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Quote of the Day: Weasel Words
“Weasel words from mollycoddles will never do when the day demands prophetic clarity from greathearts.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
Last week I watched a documentary about author Joshua Harris. Harris’s bestselling book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, was a transformational instrument in the lives of many Christians. It promoted courtship over dating and became a counter-cultural norm for many young people navigating the world of love and relationships.
But that was then. Today Joshua Harris has walked away from his faith, his marriage, and all but denounced his book, though I presume he still receives royalties, and posts on social media about his enlightenment and embrace of the LGTBQ community. I watched his documentary and saw a deeply confused man trying to survive in a world he now believes should have no structure.
Harris is not unique; this kind of moral untethering has been happening since the beginning of time. We read about it in scripture, and we see it play out in history and in the lives of people we know. I’ve known several individuals who, over the last few decades, have wandered away from the things they used to prize as sacred. And none of them seem happier as a result.
This doesn’t surprise me.
I often caution people to never put your faith in men, because men will inevitably let you down. Politicians, parents, spouses, leaders…none of them are perfect; they fail. You and I, we can be a mess sometimes, so we need to stop looking to ourselves, or even to the wise words of talented individuals in the spotlight of the moment unless those words are grounded in a transcendent truth that has always existed. God’s principles are always perfect, and cannot be improved upon with the trendy enlightenment of the day. I suspect the day will come when even Harris realizes that again.
But his is a cautionary tale: Keep your guard up, and listen with a critical ear to test what you hear against what you know. Because the same mouth that once loosed the prophetic clarity of age-old wisdom may tomorrow spew vomit.
Published in General
Funny how human nature remains the same, and each generation plays out the same dramas.
That is one of the things that turns me off to mega-churches. It often is all about a star preacher. When a church is that dependent one one person, and that person isn’t Jesus Christ, there is always a chance things can go very wrong.
Anyway, my goal for this week: Find a way to use mollycoddle in a conversation.
A very keen observation . . .
In my denomination, and quite near to me, there was a used-car salesman who built up a mega-church, mostly on twelve-step programs. He was a recovering alcoholic himself. He also apparently had a thing about liking more women than he should have, but was fairly discreet about it. When another minister got into trouble with too many women, he offered to take him under his wing and school the younger minister to overcome his troubles. When the old salesman died, the younger minister took over. For awhile, until it came to light his trouble with women re-emerged. He was replaced by another young minister whose wife was also one of the associate ministers at the church. That worked alright until that minister one day announced that he was divorcing his wife, the associate minister who also worked at the church, but it was alright, because he was going to marry this young lady over here.
That all happened in maybe two or three years from the death of the used-car salesman, and the board was desperate to hold things together. They had expenses to meet and decided they needed a real name to head up this mega-church. Thus, they pulled in a famous spiritual writer and speaker, who was also female, so less likely to try to build a harem. She wasn’t an actual minister of our denomination, but they were desperate. It worked out much better for the famous speaker than for the church. After some years of flying in from California to Michigan, she got tired of it, plus it wasn’t working out as well as it could have been, so they parted ways. And now she’s a presidential candidate.
Definitely put not your faith in princes.
There is much wisdom on emphasizing courtship over dating. However, the 1900’s traditional courtship would commence when the man had enough assets (typically much older) and the woman was “of age.” Due in part to World War II, this model was broken, so a more equal age between men and women occurred. This “dating” culture was emulated by teenagers in the 1950’s. Until the sexual revolution of the 1960’s, dating wasn’t as big a problem, as people still married relatively young. So what should be the new standard when both sexes go to college and aren’t ready for marriage until their late 20’s?
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Or princesses.
Vance,
Quite so for any religious institution. It’s great to have a dynamic leader that people really enjoy listening to. However, when that’s all they are coming for, you realize that it’s just a form of entertainment. You need a personal faith, not a song & dance once a week. When things don’t go right and the song & dance man doesn’t show up then people lose it entirely.
Regards,
Jim
Alice Roosevelt Longworth
Faith in Jesus Christ is essential. When you put Christ first, everything else will fall into place.