Devon Eriksen
A lot of Christians got the message, but some of them are determined to squirm a bit more before resorting to accountability or humility. A popular way to do this is demonstrated below. Unfortunately for Giff, I learned this trick before he was even born. Goes like this: "If someone points out a problem, pretend that he is personally asking for help with something effects only him. Then accuse him of weakness. Hopefully then he will shut up because he doesn't want to look like a loser." But Giff knows perfectly well that when I say "young people", I don't mean me. He knows that because he has met me, and I am obviously older than dirt. So this is just a word game. And word games don't move the ball forward. There is no reason for you to try and fight me. I am not trying to rob you. I am trying to help you. Because the state of the West is too urgent for us to be distracted by petty squabbles about who or what hypothetically made the universe. Here is the message: 1. The decline of Christianity is not due to opposition by unbelievers or abandonment by the faithful. These are symptoms. 2. The actual cause, which led to both the opposition and the apostasy, is a series of unforced errors by the churches themselves. 3. These unforced errors occurred because churches were confused about their primary earthly responsibilities. 4. Because the churches believe that god rules, and believe that they are the representatives of god on earth, they thought their job was to dictate morality to people, rather than care for their needs. 5. Thus, they failed to notice when the changing technological landscape made certain moral demands, which were once simple, increasingly difficult over successive generations. 6. This led to a loss of faith among the young. Not merely because they didn't want to abide the rules, or because the rules were more difficult to abide, but because they began to CORRECTLY understand that their churches weren't really listening and didn't really care. 7. It was these ranks of disaffected young people who were fertile ground for alternatives. The fact that a lot of those alternatives were terrible does not signify, because answers are a lot like food, sex, or love... if people can't get the good, healthy kind, they will take what is available. 8. Zeal-signalling Christians are declaring on twitter than societal decay must be reversed by granting the Christian faith rulership again. But they do not acknowledge that Christianity had rulership before, and failed. 9. They do not understand that rulership is not the same as leadership, and no one will ever give you the one if you are not willing to demonstrate the other. 10. I am not asking you, Christian soldiers, to be in charge. On the contrary, I am explaining why you shouldn't be. Because most of you still don't understand the problems, and those who do don't have solutions. 11. Christianity has no solutions, because just as communists think they can make economics obsolete by pointing guns at people and forcing them to ignore incentives, Christians think they can make psychology and anthropology irrelevant at the point of a moral lecture. 12. Actual solutions to widespread problems in populations involve changing the terrain so that personal incentives align with societal goals. Societies that can do this survive and prosper, until they can't, and then they die. That's it. That's the whole message. So why am I saying this? Simple. Unlike god, Christians actually exist, and can do things. You can help young people who are young today, who still have time. But in order to do that, you have to understand what is actually around you, and do what the situation requires, instead of what worked 300 years ago. No outside your own community is persuaded by your demands for a crown. Grab a shovel and pitch in with the rest of us.
Giff Lasta
There are two main points in @Devon_Eriksen_'s post. The first is that if Christianity is true, then it's responsible for EVERYTHING, and there's no making excuses for any of the failures of the church and the faith, or any civilization where the faith is present. Given my belief in extreme ownership, he's got me there. Fine. We are Christ's body, and Christ takes it all on. Sure, the buck stops with us. In response to the prospect that Christians like me are salivating at the thought of converting him, Devon replied "numbered, numbered, weighed, divided"---using a biblical reference of God's judgment against a kingdom coming to its end, implying that Christ's kingdom has played out it's two thousand year reign and the jig is up. We'll see about that. Resurrection from the dead is his specialty, after all. I poked at him a bit in response, that perhaps he protests too much. He's holding our faith to a standard far beyond a mere philosophy, and demanding that we prove ourselves to be the very hands and feet of God in the world. In that sense, his diatribe left respectful debate in the dust and felt more like a full on "shit test." What do I mean? That Devon wouldn't hit that hard if some part of him didn't really wish we were the genuine article. He's giving us the respect of taking our claims more seriously than we often do ourselves. OK Devon, fair enough. Bring it. Tell us all your problems with life, the universe, and everything. I'll handle what I can, and pass the rest up the chain to the Almighty himself. (HOWEVER, when you adopt this frame, it casts THE CHURCH as the man in the arena, and you as the girl waiting at the finish line to throw herself at the winner. That's a different framing than just co-belligerents concerned about the fate of the West.) Now, the second point is his actual complaints. What's really wrong with the world today that the Church has been ignoring? 1. Young men cannot get married if they cannot earn a stable, reliable income that can support a family, without having to be exceptionally talented, well-connected, or lucky. 2. Young men cannot get married if their entire society is telling young women that men are their equals at best, and probably their inferiors. These are big questions, and pretty insightful. I don't have the answers. I'd point out that NOBODY in the modern world has the answers either, except that that's no excuse, because I'm a member of the body of Christ, and saving the world is our business regardless of anyone else. Anyway, I grant that a young man needs to have a way to support his family economically, AND that a woman needs to admire him to feel sustainable attraction. Devon says that "Wall Street" took that away from him. Maybe. But I take a page from @NancyRPearcey here and blame something else. The Industrial Revolution itself. That's what set the stage for feminism and then the mess we have now. That's what took fathers out of the home and into the factories and wrecked the natural rhythm of family life that gave him the opportunity to command respect and build attraction. It also gave tremendous benefits that involve half our children not dying, so I'd really like to not lose the good parts if I can help it. The best immediate solution I have is, in the face of the age of abundance coming our way with AI and robotics, is we need to explicitly and voluntarily adopt constraints that build attraction in family life. We need to have a science of masculine/feminine polarity and fitness routines around it, as developed as our routines of physical fitness are. I'm working on this at the micro level now with Reforged Marriage---giving men in marriages the tools they need to lead their families and cultivate desire in their wives. It's a small effort, but I've seen impressive results with about 100 men at this point. I'm pretty excited about the impact of scaling what I'm seeing. My little effort is not enough. I don't know how to solve the status questions or those of meaningful work, in a world where machines are smarter than we are. But it's a start. As I said before, Devon, I'm all ears for your suggestions of concrete solutions and goals.