TGC Wants Men to Submit

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Welcome to the Conversations That Matter podcast. My name is John Harris. I don't usually do podcasts from the

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Lowe's parking lot, which is where I am today, but it's been pretty crazy lately. For those who don't know,

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I've been renovating my house, mostly actually doing repairs on it. I haven't lived in it for four years, and before that I'd even needed some work, but as many homeowners know, once you get involved in one project, you find out about 10 other projects you need to do.

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So I found out my heating ducts were all rusted out, and I had to change the heating lines, and then

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I found out two days ago that the beam that all my slats were sitting on in the back of my bathroom was rotted out, so I had to take off the siding and replace that.

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So that's kind of what I've been up to lately with a lot of my time, and I've been trying to keep up with the podcast as best

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I can, but that means sometimes when things get tight, like this week, I have to work with what

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I have. This weekend I'll be busy. I have a wedding for a good friend of mine, which is awesome, but I thought if I'm gonna put something out, it's gonna be from the

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Lowe's parking lot. So here we are, and I appreciate those who are praying for me, by the way. With releasing a book and moving and doing renovations, it's just been a lot lately.

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So thank you for your prayers, for those who are praying, and just please keep me, I know there's a lot to be praying about today, so I don't wanna be selfish, but if you do think about me, just pray that we would have just a good balanced time management, and prioritize things correctly, be efficient, all of that good stuff.

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So anyway, today we're gonna talk about an article that was in the

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Gospel Coalition. Michael Kruger is the author, and this morning I saw that a number of people had tagged me and sent me this article.

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I was a little surprised when I saw Michael Kruger's name on it, because Michael Kruger is someone, at least the books

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I've read by him, someone that I really appreciate. And I mean, you can appreciate someone in one area, and then scratch your head a little bit on other things.

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There might be even people that do that with me, which is fine, but the reason I scratched my head a little bit is because the title of the article is,

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Men, Are You Submissive? That's right, Men, Are You Submissive? Now think about that title alone in our current context in the

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Western world. I mean, if you challenge the assumptions behind feminism, you're blacklisted. You don't, you lose social capital.

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You are persecuted in social ways, not real persecution that's, but there is somewhat of a backlash that could happen if you have a platform of any kind.

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And so that's one thing. The other thing though is that right now with the

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COVID stuff and losing civil liberties and limitations on travel and people being fired,

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I mean, just a few days ago, hundreds of healthcare workers just escorted out of their jobs in New York state, probably more than hundreds, probably thousands,

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I'm assuming, because they wouldn't get the jab. And this is the kind of article that Gospel Coalition puts out.

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Now, if this article was sitting in a vault somewhere for 10 years and I would understand it a little more, you know, and it's a poor

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Michael Kruger's being made to look like he's out of step. Gospel Coalition decided to publish it 10 years later. I don't think so.

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I think this is on purpose. And you gotta wonder, why is this being published now? What is the purpose behind it?

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Think about the context in which it's being published. Men, are you submissive? Now I'm going to read through it and we'll just kind of comment.

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I'll just comment as we go. But I think one of the things this illustrates is the disconnect between,

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I don't know, what terms I even want to bring to it. You kind of know it when you see it, but someone who's a more maybe elitist might be the term

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I'd use or insular in sort of an academic setting in the evangelical world or even just the regular world.

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But someone who's insulated, who's more elitist, I mean, it shows you kind of what circles they're running in if they think this is the message that needs to be put out there right now.

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And then those who are living in a different world. I'd like to say,

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I guess the real world, but it's the world in which all the things I just mentioned are actually happening.

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So it's not the theoretical world. It's what we're seeing right in front of us. It's what your kids are picking up in school and telling you.

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It's what the people at your church are talking about. And it's the people at your job who are in trouble because they won't submit to the jab or they don't want to, and they're trying to look for a job.

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I mean, that world, that's the one I'm referring to. And so there just seems to be a disconnect.

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And so that's part of the thing this illustrates. Obviously some other things as well that we'll go through as we make our way through this.

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But when we talk about submitting to government authority, one of the things that's often missed in evangelical interpretations of that principle is the exemption, if you will, to submit when the government oversteps its boundaries.

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And this is often, not in every context, but oftentimes it's obvious if a church leader goes beyond their authority, then you don't have to submit.

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If a husband goes beyond his authority, now in some contexts, that's not the case. I realize that, but oftentimes, especially in the world of the gospel coalition, the people who write for the gospel coalition, it would be obvious to most of them if a husband oversteps his boundaries, a wife doesn't have to submit to those things.

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You know, you think about even something like a spousal abuse, right? Is it a sin to be beaten by your husband?

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Just, I mean, think about that. Is it a sin? I'm not asking if it's right, it's obviously wrong. And this husband's in sin.

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I'm asking if it's a sin for the wife to be beaten by her husband. No, obviously she's the one that's being, she's being abused in that situation.

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So it's not a sin. So if the only exception to submission is if it's a sin or it hurts our gospel witness or something, then wives must allow their husbands to beat them.

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I mean, that's crazy logic. And I don't know that anyone would agree with that when it's stated that way, but the principle that we're often given lends itself to that.

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I mean, it's not a sin to get the jab, is it? Well, I don't know. I mean, if you really, your conscience is telling you whatever is not a faith is sin and your conscience says this is bad because of the possible risks associated with it and you need to be able to take care of your family and hey, maybe it could be,

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I guess. You could try to make that argument. But I mean, in and of itself, it's not.

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Someone who got the jab isn't a sinner because they got it. So I guess you have to submit to it.

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I mean, this kind of logic is nonsense to be honest with you. And I think there's plenty of biblical examples that show it to be nonsense.

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And I'll talk about some of those as we go through this article. All right, so submission. That's the first header.

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Of all the words in the Bible, this is Michael Kruger's words, by the way. I'm reading the article. Of all the words in the Bible, this may be one of the least popular.

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After all, our cultural moment is not one that values a posture of submission to authorities. On the contrary, our world insists we should challenge and critique those over us.

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Now, I'll stop there. Is that the world you all are living in right now? Just wondering.

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I mean, you put a comment maybe on the video. Really, is that your world? I mean, is this what you're seeing? Is that we're at a cultural moment that does not value a posture of submission?

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I'm pretty sure it's like the opposite right now. It's loving your neighbor is getting the jab. Submitting to government authority is in style right now.

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The people that have cultural influence are the ones that are pushing this. And if you don't submit, you're out of step.

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So I don't know what this is. I'm like, what, is this from 10 years ago? How can you write a paragraph like that?

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But anyways, the classic bumper sticker captures it well. Question authority. When was the last time you saw a bumper sticker like that, by the way?

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Like what, 20 years ago? 15 years ago? 10 years ago? Again, I mean, was this in a vault waiting to come out?

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I don't know. And if submission is already an unpopular concept, Kruger writes, it only grows more unpopular in verses like Ephesians 5.

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22, I've submitted to your husbands as known to the Lord. Indeed, this passage and its counterpart in 1 Peter 3 have been ground zero in the submission wars, both in our church and the broader culture.

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But letting these verses take center stage can give the mistaken impression that the Bible teaches that only women submit.

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In reality, scripture has a more comprehensive view. Everybody submits to somebody.

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The Bible is clear that everybody submits to somebody. Men and women are called to submit to the government. Children to parents.

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Church members are to submit to elders. Servants are called to submit to masters. And on it goes. Again, little thing here, but I guess you could say servants, sure.

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It's really slaves though. So it's the word doulos there. So it's interesting he used the word servant, but it would be slave and masters.

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I know that's kind of an inconvenient thing for TGC to talk about. I'm not saying that's why he didn't use it, but just pointing that out for those who might think the translation is servant.

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It's really not. But here's the thing. As I'm reading through this, the thought that comes to mind is that, who is he arguing against?

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Maybe I'm hiding under a rock or something. I've been to Master's Seminary, Southeastern, Liberty University.

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I think I have a little bit of a handle on kind of what the evangelical world is up to and the things that are commonly said.

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I've never heard this. I've never heard someone say that only women are to submit.

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Have you ever heard that? Only women. That that's the only hierarchical relationship that exists is women submitting.

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Never heard that. So I thought that was just interesting to me. It feels like a straw man, but maybe there's a whole world out there

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I'm not aware of. Of course, the ultimate demonstration that submission is a good and biblical virtue is that it was practiced by our

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Lord himself. Christ in his earthly ministry submitted himself to the Father. His submission was so complete that he was obedient to the point of death, even on a cross.

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Here's the point. Submission is not a female virtue. It's a Christian virtue. And that's very true. I don't know that anyone disputes that, but there probably are people

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I'm just not aware of it. I mean, there are some like hyper patriarchal -ish churches that really emphasize women are supposed to submit because of how the world we're living in emphasizes the exact opposite.

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And so maybe there's some overcorrection there. And I know that that stuff does exist, but I just don't know that there's anyone out there who thinks it's a female virtue.

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Submission is not a female virtue. It's a Christian virtue. Perhaps then we need to recalibrate the way we think about it. Okay, so this is where he's using this corporate we.

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We meaning evangelicals, readers of the gospel coalition, we all need to recalibrate it.

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So this is like a big correction apparently to this big problem that I didn't know was existing out there.

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And talk about submission in the church. Rather than repeatedly focusing on just one example, we need to call

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Christians to submit to whatever authorities are over them. Now this, in my opinion, this is kind of a straw man. The reason why submit to your husband is talked about a lot is because of how controversial it is.

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It comes up a lot because it's so out of step with the world that we live in. So that's why.

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Frankly, slave submit to your masters, which could apply to an employee -employer relationship, is also out of step, but employers and employees, not quite as much.

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I mean, you could talk about parents and children, that not as controversial. We could talk about submitting to church leaders, but you know what, again, that's something that's kind of an in -house

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Christian thing. So the controversial thing, the thing, the stone of stumbling that the world stumbles over is wives submitting to husbands.

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That's why it's talked about a lot. It's not like this, Michael Kruger seems to want to attribute this to some nefarious intent on the part of Christians to make submission a female virtue.

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And I would submit that that's not the actual problem or the reason that submission is talked about in that context so much.

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It's because it's constantly attacked. And so faithful expositors of scripture want to defend what the

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Bible says. That's why they talk about it. Going on. And if men are to be leaders in the church and the home, a point often made in discussions about submission, then they ought to lead by example.

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Christian leader, men should be a model of submission to whatever authorities they are under. Men, do you submit?

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That's a good question. I don't think that's a bad question at all. And I'll echo it.

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Men, do you submit? Do you submit to Christ and the authorities in your life when they are legitimate and they are within the boundaries of the authority that God has given them over you?

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Here are some diagnostic questions for men. Men, do you show a submissive spirit to your employer? Or do you grumble, complain, and undermine your boss's authority?

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That's a good question, by the way. That probably hits close to home for a lot of us. And I've been working for myself now for a few years, but for most of my working life,

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I have had a boss. And there have been times it's been a challenge when I have a real hard guy to work for.

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And so I understand that. I get that. And I've been in situations where the shop talk is constantly running down whoever's in charge.

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That's not right. Men, do you submit to your church leaders? Or are you a member who regularly kicks against accountability and oversight?

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Another good one. And by the way, though, each of these have limitations to them. Obviously, if your boss is doing things that are harmful, or even if they're just things that are inefficient and not smart, it may be good to talk with your coworkers and try to approach, okay, how do we try to communicate this to our boss?

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How do we rectify this situation? What can we do about it? And you're part of the solution and not the problem. You're not undermining their authority.

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You just disagree, or you see a flaw, or you want to make them more successful because they're making a bad decision.

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And so the best thing to do is to approach them about it, but sometimes you need counsel. Proverbs talks about counsel being important.

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Church leaders, right? Church leaders do not have absolute authority over you. They don't get to say who you vote for.

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They don't get to say what you do in your own house necessarily. There's a spiritual oversight they have, but that's not a blank check.

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And so I think, obviously, when it comes to your spiritual life, it does touch a lot of different areas, and it could include who you vote for.

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It could include what's going on in your house, but not directly. And so one of the things that I like to ask people when this comes up is, are the church leaders that are asking you to submit to them, what is the extent to which they are imposing that submission?

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So in other words, to what extent are they trying to control your life? I'll give you an example.

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This is a real world, real life example. I know of a church in which the pastors wanted to regulate the dating relationship of a grown man in the church.

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And it wasn't because this man had done anything wrong. It was simply they wanted control over the situation.

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He was dating someone long distance, and they wanted to know every detail about it to the point of basically approving or disapproving of whether he wanted to marry this woman.

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And there was no moral reason he shouldn't marry her, but they wanted to be the ones to make that decision. Well, that's not their decision to make.

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That's his decision, who he wants to marry. And unless there's some kind of a moral, sinful issue going on that needs to be disciplined, there's no reason the elder should be doing anything, but maybe giving advice.

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But they wanted to kick him out of the church if he did not submit to them by not marrying, by choosing to marry this person before they had given approval.

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That's the kind of thing that I'm talking about. I'm saying that that's not their role. And so this is the kind of thing that I think often, this is what we need to hear more of is where are those boundaries?

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That's helpful for people, that's practical. We don't get those kinds of practical things regularly from the

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Gospel Coalition though. We get this kind of vague stuff that, yeah, everyone knows what submission is, right?

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But does everyone know? And so anyway, I just don't think it's the most helpful to just say submit in the context we're in now.

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People need to figure out what that means again, because lines have been so blurred, because of things like the feminist movement, because of egalitarian movements that seek to rip down authority.

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And then people that want to take that authority and take it too far. I mean, all these things are factoring in.

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We're a very destabilized society right now. Men, do you submit to your church leaders? I already read that.

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Men, if you are a pastor or elder, do you submit to your fellow elders? Do you show a spirit of submission to your denominational body?

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When the body asks you to do something, do you comply or push against it? Well, depends on what they're asking you to do, right? Men, do you respect the governing authorities

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God has placed over you, regardless of their political affiliation or your opinion of their policies, or do you mock and deride those authorities?

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Here's the thing. Elijah mocked the prophets at Mount Carmel.

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The prophets of Baal. Jesus mocked the Pharisees. This is where I think things get a little dicey because we have a political religion right now, and the priests of that political religion, some of them are politicians.

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Some of them wielding their authority in ways that is overstepping their boundaries.

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And some of that deserves some mockery and derision and failure to comply. And when you have just a very simplistic view of this, that, well, if they're governing authorities, you just gotta do what they say, and there are no ifs, ands, or buts, then you neglect to apply critical thinking to whether or not they're overstepping their boundaries, whether or not there's actually a state religion that's appearing right in front of you.

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And maybe there's times that they deserve some mockery. Maybe they're illegitimate authority. Maybe what they're doing makes their authority illegitimate.

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So there are times, and I'm not saying, there are limitations to this, but I just wanna make the case that there is an appropriate time to not submit, and there's an appropriate time also to even, in a holy way, mock those who had raised themselves up against the creator of the universe.

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They deserve some mockery, and there's examples of it in scripture. I'm not saying this without any precedent.

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One can imagine how difficult, not to mention discouraging, it might be for a woman who are repeatedly called to submit to see their husband and church leaders refuse to submit to the authorities over them.

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By contrast, how encouraging it is for women to see that they are being asked to do something which their leaders willingly and cheerfully do first.

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Submission, okay, so this is the thing. The assumption behind all of this is men are basically not doing what they're asking women to do.

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That seems to be the assumption here, and that women would do more, they would submit more if men just submitted. There's kind of like an anti,

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I don't know, a vein of anti -male, I don't know. There's an assumption and a stereotype here.

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Submission before a watching world is the next heading. Remember J .D. Greer at the SBC, the world is watching.

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There's an obsession with the world watching, and we should try to be light to the world, to be salt and light so they see our good works, glorify our father who is in heaven.

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But they're not gonna, when the world doesn't, oftentimes they're not gonna like our good works. They're gonna, they're not gonna like everything we do, and we need to just be aware of that.

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So we can be salt and light, and sometimes that salt's going to be like salt in a wound to them. And the world is not, that's not the standard, to try to please the world.

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We try to please God, and one of the things that we take into account as we're pleasing

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God is the world, it is a witness to the world when we obey him.

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It's also a condemnation to the world for their own judgment. So I just wanna set that template down before we read what he's about to say.

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He says, but Christian submission is not just an issue in the church, it also affects the way we relate to the broader culture.

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Do we practice what we preach before a watching world? When Christians flout government directives, one might understand why the watching culture begins to scratch its head in confusion.

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I don't really, put it in the comment section. Do you know non -Christians who are scratching their head in confusion as to why some

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Christians don't wanna submit to the jab? Or to shutting down their church? Like maybe because Jesus said to gather, like, do you think there's like people who are genuinely confused?

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Like I always thought Christians submitted, how can you not submit? I don't know what world he's talking about here.

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Haven't Christians complained the loudest about how we are living in an anti -authority age? Haven't Christians lamented our world's lack of submission to authority?

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And yet it's often those very same Christians who seem unwilling to submit when faced with a government rule they disagree with.

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Guys, this I would suggest is the heart of this article. This is the reason it was published in Gospel Coalition.

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This is the political angle and the objective, the political objective right here.

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It is to guilt Christians into, you know, you really ought to put on that mask, shut down that church, take the jab if the government tells you to do it.

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We really ought to do those things. Oh, is he saying that directly? No, but what else are we supposed to, what else could he be talking about?

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He's clearly accusing, very concretely accusing Christians who are reading the article of not submitting of hypocrisy, but he's staying away from really drawing, from making his examples concrete.

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But he is, you know, accusing a concrete group of people here, Christians. And maybe it's a little more complicated than that.

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Maybe, and for Michael Kruger, you know, he should know this, this is what I don't understand. There are, we think through these things.

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There are times, authority itself, we submit to the concept of authority and hierarchy Christians are on board with,

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Orthodox Christians totally on board with. The concept of abused authority, of authority that is not legitimate, totalitarian replacements for God, those kinds of things.

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That's where we start drawing lines and saying, no. And that's what

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I don't understand. He should understand this. Most people seem to get this, that are working class, but why can't someone see from the halls of academia, who has studied the

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Bible so much, why can't they see that that's the motivation? And maybe he's around Christians that are different than the ones

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I'm around. I don't know, but that's what I'm seeing. He said, and yes, it's Christians who are unwilling to submit.

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One can imagine how difficult, not to mention discouraging it might be for women who are repeatedly called to submit to their husbands and church leaders to see them refuse to submit to the authorities over them.

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I mean, this is just guilting people, guys. Kruger writes, now to be clear, submission does not mean we blindly follow all government directives.

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I call this, by the way, the escape clause. In gospel coalition articles, I see this all the time. They know what people are gonna say. So they try to kind of head people off at the pass and say, no, no, no, no, we address that.

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You're gonna accuse us of trying to blindly follow the government and we're not doing that. In fact, we have a whole sentence here that says we don't do that.

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We shouldn't blindly follow all the government directives. But then it says, submission does not require us to obey someone if they ask us to sin.

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In such cases, we have an obligation not to submit or obey laws that force us to dishonor God, Daniel three. And that's the only passage he cites here.

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And submission does not mean we are unable to work for a change in our situation. We can submit to the government while seeking to change its laws.

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So let me analyze this real quick. He's saying, on the one hand, there's a whole big group of people who are doing the wrong thing.

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They're not submitting. They're Christians, they're hypocrites, and they need to submit to the government. What could he be talking about?

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Well, it's probably has something to do with the jabs, the lockdowns, all of that stuff. At the same time, he's saying, well, we don't blindly follow the government though, because there's an exception.

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What's the exception? The exception is we don't sin if the government asks us to sin. We don't dishonor

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God. Daniel three is the passage he gives. Let me be hastened to point out in Daniel three, Daniel, all he had to do was close his windows and go pray in a closet and he would have been fine.

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Would have been fine. It wasn't a sin for him to close his window, was it?

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No, of course it wasn't. But Daniel wanted to publicly flaunt his disobedience. I mean, that's effectively what he did.

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And his allegiance to the Lord. He put it on full display. The Lord rewarded him for it. So that had nothing to do with Daniel.

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And I realized the law was basically asking him to do something sinful, but he did not have to publicly show his lack of compliance.

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He could have easily gone in a back room somewhere. And we see examples in scripture too.

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I think of like, I think it's Jehu's rebellion, where there's a situation in which there's even a rebellion against governing authorities in a sense, of course, there's a legitimate authority, the priest, the priestly role of coronating who the new king was.

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And there was a whole uprising against the house of Ahab though. We have situations actually throughout the

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Old Testament, there's secession, there's in judges, there's a whole bunch of stuff going on.

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And we have to make sense of all of these things. We have to come up with principles because let's face it, these stories are given to us for our own example and instruction.

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So we have to figure out what the principles are. And yes, if the government asks you to sin, that's an obvious thing.

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Let's forget about the government for a second. What if your husband, if you're a wife asks you to sin, or if you're a layman in a church and your pastor asks you to sin?

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Well, the obvious answer is no, we don't do that. But there are situations where they're gonna ask you possibly to do something that's not a sin.

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And they're overstepping their boundary though. Are you obligated to obey them then? This is the whole like, you know,

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I remember recently, a few weeks ago, there was a Christian broadcaster who said, hey, if the government says to go walk around with a pinwheel on my head and dance around,

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I'll do it. Really? I mean, is that where we're at now? We're just going to make fools of ourselves?

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I mean, that's degrading. That's the kind of thing that the government has no responsibility to do that. If your husband asks you to do that, do you do it?

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If your church says you gotta go do this for arbitrary whims that they have, are you gonna do it?

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Or do they have a function that God has created? And that's really the question. Government's got a function.

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Husbands have a function. Children and parents, that relationship, there's a function there. Employers, employees, slaves, masters, there's a function going on.

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There's purpose behind it. If you believe in a purposeless world, then this might make sense. It's just arbitrary.

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But if there's a purpose, that means there's a lane in which that purpose is carried out, and you're not required to submit outside of that lane to things that are not within the purview of the authority over you.

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And so that's my main critique of much of the language I hear out there, including in this article, is they don't account for that kind of a situation where the government just oversteps its boundaries.

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And it's not like I'm the first one to say this. Samuel Rutherford brought this kind of stuff up, and Lex Ress.

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Pierre Verret, also, in his book on the civil government, brings this up.

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These are things that Christian thinkers have had to think about. And it's not like we have to reinvent the wheel on this.

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So if we can apply that logic to other lines of authority, why not the government?

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Why is it so hard to apply this to the government and say, yeah, there's times when they're overstepping their boundaries. They're doing things that are illegal, that are not in keeping with the laws they swore an oath to defend and to uphold.

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There's times in which they're even overstepping the boundaries of their specific branch of the government.

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It's not for the executive branch to be giving these directives. That's a legislative thing.

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I mean, that kind of thing. What do you do when your state and the federal authorities are in conflict?

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I mean, what do you do then? Who do you submit to? Who do you choose to submit to? So these are the kinds of things that I just really don't think articles like this are helpful in thinking through.

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They're very simplistic. Just as wives are called to submit to imperfect husbands, citizens are called to submit to an imperfect government.

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Men should be leading the way in doing so. Submission will change you. When men take the lead in practicing submission, here's something that we will discover.

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Submission is hard. It's a substantive and weighty act of self -denial. It can feel like death, even though we know it's the path to life.

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How about this, Michael Kruger? In the situation going on right now, as this article is coming out, the hard thing for people to do, the path that is going to give them the most grief is when they don't submit.

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It's the opposite. When if you choose not to get the jab, right? And you're being pressured by everyone and your employer is trying to pressure you to do it and you wanna do that religious exemption and you're fighting it, maybe you're part of a class action lawsuit.

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That's happening in my backyard right now. That's the thing that gives you grief. That's the thing that destroys reputation if you're in the medical field, especially.

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So come on, like to quote Joe Biden, come on, man. Firsthand knowledge of the difficulty of submission will in turn give us greater understanding and compassion for those under our leadership.

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We will not be able to talk of submission in light in trivial matters as if there's no cost. We can be gentle leaders we are called to be because we understand the weightiness of submission from practicing it ourselves.

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Submitting is a substantive and weighty act of self -denial. It can feel like death, even though we know it's the path to life.

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Even more learning the difficulty of submission will give us all a renewed sense of gratitude for what Jesus suffered on our behalf.

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While in tears and agony, he asked his father, if it'd be possible to take this cup from me. And yet he uttered these stunning words of self -denial, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

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So when as Christians, both male and female, we deny ourselves and submit to ourselves, to those in authority over us, we are doing something distinctively

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Christ -like whenever we say, not as I will, but as you will, we are acting like Jesus. All right, I wanna say this.

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In principle, I don't agree with, I do agree with most of this article. I mean, I have a little quibble with the,

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I think there's more of an exception than just sinning, but most of what he's saying is there's some truth to it.

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It's the posturing and the moment we're in that show me there's a political agenda of some kind behind this.

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It's the insinuating Christians are hypocrites. It's the, at the moment in which people are losing their job because they don't want to get the job, this article comes out.

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It's the assuming that men are the ones that have this problem right now. I mean, look, I know tons of women right now, like nurses, right?

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A lot of them are nurses in the state of New York that are trying everything they can not to submit to the state of New York.

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So the assumptions behind this, the application is just lacking. And this is the

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Gospel Coalition, in my opinion, puts out article after article like this, where if it's gonna move in the needle, ask yourself, which direction is it moving the needle?

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Away from government totalitarianism, toward government totalitarianism, toward the left, toward the right?

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What, where's the needle going? And in nine times out of 10, maybe more than that, it's moving it in a more left, progressive totalitarian direction.

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And I'm just calling it as I see it. So love Michael Kruger's books, but this article, the timing of it, it's not a good article, in my opinion.

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It's kind of a terrible article, actually. And that's just my opinion. But hopefully that was helpful for you in thinking through some of these things, because we're getting this stuff thrown at us all the time.

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So yeah, I hope that was helpful. God bless, more coming maybe later this week, probably next week though, we'll see.

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We will do some book reviews. I wanted to say briefly, because I've been doing all this work on my house,

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I've been listening to some audio books and a lot of stuff on social justice.

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So I got some notes, I got some stuff to review. I just read Esau McCulley's book, Reading the

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Bible While Black, we'll go over that. And my goal is to help you guys, give you the references.

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Hey, this is the page number where he says something that's a problem. Then you can think through it yourself and be the authority and challenge it when you see it in your, if you work for a ministry maybe, in your place of employment or your church.

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Also Christianity and Social Justice, Religions and Conflict, my book is out right now. You can go get it, amazon .com

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is one place, but you can also go to christianityandsocialjustice .com. And if you sign up on Patreon, $10 a month or more,

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I will give you a copy of the book for free that's autographed. I'm not gonna be able to ship stuff until October 11th though, so just be aware of that.

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If you do get it on Amazon, please rate it, please rate it on Amazon and it would help me tremendously. So God bless, thank you so much.