Op-Ed: Don’t Be a Boob And Sweat The Small Stuff
Stop it. Just stop it.
I have reached the end of my patience with gullible, pearl-clutching evangelicals falling for the same bait-and-switch. You know which one. The one where woke online babies apply a Pharisaical, legalistic standard for personal behavior or speech, placing burdens on the shoulders of anyone they oppose while completely ignoring the weightier matters of the law like, you know, faithfulness to the truth of God’s Word on matters like sexuality.
Such is the recent case (if it can even be called that) of SBC Executive Committee Trustee Guy Fredrick, who was recently “caught” writing no-no words in an order disapproved of by the current keepers of woke orthodoxy within the evangelical conversation. In response to a tweet asking if conservative men thought bartender-in-Congress gadfly Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was “hot,” Fredrick replied with the tongue-in-cheek, mocking question, “Like boob sweat hot, or like sexually desirable hot?”
To any reasonable adult: Yawn. To the gaggle of girls who lead American evangelicalism: Four Alarm Fire.
Right on cue, low-t evangelical leaders and their soy boy puppetmasters on social media clutched their emotional support teddy bears, worked each other into an estrogenic frenzy, and joined hands on the digital fainting couch to compete for Biggest Karen in the SBC.
Leading the pearl-clutching was none other than Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor David Prince, who whined about Fredrick’s “sexually crude” and “wicked” comments and demanded the SBC Executive Committee call for Fredrick’s resignation. Following Prince’s hysterical demand to see the manager was the new leader of the SBC Illumicastrati, EC Chairman Jared Well”man,” who tripped over “mother of all abuse bloggers” Christa Brown to play the Imago Dei card and subtweet (like every real man does) that “There is never a proper context to objectify another person” as if that was what had actually occurred.
The initial flurry of feathers was followed by an article at the newspeak-monikered Baptist News Global, where the transgender-affirming leftist Mark Wingfield joined the gaggle with an article insinuating that Fredrick’s criticism of AOC was because conservative men hate her (I can assure Wingfield, all conservatives can’t stand AOC) and that a meme shared by Fredrick in 2021 tying workplace sexual quid pro quo to forced vaccination was more evidence of crudeness. Wingfield also claimed that Fredrick’s social media was full of white supremacist content, which turns out to be just as big of a lie as saying that a person can change genders.
The comical lack of equal weights and measures being used (much less biblical weights) by these clowns is obvious: No worries about sermon plagiarism, CRT in seminaries or in SEND Network requirements, the largest SBC church in the country operating a gay-affirming ministry for confused LGBTQ+ kids, or professors holding to the Roman Catholic view of sin (Prince). But find a tweet from an EC trustee that asks an impertinent question on Twitter, and it’s all hands on keyboards to reiterate yet again what is really important to these platform simps – image and politics. And Fredrick is the sort of Southern Baptist that institutional faux pietists can’t stand – anti-“vaccine,” anti-Democrat party, and anti-woke (yes, it has a definition).
Making the whole thing worse, of course, is the deafening silence of so many should-know-better lemmings, cowed by the subjective and juvenile demands of the Woke Knights who haunt the evangelical conversation. Predictably, they watched in muted stupor as their gay-affirming opponents demanded Fredrick apologize and perform the proper penance (you know, a confession of “sins,” followed by praying a few “Hail Rachels,” and soon after self-immolation at the digital inquisition). As usual, nothing is forgiven. After all, no amount of apology, contrite groveling, or assurance of future PC piety ever keeps the Torch-wielding Woke from branding their enemies with the scarlet “C” for conservative or worse, the dreaded “T” for Trump.
Any ill-advised expression of apology or contrition for violation of the new Woke Orthodoxy is guaranteed to be met not with true Christian forgiveness (mainly because both true sin and true Christians are required for this), but with a screenshot and the ironic guarantee that you will remain forever unforgiven by those who cackle the loudest and most superficially about personal holiness.
So I say, don’t be a boob. Don’t try to one-up in legalistic piety these woke babies who are only manipulating language and weaponizing being offended in order to curry favor for themselves and attack their theological enemies. If you sinned, confess, repent and move on. But if you didn’t (or you see someone else being legalistically attacked by woke Pharisees), don’t sit there silent like you won’t be next. Cowardice is a sin too.
By the way, you knew it wouldn’t be long before I found myself in agreement once again with Doug Wilson. He addresses this issue here.
About Author
Babylon Bee editor Joel Berry promotes NAR-affiliated org One For Israel. This is NOT satire:
https://twitter.com/JoelWBerry/status/1597930362122141697
More on One For Israel: they’ve featured Dr. Michael Brown, Sid Roth, and Jonathan Cahn in their videos:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=wyDBQVPEhv4
Believe I’d classify that as more small stuff, JE. Arguing over whether or not the phrase “God’s chosen people” still applies, when we all agree that Jesus is the one and only way, that nobody gets a free pass, that we will all be judged by the same standards, and that descendants of Jacob must accept and submit to Him as Savior, Lord, and Master, just like everybody else. I haven’t researched One For Israel, but at first glance, it seems to be an organization that recognizes that fact.
If you start getting too petty about stuff like that, you can come across as someone who just has a problem with descendants of Jacob, is too focused on a perceived boogeyman, less on furtherance of the Gospel and eternal matters, and has an axe to grind. It tends to become more politically focused on the here and now of the world, than it is doctrinal and focused on the Gospel and important eternal matters.
I could be wrong, and that’s my opinion, but I don’t understand why so many are hung up on issues that seem to me to be fairly inconsequential.
The issue is that they’re featuring people that Protestia/Pulpit & Pen has called false teachers for years. This ruins whatever good intentions the group may have.