This is a slightly expanded version of the opening exhortation given at TPC on July 14, the day after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump:
Presidential candidate Donald Trump dodged a bullet yesterday, and that means our whole nation dodged a bullet yesterday. I think it’s fair to say that our nation was just a millimeter or two away from total disaster. Who knows what our country would be like this morning had that bullet that grazed Trump’s ear hit its intended target. If Trump’s head had been blow to bits on live television, I have to think we’d be on the brink of our cold civil war turning hot. Thankfully God protected Trump — and in doing so, he protected the peace and stability of our nation for at least a bit longer.
I would certainly encourage you to pray for Trump’s healing. Pray also for his heart, that God would use this event to humble him and draw to himself. Pray for our nation. It is clear that America stands on a knife’s edge. Will we fall? Our nation feels like a powder keg right now. All it would take is one spark to blow the whole thing up. Our nation is full of anxiety and tension. There is only one way that anxiety can be diffused and it’s not going to be by electing a certain someone in November. The only way to overcome our nation’s chronic anxiety is through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must acknowledge, celebrate, and submit to his rule. Some might ask, “So, you’re saying there is no political solution to our nation’s problems?” Not exactly. I’m saying the gospel IS our political solution. The ultimate issue is not who win’s our presidency; the issue is whether or not we will acknowledge Christ as our King.
What we’re seeing right now is the fruit of our nation’s rebellion. Our nation’s rebellion is finally catching up to us. I would certainly encourage you to be informed politically. I would encourage you to understand the times and to seek to be wise and righteous in the political arena. But you must also recognize that what is wrong with our country, what is wrong with our culture, goes far too deep to be solved by electing this candidate or passing that bill. Doug Wilson has said that politics cannot save; rather, politics is one more thing that needs saving. That’s true. All our political issues are really just symptoms of the deeper problem afflicting our nation. We need Jesus. Jesus alone can save us. There is no way to turn our nation around apart from turning to Jesus. There is no salvation without the Savior. Salavtion is found in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:12) — so we need to be willing to name him in the public square if we want our public square saved. We will be in the dark until we turn to the one who is the Light of the World — and therefore the Light of America as well.
I believe the church, especially church leadership, is largely to blame for where we are. A Republican platform gutted of pro-life and pro-marriage convictions is not going to be the answer, no matter how preferable it is to the alternative. Republicans have gone insane too — we can’t just blame the Democrats. But should we blame the Republican party for failing to conserve these principles of virtue when so many pulpits in America have failed to teach them with clarity and boldness? When pastors are more man-fearing than God-fearing, when churches fail to deal with and discipline sin in their midst, when the church’s worship services have largely become clown shows, it should be no surprise we have ended up in this mess. We have clown world because we have clown churches.
What can we do? How can we begin to turn the tide back to righteousness? Let me put it this way: You are right where you need to be. Today, we are gathering for worship. We are gathering to hear the Word preached, God-wlling, with faithful boldness. We are gathering to give God thanks and praise, hopefully with reverent joy. This is not a clown show, it’s the Lord’s service. This is the Lord’s Day and we are gathering as the Lord’s people. We gather as God’s saints, as his blood-bought and baptized people, as his royal priesthood. Think about what it means to be God’s royal priesthood. It means we act as priests for our city, our state, and our nation. We are the priests of Birmingham. We are the priests of Alabama. We are the priests of the United States. When we worship, when we stand for corporate prayer, we are interceding on behalf of our city and our nation. This is the best possible response to the crisis in our culture. The best possible thing you can do for America is to gather with God’s people as a royal priest and worship God. The best possible thing you can do for your own sanity is to gather as a member of the royal priesthood to worship the Triune God.
Obviously, our responsibilities do not end with worship. We must go out from here, to lead and serve in the world in courage, in faithfulness, in righteousness in all of life. Worship is not a substitute for faithful action in the world, but it is the foundation of faithful action in the world. Justice means giving everyone their due, and that has to start with giving God the worship he is due. There can be no justice where God is not worshipped. Our mission doesn’t end here, but it does begin here.
We want to be so full of love, wisdom, and righteousness that these virtues overflow from us into the world. Think of it this way: At the end of Ezekiel, the prophet has a glorious vision of a renewed temple, which is ultimately the church. Rivers of living water flow out of that temple and bring healing to the nations. We gather as the church today to have our own thirst quenched by that living water. We need healing ourselves. But we also want to bring those healing waters to our culture. The rivers of living water do not flow out of the capitol building or the White House or the court house or the school house. They flow out of the sanctuary, out of God’s house. Let’s prepare our hearts for worship.
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In the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Trump, I want to share some of the best links I’ve come across (most of these went out in this week’s TPC Updates email):
- Doug Wilson gives a wise overview of “the shot heard ’round the world” for several different perspectives here. Wilson asks a great question: If Trump is as bad a Democrats claim — if he really is another Hitler, a threat to democracy — then shouldn’t they want Trump assassinated? And shouldn’t they hail his would-be assassin as a hero and martyr? On the other hand, if their overheated rhetoric against Trump is just overheated rhetoric, why should we listen to them? Wilson also gives some good thoughts on “not taking the bait.”
- Tucker Carlson predicted there would be an assassination on Trump, and now gives his response to it. The talk and the discussion afterwards are both very good. Carlson sees the culture war as the manifestation of a deeper spiritual war by progressives against faithful Christians. He’s right about that. He’s also right about the basic, instinctive courage Trump showed after getting hit, and points out that this courage inspires others (courage is contagious!). While Trump obviously has many flaws, Carlson’s assessment of what his defiance in the face of a life-threatening attack means is correct: this was a “Daddy’s home” moment.
- Jon Harris gives an overview of the political landscape after the attempt to take out Trump.
- Auron McIntyre and Wintery Knight look as the complicity of the media in grooming Trump’s shooter, while Jeff Childers looks at how the leftwing media reacted after the shooting.
- Josh Lippincott looks at how the DEI agenda has weakened the Secret Service’s ability to do its job (language warning). His conclusion: Women have no place in Secret Service positions. Trump might have dodged a bullet but feminism was fatally wounded.
- Samford professor Mark Devine calls for evangelicals to reject “third wayism” and unite around a more biblically grounded political agenda, as exemplified by Doug Wilson and Albert Mohler.
- N. S. Lyons looks at Trump through the “Great Man of History” lens.
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None of this is to suggest that Republicans are the answer. The Republicans are definitely living up to their reputation as the stupid party. It’s going to be very difficult to get Republicans to ever reinsert Christian and conservative social positions into the party now that they have been jettisoned for the most part. When it comes to the sexual revolution, we basically have uniparty. The Republican platform is a massive disappointment (more on that in a moment). The Republican National Convention has been its own kind of idolatrous, pluralistic, perverted clown show. Do we really need prayers to demons and the elevation of prostitutes? While there is much to like about a Trump/Vance ticket, both men have significant flaws in character and/or policy.
But we need to be very clear what this election is about: One side is led by people who are hell-bent on trying to destroy our nation and our historic way of life. The other side loves the country, even if it doesn’t always know what is best for it. This is not hard to figure out.
We have ended up where we are because the pastors in America have failed us. The pro-life movement has always been squishy and sentimental more than robust and principled. Look at how quickly pro-lifers steered Trump in a different direction when he (as a newly minted pro-lifer in 2016) said it was obvious that women who get abortions should be treated as criminals. Long before Trump watered down his stance on abortion, supposed pro-life leaders were doing it for him. Where are the men who stand up in the pulpit and declare that God hates baby murder and it must be criminalized? That he considers sodomy an abomination? That same-sex unions can never be “marriages” because marriage is to be one man and one woman for life? That wealth redistribution is theft and partiality based on socioeconomics or skin color is unjust? Our politicians are cowards because our preachers are cowards. Our ostensibly Christian politicians cave because they have not been given the tools of persuasion in these areas by their pastors. We should not expect our civil leaders to rise above our ecclesiastical leaders in courage and conviction. It’s just not going to happen. We have too few preachers who are brave and zealous in preaching God’s whole counsel.
Yes, civil law has a pedagogical function. It can train people in what is good and right. Politics does not always follow culture; sometimes politics shapes culture. This was certainly the case in a negative way when it came to same-sex “marriage”: It was imposed on the nation judicially long before it could have won at the ballot box. But the people’s views were shaped by the Obergefell ruling and public approval for these abominable unions skyrocketed shortly afterwards. The SCOTUS’s stamp of approval was a culture-changing political event. There is value in seeking to get righteous laws and rulings even if they do not yet have widespread popular support. But that being said, it is really incumbent on the church to disciple the culture in the areas of life, sex, and marriage. The church has failed to persuade our culture of the goodness of God’s prescribed will in these areas and that’s why we are here. Thanks to Trump, abortion was cast back on the states….with the result that even many red states have passed laws in favor of at least modest abortion access. Trump is not to blame for that — he did all he could do when he kept his promise about judges. Pastors are to blame — we have not done all we could do to disciple our people.
Now, about that Republican platform. I was very distressed when it was first announced that the new platform had dropped the strong pro-life messaging of previous platforms. I think this was an unforced error that is unlikely to gain any net voters; my guess is that the cost in energy and enthusiasm (not to mention the blessing of God) will be greater than any supposed gains in popular support.
For quite a while, Republicans included in their platform the call for a Right to Life amendment that would give babies in the womb full protection in all fifty states. There is no question the current platform is greatly diluted; at most, it’s explicit opposition to abortion is limited to “later term” abortions which is far from adequate. This is all the more disturbing when you consider that Vance and Rubio basically capitulated on the issue in a quest to become Trump’s running mate. Instead of choosing to build off their great victory in getting Roe overturned, Republicans have chosen to throw in the towel on the pro-life cause at the national level. They are all-in on chemical birth control (including the abortion pill), IVF, and so on. It’s a moral mess. Unless…..what we actually see in the platform is a form of 4D chess. Oh, I still wish the platform called for a right-to-life amendment. I wish it even supported the full criminalization of abortion since those who perform and procure abortion are committing murder. I wish it was not content to leave the matter in the hands of the states since it is the great moral issue of our time. I wish it rejected IVF and all forms of chemical and hormonal birth control. But nevertheless, note what the platform does: It appeals to the 14th amendment to claim that all persons (including the unborn in context!) cannot be denied their right to life and property without due process. In other words, the implicit claim of the platform is that we do not need a right to life amendment to the constitution because the 14th amendment already covers that ground. It’s still a flawed document, but maybe not quite as bad as I first thought. And we still must give Trump credit for giving pro-lifers virtually the only federal level win they got in 50 years. There is still nothing like a moral equivalence between the two parties. I certainly respect those Christians who will abstain from voting for the Republican ticket because of it’s diluted position on abortion. But the reality is that if we want to still have a coherent country in which conservatives can win elections and implement their principles, we need to win this election and slow the flow of future Democrats across the border. (Zimrak pointed this out years ago.) The choice before us is still a binary one.
The sad reality is that we do not have a major party that stands for a Christian and social agenda. It is also very frustrating that the Republican platform has basically given up on defending a biblical and natural definition of marriage. There is simply no political will to fight the gay revolution and overturn Obergefell. Obviously, the “new” populism is the MAGA dominated Republican party and Trump’s goal is obviously trying to build a big-tent coalition that can defeat the Democrats at multiple levels. I suspect they will succeed, but it’s unfortunate we are in a situation where this is the price of electoral politics. Frankly, many conservatives came to terms with the new “safe, legal, rare” view of abortion and “inclusive of sodomite marriage” Republican party all too easily because they just want to win. It’s possible to vote for the Trump/Vance ticket as the vastly superior alternative, while still working to steer the party back to a biblical morality and acknowledging its shortcomings in the meantime. I pray it works.
Where does this leave us? I think Wilson sums it up well: “But the second group is not voting for Trump the man. They are voting for what they have good reason to believe will be the likely outcomes if he is elected, compared to the certain outcomes if Biden is reelected. They are voting for a probable state of affairs, going on the basis of an established track record for each candidate. We can look at what was happening between 2016 and 2020, and then look at what has been happening from 2020 to the present. And remember, I am speaking only of the life issue. If Trump is elected, will our ability to fight for life be enhanced or retarded? The question answers itself. If Biden is elected, will our ability to fight for life be enhanced or retarded? This one answers itself also.”
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The shift in the Republican platform proves the old adage: Conservatism is just liberalism with a longer fuse. Or, to cite Dabney, conservatism is the shadow that follows liberalism to perdition.
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I generally really like Renn’s work especially when he sticks to his wheelhouse of gender issues and his “negative world” sociology. But I have to comment on this newsletter because it’s just too filled with errors to overlook.
I like Vance but I think he’s probably nothing more than a cultural Christian
The Roman church was an easy pick for him. It provided prestige and order without making too many demands on his worldview. Just look at how fast he flipped on abortion in order to get the VP slot. That’s not the way a believer with deep conviction acts. No serious evangelical (or Romanist for that matter) would do that. I could be wrong here, but my understanding is that his wife is still Hindu and he seems unbothered by that.
Further, what Renn says about the Big Bang, physics, and the age of the earth is flatly wrong. It’s just false to say the same laws of physics that put men on the moon tell us the age of the earth. Physicists don’t even agree on the age of the earth amongst themselves and the range has changed by billions – yes, billions – of years in our lifetime, and will no doubt change again. The age of the earth not a questions for the “hard sciences” — in fact, it’s not a scientific question at all. If there was a Big Bang, no one was there to observe it and it’s not subject to the experimental method. It’s not science but philosophy — and bad philosophy at that. Renn, Vance, and others who marry themselves to the science of the moment for the sake of respectability are wrong to do so.
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I had a conversation with someone struggling with anxiety recently. This may be of help to others, so here’s what I said in response to questions:
I think it’s possible the darkness and anxiety could be from demonic attack – and if so, you need to be using every spiritual weapon at your disposal to fight back and make sure you don’t make any choices or expose yourself to anything that would give demons a foothold in your life.
If you feel surrounded by darkness, run to the light – the light found in God’s Word, prayer, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, etc.
It’s also possible it’s not directly demonic, but could still be related to sin. Examine yourself so you can confess and repent of sin in your life.
It’s also possible there are multiple factors – spiritual, moral, mental, physical – and each one needs to addressed.
Do not underestimate the importance of health factors, such as sleep and diet in affecting how sensitive or susceptible we are to periods of darkness.
The psalmist experienced darkness at times that was not necessarily demonic, and several psalms (like 23, 27, 42-43, 88) show a way forward. I have preached on all of those and found them very helpful.
Anxiety can become a habit, almost like an addiction, where your mind falls into anxious ruts and patterns just by default. It takes work to break that anxious habit of mind and find new, brighter patterns on thinking. To overcome anxious patterns and habits will require self-control and the ability/willingness to discipline your emotions so they better line up with reality and with the promises in God’s Word.
The “normal” Christian life can certainly includes times of struggle with depression or anxiety, but this should not constant – ordinarily, the Christian should be experiencing freedom and joy much of the time, apart from very extenuating circumstances.
If we can trace our anxieties back to their source, it often tells us a lot about ourselves, which can indicate where we might need to make changes in our lives. Often times the things we are anxious about are things we are putting too much weight on in our lives.
Anxiety can also arise from taking on responsibilities and burdens that are not actually ours to bear, whether it’s because they belong to another person or because they belong to tomorrow rather than today. Drawing boundaries around what you feel responsible for can also help.
Finally, remember than anxiety can be a social contagion – it can spread from person to person like a sickness. On the other hand, courage, joy, etc. can also spread through a relational network. Just like there are step up and step down transformers to regulate voltage, some people increase the anxiety in the room, while others have a calming effect.
Most people, even Christians, in today’s world live with entirely too much anxiety on a day to day basis. See your anxiety (whatever its’ cause) as a sin to be confessed and defeated. Your sins of anxiety can covered by Christ’s blood. Christ’s Spirit is at work in you to help you put anxiety to death.
As you said, there can be various triggers for anxiety (such as social media and news consumption). Guard yourself against those triggers until you have more emotional self-control.
Ironically, even our prosperity can work against us – many modern people do not have enough real challenges to keep them preoccupied and focused and so they become anxious over things that past generations would find relatively trivial because they didn’t even have time to think about them. Sometimes we need to take on new challenges — we need to make our lives more difficult — so that we have something to focus on rather than ourselces and our feelings. Stop thinking a whole lot about how you feel and get to work on things that are constructive and meaningful.
Life is supposed to be hard, it’s supposed to have challenges along the way, because God wants us to grow in strength and wisdom and that won’t happen if life is too easy.
We live in an anxious age but much of it is because people are not living in accord with their nature (the divine design) or because they simply do not trust in the care and love of their Heavenly Father.
Hope that helps!
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I saw someone post this as a critique of Christian nationalism: “Christian Nationalism advertises itself as a desire for God to be in control but it’s actually a mask to control others when they are not doing what we want them to do.”
There certainly may be valid criticisms of Christian nationalism, but this is not one of them. The reality is that ALL politics is about coercion and control. The biblical symbol of the state is a sword for a reason. All civil law is imposed morality. All civil law and all political participation is about getting others to do what we want them to do. That’s just what politics is, by defintion.
Think about it: Laws against murder are an attempt to control what people do. Thus, laws against abortion are not some special case of “trying to control women’s bodies.” They are no different than ALL laws we have on the books against murder.
We have laws that control which lane we drive in and how fast we can go. We have laws aimed at controlling would-be thieves in grocery stores. We have laws that seek to control, coerce, and suppress the perverted sexual desires of pedophiles. And so on. If you don’t think all civil law — all politics — is about control, just try not paying taxes for a couple years and see what happens. You’ll be coered right into or into a jail cell, and probably have money forcibly extracted from your account in the process.
What’s unique about Christian nationalism is NOT that it seeks to control people’s actions. All politics does that. Anyone who participates in politics by voting (or in any other way) is seeking to control his neighbor’s actions in certain areas of life. “All political power comes out of the barrel of a loaded gun.” Period. My contention is that if a proper Christian nationalism were to be implemented, we’d probably have a lot less control and coercion than we have in our society right now. If a proper Christian nationalism carries the day, we’d all be far richer and more prosperous because we’d get to keep a lot more of our income. But because Christian nationalists would want to control those who want to, e.g., kill a baby in the womb, it’s considered tyrannical. That’s absurd. It’s extremely naive to think Christian nationalists are trying to exert control over their neighbor while other political movements and parties are not.
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