Glad That's Over - Woke Church "Debate"

All right, just a few afterthoughts today. I was out there on the river. The water was really high, which

I don't know if that's what affected the fishing, but it was awful. I had a hard, hard time.

I did not get skunked. I caught a little fall fish, which, you know, that's not what I was going after.

I was going after trout. But, you know, God has been good to me with fishing the last two weeks.

I've caught so many fish that it's just been just the time of my life. The last two days, though, have been pretty rough.

In any case, just a few kind of post -game thoughts. Having some time to now think through the entire debate conversation just in its entirety, which, by the way,

I was very glad that I did the live reaction thing because I was able to make some predictions and I was right a lot of the time.

There were a few that I was wrong on, but it's been really fun. But in any case, thinking about the debate as a whole, my goodness gracious,

I honestly can't believe my low expectations were just completely undermined.

I felt like my expectations couldn't have been lower, but they were. One of my commenters made such a good point, and I wanted to share it with you.

Brother, this is a tremendous insight. If you watch Sean DeMar's side of the debate, just watch the sections where he's talking.

I mentioned myself that a lot of times the way his voice tonality is, it's almost as if he's seeking approval.

It's almost like he's asking a question, and it seems like every step of the way he's been kind of cut off at the knees so he can't actually say the things he wants to say.

That's what I was saying. But if you go back, there are actually two times where Sean DeMar speaks with conviction.

You know what I mean? Where his winsomeness of being concerned or fearful or that kind of thing, it goes away and he's speaking what you know he believes to be true.

The tone of voice, the difference is so clear. I had not noticed this in real time, but one of my commenters did.

The two times where he speaks with conviction are both when he's talking about how bad the conservative side of this is, where he starts to say,

I'm ashamed of people on my side. I'm ashamed. You can see the pitch of his voice doesn't go up when he said,

I'm so grateful for you. It's not like that.

It's, I'm ashamed. And the other time is the same thing. He's talking about conservatives who are right, and he's saying how bad they are, that they're saying things that are ignorant, cold.

Even the words he uses to describe it, they're powerful, they're forceful. And I have no problem with that.

If he thinks that I'm ignorant and I'm cold and he's ashamed of me, like, and he wants to say it in a very kind of firm, confident tone of voice,

I've got no problem with that whatsoever. But isn't it interesting that the one, the two times he speaks with conviction, it's when he's attacking fellow conservatives, at least alleged fellow conservatives.

Because I honestly, after thinking through this debate, I really just don't know about Sean DeMars anymore.

I think I might have given him way too much credit. I know he knows the problem with wokeness and I'm grateful for him to push back on it.

But I think he might just be way too institutionalized at this point, too gospel coalition -y, if you know what

I mean. It's just so interesting. And then even the dynamic too, like at the time when he was talking about Christians that are conservative being cold and ignorant, and he just goes in on them, he says on the left -hand side, like the people that go too far on the left, what he says, it's so interesting, he says, um, yeah, that's not helpful.

And it's like, so he's comparing the, in his mind, he's comparing the two extremes, right? This is not true, but in his mind, he's comparing the two extremes, the extreme on the right and the extreme on the left.

The extreme on the left is just not helpful, not helpful, but the extreme on the right is cold, ignorant, and it's just aggressive.

It's just really interesting how he does that. The other thing that I was thinking of that I think really just defines this debate in just one moment is where he's defending gospel coalition guys, and specifically

Tim Keller. And I mentioned this in the last video, but I just wanted to drive the point home.

I just can't believe that the defense he attempted, it boggles the mind.

I said this on Twitter and someone couldn't believe that he actually, this is how he actually tried to do it. His defense consists of this,

I know these guys, I go to lunch with them, they're friends of mine, trust me, they're not woke.

In a private conversation, he said this about that, trust me, they're not woke.

And then when he's defending Tim Keller, he says, come on guys, Tim Keller's not woke, don't be ridiculous.

And it's like, I can't believe he thought that would work.

When he said it, his defense, maybe he didn't think it would work.

These are the two options. I've been going back and forth, and now as I'm talking it out on the camera, it's like, maybe this is just the best he's got.

Because we've documented the wokeness of Gospel Coalition and the liberalism of Gospel Coalition, guys.

And of course, it's not every member, we get that. But as a group, this is an organization that is pushing the church leftward.

There is no question about that. I've documented a hundred times over, O 'Fallon's documented it a hundred times over,

Protestia, a hundred times over, Harris, a hundred times over, Capstone Report, a hundred times over,

Woke Preacher Clips, a hundred times over. I mean, there's just so much documentation out there.

We've got screenshots, we've got syllabus, we've got all this stuff. We've read your books, we've got,

I mean, the Woke Church book, I went chapter by chapter video, each chapter got a 20 -minute video.

We've read your stuff, we've picked it apart, we've given you the benefit of the doubt, we've asked questions, we've documented, we've double -checked, and we've just gone in on this.

And that's an insurmountable tsunami of evidence. And the best that he can do, because he wants to defend his friends, and look, this is commendable.

It's commendable to defend your friends, for that to be your first impulse. I've said this many times, like if somebody called me up and said my brother had committed some horrible act, the first reaction

I would have is, no way, I know my brother. There's no way he did that. That would be my first reaction.

But of course, if I was faced with an insurmountable pile, tsunami of evidence, here he is on video, here he is on hologram, here's his audio, here's his manifesto that he wrote beforehand, here's his wife testifying against him, like if I got all that, eventually

I'd have to be like, I mean, I thought I did know him, you know what I mean?

So there's no problem with him seeking to defend his friends. But the reality is, there has to come a point when you realize that if the best argument you have against our wall of evidence is, come on,

Tim Keller's not woke. Don't be ridiculous. I know these guys.

I go to lunch with, they're my friends. Trust me. He told me something in secret.

And it's like, yeah, but what about these hundred public statements that he said that are all woke?

No, no, no. Trust me. And it's like, guys, like Gospel Coalition has given up this debate.

And all that we need to do now is to continue to hammer these points home because there is no response forthcoming.

If this is what their response is, this fake debate, and Sean DeMars' best ammunition is, trust me, guys, come on, don't be ridiculous.

It's like, we've won. Now, the thing is, though, we've won the intellectual kind of reason, logical, evidence -based debate.

But we also have to win the hearts of people. And I think that that's kind of where a lot of our work needs to go.

We need to show people and emotionally grab them because this thing is destroying lives, destroying relationships.

At the end of my book, Social Justice Pharisees, I tell a story about a man who was almost devoured by the woke church movement.

He since God's been gracious to him. And this is important because he's married to a white woman, and he's

Puerto Rican like me. And it's like, it's very important to not let this get a foothold because that can destroy even your interpersonal relationships as well.

God nipped it in the bud early. So this guy almost got devoured. He didn't. And we need to tell those stories.

Those are the stories that we need to hear, I think. And so Gospel Coalition has already been dealt the finishing blow.

They've already been dealt the death blow. And they're like the fish, when you whack it on the head to kill it quickly, they still flop around a little bit.

You know what I mean? They're still twitching. That's where Gospel Coalition is right now. And so I say, stay the course, increase the rhetoric, increase the intensity, because if this is the best they've got, the game is already over.