What is Virtue Signaling?

Conversations That Matter

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Welcome to the Conversations That Matter podcast. My name is John Harris. We're going to talk today about virtue signaling, as promised.

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The term has a short history, but the concept itself goes back a long ways, and there's nothing new under the sun, so that shouldn't surprise us.

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We're going to define it, though. We're going to talk about it. I'm going to share the history of it, and then we're going to show examples of it from the quote -unquote evangelical world,

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Lincoln Duncan, Matt Chandler, J .D. Greer, Louis Giglio, Dan Cathy, and I think there's another person we're including in this as well, but I'm going to give you some examples so you know how to recognize it, what it is, and it should be helpful.

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It should just be very clarifying, I think, for a lot of us. We use the term. We recognize it when we see it, but really, what is it?

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First though, I want to share this with you. This is pretty funny. Someone sent this to me. I guess an individual who must ...

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I don't know where they live exactly, but some connection to Southeastern somehow ended up going on campus, and on the areas ...

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I don't know if this is on campus, or it looks like it might be the public areas, I think, that are next to the campus, but they posted at least one sign that says

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Analytical Tools in a Soviet font with hammer and sickles for the two O's in tools.

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It's all red, red background, yellow letters, and here's the public post.

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I wonder how long it will take Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to remove political expressions in a public right of way.

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It is public. They love illegal and violent protests. Will they allow a lawful one? I know the college and the seminary are two of the most heavy -handed

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SJW institutions available, but if the signs are still there, blink once. If they're gone, blink twice.

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This is actually very shrewd, because if they remove these signs that are on public property, they're just near their school, then it shows maybe they aren't actually for protest.

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They don't believe that that's a good thing, but if they leave them up, it's a public protest against them.

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Interesting, and way to go whoever this was. This is kind of the way to do it, to just call attention to it at least, to get the discussion going.

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That's been one of the problems is no one wants to have the discussion at some of these institutions. They want to beat around the bush and say they had the discussion, and something like this

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I think forces the issue a little bit. Anyway, hopefully that encourages the conservative students who are on campus and the orthodox students who understand what's going on and don't like it, and maybe even some of the professors in hiding.

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Maybe it'll help them. I mean, I hesitate to say it this way, but I'm going to. Maybe it'll help them kind of grow a spine and really publicly go out there and talk about what's actually happening, but there you go.

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Let's talk about virtue signaling now, and we're going to start off with a little example.

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I saw this the other day from someone I don't know named Danny Slavich. I believe he teaches at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and here's what he says.

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When black Christians get to know me, they discover I'm different than the many white evangelical pastors they have learned to distrust, but that doesn't help on our website.

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They see me on the leadership page, and they think that church isn't safe for me. The fact that anyone thought this was a good idea to post,

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I don't know what to say, but I think most of us, you see that, and you're like, that's a virtue signal.

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This is like, hey, I'm a white guy, but I'm not like those other white guys. You've heard of them probably.

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They're bigots. They're evil. They're intolerant, but I'm not like that, but the problem is so many of you guys are messing it up for me because you're all white, and you're behaving so poorly, so people can't see how great

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I am and how tolerant and whatever I am because you guys are behaving so badly.

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Stop behaving badly so that people can go to the church website, see the white people, and they won't be turned off.

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They won't actually have to get to know me deeply to see how great I am. They won't start off with the assumption that I'm not that way.

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He won't have to, Danny Slavich won't have to work as hard. Total virtue signal, right?

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Just kind of like separating himself from the pack, I'm different. I'm virtuous.

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At the same time, it doesn't really help much because I'm still white. That's kind of the ...

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I think we would say that's the quintessential stereotypical virtue signal right there.

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What's the term actually mean? Here's the origin of the term. James Bartholomew, a contributor to the British magazine, The Spectator, coined the term virtue signaling in 2015 to describe the way in which many people say or write things to indicate the way they are virtuous in an often subtle way and without doing anything virtuous.

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The term is most often applied to progressives who use circumstances to publicly announce their commitment to egalitarian principles with little to no sacrifice on their part.

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They generally live in a world where bravery and courage involve offending those who cannot harm them to appease those who can.

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Unfortunately, this tendency toward empty boasting is not unique to secular progressives. Leaders at evangelical institutions are also joining the bandwagon, often dragging their understanding of the gospel with them.

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Origin of the term is pretty simple. It is trying to show that you're virtuous, doing things to indicate that you're virtuous publicly pronouncing this, but without really actually doing anything virtuous.

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It's an empty suit. It's signaling to the powers that be. It's not speaking truth to power, so brave.

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It's not doing that. It's showing the powers that be and the narrative that's popular that you're part of that too. Here's some examples.

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One of the big examples I thought was this situation many of you probably know about with Louis Giglio, Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick -fil -A, and Lecrae, the rapper, last year.

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It was right after the Rayshard Brooks shooting in Atlanta where he was, some of you remember,

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I think it was at a Wendy's, and he had failed the sobriety test. They were going to arrest him, and he grabbed one of the tasers from the police, tried to use it on the police officer.

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The police officer shot him, and he died. This was like two days afterwards, something like that.

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Louis Giglio has guests, Dan Cathy and Lecrae, come to his church, and they're going to have this night where they talk about racial justice, et cetera.

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What happens is that Cathy and Giglio lament all this legalized oppression and racial discrimination and racial disparities.

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They propose vague solutions such as rebuilding the system, taking responsibility, fighting for African Americans, listening to black voices, never getting concrete though.

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Their greatest demand was for white people to feel the pain of black people. That was the whole point. That's what makes you virtuous.

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Do you empathize? Do you feel the pain? Not did you go feed someone, not did you do something, but do you feel a certain way?

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If you feel a certain way, then that's what's needed. Cathy declared, this is what he said, it has to hurt us, and there's got to be an emotional response.

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Giglio agreed, stating, we've got a ways to go to get to the point of empathy. Of course, all of this was sanctioned by Giglio's understanding of the gospel.

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What was that? Louis Giglio, who's a pastor, has spoken at the Passion Conference, has associations,

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I believe, with Desiring God. He said this. It was June 14th, 2020. He said, in a way really reminiscent of liberation theology, that the gospel was a justice proposition at its core, because it involved the murder of a man in broad daylight in the street, suffocating for the weight of our sin.

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The similarities between Jesus and figures like George Floyd were unmistakable. Pastor Giglio also believed the proper motivation for marching and protest was because the gospel proposition and the justice proposition were woven together from the beginning.

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The blessing of the cross meant that Christians needed to die to themselves and live for God when it came to racial injustice.

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This is liberation theology. I mean, if he didn't get it from liberation theologians, he got it from someone who got it from them,

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I would assume. This sounds exactly like liberation theology. Different gospel. A gospel that is meant to promote some kind of a political, throwing off the bonds of oppression in the here and now.

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This was part of the gospel. He smuggles it into the gospel, which is really not good. That's actually false teaching.

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I'm willing to say that. It's at the very least being very unclear about the gospel.

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I think you can see from the clarity of some of the statements, actually, it's not really that unclear. The gospel was a justice proposition at its core.

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No, it's not. It's a grace proposition. It's a mercy proposition. Justice is the thing that Jesus saved us from.

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In broad daylight, on the street, suffering from the weight of our sin, comparing Jesus to George Floyd or to someone else like Rayshard Brooks, I mean, this is offensive to Christians that Louis Giglio even went there, but he did.

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I just want to say, based on the virtue signal language we're talking about, this is a way to make social justice virtuous.

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Doing what we're doing is part of the gospel. It's added to the virtue signal. Here is

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Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick -fil -A, and here's some pictures of him. He goes up to Lecrae, he shines his shoes, and then he gives him a hug.

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He's not really shining his shoes because I don't think Lecrae's shoes can be signed. He has a little brush there, though, and he's pretending to.

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This is what happens. It's meant to signify the reality that Cathy arose, that Cathy gets it.

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He said, we need to feel the pain, and this is Cathy's way of saying, I feel it. He knelt down.

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He proceeded to shine his shoes. He said he wanted to contribute personal action. This is the way to do it.

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Instead of just talking about it, we're going to contribute action. Big deal. What kind of action? I mean, it's symbolic.

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It's not actually doing anything. Lecrae actually calls him on it.

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He says, hey, how about some stock in Chick -fil -A? He doesn't buy this empty suit gesture.

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Then Lecrae goes on an interview the next day with,

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I guess it was, I forget what organization it was. It was a rapper, hip -hop interview of some kind, news outlet.

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He called them out. He said Giglio and Cathy were virtue signaling, and he thought apologies and attempts to appear multicultural were inadequate in dismantling white supremacy.

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Their emotional expressions may have gained them respect with some viewers at the time when most, let's face it, leaders were universally condemned, were condemning alleged racism and distancing themselves from social groups in which racism was thought to be acceptable.

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Everyone was doing it, right? Everyone. Maybe they gained some points with those people, but literally doing what everyone else in the world is doing.

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However, Lecrae wanted policies and programs aimed at eradicating disparities, not activities which only accomplish making people feel like they accomplished something.

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Lecrae made good on that the next year because he campaigned with John Ossoff and I forget who the other guy was, the liberation theologian guy,

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Warnock. Lecrae went, and that's what

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Lecrae thinks, that social justice, and that's not virtue signaling. That's what they're supposed to do. These horrible pro -abortion, pro -homosexual, pro -everything opposed to Christianity politicians are the ones you need to elect if you really want justice, but I digress.

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Here's the deal with virtue signaling. Virtue signaling is attractive because at a very minimal cost, it allows them to justify themselves while disassociating from the sin of others.

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That's why they do it. Jesus described the Pharisees in a similar way as those who justify themselves in the sight of men. He also warned that what is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.

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Though the Pharisees appeared righteous, they were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness and not able, based on their righteousness, to enter the kingdom of heaven.

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Though they paid lip service to God's law, they lacked a sense of proportion toward what they chose to obey and what they chose to ignore.

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In imagery, Jesus declared, you blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Today many social justice leaders try to appear righteous by announcing their commitment to egalitarian values during news cycles which target alleged bigotry, while simultaneously ignoring, downplaying, or nuancing greater evils perpetuated by political progressives.

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And that's exactly what Lecrae did, campaigning for these pro -abortion

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Democrats, but just kind of focusing so much on this incident at the

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Burger King that he thought that was such an injustice. It outweighed the murder of children on a daily basis.

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The way many evangelicals influenced by social justice reacted to the civil unrest precipitated by the narrative accompanying

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George Floyd's death is illustrative. And here's a few other ways that, other examples of that.

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J .D. Greer, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, announced his intention to retire the Brodus gavel used to preside over convention meetings since 1872 because it was named after a

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Southern Baptist who owned slaves. In Greer's mind, retiring the gavel was part of keeping the gospel above all.

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Again, look, tying the gospel to this somehow. However, when asked how Christians should react to the protests, including the looting and violence in writing, his answer was to rush to empathy instead of a solution.

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So look at the proportion here. The proportion is, we gotta get rid of this gavel causing so much hurt, but hey, when it comes to actual violence happening in real time, you know, just empathize.

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Again, that's the virtue signal. It's just empathy. It's just emotion. There's really nothing to it. Lincoln Duncan, the chancellor of Reform Theological Seminary, passionately campaigned to replace the

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Mississippi state flag because of its Confederate imagery. When asked what motivated him, he insinuated the flag was part of a huge lost gospel opportunity tied to Jim Crow lynching in opposition to civil rights, even though its original intent was memorializing the valor and courage of brave men.

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However, when publicly addressing the riots and protests, he expanded culpability to include the entire nation and focused instead on the staggering magnitude of injustice against African -Americans.

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Again, look at the proportion. This symbol needs to go. This gavel needs to go.

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These things are the problems. These things, I mean, these are cheap sacrifices to make. These are things that don't cost these men really anything.

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And they look so brave, you know, raging against a piece of cloth, raging against a piece of wood. And yet when real businesses and lives are destroyed, they can't, they can't actually call attention to them.

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They can't actually focus on the real evil in front of them. That's exactly what the Pharisees did. As far as having a busted, broken sense of proportion.

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In a similar way, similar way, Matt Chandler, the popular pastor of the village church in Dallas, Texas, framed

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George Floyd's death as a part of a demonic evil, which characterized the United States and posted a black square on his

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Instagram account in order to uproot racism. Chandler asked his followers to reject a truncated understanding of the gospel, which failed to expose injustice.

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Notice all three of these men tying what they're doing to the gospel. Well, we got to change our understanding of America.

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We got to change our understanding of this country. It doesn't cost him anything to say that. And it's part of the gospel now.

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Look how good I am. I'm forwarding the gospel somehow by doing this. However, when addressing the violent riots,

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Chandler scolded those who pointed out the flaws in the current movement while abandoning the church's responsibility to protest against injustice.

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Pouring cold water, people, pouring cold water on those who would criticize the riots.

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Does anyone see the hypocrisy here? Now let's notch it up a little, a level here. All three leaders cooperated with the same inconsistent narrative the

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Black Lives Matter movement promoted. The highly publicized altercations between police and black individuals in 2020 were the result of systemic racism stretching back to the early years of the

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United States. Rectifying the problem involved sacrificing understandings, traditions, symbols, and relics of the past.

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The nationwide violence, looting, and vandalism accompanying the riots should be rationalized in light of systemic racism.

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And the major difference between social justice advocates and evangelicalism and those in the secular world was the way they portrayed their motive.

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Greer, Duncan, and Chandler publicly depicted their anger over systemic racism and their symbolic and ostentatious gestures to combat it as rooted in a concern for the gospel.

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Yet, in comparison, they minimized anger over the resulting murder, theft, and property destruction by not publicly condemning the riots in the same terms or connecting opposition to them with the gospel.

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Not surprisingly, all three managed to condemn the Trump supporters protesting for election integrity who illegally entered the

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National Capitol building on the 6th. Some protests were more important to condemn than others. And that's absolutely true.

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They condemned. All three of them posted publicly about and condemned basically what happened on the 6th.

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But they had a problem doing that with what raged all summer. Hypocrites, blind guides, swallowing gnats, swallowing camels, and straining in gnats.

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That's what these people are. That's who they are. And that's what a virtue signal essentially is.

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It is portraying yourself to be virtuous publicly, trying to get people to think of yourself in one way.

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And it's all about image. It's all about fashion. It's all about optics. But there's really nothing behind it.

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And it's building yourself up as much as you possibly can. I'll tell you, the people who aren't publicly broadcasting it but are actually going into these neighborhoods where things are rough and crime is high.

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And they're spending time with the children there. And they're trying to see if they can actually bring food to meet personal needs.

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And they're sharing the gospel especially. Those are the kinds of people who don't broadcast it. And that's what they do that actually have maybe some real virtue.

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What does James say that true religion is? Visiting orphans and widows in their distress. Keeping oneself unstained from the world.

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These guys are staying with the world. They have the world's truth. They're not even talking about bringing the gospel and salvation to these places.

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They're talking about some systemic thing that needs to happen. They're saying they're echoing the same thing that Black Lives Matter is saying.

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And it's pathetic and it's wrong. And I would encourage anyone listening to this, if you've supported or are supporting any of these ministries, please stop or hold them accountable.

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I would just stop to be honest with you. They've shown already that they do not have the sense of proportion or judgment to be able to do what they're doing.

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But at the very least, hold them accountable. Send them emails. Call them on the phone.

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Why are you, why do you have this busted moral compass on this? So I hope that was helpful for you in understanding virtue signaling and how it manifests itself and maybe even some of the leaders that you weren't aware of.