Many religious leaders have mistaken American polarization as merely political, thus scapegoating Trump for pulling the rug off many cockroach nests that predate his presidency. Yet this polarization in fact sprouts from irreconcilable theological and philosophical differences, which accounts for its fierceness and existential nature. Americans are debating whether truth and human nature exist, and whether such things can be objectively defined for all or must be subjectively defined by power or “lived experience.” They are debating whether all men truly are created equal, or whether some are more equal than others. Christianity has a lot to say about these philosophical questions that also affect politics.

Along with the rest of the country, American Christianity is in the middle of a cold war. As this war heats up, it will mean church splits, takeovers, fights over denominational resources, and other power struggles as the Donald Trump era has increasingly brought clarity and pushed people to choose sides on existential questions.
The Southern Baptist Convention, the United States’ largest Protestant denomination, is one key example of this dynamic affecting American Christianity as a whole. On Oct. 1 in The American Conservative, Jackson Waters and Emma Posey reported on new developments in that denomination’s growing identity crisis. They contrast the Russell Moore, Beth Moore, and David French wing with the Voddie Baucham, Douglas Wilson, and I’d add Thomas Ascol wing.

“The direction Moore, French, and Moore are walking is not simply traditional evangelicalism, but a form of cultural accommodation dressed as convictional religion,” Waters and Posey write, after describing how the three have theologically shifted in recent years and months. “The result is a religious respectability that promotes national unity, liberalism, and wokeism under the rhetorical guise of love for neighbor. While Moore and his guest [Beth Moore] try to straddle the fence, there is little doubt that their biggest support is now coming from those significantly to their left politically.”
The Polarization Isn’t Superficial or Random
Many religious leaders have mistaken American polarization as merely political, thus scapegoating Trump for pulling the rug off many cockroach nests that predate his presidency. Yet this polarization in fact sprouts from irreconcilable theological and philosophical differences, which accounts for its fierceness and existential nature.
Americans are debating whether truth and human nature exist, and whether such things can be objectively defined for all or must be subjectively defined by power or “lived experience.” They are debating whether all men truly are created equal, or whether some are more equal than others. Christianity has a lot to say about these philosophical questions that also affect politics.
There are other political intersections and parallels. They include how some church leaders often use their authority against their own people instead of on their behalf, are utterly detached from ordinary people’s concerns, and appear to have little understanding of the nature of the cultural battles they try to avoid. These mass failures are prompting new leaders to take up the spiritual warfare many legacy leaders have abandoned.
Christ to the Sons of Peter: Feed My Sheep

While examples of leadership failures in the church are legion, one seems front and center today. In the face of mass government persecution of religious exercise over the past year and a half, Christian leaders overwhelmingly cowered and canceled services.

Shutdowns violate the theology of all Christians, both non-sacramentarians to sacramentarians. Those who don’t believe Christ’s statement, “This is my Body,” do heavily lean on his command called the Great Commission. In it, Christ tells the apostles to “Go and make disciples of all nations,” then tells them exactly how: “Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” You can’t baptize or make disciples via Zoom.
In addition, corporate gathering for worship is expressly commanded in the Bible. Christians also don’t live in fear of suffering or death, for “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
For Christians who do believe in Christ’s real presence in Holy Communion, forbidding in-person worship is an even greater blasphemy. It means denying the Christ-mandated distribution of his physical Body and Blood to heal and preserve the souls of the redeemed for all eternity, the very reason for which Christ came to earth, was crucified, and resurrected.
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As Christians we must ask what the future holds. At the end of the Sixties Revolution, Jungian psychologist and Gnostic spiritualist, June Singer, wrote a 1997 book ‘Androgyny: Towards a New Sexuality’. At the end of the Sixties Revolution, she saw and affirmed that the spiritual age of Aquarius was also the age of “androgyny” (the blending of male and female in bi-sexuality, homosexuality and transgenderism). She also correctly predicted the coming cosmology of a “new humanism,” a radical rejection of the biblical God and the cosmology of the Western Christian past.We now see the far-flung effects of what Singer saw so long ago. 

The Queering of the American Child: How a New School Religious Cult Poisons the Minds and Bodies of Normal Kids by Logan Lancing and James Lindsay
A Definition of Queer Theory
I looked forward to reading this book’s definition of Queer Theory (QT) and its effects on our children. (QT refers to “queer homosexuals” and LGBTQ ideology.) I hoped the book would give clarity to a movement that exposes LGBTQ+ thinking, which justifies disordered sexual practice among children as well as adults.
A definition of QT appears in the Introduction. QT seeks to “push children to destabilize tradition, eliminate social norms and poison their minds…(ix).” The book denies the value of trangenderism (xvi), as well as recent theories of gender and gender identity (xviii). Apparently, this is a conservative book. A decidedly gay reviewer states that: 
…there is nothing in this book that is accurate, it’s full of hate mongering, misinformation and propaganda. It promotes a Christian white nationalist agenda and is harmful to every LGBTQ person. 
This is indeed a book of conservative convictions except in one area—it justifies homosexual practice. The author defines “queering” as the rejection of anything normative, including binary sexuality (that is heterosexuality) (99), and shows how Drag Queen Story Hour affirms this destabilizing effect on children. Lancing’s theory is that when a society has not agreed on reasonable, healthy sexual norms and behaviors, then unreasonable and unhealthy ideas will fill the vacuum—like men becoming women. But Lancing wants to grant that homosexuality is part of normative living. He states: 
Queer Theory has nothing to do with being gay or lesbian. Gay identity…is rooted in the positive fact of homosexual object-choice…(proposed as) a stable reality.[1]
Citing gay author, David Halperin, the book accepts homosexuality as a positive (thus normative) stabilizing factor in a child’s mind, unlike the noxious results of Queer Theory (114-15). Unfortunately, many conservative thinkers consider homosexuality in exactly this way.
The Idol of Our Time
As this book shows, our culture does not know how to deal with LGBTQ reality, which it seeks to normalize. In her Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age, Rosaria Butterfield calls LGBTQ+ ideology “the idol of our time.” Her Lie #1 is “treating homosexuality as normal.”[2] Progressives and many conservatives happily affirm this lie. Carl Trueman wrote recently, 
In the coming decade every single church still calling itself Christian will face a choice: Do we follow Scriptural revelation, or the Sexual Revolution? The cross, or the rainbow flag?[3]
Many evangelicals fail to realize this stark choice. Evangelical pastor, Ken Wilson in his influential book, A Letter to My Congregation (2014) states: “We’re all—male and female—part of the bride of Christ.” He adds: “Maybe we are being asked (by the Spirit) to relax around gender distinctions a little (my italics).”[4] “Evangelical” Preston Sprinkle, a well-known exponent of the so-called Side B position on homosexuality, holds great influence on the student ministry CRU. He states: “I would say being same-sex attracted, while being a part of one’s fallen nature, is not a morally culpable sin that one needs to repent for.”[5] Modern culture, like certain evangelicals, normalizes and justifies gay behavior. This was not always the case.
As late as 1960, all fifty states maintained laws criminalizing sodomy. But things are changing. A strong majority of Americans now says that homosexual relations should be legal, and that the lifestyle is acceptable.[6] “Nearly every major U.S. brand promulgates the LGBT agenda.”[7] The government’s Center for Disease Control gives further present acceptance of LGBTQ practice: the number of LGBTQ students went from 11 percent in 2015 to 26 percent in 2021.[8] During the 2023 American baseball season, the Los Angeles Dodgers honored, not merely featured, an LGBT activist group, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, composed of men dressed mockingly as Catholic nuns.
This lifestyle affirmation became more formal at the end of 2023, with the “Proclamation on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month.” President Joe Biden declared the month of June to be a time for all Americans to “recognize the achievements of the LGBTQ+ community, to celebrate the great diversity of the American people, and to wave their flags of pride high.”[9]
It is little wonder that the LGBTQ community is coming for our children. Lesbian author Patricia Nell Warren put it most succinctly: “Whoever captures the kids owns the future.”[10] The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus sings:
“We’re coming for your children.
“We’ll convert your children
Happens bit by bit
Quietly and subtly
And you will barely notice it…
You won’t approve of where they go at night.”
This agenda operates against the backdrop of a new movement called MAPS, Minor Attracted Persons, that is, pedophiles. Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates, has invested tens of millions of dollars into a radical nongovernmental organization: The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), which is endorsed by the World Health Organization, a group pushing for young children to be considered “sexual beings.”
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Rice desired his children to reach a spiritual height that surpassed him. He did not want them to be content with low spirituality which he said was common among Christians in his day. Instead of a list of rules for them to check off, he provided a paradigm to measure every action taken. The principle of our actions first and foremost must be a high regard for God. A holy reverence for the Divine majesty and a thankfulness for the work of Christ on our behalf must dominate every decision. Indeed, without this sacred regard for God, Rice wrote, “none of our actions can properly be denominated religious actions.”

David Rice (1733–1816) was a Presbyterian minister who played a prominent role in the development of Presbyterianism in Kentucky. He was born in Virginia and converted under the preaching of Samuel Davies in the 1750s. After serving in Virginia for some time, Rice came to Kentucky in the 1780s and immediately felt the challenge of ministering to those living on the frontier. Despite the difficulties, Rice was able to aid in the organization and establishment of churches through his faithful gospel preaching. He also played a hand in establishing schools—including the Transylvania Seminary (now Transylvania University) which had its beginnings meeting in his home.
In 1792, the year that Kentucky was admitted to the Union, Rice played an important part in the State’s first Constitutional Convention. He argued for the insertion of an article allowing for a gradual emancipation of slaves. Although his speech, entitled “Slavery Inconsistent with Justice and Good Policy,” provided a passionate apologetic for the cause, it ultimately failed to pass. When the revivals of the Second Great Awakening came to the frontier at the turn of the century, Rice advocated for moderation. He was not anti-revival as some have claimed, but he was opposed to the excess and bodily agitations that accompanied many of the camp meetings. Like a good Presbyterian, he wanted all things to be done decently and in order (1 Cor. 14:40).
Rice married Mary Blair, the daughter of prominent Presbyterian minister Samuel Blair, and together they had 11 children. By all indications, the Rices were faithful in raising their children in the instruction of the Lord. History testifies that all of their children had their own families and remained faithful to the church. Church historian Robert Davidson, writing in 1847, recorded that one of their children was converted from reading a Bible that was left on his clothes when he was leaving home for the first time!
One can see the love that Rice had for his children in some of the last words that he spoke to them. It is often the case when death is near, trivial and superficial matters lose their predominance. We are no longer preoccupied with them, and our attention no longer gravitates toward them. Instead, we become obsessively concerned with things that truly matter. We confront eternity face to face. David Rice’s advice to his children nine years before his death exemplifies this. As Rice grew older, he wrote some final words to his beloved children, which have come down to us in a work entitled The Rev. David Rice’s Last Advice to His Children, Whether His by Affinity or Consanguinity: Written in the Seventy-Fourth Year of His Age.
Rice began this work by sharing that he started to think about his final advice after the death of his wife. It was by this act of God’s providence he realized tomorrow may be his last day, and so he needed to share some parting words with his children. At the outset, Rice reminded them:
My dear children, frequently recollect and seriously realize that we must all appear at the dread tribunal of Jesus Christ; and that then you must give an account to him of the use, the improvement you have made of all the religious advantages and privileges you have enjoyed; and particularly those that you have enjoyed in the family in which you have been educated.
David Rice, “The Rev. David Rice’s Last Advice to His Children, Whether His By Affinity or Consanguinity: Written in the Seventy Fourth Year of His Age,” in The Virginia Evangelical and Literary Magazine 2/6 (June 1819), 246.
It was his purpose to exhort them to live with this in mind, and the remainder of the work was to help them practically live thankful to God for their advantages. The advice that followed was written under three broad headings: On the Doctrines of Christianity, On Christian Morality, and On Conduct in Civil Society. What follows are some prominent points, not an exhaustive study.
On Christian Doctrine
Stand firm in your convictions, show charity to Christians who disagree, and do not get weighed down in trivial matters or doctrine of secondary importance.
Rice urged his children to be fixed and well-established in the fundamental doctrines of religion, the government of the church, and the scriptural modes of worship. He desired that his children would be steadfast in their conviction. Rice had instructed them in the Presbyterian tradition, which, according to his testimony, was the best system of religion. They were to be unwavering in their beliefs, and not let anything move them from the foundation that they stood upon. Yet, simultaneously, where good Christians disagreed on secondary or tertiary issues, Rice exhorted his children to show charity. “At the same time,” he wrote, “extend your charity to others as far as reason and scripture will warrant you, treating Christians of every denomination as brethren…Men may differ widely as to the mode of worship, and yet be acceptable worshippers of God through Christ.”
While it is important for Christians to know secondary matters well, Rice did not want his children to get weighed down in these issues at the expense of Christian unity. He was also concerned about pride. He wanted his children to study those doctrines that produced holiness in the heart and life. Doctrines that carried a lot of speculation and did not produce a holiness of character could be hurtful. This is not to say they were not important, but that doctrinal hobby horses could easily open the door for pride and temptation to unpack and settle in our hearts. Rice warned his children to avoid religious controversy if it were possible, but if it wasn’t, he spurred them to faithfully defend the truth. They were to defend it with humility and meekness, not out of pride and vainglory. Further, they were to never “engage the enemy, until you are acquainted with the ground you occupy, your own force, and the forces of your antagonist.” Another warning Rice wrote was to avoid “religious novelties” which, generally speaking, were nothing better than seducing errors. In every century, religious fads and movements attempt to sway the people of God; Rice encouraged his children to resist.
In exhorting them to stand firm in their convictions while cultivating a heart of charity for those who disagreed, he was very clear that they were not to have communion with those who were nominal Christians. He wrote: “Treat all of your fellow creatures with kindness and with the respect due to their several characters; but have no religious communion with those nominal Christians, whose principles sap the foundation of the Christian religion, lest you thereby countenance their errors, and partake of their guilt and punishment.”
The world today is changing at a rapid pace. Our culture is in the midst of a moral revolution, the speed of which is unprecedented in history, and as a result, many Christians find themselves wrestling with how to approach culture. On top of this, there is an alarming number of professing Christians who are sliding into progressive ideologies and deconstructing their faith entirely. Consequently, these kinds of conditions create an environment where everyone is suspect. It is very tempting in this climate for Christians to fight with other Christians. If someone does not espouse a particular view or does not agree with this or that position, they are treated with suspicion. Indeed, today we slap labels on each other faster than green grass through a goose. In this type of atmosphere, let us remember the words of Rice. We are to stand firm on our convictions. All Christians ought to be willing to go to war together on the primary teachings of Scripture.
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