(p2) The Dangerous Vacuum, and How It Came To Be
When the righteous increase,
the people are glad, But when a wicked man rules, people groan.
Proverbs 29:2
Today I want to move beyond yesterday’s post, and get to dealing more specifically with the elephant in the room; why it is so dangerous and how I think it came to be.
I noted that throughout all the subsequent discussion that was stirred up by Kevin’s article on Doug Wilson and the Moscow Mood, there was a huge, glaring elephant in the room, that either nobody was seeing, or at least nobody was acknowledging.
The elephant in the room, which has been there for some time, is the giant vacuum (not that kind of vacuum), that seemingly nobody but Wilson has been addressing.
The vacuum I speak of, is the almost complete lack of biblical analysis and commentary on the various contemporary cultural and political events, that are all interrelated components of the dawning annihilation of western civilization, and the Christian foundation on which it was established. This destruction which will bring about (and really already has begun) a seismic shift in how Christians live and minister, the likes of which no living person has a comparable experience.
Those of the youngest generation, particularly those with younger kids at home are bearing the heaviest weight of burden, with so many new, unanswered, and previously unasked questions and decisions, while the older generation often bears virtually no comparable weight.
My hypothesis is that Wilson has been doing two things, that are at the heart of the attraction of the Moscow Mood.
First, rather than ignore or disparage the Cultural Mandate, Wilson and crew have been very active in carrying it out with great intentionality. Per Kevin’s words:
“one has to marvel at the literary, digital, and institutional output that has come out of Moscow, Idaho in the past several decades. While some internet cranks are wannabees trying to make a name for themselves by trying to tear down what others have built up, Wilson is to be commended for establishing an ecosystem of schools, churches, media offerings, and publishing ventures.”
Second, and more importantly, as Kevin has said:
“In short, people are moving to Moscow—whether literally or spiritually—because of a mood. It’s a mood that says, “We are not giving up, and we are not giving in. We can do better than negotiate the terms of our surrender. The infidels have taken over our Christian laws, our Christian heritage, and our Christian lands, and we are coming to take them back.”
So Wilson has been very vocal in not only exposing and calling out the contemporary attempts to destroy the foundations of western civilization, more particularly he is exposing those attempts specifically under the light of a biblical worldview and biblical anthropology, demonology, and teleology. And virtually nobody else is doing this, or at least doing this with anywhere near clarity, frankness, and maybe most importantly – nowhere near Wilson’s volume, ie quantity of output.
Wilson is raising his voice, in a vacuum. That naturally makes many heads turn his direction.
And when those turned heads begin looking deeper, they see not only a steady stream of spot-on critique, but an entire “ecosystem” (as Kevin put it) that has been created in obedience to the Cultural Mandate, from which this voice emanates.
Said another way – it is the vaccum of silence created by the mic holders (ie the most prominent men and platforms over the last decades) that then creates the attraction to Wilson. When nobody is talking about what is happening today, then anyone who is speaking up, especially those with at least a generally biblical worldview, will naturally draw attention. What DeYoung and so many others fail to see, the elephant in the room, is that it is their silence that creates the attraction to the Moscow Mood.
Said another way – When Kevin asks, “What is the attraction to the Moscow Mood?” the answer is: “You are, Kevin.”
I dont believe that most of what I have said thus far has been very controversial. But I suspect opinions will vary going forward…
There are 2 issues that now need to be addressed at this point.
The first is why this vacuum is such a bad thing.
The second is my hypothesis on why, in part, the vacuum exists.
First things first.
Why is this vacuum such a bad thing?
One detail whose relevance is often overlooked recently is the fact that God has opened the eyes of many younger people since 2020. There are a ton of young singles, couples, and growing young families, that are for the first time seeking to follow Christ at all costs, and they simply want to know what that looks like, in their contemporary context.
So we have this large influx of people that are ravenous for the way of Christ, and contemporary application. They want, and need answers for today’s contemporary issues. (Have you noticed that the Moscow mood is drawing lots and lots of young people? Coincidence?)
We were created to carry out the Cultural Mandate. In times when the world has been turned upside down, it is increasingly difficult for younger believers to understand how to carry this out. This is one of those things that is “caught” more than it is “taught.” And so younger Christians are seeking answers for how to build a life, establish roots, and plan for the long-term, just like the generations before them. But they have already realized that they are having to do this in a very different world than those that went before them, even just a few years ago.
God has provided pastors and teachers for the explicit purpose of “equipping of the saints for the work of service.”
Regenerate Christians are naturally desirous to do that work. A new heart creates new desires. But these same younger Christians are facing very new issues.
Consider a few things that have become normalized over just the last 5 years:
Literally picking up and moving across the country to a different state, for ethical, political, and financial reasons. Or, watching friends and family do this.
Watching family members die, and not even being allowed to hold their hands, or have funerals for them after they died.
Totally rethinking the topics of public education, homeschooling, and other public education alternatives; and coming to grips with the extreme wickedness that is being exposed as having already been introduced into the educational curriculums.
Navigating the reality that children are now being frequently exposed to the social contagion of trans-mania, and the realization that if your child catches it, Ceasar just might come and take them away, and see to their chemical and/or surgical mutilation.
Losing jobs because of refusing to be injected with an experimental treatment, created and pushed by professional liars and deceivers for profit.
A huge rise in working from home.
Costs of living continually climbing to unsustainable levels.
And we could go on and on… We haven’t even touched on AI, trans-humanism, The Great Reset, The Great Replacment, pornography, decriminalizing crime, etc, etc.
As much as I am sick and tired of hearing it, and I am sure you are as well, these are truly unprecedented times.
These are the real life contexts in which younger believers are seeking to do the work of service, and to carry out the Cultural Mandate. And so they start looking for biblically informed resources that are addressing these issues. And looking. And looking… And what do they find? A Vacuum.
Nature abhors a vacuum.
It wasn’t that long ago that publishing books on contemporary issues was all the rage. I’ve literally got shelves of them. But seemingly not now. And to be fair, books can take years to write.
But there is still a dearth of other resources, sermons, papers, blogs, etc.
And so Christians are in search…
(Have you ever considered the fact that most of the NT books were written for the explicit purpose of dealing with pressing, contemporary issues in the lives of the original recipients? Why are the household codes addressed and reaffirmed in multiple books? Because there were localized cultural issues that needed to be addressed. And this is true for many of the topics covered in the NT letters.)
When a vacuum appears, it is never a good thing. When it happens in the context of newer Christians desperately needing to think through new and pressing contemporary issues, watch out!
But why does the vacuum exist?
For this question, I want to build off of Aaron Renn’s excellent work, starting with his article in First Things, The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism. Now unfortunately I know that too few have read the article, or listened to any of his messages, and so I have to quickly summarize it (and now you can buy his book, pictured below).
There are two main parts to Renn’s paradigm, each consisting of three groups.
The first main part is chronological, and it is most important. It refers to the various times in which Christians have lived, and developed ministry models. Here is Renn in his own explanation:
· Positive World (Pre-1994): Society at large retains a mostly positive view of Christianity. To be known as a good, churchgoing man remains part of being an upstanding citizen. Publicly being a Christian is a status-enhancer. Christian moral norms are the basic moral norms of society and violating them can bring negative consequences.
· Neutral World (1994–2014): Society takes a neutral stance toward Christianity. Christianity no longer has privileged status but is not disfavored. Being publicly known as a Christian has neither a positive nor a negative impact on one’s social status. Christianity is a valid option within a pluralistic public square. Christian moral norms retain some residual effect.
· Negative World (2014–Present): Society has come to have a negative view of Christianity. Being known as a Christian is a social negative, particularly in the elite domains of society. Christian morality is expressly repudiated and seen as a threat to the public good and the new public moral order. Subscribing to Christian moral views or violating the secular moral order brings negative consequences.
After giving the chronological outline, Renn then continues with the second main part - the approaches to ministry that have developed throughout that chronological spectrum:
“For the most part, evangelicals responded to the positive and neutral worlds with identifiable ministry strategies. In the positive world, these strategies were the culture war and seeker sensitivity. In the neutral world, the strategy was cultural engagement.”
and
“The culture war strategy, also known as the “religious right,” is the best-known movement of the positive-world era. The very name of its leading organization, Moral Majority, speaks to a world in which it was at least plausible to claim that Christians still represented the majority of the country. ”
“A second strategy of the positive-world movement was seeker sensitivity, likewise pioneered in the 1970s at suburban megachurches such as Bill Hybels’s Willow Creek (Barrington, IL) and Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church (Orange County). This strategy was in a sense a prototype of the neutral-world movement to come. But the very term “seeker sensitive” shows that it was predicated on an underlying friendliness to Christianity; it’s a model that assumes that large numbers of people are actively seeking. Bill Hybels walked door to door in suburban Chicago, surveying the unchurched about why they didn’t attend. By designing a church that appealed to them stylistically, he was able to get large numbers to come through the doors.”
“Seeker-sensitive churches downplayed or eliminated denominational affiliations, distinctives, and traditions. They adopted informal liturgies and contemporary music. Seeker sensitivity operated in a therapeutic register, sometimes explicitly—the Christian psychologist Henry Cloud has become a familiar speaker at Willow Creek. They were approachable and non-threatening. Today, there are many large suburban megachurches of this general type in the United States, which to some extent represent the evangelical mainstream.”
And Renn’s third group:
“In the neutral world, by contrast, the characteristic evangelical strategy was cultural engagement. The neutral-world cultural engagers were in many ways the opposite of the culture warriors: Rather than fighting against the culture, they were explicitly positive toward it. They did not denounce secular culture, but confidently engaged that culture on its own terms in a pluralistic public square. They believed that Christianity could still be articulated in a compelling way and had something to offer in that environment. In this quest they wanted to be present in the secular elite media and forums, not just on Christian media or their own platforms.”
“Most of the urban church world and many parachurch organizations embraced the cultural engagement strategy, and some suburban megachurches have shifted in that direction. Major figures and groups include Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (New York City), Hillsong Church (New York City, Los Angeles, and other global cities), Christianity Today magazine (suburban Chicago), Veritas Forum (Boston), Sen. Ben Sasse (Washington, D.C.), contemporary artist Makoto Fujimura (New York City), and author Andy Crouch (Philadelphia).”
I suspect you’re starting to see what Renn is describing.
Finally,
“Although evangelicals have not yet developed a negative-world ministry strategy, the transition to the negative world has had major consequences for evangelicalism. The shift has put different types and degrees of pressure on different evangelical groups. As with politics, these pressures intersect with different social groups and strategic positionings, producing conflict and realignment within the evangelical world.”
And
“Evangelicalism is in flux, and its future as a coherent movement is in doubt. In part, this crisis has resulted from the failure of evangelicalism to develop strategies designed for the negative world in which Christians are a moral minority and secular society is actively hostile to the faith. The previous strategies are not adequate to today’s realities and are being deformed under the pressures of the negative world.”
Renn’s observations are brilliant. And these quotes barley scratch the surface.
So in short, we have entered negative world. It is a new world, and it is getting more and more “negative.”
Christendom is comprised of groups with six different “markers,” three are chronological, three are philosophical.
There are those who came to faith and lived in positive world.
There are those who came to faith in neutral world.
There are those who came to faith in negative world.
Obviously, the of one’s own “upbringing” will create vastly different personal views, and life experiences regarding the relationship between the Christian and the society at large, as well as the Church and society at large.
Not only that, there have been three main approaches, that are somewhat tied to the “world” in which the Christian was born out of.
There are the culture warriors.
There are the seeker sensitives.
There are the culture engagers.
The key is that none of these approaches came out of negative world. They are all attempts at doing ministry in a radically different context. In some ways, its like being a suburban middle-class American, and then thinking you’re going to go into China and just start establishing a ministry based on how you did things in suburban America. Of course that would be insane, but….
Now we have to admit, these are broad categories, and at times overgeneralizations. Neverthless, at the core, the groupings are helpful and accurate.
My particular focus is on positive world, and those that came out of positive world. Why? Because by far, the largest segment of the American Church came out of positive world. It is a huge block. But more than that, the vast majority of the ministries that have recenetly been mic holders, before the vacuum, were the products of positive world. And that has massive ramifications. But for that, you’ll have to wait for tomorrow.