Watching again the pure grotesqueness of Alan Strange’s speech at the URCNA—a very special kind of repulsive blend of worldliness and manipulation seen in the fake piety of Reformed church courts—I’m struck this morning with some reflections from my life among the declining Christian “conservatives”:
First: how overtly disingenuous many ministers are. Many are actually fakes and frauds (among libs and conservatives alike). They cover for each other, depending on what they’re trying to accomplish for themselves. Pharisees and Sadducees all over again. I’ve got a long list of those who’ve ended up in jail, committed suicide, fallen into drug addiction, abused children and women, wrecked their families, apostatized, lost all their children, and so on. This isn’t normal. Stop thinking this is normal. None of the varieties (the showmen of the Baptists, the nerd-club, factious Presbyterians, or the TED Talk evangelicals) are doing well at authentic maturity, stability, and integrity.
Second: it is the lukewarmness, fear of man, forgetfulness, love of money and pleasure, sexual compromise, lack of zeal for worship and the Lord, family disorder, and so forth among the godly that allows for this slow, fussy decline. A spiritual anemia among men makes them concerned about things they should ignore and thoughtless about the most important things. We become mere reactive navigators and managers of difficulties, lacking a deeper foundation for action. Personal compromise means we no longer live out of truth with clear heads and clear eyes.
Third: the people of God are largely hungry for the blessings of various streams of Christianity without a real life drawn from their roots. The consumer model of Christianity—and a sense of “winning” or “progress”—is clearly the psychological root of what Christians end up supporting. What is your particular itch, obsession, feel, style, brand preference, or lifestyle ambition? What sense of self do you desire? There is a church for you, or you can make one. Gross.
In Presby/Reformed sects like the URC and OPC, it is usually that we are the “most correct” and therefore “need to make a statement,” even as we go judiciously down the same path of downgrade that everyone else has always, every time, gone down. We’re just a fussy, slow version of modernity’s rejection of biblical and natural reality at this point.
Fourth: there is a lack of vital dependence on, love of, and duty toward the person of Jesus Christ and his will as revealed in Scripture. Everything becomes politics, psychology, and preferences dressed up in the language of Christianity. It is as if people no longer really believe Jesus is real and his Word is true. Instead, they are concerned with their place in the flow of history, their immediate pleasures and pains, and their sense of self in a shifting, chaotic world. Hurting the eccentric brand and its place in the marketplace becomes the biggest sin. Breaking rank with the brand or sect becomes the new heresy and apostasy. Jesus and his commands become window dressing, adjusted to the moment and employed as needed to justify what people already desire.
The cynical adoption of nonsensical statements about race arises from the same roots, in my opinion.
#naparc #opcga #reformeddowngrade
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