Instead of Burning Down a Pharmacy, Why Not Write a Stern Letter?

Thank you SO much for this post. You are the ONLY person, let alone authority figure, that I have seen who has not condemned Chauvin (though he may be fully condemnable). There are way too many question marks about this case that we probably won’t ever have all of the truth, and I thank you for recognizing that we certainly don’t have it before there’s even been a trial.

Grace

You’ve spoken before about your childhood and white flight and how your folks stayed put (if I’m remembering that correctly) and you were thankful for that. While it’s different in that it doesn’t involve race, could you speak to the potential of “Right Flight” – where conservative-minded Christian folks flee socialist blue bastions for redder pastures? What’s Scripture have to say about it, maybe how a Christian maneuvers through something like that, line between prudence and fear, potential pitfalls, leaving aging parents behind, that sort of thing.

Also, my church seems to be leaning more and more woke. I’d like to meet with my pastor and find out better where he’s coming from. My main concern is that he and other elders are being informed more by social justice than the whole counsel of God’s word. Could you recommend a question or three that would cut to the chase and allow me really see where they’re coming from?

As always, thanks for your candor, courage, and faithfulness.

Andy

Pastor, hard to say in how many ways I was blessed reading this. No intent to puff you up, but my friend it feels like some days you’re the last man alive willing to publish the truth on this topic. Actually part of why I’m writing is for recommendations of other truth-tellers you read on culture, preferably other believers but maybe you’ll surprise me.

One big blessing was your recounting of the times of actual vast and culturally acceptable racial sin by whites in our country. I remember hearing my Dad, an otherwise friendly and gregarious fellow, muttering racial insults about neighbors with a matter of fact attitude. No one like that today has any kind of voice in our culture, and it is certainly not systemic like it was, thank you for reminding us of Reality.

The other thing that floored me was your simple and oh so true statement that it is guilt about unrestrained and filthy lives these people live in regards to sex. It may be hard for youth to restrain themselves and be God’s man or woman, unfortunately not doing so leads you to bizarre cauterized heart feelings, behaviors, and attitudes. Anyone who has walked in purity and stumbled knows this so well, God places His grief and repulsion for abusing sex directly within the heart itself with an almost physical pain. Ignore that pain long enough and you ignore your very heart and conscience you were born with, your slavery becomes something seemingly absolute. Don’t forget to add that all the “blasphemous blacks”, as you astutely rebuke them, are able to be so for the same reason, because of unrestrained abuse of what was intended to be pure and set apart, sex. Our culture hates getting lectured about it and now they are consumed and utterly defined by the abuse of it. This is the real reason behind so much bizarre behavior. I am still struck today reading how Saul, for whatever reason, decided he needed to prophecy naked. The pride of his heart and his treatment of sex were strangely linked.

But I have to remind myself we are all to remain humble and not stand up with a raucous round of applause reading your conclusion of how to turn this ship around. Thank you. I would encourage you to consider how our generation (I’m a young parent in my 30s) believes more than just that higher education is sacred. They believe that a prerequisite to parenting now is to get the heck out of your kid’s way in life, to the point that you hardly want to be a defining example for them. This is especially true for fathers who view feck in terms of raising kids as a moral evil. This is why the university attracts. It is the transition and equipping to adulthood parents deeply believe would be wrong for them to attempt to give their kids.

I once read in one of your books I think that we ought to be seeking to engender loyalty, God willing, in our sons. I think a follow up to this dose of reality post is how parents can “not whether, but which” the university vs. their own parenting, and realize that they’ve been outsourcing the role God exclusively gave them, such a humbling reality, as the greatest VIPs their children will ever know. I write this not championing righteous parenthood, but cut to the quick about how much I have been failing my child and how much I wish to grow into the kind of man who can present a real example of the character my boy, by God’s grace, wants and needs to follow. And of course, if I have done my job well, I will introduce him to the reality of a tough world young so he is prepared from the first moment of the age of maturity to marry a woman, and actually keep clothes on her back and enough calories on her table with a real paycheck. I wish more dads knew (Father’s Day coming btw) that while other institutions can be an aid, faithfully helping their sons transition to basic marital readiness at the age they desperately need to get married to be pure is his responsibility alone, not a professor’s.

Wow, a mouthful I know. But you keep writing and cold-cocking Evangelical consciences square on like this, and my letters are only going to grow longer. :)

Praying for your ministry and for revival with you,

Patrick

Listening to your podcast and reading your blog has been an incredible help in my journey out of the dispensational compromise of the Scriptures. I always knew there was something wrong deep down but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, although it tended to intensify when leading someone in “the sinner’s prayer,” knowing full well they had no more interest in repentance than I had in eating a lightbulb. With all sincerity, thank you (and the brothers at Apologia, who started me on the path) for your dedication and faithfulness to God and the proper teaching of His Word. While I can make no guarantee of fair-mindedness nor . . . well-written-ness, I do have one request: please, please, please, please sell “Defund the thought police” t-shirts, coffee mugs, phone and computer backgrounds and other merch.

Even if your don’t, I’m still grateful for your ministry.

God bless,

Deryck

Thanks for your post Defund the Thought Police. I’d like to ask you what you think the greater need is today — more faithful churches or more faithful Christian schools? I think the answer is churches, which then create and/or support the schools, and I’d like to give my rationale and see what you think.

I’ve taught at two different classical Christian schools, and in both I taught the Omnibus curriculum among other things. At one of the schools, I would teach Omnibus for 2 hours and 15 minutes a day, five days a week. The amount you get to invest in middle and high school aged students, pouring over the greatest books in history from a Christian worldview, as well as Scripture itself, is incredible. But the problem is that in both schools I taught at, the hosting church and many of the parents of my students didn’t know anything about this stuff, about theology, history, or literature to be honest. I remember in class we were discussing the prosperity gospel and Creflo Dollar, kind of joking about him, and then one of my students sheepishly says “That’s my pastor.” I sent her dad several emails explaining my concern with Creflo Dollar, linked to articles, etc.

But I realized that there is always going to be serious tension between the headmaster and the parents, the teacher and the students, and perhaps even between the wary headmaster and the zealous teacher since I was always instructed to teach the curriculum but not push any certain doctrinal perspective as the best/most accurate. I had one Catholic girl crying as she began to see the weight of justification by faith alone, and she thanked me for it, and her parents did not seem to mind/never said anything about it. But lots of Evangelical happy-clappy parents would give you hell if they perceived you dissed their doctrine or their dear children in any way.

Getting a teaching job has been much easier for me than achieving ordination in a NAPARC denomination. I was in the PCA but, long story short, my holding biblical views on sexuality and other matters made me an undesirable. It led me to a small micro-denomination in which I have been licensed for some time and God willing will be ordained as a teaching elder next year.

So the entrance into faithful pastoral ministry is, in my experience, fraught with much more difficult due to the powers that be in comparison with teaching in a classical Christian school. But these schools are hampered when they are not supported/hosted by biblically grounded churches. So it seems in the short term the schools are the easier road to get into, but some of the fruit is spoiled due to the churches not catechizing their own and exhorting the parents to nurture their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. I think the best solution are faithful churches that also are affiliated with or create Christian schools, though in reality at this time it might be more likely that faithful Christian schools give rise to small, faithful church plants due to clusters of parents waking up to their shortcomings as well as their church’s. But then you have the accusations of betrayal, sowing discord in churches, the church no longer hosting and supporting the Christian school, etc. But this is the cost of real reform.

Thanks,

Thomas

One country we can learn from, in a cautionary sense, is South Africa. After apartheid (which, unlike Jim Crow, appears to have been more about creating separate nations for the different peoples than keeping a permanent black underclass) was dismantled, the ANC set about renaming provinces and airports to remove the Afrikaner and British heritage of South Africa. They renamed the Jan Smuts airport, named after a moderate who opposed some elements of apartheid and who was the only man to sign the treaties ending both World Wars, the Johannesburg airport, saying that airports should not be named for political figures, and a few years later they renamed it to honor Oliver Tambo, an ANC leader who was responsible for the Church Street bombing, which killed many civilians and several black air force members. They also named a new airport after Shaka Zulu, a king who, among other atrocities, murdered his brother and probably his father to steal the throne, forbade his soldiers to take a wife except in conquest, and forbade farming for a year after his mother died, resulting in massive starvation. I remember talking to a South African gentlemen who saw our country to be in the early stages of what is going on now.

When the founding fathers are no longer honored in America, and when all statues and murals of white people accused of racism are gone, they will honor other people, and I doubt it will be people like George Washington Carver, Sacagawea, Squanto, and Booker T. Washington. It is more likely they will honor the likes of slave rebel Nat Turner and Malcolm X, and that may be the least of our new problems.

James

I do not write you today in order to interact with a specific post, although my question for you is informed by several of your posts regarding the wearing of face masks. I do not wear them when I can appropriately serve my family by doing so (e.g. If I need to go to Costco or to work, I comply, but I try to thoughtfully resist elsewhere.).

I work for a very large coffee chain. My employer has aligned overtly with progressive political movements. I am currently the only employed member in my household, and I do not want to lose my job, but I am considering a bit of godly trouble-making, and I am desirous of your wise advice.

My employer recently approved the wearing of facial coverings and clothing that displays the slogan, “Black Lives Matter.” I find it unconscionable that anyone would support BLM, but this is where we are. I am thinking of obtaining and wearing a mask displaying the slogan, “Black Babies Matter,” because I know that BLM hypocritically supports abortion, and a large number of black babies lose their lives every day because of abortion clinics aiding and abetting the innocent children’s murderous parents.

My question is this: should I take a stand in order to spark conversation and shake things up, knowing full well that there may be real consequences regarding my employment?

I should add . . . I am prayerfully considering this question, and I will be consulting my husband and my pastor for guidance.

Thank you for being a bright spot of sanity in our dim landscape!

Sincerely,

A Feisty Reformed Mama

I have been contemplating a few questions to ask you about this post-mil worldview that I have found myself falling into lately, and likely would have written this note differently had my nightstand reading pile (so to speak) not dwindled down to your Flags Out Front. I don’t read fiction often, so I wasn’t sure what I might be getting into, but I absolutely enjoyed it. It has probably been since ol’ Puddleglum himself, giving a burned foot speech in the underworld, that I have literally cheered out loud for a character, but that Tom Collins was well worth the whoop I let out a few times while reading. Even now I am smiling as I think of his retort to the news lady. Thanks so much for all of your writing. (I wonder if I could convince you to write a bit of detective fiction next?)

Anyway . . . one of the reasons I think I enjoyed it so much, as I have read it over these last two weeks, is because it seems strangely pertinent to these times we are living in. As I was reading about Dr Tom’s adventures in standing his ground, Scriptures like Proverbs 10:9, and Proverbs 29:25, and Ephesians 5:15-17 kept popping into my head. Do you think some things as simple as integrity and a wise word aptly spoken will win the day even now, in a world of riots and social meltdown?

Scott

I am looking for some guidance on how church discipline is carried out on children (especially 16-17 year olds). I am a lay elder at a small Southern Baptist church in Indiana. I have discussed this significantly with the eldership and we really have not much of an idea of what it looks like. We have recently transitioned to a group of elders and see the importance of biblical church discipline. I have not been able to find much literature concerning the subject. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

James

Off-topic question about baptism. Do you believe that water baptism causes the person baptized to be made a member of the covenant? Or do you see water baptism as a public marking or acknowledgment that this person is already in the covenant? To ask it another way, does the minister have the authority to make the person baptized a member of the visible covenant community or are ministers simply affirming publicly what they believe to be true of the person spiritually?

BJ

All Must Point to Christ As a credo who is willing to challenge that position, I keep running into the same snag with opposing arguments. The reasoning just doesn’t seem to be consistent with the character of God.

The oldest and arguably laziest atheistic rebuke of religion is “Why do bad things happen to good people”, and the response is “because that is a necessary component to free will.” You can’t have free will, which by its nature includes the ability to choose evil, without the consequences of that evil also existing. This defense is quite correct and consistent with God’s behavior towards man. When Eve was being tempted by the apple, God did not jump out of the sky and force her not to do so. When I find myself examining my political positions, the one story I keep coming back to is Israel demanding a king. God warned His people that this was an obviously terrible idea. They wanted one anyway. He did not deny them their king, he provided one.

If I could distill one thing I believe God prizes most highly in His creation, it is free will. It is the primary distinguishing feature between the creatures made in His image and those that aren’t. The most important aspect in all of history, salvation, is determined primary through the free will process of accepting that salvation.

Why would a God who consistently prizes free will seemingly above all else in every measurable category suddenly be unconcerned with the child’s free will in entering “a covenantal obligation for the one being baptized.?”

The interpretation just doesn’t read as consistent to the rest of the Bible to me.

Justin

A question for you on communion. Our church has been holding online services due to coronavirus-inspired restrictions in our city, and a few times since then our pastor has encouraged us to partake in the Lord’s Supper in our homes with any foodstuffs and drinks we have available. I don’t want to be legalistic about this, but I am trying to figure out what an appropriate way to take communion during this time could be, especially in light of these verses:

“So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and ill, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. And when I come I will give further instructions.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭11:27-34‬ ‭NIVUK‬‬

Any thoughts you have on what might fall under the heading of “an unworthy manner” will be appreciated. Thanks!

Laura

PS – Thank you for all you have written on your blog over the last few months. You’ve given me much to think about and much encouragement. As a Canadian mother of young children I don’t have much time to research all that is happening in the US right now, but I have appreciated your perspectives and faithfulness to Scripture. Also, praise God for the Bible Reading Challenge! Shocking, I know, but reading the Bible regularly has begun to transform my mind and I see the BRC as a sweet mercy the Lord has brought into my life to change me and glorify him. Again, thanks!

Laura

Your blog, lectures, sermons and debates have been very helpful and challenging to me. Thank you.

I have a question regarding an upcoming divorce in my family. It is unfortunately the third in recent years among my parent’s siblings.

The most pertinent facts are:

1. They are both professing Christians.

2. My biological aunt is the instigator.

3. To the best of my knowledge she has given no evidence to anyone that supports biblical grounds for divorce.

I don’t know what to do. She has refused counseling and hired a mad-dog lawyer. She refused to give any evidence to support biblical divorce. However, I have no spiritual authority to challenge her as I am her nephew and not her pastor. I am 24 to her 41. I am also reluctant to do so because it would almost certainly splinter my extended family that has already been split by my grandparents’ divorce.

Do you know how I can love her as a brother in Christ and as her nephew?

Concerned Nephew

Thank you for attacking every stronghold, especially those most beloved by the age, and accepting vilification for it. It is goal I aspire to, hoping that I too may have that Knoxious fear of God that fears no man. It occurred to me that the current outcry that is coming from many recent alumni (read: woke twentysomethings) of Christian colleges and universities — demanding that their Almae Matres virtue-signal themselves into greater and greater WOKEness — a demand that can only be fully acceded to by the dismantling of the university itself — is a fulfillment of the prophet Hosea 8:7,

“For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”

Barring those professors who were deemed “Troublers of Israel” by the Ahabs and Jezebels in power, the rest of the Christian university I recently graduated from is receiving the exact fruit of the seeds which she planted. She has borne children of whoredom and shall be devoured by her children.

Mind you, I would not trade those college years for all the gold in the New Jerusalem. There were many servants still there who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Those — whether my professors or my peers — were teachers and companions on the Pilgrim way. The field may have been little better than a dunghill, but the pearl of great price was found there.

I believe you know one of the Troublers, whom I won’t incriminate here, except to say that he taught me in the way of Princetonian Right Reason.

Is there wisdom in continuing his method of subverting the secularization of institutions from within? At what point does one consider the institution lost and begin a new one up the road? I am grateful he and other Troublers troubled me right into the way of the Lord, but if the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do?

John

My wife and I have been blessed by the Crash Course videos from Christ Church. The simple and profound explanations are going to stick with us for a while . . . we’ve already shared some insights with friends. Very well done! It’s been a fun after-breakfast habit to watch them together. I feel like this should be an exercise that every godly man seeks to grow up into — the ability to clearly explain key verses/passages.

Alexander