Good Quote

"There is no such thing as a great man of God - only weak, pitiful, faithless men of a great and merciful God." - Paul Washer

I had heard lately that Paul Washer was ill, hopefully he is on the mend - I came across this quote of his recently. Its easy to look at Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Joseph, Job, etc and to hold them up as examples of great 'men of God'. Most of these are mentioned in Hebrews 11, a passage commonly referred to as the "heroes of the faith". But the reality is, there are no great men of God - Noah wasn't blameless (see Genesis 9), Abraham twice lied about his wife being his sister, among other things. Moses killed a man in anger. David killed a man out of envy and then stole his wife. These men walked out their faith, and that is high praise enough...they weren't perfect. Thanks to the merciful, loving, gracious and forgiving God we serve, we are offered forgiveness for our sins and for our lack of faithfulness, despite His perfect faithfulness towards us. He is the one who deserve the praise and glory.

A Chasing After the Wind

A few months ago, after a months long self-imposed Twitter ban, I re-joined Twitter. This time, I was very particular about who I followed. Previously, I had gotten sucked into the equivalent of yelling at a wall...never-ending political and social/culture disagreements that resemble shouting into the void. In the end, that wasn't healthy and after taking a break, I knew that I didn't want to get back into that. I decided to follow mostly theologically-related people. I'm a MN Sports fan too so there is some of that, but most of the people I follow are somehow related to Christianity or the Church. Even this, however, has its pitfalls and today was illustrative of that.

It was an argument between two evangelicals about Rights, ostensibly American rights. The first one said something like, "Christianity should sound a lot less like "How can I protect my rights" and a lot more like, "How can I protect my neighbor?" The second one responded in disagreement saying something like, "Protecting my rights is the same as protecting my neighbors rights, that's why Jesus said 'love your neighbor as yourself'." The argument wasn't hostile, just a typical disagreement you see on Twitter hundreds of times every day. But it got me thinking...these people are both missing the point...and perhaps most of the intra-Christian arguments these days are missing the point.

Interesting Quote

I was sent an article last week entitled, "Why sexual morality may be far more important than you ever thought" on the Kirk Durston blog. In the article, he is discussing the results of a lengthy and very detailed study conducted by J.D. Unwin back in the 1930s surrounding the effects of sexual revolution on societies throughout history. He studied 86 of them in total and teased out many interesting correlations - if you want to read them, please go and read the above linked article, which is a good short summary of Unwin's 600-page book. The blog author also mentioned another researcher, Mary Eberstadt, and I found his comment on her work to be the most interesting thing in the article. He summarizes,

"The old adage, "correlation does not entail causation", probably holds true here as well. Unwin makes it clear that he does not know why sexual freedom directly leads to the decline and collapse of cultures, although he suggests that when sexual energy is restrained through celibacy or monogamy, it is diverted into more productive social energy. Perhaps, but I find that difficult to accept as a primary cause. Mary Eberstadt's recent research into mass killings, the substantial rise in mental health issues including depression, and the explosion of identity politics is a "primal scream" due to the loss of identity that was once provided by growing up in a long-term, immediate family with siblings and a sizable group of cousins, aunts and uncles, all of which provided identity - essential for well-being. Eberstadt shows and documents from various studies that this decimation of the family was a direct consequence of the sexual revolution at the end of the 20th century. Her research indicates that increased sexual freedom led to the decimation of the family, which resulted in the loss of family identity, which produces Eberstadt's 'primal screams' - a massive increase in mental health issues, mass killings, and the rise of extreme identity groups at war with each other...all symptoms of a society rapidly spiraling into collapse. This appears to have greater explanatory power that Unwin's psychological suggestion, although the two may actually be closely related, given what Eberstadt shows."

The 'primal scream' argument is what caught by eye - as well as the general argument that unrestrained sexual freedom is, or could be, a primary source for cultural decline. I'll have to think more about this or perhaps read Eberstadt's books. At first glance, I see the connection she is trying to make, though it may be a stretch to directly connect the rise in mass killings to the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Generally speaking, the fabric of our culture seems to be unraveling and that has perhaps created the conditions where these incidents would become more commonplace. Lots to think about...