Category: Announcements

Recently, someone inquired of me how my pastoral heart is evidenced by the satire and sarcasm in which I sometimes engage. This is a understandable and fair question which goes to the issue of compassion. We might summarize the issue by asking; Is it a lack of compassion to mock God’s enemies?

First, we would have to determine what kind of ‘enemies’ with which we are dealing. Certainly you deal differently with different kinds of people. It would hardly be wise to mock somebody who is tentatively embracing a un-biblical idea or behavior and is still willing to consider counter arguments to their position. However somebody who is epistemologically self conscious in their hatred of God and is leading others into sin might be a perfect candidate for a kind of mockery that reveals the compassion of a pastor’s heart.

To suggest a concrete example we would probably deal differently with a Freshmen college student who is beginning to embrace the legitimacy of homosexuality as just another social relationship then we would her college professor who is self-consciously teaching her in such a way that hides all the counter arguments from her. If we entered into conversation with the Freshmen student we would probably try to engage her argument by offering counter arguments and by exposing where she has been led astray. We would tend to exhibit more patience as we sought to help her sort out her ill informed thinking. If we entered into conversation with the College professor who is responsible for the Freshman’s confusion and who is pursuing an agenda and who is an epistemologically self-conscious God hater mockery might be the perfect vehicle of compassion.

When we consider the issue of compassion and mockery we must keep in mind that compassion is seldom a zero sum game. That is to say that often it is the case that when we show compassion to one party we are thereby showing callousness towards another party. Let me try and explain.

Let’s take the women in office issue that I have written a few posts on lately. Clearly I have been callous towards those who hold to and advocate such a position, but those who have noticed the callousness are required to examine what purpose the callousness is serving. Is my callousness towards the feelings of those who are advocating egalitarianism and feminism born of just a callow meanness on my part or is it possible that it is really compassion that drives my mockery?

If we continue to consider the feelings of those who are advocating high handed sin do we at the same moment do violence to the feelings of those who are being shattered by their perverted advocacy? We must keep in mind that when we treat the ideas that God haters advance with tact and compassion that we might, by that posture, be communicating that their ideas are worthy of respect, thus investing a certain validity to their ideas. If ideas that contain high rebellion against God’s word are discussed in a “civilized” compassionate and respectful tone does that not suggest a lack of urgency regarding the ideas being discussed?

For example, how sane would most people find it to observe two people in polite debate over the idea that not enough Armenian Christians were killed by Muslim Turks in the great Armenian holocaust at the turn of the 20th century? Naturally, such civility appalls us. There are some ideas that by their very nature should not be treated civilly and should be met with the most scornful mockery possible.

Now, thus far, we have only considered the issue of compassion and mockery on the horizontal level of man to man. What of God? When we fail to mock those who are self consciously mocking God are we joining in their mockery? Should our compassion for those who resist God be greater than our compassion for God? Does our compassion for God’s enemies reveal a callousness towards God on our part? Does not Elijah’s mockery of God’s enemies on Mt. Carmel suggest a compassion on Elijah’s part towards God and towards God’s people.

Compassion thus cannot be considered in a vacuum. Compassion towards a murderer is callousness towards the victim’s family. Compassion for one who is effectively advocating homosexuality as just another life-style is callousness towards those who are being charmed by that argument. Compassion towards egalitarians and feminists who are quite self conscious about what they are attempting is callousness towards every daughter and every wife who will be hardened and hurt by the culture that the advocates are seeking to build. Just as it is callousness towards every son and every father who will be emasculated and emptied by that same culture. The loathing that is revealed by any mockery reveals a corresponding compassion and love for the opposite of that which is being mocked and lampooned. A pastor’s heart can express compassion in both positive and negative movements.

All of this to say that I offer no apologies for my mockery and putative callousness. I am glad though for people who correspond with me and warn me about ‘the lack of my pastoral heart.’ I am glad for them because it gives me a chance to communicate that there are times when mockery is the very essence of compassion. Speaking only for myself, if I could not mock the enemy all of my time would be drenched in tears. Crying gets boring after awhile.

I have daughters in my family and young ladies in the congregation I serve who I love deeply as a Father and a Pastor. My pastoral heart towards them would be made of iron fibers if I did not show them compassion by mocking the egalitarians and the feminists.

Sung to the tune of Cher’s Gypsies, Tramps, & Thieves

I was born at the font with the covenant sign
My tutor used to say, “What is Christ’s is now mine”
Pastor would preach whatever is true
Now our tomboy preacher, sings to us of the patriarchy blues

Chorus

Women, Gays, and slaves
We hear it from clergy who say we’re bound
To exalt women, gays and slaves
At every turn all their numbers come around
and shout the faithful down

Somewhere the lefties grabbed hold of the wheel
Took over the schools, taught the faithful to heel
Seized all the pulpits, and at synod they won
Learned their love at Woodstock
The Church is now being run by the prodigal son

Chorus

She was open to foolin, and they fooled her well
With their smooth 60’s spin
50 years later she’ a gal in trouble
And she’s about to give birth to her sin
She’s about to give birth to her sin

We’re now held captive to an egalitarian show
Skirts in the pulpits where-ever you go
Dark ages fall, turn out the light
Trajectory hermeneutic, wrong is now right

“… limiting the designation of marriage to a union ‘between a man and a woman’ is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute,”

California Chief Justice Ron George
Written Opinion Allowing Inverted Unlawful Carnal Marriage

In other California Supreme Court cases the Court was also quoted while striking from statute,

1.) “that limiting the designation of water to a union between two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute.”

2.) “that limiting the designation of boy as one who has a penis is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute.”

3.) “that limiting the designation of a solar day to 24 hours is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute.”

4.)”that limiting the designation of island as a body of land surrounded by water is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute.”

And finally,

5.) “that limiting the designation of Justices as those having a tinker’s damn worth of intelligence is unconstitutional and must be stricken from statute.”

While we have been vacationing in California I received an e-mail from a good friend who dearly loves me (given the quality of her character it is quite humbling that she loves me). She said in her e-mail in a jesting and playful way that she missed the resident local crank. I softly chuckled at her playfulness and dismissed it as the good natured ribbing that it was.

I wouldn’t have thought about it again until today a reader responded to my most recent post characterizing me as a ‘grumpy guy.’

Now, I am as sensitive as the next guy when it comes to these kind of things and like most people I don’t want to be stuck with a negative reputation, though I admit that I might be fighting a losing battle when it comes to the ‘grumpy, and cranky’ sobriquet being applied to me.

Still, if I can’t avoid being pigeon holed with this characterization I guess I will try to wear it as comfortably as possible. Maybe I can do for ‘grumpy’ and ‘crank’ what Johnny Cash did for black.

Sung to the tune of ‘Man In Black’

The Resident Crank

Well, you wonder why I always am a crank
Why you often hear me applying a verbal spank
And why does my language seem to have a grumpy tone
Well, there’s a reason for my low rhetorical groan

I’m a grump in a church that’s no longer sane
sayin’ things that are well beyond inane
So when living in times that require ashes and dust
The diplomatic side of me now has some rust

I’m a grump for those who might be saved
By a tart tongued response sagely made
rescued from the fog manufactured by our hapless clergy
who are busy playin’ to audience’s sensibilities

Well, the Church is doin’ just splendid, I guess
With our Emergents masquerading our duress
But just so we’re reminded that it’s really dark and dank
Somewhere there needs to be a well known crank

I’m grumpy for the grumps who’ve gone before
For Tozer, Chesterton, Calvin and many more
I’m a crank in mournin’ for the new borns led astray
Each week the Church glides further from ‘the way’

And, I’m cranky for the billions who have died,
Who never knew what it meant to be alive
I’m a grump because the Church is sleeping in the light
Or maybe even snoozing in the night

Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin’ everywhere you go,
But ’till we start to pick off some of our omnipresent lice
You’ll always see me struggle with being ‘nice’

Ah, I’d love to be ‘Mr. Chuckles’ every day,
And tell the Church that everything’s OK,
But while there’s hope for more fruit from Jesse’s virile stump
It looks like I play the part of grump

First, my daughter Anna is planning to spend her summer in Eastern Europe on a Missions Trip. She is going under the auspices of Christian Reformed World Mission. Like most missionaries Anna has to raise funds for this trip. I think she is over 50% to the total that she needs. If any of the readers here at Iron Ink have some spare change laying around and you believe that the Lord Christ would have you help support Anna we and she would be both glad for and humbled by your support. If you don’t have spare change sitting around but you still want to take an interest in Anna and Eastern Europe we would very much like to keep you in the loop, If you would like more information you can contact me through the e-mail that this blog provides or you can e-mail Anna directly at confedbellatgmaildotcom.

Second, my wife and I are in Sunny California right now, somewhere near the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. If I am not as verbose in posting this week it is because we are enjoying friends and / or we are out sightseeing. The flights were uneventful (praise our merciful God) and I had lots of time to catch up on some reading. I read about Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga, Napoleon’s defeat and Wellington’s victory at Waterloo, and the defeat of Atilla The Hun at Chalons. I also worked through a short paper giving a taxonomy on different Reformed views of the Covenant. Also I read a short piece by Margaret Sanger on ‘The Wickedness of Creating Large Families.’ (I read that just to see how the wicked think — yes, they think wickedly!) Finally, I read 15 pages in a Stanley Hauerwas publication. So, while the flights were terrifically boring and absurdly cramped it was a good day.