When Evil Is Unmasked
From Ryan Anderson to Jesse Singal, all were guilty in Chu’s eyes of “compassion-mongering” and “gatekeeping,” disagreeing only on “how the gate is to be kept.” Maybe trans “affirmation” surgery would make some people happy, and maybe it wouldn’t, but for Chu, that wasn’t the point. The point was that “surgery’s only prerequisite should be a simple demonstration of want,” and “no amount of pain” could justify withholding it.
First, they said nobody was transing kids. Then, they said it would be no big deal even if people were. You know what comes next, because you’ve seen this movie before: “Now it’s happening, and it’s a good thing.”
“I wrote about what justice looks like for trans kids,” tweets Pulitzer-winning “trans” journalist Andrea Long Chu about his new cover essay for New York magazine, in which he makes “the moral case for letting children change their bodies.” His thesis is shockingly simple: The freedom to change one’s body is a basic human right. Children are humans. Thus, they should have the freedom to change their bodies. (WORLD Opinions editor Albert Mohler covered this story when it broke earlier this week.)
Chu acknowledges that this is different from the common argument that “affirmative” treatments are necessary for “trans” kids’ health. While Chu does in fact believe that puberty blockers will benefit such children, his reasoning is not primarily medical. As his own subtitle states, it is “moral,” according to his twisted definition of “morality.”
This essay should be read as the logical continuation of Chu’s 2018 essay about his own post-surgical regret, written for The New York Times (which, ironically, he now excoriates as insufficiently pro-trans).
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A New Year in God’s Providence
What will God in his goodness and wisdom and grace and power do with us in the new year? Watching for this is far more to God’s glory and to the enjoyment of God than the quest to get done what I want to get done.
In her rich fantasy novel, Piranesi, author Susanna Clarke has the main character, whose name is also the book’s title, keep a journal for each year he has been living in the Beautiful and Kind House.
As described on the back cover, the rooms of the House “are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls lined with thousands upon thousands of statues.” It is a place of stunning beauty and deep intrigue.
As extraordinary as the House is, the passing of time there is quite ordinary. Time, in fact, becomes a major feature of the story, especially as the whole book is a series of revealing journal entries.
Fully aware of time’s passage, Piranesi records the number of each day and the number of each month whenever he makes an entry. His dating technique, however, is not what you would expect: he has stopped counting the years by numbers.
At almost every entry, Piranesi records the year as “the year the albatross came to the south-western halls.” He observes time by its remarkable providences not by mere counting. It is a clever move by Clarke which lends helpful strategy to followers of Christ as we enter a new year ourselves.
If we applied Piranesi’s method, one wonders how much more restful and joyful the year ahead would be. What if we watched and waited for the providences of God to unfold far more than we brooded over our own accomplishments? What if we are blind to the albatross flying through the House because we are always hunched over our resolutions?
John Flavel (c. 1630-1691) liked to point to Asaph’s wisdom in Psalm 77:11-12 to drive home a similar point. “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.”
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6 Lies that Keep Us from Praying
Since God “knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14), he is pleased to help us pray. When we don’t know what or how to pray, the indwelling Spirit of God prays for us “with groanings too deep for words,” (Romans 8:27). The Son of God himself intercedes for us from God’s right hand (Hebrews 7:23-25) that we might “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).
Thanks to my wife, Jordan, we do birthdays big in our home. The night before, the birthday boy or girl is sent to bed while the rest of the family stays up late stringing streamers, hanging banners, wrapping presents, putting the finishing touches on the cake, and, who could forget, blowing up countless multicolored, confetti-filled balloons until they carpet the floor. We fill so many balloons in a given year that Jordan caved and bought an automatic inflator! Well, once the candles have been blown out and the celebration is over, I go around popping one balloon at a time until the floor is visible again. Secretly, it’s one of my favorite parts of our birthdays.
When it comes to prayer, there are balloons littering the floor of our hearts that need to be popped; lies we believe that need to be burst with the needle of God’s Word because they discourage us from crying out to our Heavenly Father honestly and often. Here are 6 of those lies:I don’t have the time
The first lie we believe that keeps us form praying is that prayers must be lengthy. We think, “If I don’t have a solid 20 or 30 minutes to devote to a robust time of prayer, why bother? Can a short, signal flare of a prayer really please God?” The Bible shouts, “Yes!” While we should strive to protect appointed times of prayer each day, we mustn’t run past the good in pursuit of the perfect.
In the momentary pause between Artaxerxes’ question and Nehemiah’s answer, the prophet fired up an SOS prayer that God was pleased to answer (Nehemiah 2:4). In view of man’s nothingness and God’s transcendent majesty, the writer of Ecclesiastes suggested, “Therefore, let your words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2). If some psalms are long like Psalm 119 and some are short like, Psalm 117’s 2 verses, we can know that the Lord who inspired these model prayers is pleased by them regardless of length. Jesus himself instructed his disciples, “…when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7-13). Thus, the prayer our Lord taught his disciples was pretty short.God hears our prayers not because they are lengthy but because he loves us.I don’t have the words
In seminary, one of my professors prayed in old English, sprinkling his prayers Shakespearean “thees,” “thous,” “wilts,” and “shalts.” Now to be fair, he was old… and English. As he prayed, I thought to myself, “I will never be able to pray this beautifully.” You may feel the same thing reading the Puritan prayers preserved in The Valley of Vision. “Is God really pleased with my simple, unsophisticated, unvarnished words in prayer?” He certainly is! Do parents wait to listen to their children until they attain mastery of language? No, of course not. While we should to endeavor to speak to the Lord clearly and reverently, we must remember that some of the most profound prayers in the Bible are not literary masterpieces. In his final moment, Samson cried “O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once…” (Judges 16:28). Jesus’ tax collector went home justified after praying, “God be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:9-4). Jesus stretched out his healing hand after the leper said to him, “If you will you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40-41).
Remember, though we are coming to the King when we pray, he is also, by grace, our Father, Shepherd, and Friend. He hears our prayers not because they are eloquent but because he loves us.I don’t have the knowledge
“But,” we argue with ourselves, “I’m no great theologian. I am still trying to understand the gospel. I am still learning the doctrines of the faith. What if I make mistakes in my prayers? What if I say or ask for the wrong thing? Will God still hear me?” He will. While we should be moving from spiritual milk to meat as we grow in our knowledge of God’s person, work, and word, we should not allow our lack of learning to keep us from speaking to God. The father of the demonized boy admitted his ignorance and doubt to Jesus saying, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). It was a prayer Christ was pleased to answer.
Since God “knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14), he is pleased to help us pray. When we don’t know what or how to pray, the indwelling Spirit of God prays for us “with groanings too deep for words,” (Romans 8:27). The Son of God himself intercedes for us from God’s right hand (Hebrews 7:23-25) that we might “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).
If your child said, “I love you,” what parent in their right mind, would turn that child away snorting, “Love! You don’t even know what that word means!” No, we would accept their imperfect love with full hearts. So too, God hears our prayers not because of our theological brilliance, but because he loves us.4. I don’t have the feelings
Will God accept a cold-hearted prayer uttered in oughtness or spoken in duty? Yes. We don’t ultimately or only pray when we feel like it. We pray because we are commanded to. We pray because, like broccoli, we know it’s good for us. We pray because God is glorified and we are humbled by it. We pray because we know that like so many things in life, our feelings follow our feet. How often do we go to church begrudgingly but leave gladly?
Not praying because you don’t feel like it is like not going to the gym because you’re out of shape. Not praying because you don’t feel like it is a vicious, self-defeating cycle. How else will God spark the flame of desire within us?
In Lewis’ masterful fiction, Uncle Screwtape instructed the junior demon, Wormwood, to derail a certain Christian’s prayer life by tempting him to define the authenticity of his faith by his feelings:
Whenever they are attending to the Enemy Himself, we are defeated, but there are ways of preventing them from doing so. The simplest is to turn their gaze away from Him towards themselves. Keep them watching their own minds and trying to produce feelings there by the action of their own wills. When they meant to ask Him for charity, let them, instead, start trying to manufacture charitable feelings for themselves and not notice that this is what they are doing. When they meant to pray for courage, let them really be trying to feel brave. When they say they are praying for forgiveness, let them be trying to feel forgiven. Teach them to estimate the value of each prayer by their success in producing the desired feeling; and never let them suspect how much success or failure of that kind depends on whether they are well or ill, fresh or tired, at the moment.
God hears our prayers not because of our fickle feelings towards him or towards prayer itself, but because of his steadfast love towards us.I don’t have the need
Prayer is only to be utilized by believers in cases of emergencies, right? Wrong! Imagine having a friend or family member that only ever called when they needed something. What if a husband only ever talked to his wife when he wanted something from her? How would such treatment make her feel? Dehumanized? Objectified? Used? Uncherished? Is it so different with God? Marriage is, afterall, a mysterious picture of Christ and the church.
Corrie ten Boom asked, “Is prayer your steering wheel, or your spare tire?” You see, prayer is not only reserved for dire straits. Prayer is our living lifeline to God. Prayer is the umbilical connection between our hearts and Him who sits enthroned in the heavens. Prayer is the language of our love to Jesus; the secret communion of our souls with our Savior.
Unlike Christmas decorations that deck our halls from late November to early January, prayer is for all seasons! Paul told the Thessalonians to “pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18) Everyone prays in the fox hole. Only true believers pray on the plain of life’s mundane or on the mountain top of life’s golden moments.
You don’t need to pray? Is God so plain that you have nothing to tell Him about himself? Is your life so empty that you have you nothing for which to thank God? Is your soul so clean that you have you no sin that needs pardon? Are you so apathetic that you have no holy aspiration after which you are striving? We always have something, indeed many things, for which we can pray.I don’t have the merit
We all know how this one goes: “Surely, a holy God only hears the prayers of holy people. Surely God only answers the pleas of those worthy of heaven’s help. I’m too dirty. I don’t deserve an audience with him whose robe is the light (Psalm 104:2) and who dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 6:16).
Indeed, our sin disqualified us from loving relationship with God. But (thanks be to God!) Jesus has qualified us by owning our sin on the cross and transferring the infinite worth of his righteous life to our account. “Dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne…”; we pray not on the basis of our own merit, but upon the basis of his.
Some of the greatest prayers ever answered were uttered by the vilest people. Think of the Rahab the harlot, evil king Manasseh, Zacchaeus the thief, Saul the Christian killer, or Samson the philanderer. Consider the dying thief, who, with his last breath, looked to the man on the middle cross and begged, “‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’” (Luke 23:42-43). If the Lord heard the prayers of people like these, he will hear any who call upon him in faith. God hears us not because of our merit, but because of Christ’s merit and because he loves us.
When the world, the flesh, and the devil lie to us to hinder our prayers, may we preach the truth of God’s Word to our own hearts and press on in prayer.
Jim McCarthy is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is Pastor of Trinity PCA in Statesboro, Ga.
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Do I Teach At A Woke School?
Written by Carl R. Trueman |
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Even in the last three weeks, I have taught classes on campus criticizing the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision and Bruce Jenner’s gender transition—career-damaging lectures at almost any other institution of higher education in the United States. And I have for many years been one of the most vocal opponents of the way in which identity politics, particularly that of the LGBTQ+ movement, has damaged our culture and public life. I have received nothing but support from the college administration as I have continued to speak up on such matters.“Do I teach at a woke school?” was not a question I seriously considered until one evening last week when I received an email from a friend assuring me of his prayers for me in my workplace. The reason was an article he had just read on a website, The American Reformer, entitled “Wide Awoke at Grove City College?” The background to the article was a petition launched some weeks ago by parents of Grove City College (GCC) students and alumni concerning what they perceived as a woke drift on campus. The GCC president had responded to the petition in a way that I myself had thought was solid but American Reformer dismissed as “limp” and, by implication, disingenuous. I do not know if the author of the article has ever set foot on the campus which he writes about, but I confess that had he not told me he was writing about GCC, I might have struggled to recognize the ethos of my institution in the way he described it.
Now, wokeness is surely a serious problem in American higher education. Parents and alumni of all schools are right to be concerned about how various institutions are responding. I am not persuaded that petitions are ever the best way to address such problems but I can certainly sympathize with those anxious about their children or about their beloved alma maters. I myself am passionately committed to saving education from wokeness. I am a member of the James Madison Society at Princeton University and the National Association of Scholars, both of which have a keen interest in maintaining the importance of academic freedom and excellence on campuses. I am a contributing editor at the decidedly anti-woke First Things and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, one of the best-known conservative think-tanks in Washington, D.C. I am acutely aware of the struggle many friends face at this difficult time and I understand why parents and alumni are disturbed when they hear stories (or, in this case, mostly misguided rumors) about their institution. They are right to ask questions and raise concerns. They need to know if the colleges that take their money are providing the education they claim to be doing.
At the heart of academic institutional excellence is, of course, academic freedom. That can be tricky at a school that holds a stated religious position, such as a Christian college like Grove City College, but it can be done. The way a Christian school can hold to its beliefs yet give students a good education is to hold faculty to a standard of belief but then ensure that they engage other viewpoints in the classroom, host speakers from a variety of political and philosophical traditions, and encourage students to wrestle honestly with the great ideas and the hard questions of the past and the present. For example, as I recently told the Religious News Service, I declare my classes to be free-speech zones (something none of the more progressive figures interviewed said about their classes). I do not require students to agree with me in order to get a good grade. But if they dissent from my view they need to do so respectfully and give me an argument as to why I am wrong. For me, education is not about cloning myself intellectually in the classroom (as it is becoming at so many woke schools); it is about giving the students the skills to think for themselves.
At the center of the storm surrounding GCC was an invitation to Jemar Tisby to speak in chapel. Hindsight is 20/20, of course, and in retrospect inviting Tisby to give a chapel address may have been a mistake. A chapel address carries a certain institutional imprimatur that a simple guest lecture does not, though inviting guest lecturers to campus to engage our students on critical topics such as race, in this current culture, is an important role of any college or university. But that is not a criticism of my colleagues who invited Tisby to speak in chapel. One of the hallmarks of wokeness is cultural amnesia—the swift forgetting of what was true the day before yesterday in order to demonize those who still hold, say, to the importance of biological sex for gender. Conservatives need to be careful not to play their own version of the woke-amnesia game when it suits them. Tisby is a good example. He was first given a platform by Reformed Theological Seminary where he had been a student on its Jackson, Mississippi campus. That is a flagship conservative reformed institution. Indeed, as recently as 2015, he was appointed director of the African-American Leadership Initiative at RTS. He was described at the time by the RTS Chancellor, Ligon Duncan, as follows: “a man I trust … a dear friend … an educator and a churchman…. His commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture, the Reformed faith and the gospel ground all his efforts towards our honoring the image of God in all people.” Ligon Duncan is no woke progressive, as anyone who knows him will attest.
Duncan’s eulogy is a reminder that Tisby has been on a long journey, from RTS poster child in 2015 to working for Ibram Kendi’s outfit in 2021. Indeed, even The Color of Compromise, a book with which I have some stated disagreements, is surely not representative of where he is today. The fact is, the summer of 2020 appears to have been a radicalizing watershed for Tisby as for many others on both sides of the political divide. The college can hardly be blamed for failing in 2019 to predict the radicalization of the RTS graduate who had recently been seen as the emerging African American bridge-builder in conservative reformed Presbyterianism.
In an email exchange, the editor of The American Reformer expressed concern to me that Grove City College was platforming Tisby while not platforming faculty like me on woke issues. Well, Tisby came to campus for one day and (I believe) spoke twice. Then he left and has not returned. As for me, I lecture for several hours every day on campus to classes that are full. I speak in chapel every year. I write things almost weekly at places like First Things and World that whack wokeness. The college launched its Great Lectures series by showcasing me on identity issues as they culminate in today’s identity politics. The college arranged for me to speak to a Washington D.C. group of Capitol Hill staffers twice in the last 18 months—once on sexual-identity issues, once on race. Even in the last three weeks, I have taught classes on campus criticizing the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision and Bruce Jenner’s gender transition—career-damaging lectures at almost any other institution of higher education in the United States. And I have for many years been one of the most vocal opponents of the way in which identity politics, particularly that of the LGBTQ+ movement, has damaged our culture and public life. I have received nothing but support from the college administration as I have continued to speak up on such matters. And from my vantage point, the same could be said of my colleagues who share my support of GCC’s Christ-centered mission, but do not come down on every hard issue where I do.
That makes Grove City College, even with all of its mortal failings and human flaws, a remarkable place. My wife and I recently hosted students at our house for a dessert evening. One of them asked if I hoped to stay at Grove City College until I retire. I responded yes, because I love the college and, more significantly, because my writings and lecturing have made me likely unemployable almost anywhere else in this age of the woke. As evidence, I told them about a Christian college where I gave a lecture by Zoom in the last year. The professor who invited me to speak asked if he could record the session because he expected to be the subject of a complaint that he had created an unsafe learning environment by having someone of my views speak. And that was a Christian college. A Christian college. That would not happen at Grove City College.
Is Grove City College perfect? No more than I am. But I am a conservative and a Christian and that means that I believe certain things are true. For example, I believe that no institution can ever make no mistakes and do the right thing every time. And the larger the institution, the more likely it is that issues will arise. With nearly 200 faculty, a large staff, a student body of more than 2,000, and more than 800 courses taught each semester, GCC is too big for even the most perfect administration to micromanage. Built from the crooked timber of fallen humanity, Grove City College, like all institutions, reflects our own failings and weaknesses. But if the test of people’s character is not whether they live a perfect life but how they handle their mistakes and failings, then the test of an institution’s integrity is how it addresses those things which have not gone as planned or have proved unexpectedly counter-productive. GCC’s management of this continuing challenge is smart and effective. It strives to hire excellent scholars with solid Christian convictions. There is no tenure; everyone gets a one-year contract requiring affirmation of the college’s mission and values. When occasional issues arise, direct and constructive conversations take place with the expectation of missional alignment. That is why it is sad that the college’s recent statement about its commitment to addressing the matters raised by the petition has met with such cynicism from an ostensibly conservative Christian source.
I do appreciate my friend praying for me. I hope that he prays that all of us at Grove City College will stand firm for God’s truth, academic freedom, and intellectual integrity in this storm of wokeness that surrounds us. But above all, I hope that he gives thanks that I and my colleagues work at a place where we have the freedom to be faithful in our callings, a freedom that exists in few other institutions of higher education today.
Carl R. Trueman is professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Grove City College. This article is used with permission.