Welcome to my weekly digest for April 28, 2023. For new subscribers, this contains a roundup of my recent writings and podcasts, as well as links to the best articles from around the web this week. You can control what emails you get from me by
It's a bizarre, quixotic sort of thing to put your own soul at risk for the sake of "retaking the institutions." Sure, maybe his strategy would be workable, if there was a coordinated invasion of the PCUSA by Christians from the PCA. But that does not appear to be happening anytime soon, and one guy by himself is not going to retake any institution. I'm sympathetic to him saying that "the PCA should not exist" because the mainline denominations should never have been abandoned. But that ship has sailed. For better or for worse, we live amidst the cultural and institutional rubble of our ancestors' battles. The faithful men abandoned those denominations and we're stuck with their decision. Him soldiering on in the PCUSA is a little bit of slamming the barn door after the horse has bolted.
But it's worse than that. He is putting himself (and his family, if he's got one) in danger. Multiple times he says that he thinks there aren't other Christians in the PCUSA. So he is depriving himself of the fellowship of Christian brothers, for the sake of reclaiming cultural clout? History is full of ups and downs. At various times the church has been exalted, and other times the church has been humbled. It's discouraging to admit that now is (and perhaps our entire lives will be) a time of the Lord humbling the church in America. But again: we live with the consequences of our ancestors' decisions. We can't drown it out with "The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord!" The Lord exalts who He will, and He humbles who He will.
There's a meta sort of irony, too, that he's building a fantasy church in a computer game while fantasizing about building a new PCUSA IRL.
I can appreciate your point of view. On the other hand, liberals think much more like the guy in that video than this point of view. They are very comfortable entering hard core conservative spaces and geographies. Few of them ever seem to be transformed to be more conservative by being there. This is one reason liberals are so good at taking things over.
Are progressives good at taking things over, or do conservatives just not care to defend things? The Grove City College example makes me think that conservatives don't care to defend institutions; whereas progressives are highly motivated to seize and hold institutions. That being the case, I highly doubt the PCUSA or any other liberal-seized institution is actually vulnerable to the kind of bottom-up takeover that Kingdomcraft guy envisions (that is, we can't run the same playbook against them that succeeded for them in the first place). I think if the PCUSA leadership actually thought there was a threat of that kind of takeover, they'd fight it to the death. They'd rather kill an institution than see it taken over by conservatives.
Using buildings as a placeholder: I've heard numerous examples of a dying old mainline congregation that can't afford to maintain it's building. A small, growing conservative congregation offers to buy it, and continue using it as a church. But the mainline congregation sells to a developer instead. They'd rather see the building razed and replaced with apartments, than have it occupied by conservatives.
Similarly, in Indiana empty public school building abound, as do charter schools wanting to take over those buildings and continue using them as schools. But time and again the public school districts find ways to prevent charter schools from occupying their old buildings--even with state laws requiring them to sell their buildings to charter schools. They would rather see their old buildings sit vacant and crumble to pieces, than have charter schools take them over.
I think progressives would rather destroy the institutions they occupy than see them taken over by conservatives.
Those people certainly exist -- to me they're epitomized by the unrepentant gay leftist activist students who decide to attend conservative Christian schools and then lobby them to submit to the Rainbow Flag. But I have to think that's an unhappy, soul-crushing life and therefore bad advice on a personal level. I would bet one reason they don't conform with their apparent peers is that they become Redditors or something like them: "Very Online" as they say.
“Having amenities like public restrooms, for example, presupposes a certain level of public order and willingness to enforce that standard, something missing from cities today”
Indeed. in fact, the one thing we rarely discuss is just the lack of basic, good management of public space in cities. It’s one thing to talk about policing, it’s another to note how poorly most large cities are at doing any of the very basic things you’d expect in a well managed place - sanitation, cleanliness, orderliness, for example. The lack of this is why we’ve had an explosion of locally-created self-taxing districts such as BIDs or CIDs. I manage two of them now, and it’s a fascinating window into public space management and local governance.
Re: The Kingdomcraft post-script.
It's a bizarre, quixotic sort of thing to put your own soul at risk for the sake of "retaking the institutions." Sure, maybe his strategy would be workable, if there was a coordinated invasion of the PCUSA by Christians from the PCA. But that does not appear to be happening anytime soon, and one guy by himself is not going to retake any institution. I'm sympathetic to him saying that "the PCA should not exist" because the mainline denominations should never have been abandoned. But that ship has sailed. For better or for worse, we live amidst the cultural and institutional rubble of our ancestors' battles. The faithful men abandoned those denominations and we're stuck with their decision. Him soldiering on in the PCUSA is a little bit of slamming the barn door after the horse has bolted.
But it's worse than that. He is putting himself (and his family, if he's got one) in danger. Multiple times he says that he thinks there aren't other Christians in the PCUSA. So he is depriving himself of the fellowship of Christian brothers, for the sake of reclaiming cultural clout? History is full of ups and downs. At various times the church has been exalted, and other times the church has been humbled. It's discouraging to admit that now is (and perhaps our entire lives will be) a time of the Lord humbling the church in America. But again: we live with the consequences of our ancestors' decisions. We can't drown it out with "The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord!" The Lord exalts who He will, and He humbles who He will.
There's a meta sort of irony, too, that he's building a fantasy church in a computer game while fantasizing about building a new PCUSA IRL.
What are the actual resources the PCUSA has that are supposedly worth taking over?
The PCUSA has Princeton. Except, do they really have Princeton?
We want Princeton, but do we really want Princeton?
Many PCUSA congregations have landmark buildings in key locations, as well as large endowments. They also have social prestige.
I can appreciate your point of view. On the other hand, liberals think much more like the guy in that video than this point of view. They are very comfortable entering hard core conservative spaces and geographies. Few of them ever seem to be transformed to be more conservative by being there. This is one reason liberals are so good at taking things over.
Are progressives good at taking things over, or do conservatives just not care to defend things? The Grove City College example makes me think that conservatives don't care to defend institutions; whereas progressives are highly motivated to seize and hold institutions. That being the case, I highly doubt the PCUSA or any other liberal-seized institution is actually vulnerable to the kind of bottom-up takeover that Kingdomcraft guy envisions (that is, we can't run the same playbook against them that succeeded for them in the first place). I think if the PCUSA leadership actually thought there was a threat of that kind of takeover, they'd fight it to the death. They'd rather kill an institution than see it taken over by conservatives.
Using buildings as a placeholder: I've heard numerous examples of a dying old mainline congregation that can't afford to maintain it's building. A small, growing conservative congregation offers to buy it, and continue using it as a church. But the mainline congregation sells to a developer instead. They'd rather see the building razed and replaced with apartments, than have it occupied by conservatives.
Similarly, in Indiana empty public school building abound, as do charter schools wanting to take over those buildings and continue using them as schools. But time and again the public school districts find ways to prevent charter schools from occupying their old buildings--even with state laws requiring them to sell their buildings to charter schools. They would rather see their old buildings sit vacant and crumble to pieces, than have charter schools take them over.
I think progressives would rather destroy the institutions they occupy than see them taken over by conservatives.
Those people certainly exist -- to me they're epitomized by the unrepentant gay leftist activist students who decide to attend conservative Christian schools and then lobby them to submit to the Rainbow Flag. But I have to think that's an unhappy, soul-crushing life and therefore bad advice on a personal level. I would bet one reason they don't conform with their apparent peers is that they become Redditors or something like them: "Very Online" as they say.
Thank you!
“Having amenities like public restrooms, for example, presupposes a certain level of public order and willingness to enforce that standard, something missing from cities today”
Indeed. in fact, the one thing we rarely discuss is just the lack of basic, good management of public space in cities. It’s one thing to talk about policing, it’s another to note how poorly most large cities are at doing any of the very basic things you’d expect in a well managed place - sanitation, cleanliness, orderliness, for example. The lack of this is why we’ve had an explosion of locally-created self-taxing districts such as BIDs or CIDs. I manage two of them now, and it’s a fascinating window into public space management and local governance.