The Unbridled Arrogance of 9Marks - New Article on Politics

So a couple weeks ago, a study came out that I didn't comment on because, you know, this channel is not about just, you know, Christian discernment in general. You know, if the social justice movement didn't exist, this channel probably wouldn't exist.

But it was that typical Barna study that talks about the worldview of professing Christians in America. And it's—as usual, it was abysmal. We had huge swaths of people that think that human beings are basically good, that Jesus Christ wasn't God, that there might be many paths to be made right with God and stuff like that.

It was an awful report card for evangelicalism and Christianity in America. And like typical, you know, people were writing think pieces about why this is and all of this kind of thing. And the reality is we don't actually need a think piece to figure this one out because the truth of the matter is that Jesus Christ taught that students become like their teachers.

And so if you want to see who's at fault for the wildly divergent views on basic elements of the faith in the United States, look no further than the evangelical machine as it exists now. Yeah, to be honest, it's not something that anybody really wants to face, but it's the truth.

Jesus Christ taught that teachers become like their students. And so if your students are saying wildly divergent things about, again, basic elements of the Christian faith, then there's really only one place to look as far as whose fault that is.

Teachers, you know, students become like their teachers. And I don't think that the teachers, if you quiz the teachers, that they would get these questions wrong. I think that they would get these questions right.

And so I want to look a little bit deeper than that. I think that there's a problem probably with the method that we're using to teach our flock. Now, this is just my opinion. So take it for what you think it's worth.

But the reality is that I think that if you look at the landscape of Big Eva, Gospel Coalition, conference speaker types, you will see the reason why people are so confused and so open to having these just views of what the Bible teaches that are contradictory to each other, all for the sake of unity.

I mean, we're seeing this again and again and again. If you remember, I did a video. People really didn't like me when I did this video. In fact, I found out recently that there are some people that I really like and I have no problem with that have a big beef with me because of these videos that I did on Tim Challies when he gave a very weak, limp-wristed answer on gay Christianity.

I did a few videos about it earlier this year. And if you remember his answer, it was kind of one of these things where it's like, well, you know, we're still trying to figure it out and, you know, I can see both sides and stuff like that.

And the reality is that that's really arrogant to do. People were saying that I was unkind to Tim Challies when I said that that was arrogance personified when you are unclear about a question that the Bible gives a very clear answer on.

But I won't back down from that. That is arrogant to pretend like God hasn't been clear where he's been clear. And Tim Challies is not alone. Tim Challies is just the tip of the iceberg. This is how Big Eva communicates truths from the Bible.

They take clear truths and then muddy them all up and pretend that they're not clear all for the sake of some kind of charity or unity or something like that. And I would argue that this has led to what we see in the Barna results where we have people that are comfortable saying, well, you know, people are basically good.

I mean, after all, we need to have unity about the right things, right? You know, the Tim Challies issue about kind of muddying the waters, you know, I think intentionally, that's one issue. The other issue is that we don't ever actually apply our high-minded theology to big people, you know, or to individuals.

We don't actually ever specifically call out people for their specific words because we think that that's sort of unkind or somehow mean or something like that. I prefer, let me just say something real quick, and I know that I'm going to take a little bit of heat for this, but I'm willing to take this heat.

I prefer Pulpit and Pen to Gospel Coalition, and here's the reason why. Because when Pulpit and Pen writes a piece, they show you the screenshots, they show you the receipts, and what I like about that is you can look at the receipts and then decide, did Pulpit and Pen interpret this correctly?

Are they being truthful here? And you might agree or disagree. You might think that Pulpit and Pen maybe spun this inappropriately, and then of course you don't believe it, but at least they do you the service.

They give you the respect to let you check their work, and they take heat for it. You know, sometimes people say, well, they didn't get the facts right, and sometimes they don't get the facts right. But they at least give you the, they do the decent thing and let you to check your work.

I'm talking about this specific person, this specific statement. Here's what I interpreted as saying, you be the judge. But you see, Gospel Coalition doesn't do that. Instead, Gospel Coalition writes these thinks pieces where they use these wide categories where you're never really sure who fits the mold, and all it does is throw shade everybody's way, everybody's way, and so you can never actually check their work.

You can only just either trust them or not, and it's a real big problem. In fact, I've got a guy, Jared C. Wilson, who regularly writes tweets about me without naming me, and he thinks somehow that this is not, this is okay.

Like it's okay to say something about someone, but if you don't name them, then it's okay if you misrepresent it or stretch the truth or stuff like that. Here's an example. This is a tweet about me. If you ask Jared, and he was honest with you, which I don't know if he would be, but this is a tweet about me.

It takes a long time and it requires a lot of hard work to build reputation of a faithful ministry, which is why so many settle for the cheap route of building a reputation on criticizing those who have done it.

This is about me. I mean, there's no question about it. If you know Jared Wilson, you probably know that this is a tweet about A .D. Robles. But of course, he doesn't typically mention me, and so you can't really ever check his work, and that's a real problem.

I think that these are two issues that lead to sort of this situation that we find ourselves in where people have basic misunderstandings about basic tenets of the faith, and somehow we're all in the same churches, and that's actually supposed to be ideal.

The Worst Advice in a 9Marks Article on Politics

I'm going to review a Nine Marks article that I think is probably the worst advice that I've ever read in any article ever in history. This is the worst article that I've read in a very long time. It's an article by Greg Gilbert.

He's a senior pastor in a Baptist church in Louisville, Kentucky, and he writes an article here, published yesterday, How to Hold Your Tongue About Politics and Thereby Not Split Your Church Over Things the Bible Doesn't Talk About.

It sounds nice. It sounds nice, but when we have, I just want you to think about this. We just got this Barna release about all the wildly divergent views of basics, including the role of government, because the Bible is very clear about what the role of government ought to be.

What did God establish the government for human beings in order to do? See, government and politics is basic to humanity. It's one of the basic things that human beings need to do. If you want to know who you are, what a man is, what a man's supposed to do, politics and government is part and parcel of that.

It would be very weird if God just decided, you know what, I'm going to leave that one up to you. I know I said the government rests on my shoulders. I know I put a big book of justice in the Bible. I know I've got hundreds of laws, 10 basic commandments.

I know all that stuff, but figure it out for yourself. That would be very bizarre. This idea about holding your tongue over politics for the sake of unity is crazy. We don't need to hold our tongue over politics.

In fact, what could be a more political statement than saying Christ is Lord, Christ is master, he's the king of all the kings, he's the Lord of all the lords. I don't understand how you could say that and at the same time say, well, just hold your tongue about politics.

That doesn't make any sense and it's only going to lead to more confusion. If anything, we need pastors to be clear where the Bible is clear, more clear than they're being currently because if the Barna study is accurate, which some people have questions about the Barna study methodology and stuff like that, I'm not talking about that right now.

If we're going to wring our hands about how did this happen, how did our people just misunderstand basic tenets of the faith so obviously, the place to look is in the mirror. It's your fault. Students become like their teachers.

Here is what the article says. It starts off. It says, okay, so maybe there's a little more to say about this topic than just a cheeky emoji, especially in this anus horribilis, which is 2020. The entire world and everything in it seems to be swallowed up in the gaping maw of political fighting.

I was talking to a friend the other day and we both lamented that neither of us could remember the last time we had a conversation that wasn't about pandemics, protests, or people pining to be president, all of which of course is patently political.

To make matters worse, the pressure on pastors to publicly give their opinion on every event that explodes into the Twitterverse is enormous. To some, silence is violence and a failure to speak tells us everything we need to know.

To make matters even worse, let's be honest, most of us, even as pastors, do in fact have opinion about most of these things, sometimes strong one, and given that it's our job week in and week out to speak, to teach, to persuade, sometimes it feels entirely natural and right and good, even necessary, for us to wade into every controversial conversation with the goal of setting folks straight.

All that said, I'm actually not here to say that pastors should never speak about the political. Sometimes they're very charged to communicate the teachings of the Bible will require us to speak about issues that larger society has decided to appropriate into the political conversation.

After all, abortion is a political issue, the definition of marriage is a political issue, justice is a political issue. All of these things, and those are all things at one level or another that the Bible also speaks to.

Because of that, it wouldn't be prudent to say, well, I don't talk about political things. It would in fact be a dereliction of duty to deliberately avoid them. To do that would be to refuse to speak what the King has spoken.

The question I want to address here is what are some guardrails that can help a pastor navigate political issues, especially in a year like this? I can think of four that I've found helpful. So this is good, right?

Because this is exactly what I said. Not only should you not avoid political issues, but every issue that is a political issue is an issue the Bible addresses. Do you hear what I'm saying? Every issue that is a political issue is an issue that the Bible addresses.

So this title here, don't split your church over the things the Bible doesn't talk about, this is a fake title because there is nothing that is a political issue today that the Bible does not address in one way or another.

Now, you can't proof text it to death, but you can apply the good and necessary consequence. You can apply the general equity of God's law. You can apply all of these principles to come up with answers for what ails us politically, I guess you could say.

And so I'm glad that he starts there because pastors are not only not, not only should they not avoid talking about politics, but they're actually required to talk about politics. Again, Jesus Christ is Lord is a political statement and we need clarity where the Bible is clear and the Bible is very clear.

I saw Tom Buck the other day say that, that one of the main doctrines is that's under attack in our seminaries is the perspecuse, perspecute, I don't know that word, the clarity of scripture, right? How clear it is.

And that's very true. People have found a way to muddy almost every single water in the scripture and that's not what the Bible is. The Bible is a double edged sword. The Bible is clear. God spoke to us in a way that we can understand.

And so anyone that tries to muddy those waters, you should run from them like the plague. It's just that simple, especially if they're a pastor because their job is to speak the words of God. So if they don't understand the words of God, how can they speak the words of God?

Stay Off Social Media and Preach the Bible, Not the Headlines

So here's this man's first piece of advice, right? Here we go. Stay off social media. Just stay off. I told you last week that the social media retreat is underway and it definitely is. There is literally no reason for a pastor to stay off social media.

What you should do rather, in my opinion, is have a little self control. How about that? How about take responsibility for what you tweet and what you consume and stay on social media? How about that?

But let's just see what he has to say. He says this, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, all of them are cesspools of bad faith, angry, unedifying screaming when it comes to political exchanges. That is a flat out lie.

That is a flat out lie. Just like any public square, there's bad faith actors and there's good faith actors. I have positive experiences on Twitter. I have negative experiences on Twitter. And when I meet one of these bad faith people, angry, unedifying people, I ignore them just like I do in the public square.

There's nothing different between Twitter and the public square. Twitter is just another avenue of the public square. So this whole idea, just stay off Twitter. Twitter's bad, Facebook's bad, Instagram, well, Instagram probably is bad.

But anyway, it's just terrible advice. Why seed this to the culture? Why do this? Why is this the advice? Get self control, pastor. How about that? Have a little self control over what you type on Twitter.

Let's continue. He says, the fact is you will never convince someone of the rightness of your political position in a thread of 280 character tweets, nor even in a Facebook post. That is also false. This has happened many, many times.

In fact, people reach out to me about my tweets and how sometimes they rub them the wrong way. But I've convinced them of a variety of things via Twitter. This is false. Do not listen to Greg Gilbert.

He's lying to you here. He is not good at social media. He might not have self control. He thinks everybody doesn't have self control. In a post that talks about not splitting your church over things the Bible doesn't talk about, pretending like politics is one of those things the Bible might not talk about, he sure is giving you some very clear commands here of things the Bible clearly does not talk about.

The Bible clearly does not tell you to retreat from any aspect of the public square with the message of Jesus Christ, obviously. This is a mess. This is a mess, guys, and we're just going to continue.

So just stay off of it. Don't get in social media arguments. Stay out of the fray. Think of it like this. If you're a pastor, then the Lord has given you a platform and an authority that the vast majority of people on Facebook simply do not have.

So use that platform. When you speak to these issues, let it be from your pulpit with the full authority and hopefully carefulness that commands. Again, so what he took away, what he gives you with one hand, he takes away with the other.

So he's like, you have to talk about politics, but not that way. How about you figure stuff out for yourself and stop giving me extra commands that I have to follow that the Bible actually doesn't address?

How about that, Greg? He says this. He says, if staying off social media pretty much entirely isn't an option for you, let me offer at least one more piece of advice. This is a point that I've made not only to pastors, but also to my own congregation.

Part of the problem with social media is that we all think our tweets are on the edge of going viral, and therefore we all think our opinions are a hair's breadth away from moving the needle on the national political scene.

But if we're honest with ourselves, we'll realize pretty quickly that very few of us have that kind of influence. Our tweets and posts aren't going to move the national needle, but you know what they could do.

They could cause a detonation in the community closest to us. They could blow up your church. So whether you're a pastor or a member of a church, consider all what your tweet or post might do in and to the life of your church.

Those are the people most likely to read it, to be offended by it, to shoot back at you for it, or to start sniping at each other over what you said. And consider, is your tweet more likely to do measurable good for your political cause or to do measurable bad in the life of your church?

And isn't the unity and peace of the church more important than your eyeball scratching the need to share your fire opinion on the latest Twitter fight du jour? Almost always the answer to that question will be a resounding yes.

See, the reality is, Greg, most of us aren't duplicitous. Most of us don't have one opinion for the public and another opinion for the pulpit. Most of us are just the same. We believe the same things no matter what.

And so what I said on Twitter is what I would say in the life of my church. I'm not hiding it. I'm not changing my personality. Now my tone might be different. Different tones are required for different situations.

Even Paul the apostle recognized that, that his tone in his letters were one way. His tone in person was another way. And we can always talk about that. But the reality is that there's no duplicity with me here.

So the things that I said from Twitter when I was a pastor were the same things I would have said at church, you know, from the pulpit. I don't say that God says something in Twitter that he didn't say.

I have the same standard. I'm not trying to lie about what God said in any situation in any context, right? So I just don't understand this idea where it's like, well, you know, say it from the pulpit, but not in Twitter because you don't want to offend people on Twitter in your church.

And it's like, it's just, there's just a lot of duplicity here. Like I don't see many people, but I don't, I hope not. Maybe not big Eva people. I don't see many people playing this kind of game where they're trying to kind of split their personalities into a few different places.

The reality is also here that he's trying to say, well, you're not going to have an impact. So don't even do it. You're just not going to have an impact. And this is, this is just more evidence that, you know, big Eva is losing social media.

They don't have an impact on social media. So they think it's not, you can't even have an impact on social media. And that's just false. Just because every gospel coalition tweet that comes out gets ratioed to kingdom come.

Every nine marks article that comes out gets ratioed to kingdom come doesn't mean we're all losing Twitter. And so why don't you just keep your own rules for yourself and stop trying to bind other people's consciences, pretending like it's somehow wise and holy to stay off social media.

It isn't. You don't abandon anything to the culture. Everything is taken captive. Every area of life, wherever unbelievers are found, that's where you need to be. So let's move on and kind of pick up the pace here if we can.

Number two, he says, preach the Bible, not the headlines. In other words, remember your charge as a pastor and preacher of God's word, your authority speaks to speak extends to and only to that which is spoken by God and his word, the Bible.

To be sure the Bible speaks about a lot of things. In fact, it speaks to the most important questions of human existence. And those are always the kinds of questions that tend to get politically hottest.

We'll talk about that at a bit more in a bit. But the point I want to make here is that it's critical for you to remember where your authority lies. It lies in the Bible. And therefore you should make every effort to limit your public pronouncements to what the Bible says and to straightforward applications of those truths.

That's a good point. Just by the way, all of this is but one more argument for preaching expositional sermons to the entire books of the Bible. Instead of your sermon topics being driven by whatever's in the headlines, you'll simply preach what's next in the text.

Sometimes you'll find that the next text is crazy relevant to the headlines. Other times you'll find that the Lord wants to direct your church's attention elsewhere. But the point is that the word sets the agenda, not the world.

This is also good. Here's my point. If you commit to being a pastor who remembers his charge, who steps in the pulpit each week and says what the Bible says, you'll be something unique and powerful, a herald of the kingdom of heaven.

But if you involve yourself in every fight, using the pulpit to address every question that explodes into the headlines, you'll become something else entirely, just one more brain politically opinionated donkey in the current national shout fest.

So I charge you in the presence of God in Christ Jesus, who is judging the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. This is great advice. This is fantastic advice. But a preacher has to do more.

A preacher has to apply the text in such a way that it's useful to his flock. And I think that this whole idea of trying to separate politics from the text is futile because the text is always going to be relevant to what we're facing today.

And so we need to remember that we're hearing the words of God, not just so that we have the knowledge of God in our minds. That is important. We want to know who God is. We want to know what God is like.

But also we want to act for the Lord because we don't demonstrate our faith by how much we know about God. How much we know about God is important, but it's important because it informs our actions. We show our faith by our works.

And so when we know what God is like, we have works that demonstrate that we know what God is like, that we know that we love God, that we want to follow Christ, that we want to honor Christ. What does Christ say?

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And so all the preaching in the world is worthless if you don't act, if you don't have faith, if you don't demonstrate your faith. It's totally worthless.

You instantly forget what you're told and you don't do it. What good is that? What good is it? And so I think that when you're talking about the applications that the text makes, these are critical aspects of any sermon because it helps people act for the Lord.

And politics, when we talk about government and politics, is nothing more than what you actually believe about God played out on the grand scale. And so politics are part and parcel of demonstrating what your faith is.

So this weird way to kind of try to disconnect that is very bizarre. Point three, he says this, discern the difference between biblical principles and political policies. Now, obviously, preaching and applying the Bible like that requires wisdom.

One kind of unwise pastor will be so fearful that he won't even say what the Bible says because he's afraid it will be heard as getting into politics. Another unwise pastor will extrapolate from the Bible to whatever he really wants to say, you know, how the laws of warfare in Deuteronomy actually mean that it's ungodly to prohibit citizens from owning nukes, or how Year of Jubilee actually means that God wants all the property snapped back to government ownership every 49 years or whatever.

A wise pastor, though, and you should try to avoid, as a wise pastor, though, you should try to avoid that kind of tenuous extrapolation, say what the Bible says, and then apply it straightforwardly in first order applications.

That's the way of pastoral wisdom. Ultimately, this kind of wisdom consists in being able to discern the difference between biblical principles and political policies. So it's one thing to say every human being is made in the image of God, but quite another thing to say, and therefore, this proposal by Congresswoman whoever should become law.

That fact, the Bible lays down a ton of clear non-negotiable principles for, which is not clear at all what specific policy would be the exact best way to pursue these, uphold these principles. This is a fantasy.

Greg is explaining a fantasy here, because the Bible doesn't just say every human being is made in the image of God and let you run wild with that. It also gives you tons of case laws to show you how to best apply what the Bible says in its summary statements.

Tons of case laws. And so you can be sure that if your idea of a case law doesn't look anything like the case laws in the scripture, that's probably not a wise one. And the reality is, again, you remember Jonathan Lehman's cross-politic thing.

This is what Jonathan Lehman did in that cross-politic thing. He looked at the primary passage about capital punishment in the Bible, murderers should be given the death penalty, and he put his hands on his head like this and he racked his brain and he couldn't figure out that abortion doctors should be given the death penalty for killing babies, right?

You remember that look. And then he likewise racked his brain with his wisdom and he said, yeah, but I can find in that same verse that it's okay for the government to shut down worship of God. Like it's just unreal that we can get this kind of an article from Nine Marks.

It's just, it's basic gaslighting to say that this is the way of wisdom, all while Nine Marks is avoiding doing this like the plague. Absolutely, you should speak where the Bible speaks with clarity. But the very obvious point here is that Nine Marks, and this guy Greg, doesn't really think the Bible is that clear on very many things.

Every policy decision that the Democrats propose, every policy decision that the Republicans propose, I can give you a straightforward, very clear answer of how the Bible would handle it. And it would be easy to understand, it would come straight from the scripture, I would show you how I'm applying it, I'm showing you why I'm applying it that way, and it would be very easy.

What we don't need is to do this Tim Keller thing where it's like, well, the Bible says I should love life, but it doesn't tell me how to love life. That's how you get the Barner results. That's how you get people trying to have unity in a church where they don't even have the first idea what a government is for.

If you can't agree on what the government is for, there can be no unity there. It's not Twitter's fault that people don't have unity when one person thinks the government is for punishing evil and the other person thinks the government is for taking care of people, taking care of them like a daddy, like a nanny.

There's no peace there. Those are two divergent, they're polar opposites. And so you can't have political peace or even really spiritual peace in a situation where people's fundamentals are so unbelievably skewed.

Let's continue. For example, the Bible speaks clearly to the truth that unborn babies are made in the image of God. But what's the best specifically policy prescription to save the unborn? Is it appointing justices to the Supreme Court or changing laws or creating certain economic incentives and safety nets?

Or is it all of that? Similarly, the Bible speaks clearly of the truths that God created and values ethnic and cultural diversity. It speaks clearly to the fact that he hates oppression, but what's the best specific policy prescription to address these racial tensions in America?

Is it social justice reform? Is the payment of reparations or something else entirely? Listen to this. Listen to this next. Oh my goodness. This is this is the problem we're having, guys. This is the problem we're having.

Listen to this next sentence. A wise pastor will realize that his authority certainly extends on insisting on the principles laid down by God's word, but seldom to insisting on any one particular policy prescription.

That is a lie. That is somebody telling you that God's word is not a sharp sword, is not clear. There's God. God told us, you know, a couple of things, but then he basically said, you're on your own. Figure it out.

You should either execute abortionists or give them a raise if you think that's the way to limit abortions. Guys, this is this. This makes me so angry. It really did. It really does. Because I love the word of God.

I love the church and I want the church to have unity. But to see a man who who who who who who claims to to have the name of Christ, who preaches in the name of Christ, tell you that the Bible says abortion is wrong, but it doesn't tell you what to do in the case of the abortion.

It beggars belief. It beggars belief. And sometimes I just don't know what to do with that. These are your leaders. These are our leaders. If you want to know why the Barner results look the way that they do, it's because of pastors like this who are willing to lie to you and say that the Bible doesn't tell us what to do to to to to execute justice in the case of abortion or racial justice or cultural diversity or things like that.

The Bible tells us what to do in every one of those cases. Everyone. It's just it's so hard for me to swallow the idea that Big Eva just doesn't understand. Why is it that, you know, three quarters of their people don't understand that Jesus Christ was the Lord?

That's your fault, Big Eva. That's your fault. It's because you didn't teach them properly. You didn't teach them clearly. You use highfalutin, high signed, high minded words that they didn't understand.

And so they're like you now. They're giving answers like Tim Challey's when he was asked about same sex attracted Christians. Wrong answers, weaselly answers, arrogant answers. This article is arrogance, guys.

If somebody commits an abortion or procures an abortion, they are killing a baby that is made in God's image without any cause. That's called a murder. God says you shall not murder. God likewise says that if somebody does murder, that they are given the death penalty.

That is how you restrain murder. Death penalty for abortionists. That's what the Bible says. It won't make you any friends. And it might split up your church to say from the pulpit that the way to execute justice in the case of abortion is to start executing abortionists.

That might split up your church. So be it. Let the church split. Because the reality is we don't need less fundamentalism. We need more fundamentalism. We need more pastors who are willing to not be popular.

You see, Jonathan Lehman was racking his brain, I don't know what the punishment is for abortion. He knows what the punishment is for abortion because the scripture is just as clear for him as it is for me, as it is for you.

It says the same thing. What he doesn't know is how to say it in such a way that doesn't blow up his church. Well guess what? Your role as a pastor is not to not blow up your church. Your role as a pastor, when you're behind that pulpit, is to preach the clear words of God in an unadulterated, unapologetic, straightforward way that your people can understand.

So that they can feast on the word of God. Every word that comes from the mouth of God, including the ones that are going to make you super unpopular with certain people. Let them leave. So be it. I just, I can't even begin to understand this mindset, man.

I used to preach behind a pulpit. And look, knowing that I'm about to deliver the words of God, I knew that I had to do it, I had to only say what he said, right? And I knew that there was a chance I was going to fail and it was terrifying.

So like, I would never do that, right? I would never do that or pretend like it wasn't clear where it was or anything, like unless I was ready to take the brunt of the blowback, right? Unless I was ready to have the church blow up if they didn't like what the word of God said.

Like, I just, this is just unacceptable. This is unacceptable. Nine marks. This is unacceptable. It's arrogant and it's destroying people's lives. You want to know why the Barner results are the way they are?

Look no further than yourself. I don't even know if I want to continue this. Let's finish it. Let's finish it. Number four, hold the center. A few weeks ago, a nationally known Christian writer published an article lamenting the fact that few, if any of our national political leaders seem to have any interest in holding the center.

What he meant by that was not just holding a compromise position on every issue, trying to get porridge just right. What he meant rather was that most everyone in the country right now, even its political leaders seem to be fleeing to the extremes of political ideology and rhetoric and mostly just flinging slogans at one another and forcing every development in the news into the service of their political aims.

So what the nation lacks right now, what it desperately needs, this author said, are leaders who instead of fleeing to the edges will seek to hold the center. That is who will say what is true regardless of whether it helps or hurts a political cause.

That author is exactly right. And part of the charge God gives to pastors is to hold the center in just that way. This is, this is, this article lies so much, this article lies so much. There is no center.

There is no neutrality. There is no like, well, you know, no, there's extreme positions. Christ's law is non-negotiable. It is just is what it is. And you're going to look like a freaking lunatic a lot of times when you just say what it is.

When God's law says that abortionists and people who procure abortions, if they're convicted on the evidence of two or more witnesses ought to get the death penalty, people are going to think you're a nut.

So be it. There's no center there. You're either for Christ or with Christ. You either love Christ and teach others to do his commandments or you don't. It's really just that simple. It's really just that simple.

Let's just finish again. That doesn't mean always being silent. It doesn't entail a hardcore spirituality of the church position. And it doesn't mean simply picking the middle of the road, milquetoast compromise position on every question.