Ron Paul, Two-K, and Manliness

Published on by D. G. Hart

Rabbi Bret may be surprised to learn that he is a sissy because he is supporting Ron Paul. That is the testosterone filled conclusion of the Brothers Bayly who in a recent post have asserted that two-kingdom advocates and Ron Paul supporters share a similar trait — distaff cowardice. (I am not making this up.)

Ron Paul is to national politics what R2K is to the salt and light of the Church. Both Paulites and R2Kites have never seen a battle they want to fight. So instead they come up with sophisticated reasons why Little Round Top is the wrong hill to defend and Colonel Chamberlain’s bayonet charge was over the top. The wrong man led the wrong troops in the wrong charge using the wrong weapons at the wrong time and the wrong location.

In fact, watch these men closely and you find the only battle they’re willing to fight is the battle opposing battles. But of course, I use the words ‘battle’ and ‘fight’ quite loosely because both require courage. I don’t write this to demean them, but so readers will see the connection between their techniques, commitments, and character.

They’re the skinny boy in the corner of the schoolyard shouting “Nanny nanny boo-boo” at the real boys over on the baseball diamond trying to catch the ball, swing the bat, hit something, and run. Over in the corner of the playground with his back to the wall is R2K’s favorite cultural icon, Woody Allen, making jokes about how he refuses to play baseball because baseball is a stupid game with stupid rules played by stupid boys. But of course, he did try to play baseball once, and when the ball was flying toward his face, he misjudged where to put his mitt, he took his eye off the ball, and the ball hit him square in the face, and it really really hurt. He’s never forgotten it and now he makes fun of boys who play baseball.

All the boys who play baseball think he’s a coward, but he’s always surrounded by the other boys who got punched in the face with a baseball and decided never to play baseball again. They laugh at his jokes. Then there are the girls who never wanted to play baseball and don’t know a coward when they see one, and they think he’s kinda cute and sweet. They pity him for being an outcast and one day that pity will cause them to allow him to kiss them.

On the level of politics, the Baylys are clueless and always have been since they supported George McGovern in 1972 (though Ron Paul is closer to McGovern on foreign policy than the Baylys know — talk about not fighting battles). They are less interested in resisting tyranny than they are in establishing a regime of justice and morality. They don’t mind ignoring the distinct responsibilities of institutions and the separate spheres established by documents like constitutions and confessions in order to apply their moral truths justly everywhere. This puts their moral idealism much closer to the French Revolution than to the American, and makes their he-mannish bravery sound more like Robespierre than Madison. To justify the reign of terror, Robespierre wrote: “Terror is only justice prompt, sever, and inflexible — it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country.” Manly? Sure. Cruel? You bet. Despotic? No doubt.

On the level of biblical interpretation, I continue to wonder where their unrivaled affirmation of macho Christianity finds a warrant in Scripture. Was Jesus manly when he submitted to an unjust verdict and execution? Was our Lord feminized when he told his followers to forgive seventy-times-seven? Was Paul light in the loafers when he counseled moderation, self-control, and submission to authorities?

I get it. Jesus is going to return and will judge sins and the sinners who commit them. But the Baylys’ antics suggests yet another form of immanentizing the eschaton — a rush to judge, confront, and topple in the name of Christ here and now. They don’t seem to understand the inverse logic of the gospel. Christ defeats Satan by dying. The kingdom of grace beats the kingdom of Satan by forgiving sins. I don’t particularly understand what chromosomes have to do with this.

Postscript: I linked to one of the Baylys’ posts about men singing and how the church needs hymns on judgment and justice triumphing over wicked men for men to sing with gusto. This points to another part of the Baylys’ errors. They are also clueless culturally. They have never witnessed big, beefy men — namely, Welsh rugby players — while singing their national anthem.

31 thoughts on “Ron Paul, Two-K, and Manliness”

  1. Woody Allen was actually an excellent baseball player with legitimate aspirations of being drafter into the pros ca. 1953. Shows you what those Bully Brothers know, eh?

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  2. If the Bayly bros.ran a radio show, We’d have to call in with our measurables and ask ’em when and where they’d like to put feet to their theory. “Dan, 6′ 2 240 and R2k. Where and when would you like to find out how tough you are?!” I like it.

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  4. Isn’t the Bishop of Bloomington familiar with George Carlin’s routine on baseball v. football? Maybe Carlin is too icky for his squeaky clean Christian ears. So if he wants a manly analogy, maybe he should try a manlier sport than pastoral athletics.

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  6. I was frankly surprised to see Bret do something that I rarely see amongst his particular branch of Calvinism, and that is deal with political trade-offs, and understand that elections, or at least this one in particular, are not an all-or-nothing proposition. Who’dve thunkit.

    But the Bros. Bayly continue to peddle politically indefensible, yet comical pontifications. If I didn’t know that they were real pastors, I would just as much assumed that this was an entry for publication in The Onion.

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  9. Real Christians don’t have a political philosophy. And that oath of office to uphold the constitution? Eh, whatever.
    Did you notice that the 2k-Ron-Paul-Woody-Allen-bad-baseball-player gets to kiss the girls? Is there ever *not* a sex angle over there?

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  11. DGH

    This paragraph was excellent:

    “They don’t mind ignoring the distinct responsibilities of institutions and the separate spheres established by documents like constitutions and confessions in order to apply their moral truths justly everywhere.”

    And it demonstrates why far to many Christian “conservatives” are not conservative at all. The moral idealism of “evangelical” Roman Catholic Rick Santorum and the Christian “conservative” movement in general reeks of Woodrow Wilson and William Jennings Bryan’s moralistic (and paternalistic) imposition –– then anything Burke, Kirk, or classical liberal or libertarian writers and thinkers have put into print.

    The healthy imbibing of Madison and Jefferson’s best –– and the classical liberal document of all documents –– the U.S. Constitution –– needs to be read by so called Christian “conservatives” than the moral progressivism which seems to animate them; which is neither conservative or in fidelity with the Founder’s vision.

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  12. Bill,

    Amazing, simply amazing. I had actually forgotten about Landover until I went back to the site – but with the frequency that sex comes up on the Bros. Bayly’s site, and how often it comes up over at Landover Baptist, you might actually be on to something.

    I am of more of an “area man” persuasion, but Landover is a crack-up.

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  13. Three cheers for Hart! I echo David’s comment adding only that with the “big boys” it’s more reminiscent of a Mussolini fetish.

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  15. Hey! I think you’re almost there.

    You nailed it when you pointed out that resistance to tyranny should lead to justice, not more tyranny. Obedience to tyranny that leads to injustice is no real obedience. Yet, you still need to drop the “Jesus as exemplar in his acceptance of injustice”… meme, it makes you sound like a social gospeller. Jesus had a specific mission as the lamb of God to endure injustice to take away the sins of the world. We, individually, don’t have the same mission. We are called to, “if possible, so far as it depends on {us}, be at peace with all men.

    Anyway, nice shooting and welcome to the resistance.

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  16. Serious question: How do the Bayly bros manage to maintain this blog without being formally charged through their Presbytery?

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  19. Did Jesus sing sweetly or was he atonal?

    Surely doing his duty like an unworthy slave was masculine enough, no?

    Am I missing some great truth about the Creation Mandate, Jesus masculinity, and the ordination debate?

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  21. Ron Paul was a college baseball and track star, state high school records. He could have kicked their butts. He was the only congressman to ever hit a home run in the Congressional baseball game, and that was hardball…http://www.glittarazzi.com/component/content/article/1582.html

    Real strength is seen in humble peacemaking courage, and in resistance to bullys and tyranny. Going along with the crowd in tyranny is for wimps. The Bayly’s would find that here at Old Life, if they could see.

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  22. Re: … two-kingdom advocates … trait … distaff cowardice.

    Just for fun, I’ll post the video of our staunch 2k synod president testifying before the House Oversight Committee last week regarding freedom of conscience and freedom to exercise our religion. Watch what happens when 2k is called to appear before Caesar:

    The “The bed is too narrow, the blanket is too short.” allusion is from Isaiah 28:

    Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers,
    who rule this people in Jerusalem!
    Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
    and with Sheol we have an agreement,
    when the overwhelming whip passes through
    it will not come to us,
    for we have made lies our refuge,
    and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;
    therefore thus says the Lord GOD,
    “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion,
    a stone, a tested stone,
    a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
    ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
    And I will make justice the line,
    and righteousness the plumb line;
    and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
    and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
    Then your covenant with death will be annulled,
    and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
    when the overwhelming scourge passes through,
    you will be beaten down by it.
    As often as it passes through it will take you;
    for morning by morning it will pass through,
    by day and by night;
    and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.
    For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on,
    and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.
    For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim;
    as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused;
    to do his deed—strange is his deed!
    and to work his work—alien is his work!
    Now therefore do not scoff,
    lest your bonds be made strong;
    for I have heard a decree of destruction
    from the Lord GOD of hosts against the whole land.
    (Isaiah 28:14-22 ESV)

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  25. Aww… Zrim,

    The ‘stache is too cool! Gives him that Teddy Roosevelt, Rough Rider, cigar chomping, charging over the hill leading his troops look! Comparing Harrison and the Bayley link is like night and day. I am thankful for God’s gift to us in our new synod president.

    Did you catch the second link where Harrison answered the Committees questions? Lotsa good 2k and Harrison sidesteps commenting on policy matters (as did most of the other men). I watched the full videos of both panels that came before the Committee. Whew! They were long, but I was very proud of every man and woman on both panels and found it well worth my time. The first panel managed to get a couple of light-hearted comments in and I cracked up when one good SBC man said he’d like to be in Pastor Harrison’s jail cell and Issa humorously replied, we’ll see what we can do about that! Yes, the men on the first panel agreed to pay whatever price was required rather than violate their beliefs.

    I’ll repost the link to second video here in case others may wish to see the Q & A that focuses on Harrison and 2k in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAdkZLHXKUs

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  26. If anyone has the stomach and time for it, here is a link to the full video of the first panel testifying to the Committee meeting. It’s 3 hours and 10 minutes long. Skip to approximately the 5 minute mark to begin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nJRUxj-HUY

    The progressives can be quite maddening in their questioning. I like this excerpt from a comment on another blog. It describes the video well and I’m not privy to what wasn’t included on the video, but I can only imagine the off-screen smears these men endured:

    “From President Harrison (Facebook page), in response to someone thanking him for his testimony: “Great to hear from you! It was like stepping into a monkey cage during a dung fight. But I was honored.”

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  27. Okay (I can hear ya’ll clamoring for more – lol), here’s a link to the second panel for those of us who are gluttons for these kinds of things. Of particular interest for the Reformed on panel 2 is the witness:

    Laura Champion, M.D.
    Medical Director
    Calvin College Health Services

    Part 2 (to start – skip to approx 6 minute mark):

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  28. P.S. Rabbi Soloveichik is fabulous on the first panel. Love that man! May God richly bless him. He helps put flesh on why Paul would forgo his own salvation for the salvation of the Jews.

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  31. Lily, I thought you might get a laugh out of this. Remember that Doug Wilson is not a baptist but an advocate of the authority of the church and its “objective sacraments”.

    Doug Wilson: “Christian women don’t do these dissections in public because they don’t think it would be fitting, and prefer that the menfolk do that stuff.”

    http://www.dennyburk.com/horton-and-wilson-spar-over-muscular-christianity/

    http://www.dougwils.com/Sex-and-Culture/michael-horton-gender-stereotypes-and-me.html

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