Woke Evangeleftist Mob Attacks Kevin DeYoung for Defending Princeton Statue
In a continuation of the history-erasing statue protesting movement, woke students at Princeton University recently petitioned the university to remove a statue of former Princeton President John Witherspoon, on the basis that Witherspoon held two slaves. The petitioners rejected the alternative idea of placing a plaque on the statue that clarifies that the statue’s presence is not a university endorsement of slavery, opting instead to bring the matter before Princeton’s Committee on naming, in an effort to bring the statue down. Princeton was originally a Presbyterian School, known for its training of pastors. Since the time of John Witherspoon, the university has devolved from its original mission of Christian scholarship and Pastoral training into a putrid universalist cesspool that produces hordes of brain-dead confused individuals who can’t tell the difference between right and wrong, let alone coherently present the true Gospel.
In the wake of the Witherspoon statue controversy, prominent PCA pastor Kevin DeYoung wrote a piece for Princetonians for Free Speech that sought to clarify the historical significance of John Witherspoon to the university and the nation as a whole. DeYoung completed his PhD at the University of Leicester in 2019 with historical and archival research on the views and significance of Witherspoon. The defense by DeYoung resulted in a firestorm of criticism from woke Big-Eva leftists, including Dwight McKissic, Derwin Gray, and never miss a chance to be traumatized Kyle J Howard, who were all discontent to leave the task of toppling undesirable statues in the hands of their secularist humanist brothers in arms.
Contrary to leftist accusations, DeYoung’s historical clarifications do not defend slavery or white supremacist attitudes but rather contextualize the facts about Witherspoon’s beliefs and actions, as Witherspoon was a man of his times and not a man of modern times. Interestingly, as was common in the 17th and 18th centuries, the first nine presidents of Princeton and ten of the first twelve Presidents of the United States were slaveholders. Despite his status as a slaveholder, Witherspoon was responsible for laying the theological groundwork for the defense of a just war effort against the tyranny of the British by delivering the sermon The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men. A true patriot, Witherspoon was forced to leave the university when the British arrived, losing both possessions and a son in the revolutionary war.
The holier-than-thou attitude of the woke evangeleftists in response to DeYoung’s account of Witherspoon begs the question, “Must Christians abandon the legacy and righteous accomplishments of all those who ever held slaves?”. If slaveholding is an unforgivable sin, are there other unpardonable sins that necessitate the total anathematization of one’s legacy? Megan Basham pointed out that Martin Luther King Jr, an individual revered by the Social Justice movement, was a proponent of the evil actions of Planned Parenthood, receiving the inaugural Margaret Sanger award from Planned Parenthood in 1966.
King’s legacy as a proponent of Planned Parenthood is not his only flaw. King was a serial adulterer who denied the Virgin birth, denied the inerrancy of scripture, and taught a false liberation and social Gospel. King was undeniably a theological liberal. Despite being a proponent of an organization responsible for the murder of millions of children, living an adulterous life, and teaching a heretical false Gospel, social justice advocates continue to revere King for his legacy as a civil rights icon.
Despite this, The Gospel Coalition honored MLK in 2018, making him the namesake and center of a conference that focused on race. It would seem that those in the social justice movement who believe that John Witherspoon’s legacy should be relegated to the garbage heap sit on the high seat of hypocrisy regarding their response to MLK. Then again, social justice advocates like Dwight McKissic, Derwin Gray, and Kyle J Howard have never been known for employing equal weights and measures. These ideologues worship at the altar of social justice pragmatism.
About Author
Kevin’s piece was typical in how well thought out it was. He is an amazing preacher and leader and has the guts to speak the truth about sexuality and more. So typical that Race-Baiting, Inc. would wet their pants over his article. Hopefully, it will drive people to actually read what Kevin wrote.
That quote from DeYoung reminds me of videos I’ve seen of interviews with former slaves, who talked about how difficult it was when slavery was outlawed, to have just been turned out without any place to go, and no way to feed and shelter themselves. Most couldn’t read or write, and didn’t have a whole lot going for them in terms of marketable skills. I don’t know, but would I suspect many of them didn’t survive it.
Witherspoon’s reasoning was not entirely wrong, but the right thing to do, and what many slave owners who upon reading the scripture became convicted that it was wrong did, would’ve been to free the slaves, but to give them an option of staying on as employees, or to tell them they are welcome back if they could not make it out on their own. One of my ancestors did that, and the story has always stuck with me.
It’s easy for us to judge looking back with 20/20 hindsight, and to view through the lens of presentism, but at the time I imagine it wasn’t quite that simple. And it is indeed particularly hypocritical for progressives, who compromise and rationalize their continuance in sin through affirmation, endorsement, and forced imposition of abominable sin through government and powerful institutions, to judge someone else who also continued in sin. They shout that there is no justification for sin only when it suits them. When it doesn’t suit them, they’re trying to justify it nonstop.
Of course what’s most hypocritical is that their socialist ideology is itself nothing short of slavery. Their utopian vision is nothing but one giant slave plantation. I’m not sure how they could possibly be more hypocritical. That’s about as bad as it gets.
The Participation Trophy generation can’t handle anything that offends their fragile pysches.