America is divided, but how deep does that division run? Do our small towns and cities see the world through fundamentally different lenses? Today's episode takes a deep dive into this national dichotomy, sparked by the recent release of Jason Aldean’s controversial song, Try that in a Small Town.
I dissect the song and its depiction of the ongoing divide between rural areas and urban centers, particularly in the wake of 2020’s events. We also discuss the song’s resonance with the frustrated spirit of the populist movement, and how Aldean himself has often found himself in opposition to Nashville's controlling elites.
We then shift gears, analyzing the growing sentiment in favor of a national divorce, echoed by personalities like Marjorie Taylor Greene. Exploring movements like the Greater Idaho Movement and phenomena like the New Big Sort, we discuss the mass exodus from liberal cities and states, and the irony of the political choices of those who relocate. We provide an in-depth examination of the stark contrast between these 'blue' and 'red' areas, highlighting the socio-political implications that have given rise to these sentiments.
Lastly, we scrutinize the changing face of Evangelical Christianity, particularly its shift towards the Open Society of post-World-War-II consensus. We talk about figures like Russell Moore and the pivotal roles played by David French and Tim Keller in this shift. We examine Tim Keller's influential manifesto, The Decline and Renewal of the American Church, and its impact on today’s church. Wrapping up, we reflect on the widening schism between the populist fundamentalist movement and the evangelical establishment, and its implications for conventional views on masculinity, marriage, family, and community.
Talk to Joe Garrisi about managing your wealth.
Sign up for Barbell Logic.
Place your meat order with Salt & Strings.
Start banking with Private Family Banking. You can reach Private Family Banking Partner, Chuck DeLadurantey at chuck@privatefamiliybanking.com, call him directly at 830-339-9472, or download his e-book HERE.
America is divided, but how deep does that division run? Do our small towns and cities see the world through fundamentally different lenses? Today's episode takes a deep dive into this national dichotomy, sparked by the recent release of Jason Aldean’s controversial song, Try that in a Small Town.
I dissect the song and its depiction of the ongoing divide between rural areas and urban centers, particularly in the wake of 2020’s events. We also discuss the song’s resonance with the frustrated spirit of the populist movement, and how Aldean himself has often found himself in opposition to Nashville's controlling elites.
We then shift gears, analyzing the growing sentiment in favor of a national divorce, echoed by personalities like Marjorie Taylor Greene. Exploring movements like the Greater Idaho Movement and phenomena like the New Big Sort, we discuss the mass exodus from liberal cities and states, and the irony of the political choices of those who relocate. We provide an in-depth examination of the stark contrast between these 'blue' and 'red' areas, highlighting the socio-political implications that have given rise to these sentiments.
Lastly, we scrutinize the changing face of Evangelical Christianity, particularly its shift towards the Open Society of post-World-War-II consensus. We talk about figures like Russell Moore and the pivotal roles played by David French and Tim Keller in this shift. We examine Tim Keller's influential manifesto, The Decline and Renewal of the American Church, and its impact on today’s church. Wrapping up, we reflect on the widening schism between the populist fundamentalist movement and the evangelical establishment, and its implications for conventional views on masculinity, marriage, family, and community.
Talk to Joe Garrisi about managing your wealth.
Sign up for Barbell Logic.
Place your meat order with Salt & Strings.
Start banking with Private Family Banking. You can reach Private Family Banking Partner, Chuck DeLadurantey at chuck@privatefamiliybanking.com, call him directly at 830-339-9472, or download his e-book HERE.
This episode of the Hard Men Podcast is brought to you by Salt and Strings Butchery Order your custom beef bundle. Today. It's also brought to you by Private Family Banking, helping Christians take dominion through privatized banking. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Backwards Planning Financial building multi-generational wealth with Joe Garrisi. Well, welcome to this episode of the Hard Men Podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, Eric Conn, delighted that you could join us for this episode of the podcast. Want to give a quick shout out first of all to our Patreon supporters. Really absolutely could not do this show without you. So thank you, guys, for supporting the show. By the way, if you haven't yet signed up on Patreon, you can do that today for as little as $10 a month. If you join you at the $10 a month tier, we will send you a Hard Men Slonk Eggs Coffee Cup or a Pugilist Coffee Cup simply for signing up. So we encourage you to do that. That goes a long way to supporting this work of the show and New Christendom Press.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to be talking about a very exciting subject, and this revolves around the controversy the last couple months that has been going on because of Jason Aldean's new song Try that in a Small Town. As we'll unpack in today's episode, there's a lot driving the Small Town vs City divide in America, and we're going to talk more about that. Well, it's no stretch to say that America is a divided nation, perhaps more so now than ever. This divide was on full display recently with the volcanic responses that came from the release of Jason Aldean's new song, as I said, called Try that in a Small Town. The song was released in May of 2023. It took, I don't know, maybe about a month for it to really cause a stir in the media. As soon as they saw it, there was all sorts of backlash. Now, whether you love the song or hate the song, or perhaps you're like me and you're not exactly a fan of Jason Aldean and Bro Country the song brought into focus the great divide separating two polar opposite ends of the political spectrum in America. In this way, it was sort of a perfect storm that was flying on around this song. On the left, critics said that Aldean was promoting a pro lynching message with undertones of racism. That's right, they said. Well, I think it was a Tennessee courthouse that they shot the music video in front of. They said well, you know, a century ago. This was a scene of a great lynching case, and so Jason Aldean is supporting lynching of black people. History Music Television CMT responded by pulling Aldean's song from its station. Now, on the other hand, there was a different response from a lot of conservative middle class America. The song hit number one on Billboard's Hot 100, and it was the first song of Aldeans to do so in the midst of really what has been a lengthy and successful musical career. Clearly, then, there are millions of Americans who deeply resonate with Aldean's message and with the song.
Speaker 1:Now, for those of you who missed it, try that in a small town as a song about how much of what is allowed to happen in urban areas, you know, things from rioting and armed robbery and vandalism and gun confiscation all these things wouldn't be tolerated in small towns across America. At least that's Aldean's claim. In the song. Aldean highlights the divergent ideologies that characterize many rural as opposed to urban places. The music video features people burning American flags and robbing convenience stores and vandalizing cars and public property. There's carjacking, and old ladies are somehow involved in this, and there's news footage that was shown of rioters as well as what appeared to be mass protests.
Speaker 1:Here's a brief excerpt of the beginning of the song. Aldean says Sucker, punch somebody on a sidewalk, carjack an old lady in a red light, pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store. You think it's cool? Well, act a fool if you like. Cross out a cop, spit in his face, stomp on the flag and light it up. Yeah, you think you're tough? Well, try that in a small town. See how far you make it down the road. Round here, we take care of our own. You cross that line. It won't take long For you to find out. I recommend you don't try that in a small town.
Speaker 1:Now, Aldean's song is quite obviously, I think, a response to what happened in the wake of the great sham demic of 2020, with BLM riots and Antifa violence, and you remember all the anti-police narratives that were thrust upon us from mainstream media. It probably even goes further back, like 2013, 2014, Ferguson. This has been going on a long time and it really ramped up, especially with the Obama presidency. And so, from Ferguson to Floyd, to Rittenhouse, the song captures this frustrated spirit of the populist movement of middle America, one that is continually mocked by mainstream elites and targeted via the legal system, one that is forced to watch as its communities are burned to ash. The song also recognizes the general trend of left-leaning democrat cities and the historic problems they've had with violent crime. And then you compare that to a lot of rural areas and rural locales. There's two different ways of life, characterized by these small towns and then big cities. It's also not the first time, by the way, that Aldean has been on the wrong side of the controlling leftist elites, including those in Nashville.
Speaker 1:For example, aldean was dropped by the Green Room, his PR agency, after his wife, brittany, made what was called a transphobic statement on Twitter back in September of 2022. Now I looked this up and I was thinking to myself man, what did she say? What did she say that was so transphobic and hateful? Well, in reality, the tweet said that she was Brittany. Glad her parents didn't change her gender when she went through a tomboy phase. Seems actually pretty inane and innocuous, pretty based in reality type of comment. Well, Marren Morris, another country musician, wasn't having it. She responded to Brittany on social media and said F all the way off to insurrection, barbie end quote. That's quite a strong statement from Marren Morris. Now, hilariously, brittany responded again by starting a clothing line using Barbie style font, which red don't tread on our kids Also worth noting. I think this is really interesting. In this situation, marin Morris made a ridiculously inappropriate, profane and heated comment and she received zero backlash from record label executives. Nobody was dropping her from their PR firms. Meanwhile, aldean was booted from his PR agency for a fairly innocuous tweet from his wife.
Speaker 1:Books and progressives are clearly competing in a cultural space according to two very different sets of rules. On the one hand, you could be a writer in Minneapolis and it seems as though almost nothing happened to those people. We certainly didn't have show trials. But when Kyle Rittenhouse defended himself, boy did we have a show trial. It was like the modern version of OJ Simpson and Kyle was on the stand. You're watching the whole thing and you're like, okay, they clearly bust in thugs to attack and you know isolate people like Kyle he defended himself Eventually is acquitted, but still it was center stage and this had a lot of middle America really questioning Are you allowed to defend yourself if you're attacked? A lot of people were definitely concerned about this. Well, such a double standard will always produce a disaffected dissident group In this case on the right, especially when it is targeted by a weaponized judicial branch. We've seen this over and over again.
Speaker 1:Red meat is a staple of a healthy protein pack diet, but not all meat is created equal. That's why I buy my meat from Salt and Strings Butchery. Salt and Strings is owned and operated by my friends Quinn and Samantha Bible, and the meat they offer is raised, harvested and processed exclusively in southern Illinois. It's cut and packaged by my friends Quinn and Anthony, and not only is it the best meat I've ever had, well, all their meat is sourced from local farms that share our Christian values. Salt and Strings is now offering a beef and hog box that can be shipped directly to your door. The 15 pound beef box features 100% black angus beef and includes rib-eyes, t-bones, sirloin, chakros, fajita meats and ground beef. You can order your beef box today for just $259.00. They will send it directly to your door. The hog box is $239.00 and features premium Durrock pork including eight thick pork chops one of my all-time favorites pork steaks, cured and sliced bacon, ground pork, bratwurst and breakfast sausage links. You can place your order today at saltandstringscom or use the link in the show notes, and also be sure to follow Salt and Strings on Instagram. We'll also include the link in the show notes.
Speaker 1:Do you desire to be shrewd financially for your family? What takes wisdom and dedication to build and pass on personal wealth, as mature, responsible leaders must do? Joe Garrissi, with Backwards Planning Financial, is at your side to integrate investments, debt insurance, tax strategies and legacy planning in a holistic approach. He coaches his clients to act wisely with the resources God expects us to turn a profit on to love our children and grandchildren. Well, check out the link in the show notes before the website for Backwards Planning Financial and you can start your consultation with Joe Garrissi today.
Speaker 1:Conservative views are censored and leftist views are not Conflict in this sort of scenario and this type of cultural heat is sure to follow. Well, jason Song, in the response to it, also highlights the heart, I think, of America's divide. Not for the country. Praise the riots and looting many of these young college white girls, and they viewed these riotists representative of a long-awaited victory in the social justice campaign. Thanks for watching forces of opinion. It was time, they said, to hear the voices of martyred heroes like George Floyd, these men who became symbolic victims of police brutality. Michael Brown, same thing in Ferguson. They become martyrs of systemic injustice and white supremacy, never mind the fact that he was overdosing on fentanyl was George Floyd, or the fact that several of the charged Minneapolis police officers were black or Asian. No, floyd's face became the symbol of a forced narrative that many on the left embraced. He became the new patron saint of this woke religion that flowed out of the civil rights movement of 1964.
Speaker 1:This is the half of the country that embraces the fluidity of gender and morality and borders. They are statistically more likely to be college educated and living in urban centers than are they working class and rural. They are also statistically more likely to be young, college educated white women, not white men. You remember one of the riots during 2020, and I can't remember when it was, but there was a young white girl yelling at a black police officer about systemic injustice and racism and he was like give me a break. This is how ludicrous everything has gotten in the country, and especially these things ramped up since 2020. Now the other half of the country found the riots deeply disturbing and morally reprehensible. They were alarmed to watch as police in many cities stood by impotently while cities burned and police precincts were torched. Meanwhile they watched. As I said, kyle Rittenhouse was vilified squarely in the public eye during a show trial. That's what it was. It was a show trial after he quite clearly and justifiably defended himself from arm to salience and later we found out, felons too.
Speaker 1:These Americans are more likely to be working class and dwell in rural areas of the country, that's, those who tend to support something like Jason Aldean's song. Once it was the spark of this song from Aldean that lit a continually mounting powder keg of resentment that has been brewing between rural and urban Americans. More than that, this reflects a growing divide between wealthy elites who control society the ones who have been pushing for an open society, really since the end of World War II and the middle class that is increasingly struggling to survive in a post-industrial, post-globalist society that seemingly has no place for working class Americans. The other thing I want to do at this point is take a look at maybe another way that we see this divide taking shape, and that's the rise of the secession movements in many states across America. We see this with the rising number of secession movements that seem to be happening every political season. This, too, centers on the divide between blue cities and red rural areas. So counties in Oregon, texas, illinois, colorado and several other states regularly feature secession on their ballots. As an article published by Governing said, these movements to break away from existing blue cities and states showcase a growing discontent among conservative Americans in rural areas, who feel they are consistently ruled and outvoted by those who do not have their best interests in mind. People in this city In February of 2023,.
Speaker 1:Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted this. She said we need a national divorce. We need to separate by red state and blue state and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this, from the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrats, traderists, america last policies. We are done Now. What everything about? Marjorie Taylor Greene and there's definitely some issues here I think she rightly characterizes what's going on with a lot of middle America. They're simply saying I'm done with this. I'm sick and tired of watching this happen. In my country. We are ruled by people who hate America and who hate the Christian West and are doing everything they possibly can to destroy it. Meanwhile, we're at the center of their target and their crosshairs.
Speaker 1:Matt McCaw, a spokesman for Greater Idaho, is working on a movement to adjoin Eastern Oregon with Idaho. He said interest in new states brought about by secession is fueled by discontent in rural areas over how majority blue cities decide the fate of those with whom they radically differ on political and ideological issues. Mccaw said this a lot of political tension happens in our states because of this urban rural divide. He went on in Eastern Oregon, we have government that does not match our culture, our values and our life. End quote. So I think that is the central issue. When people are ruled by people who hate them and who despise them and who call them things like deplorable, there is bound to be national strife.
Speaker 1:Now, mccaw is not alone in all of this. In Illinois, for example, more than two dozen counties have voted to break away and create a new state, including three last fall. Parts of Colorado would prefer to join Wyoming. There are officials in western Maryland who want to be a part of West Virginia. Residents in part of South Oregon and North Carolina have talked for decades about forming a new and more powerful Jefferson state. In 2018, the California Supreme Court blocked this initiative and another one that would have split the state into three separate parts. So there's a lot of angst going on Now.
Speaker 1:Whether or not these secession movements are successful, it's clear that Americans have reached a boiling point. This is what Marjorie Taylor Greene was talking about. They have reached a boiling point in ideological difference and they are willing to take drastic measures, including relocation and perhaps secession, to put themselves under a local government that better represents their life, values and interests. Now this angst continues to fuel the populist movement and, as Greene Taylor said, the growing sense that America is really becoming two nations with two divergent ideologies. I think this has been going on for a long time. You can read Christopher Caldwell's book the Age of Entitlement to really see how post-1964 and civil rights legislation we were set up to live, based on a second and new constitution under civil rights. This is what's actually fueled wokeness, intersectionality, critical race theory all of this which actually has made our country more racially charged, not less.
Speaker 1:The other main issue besides secession is also the big sort and the latest big sort that's been happening because of 2020 and COVID. Now, as has been widely reported, there's been a mass exodus of Americans, predominantly away from blue states and cities, and they're fleeing two red and rural places. Sometimes this is within the same state sometimes and often across state lines. Now, as office spaces in the city closed down, we saw this drastic increase in telecommuting and working from home, and so Americans quickly voted to get the heck out of highly populated and expensive urban areas. They didn't want to live under COVID stand policies. They didn't like the way that these cities were run. So, as a result, cities like New York, which lost something like 6% of its population, lost a lot while they continued to be on the decline.
Speaker 1:Now this next part is anecdotal, but I still find it interesting. I wonder how many of you have had similar experiences that you could share. I had conversations with several acquaintances who left places like San Francisco and Portland and Washington DC and Seattle during the Chamedemic, so I was intrigued. I said why did you guys move? What was driving your decision? Now, in every instance it's worth noting these were people who identified before and after as left-leaning and progressive on the political spectrum. They would tell you this Quite unanimously. They all said the same thing Highly populated urban centers which they were living in were unbearably suffocating places to live under COVID policies. Go figure, those cities were already too expensive to live in. They were crime-ridden and they were plagued by break-ins and homeless drug users and people in San Francisco taking dumps on the street, and so COVID pushed each of these folks over the edge to relocate. I find this fascinating.
Speaker 1:People who vote left don't even want to live in those cities and states. One woman I talked to said she was tired of paying $3,000 a month to rent a one-bedroom studio apartment. She was tired of people in Oakland breaking into her car to steal tampons from the glovebox. So what did she do? She moved to Red County, but continues to vote Democrat and support groups like Black Lives Matter. Every single one of these people chose new residences in red states or red counties. Again, why? Why did they do this? Well, because many of the red places and rural areas they moved to are generally better places to live. They're cleaner, they have less crime, they have cheaper real estate, more spacious living situations, less taxes and less COVID regulation as well as other government regulation. Again, the sad irony is many of these progressives will continue to vote for policies and politicians in their new places that create the hellscape from which they were running Makes absolutely no sense. The final toll from the latest big sort well, it's going to be hard to tell, but this much is clear Americans are moving in droves away from blue cities and states to red places. I find this, again. Just very fascinating to note.
Speaker 1:Now, at the state level, it's been a similar story After the 2020 consensus. For example, california lost one of its 53 house seats. This is significant. This marks the first time in the state's 170 year history that its population and political voice well, it shrank. Those votes and tax dollars went to red states largely, whose political voice grew rapidly across the US. Consider some of the statistics From July 2021 to 2022, states like Idaho, utah, montana, texas, florida, tennessee, georgia, north and South Carolina, south Dakota and Arizona they grew by 1.1% or more, according to the Census Bureau. States like California, illinois, michigan, new York well, they lost the most amount of population percentage. So these were 0.5% or more decline from 2021 to 2022. Again, california, illinois, michigan and New York Go figure, all the places where the COVID craziness was at its fever pitch. What this represents is a major shift in power from blue to red states.
Speaker 1:There's also been a mass exodus from blue cities within states to more red counties, again made possible by remote work opportunities and lower costs of living. For example, multnomah County in Oregon lost 2.6% of its population from 2020 to 2022. And you might ask why? Well, one word Portland. People were trying to get out of Portland. You remember all the craziness going on in Portland, right? People didn't want to live there. Many of them relocated to different, redder parts of the state and you can't really blame them. Again. This is both political and practical. Cities are more expensive, they're more populace and are more confined. Rural areas are generally cheaper, they have less taxation and, with remote work, well, you don't really have to fight traffic or be in an office. Most people prefer this in today's working environment.
Speaker 1:What do we see happening in America? Based on secession, based on things like people moving states, what is growing? What these mass exoduses from blue cities and states represent, at least in part, is a deepening divide between two visions for America. We are no longer the idealistically moderate and unified country our boomer forefathers envisioned after World War II. Wealthy elites and social planners at the global state have less and less in common with the middle class Americans that they rule over. This is true now more than ever before in American history. It's something that Charles Murray has described in detail in his book Coming Apart. When the people who run society have a deep loathing for those whom they are meant to serve. Well, as I said before, conflict is inevitable. The post-World War II consensus is unraveling, and it's doing so rather quickly.
Speaker 1:Politicians on both sides of the aisle have been for decades pushing this post-World War II consensus or open society. They've been pushing for things like open borders and open sexuality and open morality. Everything, it seems, is porous, even the definition of men and women. Anything goes except the strong gods of traditional Christian morality. Half the country has embraced this open society view and the other half well, they're fed up and they're full and sick of the assault on their way of life. Which brings us all the way back to Jason Aldean's song Try that in a Small Town. The song fundamentally captures the spirit of an older and more rural part of the American soul, backed by the strong gods of traditional religion, morality and nationalistic patriotism. All of these things have largely passed away in the last 70 years, especially in American history, and yet even so there's this symbol of hope in the small town. It still matters to many Americans whether or not these places exist in reality or quite the way we envision them in our imaginations.
Speaker 1:Several columnists connected Audi and song with Trumpism, and in many ways they're right to make the populist connection. It's certainly a populist song. Both populism and Trumpism are aimed at the really popular desire to cultivate a love for your people and your place and not to be ashamed about it. Not to be ashamed about preferring your people and your place, the one that God has given you natural affection for. Most Americans in the populist camp are tired of being told that they're racist and fascist simply because they prefer and love their children more than, say, children in a third world country. Point of fact, this is actually normal in it, a Christian virtue throughout even reform Christendom. William Gudge talks about this in Ephesians, chapter 5, in his exposition of that passage. We're to have natural affection for those closest to us, including our spouses and our children.
Speaker 1:Audi and song isn't racist. There is absolutely no mention of Black Lives Matter, although it could reasonably be implied as the context in which the song was written. I'll give critics that it most certainly isn't, though, about lynching. Instead, it is about the bonds of people who are tied to place and a community that they love. Locality. It's about own space and neighborliness, towns in which people wave and smile and stop to help you fix a flat tire. It's about knowing where your home is and feeling deeply connected to it, and all of it is against a backdrop of globalism which is dehumanizing. It's against a backdrop of androgynous anonymity and third world labor and bloated bureaucracy and, yes, chemically castrating or physically castrating our children. Populous Middle America is sick of it. Songs like Aldeens, I think, will never go away quite, or the populist spirit that they celebrate, because such strong loves for people, place and traditional culture well, they're embedded in the fabric of our humanity.
Speaker 1:The Christian West, it seems, is having second thoughts about secular, humanistic liberalism. Our sponsor, private Family Banking Partners, is on a mission to help Christians live out the Dominion mandate by making a stealth-like move away from the mainstream banks and into their own privatized banking system. This innovative system is designed to guarantee uninterrupted compound interest and tax-free growth without exposure to typical stock market risks. To join this growing community that is already building wealth into future generations and converting Postmill Talk into Postmill Action, contact Private Family Banking Partner Chuck De Lauderante at his email, chuck at privatefamilybankingcom Again, that's Chuck at privatefamilybankingcom To set up an appointment and to receive a free copy of Chuck's new book Protect your Money Now how to Build Multigenerational Wealth Outside of Wall Street and avoid the coming banking meltdown. Go to the link in the show notes for more information.
Speaker 1:Now I want to close the episode by talking about something pretty interesting, I think, and that's a question we might ask what about evangelical leadership and the church? There was a video going around this week of Matt Chandler. I think it's actually an old video, but in the video he was talking about look, we're hiring new pastors. And the search committee asked him. They said, hey, radar candidates on a scale of one to 10, if we have a seven black person and an eight white person, meaning the white person is more qualified for the job than is the black pastor. They asked Matt Chandler which would you prefer? Matt's speaking publicly and he says without hesitation I would choose the seven black. So really, what we see here is Matt is a true disciple of the open society. He's a true disciple of this secular humanist status post 1964 civil rights movement. It's also worth interesting. This is absolutely not biblical justice, this is biblical partiality and it's sinful. What Matt Chandler is doing is openly sinful, but it makes you ask a question like who do these people report to? Who is running Matt Chandler?
Speaker 1:Maybe they just fell in accidentally, but why did all of the big evangelicalism fall in quote unquote accidentally into this movement. Why are so many evangelical elites lining up to support the open society? Right, and think about the way that we talk about sexuality in the PCA and the SBC and so many churches. There's large swaths of these denominations who are like you know. Homosexuality might not be God's best for you, but let me tell you a positive story about a puppy, and I'm going to relate this to the gospel Right. Why are so many people going this direction? Well, it's been a hot button issue. Actually, I think it's the reason so many people on the gospel coalition are no longer on Twitter, you know, and goodbye in good riddance. Right, so many people have gone, left the Amy birds, the Bethmore shore, but again, as we noted on the show and in the Puget List, russ Moore in like 2005, was writing about in favor of patriarchy.
Speaker 1:Right Now he is the editor in chief of Christianity today, which what an ironic title for that publication. Christianity. I don't think so. So consider one other example. Joel Webin recently wrote his book. We had him on the show and, whatever you think about the argument, some people will stay in states, some people will leave, but Joel wrote this book defending leaving. His book was called Fight by Flight. Why? Leaving Godless Places as Loving Godless Places? You would have thought there could have been a charitable conversation about this and yet there was no small uproar about the idea of leaving godless blue states like California. I think it's actually kind of the common sense position among many Christians.
Speaker 1:Yet where was the Gospel Coalition? Where are these people coming from who are so mad at Joel right now? You remember, during COVID and post-COVID, the Gospel Coalition was mainly writing articles focusing on why you need to stay, why you need to embrace missional living, why you're basically like you're living in Iran. If you're in California and you need to stay there, you have an imperative to stay there. You have an imperative to keep your kids in public schools. I mean, this is what the Gospel Coalition, tim Keller's Gospel Coalition, complementarian Bastion was arguing for during the Great Shambdemic you need to stay so that you can enhance your Gospel Witness.
Speaker 1:There are some other big evangelical people. Where have they gone? David French, everybody's, I mean he's pretty much shown his true colors. He's despicable, but he's joined forces now with Russell Moore. Where did this come from? David French and Russell Moore have quite obviously told the line with open society, leftist elites, no question. You know Russell was bragging about being in a book club with Francis Collins, who is doing the strong arm work in the Christian community for Fauci and all the vax stuff. Right, russell Moore is posting photos of himself with a mask a little hobbit mask and in the gayest way possible, this little hobbit just got vaccinated. Right, these guys have made entire careers out of bashing fundamentalists, and that's only getting worse. Moore recently released a book about how America has lost its soul, by which he means part of America and by which he means the part that voted for Trump and populism and the part that is against post-war consensus liberalism. Right, he's clearly attacking the deplorables, many of whom are white male evangelicals, protestants.
Speaker 1:Maybe the most insightful treatise in all of this on the subject of evangelicals going soft, however, is Tim Keller's decline in renewal of the American church. So he wrote this, I think, published in the last year you know the year he died within the last year of now. The work really is a compilation of Keller's thought. You've read these things before in Keller, but this is him making it explicit. You could read James Davidson Hunter to change the world. You saw a lot of the same ideas there, but this dying manifesto captures really Keller's vision for the church in the 21st century. And recently, if you follow Aaron Ren on the Masculinus, he pointed this out. This is really what is happening now in the church. There's been this shift based on what Keller said.
Speaker 1:Right, overall, Keller advocates that the church should align itself with center-left egalitarians right, he mentions like the Methodists. I remember what was going on in their churches. You think that's the hope in future of the church in America. It's people who are squishing on sexuality. This is what Keller says. He says we need to intentionally the church distance itself from fundamentalists and there's actually a definition provided, by the way. I'm not making this up His definition of fundamentalists. This is in his list.
Speaker 1:He says fundamentalists are those who talk about anti-social justice, anti-wokeness, they have super rigid views of gender, they're Trump supporters, they're anti-vax, they are those who saw the pandemic as a gross overreach of government powers. This makes you a fundamentalist. Well, count me in. There are also those who deny the reality of structural injustice. How could they? Well, why is it such an affront to Keller? Because you're denying the open society of the post-World War II consensus. You're denying the new constitution, post-1964 civil rights. This is their idol. You cannot touch. For Christians, this would be like denying the authenticity of scripture. Right, because they've been reading their critical race theory and their Jacques Derrida. Right, they've embraced this Right.
Speaker 1:In the past, keller's Gospel Coalition was defined by complementary and sexual theology. They were outspokenly defenders of that. But now Keller says evangelicals must shift to being anti-fundamentalists. Right, in a very squishy, gay way, he says we need to do this with grace and tears. Grace and tears. If that doesn't move you, I don't know what will.
Speaker 1:Okay, keller is careful to align himself with a sort of generic reform theology while doing so, which is what makes him so slippery. Right it more precisely probably he's like reform soteriology kind of sorta. We don't want to go down the path of pure liberalism. He says that, and so he says the church should loosely hold to something like the Five Solas Right, sort of some guiding principles. He argues against full-blown liberal theology. Right, he talks about J Gresham Machen, but at the same time he seeks to show how Christianity really does line up with and address all the fundamental talking points of intersectional wokeness. Right, just absolute, mind-bogglingly crazy. For example, he says that we ought to be focused on justice for minorities, protecting single women and honoring the voices of the same sex attracted. It's very telling.
Speaker 1:In the manifesto he says we need another theology of the body, and the guy that he references as who's gonna lead us on the theology of the body is Sam Elbury, the self-proclaimed gay priest from the UK who really brought a lot of the same sex attraction into the complementarian camp. You can go. Danny Burke still endorses this guy, right, the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. They endorse Sam Elbury's books. This is the guy that we're supposed to follow in a body of theology who is admittedly, conflicted about same sex attraction. Mind-boggling Again, this is Tim Keller. These are the evangelical elites who are ruling the day. They have control over a lot of the power structures within evangelicalism. Who are they aligning themselves with? Certainly not with middle-class America. No, with globalist elites who are pushing for an open society.
Speaker 1:Now, as it pertains to this conversation specifically about rural urban divide, keller continues his commitment in this manifesto to the urban church right for the city. This was his whole thing. Now, while he does talk about it at the very end like yeah, you know, afterthought, we'll probably need some rural churches there too, probably. It's hardly his focal point. Obviously, this part has been clear Love your city, hate your nation, right, you can't love your nation. You can love the globe and you can love your city, but you can't love your nation. Well, why? Because the post-World War II consensus was like we need to do anything we can to avoid fascism in the future, and people who love their country are fascists. So we can't love our country. So what they tried to do is undermine all these natural affections. That's their whole goal.
Speaker 1:Now, this actually makes a lot of sense, though, when you think about you know, keller is smart here American cities really are cultural hubs. They do hold a bulk of population and power and influence, and if you controlled the cities, you really would have great influence over the arts and entertainment and intellectual thought. And I think pragmatically, though, when you go in with this weak-sauce theology, this weak version of Christianity that is trying to mirror open society teaching I mean, it was a recipe for the church to get destroyed the church just becomes like the world. Right, there's also you think about these cities there's also other problems Keller doesn't really talk about, like loads of crime, like how oppressive it is to live in a place like New York during COVID. Right, keller doesn't really address that. It's telling that when he describes who the church should primarily be welcoming to like what should the church be at its soul? What's the DNA of this church that Keller envisions for the renewal of America? Well, keller does not mention working men except at the very, very, very end. They're not part of his main talking points for what the church needs. However, he does say that the church should be a place where people I'm quoting people with same-sex attraction are encouraged and supported and their wisdom is relied upon. Can you imagine saying this, by the way, about adulterers? Like you know, the thing is, adulterers have so much wisdom to teach us as they have these adulterous thoughts, like the amount of wisdom that comes out of a sinful disposition of the heart just profounded him, absolutely profound.
Speaker 1:What is Keller utterly silent on in all this? He says nothing about the plight facing young men in this country. He says nothing about the injustices that particularly white men and working men are facing in our country. He says nothing about rising inflation rates or outsourcing of labor to China, which causes problems for the middle working class. He says nothing about discrimination through civil rights legislation vis-a-vis Matt Chandler. He says nothing about how divorce laws are unequally weighted, unjustly against men. He says nothing about a church that alienates men by calling traditional masculinity toxic. He says exactly zero about the difficulties middle America is facing. Why? Because he doesn't care. He sees you as the enemy. Right Big Eva sees working class Americans as the enemy. They hate you. All that to say, keller and the Big Eva establishment leaders are clearly on the side of urban, focused, open society and all that that entails.
Speaker 1:Keller himself talks at length about ending dominionism, post-militiology. Any sort of Christendom ideology would be absolutely disgusting. Instead, he advocates that we embrace a pluralistic approach, many voices all with equal weight. We embrace a pluralistic approach to liberal social life. Christians should be content to have one seat among many at the cultural table. They should be.
Speaker 1:Tim Keller says this. They should be non-confrontational. They should mostly avoid polemics. Polemics is the assault, the attack, right If you have apologetics. That's the defensive side of defending the faith. Polemics are going on the offensive against false ideology. Tim says we should mostly avoid polemics.
Speaker 1:Read the work, he says it. Andy says we should stick to positive teaching that most unbelievers would find non-offensive. Yeah, you read the thing and you're like did you read the Gospels? Did you read about the way Jesus confronted sin and spoke to the Pharisees Matthew 23?. I think that Jesus was offensive, and intentionally so. I think many times Jesus was polemical in his approach, not always, but a lot, especially when he was talking to the elites of that day, the people who controlled society. Right, tim Keller seems perfectly content with pluralism. He was completely willing to neuter the confrontational elements of Christianity to make it acceptable to an open society culture. That is what the elites in our country believe, the secular elites.
Speaker 1:The fact that Keller and company are openly advocating this position means that the evangelical establishment has its sights set on alienating the populist fundamentalist movement. They're totally against this. This is why they've talked about how horrible you were and you lost your soul if you voted for Trump. Right, they're going after Christians here If you voted for the guy. And what do they want to do? They want to showcase all these. There literally are some wacko people, probably plants. Let's be honest. There's some crazy people out there who have like seen like the Trump is my messiah. I don't know any genuine Christian who believes that. I don't know who these people are. Again, plants. You know part of propaganda. I don't know, but they're attacking that. That's what most people who voted for Trump believe it's not Right. That's why these evangelical elites will always take shots at Trump supporters you notice this but never at people who vote for Democrats and the party of death on demand abortion policies or gay mirage.
Speaker 1:Now, you remember Mark Devere at one of the speaker panels. This was going around social media the last couple of years. He's like you know. We really need to sympathize. I mean, there's a lot of reasons why a person would vote Democrat and we just need to be with them. We need to seek empathy and you're like is that how you treat Trump supporters? No, of course not. It's why there were against.
Speaker 1:Traditional views of positive masculinity exist, but yet they're happy to promote Jesus. Meek and Mild Only one aspect of Jesus character, but it's the predominant one. It's why everything in the traditional Christian biblical view of marriage, family and community well, it gets its own special article about how each of these things are an idol. Why are you making your family in marriage? Why are you making them such an idol? Don't make them an idol. Well, that plays really well when you have a church in New York full of single ladies, right? Don't make marriage an idol. Is that what they were doing in New York is making marriage an idol? Of course not. They were making their careers an idol. They were making living in the big fancy city an idol and they were forsaking a Christian calling a motherhood. Tim knew how to preach to him. You got to give him that Right.
Speaker 1:This is again nothing more than a war against biblical Christianity, bible-built Christianity. It's a war against middle-class America. So if you felt like for years, tgc articles and mainland reform pastors have been taking shots at you, working American man and woman, right, they've been taking shots about. Why are you so stagy for having firm gender role beliefs? Why are you so stagy about thinking that COVID was about overreach? Well, if you feel like they were taking shots at you, that's because they have been. They don't like you In their progressive liberal view. You are the problem. You're the problem that's holding society back from progress. You, bunch of unvaccinated deplorables with stagy views on sexual piety. You're the problem.
Speaker 1:Here's what I think is going to happen, and I'll wrap the episode up with this. Here's what I think is going to happen. The divides are going to deepen in our country. I don't think there's any way around this. That's inevitable. The church majority Protestant, mainline conservative church and choosing the color path is going to vacate everything on the political and cultural right. I think it's inevitable. I think they're already doing it.
Speaker 1:I think this is why you're going to see a lot more of the Andrew Tate, jordan Peterson stuff happening, and they belly ache about it. Oh, why are people following after them? Well, because you left them with nothing. You left them with garbage teaching about sexuality. You pandered to revoice Middle America. For the most part, they hate this. I think you're very likely going to see a populist movement on steroids. People, even in Christian circles that we follow. They've been trying to pump the brakes on this, but I think it's going to be a real problem. I think this wave is going to continue to grow.
Speaker 1:Amidst this vacuum, there's great opportunity. This is why I think a lot of courageous, biblically faithful leadership needs to arise, leadership that will not seed the ground, will not say, hey, let's go partner with the left-leaning Methodists in America. That's really the future of the church. We don't need to embrace intersectionality we need to oppose it. We don't need to embrace the open society we need to oppose it. We need to oppose the garbage going on with sexual ethics and bad anthropology. These people don't understand who humans are. We shouldn't trust them. Finally, as we think about the friend-enemy distinction, we need to stop pretending that the colorites are merely ambivalent to us. They're most certainly against middle America. We need to know this. We need to be savvy and realize that a lot of attacks are going to start coming from what feels like in the camp. They're shifting to anti-fundamentalism. Watch your six. They're coming for you. I think there will be a lot of people that you once trusted coming for you. We've certainly seen this already and I'll close with this Jason Aldeen.
Speaker 1:What do I think ultimately about the song? Listen, I'm not into broke country, but I do think Jason Aldeen and the song it gives me some hope that there is yet a remnant of populism. I think it's more than a remnant. I think that people, hopefully, will channel their being sick and tired into something productive and I think it's just going to take good, wise Christian leaders to give them a positive vision, to give them hope and, as our Reno says in his book, the Return of the Strong Gods, we need to boldly proclaim traditional, historically traditional Christianity. We need to boldly proclaim a world conquering. Christ's kingdom is coming. Gospel to the world. Every name will bow. It's going to take time We've got a lot of time but continuing to push forward this vision of Christendom and to continue to work hard in our local areas while championing a positive vision for the culture, because I think a lot of the Jason Aldeen crowd they need more than broke country. Broke country is not going to save America. As as helpful as songs like this are and I agree with a lot of the messaging that is not what's going to save America. So we are going to need leadership and I think the church especially is going to have to step up in this regard.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks again for listening to this episode of the Hardman podcast. Hopefully it's been an encouragement, challenge your thinking. If you have pushback thoughts, comments, whatever, send them my way. Definitely would love to respond to you. By the way, a lot of discussion going on on Patreon as well. So if you go sign up for Patreon, you can do that for as little as $5 a month. You can also join at the $10 tier and receive a Hardman Slunk Eggs Coffee Cup. We'll send that directly to you free of charge. $24.99 value for joining at the $10 a month tier and you'll get to participate in a lot of that conversation. We also publish things like transcripts for the shows on the Patreon channel and get access to early content, and Dan Burkholder and I do the Pugelist. So we have a Patreon exclusive, patreon only show.
Speaker 1:We talked about a lot of things in that show. We've had a lot of good discussion how can young men find themselves a wife, how do they prepare for marriage, what you look for if you're a young lady. In these, young men talk a lot about that and a lot of other great content as well. We've been talking about the leadership shifts. Dan asked a really good question on Twitter who can you trust? Who can you trust? These days? You notice that a lot of the young wrestlers and reform leadership that we followed for a long time has really faded fast, like faded hard down the home stretch, and so who do you trust? We discuss that in more again. That's the Pugelist on the Patreon exclusive channel. Thanks again to all of our sponsors who also make this show possible Private Family Banking, salton Strings, butchery and Joe Garrisy with backwards financial planning. We really appreciate those guys. Thank you for your support. Until next time, stay frosty, fight the good fight, act like men THE END.