A Society on Crazy Pills

I’m afraid that we’ve reached a point in our society (at least in North America) where the majority of people are completely blind to hypocrisy. It’s almost as if the law on non-contradiction no longer matters to anyone. I make this assessment based on two big news stories that have taken place over the last two weeks. The stories I speak of are the “Bruce Jenner on cover of Vanity Fair claiming to be a woman” and the “Spokane, WA NAACP leader is a white lady who claims to be black.”

I don’t want to belabor rehashing all the details of each story since they can easily be found elsewhere. I will simply summarize the stories the way I see them.

Mr. Bruce Jenner is a man with a mental disorder which makes him think he’s a woman. He has even gone so far as to alter his body to make himself look more like a woman.

Mrs. Rachel Dolezal is a white woman with a mental disorder which makes her think that she is black. She has even gone so far as to alter her body to make herself look more like a black person.

Mr. Bruce Jenner is being praised as a hero all over the media. He’s even going to be given an award for his “courage” and his own TV show which will allow people to voyeuristically watch him live out his life as he pretends to be a woman.

Mrs. Rachel Dolezal is being criticized in the media. She has resigned her position as the president of the Spokane NAACP chapter and she has been fired from her job as a columnist for The Pacific Northwest Insider. Fox News is calling Mrs. Dolezal’s story a “bizarre case” that has “seemed to turn the traditional definition of race on its head.”

So, in 2015, in the United States of America, if you’re a man who identifies as a woman you’re a courageous hero who deserves an award. But if you’re a white person who identifies as a black person you’re a bizarre weirdo who doesn’t deserve the jobs you have.

Can people not see the blatant hypocrisy? These two stories are basically the same except for the X-factor of gender versus race. Is it not clear anymore that gender and race are things determined by God?

To quote Mugatu from the 2001 movie Zoolander:

If someone is anorexic they “identify” themselves as being overweight when in reality they are usually dangerously underweight. We rightly call anorexia a mental disorder and we try to help those who suffer from it. I stated above that Mr. Bruce Jenner and Mrs. Dolezal both have mental disorders. I did not use that term to be ugly, insensitive, or funny. What they “identify” as in their minds doesn’t match reality. In the case of Mrs. Dolezal I think most people would agree that she has a mental disorder, in fact, her parents express hope that she will get help to deal with her “identity issues.” In the case of Mr. Bruce Jenner, however, to say that he has a mental disorder is on par with being a holocaust denier. I wouldn’t be surprised if someday soon it will be considered a “hate crime” to call Mr. Bruce Jenner anything other than a woman.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now I refuse to use the female name or feminine pronouns that Mr. Bruce Jenner, and the rest of the media, insist that we use when addressing him. Again, I’m not doing this to be ugly, insensitive, or funny. Mr. Jenner has a mental disorder and it’s cruel to pretend that how he “identifies” and what he has done to himself is in any way normal or morally good.

I feel sorry for Mr. Jenner. I believe that deep down he knows that he’s not a woman and that what he’s done to himself will not make him happy. I also feel sorry for him because the people in his life that surround him have supported him instead of trying to get him help.

Mr. Jenner needs the gospel. He needs to repent of his sin. He needs a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the only way that he can be truly joyful. God made us man and woman from the beginning and he gave us His law as an invitation for true joy. It is natural for us to not like certain parts of God’s law, but when that is the case it is us that needs to change, not God’s law. I know that for many people this can be very difficult. The cross Mr. Jenner would have to take up to follow Jesus would be a heavy one and he would need a community of faithful Christians around him to help bear his burden. I know this is what Mr. Jenner needs because this what all sinners need.

I am not better than Mr. Jenner. Were it not for the Grace of God I would be just like Mr. Jenner. I pray that someone near Mr. Jenner will share the gospel with him and that God would give him the gifts of grace, repentance, and faith. I also pray for our society on crazy pills, that God would grant repentance to us as well.

LGBT Inconsistency

My favorite modern theologian/apologist, Dr. James White, has a maxim that he repeats often: “inconsistency is the sign of a failed argument.” He asserts that when we try to work out how our worldview shapes our opinions it’s important that we be as consistent as possible to avoid contradiction and hypocrisy. We all must recognize that we have blind spots when it comes to certain issues for a variety of reasons such as how we were raised, where we live, where we work, what traditions we’ve adopted, or if we have an agenda we’re trying to propagate. So while it is impossible to be perfectly consistent in our worldview, the law of non-contradiction is always in effect and we all must strive to be as consistent as possible if we are to be intellectually honest.

I say all this only to point out a huge inconsistency I’ve noticed from the LGBT activists and their media sympathizers (which is most of the media). Most homosexuals insist that they have always been attracted to their same sex. They will say over and over again that they were “born this way.” This has been a particularly strong argument for homosexual activists since they can directly tie their sexuality to things like skin color which they can then use to their great advantage by paralleling their struggle with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. This argument also gives them the ability to castigate Christians who have the audacity to claim that homosexuality is a sin as homophobic bigots. So strong is their instance that they are “born gay” and that it is impossible for them to change that several states have made it illegal for people struggling with same-sex attraction to seek conversion therapy.* This argument, however, is not based on fact or logic, but pure emotion. These same activists who say that gay people can’t change their sexuality and even go so far as to say “God made them that way” have no problem with men becoming women or women becoming men.

Bruce Jenner caused a big media splash when he appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair** in drag to show off how surgical mutilation, high doses of chemical hormones, layers of makeup and who knows how many hours of Photoshop editing can affect the male body. Mr. Jenner and all the LGBT activists now insist that he is a “she.” The cultural Marxists in the media insist that we all get our minds right and fall in line by using the correct pronouns.

If men can become women and women can become men then gay people can become straight. If gay people can’t become straight then men can become women and women can’t become men. The LGBT activists want it both ways and nobody seems to notice.

Inconsistency is the sign of a failed argument. My friends, the LGBT arguments I’ve presented above are utterly inconsistent. The fact that they have gained so much ground in the US in such a short period of time is an indictment against our public schools for failing to teach critical thinking and an indictment against the church for failing to be the guardrails our society needs.

God has lifted His hand of restraint off this country. The only thing that is appropriate to pray for our nation is repentance. We should also pray for Mr. Jenner and his family and the entire LGBT community to repent and believe the gospel.

*Many ex-gays claim that they have been helped by such therapy.

**Matt Walsh has written an excellent piece concerning the Bruce Jenner circus.

Denial of Services

I’ve been using Twitter™ for several years now, but it’s becoming increasingly less and less useful to me. Recently they’ve made a change that I find particularly annoying. They now allow some users to “promote” their tweets. Basically, any blogger, corporation, special interest group, NGO etc. can pay money to Twitter™  and then Twitter™ will allow them to propagate their message on my, and presumably everyone else’s, news feed whether we follow them or not. This morning when I checked my feed I saw a promoted tweet from @ShaneJordan5 who apparently is a “Political Advocate for LGBT rights and [a] @Huffingtonpost blogger.” This is what he tweeted:

And this is what he posted on Facebook™ that got him “blocked” (FYI, I blocked out the curse words)

While I’m not too familiar with the Facebook™ Community Standards, I think that if Mr. Jordan had refrained from using coarse language and had stated his opinion in a more thoughtful way, his comment wouldn’t have been removed.

Be that as it may, I would like to respond to Mr. Jordan’s comment in a respectful, Christ-like manner.

Mr. Jordan was referencing an Arizona bill (which has now been vetoed) that would’ve allowed business owners to deny services to people if they felt that providing their services would violate their consciences because of their religious beliefs. Arizona wanted to pass this bill because of events that have occurred in other states where Christian business owners such as bakers, florists, and photographers have refused to offer their services to LGBT “weddings” because they felt this would be a violation of their consciences because of their religious beliefs. In each of these cases, the LGBT couples involved have sued the Christian service providers, citing discrimination. The Arizona law would have tried to protect the business owners in these cases.

I can infer from his coarse language that Mr. Jordan believes any Christian who upholds the orthodox biblical Christian position concerning marriage is a “bigot” and that expressing these orthodox biblical beliefs is the same thing as spewing “hate and intolerance.” I have already addressed this issue in a previous post but I will reiterate that calling something sinful is not actually hateful and holding an orthodox Christian position on marriage is not bigoted. However, I don’t feel I could ever convince a guy like Shane Jordan of this so I won’t belabor the point.

FUNDAMENTAL MISREPRESENTATION  

Mr. Jordan asks, “What if the tables were turned and establishments could deny services to a person for being a Christian?” I think this question fundamentally misrepresents the issue. No one, at least no rational person, is in favor of denying services to members of the LGBT community simply because they are LGBT. To do so would be bigoted and intolerant. In the same way, it would be terrible if a Christian was denied a service simply for being Christian, but that’s not the issue. If my Christian beliefs violated the conscience of a service provider I wouldn’t expect them to provide their services to me.

For example, let’s say I wanted to have a conference at my church whose sole purpose was to share the gospel with Muslims and I needed to print flyers and posters to promote this event. If I go to a print shop whose owner is a Muslim and request his services this would clearly be a violation of his conscience based on his religious beliefs and he should have the right to deny his services to me. But what if I needed flyers and posters to promote a fundraiser at my church to help the poor in my community? In this situation the Muslim print shop owner wouldn’t have a legitimate reason to deny his services to me.

Now let’s take religion out of the picture. Say you own a catering company and you’re a big time Democrat Party supporter. I mean you’re a true believer. You volunteer for Democrats running for office in your county, you donate as much money as is legally possible to the Democrat Party and you actively campaign in your neighborhood for Democrat Party causes. If your county’s Republican Party wanted you to cater an event whose sole purpose was to get Democrats out of office wouldn’t you want to have the right to deny your service to them? I believe you should have that right. However, if a guy wearing a Ronald Reagan t-shirt walked into your catering company and wanted to hire you to cater an event for his widget company there should be no reason for you not to provide your service to him.

The point of these hypothetical examples is to show that we all have to tolerate and provide services to people we disagree with. It’s inevitable. Society would fall apart pretty quick if we didn’t attempt to tolerate and serve people we disagree with. However, we shouldn’t be forced to provide our services if doing so would explicitly violate our consciences. This is an important difference.

CALM DOWN EVERYBODY, JIM CROW IS NOT COMING BACK

Many opponents of the Arizona bill (and other bills like it) have asserted that it would create a modern day “Jim Crow” environment for gay people. I think this is a outrageous accusation.The Jim Crow laws allowed any business owner to deny their services to any black person simply for being black. I’ll say again, no one, certainly no mainstream Christian group, is calling for an outright denial of all services to LGBT people simply because they are LGBT. I would stand shoulder to shoulder with my LGBT friends to try and stop any law that would implement that type of heinous system. The fact of the matter is, no one is calling for this type of system and the Arizona bill would not create it. Under the bill, Christian restaurant owners would still have to provide food for LGBT people, Christian EMS workers would still have to save the lives of LGBT people, and Christian bakers would still have to bake birthday cakes for LGBT people. Anyone who would suggest otherwise is lying to you.

In summation, I would agree with Mr. Jordan’s assertion at the end of his post that this is a free country with liberty and justice for all. In a free country we should have the liberty to not violate our own consciences. To Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Christians, marriage is a sacrament. To many evangelicals it is a holy institution created by God Himself. We believe that marriage has a meaning, namely that it is the union between a man and a woman. To affirm or support anything other than that would be a violation of our consciences. Forcing Christian business owners to provide services that celebrate LGBT “weddings” violates the liberty of the business owners and is ultimately unjust.

Blessings

Duck Dynasty dust up

As I write this post, A&E, Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson are the top three trending topics on twitter. This is usually the case when the new season premiers, but that’s not the case tonight. Earlier today, GQ Magazine released an interview that Drew Magary did with the Duck Dynasty patriarch, Phil Robertson.  A few quotes from the interview concerning homosexuality has everyone’s kickers in a wad.

For those who haven’t read the quotes, or don’t know anything at all about the dust up, I’ll do my best to fairly put it all in context. Magary was talking with Robertson about his thoughts on Duck Dynasty’s popularity. Robertson said, “We’re Bible-thumpers who just happened to end up on television,” and that “…the Robertson family really believes strongly that if the human race loved each other and they loved God, we would just be better off. We ought to just be repentant, turn to God, and let’s get on with it, and everything will turn around.” Magary then explains that according to “Robertson’s worldview…he sees the popularity of Duck Dynasty as a small corrective to all that we have lost” due to the secularization of the United States. Robertson then goes on to say, “Everything is blurred on what’s right and what’s wrong, sin becomes fine.” It is here that Magary asks, “What, in your mind, is sinful?” Robertson’s answer to this question is what has set off the social media firestorm.

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he then paraphrases 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the  adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the  greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the  kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

In the article Robertson is also quoted as saying, “It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, A&E, the network that airs Duck Dynasty, released a statement saying, “His personal views in no way reflect those of A+E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community. The network has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.” The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLADD), applauded A&E’s decision to put Robertson under hiatus. GLADD spokesperson Wilson Cruz said, “By taking quick action and removing Robertson from future filming, A&E has sent a strong message that discrimination is neither a Christian nor an American value.” An article from the GLADD website adds that Robertson’s statements are, “far outside of the mainstream understanding of LGBT people.”

Entertainment Weekly shared a statement from Robertson in reaction to the controversy:  “I myself am a product of the 60s; I centered my life around sex, drugs and rock and roll until I hit rock bottom and accepted Jesus as my Savior. My mission today is to go forth and tell people about why I follow Christ and also what the Bible teaches, and part of that teaching is that women and men are meant to be together. However, I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.” The EW article goes on to say that, “Robertson’s statement isn’t very contrite and seems to contradict his previous statements.”

Immediately folks via twitter came out to either drum up support for Robertson or to rail against him. Many were upset that he compared homosexuality to bestiality and many were outraged by his use of crude language concerning vaginas and anuses. Many conservatives bemoaned the loss of freedom of speech for Christians and many liberals lauded A&E for standing up against “homophobia.” A lot of Christians screamed “persecution!” and a lot of non-Christians used the opportunity to criticize all Christians as backward thinking bigots. I think all sides are wrong and this whole culture war brouhaha is ridiculous.

I do like it that Phil Robertson has a passion for sharing the gospel with as many people as possible and that he is using his TV platform to do just that. But he has got to realize that with bigger platforms come bigger responsibilities. You have to be careful about what you say and where you say it because things can be taken out of context or twisted to make you look like a fool. Doing an interview with GQ was a stupid move. I can’t believe his PR people didn’t try to stop him from doing this interview. They should be fired.

To my brothers and sisters in Christ, I implore you to be careful about who you get behind. A lot of what Phil Robertson said in this interview was ridiculous and ultimately unhelpful for the cause of the gospel. His thoughts on the pre-civil rights era Louisiana, which are surprisingly being ignored in most media reports, are completely ignorant. His conflating of homosexuality with bestiality is careless. His paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 was fairly accurate, but you shouldn’t throw out difficult Bible verses unless you can intelligently discuss them. Phil Robertson is not Jesus. He is our brother in Christ, but he isn’t a preacher and he isn’t a scholar, he should stick to sharing the gospel and stay away from hot button issues like homosexuality. It would be advisable for all Christians to stay away from hot button issues unless you can talk about them intelligently.

I would also warn my fellow Christians to be careful about throwing around the word “persecution.” A rereading of The Boy Who Cried Wolf would be apropos. Yes, Jesus warned us about persecution that would come from following Him. However, I think Jesus was talking more about being killed, tortured or imprisoned rather than simply being made fun of in a culture war. There are Christians in the Middle East today who are actually getting killed or jailed for their beliefs. The culture in the US may be shifting against traditional Christian values, but we do not yet have to suffer for our beliefs. Calling yourself a Christian in the US is still relatively easy.

For my conservative friends who claim to be supporters of the constitution, you need to take the time to actually learn what the first amendment protects. I agree it was a bad judgment call for A&E to suspend Phil Robertson, but they didn’t trample his right to free speech. A&E employs Robertson and they are free to suspend him if they don’t like what he says in public. The first amendment protects us from the federal government punishing us for expressing opinions. If it could be proven that President Obama ordered the FBI to arrest Phil Robertson for speaking about his beliefs, that would be a violation of his first amendment rights. We should avoid imbecilic statements like those that came from Sarah Palin concerning this fracas: “Free speech is an endangered species. Those “intolerants” hatin’ and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us.”

For my liberal and LGBT friends I ask that you would please stop claiming to be the beacons of tolerance and please stop self-righteously sticking your nose up at those who disagree with you. Whenever anyone deviates from or disagrees with your worldview even slightly you start to throw out the standard pejoratives: “racist, sexist, bigot and homophobe.” All those pejoratives do is silence debate. Instead of trying to silence people you disagree with, or celebrating when people you disagree with are silenced, please try to engage in civil debate with them. There are a lot of people on TV I disagree with and there are a lot of shows I don’t like, but I would never advocate silencing or banning anyone.

In conclusion, these media driven “culture wars” are hurting and dividing us in terrible ways. People from both sides of the divide are guilty of talking past each other instead of to each other. If we all took more time to actually learn what other people think and believe we would be better off as a society.

Blessings