If You're Not Butch, You're Not Much

Published on by D. G. Hart

The good Rabbi proved once again the appeal of Rush Limbaugh-style arguments to the cultural transformers. His couple of recent blasts at Old Life may have made him feel especially masculine, but I don’t think he advanced the discussion. Wait. This isn’t a discussion. It is arm wrestling (or some body part.)

But while Brett thinks that spirituality of the church Christianity “is no Christianity” because it fails to confess Jesus before men in a manly way — I guess only women read Old Life — what are we to make of his failure to be as critical of the Christian Reformed Church as he is of two-kingdom folks? Judging by his blog, he is as silent about the quirks of the CRC as I apparently am of U.S. secularizers and sodomites. Does that make him an effeminate minister (wouldn’t be a problem in the CRC, right?)?

Of course, he may not think the CRC is worthy of critique, though his comments on ordination and reception indicate ambivalence:

Today I underwent examination and passed unanimously and so I am now officially what I have been unofficially for the past 13 years, to wit, an ordained minister in good standing in the Christian Reformed Church. It seems the only minor issue was my strong rejection of open theism. I think I said that it was heresy and a canker that needed to be ripped out of the Church. I never would have imagined that sentiment could have been controversial in the least. There were also some questions about my rejection of women to hold ordained positions but apparently I convinced them that such a position isn’t akin to being a knuckle scraping troglodyte who habitually grabs and drags stray women by their hair. I probably should have worked harder to convince people that my position is the position that esteems women and reflects godly compassion for women while the contrary position in reality does just the opposite but I think most of the people in Classis’s position on that is pretty much set in concrete and not even my eloquence could have changed that.

I have mixed thoughts and emotions about my newly minted status with the CRC. First, I realize that the CRC is not a perfect denomination and has some challenges before it but as I map out the Reformed denominational landscape I do not see a denomination that isn’t without its substantial issues. In the end I think all of us, who are trying to be epistemologically self conscious about being Reformed, are, in many respects, in the same boat together, and together, regardless of what Reformed denomination we are in, we are either going to survive together or we are going to capsize together.

It does make you wonder if Rabbi Brett can be so patient with the CRC, why can’t he do the same with others with whom he so violently disagrees. Is it that neo-Calvinism of the Left is better than spirituality of the church? But if effeminate spirituality is an indication of no Christianity, what does it mean when the Rabbi apparently fails to live up to his own words within his own communion? (I qualify this because I am judging only by his blog.)

29 thoughts on “If You're Not Butch, You're Not Much”

  1. Chin up, Doc. You’re my favorite heretical, gnostic, weak-kneed, lily-livered, effeminate, worthless-degreed, false professor and enemy of all that’s good and holy. Did I miss any of the Rabbi’s actual or implied terms of derogation? What a poltroon! Some girl was obviously VERY MEAN to his Bretness.

    Like

  2. Enjoy Rabbi Brett live from L’Abri. And it appears that Switzerland and the Alps are sliding a bit on cleanliness/order/natural beauty scale. And he don’t like “snotty cops”.

    Like

  3. Hey, all this about that and no mention of America’s favorite conservative atheist lesbian Camille Paglia (according to the HBlog), who opines that:

    “Masculinity is just becoming something that is imitated from the movies.”

    Hmmm. Time for a silent moment of deep thought and dialectical concentration here.

    As in no word if Miz P takes her own hint and goes to the movies with her 11 year old boy, that she and her, ahem, “partner” raise(?).
    Or if NAPARC has documentaries on apostasy that you can check out with a library card.

    But maybe I am missing something in all this.

    Like Tom’s 3D Google Gaga Glasses?
    DVC’s chutzpah?

    Nah, that ‘d be too wuss fakey like the movies easy.

    Like

  10. My web bot was set to cheeky mode in the 5:38pm post right above. I’ve finally defeated this creature, I will have you know, folks. You won’t be hearing from Andrew hence forth, or his bot. Yippee! Give me a bone!

    Back to your regularly scheduled programming. Oh, and don’t even think of going back in time to undo my undoing if web bot 9000. The Temporal Prime Directive is the authority here..

    yo!

    Sent from my HTC One™ X, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

    Like

  12. How is somebody unofficially an ordained minister? Is this like being a common law wife? Either you’re ordained or you’re not. I suppose in the CRC all things are possible, Reformed polity be damned.

    And since the CREC was birthed during those 13 years why in the world did Rabbi Bret stay in the CRC?

    Rabbi Bret and the CREC are like peas & carrots.

    Like

  14. ” I realize that the CRC is not a perfect denomination and has some challenges before it”

    Ya think?

    Like a long, slow, mainline-like decline towards irrelevance, for instance?

    I have not seen a marriage like Rabbi Bret and the CRC since Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton took their vows.

    Like

  16. ” and together, regardless of what Reformed denomination we are in, we are either going to survive together or we are going to capsize together.”

    If the CRC and the URC capsize together it will only be because nuclear bombs landed on Grand Rapids, Pella, and Lynden on the same day. No other correlation could account for it.

    Like

  18. Erik, you’re slipping — you forgot about Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett. Andrew, go lie down, easy on the coffee, eat lots of carbs. Get a puzzle with like 1500 pieces. Just don’t get a parrot. That would be too cruel for words.

    Like

  19. Here is how I responded at the “Iron Ink” website (my comments are awaiting moderation at that site as of my writing this):

    “The Teacher denied Christ before men and the Pastor and the Darryl are justifying her denying Christ before men and so are themselves denying Christ before men.”

    So, the teacher was under a Divine, scriptural and moral obligation to pass out the candy canes with the religious message, against school policy? She has “denied Christ” (a rather serious charge with rather grim consequences – Matt. 10:33) by refusing to allow Christian proselytization via candy canes in the classroom setting, and those Christians who defend her are likewise guilty of “denying Christ”? (Where does Scripture bind our consciences to “confess Christ” by distributing candy canes?)

    Let us say that she had decided to allow the student to pass out the candy canes with the Christian message, and the school authorities decide to allow students to share such religious messages with fellow students, provided no religion is excluded. Let us then say that the following week a student comes in with candy canes that have a religious message affixed promoting Islam. Would the teacher be “denying Christ” if she refused to show the Christian student favoritism by allowing the Muslim student to likewise promote his beliefs in class? Would faithfully “confessing Christ” in such a scenario necessarily involving going against school policy by allowing the Christian student to distribute his candy, but denying such permission to the Muslim student?

    Like

  22. Geoff – Here is how I responded at the “Iron Ink” website (my comments are awaiting moderation at that site as of my writing this):

    Erik – As I write your comment is being screened by a panel of learned theologians with impeccable scholarly credentials.

    Either that or a group of illiterate, one-toothed, mountain men who delight in scratching themselves.

    Like

  25. Darryl, you’d think you stole his dog, or something. Anyway, the Brave New World of blogdom. Yee haw, indeed.

    Like

  26. In a preview of what a King Brett world would look like, he allows no comments. Is he close enough for us all to drop in on his Sunday School class? That would be fun. But the top ten countdown is a great idea so high marks for creativity.

    I kept calling Mikelmann to go to a movie yesterday. Maybe he lost his phone.

    Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.