Things I Think…
1. I’m old and tired of the con.
A human with a penis should not compete in women’s athletics. This should not take great courage or insight to say. Those who would argue otherwise would call me “trans-phobic”…I would call them “reality-phobic”…
2. I believe that there is a Creator who made man and women in His image…male and female He made them. I have always applauded this as one of His better moves…as the eminent philosopher Jerry Lee Lewis once said of women…”if God made anything better, He kept it for Himself.”…
3. It should not come as a shock that in a fallen world where everything is broken to a degree, that sexuality would be what is broken in some…what is shocking and incredibly wrong is to make brokenness the norm…
4. Round up all these “phobic” descriptors and stick them …I’m not afraid of people who have differing views or beliefs about sexuality…I’m “lie-phobic” and “fake phobic”…it was pretty obvious that the woman who won the swimming competition was a dude…no matter what pronouns were listed…and I’m not going to lie about that so your fake construction can stand…
5. As long as I’m making everyone mad…if that guy followed my mother, wife, or daughter into a restroom, he’d get his desire to bleed granted…I’ll repent after I’m sure they are safe…
6. People have the right to live as they want and think as they want…and if that doesn’t include people who believe in a Creator, biology ,and reality…then no one really has any rights at all…
7. No one what I have written precludes walking in grace and compassion for all people…we’re all broken in some way…
8. We increasing live in a world where exceptions are the rule…which doesn’t guarantee rights for the minority, it strips the rights from the majority…
9. We also live in a world where political parties manufacture crises in order to make electoral hay…for example, with mid terms coming up, we’ll hear about the “invasion” on the border because that chestnut inflames one side of the electorate…who are also helping Ukrainian refugees from violence cross other borders…just sayin…I rejoice that we get it right sometimes…
10. Well…now I have more reasons to continue wearing a mask…
Might have wanted to let this one bake a little more 🙂
Came out of the gates a little hot here .
Josh,
You might be right…why do you think that?
I’m open to correction and conversation…I realize that I am a product of my time and culture as well…
Nah, I don’t know how to handle this stuff. Again, obviously you are right. Science, history, the bible…I mean duh, this isn’t hard to figure out.
I feel like in my life I have majored in being right at the expense of keeping relationships with those who need to hear the truth that I’m spouting.
Many years ago, my best friend said “There are grace-givers and there are truth-tellers. You are a truth teller.” At the time, I thought it was a compliment. Now I realize he was calling me an A-hole.
Josh,
I hear you and I worry about that same issue.
Speaking generally to cultural phenomena doesn’t preclude pastoral grace and kindness…but I fear that our desire to be gracious is costing us a generation that will be wrecked by that culture.
David French just wrote a piece on the Lia Thomas situation. I think it’s pretty thoughtful.
https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/what-do-we-do-when-people-are-equal?s=w
KevinH,
That is a good piece…
“Lia Thomas and other trans individuals are human beings created in the image of God. They are “created equal,” but they are not created the same in all meaningful respects as the women they compete against or share locker rooms with. Our nation and culture can respect their dignity and protect their rights without denying the distinctions that really do make a difference. ”
Amen…
“but I fear that our desire to be gracious is costing us a generation that will be wrecked by that culture.”
See, I think it’s the opposite. I think we’ve lost this generation already. Our stances on homosexuality and gender issues are well-known. Our grace and love towards people is highly disputred.
Well done Michael! Especially 2-5.
Thanks, Covered…
Josh,
You’re right, which is why I almost didn’t write this.
I should have wrote it as graciously as French…but I’m a hack.
We…I…have to find better ways to contend for the truth…but it still has to be contended for.
You’re not a hack.
I read what you right every day. I could care less what David French says.
Keep doing what you do, and I’ll keep agreeing, and disgreeing…but always reading. I appreciate you, man.
Josh,
Your presence (whether disagreeing or agreeing) is a gift to me and our readers.
We need to be reminded of our calling and Who called us and how He called us…and you are doing a splendid job …
Thank you.
Michael, I appreciate both yours and French’s writings. One person alone cannot cover everything that is valuable to be said and the manners in which they are valuable to be said.
KevinH,
Thank you…I think I let the obvious absurdity of this incident get the better of me…
I’m out for a bit…Trey and I are going to the new Batman movie…it’s cheaper during the day… 🙂
Points 1 through 10 are rational, sane thinking….. IMNSHO
Josh,
I appreciate you
Michael – The new Batman is great. You will enjoy.
Bob – You too, man! Thanks so much.
“Keep doing what you do, and I’ll keep agreeing, and disgreeing…but always reading. I appreciate you, man.”
Now that’s a statement of grace, the kind that is sorely lacking in today’s social-media-driven world.
The Lia Thomas issue is a tough one culturally but not theologically. No one wants to be labeled a “hater”. But to stand for the scriptures and not kow-tow to culture—in a gracious way, is not a lack of grace. In fact, I’d argue that to not address it and call it sin, is a lack of grace.
If one of my daughters reached into the medicine cabinet and got ahold of a dangerous medication and was about to swallow it,I’d yell “NO!” Real loud and slap her hand. She’d be upset that I didn’t allow her to play with the pretty pink pill. But to let her ingest it could lead to death. Me slapping her hand and yelling in, IMO, an act of love, IMO.
In my church in Salem, we had a gay couple and a lesbian. We received them as people with open and loving arms. They were aware of their sin and just wanted help. We gave it to them. The couple split after about a year, and the lesbian married a young man and now what’s two kids. I officiated the wedding.
So I wonder if the church’s bad rap as graceless is an overstep—at least in some areas. I can openly disagree but still act lovingly. If my rejection of the the practice is seen as hate, that’s on them not me.
Just a few thoughts from and old fart
Thank you all for speaking grace and truth. I protested in the 60’s to have equal rights and opportunities for women and then all over again in the 90’s for my daughters’ to have equal rights in sports access and scholarships. Now, when I see what is happening, it is heart breaking. My grand daughters are being told they don’t count. That being a women is whatever any man wants to call us. Women are being erased. “Woman of the Year”…. Appalling. I have had intimate and long talks with 2 transgender women, so I do see these people as human beings, made in the image of God, and need to be loved and encouraged, but not at the cost of erasing biological women.
People like Thomas can do whatever they wish with their name their body or their pronouns. What they cannot do is impose it on others without a challenge.
When this journey of political correctness began people like myself were mocked for saying it mattered in small things. We were mocked for our ‘wolf crying’ about a slippery slope. We were branded for all kinds of lack of charity because we had clarity. And of course we were told that we lacked love.
No! We had brains, courage and heart and could get Dorothy and Toto home safely. Now we have no home and there is no yellow brick road. We are lost and the trouble ahead has no human solution.
Thanks Michael for taking a blow torch to this pile of rubbish.
theologically speaking, or speaking as a christian, there is no doubt as to what is right and true.
what is going to be interesting is how this topic will be addressed politically speaking in the coming months as the midterms approach. There is quite the backlash on social media and the MSM that is realizing how much this “woke” attitude hurts girls and women, and in an effort to get the votes I will not be surprised if the pendulum swings back towards the center a bit. People are seeing how this may have gone a bit to far in the wrong direction.
I liked the new Batman movie, too. It’s not for the younger kids, though. For kids 12 and under I’d say the late Adam West’s 2017 direct-to-disc animated feature Batman vs Two-Face (which featured William Shatner as Harvey Dent) is a better kid-friendly take for folks who want something less dark.
But I enjoyed The Batman and am curious to see where Reeves and company go. It was like a mixture of the best elements of The Long Halloween and Hush without the lesser elements (or characters, I think Hush was a lame villain).
“When this journey of political correctness began people like myself were mocked for saying it mattered in small things. We were mocked for our ‘wolf crying’ about a slippery slope. We were branded for all kinds of lack of charity because we had clarity. And of course we were told that we lacked love.”
How did your approach help?
Let him who has ears …
I mean, it was an honest question, I think we should evaluate our methods from time to time. I suppose you saw yourself as a voice crying out in the wilderness, which is one way to go about it, I guess.
I’ve just heard preachers talking about this stuff my whole life, and it hasn’t brought more people to Jesus, and it hasn’t slowed down any cultural corruption either.
Is there a better way to go about it, or should we just say congratulations that you saw it coming?
“The Batman” was a primo movie…excellent.
I was having some health issues that were distracting, but I thought it was great.
Not for the young ones…or old men with blood pressure issues. 🙂
It’s my favorite Batman movie yet.
I’ve been trying to reflect back on how we responded to this issue.
We responded mainly with anger and disgust, just like I did yesterday.
The problem, as I see it, comes when we demand that the culture around us respond to things as we do…when they don’t, we get angry.
We want the culture to be “safe” for us and our children and it’s never going to be.
What we should do is draw the lines clearly for believers…enforce the standards of biblical morality and ethics among ourselves…and be broken for the those outside who believe the lies.
This would require us to be a discernible culture within the culture known for being different and loving.
Good luck with that.
Michael, you are not old yet! ! !
says Granny Em (86 this July)
Oh to be 63 again! 😉
Em,
Unfortunately, some of my parts seem to have aged prematurely…
I look forward to seeing the new Batman movie. I have to admit when a franchise is rebooted several times I lose track and hence I lose interest (see Spiderman).
Re what is being discussed here, I think that we think “speaking in grace=being soft on sin” and “speaking truth in love=being a Jesus Jerk” all too often. I am not one to speak authoritatively on speaking against the culture and how to do it because I don’t have many people entrusted to me by our Lord, but I do have people I work with daily, some I like and some I have a hard time with, and often we get into the proverbial “water-cooler discussions” or stuff more involved.
God has entrusted me with a few people from time to time in my life and I have my hills to die on, and some hills that I don’t give a rats #$% about, even if my fellow believers think I should. I am only following what God is entrusting me with and I can’t worry about pleasing other believers by fighting their battles.
Dan,
I think there is wisdom in your approach…
Thanks Michael.
What if we nuked ’em all with grace and let God sort them out?
🙂
“What we should do is draw the lines clearly for believers…enforce the standards of biblical morality and ethics among ourselves…and be broken for the those outside who believe the lies.”
That is the approach I try to take, although certainly do it far from perfectly.
How can we expect unbelievers to live by God’s code of morality if they reject God? Outside of hoping they come to a saving faith in God, the best we can then try to do is persuade. Trying to persuade in a militant or forceful manner often doesn’t seem to be very effective.
Of course, when I speak more forcefully or compellingly to believers about following God’s moral codes, this also often doesn’t go over well. But at the very least, they should know better, and yes, we should have expectations that if they claim to be following God, then they should also be trying to follow God’s commands.
Does this approach not just close the doors on an increasingly large group of people?
Josh,
We never close the doors.
As I’ve said for decades now…we clean up our own stall and show what a God shaped society looks like…and some will find it compelling.
Maybe. I like that answer.
Josh,
If I’m honest…if I were 17 or 18 years old now I would not even think about Christianity, except as something that needs eliminated.
The public faith of the faith would make me angry and very reactionary.
Some days I have a hard time hanging on at 63…
Michael, exactly. And that’s what I’m trying to come to grips with lately. Is there a way out, or must we double down, leave them to their own devices? It seems that most are happy with the echo chamber, and the fact that it is getting smaller and smaller only confirms that we are the chosen few.
In the past year alone, I have heard this saying at least three different times: “The message of every other religion is do. The message of Christianity is done”.
Frankly, we are liars. If you don’t behave the way we think you should, the Gospel is not for you. Drunks, adulterers, liars? Sure, we’ll take you. Gay? Get straight first, then we’ll talk.
Josh,
My solution for the moment is to draw back and deal with what is local and in front of me.
I can control and influence that.
Otherwise, I just bloviate here…and hope someone is listening.
I have to run back up to the hospital…back in a while…
The Spirit of God did not draw you guys to Christ? You think Christianity was attractive to sexually promiscuous self-medicating teens? You think the niceness of Christians was the threshold of giving Christianity a glance in our day?
What about the yearning for meaning for truth and for virtue?
I never understand what kind of public posture by the church you guys think makes people convert.
I didn’t like church, Christians or being told I was in sin and hell bound. I didn’t convert because the church was so compelling. It was the immediate voice of God and one solitary truthful soul.
What sort of public rehabbing do you think will win the world. Because understand there is nothing other than conformity that will be acceptable today. We are indeed on trial and there is nothing we can do to be justified in their sight.
No… the voice of God by the Spirit is the only ground of revival.
The pure evangel of heaven is the ground of repentance.
But I will agree that the soil of revival is not easy to ascertain.
I don’t see another Jesus movement in the offing.
But I won’t conform to the spirit of the age to gain a hearing nor is it necessary.
God will do again what he did before he never wearies or faints.
I guess we’re doing good then. Nevermind. No need for self-reflection.
Look, I wasn’t gay and I knew I was a boy. Still, church life for the last 28 years has been a long string of hoops to jump through. Church people have me so screwed up, I don’t know which way is up.
Jesus accepted me unconditionally.
I’m asking if there is a way we, the church, can look a little more like Jesus in all this.
I’m just asking if you think God is even real, alive and involved in this thing?
And if so how?
Cause there’s plenty of despairing self reflection here — though most of it is othering.
It’s a real dark time that’s for sure and we’re facing foes that never seemed more daunting. And we self-destruct OFTEN.
But dude our Gospel is a boneyard turned to an army. Time to preach life again.
I’m in — won’t likely last long but hey it’s all I care about.
As for church hurts we could do the Jaws thing and show our scars before the beast eats us …
I think we recall what brought us life and live again retelling the Jesus story I think this generation is as bankrupt as we were
Dread, I agree on all that, and I don’t think I’ve questioned the message, the truth, or the Gospel.
Most of the foes that I see are inside the church. Our MO, forever I guess, has been to beat the Hell out of people. Yes, Jesus still works in peoples lives regardless, but why is it an offense to the Gospel to say “Let’s stop hurting people”?
And the fact that everyone here can show our scars should scream SOMETHING IS WRONG.
But we keep chewing people up and blaming it on the beast.
“I’m just asking if you think God is even real, alive and involved in this thing?”
Real and alive, yes. Involved in which thing?
Josh
When were you happy fulfilled and on mission? If now then — you’re home and all that other stuff doesn’t matter.
Humans stain everything but when I tell the testimony of Jesus my hope returns and I can go fight the battle again
The internet — btw —- conveys the stain magnificently
Dread, what in my comments on this thread are you taking issue with? I’m nor sure.
I don’t have a clue what God is doing anywhere…hell, I don’t know what I’m doing half the time.
What I do know is that if you are going to sell something as radical as Christianity, you better have a life that witnesses to what you’re saying.
I just reconnected with a dear friend after a few years…she became a Christian after reading the Gospels and finding out that Jesus was much different than she had been told.
The Christian worldview on sexuality is bonkers unless you already have a basic understanding of the theology behind it. It is even a challenge inside the group…we have to do better in how we communicate why these issues are important to God and to human flourishing.
When I talk to young people, sexuality is a challenge.
A bigger challenge is the way we deal with race and abuse…my encouragement is that they are much more interested in biblical justice than my generation was…and cannot comprehend why the churches they know are so opposed to it.
I have no hope for the current leadership…but when God reaches the kids, the world will change.
We need to stay out of His way as much as possible.
Taking issue with you is a fools errand.
I’m just being myself.
Dread,
I need your notes on Hebrews…
Dread, I’m having trouble with the communication here. You seemed to question my faith (Do you even believe?) because I’m saying we should be nicer to trans people.
Is that what you are trying to get accross?
Michael @9:26am
Parts wearing out?
My big handicap today is that my balance is off…. do people think I am nipping at the cooking wine? Taking a shower requires the use of a bath stool.
My eyesight started to go in 50s – I thought it from the time I was spending on the computer. The opthamologist laughed at me and said it was my age… sigh
Praying God sees fit to heal your heart, dear man
I think mine is wearing out now! My kids say that they want me to stick around more than they want their small inheritance (they must know I pray for them daily LOL)
God keep
Face to face nice is easy cheap and the lowest level of engagement. No one I know is not nice to most people face to face.
The intimidation to pretend trans women are women is not something to be nice about.
As for your faith — I think I was expressing my wonderment at what I read here from you about pretty much everything to do with Christianity. I’m sure you are one but mostly you seem to hate the identity. I’m happy to be corrected and/or ignored.
Michael
The teachings are online but no notes are accessible to me — I apologize.
Happy to dialogue.
Dread,
I knew I should have got them while I could…I’ll check out the sermon archive.
I don’t think most people would be very welcoming to trans people at most churches.
I didn’t say anything about pretending someone is something they are not. I would think if dealing with someone truly confused about their gender, that I am dealing with a mentally ill person, and would tread carefully.
Everything to do with Christianity, or everything to do with the kind of Christianity that is entwined with right wing causes? That you can’t distinguish the two speaks to my point.
Josh
I shall grant you the last insult and not reply. Normally I provoked it anyway.
I’m sorry Dread, I did not intend to insult. I really do think we are speaking past each other a little.
I am still a believer. I do want a Christianity with more Jesus and less of everything else. I don’t think the church should have to hurt so many people.
Josh
I know and agree.
We need to agree as much as possible.
Love and respect to you, as always.
Thank you Josh
My apologies come with my returned love and respect. I’m intense. Grace and peace.
We’d have you no other way!
I will give a positive example of the kind of thing I’m talking about. I know a pastor who took a group of hoodlums to Mardi Gras a few years ago. The pastor or one of his group had a t-shirt that said “Jesus Love Pxrnstars”. This pastor and his friends wandered the streets of Mardi Gras with smiles on their faces, hugging the partiers and praying with those who were receptive.
I juat want to see more of that 🙂
Josh,
I think the challenge I see, in the church, is that some churches have gone from “Jesus Loves Pxrnstars” to “Jesus Loves you being and continuing to be Pxrnstars”.
I think that there are some that want so much to be loving, or seen as loving, that they move from accepting to affirming.
I say, whoever wants to come to church, come. It’s a spiritual hospital where we’re all broken and being fixed and changed by God.
But some have closed the door to the sick, and others have said the sick don’t need healing.
Well said everstudy
Yet we accept and affirm liars, greedy people, gluttons, cheats, abusers, …etc.
and we always will; such were some of us. unfortunately, some have remained in that state; rooted in their own dishonesty.
Josh
I appreciate your last post to me. I’ve been back to Mardi Gras since then missed this year. God still loves pornstars.
That God loves is easy to know and affirm. How to work it out is another matter.
And Josh liars and gluttons do not make that identity and seek equity based on such things.
We are on ground we’ve never stood before.
Also, your innocent and likely true assessment of mental illness at the root is an attitude that would be ground for you to be considered a poser and get you kicked to the curb.
This is not a case of sinners seeking asylum. It is a takeover.
We really are in a place of not knowing what to do even though we desire to do well.
I don’t think we (as the church, in general) “affirm” liars, greedy people, gluttons, cheats, abusers. When was the last time you heard a sermon affirming and promoting those sins? (Well maybe the donuts after the service…OK, I’ll give you that one.). But I don’t see sin normally being affirmed and promoted in the church. Yes, we are sinners in community with one another and hopefully pointing each other to Jesus for healing….encouraging one another in being conformed into the image of Christ. The Trans agenda does not seek this type of affirmation and conformation. They want complete acceptance of this mental health condition. Someone mentioned the term “slippery slope.” Bingo. Marriages will be demanded, baptisms using whatever pronoun they choose, etc., etc. I have had friendships with trans women and as I’ve talked with them, listened to their story (both raised by violent/sadistic parents or care takers and suffered horrific abuse as children) and prayed with them, I know they are crying out for acceptance and peace. My heart hurts for them, but, does that mean I have to pretend with them? I’ve taken communion in an Anglican Church at a noon Eucharist service and there were 2 obviously trans women also taking communion. “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.” We all came to the table broken, needy, and hungry for Christ…. and all walked away, in the peace of God. I believe we are called to one on one, grace, love, prayer, friendship. But to affirm the delusion in institutional/public settings like sports, women’s shelters, prisons, church marriages, ….where do we draw the line or how to navigate this? God help us.
If you don’t think sin is affirmed in the church then everything thing I’ve done for the last couple decades is for naught.
Every person I’ve ever exposed for abuse is still in the pulpit and thriving…never repenting or making reparation.
The current debacle with John MacArthur is a prime example of people being victimized in heinous fashion…and the supporters of MacArthur are viciously attacking the reporters and victims again.
That church will be packed…as the church gives it’s full throated approval to all manner of evil…as long as the show is good.
Since there has been talk about god’s love, and p@ornstars, does he love and did he die for all of them or just his elect?
I am asking for a friend…:-)
Iam sure there is as aspect of election I don’t understand. But in my limited knowledge i am unable to put all the pieces together. My logic always leads to one place—fatalism It’s the hole I keep stepping in!
I spent many years steeped in Calvinistic doctrines.
I think the person and work of Jesus in His incarnation…taking on all human flesh…and in His death and resurrection…has universal application.
The plan was for the redemption and renewal of all things created…and that plan will succeed.
Let’s note something else.
How we react to cultural trends and how we react pastorally are two different things.
I noted in this piece what I think about the trend..but my door and heart would always be open to any caught up in it.
To me the doctrine of election as understood in Calvinist theology makes god unjust. If regeneration precedes faith and belief, and he initiates that, then how can he hold the unregenerate responsible? They never had the chance to repent.
My eschewed thinking…
Officerhoppy,
If I may…you’re thinking in categories that have been established since the sixteenth century.
If you obliterate those categories and take in the whole of history and tradition…you find other ways of understanding the work of Jesus…
Of course you may. That’s why i made the post. Looking for an international peace with two, seemingly opposing views—election and choice
Good thoughtful posts here
Thanks and God keep one and all
P.S.
Michael, you ARE doing God’s calling – the wolves ARE thriving in many churches….
How convenient to “make a decision for Christ” and go right on indulging one’s old sin nature
I can find no way to systematize the work of Jesus Christ.
I commend St. Gregory Nanzianzus and Athanasius to your study…
Thanks, Em…I’m just trying to keep it between the ditches…
‘Em
I my world god loves us as were are and while his love never changes toward us,he doesn’t leave us as we are. He transforms us by hsHS, the scriptures when we come toChrist we have a new and different orientation.
Officerhoppy,
In my opinion…a person has to get outside the evangelical bubble and traditions and listen to the early fathers and medieval thinkers to find fresh revelation for these matters.
I’ve just started to scratch the surface…I won’t have time to understand them like I do a Calvin…and that grieves me…
Michael
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve almost given up my quest to come to some sort of conclusion between the two. Seems like one of those things that will drive me nuts. I’ve sorta landed on the idea of antinomy where both sides are true. How? I dunno!
Officerhoppy,
I don’t try to solve it…in Gods mind there is no conundrum.
I will throw this out there…when I first started studying with Duane and was exposed to the early fathers and Eastern thinkers…I was amazed and shamed at how ignorant I was about the doctrine of the Incarnation.
That is where everything changed for me…
“How we react to cultural trends and how we react pastorally are two different things.”
The most perceptive comment on the thread, at least in my opinion.
Duane
Excuse my ignorance, but what make Michael’s statement so perceptive I’m not sure I fully understand it.
Cultural trends are painted with a broad brush… reacting pastorally to an individual is wholly different.
Duane, Michael and Steve,
“Cultural trends are painted with a broad brush… reacting pastorally to an individual is wholly different.”
You would think that would be obvious, but I was recently reminded again that too many only carry a broad brush in their toolbox, and therefore have trouble navigating the fine lines that a liner (that’s a type of paintbrush) is designed to do. Conversely, a liner really cannot do the job of broad brush well.
pstrmike
You got it…
I’m sorry but I am lost :-(. Mike, I’ll call you. I’m in Laguna Beach right now. Back home tomorrow for three gigs that start Friday
Hospitality. There’s a word for us.
I may be way out of line here. I am far, far far far from left on most things political, however great conflict is in me on “trans-rights” and telling 3 year olds it’s ok to identify as another gender.. someone mentioned “woke”… yeah, that mentality has gone way the hell too far and it’s starting to bite back, but let it happen. I go off the rails in the context of this blog here, Christianity has made the minority opinions in this nation get louder and louder by Christians getting louder and louder, claiming “abomination” with seething hatred, throwing around terms like “communists and socialists” as if they have a clue what it means, enforcing with actual brute force the divides in this nation. Christian’s are becoming the minority voice rapidly because they think they can yell louder and act harsher. The US is post-Christian, and good riddance. Jesus left the building he likely was not even allowed in. Ministry has become a war on a political hill rather than feeding the hungry or clothing the poor, you know, loving people. If Bon wants to be on the womens swim team, let him, it has Jack squat to do with the work of the Lord.