Our Philadelphia correspondent alerted me to an arresting invocation of J. Gresham Machen and H. L. Mencken — Baltimore’s two bad boys (one on religious, the other on cultural grounds) — at the G-rated Gospel Coalition of all places. The post surprised me not for the appeal of Machen to those who channel Edwards via Piper. After all, the Minneapolis pastor has written quite positively about Machen. The reference to Mencken especially caught my eye. Lest Old Lifers think that the Co-Allies have all of a sudden acquired an edge, not to worry. Turns out that Machen and Mencken are, along with Chesterton and C.S. Lewis, not the best models for Christians who would be bloggers. According to John Starke:
Of course, the best of Christian public intellectuals carried this same shrewd sarcasm. C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton are excellent examples, and we often follow in their lead, showing others just how exasperating their logic can be. That’s been our self-appointed task, too, ever since we registered for [insert name here].blogspot.com.
The problem is that we tend not to follow Lewis and Chesterton all the way. In other words, we adopt their sarcasm and wit but not the spirituality of their aims. They guided readers toward the place where wisdom could be found, introducing them to a kingdom that stands on firmer ground. We thrive on exposing the fool. We hold the doctrine of J. Gresham Machen but carry the tone of H. L. Mencken.
The better way is to do what Jesus would do and blog Christly:
It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that our opponents don’t see us in the same light as Lewis and Chesterton, or associate us with Jesus for that matter. If we aim to follow Christ, as Paul exhorts us in Philippians 2, then we must imitate not only his wit and wisdom before opponents but also his silence before enemies and mockers at the cross.
I actually think the jury is out on what tone Jesus might adopt when blogging. He did not suffer Pharisees or disciples lightly. I even once suggested to friends that Jesus loved people but he didn’t particularly like them. It all depends on how we define like, I guess. Even so, the greatest indications of warmth from Jesus, beyond his overall humiliation — from birth to descent into hell, is when he weeps over Lazarus and when John reports on his friendship with his Lord. For my part, Jesus doesn’t need to be warm and fuzzy. His accomplished redemption is sufficient.
Be that as it may, with Jesus as a debatable standard, I’ll appeal to Machen and suggest that the Gospel Coalition would be a lot more interesting and useful if it and its members could actually mix a little condemnation along with all of their back-patting. I get it, they stand for the Gospel. Who in the Christian world does not? But what about the infidelities in their midst? What happens with a James McDonald or a Mark Driscoll? Does anyone suggest their teachings and associations are wrong? Or do the Co-Allies adopt the playbook of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. when they regretfully accepted the resignation of Pearl S. Buck? Or what about the disagreements among the Co-Allies Council over what the Bible teaches? Why do their bloggers give the impression that everyone is on the same page and that rocking the boat is impious?
So to help the Co-Allies find their inner Gilbert Tennent, little sampling of no-nonsense, with a pinch of sarcasm from Machen, who wrote the following before the meeting of the General Assembly that would uphold his deposition from the ministry:
The whole program of the General Assembly is carefully planned in such a way as to conceal the real issues and give a false impression of faithfulness to the Word of God. I do not mean that the deceit is necessarily intentional. The men conducting the ecclesiastical machine are no doubt in many instances living in a region of thought and feeling so utterly remote from the great verities of the Christian Faith that they have no notion how completely they are diverting attention from those verities in their conduct of the Assembly. But the fact remains that the whole program, from whatever motives, is so constructed as to conceal the real condition of the Church.
1. Conference on Evangelism
One instrument of concealment is the program of the pre-Assembly Conference on Evangelism. That program is carefully planned. Its very name suggests to unwary persons that the Church is perfectly orthodox. “Evangelism” certainly has a reassuring sound. The contents of the program also often provides sops for the evangelical minority in the Church. There is nothing that Modernist ecclesiastics love quite so much as evangelical sermons that serve as the prelude to anti-evangelical action. They are such effective instruments in lulling Christian people to sleep. . . .7. False Use of Sentiment
A seventh instrument of concealment is the false use of perfectly worthy sentiment for partisan ends. In 1933, there was a contest regarding the Board of Foreign Missions. The Assembly’s Committee on Foreign Missions brought in a majority report favoring the policy of the Board and a minority report opposing that policy. Now every year it is the custom to read the names of the missionaries who have died during the year. The Assembly rises in respect to the honored dead, and is led in prayer. It is a solemn moment.Where do you suppose that solemn service was put in? Well, it was tagged on to the majority report from the Committee! Then, after the solemn hush of that scene, the minority report was heard! Could anything have been more utterly unfair? The impression was inevitably made that the minority report was in some sort hostile to that honoring of the pious dead. The sacred memory of those missionaries was used to “put across” a highly partisan report whitewashing a Modernist program which some of them might have thoroughly condemned. Unfortunately they were not there to defend themselves against that outrageous misuse of their names. There is urgent need of a reform of the Assembly’s program at that point. The honor paid to departed missionaries should be completely divorced from the report of the Assembly’s committee on the Boards.
That is only one instance of the way in which at the Assembly legitimate sympathy is used to accomplish partisan ends. Very cruel and heartless measures are sometimes pushed through under cover of sympathetic tears.
Old Life 
“For my part, Jesus doesn’t need to be warm and fuzzy. His accomplished redemption is sufficient.”
Or he loved them but didn’t particularly like them. Like when he refused to entrust Himself to them, or when he recommended Nathaniel’s bluntness, and returned the snark, ‘behold an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.’ Yeah Jesus didn’t suffer from being ‘flat’ on the personality front
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I think this post depicts why frequenters of oldlife like TV series such as “Breaking Bad,” “The Wire,” “Six Feet Under,” and Coen Brothers movies. They depict real people who sin, repent, get sent to the woodshed, lust, drink too much on occasion, despair, brush themselves off and get up again, ie., they learn obedience, grace and redemption through the things that they suffer. There is an air of unreality in much of Christiandome that is highly unattractive when one has spent too much time there. I’ll take more reality and all the risks (and misunderstandings) involved any day these days.
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John Y., and that’s why Machen and Mencken shared more that many people think. Both wanted realism, the former in the church, the other in national letters.
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Sorry for the misfire on the comment thing.
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I’d rather a misfire than a hit.
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Darryl,
Actually, I wanted to post a Pepper and Salt cartoon. Apparently, no can do here. I’ll send you a link to it. It is relevant to your post.
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I just posted the cartoon on the sidebar of my blog, TWR. You can’t miss it. Just click on my name…
cheers
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Darryl, you are my favorite historian. Write more books. And with more sarcasm.
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If you “follow the money,” the behavior of the GC makes sense. It’s a stage for its bloggers to make a name and sell books. Then they figuratively stamp “evangelical” on their products as a kind of Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval; fracturing the evangelical audience by criticism fractures their market.
Is that the motive? No idea. But it sure works as a thought experiment.
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MM,
That level of cynicism combined with that level of realism, might have you swimming with the fishes if you were trafficking amongst a more unseemly group or maybe even a; ‘You wanna say that ONE more time, expletive.’ Amongst this group you’ll get lots of shaming and charges of lack of charity and maybe some ‘how dare you’ brow-beating. It really is an issue of;” we think we’re not that bad and we’re better than that and therefore would never fall prey to such a crass and ‘human’ temptation.” They really do need some ‘Wire’ and ‘Breaking Bad’. Cuz, quite frankly if Jesus came to save us from our untoward behaviors and lack of ‘Emily Post’ refinements, it really does beg the question; ‘ Was all this pound of flesh and dying and cross business really necessary”
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Patrick, I reserve my sarcasm for the living (except my wife).
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emem, I believe you can follow the money all the way back to Crossway Books.
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MM,
Here’s a crumb for ya, through distribution channels moving “christian” retail, you’re looking at $4.63 Billion. Tetzel, just rang his bell from the beyond.
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Sean, can you point me toward your source for $4.63 billion?
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John,
Speaking of Breaking Bad, they are going to split season five into two seasons basically. It seems like forever since season four ended. Here is Bryan Cranston on the final season:
“We’re going to shoot the first eight, then take a four-month production break, then the rest will air next year…We pick up right where we left off, We’re cleaning up the pieces from last season’s huge ordeal where … was forced to meet his maker. It’s not as easy as Walter thought. And as we’ve discovered over the years, you don’t really know who Walter White is. I’m still discovering who he is and I’m trying to allow myself to be open to him going darker and darker. There’s physical danger to himself and his family, plus there’s the emotional danger due to his anger and hubris. It’s about the evil that men do and where that takes him.”
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Anyway, Sean, cynicism has a better batting average than optimism.
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MM,
It’s self-reported from the Christian Resellers or Retailers association. Used to the CBA (Christian Booksellers Association). And, there’s no doubt cynicism bats clean up. Optimism is always the lead off.
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Todd, thanks for the censored update. Stuck in Netflix land (because Comcast cable is from the devil), it seems like forever before we can get to season 4.
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Zrim,
Spend $20.00 and watch the whole 4th season on Amazon.com. Best season yet – worth the money
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And, there’s no doubt cynicism bats clean up. Optimism is always the lead off.
I’ll place sarcasm in the 3rd spot. Can we continue on with this?
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Btw, great line Sean!!
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I have been thinking about a line-up to deal with our major enemies,ie., the world, our flesh and the devil; maybe some of you can make a better line-up:
1) optimism- probably more long term optimism than short-term but somebody has to get on base
2) realism- or honesty and truthfulness; someone who can sacrifice status for the greater good
3) sarcasm- the world, our flesh and the devil hates it
4) cynicism- our only hope in dealing with these enemies is from outside of us
5) polemics- the lies have to be exposed
6) street-smarts- to deal with the inevitable backlash
7) wit- you need someone with speed on the bases
8) humor- if you don’t have it you will lose your bearings in dealing with the enemies
9) biblical faithfulness and integrity (interpreting the Gospel rightly)- gives us the strength to continue on in the order again
10) pinch hitter- it really is not all about me or objectivity vrs subjectivity
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“We hold the doctrine of J. Gresham Machen but carry the tone of H. L. Mencken.”
Who is “we”? Very few of the Co-Allies or bloggers that Starke targets are confessionally reformed and hold the doctrine of Machen; none of the Co-Allies or bloggers carry the nuanced tone of Mencken. Most could not explain or truly appreciate Machen’s covenant theology or Mencken’s ironic wit. The Co-Allies back-patting is not limited to the realm of piety. Old Life excluded, I have not read a Christian blogger worthy to carry Machen’s Bible or Mencken’s typewriter.
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Right on Dan
More like “The mixed bag of Theology of Piper, methodologies of Warren, and the pursuit of celebrity”
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I had read a few months ago that Dr. Trueman was going to speak at T4G during one the breakout sessions on the problems he sees with the notion of Celebrity Preachers and Celebrity Preacher Culture. T4G Conference is this week. I just checked the T4G site to see the day and time of Dr. Trueman’s breakout session, I noticed the title given to Dr. Trueman’s session is “Why the Reformation isn’t Over”.
I suppose a critique of the Celebrity Preacher culture could be shoe horned in there somewhere, but IF he changed his message for a seat at the table to network and sell his books at the conference, Shame on Him
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T4G has a new Panel Format this year. Dr. Trueman’s critique of the Celebrity Pastor Culture has moved from a Breakout Session to this panel format. Dr. Trueman will be on a panel discussing “Celebrity Pastor: Indecent Exposure?” with Dr. Duncan, David Platt, C.J. Mahaney, Thabiti Anyabwile. Though I think this would have been better as a breakout session so Dr. Trueman could fully develop and expound his critique, this will be interesting hear to Dr. Trueman amongst basically three celebrity pastors on this panel.
Unfortunately, T4G only has times posted for the keynote speakers.
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H. L Mencken–“The kinds of courage I really admire are not whooped up in war. No one in such times of irrational emotions ever praises a man who…seeks to restore the national thinking, so called, to a reasonable sanity.”
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I posted this comment in the “If You Need Some Ecclesiology to Go with Your W-W” thread but perhaps it’s more relevant here:
Speaking of the Wv word, Tabletalk magazine has posted this JG Machen quote on their FB page (www.facebook.com/tabletalk):
“For Christians to influence the world with the truth of God’s Word requires the recovery of the great Reformation doctrine of vocation. Christians are called to God’s service not only in church professions but also in every secular calling. The task of restoring truth to the culture depends largely on our laypeople. To bring back truth, on a practical level, the church must encourage Christians to be not merely consumers of culture but makers of culture. The church needs to cultivate Christian artists, musicians, novelists, filmmakers, journalists, attorneys, teachers, scientists, business executives, and the like, teaching its laypeople the sense in which every secular vocation-including, above all, the callings of husband, wife, and parent–is a sphere of Christian ministry, a way of serving God and neighbor that is grounded in God’s truth. Christian laypeople must be encouraged to be leaders in their fields, rather than eager-to-please followers, working from the assumptions of their biblical worldview, not the vapid clichés of pop culture.”
I’m curious as to the source of the quote. Do you have any idea where this came from, Dr. Hart? I don’t think it’s from Christianity and Liberalism.
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