I.)
Modern Liberalism, like Classical Liberalism by definition is religiously pluralistic. Modern Liberalism insists that all the gods be allowed into the public square. Given this definition no Biblical Christian can be a liberal or can support Liberalism as a social order motif. The Biblical Christian insists that only the God of the Bible be allowed to rule in the public square. This is why chaps like Jeffrey Ventrella, Doug Wilson, Toby J. Sumpter are being disloyal to Christ. Their advocacy for a “muted pluralism,” or a “principled pluralism,” remains pluralism and is a violation of the 1st commandment.
Now, the ironic thing about all this is that Liberalism really isn’t pluralistic, though it certainly sells itself as such. The hidden secret of Pluralism and so Liberalism is that while Liberalism does ostensibly allow all the gods into the public square it is only on the condition that each of them and all of them realize that their authority is always underneath the authority of the singular God of the the social order; to wit, the State. Pluralism (Liberalism) says all the gods are invited into the social order. Pluralism (Liberalism) gives that appearance to fools but at the end of the day Liberalism is just as monotheistic as any religious forming social order you would like to name.
And this is why, for the Biblical Christian, Liberalism as a worldview has to go. Biblical Christians resolve that Classical Liberalism has to go because Classical Liberalism provides a singular God as located in the State’s authority to dictate to the God of the Bible as to how influential He is allowed to be in the public square. For the Christian to support Classical Liberalism is for the Christian to support idolatry.
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II.)
“For my part, I will start by repudiating all of these tired old forms of “post-liberalism.” Because it will not end any differently than it did the last time.”
Substack Article
Mattson sems also to forget in his article that in Genesis 11 the agenda wasn’t Nationalism but it was International Empire and that God’s solution to Babel was on one hand to scatter the effort at Internationalism while at the same time to raise up a confederation of Tribes to be a Nation that would be a light to the Gentiles. Mattson likewise seems to forget that Jesus himself sanctions nations — and by extension nationalism — when, in giving the Great Commission, He commands His Lieutenants to “Disciple the Nations.”
All this anti-Nationalism, issuing forth from Reformed-dom and Evangelicalism is a testimony to a profound misinterpretation of history as combined with a profound misinterpretation of the Scriptures. Sometimes it really seems to be the case that we are being led by the dumbest smart people the Church has ever produced.
It is interesting though, that when the topic turns to the sovereignty of Ukraine, all these post-nationalist pastors (paging Brian Mattson) suddenly become regular Garibaldis shouting “Long Live Ukraine.” Yet, according to them God hates Nationalism for White Christian descendants of Europe.
These WOKEsters laud the post-nationalism of atheists like Klaus Schwab and Pope Francis while at the same time consigning the Calvinist Viktor Orban to the Hate Bin. This is just the kind of thinking one might expect from Team Church. And herein we see the irony of it all. We may be living in a time that has never seen a bigger push towards one World Internationalism and clowns like Mattson are out there hanging on the cord of the tocsin shouting; BEWARE NATIONALISM.
It’s hard to believe anybody is really that stupid and as such one has to
conclude that there is no reason to think that guys like Mattson aren’t ALL bought-and-paid-for WEF agents. Although since they’re Team Church, no doubt they sold their souls for a criminally meager price. On the other hand maybe they really are just that stupid after all?
Well, I hope that if they have sold their souls they at least received in the bargain a year’s supply of adrenochrome, or maybe they were just happy to know that they were practicing neighbor love. Sometimes getting people to do the right thing is satisfaction enough.
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III.)
“For simplicity’s sake, I will explain it in this way: a radical is a complete liberal in the same way that a liberal is a half-radical. A liberal is a radical stopped in his tracks. A radical is a liberal who, by virtue of suitable circumstances, was able to grow to maturity. Or, to put it even more briefly: liberalism is the seed of which radicalism is the fruit.”
Groen Van Prinsterer
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: A Refutation of Liberalism
Liberalism gives birth to Alienism inasmuch as Liberalism alienates the liberal from the idea of objective moral values as seen in the fact that consistent Liberalism allows all religions, with their varying moralities, into the public square. If there are no objective moral values that eliminate the smorgasbord of other values then all that is left is an alienism from all else besides the sovereign autonomous self that is sovereignly determining which moral values will be embraced. As such the Liberal is alienated from any civilization/culture which does insist on objective moral values that must be bowed to by all peoples. The Liberal is alienated from any idea of transcendent truth. The Liberal is alienated from any notion of an extra-mundane God. The Liberal is alienated from reality. All that is left to the consistent Liberal is his own alienation born of the conviction of the sovereign autonomous self that there are no objective moral values. There is nowhere else to go except to an alienism that supports the Liberal’s instinct that there is no objective moral order to call home.
This leads me to conclude that the idea that Magistrates are not supposed to legislate/teach/require morals and instead just allow people to be free to pursue whatever morality they like (Classical Liberalism) has to be the greatest engine for Atheism ever developed.
As a Christian I am duty bound to oppose living in a pluralistic “free society” that allows for all faiths to ply their wares.
As a Christian, I am against Classical Liberalism.
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IV.)
Should Christians desire to win the culture wars against the WOKE cultural Marxists crowd they have to be done with classical liberalism as a worldview and embrace censorship once in power while suppressing ideologies, organizations, and persons who would subvert the Christian vision. In short Christians must practice cancel culture just as is prescribed in God’s Word. In God’s Word if someone, for example, committed a sexual crime their life was canceled. This kind of mindset must be take up again by Christians if they are to defeat those who would practice cancel culture by seeking to economically and personally destroy those who oppose sexual perversion.
To paraphrase G. K. Chesterton we must seek to censor “the thought that stops thought.” We must give up classical liberalism (which was always a myth) and embrace once again God’s Law as the norm that norms all speech and behavior norms.
Now, some will think this sounds harsh and even, dare say it, Puritanical, but keep in mind that this is exactly what is being done to the Christian sense of proper speech, liberty, and decency by the anti-Christ left to the Christian. The anti-Chris left has succeeded in ushering in a liberty that finds kiddies being brought before perverts in order to hear the perverts read during Drag Queen Story Hour. The anti-Christ left has succeeded in brining an “expanded standard” that allows teenage boys to use the girls locker-rooms while the teenage girls are changing. The anti-Christ left has succeeded in shutting down speech that opposes these kinds of things from happening.
Is freedom of speech as wrongly absolutized really something that Christians want to support if it leads to where we are at? We must turn the censoring tables on the enemy. We must quit with the freedom of speech nonsense and begin to censor our enemies just as our Fathers did before us.
If Christians who fancy themselves biblical and so conservative hope to recover anything akin to standards that they need not be embarrassed by then must not only articulate a moral and political vision that are wholesome by God’s standard but they also must suppress and censor and practice cancel culture on individuals, ideologies, organizations, and institutions that subvert our Christian vision.