Written by Larry G. Locke |
Monday, September 2, 2024
The Bible never instructs believers to emulate God in His greatness. God’s metaphysical attributes are exclusive to Him. Self-preservation would invite us to believe that divine greatness is only safe in the hands of a being with divine goodness. Our ersatz C.S. Lewis would argue that the same relationship of goodness and greatness should apply to the students we educate. If we want to train them to be great, we must also train them to be good. The greater level of moral goodness we can inculcate in our students, the safer it will be for them to achieve the greatness we have promised them.

It is the time of year when those of us who serve as teachers, from college to Kindergarten, are ramping up our preparation for the upcoming term. In my home university, new faculty are arriving on campus this week for onboarding, next week will be devoted to faculty meetings at the university and college level, and then the students arrive.
University faculty need this time to prepare. In pursuit of efficiency and cost control we have reduced the number of hours students spend in the classroom to the minimum required by our various accreditors. At the same time, in an attempt to improve the competitive value of our programs we have upgraded the learning outcomes promised to our students. Faculty need to prepare every lecture, assignment, experiment, exam, discussion, and exercise if they are going to meet all their course objectives in the limited time available.
Student expectations are also high. We have promised them greatness. We have assured them our classes can transform them into great writers, great speakers, great problem solvers, and great thinkers. We have touted to them the success of some of their select forebearers who achieved prestigious graduate school acceptances or cool jobs with high starting salaries as a result of our training. Those kinds of commitments, although usually moral rather than contractual, drive our need for preparation. Greatness is not easy, and it will take all our skill and energy as educators to prepare our students to achieve it.
Unfortunately, this swirl of well-meaning activity may mask a common failing of the university, particularly for Christian faculty and institutions. Is our frenzy of planning at this time of year preparing students to be great, while ignoring training them to be good? It invites the old saying mistakenly attributed to C.S. Lewis, “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.”1
At the same time, most of us are not trained in theology or moral philosophy. As Christian instructors, should we not be concentrating on being good stewards of the students before us by imparting the expertise of our particular disciplines? We may well prefer to stay within our realm of proficiency and rely on others within the university to focus on the students’ Christian worldview. If moral education must happen in the classroom, we would often rather demure on integrating faith into our subject matter and merely allow our students to experience Christian values through the way we conduct ourselves and engage with them. Is that sufficient? What is our responsibility as Christians in higher education?
When my brother and I were children, our parents taught us a simple prayer to say at mealtimes. “God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food.” The simplicity of this prayer conceals some profound theology. When theologians describe the properties of God, they often divide them into His communicable characteristics and incommunicable characteristics.2 Communicable characteristics are the moral attributes of God and include qualities like God’s love, compassion, forgiveness, patience, and kindness – the qualities of God’s goodness. God’s incommunicable characteristics refer to His unique metaphysical attributes such as His qualities of omnipotence, omnipresence, and eternality – His qualities of greatness.
The Bible is replete with instructions to emulate God in His moral attributes. Saint Paul admonishes the Christians in Rome to “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer”3 capturing three of God’s moral attributes and applying them to the Romans’ contemporary issues.
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Written by J. Drew Tillman |
Monday, September 2, 2024
A third point for Spurgeon was unity, especially unity among minsters of the gospel. In a day with much division, Spurgeon’s point is a good reminder. He said, “Whenever the foot is at enmity with the hand there must be something like madness in the body; there cannot be a sound mind within that frame which is divided against itself.” And elsewhere, “If there be among us any remnants of the spirit of division; if there be aught in us that would make us excommunicate and cut off brethren, because we cannot see with them in all the points of the spiritual compass, though we agree in the main; if it be so, then there must be somewhere or other an unhealthy disease. . . . Oh my heart longs to see a more thorough union among the minsters of Christ Jesus.”

In 1860, Spurgeon spoke to the London Missionary Society and expressed a desire for fruitful missions. He titled his talk “Peace at Home, and Prosperity Abroad.” For Spurgeon, successful missions started with healthy local churches. He asked, “What are the points which constitute the healthiness of the church at home?” His answer:

Purity of life (conversion) confirmed through membership examination;
The soundness of the gospel (sound doctrine);
The saved bond of brotherhood (unity);
Constant activity (devoted to good works);
Abounding in prayer.[1]

Perhaps he could have added four or six more, but these points are certainly a good place to start if we want to see a local church become healthier.
1. Purity of Life (Conversion) Confirmed Through Membership Examination
Spurgeon believed saints should be “sufficiently distinguished from the world” and “in our purity—and in our purity alone—we stand.” How is a church “pure” and distinguished from the world?
Conversion. This view was consistent in Spurgeon’s preaching. In another sermon, Spurgeon said, “An unholy, unregenerated church can never be the pillar of the truth. If there be a failure in vital godliness, if humble walking with God be neglected, the church cannot long remain a healthy church of God.”[2] He preached, “If we take into our churches those who are not converted, we swell our numbers, but we diminish our real strength.”
For Spurgeon, true success was not measured by numbers alone but “our success in a measure depends upon the vitality, healthiness, and godliness of each individual.” Spurgeon knew that unconverted individuals impacted the rest of the body.
Those tempted to compromise biblical membership for the sake of numerical growth should listen to Spurgeon’s caution: “We have not brought the world up to us; we only brought ourselves down to it. We have not conquered the world; we have only yielded to it. . . . We have brought the chaste spouse of Christ to commit fornication among people.”
How can churches work to be sure her members are Christians?
For Spurgeon, the answer is simple: careful membership examination. He preached, “We cannot possibly be too strict in the examination of those who are proposed for church fellowship.”
Regarding membership, Spurgeon sought to combine the mildness of the Savior’s mind and the love of the Spirit with a stern firmness. This means churches should work hard “with the most prudent discretion in maintaining the purity of discipleship.” We guard conversion “when we are engaged in the acceptance or rejection of candidates for the fellowship of the visible church.”
Furthermore, pastors should labor in our membership examinations. He concluded this point of health with these words,
That God might grant to each of us, who are the pastors of the church, that unceasing vigilance and constant watchfulness whereby we shall be able to detect the wolves in sheep’s clothing, and whereby we shall be able to say calmly, sternly, yet lovingly, to those who come before us seeking communion, without satisfactory evident that they belong to the living family of God, “You must go your way until the Spirit of God hath touched your heart, for until you have received the living faith in Jesus, we cannot receive you into the number of his faithful ones.”
2. The Soundness of the Gospel (Sound Doctrine)
Is the gospel faithfully preached? Is sound doctrine affirmed and celebrated? If not, a church might be headed toward hell rather than health. Spurgeon said, “Alas! If her doctrines be tainted, her faith will not be maintained, and the church being unsound, can tell what next may occur.” Spurgeon held true to this conviction throughout his preaching. In another sermon he said, “A healthy church kills error, and tears in pieces evil.”[3]
While he was an unflinching defender of the truth, Spurgeon also sought to be charitable and to seek unity around vital truth.
He mentioned the Calvinism vs. Arminianism debate as an example:
I should be prepared to go a very long way for charity’s sake and admit that very much of the discussion which has existed even between Arminians and Calvinists has not been a discussion about vital truth, but about the terms in which that vital truth shall be stated. . . . When I have read the conflict between that mighty man who made these walls echo with his voice, Mr. Whitfield, and that other mighty man equally useful in his day, Mr. Wesley, I have felt that they contended for the same truths, and that the vitality of godliness was not mainly at issue in the controversy.
Now, these words might sound strange because elsewhere Spurgeon is clearly dogmatic about Calvinism.
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Just as a shipwreck victim longs to feel land beneath his feet, so we long to remember the solidity and security of former times. What we need to remember, therefore, is that even when the floods rise up—even when the rivers continue their relentless pounding—the throne of Yahweh remains fixed and immovable. 

The LORD reigns… (Psalm 93:1)
Some truths break upon the soul like fire: they come quickly, with much heat and light. Others rise to our awareness more gradually, like the creeping realization that the ground is beneath your feet — and, indeed, has always been there. The truth under present consideration is this latter kind, and comes in the opening words of the ninety-third psalm: “The LORD reigns.” This, I’m sure, is a familiar observation for most — and perhaps feels a bit elementary — but that’s precisely the reason we should focus upon it. Though simple, it contains worlds of wonder.
The reality of God’s reign is treated as a brute fact throughout the entirety of the psalm. It is presented as an immovable fixture of reality comparable to the permanence of the world itself. Just as the world has been “established” and shall never be moved, so Yahweh’s throne is “established from of old” (v. 2). It, too, shall never be moved.
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The doctrine of imputation is one of the most under-taught teachings in the church today, and every Christian needs to know it. God credits to us the righteousness of Christ, and this comes through faith alone, which is also God’s gift to us in Christ (Eph. 2:8-9). Additionally, our sin is credited to Christ, who, though he knew no sin, was punished for the sins of all who trust in him for salvation (2 Cor. 5:21).

Here are 10 words every Christian should know—and be able to explain—in order to “be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15).
1. Faith
Saving faith is not, as is commonly believed, a blind faith. There are three aspects of saving faith:

knowledge of Christ and his salvific work;

agreement that the claims of Christianity are true;

hearty trust in Christ alone for our salvation.

Faith is the instrument through which, by God’s grace, Christ’s perfect righteousness and atoning sacrifice are credited to us. It is God’s gift, not a work of any kind (Eph. 2:8-9). For more on the definition of faith, please click here.
2. Grace
Grace is one of God’s attributes. According to theologian Louis Berkhof, the grace of God in our redemption in Christ

is God’s free, sovereign undeserved favor or love to man, in his state of sin and guilt, which manifests itself in the forgiveness of sin and deliverance from His justice. (Systematic Theology, p. 427).

There is nothing we have done or could ever do to merit God’s grace. We receive it by God’s sovereign choice alone (Rom. 11:5-6).
3. Peace
There are two aspects to peace—objective and subjective. Just as two countries have a status of peace with each other through official agreements, so Christians are declared at peace with God through Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1). This means that we still have the status of peace with God regardless of how we feel or how well we keep his commands at any given time.
It is normal for Christians to still feel anxious in this troubled world and to feel a lack of peace from the sin in their lives. These feelings should spur us on to trust in God, repent of our sins, and seek to live in such a manner that honors our Lord. Christians should always be exceedingly thankful and find unfathomable comfort in the fact that the blood of Christ sufficiently atones for all their guilt and sin.
4. Cross
God in his perfection must uphold all his attributes. We cannot separate God’s love from his holiness, or his mercy from his justice. God must be true to all his attributes, because to do otherwise would be to deny his own self.
As theologian Michael Horton so aptly states in his book The Christian Faith, “God would not be God if he did not possess all his attributes in the simplicity and perfection of his essence” (229). Jesus was born in the flesh so he could fulfill the whole law and be the perfect sacrifice on behalf of all who put their faith in him (Heb. 10:11-14).
At the cross Jesus offered up his life as the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice for all who trust in him for salvation (e.g. John 10:14, 15). According to Horton we observe, “the clearest evidence of the complete consistency between God’s goodness and his sovereignty, justice, wrath, and righteousness in Christ’s cross” (p. 266). At the cross we see God’s “righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).
5. Law
According to theologian R. C. Sproul, the law is like a mirror: it shows us our sin, but it can do nothing to save us. In fact, the law condemns everyone who is not in Christ. Jesus was born in the flesh in order to be the perfect Son whom God had promised since the fall of Adam in the garden (Gen. 3:15).

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom. 8:3-4)

Jesus kept the law perfectly on behalf of all who trust in him for salvation, and they are counted righteous in God’s sight through faith alone by God’s grace alone.
The law also serves the purposes of restraining evil and showing us what is pleasing to God.
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If you knew the world was going to end tomorrow, what would you do? Many people believe multiple things must happen before this ending occurs. But regardless of your interpretation of the end times, THIS final end is sure, and Peter speaks as if it could come anytime. We must come to Christ—fully and deeply—and prepare ourselves. We must live in light of the end, in holiness, godliness, peace with God and others, and blameless lives (which can only happen through our dependence upon Christ). 

There is an end to this world. It’s coming. No one knows the day or hour, but it will happen as sure as we are breathing. The Scripture is very clear about this, as was Christ Himself.
The apostle Peter describes it clearly in 2 Peter 3. He tells us what we need to know to realize it is coming and how we should prepare. So, what will happen at the end of time, and what should we do in light of its coming?
1. SCOFFERS WILL DENY IT BECAUSE IT HASN’T HAPPENED YET.
Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” (Vs. 3-4)
You may be in that group. But Peter gives the immediate rebuttal to this argument. He reminds them God created the world, God destroyed the world by water (in Noah’s day), and this world is now destined to be destroyed by fire (Verses 5-7). He (and only He) has the power to accomplish this.
God is sovereign over this world. It exists because of Him and will be destroyed by Him, just as He promised. And that destruction will be His judgment upon His enemy, Satan (who has temporary authority in this world), and all men who have rejected Him.
2. GOD’S TIMING IS PERFECT AND PATIENT
Those who deny this ending don’t understand God’s relation to time. He is withholding this judgment for a season in His mercy so that many can come to repentance.
With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (Vs. 8-9)
3. IT WILL COME SUDDENLY AND THE WORLD WILL BE DESTROYED WITH INTENSE HEAT
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In Jesus’ various teachings concerning the end of time and His return there is a great emphasis on being ready.  So I have to ask you, ‘are you ready?’  He speaks about this readiness in relation to how we live, ‘do our lives show the evidence of being born again’?  Jesus wants us to have a sense of assurance, but there can’t be strong assurance if we are actively ignoring His commands for our lives.  So work with me through the following questions: Do I accept God’s verdict on my life, that I actually deserve to be separated from Him and punished for my sin? Do I see that my only hope is in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and that I will continue to the end only because His Spirit enables me? Am I asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to me where I need to change and seeking His enabling to be more like Jesus?

Chaos!  Don’t we just hate chaos?
It is one thing after another.  There is always something dripping or broken in the house, but that is nothing compared to the fact that there are people in the church on the edge of homelessness.  The kids have just gone back to school – and we wonder how they will cope this year.  There is that worrying lump, and the doctor’s appointment.  There always seems to be new bills to pay.  We are worried about elderly relatives or wayward children.  There are so many things that make life stressful.
In these verses Jesus speaks about very stressful events.  To those Jews He speaks of the fact that in a matter of decades the Roman forces are going to come in and destroy the temple – that symbol of their nations favour, security and pride.  What’s even more frightening is that at some undisclosed day in the future there is going to be the breaking up of the very fabric of the world.
How are we supposed to cope with those levels of stress?  We cope by remembering that Jesus is in control of all things and that He loves us.
God cares for us in the chaos (14-23)
Jesus had told the disciples that the temple would be destroyed.  Four of them had asked him when this would take place and what would be the sign that these things were about to be fulfilled.  Jesus now gives them an answer.
When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong . . . then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  The ‘abomination that causes desolation’ is the sign that the temple was about to be destroyed.  But what is ‘the abomination that causes desolation’?  The answer lies in the book of Daniel.  There this phrase is used in connection with the desecration of the temple—the introduction of pagan sacrifices to it.
Jesus is telling them that ‘when you see pagan worship in the temple then you should know that it is about to be destroyed.’  While there is some debate about what this act of desecration looked like the thing to note is that it did take place and the temple was then destroyed in A.D. 70.
Jesus then gives them some specific advice.  The events surrounding the temple are going to be dreadful and his followers are to flee to the mountains.  If you read the history books you will see that the temple and the city itself were destroyed by the Romans, and it seems that the Christians did take this warning seriously and escaped before the crisis.
so note God’s care for his people!  Jesus warns them so that they will escape this terrible event.  In verse 20 we read that the Lord even shortened the time of that tribulation for the sake of his people.  The God who is in control of history altered the course of history for his people’s sake.
Look back upon your life through the eyes of faith.  Weren’t there times when you thought you could not cope, but He actually got you through?  Hasn’t He proven that He has trustworthy?  He who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, will He not grant us all things? (Rom. 8:32).  Psychologists have discovered that the mind can not dwell on anxiety and thankfulness at the same time, so thanking God for His past mercies actually drives out present worry!
One of the things that I love about our heavenly Father is that He is concerned about everything in our life.  We may not be facing the destruction of our city and having to flee our homes, but that does not mean He thinks the small things are insignificant.  He tells us to cast all our anxieties on Him–‘no job too big. no job too small’ – because He cares for us!
Don’t be afraid of Jesus’ return (verses 24-31)
When the four disciples had asked their question about when the temple would be destroyed they seem to have associated the destruction of the temple with the end of the world.
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The sons of Korah were Levitical musicians who descended from an ancient rebel. But Korah’s sons didn’t perish with their father, because they separated themselves from him (Num. 16:26–27; 26:10–11). These sons had descendants, and the generations of Korahites extended into the days of David. When we read “Sons of Korah” in a superscription of some psalms (either in Book 2 or Book 3), we’re reading about the Levitical musicians whom David appointed. 

There once was a man named Korah, and the ground opened up beneath him. He and some others had been rebelling against Moses and against the Lord. Moses said, “If the LORD creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the LORD” (Num. 16:30).
And the ground opened, and they perished (Num. 16:31-33).
Korah had been a descendant of Levi and thus was a relative of Moses and Aaron. The lineage of Korah looks like this: Levi begat Kohath, Kohath begat Izar, and Izar begat Korah.
As a Levite, Korah was part of the set-apart tribe, yet Korah coveted the priesthood (Num. 16:8–11), which was an institution God had assigned to Aaron’s line and not broadly to every Levite. Every priest was a Levite, but not every Levite was a priest.
The death of Korah—and deaths of those allied with him—was the result of divine judgment. Since we know what happened to Korah in Numbers 16, his death raises a curious question when you read the superscriptions of some psalms. Who are the “Sons of Korah”?
While almost all psalms in Book 1 (Psalms 1–41) were written by David, the psalms in Book 2 (Psalms 42–72) don’t begin with David’s name in the superscription. Psalm 42 is “A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.” In fact, there are eleven psalms with “Sons of Korah” in the superscription (Pss. 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 84, 85, 87, and 88).
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The marriage covenant brings companionship, mutual support, and love, enhancing both spouses’ overall quality of life. As husbands and wives work towards common goals, share experiences, and grow together, they find a deep sense of fulfillment that cannot be achieved through any other relationship. Furthermore, married men tend to experience greater emotional stability due to the support and encouragement from their wives. 

In today’s culture, we see a troubling trend: more American men are delaying marriage or opting out entirely, posing damaging and potentially disastrous ramifications for society. While more women are also caught up in the same trend, the statistics among men are the highest and most troubling. Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the median age for first marriages has climbed to 30.4 for men, a record high. Studies by Pew Research found that in 2021, 47.35 million men never married, while in 2023, 28 percent of 40-year-old men were still unmarried, a nearly five-fold increase over 1980, when just 6 percent of men had entered middle age without having tied the knot.
At the same time, movements that discourage marriage, citing potential financial losses in divorce, are gaining popularity. Concerns about the division of assets, alimony, and child support are often cited as reasons for men to avoid marriage. However, as designed by God, the institution of marriage offers invaluable benefits that far outweigh these concerns.
In this article, you’ll find five compelling reasons, grounded in biblical truth and supported by statistical evidence, that explain why men should marry.
1. Fulfilling God’s Design for Companionship
From the beginning, God designed marriage to meet a fundamental human need for companionship. In Genesis 2:18–24, we read,
“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’… Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Marriage is God’s answer to man’s need for a companion, providing a unique partnership that mirrors the completeness found in God’s nature.
Since the beginning of time, God’s design for marriage has served as a guiding light. Modern studies reveal an essential truth: married men often enjoy better mental health than their single counterparts.
A comprehensive survey of 127,545 adults shows that married men experience greater health and longevity than single, divorced, or widowed men. They face a 46 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease, while those who have never married are three times more likely to face serious health issues.
Additionally, married men have better survival rates against cancer, including prostate cancer, along with lower rates of depression, sharper cognitive function, and a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s.
Much of this is because marriage promotes better choices. The Journal of Health and Social Behavior notes that they are less likely to engage in risky behaviors, such as excessive drinking, smoking, and reckless driving. Contrary to the Hollywood narrative, a wealth of studies reveal that married men enjoy greater financial stability and experience more satisfying sex lives compared to their unmarried peers. Marriage brings a sense of accountability and mutual care that promotes responsibility, a greater sense of purpose and meaning, and longer and more fulfilling relationships with not just their wife but also with family, friends, and the larger community.
In the grand tapestry of health, marriage weaves a hopeful thread, leading to better outcomes when dealing with life’s various challenges.
2. Sanctification and Growth in Holiness
Marriage is not just a social contract but a divine tool for sanctification. Ephesians 4 encourages believers to live in a way that reflects their new identity in Christ, urging them to abandon youthful lusts and the works of the flesh. Verse 22 emphasizes the need to put off the old self, which is corrupted by deceitful desires, highlighting the importance of shedding habits that lead to spiritual decay.
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Instead of forcing yourself to trust a God who isn’t protecting your earthly idols, it’s more effective to identify those false gods first. See how Jesus satisfies your desires, then reflect on God’s promises to protect your heavenly treasure. When my personal success is in jeopardy, I’m prone to anxiety. So I need to reflect on how Jesus has been successful for me, how he’s been perfect in my place. Then, after painstakingly moving my treasured success from earth to heaven, I can finally breathe, knowing nothing on earth can touch my treasure in heaven.

Have you ever felt persistently anxious, no matter how many times you reflect on God’s promises? Your stressful thoughts are like obstinate zits on your soul’s face, unfazed by the poking and prodding of Romans 8:28 and every other passage about God’s sovereign care. Incessant recitations of “God’s working everything together for good” have left your fretful pimples sore and bleeding. Your worry is still right there. Defeated and exhausted, what should you do?
Do you just need to believe harder? Should you close your eyes, muster up some faith, and perform a spiritual judo move on your doubt? Are you anxious because you scrolled through Instagram for three minutes too long? If you’d just commit to a month-long break like Sally in your small group, would your social media fast transport you into emotional serenity? Or maybe your anxiety is a pride issue, and what you need to do is stop being a know-it-all and trust a sovereign God.
I certainly battle doubt. I’m guilty of anxiously scrolling past posts of other anxious people for unreasonable amounts of time. And my soul regularly clamors for authority that only belongs to God. But while addressing these areas has occasionally curbed my anxiety, it often doesn’t.
Maybe you can relate. So what should we do?
I won’t pretend to offer a simple answer to such a difficult, multifaceted question. That’d be unrealistic and, honestly, just mean. But in Matthew 6:19–34, Jesus does offer another approach. Before he calls us to trust him, he tells us to treasure him.
Treasure God First
There’s nothing complicated about Jesus’s teaching in this passage, and there’s nothing complicated about its structure. In verses 19–24, Jesus wants us to treasure God, and in verses 25–34, Jesus wants us to trust God. Treasure and trust. Straightforward, right?
What I find fascinating, though, is how Jesus connects these two sections. After calling us to treasure God, he says, “Therefore . . . do not be anxious.” Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, therefore, trust God. That’s a curious way to put it.
There’s something about our treasure that either allows us—or doesn’t allow us—to trust God. If we treasure God, we can trust him. But if we treasure something else or someone else, we won’t trust God. Anxiety seems to swing on the hinge of this adverb: “Therefore.”
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Just as the family-friendly, tradition-oriented culture championed by old country (think Alan Jackson’s “Small Town Southern Man”) has undergone a sharp decline over the past couple of decades, so has country music. Traditional country has been largely replaced on the Top 40 charts by what has been dubbed “bro-country” or “stadium country,” which Wikipedia helpfully describes as “a form of country pop originating in the 2010s…influenced by 21st-century hip hop, hard rock and electronica…with lyrics about attractive young girls, the consumption of alcohol, partying, and pickup trucks.”

And he bowedHis head to JesusAnd he stoodFor Uncle SamAnd he only lovedOne womanHe was always proudOf what he had
Alan Jackson, “Small Town Southern Man”

Musical genres don’t have ideologies, but it is true that different genres were created to convey different values. Rock ‘n roll, for example, was a slang phrase for sex—and the entire genre served as the soundtrack for the Sexual Revolution and a coda to cultural rebellion. Country music, on the other hand—which evolved as a fusion of blues, spirituals, and Celtic music—was the music of the rural American (or those who shared their values). As Psychology Today put it: “If all I told you about someone is that she has an abiding love for country and western, how much money would you bet that she’s also a Republican?” Quite a bit, I’d wager.
That is precisely why music has become such a focal point in the culture wars. One of the most interesting essays I’ve come across on country music was written by Will Wilkinson in 2012, when our culture wars were less all-encompassing. Despite country music’s steep decline (more on that later), Wilkinson noted that country has a built-in appeal for a specific sort of American:
Country has an ideology. Not to say country has a position on abortion, exactly. But country music, taken as a whole, has a position on life, taken as a whole. Small towns. Dirt roads. Love at first sight. Hot-blooded kids havin’ a good ol’ time. Gettin’ hitched. America! Raisin’ up ruddy-cheeked scamps who you will surely one day worry are having too good a hot-blooded time. Showing up for Church. Venturing confused into the big wide world only to come back to Alabama forever since there ain’t a…single thing out there in the Orient or Paris, France what compares to that spot by the river under the trembling willows where first you kissed the girl you’ve known in your heart since second grade is the only girl you would ever truly love. Fishin’! How grandpa, who fought in two wars, worked three jobs, raised four kids, and never once complained…
And on it goes. That description now primarily applies to older, traditional country music—most of the newer artists, with a few notable exceptions, are pumping out a pop-lite party product focused on booze and hookups, with the songs and the artists becoming largely interchangeable. But Wilkinson notes that the key reason traditional country music sounds instinctively conservative is because conservatives are, psychologically speaking, less open to new experiences and more oriented towards rootedness and tradition:
More generally, country music comes again and again to the marvel of advancing through life’s stations, and finds delight in experiencing traditional familial and social relationships from both sides. Once I was a girl with a mother, now I’m a mother with a girl. My parents took care of me, and now I take care of them. I was once a teenage boy threatened by a girl’s gun-loving father, now I’m a gun-loving father threatening my girl’s teenage boy. Etc. And country is full of assurances that the pleasures of simple, rooted, small-town, lives of faith are deeper and more abiding than the alternatives…
Country music is a bulwark against cultural change, a reminder that “what you see is what you get,” a means of keeping the charge of enchantment in “the little things” that make up the texture of the every day, and a way of literally broadcasting the emotional and cultural centrality of the conventional big-ticket experiences that make a life a life. A lot of country music these days is culture war, but it’s more bomb shelter than bomb.
Country music was once about embracing a certain type of culture—one that, it bears pointing out, is rapidly dying in many of the very places where country music first originated. And just as the family-friendly, tradition-oriented culture championed by old country (think Alan Jackson’s “Small Town Southern Man”) has undergone a sharp decline over the past couple of decades, so has country music. Traditional country has been largely replaced on the Top 40 charts by what has been dubbed “bro-country” or “stadium country,” which Wikipedia helpfully describes as “a form of country pop originating in the 2010s…influenced by 21st-century hip hop, hard rock and electronica…with lyrics about attractive young girls, the consumption of alcohol, partying, and pickup trucks.”
The advent of bro-country—championed by artists such as Luke Bryan, Chase Rice, and Florida Georgia Line, among others—created what critics, and musicians referred to as a “civil war” within the genre. One bro-country artist stated that he didn’t care about the “old farts” who didn’t like his songs because the kids “don’t want to buy the music you were selling.” Which is probably true, as far as it goes. Once the values promoted by a genre begin to lose their relevance to a new generation, bro-country is a welcome replacement for those who like the sound but prefer less preaching.
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