Jordan Peterson is a professor, a pretty decent professor. He may not be the greatest thinker currently alive in western civilization, but he doesn’t need to be. No professor does. He does what a professor should do: he interrogates assumptions, presents his ideas in a clear and cogent manner, and is a respectful and courteous listener to those with whom he disagrees. Being a good professor is more than enough.

I typically stay away from topical subjects. As a scholar of Metaphysical poetry, theology, and philosophy, the subjects that I usually write about—phenomenology, sophiology, mysticism, and poetics—are not of the kind that make it into the headlines. Nevertheless, I’ve been asked to write about what has come to be called “The Jordan Peterson Phenomenon.”
Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, first came to national attention in his native Canada in late 2016 because he balked at his country’s new legislation demanding people use “alternative pronouns” when referring to certain persons, usually transsexuals. Quite simply, Peterson refused to use these pronouns—“ze,” “zhe,” “zir,” and so forth (I’m not even sure how to pronounce them)—arguing further that terms like “gender identity” and “gender expression” are notoriously ill-defined, despite being used to bully opponents into submission. This was Peterson’s “mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore” moment.
At the time, I was glad he stood up to the government (and university) bullies. Good for him. Universities, of all places, should be places where free speech is respected and the marketplace of ideas encouraged. Agree or disagree with Peterson, it was certainly a discussion worth having. And still is. But universities in Canada it seems, much like many of their American counterparts, are far from being open spaces hospitable to the exploration of knowledge and the pursuit of truth.
In the meantime, Peterson has become a phenomenon. And bigly. He has 518k followers on Twitter, over 898k followers on Youtube, and a bestselling book, 12 Rules for Life. Not surprisingly, Peterson’s popularity has instigated much debate and critique (a good deal of it nasty) from the press as well as from his fellow academics. The academic criticism tends to be very snippy.
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As Proverbs 10:11 tells us, “From a wicked heart the mouth wreaks violence and death.” The quality of your words depends on the quality of your heart. That’s because your words come out of your heart. If you want your words to do good, then you have to ensure that the source is good.

In the 1970s a professor by the name of Albert Mehrabian proposed his famous 7-38-55 rule of communication. When we communicate our likes and dislikes, the listener’s acceptance of our communication will depend 7 percent on our words, 38 percent on our tone of voice, and 55 percent on our facial expressions and body language.
If I say, “I love pickled herring,” and my voice is slow and monotone and my face looks like a pickled herring, then, despite my words, you won’t put pickled herring out on the table next time we have breakfast together—unless you have a mischievous streak. And if I hear you tell me that you “have no problem with me” with an upbeat voice, but your arms are crossed and you are making overly intense eye contact, then I won’t be convinced.
Texting is less demanding than face-to-face communication. 
This means that face-to-face communication is costly, because I know that you are weighing not just my words but also the tone of my voice and my body language. I am going to get an immediate—possibly uncomfortable—response from you. Is this why we prefer less demanding forms of communication? Like a phone call—or even a text?
On the flip side, with face-to-face communication there is far less room for misunderstanding. Even if I don’t get my words exactly right, my tone of voice and expressions will fill in the gap, clarify, or even correct my inadequate or poorly chosen words. Then again, maybe I don’t want you to hear my tone of voice or to see my body language. Perhaps it would say too much…
Texting is especially open to causing misunderstanding. 
So although communicating by telephone may be less costly—because you are not seeing and weighing my expressions—it is also more open to misunderstanding. And communicating by email or text is the least costly form of communication: I don’t have to open up my expressions or even my tone of voice to your scrutiny. But I am now 93 percent open to being misunderstood. You have only my bare words, unqualified, unenhanced, and uncorrected by my non-verbal communication.
Now how is this going to work out in a society that is increasingly isolationist and wary of face-to-face contact and where even phoning someone is becoming rare? Research shows that phone apps are only the fifth most used app on smartphones, and I am told that Millennials dislike being called and prefer only text. In fact, they consider it a little rude to be called without prior warning via text!
The LORD has something to say about speaking in the book of Proverbs. His words, written some three thousand years ago, still apply whether we are speaking, writing letters, writing emails or texts, or posting on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
The Bible has a lot to say about the power of speech. 
First, consider the Bible’s teaching on the power of speech.
And God said, “Light be.”And light was (Gen 1:3).
When God speaks, light and galaxies and teaming life burst into existence. His words are that powerful. And a word from Jesus could kill a fig tree, calm a storm, and raise a rotting corpse to life.
And our words, like those of our heavenly Father whose image we bear, have power to them. They can’t create ex nihilo, but they can build up and tear down. They can create and destroy. They can bring a torrent of good or evil. James tells us that just as a tiny spark can set ablaze a great forest, so too can the tongue set the whole course of a person’s life on fire.
Our words can do tremendous good or harm.
Very powerful things can do tremendous good or tremendous harm, and so they need to be tamed and controlled and directed in the right way. Proverbs addresses the tongue in the same way it addresses everything, by looking first at the heart.
“The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked” (Prov. 10:11).
“When a person has a righteous heart, then their mouth is a “fountain of life.” Their words transform what is saline and dead into something fresh and teaming with life. This makes me think of Ezekiel’s river, flowing east out of God’s Temple, and raising abundant life wherever it goes:
And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing” (Ezek. 47:12).
If you want your words to do good, then you have to ensure that the source is good.
Yet, as Proverbs 10:11 tells us, from a wicked heart the mouth wreaks violence and death. The quality of your words depends on the quality of your heart. That’s because your words come out of your heart. If you want your words to do good, then you have to ensure that the source is good. That’s why Jesus said to the Pharisees,
“You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him” (Matt. 12:34-35).
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We also must not be reckless or foolish in putting ourselves in danger. As is so often the case, it is a matter of seeking what it is that God wants us to do, and then doing it. But it must be done in God’s way. When Moses killed the Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, he meant well, but he was acting in the flesh. But many years later when he stood before Pharaoh and defied him to his face, he was acting according to God’s express command. Both actions were very risky, and both had consequences, but only one was done in God’s way, in God’s time, and with God’s enabling.

Lately I have been speaking about the issue of risk and how life is always about trade-offs: getting the right balance between sensibly being safe and secure, yet not becoming a virtual slave with no freedoms to achieve such safety. Governments have to weigh up the pros and cons on such matters as do individuals.
So too do Christians. We do not want to be reckless and foolish when it comes to putting ourselves or others in danger, but we do not want to be paralysed by fear and never take any risks. Biblical balance is needed here, along with some common sense.
All this has especially come to the fore over the past 18 months as we have dealt with Covid. I have written often about the issues of fear, risk, freedom and safety. An early piece on this is found here: billmuehlenberg.com/2020/04/18/corona-and-the-elimination-of-risk/
And a much more recent piece is this: billmuehlenberg.com/2021/09/11/fear-safety-and-slavery/
I revisit this set of topics again because I was recently asked by someone how I might reconcile various biblical themes. He wrote:
I’ve been praying a bit about whether I should fight for the helpless or not. I see things of Evil everywhere and only desire to honour God in His ways. I’ve made many wrong choices by thinking I was doing things Gods way, then realised later it was not His will. I came across this proverb 27:12 today and even though it seems wrong to hide, yet it’s seems clear to me, it’s His way. I was reminded of Gideon hiding in the wine press from his enemies. What’s your thoughts in this please?
A fair question, and an important one. I did offer him a short reply at the time, and I trust he does not mind if I speak to this matter further here. What follows then is a much larger version of the response that I gave to him:
As to this proverb, it is actually repeated twice. The ESV rendering of Proverbs 22:3 and 27:12 puts it this way: “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.” The HCSB renders the verses this way: “A sensible person sees danger and takes cover; the inexperienced keep going and are punished.”
These two proverbs speak to the matter of being wise in the face of danger, and of not putting ourselves in harm’s way unnecessarily. As such they offer good, sound advice to all of us. We always need to take care, to be cautious, and to avoid recklessly endangering ourselves and those around us.
But that is not the end of the matter of course. Sometimes we must do risky things – things that may well result in harm to ourselves – even death. That too can simply be a matter of common sense. Most people, if they hear a child screaming as a stray dog is attacking him or her will rush in to try to rescue the child. They know full well that this can be risky, and they may well get hurt in the process.
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