. The basis for that is I was writing this as a response to my aunt-in-law, a far left progressive pastor with Presby USA. It’s written almost in a letter format because it was originally designed as a facebook comment.
https://cronotose.wordpress.com/2016/08/05/huffpo-white-privilege-and-intellectual-honesty/
You do need to have read the HuffPo article, linked at the beginning.
Greetings Justin, I read the comments expectantly waiting for someone to use the word MAJORITY. I think the next time a vote of any kind falls along racial lines (where all whites voted unanimously) it would be the first time. But I found this quote in the Annenberg Classroom, and offer that it’s not only the definition of privilege that varies by user, but also rules, rights, and even oppression. “Majority Rule and Minority Rights The essence of democracy is majority rule, the making of binding decisions by a vote of more than one-half of all persons who participate in… Read more »
Hi John, I don’t disagree with much of what you said, so I’m having a hard time grasping your overall intent. I get the sense you mean this to disagree with me, but that requires at its base that I was misunderstood to begin with. When I call it majority privilege, I don’t mean to say that it justifies the privilege. Merely to point out that “whiteness” does not directly have anything to do with it. Adding race to the equation accomplishes nothing but heightening the rhetoric and bitterness on all sides. I also don’t think this “privilege” is something… Read more »
Hi Justin, no disagreement here. Just read your response post and appreciate the time and the effort you took in that reply. You were generous, which made your points more clear to me. I initially wanted to thank you for recognizing that majority is different than race. As a kid, I know my parents tried to teach me to differentiate between a right and a privilege. Being born into a college educated family, living in a rural community, being tall, white and male – these are all attributes which I had/have no control over. In these conversations I can look… Read more »
Malik, in your posts you described the social justice thought on multiculturalism, but, you were unable to describe the Christian way of multiculturalism. I will make two posts to make the distinctions easier. Blacks, women and homosexuals have for years been promoted over white guys. In the military, promotion is supposed to be given to the best qualified individual, but since the 80s promotions went to blacks, women and homosexuals even if they were extremely poor at their jobs. That is true in other industries also. Let your Japanese Korean and Mexican friends laugh at these comments because in those… Read more »
In America, multiculturalism worships all cultures as equal and expresses the reverse discriminatory White Privilege. In Christianity, cultures are dismembered in Christ and all kneel at the foot of the cross. There is no priviledge for white, black, brown, yellow, men women or any other distinction. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. White Privilege as currently espoused is sinful because it promotes envy, covetiness, and hate to mention a few areas. Christians are not to enjoin themselves to such groups. Exodus 23:2 Scripture has numerous warnings on envy and covetiness. We are not to celebrate foreign… Read more »
I am very confused by your view of multiculturalism. You seem to take it to mean everyone do what you want and don’t mind the law, which is not what multiculturalism means at all.
Malik, America has attempted to change scripture to meet the demands of those who do not worship the triune God of the Bible. It is a complete failure and in similar fashion to the Second Great Awakening or the Jesus movement, many were saved but did not seek out wisdom. As a result, those Christians were not rooted and grounded solidly in Christ and the Bible. Because years ago American Christians did not understand biblical requirements for government, education, health care, taxation, monetary policies and so on, we are now inundated with American laws that do not follow scripture. Abortion,… Read more »
So it seems here that you have equated Jesus and the GOP. Where does God talk about health care or tax or anything that the GOP supports, besides the obvious abortion etc. You seem to think if someone studies the bible hard enough they will find like a hidden clause about obamacare or something. And it isn’t like any of the things you have mentioned have destroyed the country, contrary to everyone who was preaching gloom and doom during the obama administration. I don’t mean any of this in a rude way, I understand that many christians think that the… Read more »
First of all please do not confuse my friends with their countries, they have their own thoughts. Next I never said that that is what multiculturalism intails, multiculturalism to me means people of all backgrounds living together without extra conflict, in some ways. Basically diverse settings. Also, I apologize if my tone sounds angry, I’m tired from work, I appreciate your comment.
Malik, I think you are confusing white privilege with class privilege–which is very real. It is also something that can’t be abolished by any method most people would be willing to contemplate. Is it fair that my daughter grew up in a literate home and was given the kind of childhood experiences that put her on a fast track to academic success? Is it fair that on top of picking up some Ashkenazi intelligence genes she also got genes for slenderness and double eyelashes? Is it fair that I never had to wonder who was going to pay my college… Read more »
True, in a way. The biggest things with white privilege is being treated differently by people, especially police, which I haven’t brought up much, partially because ik how people will react. But yeah, this debate has somewhat been about class privilege. I think both are true.
Is the failure to make distinctions (someone proclaiming innocence and someone admitting guilt) peculiar to a fading Christian arche? Seems as though that could happen inside or outside of a Christian consensus. I think the center is failing, not because we are reason-challenged, but because we are love challenged. “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience..” Col 3:12
Demos is a jealous god, as they all of necessity must be. I think it’s still got enough life left for a persecution or two. But what comes next? Something very much worse, if I had to guess. Something like scientific shamanism.
I disagree: Truth is that thing among the various possibilities that actually happened. Truth does not serve a cause. People who truly believe the truth of Christ, are not afraid of the truth. People who truly believe the truth of Christ love the light and seek out the truth no matter how inconvenient or uncomfortable it makes them. This statement has it backwards: “True truth is that which therefore honors the true God” In reality, because God is true all truth honors him. We as Christians are not called to judge whether something is true based on whether we think… Read more »
Amen and amen. The next step is talking about how liberal democracy, a.k.a., republicanism, is a fundamental cause of the tribal strife that eventually pervades every institution and aspect of society. What we are experiencing is not a corruption of the American system, it is the American system. (If this isn’t obvious to you, consider: How much tribal strife did the Austro-Hungarian Empire have in the 19th century, compared to the Balkans in the past few decades? Why did Greek cities fight so much among themselves? How did the Roman empire manage to rule over so many different people groups… Read more »
You did notice that you hearald the end of the republic.?