Letters for the Win

It staggers the mind that otherwise intelligent conservative Christians would think for a millisecond that an “office of diversity” is a good thing. Are they so clueless they don’t realize that wokeness is Marxism for modern sensibilities, and as such antithetical to everything that calls itself Christian? Obviously. That office stays, Grove City is done.

Mike

Regarding “Does Grove City Have Worrisome Dark Spots on Her Lymph Nodes?”, as a 2019 Grove City graduate, I would ask you contact the GCC Diversity Office and President McNulty’s office for additional clarification and follow-up, or to update your original post if you have [not] done so already. In the spirit of fairness and charity for a heretofore stalwart Christian conservative college, you should at least hear what they have to say, even if you ultimately disagree (as you already did with the original petition, video link, and previous statements from Trueman and Wishing). Also, all the gentlemen you referenced are friends of mine and they are as far from woke as anyone could be.

Benjamin

I posted a similar comment under the American Reformer article on Grove, but I want to reiterate a few things here. I’m a GCC alum, as is my wife, coming up on our 10 year anniversary. I was asked to consider certain tenets of CRT, including our own white privilege, when I was a student. These have long been issues at GCC. Many of my classmates and theatre department friends (shocking, I know) went full woke because of the training they got at GCC, all while claiming they were rejecting the “fundamentalism” of the college. They were wrong. I saw the professors they befriended and knew what they talked about in class. GCC has long been complicit in spreading liberal ideology.

The biggest issue at GCC, though, was a thorough, unspoken commitment to a divorce between academia and faith. It was very obvious that professors (not in all departments, as you emphasize, there are some excellent ones) expected you to leave your faith at the classroom door in favor of “intellectual engagement”. You weren’t really allowed to filter the world through a biblical lens. “All truth is God’s truth” may be valid, but only if something is actually true, and many professors were willing to swallow secular thought as “truth” and pretend it and Scripture were the same. If you attempted to reject secular ideas as incompatible with Scripture, you weren’t “open” enough. Pretty sure Chesterton had some thoughts on open minds . . .

I was once told by a science professor to sit down and stop talking about evolution if I didn’t have a Ph.D. like he did. I was a sophomore in a required class. He won professor of the year when I was a senior.

Another professor of mine confessed she worked at Grove City because she didn’t believe we could know God was real and took solace in the presence of colleagues who were sure. Admirable, I suppose.

The long-time presence of professors who have celebrated liberal ideology (like Throckmorton) should mean no one is surprised that GCC is in its present predicament. We must all be educating our kids classically so that they know what they believe before college so strongly that, no matter if their college is woke, they can spit out the lies better than their classmates. Or, you know, not send them, since their classical education is so stellar that they can shock and awe pretty much any employer out there.

Thanks for your continued ministry, insight, and general spikiness.

G

More needs to happen than the nuking of the diversity office. They need to find out who’s idea it was to form a diversity department. They need to fire them and all the people who approved it. Once again, Christian leaders are showing themselves unfit to lead a lemonade stand.

John

Have you seen the parents/alums reply to McNulty? The evidence they present is substantial. Our daughter attends Grove City College. You should take a look at the parents/alums reply to Dr. McNulty. The petition actually understates the problem.

Scott

Re: Does Grove City Have Worrisome Dark Spots on Her Lymph Nodes?

Here is a link to the video which includes a montage of GCC Chapel speakers promoting CRT. The montage is at 31 minutes in.

I am a parent of 2 GCC students and wish to remain anonymous. Thank you.

K

In answer to your request for a collage of Grove City College Chapel messages along the Woke Line, here is one place you can look. This is a fair handed review of Grove City College and Carl Trueman’s Defense. by Jon Harris. Several Videos from Chapel Services are included.

Here is also an earlier article where Carl Trueman defends Tim Keller against charges of being a Cultural Marxist.

Where you can read Carl Trueman write:

“If he is not a Marxist, it does not take a postgraduate qualification in logic to deduce that he can scarcely be a cultural Marxist. “

Scott

Re: Does Grove City Have Worrisome Dark Spots on Her Lymph Nodes?

Imagine the fundraising opportunity if in addition to inviting those speakers to chapel they had them for a conference. Prof. Trueman could moderate the panel discussion. If they wanted to really get wild they’d have you keynote!

Btw, haven’t read it yet but this looks interesting:

Rob

Josh Abbotoy was on the money. McNulty’s response was limp, canned, PR prose. As such it is very troubling.

It may be a mere ‘misunderstanding.’ If it is not, there needs to be a cleansing of the Temple. It rarely happens though.

Jeff

As a 1975 graduate of Azusa Pacific College (University) I can personally testify that the downfall of that school did not happen overnight or in a vacuum. I saw a disappointing lack of biblical rigor even back then. Consequently, though I am unfamiliar with GCC, I can tell you that what has become visible there in recent years has been going on for a long, long time behind the scenes. It is the same with the Bible Institute Of Los Angeles which assigned a transgender room mate to a young lady from my church this past fall —shocking the parents. Yet I have family who had their faith destroyed at that venerable institution back in the 1980’s. Satan is always the most busy roaming around the Christian community seeking whom He may devour. One last thing: I notice that when the title, “Christ” is substituted for “Jesus Christ,” there is going to be a compelling reason why…

Melody

Veritas Scholars Academy requiring COVID vaccines or test results for their “End Of The Year Gathering” event in May 2023.

Dear Pastor Doug,

I thought you’d be interested to know of this plus any advice for my approach to my now existing dilemma as a father of a graduating senior would be most welcome. I am gathering thoughts and suggestions in my preparation to address this with the school. I am utterly disappointed that I have this situation with an organization we had much respect for.

Please keep this in prayer for us and I would appreciate so much any feedback you can give to this. Thanks for ALL you do. God Bless!

Bruce

This morning, I jumped onto your blog to find a pertinent post, by which I could address concerns over the mission drift of our Classical Christian school. This is it! We have not gone to the extent of LGBT or CRT wokeness, but we have become vigilant about the COVID measures within our coercive state. What has come through the school is a flood of “Love Thy Neighbor” shaming, along with certain teachers’ inflated versions of virtue, since they teach the classics. This reeks of the “Love Wins” sermonizing, but I can’t get my finger on why this Northeastern, Unitarian call to love is actually not the love of Jesus. In a cry for universal, classical, virtuous love, we seem to throw out Gospel love, by which Jesus rescued us from the darkness, grim. A secular version of piety is afoot in the school, but I can’t seem to splice the different between the two. I just see a lot of iron mixed into the stone. Can you help?

*We have 5 children in the school, I teach Upper School History, and we have attended for 10 years. Our stalwart headmaster recently resigned for health issues and I am concerned over the search for a new leader. The faculty has been asked to write descriptions of what we see as a good headmaster. For me, vision is critical, but I do not know how to direct that thought.

Kristen

A fitting and convicting rebuke to my Christian-husband soul, on many levels…

“You are to be the thermostat in your home, not a thermometer. You are to set the temperature, not record it.” from the post, “Blake and Naomi.”

Thank you for working out the verbiage in such a particular way as to chip away at the shell of ignorance and timidity that has developed. God is using you, Douglas Wilson. In my life at least.

Carey

I am sad to say that one of the “institutes of higher learning” that I attended is celebrating one of the students for winning in esports. The pinnacle of achievement for the current regime and their followers.

Timothy

Thanks for your work and output—very much appreciated over here on the other side of the Atlantic!

In your forward to Gregg Strawbridge’s paedocommunion book, you mention that one of your kids taught your grandson a sign language catechism; one of the questions was “Are you baptised?” and he patted his head.

Our first daughter is now getting some sign language (“please”) and I’d love to know the rest of that mini sign catechism, if you’d be able to share it!

Thanks,

Peter

What’s your take on the moment two single people become married in the eyes of God? I’ve always taken the position that, “at the time the marriage is consummated.” That’s what Gen 1 (one flesh) would seem to indicate. But it hit me recently that Matt 1 says that Joseph took Mary his wife and knew her not. So Scripture recognizes Joseph and Mary as married even though the marriage wasn’t consummated prior to Jesus birth. The more thought about this idea, the more exceptions to the rule I seem to find. However, I also don’t think a formal ceremony is required for marriage. The story of Isaac and Rebekah does not include any sort of ceremony. Anyways, this all leads up to my final question. When a minister of the Gospel officiates a wedding, he ends it with, “I now pronounce you man and wife.” Is that an appropriate way to conclude the service given our (confused) understanding of when that transition actually happens? Of course any alternative would bring a lot of quizzical looks.

Roger

What is your take on the recent buzz around Molinism? James White has been dishing out a lot of content on the matter, and also had a debate with William Lane Craig on the matter. I understand you are, by God’s grace, Reformed, and I was wondering if you had any books or other resources that address this topic.

Thanks,

Gary

In light of your observation that a proverbial match will soon likely ignite a tinderbox of tensions, I found this piece exceptionally insightful regarding how that has been going down. I.e., for the first time in history, a global cult has formed-up right under our noses. And it makes the Caesar cult look like a bunch of local amateurs. Your thoughts?

Grace and Peace,

Art

My name is Tyler, and I am greatly encouraged and strengthened through the work and faithfulness of Canon Press. This was my first exposure to NQN, and I was greatly encouraged and strengthened by each installment.

As the world continues to change, the need for solid Biblical truth continues to grow. My family and I are interested in starting a bookstore in the SC area, likely starting online and adding a physical location later. We would like to start out distributing preexisting good books, possibly releasing our own if the LORD permits. We are largely inexperienced in this field. I am in no way asking for endorsement, but if you could possibly provide us with any pointers on how to start, what it might look like to start an online bookstore, we would be greatly appreciated. Consider us interested in bringing the Reformation to South Carolina. In Christ,

Tyler

I teach a government/economics class. I’ve learned a lot about civic laws from theologians and political scientists. And learned a lot about economic laws from theologians and economists. What I am trying to do is connect those two sets of laws together. So far, this is what I have come up with:

-Law: a description of how God designed His creation to function. As such, there are laws describing human action (economic laws) and laws describing the physical action of the created universe.

-Law: a rule or body of rules for the government of human life prescribed by an authority that citizens or subjects are bound to obey. As such, there is God’s moral law which shows us how we are to be in relationship with Him and His creation (i.e., how He designed us to be). And there are human laws which speak to our relationships with each other. Human laws are faithful to God and His law when they comport with how He designed His creation to function.

-Just like the physical universe, humans will always act as they were created to act, in accordance to God’s design for us. In the case of humans, that means we will always seek what appears to be in our own self-interest. However, because we are creatures with fallen natures, we will not always act in our true self-interest, i.e., act in ways so that we glorify God and can enjoy Him forever. These actions can be personal in nature, such as theft, murder, covetousness, etc. And can also be civic in nature, such as adopting/enforcing civil laws that legalize/support theft, covetousness, etc.

-However, our actions cannot thwart God’s design for creation. Our actions (personal or civic) that violate God’s moral laws always run afoul of God’s design for this world, and thus cannot and do not accomplish what the actor(s) intended. For instance, minimum wage laws designed to increase prosperity of the poor instead increase poverty. The same with laws creating and funding welfare programs. (End)

I know I am not the first person to work on this, but am not really sure of the best sources to help me continue–most folks tend to focus only on one or the other of these two aspects of the law. Any suggestions for books/authors that would be beneficial for supporting this inquiry?

Bill

Is New Year’s Eve pagan?

I live among brothers who do not celebrate Christmas. Because you know: “it’s pagan.” And: “It’s not in the Bible”.

Ok. I love them, but they celebrate New Year’s Eve with a Lord’s Supper…

And we all celebrate anniversaries.

I bought “God Rest Ye Merry” on Amazon. They promised that it would arrive (In Brazil) before Christmas. But postpone it to January. Haha, I’m anxious.

God Bless

Caio

I’ve been searching your blog and bookstore for anything that might address women praying audibly in a church gathering with men present. The search function on the website doesn’t seem to be pulling anything up. Could you point me in the right direction and to some resources that would expound on what Scripture says on this? It’s a very unpopular topic, and when my husband discussed the Scripture on this topic with our pastor, he agreed with what he was saying from the Bible, but requested that my husband have more than just Scripture as “evidence,” like a podcast, sermon, etc. We would like to study this further for a more solid foundation.

Your help is much appreciated!

Kristine

First, thank you for your ministry. We have found your resources to be a useful blessing in our underground church. In Canada where I am, there is an endless list of regulations for churches which are not compatible with Scripture, including vaccination papers at the door and no singing allowed. Churches here are either cheerfully going above and beyond these regulations, or are submitting silently. We have been meeting for over a year, often secretly as gathering in homes has also been prohibited many times. We are endeavoring to balance wisdom with an openness and boldness about what we are doing and why. Many, or even most true Canadian Christians are in similar situations. Underground church is not coming to the Western world, it is already here for many of us.

The reason I am writing is for advice. Simply gathering has been an important first step, however we desire to organize, grow and reach out. I have studied the underground church for many years, however the stories are often very reactive. They are often about survival and therefore many important aspects of church fall to the wayside. We desire to be proactively strengthening and preparing now. The logistics of starting and maintaining healthy underground churches would be a great subject to discuss in a blog post, book, or series of books. Much of Western society appears to be facing, or near to facing these challenges.

Many in our area are leaving the ‘State’ churches but have nowhere to go. With no leadership many do not gather at all, but would if there was somewhere to go and someone to lead them. So for now, do you have any pointers on finding, measuring, and appointing Elders among unorganized rag tag bands of believers from every different denominational background and spiritual maturity level? There are lots of nuts and bolts resources on how to plant traditional churches, but not much for us. I believe this conversation is one that ought to be bumped up on the priority list.

in Christ,

Caleb

The URC published a report on Eastern Orthodoxy which stated that those who attracted to it oftentimes has some kind of wound or trauma that is soothed, in a sense, by the aesthetic side of Orthodoxy, thus attracting them further to it. I think I fall into this camp.

I’ve been studying EO for a few years, particularly Slavic Orthodoxy. I recently discovered that I have some significant Russian-East Slavic ancestry in my family lineage. Our surname is what Moscow was called before it was Moscow. In any case, I think this has added to my attraction to Eastern Orthodoxy. It is the basis of the culture and society of many of my forebears according to the flesh.

I think I am having a hard time coming to terms with Eastern Orthodoxy. I have met many Orthodox people who have shown me a lot of kindness, welcoming me into their homes and such. I have also met many such Reformed people who have mentored me in the faith. I am pained to think that I am attracted to something that would sever my fellowship with those beloved Reformed people. Often, when I think of Eastern Orthodoxy, it is difficult for me to do so without tearing up or crying. Perhaps because of the beauty of the chant, but perhaps also because I do not want to disappoint or betray those Reformed people who have so loved me.

I am hesitant to send this because I do not want to disappoint you either, sir, as silly as it sounds. Sometimes my heart is heavy and I perhaps have some un-resolved pains from pay relational troubles. Homosexual inclinations from childhood haunt me at times, and sometimes I would honestly like to be in a monastery, quiet and secluded, earnestly yearning to pray, as Dostoyevsky said.

I do not know exactly what my question is, except to ask if you have any insight to these things.

Thank you very much,

Jake

Oh, come on, Doug. Meta is the tower of Babel, but cell phones are just wealth-tools? Be consistent! Or is this your inner agrarian?

Kevin

The real issue that has changed the thinking about a pregnancy concern isn’t abortion, but the pill.

Zeph

In regards to young Matt and his heated discussions with his wife over the perseverance of the saints I totally agree with your advice to avoid the debate until she’s ready.

Years ago after I had an argument with my wife I was sitting on the floor bouncing a tennis ball off the wall. At one point I threw the ball and accidentally hit one of the large drapes that covered the picture window. The ball dropped to the floor at the foot of the drape and did not come back. At that point I realized the ball bouncing off the wall was like our arguments: whatever was said simply bounced off her and back to me and vice versa. Throwing the ball harder just made it bounce harder: the argument got worse over time.

I learned not to drop the ball, but to let the ball drop. When a discussion/argument becomes heated, emotional, and accusatory don’t respond in kind, table it until both of you are ready to proceed in love. Until then, let the ball drop: never respond in kind to emotional, hurtful accusations.

James

Sir, thank you. I am a white mother raising 8 children, one of whom is black (a term that chronically befuddles her). She is no victim and I refuse to raise her as such. She comes from a nation that has been perpetually victimized and patted on the head and handed a fish. The next day, they’re still holding their hands out for the next fish. Someday I’m going to have words on hand for the folks that give us the stink eye and the ones that put us on a pedestal; maybe I’ll mine them out of your work.

One of my favorite things to collect are nativity scenes from wherever we travel. I often hear racism accusations about blonde-haired-Blue-eyed Jesus depictions. Funny thing is, every single culture seems to make Jesus look like one their own. I have a white set and a (truly) black set and a range of colors between. I think it is wonderful…that our Lord and Savior is so beautifully and perfectly necessary to every culture that we all imagine him to look like the Imago Dei of our homelands. So next time you’re getting crap about white Jesus, feel free to point out the black Jesus in my favorite nativity.

If you like, I can send you a photo of my collection. Anyway, a most Merry of Christmases to you and yours. Praise be to God that He sent his Son!

Alison

I read today (12/15/21) from Kevin DeYoung a recommendation for the book “Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America: Christian Reconstruction in the Pacific Northwest.” I searched for a review or comment by you concerning the book but have not yet found one. Have you written anything about the book for your readers to consume and digest?

Thanks!

Ray

I am so grateful for your ministry. I could write more on that, but just know my marriage, parenting, and Christian life wouldn’t be as vibrant if it weren’t for your faithfulness. I’ve never met you, but I’d love to give you a big olé jolly hug if I ever do have the pleasure.

I love your C.S. Lewis lectures. I’ve re-listened every time I re-read Narnia or the Ransom Trilogy.

Two questions:

-Who is your favorite character in the Narnia series and why?

In the book Prince Caspian, there is the short battle scene with the werewolf, Nikabrik versus the hero’s. Caspian is said to be bitten by the werewolf, does this mean he becomes a werewolf? Please explain.

Hope these are easy and fun questions to answer. May God keep blessing your ministry, and may He return soon.

In Christ,

RJ

Please let me preface this with yes, B.S. are actually the initials of my two last names, and no, I don’t understand why my parents chose that order instead of S.B.

With that out of the way, I’m an ex-biochemist and I would like to discuss a few of the points you made in your recent video “The Mandatorian.” I originally posted this as a comment on YouTube; however, I figured that reaching out via an email would likely be a better way to get your attention. Just to be upfront, I’ll be picking out what, to me, appear to be some logical and factual issues with some of the information you provided, and I hope you’ll do me honor of at least giving this a quick look over.

1) Your point about the shutdown being unnecessary is presented with, what seems to me is, a heavy hindsight bias. I think you actually betray your own argument by saying “we [now] know the virus wasn’t particularly dangerous,” but then proceed to say “the vaccine has unknown long term health effects.” The first comment is made in hindsight, and is dismissive of the (arguably reasonable) caution people had when dealing with a completely novel virus during the beginning of the pandemic, but in the same breath you are defending the caution people have regarding the “rushed” vaccine. Ignoring the issue that the vaccine is explicitly designed to prevent disease, whereas the virus only makes people sick, the reason I say “rushed” is because the technology to make these vaccines has existed for over decade and has already been in use in humans to help prevent Ebola. In fact, we know all the ingredients are nearly always safe, excluding the spike-protein specific mRNA (which is also in the virus). So yes, we technically don’t have the data on the long-term effects of this particular vaccine, but we still don’t know what the long term health effects of COVID will be, if any. Thus, if you’re concerned about the vaccine’s effects, you should certainly be more concerned about COVID’s, as the vaccine has fewer “active ingredients,” so to speak, than the COVID virus itself.

1.5) You say “anybody who confidently tells you the long term effects of the vaccine is selling something”. To address this as a minor point, you’re imputing motive to people, and you later criticize imputing motive in your video. I don’t like imputing motives either, and I think you should give these people the benefit of the doubt, at least a bit, rather than calling what they’re saying outright lies. As I mentioned previously, the vaccine technology used to create the COVID vaccine has been around for at least decade, so while we may not have data on the specific mRNA used in this particular version of the vaccine (which you would be exposed to either way if you got COVID), we do have data on the rest of the excipients (inactive ingredients), and they’re all relatively safe (though the branched PEG on the surface of the lipid capsule can, in rare cases, cause a PEG allergy, hence the monitoring after administering the doses in the event of anaphylaxis).

2) I agree “dissent squashing” was not a good move. In fact, most of the actual research scientists were doing the opposite: COVID research was being published with significantly less stringent peer-review standards to make sure any and all information was available to be sifted through later in meta-analyses. This lead to a lot of sensationalized results, many of which were later determined to be either fabricated, or published in error, but by then the bad information was out there. I’m fine with this, actually, but the way the government, media, and other agencies were taking such a hard-lined approach to squashing “misinformation” was very harmful. I think this was stupid, wrong, and ultimately made a lot of people, such as myself, very hesitant to get vaccinated.

3) As for the variant emergence, it is factual to say the following: the more hosts the virus has in the a population, the more opportunities it has to mutate and spawn more variants which are better at impacting and spreading within that population. Now, impacting does not necessarily mean “more deadly”; as we have seen with omicron, it seems to be more mild. This is because it is an evolutionary disadvantage for a virus to outright kill its host, as this also by definition kills the virus. In fact, most of the deadliest viruses (Ebola, rabies, etc.) all started in animals (bats typically), and without sufficient time for strains to evolve to not kill humans (which have WAY lower body temperatures than bats) they just kill us outright. So this point is actually logically coherent. I think the “all” in the “all because” statement is what inspired your critique. Clearly there are other factors at play that need to be acknowledge and accounted for, but the point still stands that by allowing COVID to have more hosts, it increases its ability to adapt to humans, and more infections likely means more deaths, despite the potentially diminished mortality rate of the newer variants.

4) Myocarditis is actually quite common in a number of viral infections, including mild ones such as the flu. In fact, it is typically caused not by the viral load itself, but the immune response to the virus. As for the blood-clots, these are unlikely to occur after vaccination, and much more likely to occur during the actual COVID-19 infection itself. In the event your body responds poorly to the vaccine, it is also quite likely to have responded similarly to COVID, excluding a possible PEG allergy (which I don’t believe causes clots). The difference is the fact that the vaccine is a controlled and fixed dose, whereas the virus is a variable dose, with exponential growth your body has to try to destroy before it’s too late. To use an analogy, would you rather be in a car traveling at a speed which is unlikely to cause harm, let’s say 20mph, toward a wall, or in a car that accelerates without your control while you’re blindfolded? In either case you can get in a crash and get injured or killed, but the latter case makes the injury and its severity significantly worse for you, and whoever you happen to crash into, if anyone. It’s all about mitigating risk, since there is a risk either way, and I know which one seems less risky to me.

5) As for your comment about the masks, the reason they “don’t work unless everyone wears them” is because they only reduce the spread from infected individuals by capturing larger exhaled droplets, not the dried viral particles themselves which are much too small to be filtered by the mask cloth. However, since many people with COVID are asymptomatic, the safest method to help prevent transmission while allowing for a semblance of normalcy is via masking people. Speaking of which, masking while sick is very common in other countries such as Japan (and is effective), so I’m honestly not sure why this has become part of the issue.

6) I 100% agree that certain mandates are ridiculous from a governmental overreach perspective. However, I do think that the easiest way to love those around you is to do no harm to the, and even better if you try to act in their self interest. If taking a small risk to myself gives reduces the risk others face greatly, then it seems to be the more loving thing to do to take the small risk. From the Christian evangelistic perspective, we send missionaries across the globe, often to hostile countries, to take the much bigger risk of their life to bring the Gospel message to those who need to hear it. We all would agree that embodying the apostle’s example of risking life and limb to spread the Gospel is a wonderful and necessary thing to do so that as many as possible have the opportunity for salvation. With the vaccine there is at least a minor parallel: if I take a small risk to myself that may save someone else’s life this is good, noble, and virtuous; similarly a risking my life on earth to bring someone the message that eternally saves their soul, is one of the most good, noble, and virtuous things a person can do, I would argue.

To conclude, I appreciate the video and your perspective, and I really hope you have the chance to read my letter. I hope this provides some insight into why many people who don’t like government overreach and coercive control, and who are Christians, (such as myself) decided to get the vaccine anyway. I did it for my asthmatic wife, and my overweight parents/sister, because I love them and don’t want to be the one who potentially gives them a infection that I could have prevented. I did it out of love for them, and I think recognizing loving others as a valid motivation for getting vaccinated is a reasonable perspective.

Best,

John