Another (Non-Theobro) Christian Scholar on Social Justice

When I read the new 2022 Frankfurt Declaration last week, I could not help but think back to this essay I read almost three years ago. As I noted in an earlier post, I am not a student of the areas of study that concern themselves with Critical Race Theory, so I am grateful that Kelly Hamren agreed to allow me to repost her commentary here. She was homeschooled and went on to eventually become a graduate student at Liberty University. After completing her studies, she served for eleven years in the English Department at Liberty, moving from Instructor to Assistant Professor. She later earned a PhD in Literature and Criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

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The Piety of the Theobros and the Bully Pulpit of 2022 Frankfurt Declaration

A few days ago, I took notice of a new term used to describe today's Alpha Males of Calvinism:  Theobros. They're a special breed of New Calvinist who spends a lot of time on Twitter, telling women, men, and the rest of us lesser life forms that we aren't the right kind of Christian as if they are the New Gnostics. Sometimes, I feel betrayed because the late RC Sproul, Sr's work helped me profoundly on my thirty-three-year-long journey out of the cruel madness of Word of Faith. Little did I know that he was a rare example of loving grace and compassion amongst the larger group of New Calvinists (in both the media and in churches). 

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The Equivocation Problem with Social Justice that the Theobros Make Worse

Featuring Rosato's Harriet Tubman Mural

Most regular people understand the term "social justice" in terms of common vernacular in the US -- through the simple meaning of the words themselves. In society, especially in America, our government aspires to grant each citizen rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We've spent our whole history working to make those liberties equally available to all her citizens. To most people, most Christians included, "social justice" means just that. It is the aspiration to see all people in society treated fairly and justly. Unless someone's taken particular classes in college or read specific literature that offers a different definition, most people understand these simple words in only that context. 

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Answering Scot McKnight's Question: "What Made Josh Butler's TGC Article Different?"

This week, I listened to two podcasts about the controversy that ensued concerning Josh Butler's book excerpt that appeared on The Gospel Coalition (TGC) website on March 1.  A friend gave me a link to the Preventing Grace Podcast, claiming that they expressed some of the same ideas that I did, asking that people would extend mercy to the author.  While I did not find Butler's material to be that difficult in light of other teachings, I became quite triggered by the hosts' straw man mischaracterizations of Butler's critics, along with their claims that his writing was beautiful.  (Apparently, we prudish, small-minded people who cry "misogyny" at every turn only look for material to use to destroy those with a different view.)  The following day, I listened to a podcast that posed questions I'd already been thinking about because of my thoughts from the previous day.

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Sex is not a Hermeneutic & A Prayer for Truth and Unity: (Reflecting on The Gospel Coalition This Week)

I thought I'd mention some positive follow-up after my bombastically titled blog post a few days ago that spoke to problematic statements in a blog post at The Gospel Coalition (TGC) website. 

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The Spermeneutics of Spread Your Legs Theology

11Mar23 EDIT:

At this late date, I'd rather that people read my personal reaction to the article which took me nearly a week to process.

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Well, the Gender Agenda folks just continue to get weirder.  We already know about Tim Keller's sex orgy with God, and yesterday, The Gospel Coalition published an excerpt from a new book by the Fellow at the Tim Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics.  Read more HERE.  I didn't even include the stuff in my meme about how a woman's readiness for sex is a show of “hospitality.”

Someone asked me why these people like the Theobros make everything so weird. Well, let's break it down. We've used good hermeneutics to study good theology. Now, you'll hear some spermeneutics to learn about Spread Your Legs Theology. (Shirley Taylor gets credit for naming this theology. It's like a sanitized version of the Kinder, Küche, and Kirche, but it's remade to be Biblical for Christians.)

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Preferring Uniformity over Unity: More John Piper in the Bedroom

After reviewing Augustine's challenge on the last BTR show, I pointed out that the complementarians make the show of love and liberty quite complicated because they intermingle matters of social preference with essential doctrine. If they intended to divide the church by doing so, the divisive plan has worked quite well. Our conflicts not only concern behavior, they also involve core doctrine, and it's not just a matter of intramurals as they would have you believe.

They send a host of mixed messages, then don't want to be held accountable for sending them. Somehow, it all falls back on that evil and unsubmissive woman!

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