Category: Culture

Recently, Arizona Christian University took legal action when their teaching candidates were declared no longer eligible to be student teachers in the public schools.  As a result of this legal action against religious discrimination, the policy was withdrawn.  (In Canada right now there seems no recourse for Christian believers.) The education leaders who sought to remove ACU from the program claimed that the conservative Christian views were not inclusive to LGBTQ+ people, and the views of conservative Christians were hateful.  We expect more and more attacks against classical orthodox varieties of Christianity: Baptist, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, Methodist, independents and more.  I think Orthodox Jews will be included as well. This will be the case even if Christians support the civil rights for LGBTQ+ people with the provision that artists are not forced to create art contrary to their conscience.  

I do think the center of the attack is likely to be against Christian colleges and other schools at all levels. The idea of live and let live is not where the LGBTQ+ community activists are going. It is not an option for them to allow theologically conservative people to freely practice their faith, education and seek to convince other people of their faith. Why?  Because the very existence of theologically conservative believers is a challenge to the foundations of the world view of the LGBTQ+ activists. It is not that the LGBTQ activists simply want to be free to practice every kind of sexual arrangement and radically support trans-sexuality as well. No, they seek to force all people to confess to their world view or be marginalized. One can be religious in a secondary sense, but the religion of the LGBTQ+ community is the LGBTQ+ religion. This religion may be gaining ground because it is supported by a new movement of trans-humanism which is supported by very rich elites that seek to overcome human nature as we have know it.  (see Jennifer Bilek research)

LGBTQ+ begins with support for the idea of “my truth.”  “My truth” is not the old idea of an objective order of reality but affirms a subjectivism for self-definition and is in accord with post- modernism and its view of knowledge (epistemology). Every human being is said to have equal worth and this includes a deep level of freedom. The individual can look inside and discover their true authentic self and can create their own meaning and lifestyle directions from that authentic center. Thus, a transgender child, even at 5 years old, can define themselves as a female in a male body or visa-versa. This self-definition is one’s ultimate meaning. One could be an atheist or have some vague spirituality or religion but that is secondary.   

This new post-modern religion is contrary to the old atheism of scientific naturalism. Two scientific naturalists did indeed declare the tenets of this new religion to be irrational and without any foundation in reality. For the historian and futurist, Yuval Harari at Hebrew University, there is no free self that can freely chose and define their own meaning. While not pushing against transgender identities, the idea of equal worth and inner authentic freedom is a non-existent reality. It is a myth. Everyone is biologically determined. The equal worth of all is also such a myth. For the famous atheist biologist, Richard Dawkins, all is determined and that includes the fact that there are only two sexes, male and female, whose distinctions are total and biologically pervasive. A male can see to live as a female but he is still male!

The Biblical world view is contrary to the old atheistic scientific naturalism and the post-modern relativism with its idea of all being radically free to somehow intuit and then chose to live out the authentic self. First, the idea of the equal worth of human beings cannot be sustained without its biblical basis in the image of God. This is why trans-humanists despise this idea and think it keeps them from the technological re-creation of human beings. They support the LGBTQ agenda as part of breaking down traditional norms so they can create their “brave new world,’’ but they reject the equal inherent worth of every human being. The Biblical world view provides us with a given objective meaning of who we are as created in God’s image and provides us with God’s guide book for how to live. This is rejected by the LGBTQ people as terribly restrictive and hateful. For Bible believers, meaning is not self-derived but received through our relationship to our Creator. There is great room for freedom, but He defines our authentic meaning, including the norms for human sexuality, marriage and family and the basics for all the spheres of life. The biblical orientation threatens not just lifestyle choices but the deepest world view orientation of the LGBTQ+ activists. This is why they must destroy biblical faith. 

Recently a conservative who was speaking against woke-ism was asked to define it. He hemmed and hawed when trying to define it, but I did not blame him. It is complex and not easy to define. Woke-ism is a combination of beliefs, faith confessions, and a set of narratives that do not cohere or imply with each other. Yet, this set of beliefs or confessions are usually embraced by the radical woke-ism folks that are described as radical leftists. 

Sometimes when a person awakens to what they think is truth, there is a sense almost of revelation, such as when the hero in the movie Matrix takes a little pill and comes to see he lived in an illusion. The person who thinks he discovered radical freedom so he or she can be whatever they choose (as in the view of philosopher Jean Paul Sartre) can experience a sense of exhilaration and release. The former believer may come to unbelief as a sad conclusion which may cause despair, but it might also be experienced as exhilarating and a release. One can then define one’s own life and values without any reference to an intrusive god. A radical behaviorist who thinks there is no free will experiences exhilaration in not having the weight of free choice. Yet when a person comes to God and is born again, it is also something that can be received with exhilaration and release. It is interesting that the Biblical text says, “Wake up you sleepers.” So, the truly woke biblically are those who are converted by the Gospel. The beliefs that many in the left are supposedly woke are often incoherent and the opposite of a biblical world view. Let’s list out some of these beliefs and the contrast. 

1. The first is the belief that there is no objective truth. Truth is relative, so people can speak of “my truth.” The phrase “my truth” is a redefinition of the word truth itself. Truth historically referred to views, assertions or propositions that conformed to the way things really were. “My truth’’ means the way one is committed to live their life and see things. There is no objective evidence of whether such a way is true or not. While it seems that at least science is still accepted as bringing objective truth, even science has been affected. Yet the person who is in the “my truth” orientation will hold to commitments, narratives, and views with dogmatic tenacity, giving no quarter to other viewpoints. The dogmatism is amazing. You would think relativism would produce tepid commitments but the narratives of the so-called work somehow produce fervor. I attribute this to the fact that many people need a religious level of fervor to feel that life is worth living. A biblical world view states that God created an objective world. We can discover how it works. Also, there is biblical revelation that defines who we are and how to live, an objective basis. This is sometimes confirmed by natural wisdom, but often natural wisdom is too weak to stand against the onslaught of relativistic assertions in social issues. 
2. A second big assertion of the so-called woke is that human sexual roles are social constructs. Therefore, biological sex does not define gender. This is a huge tenet of the LGBTQ movement. However, LGBT really defines only five genders. One can be classically male or female (cis-gender) or lesbian, gay, bisexual or transexual. How do we come to transexual? It is not that a biological male or female is attracted to the same sex. That would be lesbian or gay. However, one can see an easy flip where if one who is a biological female is not attracted to a male but a female than she could declare that she is really a male in female bodies since she is so attracted. The same could be said for biological males. One homosexual stated that transsexuality is homophobic because the person in rejecting same sex attraction identifies as the opposite sex.  The fact that we also list bisexuality, attraction to both sexes, shows that things can get dicey. At one count there were over 50 genders that could be chosen for self-definition. Some claim alters (multiple personalities) of all different kinds. Of course, there is the fact that transexuals identify with the stereotypes of the opposite sex. Rather than being a sensitive, artistic, and non-athletic oriented male, they must be a female. Then the opposite is also so. The confusion is amazing. With the fifty genders we come to a reduction to absurdity (reductio ad absurdum). Believing that sex is only a construct, and that we can self-define as any of many genders can seem liberating and exhilarating, as if being woke. These nostrums lead to pornography in school libraries, drag queen shows for children, and more so that the society proves that it is inclusive. Children are sexualized as part of gender liberation. It also leads to hormone therapy and surgery even for minors. This produces an orientation whereby the schools seek to hide their teaching from parents so they might further the woke agenda. Even doctors have bought into the new genderism despite the great reservations of doctors in Finland and Sweden.  The Biblical world view tells us that there are two sexes. Yes, there are social constructs that influence how sexual roles are lived out, but the basic framework is that God created us male and female, and that sexual intimacy is to be limited to a heterosexual lasting marriage. Supernatural healing can resolve gender dysphoria or homosexuality. See the amazing writings of Leanne Payne on this! When one is delivered from the complex maze of today’s gender ideology, repents of sin, and embraces the biblical framework, it can also be liberating and can free us from forever having doubt. We know who we are as male and female in His image. We also discover that almost all world cultures seek to foster the distinction of male and female, but we can also understand flexibility in the way this is lived out. The Gospel calls us to repent and really be changed by the power of the Spirit. 
3. A third big assertion comes from critical race theory. In general CRT asserts that the white race is especially sinful. This is a world-wide evaluation of whites. This sin of white privilege and domination is pervasive in the culture and produces systemic discrimination that is not always overt. It is why there are disparities in wealth and position in society. The world is made up of oppressors and victims. This bipolarity is neo-Marxism. The wealthy class and the workers, the whites and the blacks, the Jews in Israel and the Palestinians, and so on and so forth. The history of the United States is thereby redefined as an evil oppressive society. Slavery was not just one dark blot on U. S. history but is the defining meaning of the country and the founders were not good in any sense. The way through is an everlasting groveling by whites (even white children in schools) and quotas and set asides so that equality is achieved. It leads to absurdities in claiming that achievement is racist and even math is racist. It redefines racism (they view that white races and ethnic groups are inferior) so that the oppressed can never be racist no matter what their prejudice against the defined oppressing group. It vilifies the founding fathers of the United States as evil and nothing they did was good since the country accepted racism when it was formed. This is a very skewed reading of history. Once again, this is contrary to a biblical world view. All act sinfully. We do not act with justice and fairness but favor our own kind. When we come to Yeshua, we repent and embrace people of all races and colors. Genuine reconciliation then can pervade a culture and produce a just meritocracy. It can also seek to redress real systemic poverty and see all people lifted. Of course, Chinese and other immigrants from India show how much this theory is wrong since in the United States anyone can excel and they do. They are not white! Reconciliation through Yeshua is the key, and all must repent of sin, selfishness, hatred and prejudice. We also assert that a stable family is the key to liberation and overcoming. This view is hated by the CRT folks. Just a little note on education. The leftist woke want to control education and marginalize parents who stand in the way of conveying the woke ideas and narratives. This is why you see such battles in schools today. 
4. Woke economic theory tends to a Marxist redistribution since attaining wealth is not fair in their view. Yet the incoherence here is amazing since the wealthy corporate leaders who back the woke really are not wanting to give up their wealth. So, there are re-distribution schemes that look socialist but keep an elite in power that is more like fascism. Economic justice is defined by equality in wealth. In a biblical world view an economic system should provide the greatest opportunity for the most. Equal opportunity is not a biblical norm since all have various advantages and disadvantages due to family wealth, gifts, talents and more. So equal opportunity is a myth. However a just system is one where there is real and good opportunity for the greatest number. Justice in the Bible is not leveling equality. Such a just system provides the greatest potential to lift the greatest number of people. This is best done in a true free enterprise system with fair rules and a rejection of crony capitalism where the government and the wealthy corporate leaders control all for their mutual benefit.
5. Those who support abortion rights may be part of the woke. It is easy to see this as embraced by the woke. The child in the womb is dismissed as having no value and abortion is defined as health care for the woman. What a strange re-definition of health care. It is certainly not health care for the baby, and abortion does not add health to the woman.  In the Bible the baby in the womb is a creation of God, in his image to be valued and protected. 

So how do we define “woke-ism?” Woke-ism is a set of beliefs and narratives that are not necessarily connected that are destructive to society. They have been embraced by the promotion of ideas that have impacted the emotions and minds of people but are not based on solid evidence or epistemology (how knowledge is obtained). Woke-ism includes the ideas of gender ideology and fluidity, critical race theory promotion, a binary analysis of groups as oppressors and the oppressed, radical abortion rights, and semi-Marxist economic redistribution commitments.  

Recently there were two media reports that show world view implications.  In the first report a Catholic school in Canada suspended a student who said that the Bible teaches that there are two sexes and there are not other genders biblically.  Some were also complaining about open bathroom and locker room policies for transgenders.  I suppose this school  was catholic in name only.

A second media source interviewed Jordan Peterson, the brilliant psychologist and cultural philosopher explaining the radical environmental movement in worldview terms.  Yes, he agreed, we should care about the environment.  However, the radical environmental movement has defined the earth (gaia-the earth goddess) as being raped and wounded by the cancer of the planet, human beings who consume too much, pollute too much and destroy too much.  It is a very dark picture.  He noted that nuclear power, which could solve energy problems, is rejected.  This is not a rational view but a type of irrational religion. Biblical faith is a rational religion.

It is not only these two issues, human sexuality and the environment, but several radical so called “woke views” that have now been joined together to produce an anti-biblical world view and could well lead to more persecution for those who are Bible believers.  The biblical world view provides us with a set of beliefs and norms arising therefrom.  It teaches that God created the world and human beings in His image.  And indeed, Thomas Jefferson was right that it teaches that all human beings are created equal. Therefore, we must find our self- definitions in Him and His Word, and cannot define ourselves.  In this it provides the norms and guard rails for human fulfillment.  It teaches us that human being were made as male and female and for lasting monogamous marriage.  Some few are called to celibacy.  It teaches the centrality of the family.  It also teaches that the earth is not goddess but was created for human beings who were given dominion but are to be wise stewards.  If we make the earth our deity we will destroy the earth since we will lose wisdom (Romans 1-“Claiming to be wise they became fools.”)  We are called to make a decision to conform ourselves to God’s Word.

The biblical worldview teaches that all have sinned and need the atonement and forgiveness that is found only found in Yeshua.  It also teaches that through Yeshua and His Spirit, reconciliation, practicing love, and sacrificing for others enables all races and ethnicities to join together communities where deep fellowship is possible.

The worldview that is now followed by the radical left so called “woke” roots itself in an idea of human authenticity that is the direct opposite of the biblical worldview.  It promotes the idea of the autonomous free human individual who looks deep into his or her own consciousness and discovers in experience their “authentic self.”  They define themselves.  As such they can define themselves as male or female or several other genders: transgender, fluid gender, non-binary gender, homosexual, heterosexual and more.  The society and all its members are called to support self-definition.  This includes medical treatments to change genders, hormone suppressants, taking hormones and surgery (even for minors).  Those who do not agree are labeled phoebes and are to be canceled and driven out of society.  They are disfellowshipped.  This is an enforcing of an orthodoxy.  The state and business corporations are the instruments of forcing compliance just as the inquisition was in Catholic Spain in the 15^th century.  For America,  it is probably unconstitutional religious discrimination.

The radical environmentalists then enforce policies that will lead to increased poverty all over the world because their radical non-solutions value the earth above human beings.  They cannot produce solutions.  Solutions must be based on lifting human beings as the first priority of environmentalism.

Those who embrace “critical race theory” have defined the white races as bad and this includes all Europeans, eastern and western, including Russians, Poles and all others.  All other tribes and peoples no matter how depraved in are given a pass.  Whites are the oppressors.  When there is analysis of why there are disparities in opportunity, having rebelled against biblical teaching, they reject the importance of the factor of stable families.  The family is sometimes despised, and it is thought children must be raised by the state as in Marxism to overcome the resistance to progress.   Reconciliation, forgiveness, mutual service and love are replaced by hate and grievance forever.  Guilt and innocence is defined by skin color.  But in the Bible, all have sinned, and no one is given a pass.  Blaming others forever is contrary biblical norms.   

We are living in the most profound clash of worldviews.  Those who hold to the biblical worldview are called to act in love and compassion for the repentance and salvation those who are lost.  And we do see those who embrace these false views as very lost.  But God has given us the message of reconciliation, and we proclaim be reconciled to God.

Some years ago a group of atheists, agnostic leaders, and scholars got together and produced a Humanist Manifesto. It was first written in the 1930s but was later revised in the 1970s. Though the humanists say it is not a creed, it is quite like a statement of faith – a confession. The woke left today affirms many of the points of this document. You can look it up and readily see the overlap. However, today’s left holds to views that were not anticipated by the Humanist Manifesto. I want to note some of those that overlap and some of the new orientations here. We are truly dealing with an anti-biblical creed and the enforcement of belief from cancel culture which is similar to ex-communication and shunning in the Church world and older Orthodox Jewish world. I do say that the woke are not woke but indoctrinated as if in a cult. Compare these statements to biblical statements and a biblical worldview.  

1. There is no Lawgiver God (Theism) that requires moral obedience. One might believe in some kind of higher power as long as that power does not make absolute demands on human beings. 
2. Human beings are to be valued because we choose to value them as having the unique freedom and power to define their authentic meaning. (Note the famous Yuval Harari at Hebrew University argues that there is no basis for this assertion of liberals today). Their value as human beings is not due to being created in the image of God.   
3. Human sexual roles are social constructs. All gender identities and sexual arrangements should be fully affirmed when there is consent for these arrangements, whether heterosexual, marriage, living together, gay, bi-sexual, transgenders, and more. 
4. We support gender transition for adults and children, including hormone suppressant drugs, hormone treatment, and surgery. People choose gender according to their personal orientations. We support trans people in sports according to their chosen gender.  
5. Abortion is a basic human right and should be available for those who choose an abortion at every stage of the developing fetus. 
6. Climate change is the greatest existential problem facing the world. We need to radically move toward renewables and eliminate the use of fossil fuels. 
7. We should curtail the use of animals for food which deplete resources and add to climate change. 
8. We must recognize oppression. Those who have been and are oppressed are victims of white people. Oppressed people should have a common cause to overcome the oppressors. Blacks, Hispanics, indigenous peoples, Palestinians, and more share the oppression and are linked (Intersectionality). The way this must be overcome is by equality that promotes people according to race and ethnicity and to see reparations paid by white people. Systemic racism is the explanation of minority disproportion. 
9. Merit-based systems of economics are from white supremacy and should be rejected.
10. Capitalism produces unjust distributions of wealth and should be replaced by socialism or at least by massive redistributionist programs. Big government is required to enforce justice programs from climate change to just economics. 
11. The present system of policing and prisons is inherently unfair and racist. Police should be greatly reduced in number and function, and society needs to help the criminals because they are victims of an unjust system. 
12. The U. S. constitution was a racist document and the product of white slave owners. The United States, going back to the colonies, was founded on racism. 

Those who do not agree with these affirmations should be canceled, vilified, and called extremists, racists, homophobes, white supremacists, and fascists. They should be de-platformed on social media and fundraising. If they assert the opposite of these views or assert traditional moral and legal norms, they should be blocked from financial services like PayPal.

For an amazing study that addresses much of this, see Wayne Grudem’s Politics. This famous theologian, and professor of systematic theology, has an amazing response to much of this. 

This past week our alarm system sounded the alert that it was not working properly.  It was connected to an line phone problem.  Shortly after the phones went dead.  Patty was able to get the phone repair service to restore the lines.  Yet, soon after the alarm system again sent the beep that it was not working.  Now we had to contact the alarm company.  After about ten different recordings in Hebrew, Patty left a message for them to call back.  They did, and a repair person will come to our home Sunday.  When we bought our first home in Israel, 2005, we were able to call the alarm company and get a person quite easily.  We even had the phone of one of the repairmen, Dror, who was friendly and helpful.  Now it is frustrating and impersonal.  Yes, it saves the company money, but we would rather pay a little more and talk to a person.   We have such menus, but not this bad, with our health service. 

Last month I had grand-parenting time with two of my grandkids.  I asked what they would like to do.  It was to go to McDonald’s for chicken nuggets and fries.  We went to our local mall.  One now must order on a screen.  There are few workers and it you miss something it is very hard to correct it.  Extra salt or ketchup please?   Again, this was so much less personal. 

I find this in business after business, our insurance companies, other service providers and now most fast-food restaurants.  Thank God I can still call the private cell phone of my investment counselor. 

More recently I read how young people are texting instead of talking to friends. The nuanced inflections are lost.  And some young people don’t meet as many people but only meet them in games on the internet.   They only know people by such electronic means.  Many do not meet and know intimate friendships in person.

We also read that many will lose their jobs in the future to robots.  This could be a terrible problem.  

I think our societies need a new consensus that there will be parameters for free enterprise.  These parameters will limit maximum profit as the only criteria.  Just as environmentalists seek to limit businesses in environmental damage, so we can limit business and government in humanistic damage.  Maybe there will be a limit to computer service menus.  This should  apply as well to government services. Maybe robots will  be limited and developed at a pace to not kill millions of jobs. Maybe parents will be given new tools to limit their children’s computer and game time and to foster in person activities in sports and the arts.  Can we as those who believe we are created in God’s image press for limiting the present trends of dehumanization?