Don't be a Theological Fanboy

So, when you upload videos on YouTube with as much regularity as I do, and about the topics that I do, every now and then you'll upload one where you're a little hesitant to put it out there.

And I definitely feel hesitation sometimes when I put something out. But it's not because of what

I believe, because I'm open about what I believe about things and all that kind of stuff.

Even controversial topics, I'm okay to take my lumps about what I actually believe about certain issues.

But what I want to make sure is that I say it the right way, I say it the way I want to say it. And I'm not going to be perfect,

I'm going to misspeak and stuff like that. You've got to understand that when people speak publicly, sometimes you misspeak.

But if I'm going to get scorn heaped upon me, I at least want it to be about something that I actually believe.

So I've got a video coming out about Doug Wilson, and what

I think the major problem is with Doug Wilson. So be on the lookout for that, I'm not going to upload it today, but it's coming.

I've also got a video about the good things that Big Eva evangelicalism, trademarked evangelicalism, has taught me.

Because it hasn't all been bad, there's some bad things about evangelicalism and Big Eva and all that kind of thing.

But there's some good things as well. I want to talk about those, and that's what I'm going to be dropping as far as my podcast for the

Fight Laugh Feast Network on Thursday. So also be on the lookout for that. All that to say, I have a quick video that I wanted to record today about something that I kind of was watching on the sidelines last week and this weekend.

Do you know what a fanboy is? That's right, a fanboy. The Urban Dictionary defines fanboy as this, an extreme fan or follower of a particular medium, concept, whether it be sports, television, film directors, or video games.

That's the most common usage. Known for a complete lack of objectivity in relation to their preferred focus.

Usually they argue with circular logic that they refuse to acknowledge. Arguments or debates with such a fanboy are usually futile.

Every flaw is spun into semi -virtues, and everything else belongs to comedic complementary proportions.

Finally, it says fanboys are known for using the phrase, best ever.

However, while people that usually say that usually only use it as hyperbole, fanboys truly believe it.

Oh man, that's funny. That is what a fanboy is, but you know, fanboys, one of the first fanboy, you know, phenomena that I can remember is when

I was younger, I was in high school or whatever, or maybe elementary school, and do you remember the video game console wars, like Super Nintendo versus Sega Genesis, and if you had a

Super Nintendo, then Super Nintendo was objectively the best in every area, even in areas where it wasn't objectively the best, it was still the best, and anyone who had a

Sega Genesis was an idiot. And vice versa, if you had a Sega Genesis, then Super Nintendo was the worst, and even in ways that it was obviously better than a

Sega Genesis, it was worse, because you were a fanboy for Sega Genesis. And that was what

I was, I was a Sega Genesis fanboy. I think if we're honest with ourselves, we've been fanboys about something in our lives, all of us have, where we don't listen to reason, we cannot look at evidence to the contrary, the thing that we are a fanboy of is the best ever, and they can do no wrong.

And even when they do do wrong, it actually works out for the best, because they are the best in every way.

Everyone can kind of identify a fanboy when they see one. Here's the thing, we've got fanboys in Christianity as well.

We've got fanboys of theologians, fanboys of apologists, people that have podcasts, we've got podcast fanboys.

And this is a real problem, because fanboyism can be, there's a dark side to it as well, it's not all fun and games, look, you're a

Sega Genesis fanboy, who cares, it's just Sega Genesis. But when you're a fanboy of a theologian or an apologist, it can be a real negative thing.

And here's what I mean by that, here's what I mean by that. I just noticed,

I'm sorry, I just noticed that one of the examples they used in the fanboy definition on Urban Dictionary is, quote,

Final Fantasy VII is the best RPG ever! And I literally said that in one of my most recent videos.

Oh man, sorry, I got distracted. Anyway, here's the thing, I've made the argument here many times that the

Christian definition of love isn't primarily talking about warm and fuzzies, affectionate feelings, and things like that.

It doesn't exclude affection, it doesn't exclude warm and fuzzies, but it's not primarily talking about that.

It's primarily talking about actions. If you love your neighbor as yourself, then you treat them according to the law of God.

If you love your neighbor as yourself, it's not about being like, oh, my neighbor Betty, she's just a great woman, and I just love her so much, blessings, blessings to her!

That's not what it's about. It's about treating her fairly, it's about treating her with respect, treating her according to the law of God, treating her the way you would want to be treated.

That's what love is primarily. In a similar kind of way, not exactly the same, but in a similar kind of way, if you treat someone without love, if you treat someone poorly, if you treat someone with hatred, if you hate your neighbor instead of loving your neighbor, you're going to treat them in a certain way, in a way that's not according to the law of God.

Here's the thing. I don't think I have fanboys. Maybe I do, maybe I don't,

I don't think I do, because even the people that have supported me from the beginning, people that comment on all my videos, people that support me on Patreon, people that message me and tell me the things that I say that they like, many of them have disagreed with me openly, directly, they've reached out to me privately, they've done it publicly, and said, hey, you know

I love you, but you said this, and this makes no sense. You know what I mean? This makes no sense.

And so I don't think I have fanboys, because fanboys would never do that. Fanboys would actually defend even the things that I say that they would see as wrong, you know what

I mean? That's what fanboys do. So I don't think I have fanboys, but I've seen people, fanboys of popular

Christians and prominent Christians and things like that, where you cannot, any criticism of the object of their affection is seen as the ultimate unloving thing.

You know what I mean? Like, you criticize this person, they say things like this, they have a track record of faithfulness to Christ, and therefore how could you say this, that's slander.

And like the thing that they said wasn't slander, because slander has a specific definition, right? Like it's something that you say about someone that is actually not true.

If you say something about someone that's not true, yeah, you shouldn't do that. But if you're criticizing someone, that's not slander.

In fact, the fact that you would never criticize someone if they have a faithful track record or things like that, not only do

I not believe you, that that's really your standard, because there's plenty of people that do have a track record that you do criticize, but also even if it were true, it would actually be wrong to do that, that you'd be being a fanboy.

You know what I mean? Look, lots of people like John MacArthur, right? But at the end of the day, if your opinion of John MacArthur is that, hey, he's a great man of God, therefore he cannot be wrong or criticized about anything publicly, that's a problem.

That's a real problem. You see, the reality is, the Bible that I read and the Bible that we all read says these things.

We all believe this. So let's start acting like it, right? It says, faithful are the wounds of a friend and profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

That's describing fanboyism. That's describing fanboyism. You just, no matter what, it's just,

I love you, love you, love you. That can be deadly, because if you don't know how to disagree with someone that you like, that you're a fan of, you're not doing them any good.

I love when people reach out to me and tell me I'm wrong, and let me just tell you how it feels. I read an email or I read a message, and they'll say,

Adam, you're wrong about this. You know what I mean? The first thing I feel is defensive, almost without exception.

I feel defensive. I feel angry, briefly, and then I take a step back.

I'm like, wait, wait, wait. Hold on a second. Let me think this through. Are they right? Are they right? Because here's the thing. When somebody disagrees with you publicly or privately, they're giving you a wonderful gift, a wonderful gift of like, you know what, let me reconsider this, and if I'm right, maybe

I can change how I word this to make it more correct or easier to understand, and if I'm wrong, then

I need to abandon that belief, right? When someone publicly disagrees with you, it's often not because they hate you.

Sometimes it is. Sometimes it is. But often it's not. Often it's because they love you, and they want to correct you and give you an opportunity to change your belief or whatever, even if you're not going to change your belief.

Maybe you need to think deeper about it or something like that. Here's the thing, guys. We can't be fanboys, because a fanboy will never criticize anything about their object of their love, and that is a problem, because the

Bible says that faithful are the wounds of a friend. So if you're a friend and you've never wounded any of your friends, that's weird.

That's not how it should be. The wounds of a friend are faithful, and so you should be willing to wound a friend.

And so one of the things, like I said, I'm going to put a video out later about the things that Big Eva has taught me, but this is definitely something

Big Eva has not taught me. I don't think that Big Eva has a good theology of this, how to fight with people you love, how to fight with them, and to wound them sometimes.

That's necessary, guys. It's necessary, because faithful are the wounds of a friend, but profuse are the kisses of a fanboy.