Oh, the gospel will overcome in a world full of sorrow, by evil over all. You're listening to The Dean's List, an analysis of news, culture and theological trends from a biblical worldview. This is your place for intelligent conversation on the relevant issues of our day. And now, here's the host of The Dean's List, Dr. Paul Dean. Well, we live in a world that's getting more and more complicated, Mary, and there's a very real sense in which it's a bad thing and yet it could be a good thing. Who knows? But we know that God is sovereign, right? We do know that. Yep. And we do know it is getting complicated. It is getting complicated. Talking about political ideology today. Mentioned this a few days ago on the broadcast that we talk about this. Trevin Wax is doing us a service out at the Gospel Coalition. Got a piece entitled, When Your Political Ideology Turns On You. And he's talking about all of the turmoil on college campuses. Now we talked a little bit about college yesterday. We're going in a different direction today, but I will say this, yet another reason not to send your kids to college. Hello? I agree, all right. That's okay, that's not what we're talking about today. We're talking about the identity politics that we are being DROWNED in. Our culture is literally drowning and here's the deal, they don't even know it. Did you know that when you're drowning, you're like splashing on top of the water, you can't get air at first, you're in trouble, then you start choking, then you start bobbing up and down, and that, boy, that's bad. You know you're in trouble, you're choking, you can't breathe, you're hoping somebody will get you, and you go under and you try to hold your breath, and you can't because you're breathing reflex. You just have to, and that's what happens. You breathe in, the problem is you're underwater, and so your lungs fill with water, And at that point, there's absolutely nothing you can do. Sadly, that's right, it's over. Unless someone rescues you and pumps that water out of your lungs. Yeah, and there comes a point, and I don't know when or what this is, but basically you're either almost dead or you're dead, but there's a moment of peace and you're drowning or drowned and you don't know it. Okay. I'm just visualizing that, but that doesn't work on video. It just came off the top of my head and I'm not... You know, I don't know. Our culture, it's, they just, they don't get it. We know that, so we don't have to harp on that. Listen, there's so much in this piece, we're not gonna be able to deal with all of it, but here's the issue. Trevin Wax points out that Nathan Heller in The New Yorker takes us to Oberlin College to explore the culture of American higher education. And what he describes as a new variation of pluralism. All right. Now we, you know, we believe in pluralism in the sense of a free society, a pluralistic society, and we're going to try to persuade people to come to Christ. But pluralism essentially is the ideology that everybody has to be right. You have to affirm everybody is right. And all of these conflicting worldviews and these conflicting truth claims, but everybody's right and the only persons that are wrong are the people that aren't going to say everybody's right. So there's a self-contradiction there. But nevertheless, logic is not the issue with these folk. But anyway, a new variation of pluralism. Here it is. Are you ready for this? All right, go ahead. Where knowledge and authority, now think about those two things. Knowledge, you know, knowing what's what, knowing what's real, knowing what's true, where knowledge and authority In other words, they are now saying that there are people who have the truth and others who don't. And some truth claims are better than others. See, but they won't say that directly, but they will say it in their ideology. So yet another self-contradiction and why their worldview collapses in on itself. And this is not even where I'm going, but this just introductory remarks. And the identity politics and the identity groups. The multiculturalism, let me put it that way, the multiculturalism is a destructive philosophy. It's an incoherent, illogical philosophy. It should fall to the ground, philosophically speaking, but people are too ignorant to see that. Why? Because they are suppressing the truth. Their minds have become darkened, and that's what the scriptures tell us. Anyhow, gotta move on, gotta get to the point. So knowledge and authority, this is the new pluralism, knowledge and authority are tied to identity. That's the point. Now we're going to flesh that out. We're going to tell you what we mean. We're going to give you some examples from the article. But knowledge and authority are tied to identity. Now here's how Heller describes what we're talking about in one particular way. We're going to move on from this, but listen to this. Identity-based oppression operates in cross-hatching ways. encountering sexism as a white Ivy educated middle class woman in a law office, for example, calls for different solutions than encountering sexism as a black woman working in a minimum wage job. The theory what they're calling, by the way, the theory that he's referring to is something they call intersectionality. We don't really have to worry with that word at this point. But you're gonna get an idea or you're gonna understand what they're talking about here in just a moment. But the theory of intersectionality, essentially, is often used to support, I'm sorry, is often used to support experiential authority. Now think of that phrase, that term, experiential authority. What's my source of authority? Experience. My experience. See, according to them. Yeah. because see the theory is often used to support experiential authority because well who knows what it means to live at an intersection better than the person there an intersection of identity an intersection of life yes yes now All right, so let's flesh that out a little bit more. Here's a professor explaining what Heller has just sort of attempted to explain. He's coming another way, but you're gonna see a clearer picture. Students believe, these are students on these college campuses now, students believe that their gender, their ethnicity, their race, or whatever gives them a sort of privileged knowledge. In other words, Mr. non-transgender, you have no knowledge of what it means to be a transgender, so you can't speak to transgendered issues. Right? If you're a cisgender, you can't speak to what a transgender might be going through or what might be right or wrong for a transgender. If you're a cisgender trying to defend a transgender, you can't do that either. Because you're not a transgender. You have no authority because authority is based on what? Experience. The experience of being a transgender. That's right. So that means we can't be uh we can't be the parent of a child because we're not experiencing the parental hood. I mean we're not the childhood. That's exactly exactly right. Oh my. That that's a great example. I'm glad you just popped into your head. I'm just thinking you know. No no you're absolutely right. You see that. I can't speak to your problem because I'm not a child. That's right. That's right. You see the inherent. I see a big problem in schools. Yeah. With this coming down the pipe. That's exactly right, the inherent problems here. So anyway, let me read that one more time. I want to just finish the quote from this particular professor. Students believe that their gender, their ethnicity, their race, whatever, gives them a sort of privileged knowledge, a community-based knowledge. In other words, the identity group of which they're a part. A community-based knowledge that other groups don't have. So what happens then when perspectives clash? Heller's asking this question from the New Yorker. What do you do? It's interesting that the New Yorker should be asking this question, don't you think? That's a whole other discussion. But what do you do when a black professor makes a statement that is anti-Semitic? If you're not black or Jewish, how do you decide who you will stand with? Almost like your question. According to them, you can't. Yeah. Logically, then you'd have to stand with the Jewish person because he is not or he could be Jewish. It's a big contradiction. There's no answer to the question. That's why you're like, well, it could be. Well, yeah, there's no answer to the question. Yeah. Now, listen to this, because we're now we're getting to the heart of the issue and we're going to have a little dialogue here. Well, we're having some somewhat of a dialogue. Yeah, I'm still having lightbulb trying to figure this out. That's right. Well, sure. Yeah, we all should be because it's nonsense. Oh yeah, I can't figure it out. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with my brain. It's not rooted in the biblical worldview, it's nonsense and it is difficult to wrap your head around because we don't think in a nonsensical way as Christians, praise God. I'm not being arrogant. It's not because I'm smarter than everyone else or you are or the Christian is, it's because God's revealed himself and we're trying to look at the world through God's lens and that's the right lens. Problem is, you know, let's say you go to the eye doctor. You know, and you get in that big machine, and he says, better or worse, and you choose worse all the time, then they make you up a pair of glasses. You gonna be able to see when you get in the car? No. Course not. You're looking through the wrong lens. What Kerry Heffernan would call an idiot. You're having that trouble now with your whatever those things are that you've arrived at the age. They're a little too small. I've got like these bifocals. They're at the bottom of my lens. They're too tiny. I've had bifocals and I don't even know what you call it. Transition glasses? No, not transition, but I got glasses. No line bifocals. Yeah, yeah. You got regular, yeah, regular. Corrective lenses at the top bifocals at the bottom and I had a pair like that. They work beautifully, but these are so small I have to raise my head to look everybody thinks I'm looking down my nose out of these days It's a real problem as a Christian I'm looking down at people Oh Me such as the fallen world in which we live Now If knowledge is tied to identity above everything else, now this is a point Trevin Wax is making. If knowledge is tied to identity above everything else, then certain points of view immediately trump others, right? My point of view is going to trump yours if we're talking about the identity group of which I'm a part. So if knowledge is tied to identity above everything else, certain points of view immediately trump others regardless of their rational coherence. So rationality, logic, that's not the issue here. Aaron Pressman, a Jewish student at Oberlin, describes what happened after he expressed an unpopular opinion. Now listen to this. A student came up to me several days later and started screaming at me. saying I'm not allowed to have this opinion because I'm a white cisgender male. And by the way, cisgender, just so everybody knows. I'm not familiar with that. Well, cisgender means you identify with the gender you were born with. Oh, cisgender. Yeah. Cisgender. Cis means same basically. Okay. Trans means, you know, different. Cross the line. Okay. So if I'm born male and identify as female, I'm transgender. If I'm born male and identify as male, I'm cisgender. Okay. Okay. Got to get that under our belt here. Well, that's right. So anyway, this, you know, Aaron Pressman, Jewish cisgender guy made some kind of statement and a student came up to him several days later, started screaming at him saying he's not allowed to have this opinion because, um, he's a white cisgender male. He said, I've had people respond to me. You could never understand. Your culture has never been oppressed. Oh, wait, what? That's what he said. He said, really? How about the Holocaust? Hello. They tried to exterminate us. And now they're trying to exterminate that from history. Yeah. Apparently. Yeah. I mean, even you got that. I mean, just immediately the Jewish kids like, wait, what? Yeah, that's right. So here's the reality, here's the problem. In this worldview, the group that can prove the greatest source of contemporary oppression becomes the group with the greatest authority. I mean, how's that for experiential authority? That's what we're talking about here. And you know what's gonna happen, the world's gonna fall apart even more. I mean, you can see now, see what it is, is now all the liberals, all the progressives, their own ideology have pushed them, pushed them, pushed them, pushed them. They've come to a certain point where they're all gonna be fighting with each other. And this is what we've been saying for years. 20 years I've been saying this. And it's not like, ha ha, I was right. I mean, my heart's breaking. And that's why you've got somebody like Donald Trump that's so popular, the people that don't understand are just, you know, they're reacting in a different way. Tired of this craziness, but the guy that's leading them is pretty crazy too. Anyway, but anyway. Let me give you another example. I know it's another, but this is probably the best one in the whole piece. This is from Wax and then maybe we'll try to wrap it up a little bit. But he says he saw this ideology play itself out in a Twitter exchange. And this exchange was between Brandon Robertson, who is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute, but he became a national spokesman for Evangelicals for Marriage Equality. In other words, he's pushing a homosexual agenda. And anyway, Brandon Robertson had an exchange between Robin Henderson Espinoza, who is a non-binary trans Latina activist. I remember we talked about non-binary sexuality sometime back and we're erasing the whole concept of male-female. There's no such thing anymore. So she's non-binary. Yes. Trans Latina. Now, how you be trans if there's non-binary, but that's something else. Now Brandon says that he is queering the church. That's his goal. He's queering the church, trying to get the church to embrace, you know, same sex marriage, LGBT, stuff like that. So here's Robin pressing him for details. What? That's what she's saying. What? Well, he says, I identify as queer in my sexuality and embrace and am learning queer theology. Okay. So he's, he's identifying as queer. He's, he's embracing it. He's learning more. And so here's, here's Robin's response. Just curious what a cis white dude means when he says he's querying the church. Okay, he's not good enough. Number one, he's cis. I mean, he's born male and identifies as male. That's bad. Number two, he's white. That's bad automatically. So how in the world you queer in the church? That's what she's asking. Well, I appreciate your inquiry, Brandon says. This is Twitter exchange. Oh, yeah. He's being really nice. These are important questions and important moment for the radical queering of Christianity and the world. Okay. Now I'm not defending what he's trying to do, but I just want you to hear the exchange. Okay. So Robin says, um, do you see. Wait a minute. Let's see. Gotta get the exchange right here. Yeah, that's right. Let's see. Robin. Okay. He's at this conference. Brandon's at this conference. That's what we're trying to do. She says, do you see, um, The problem is the sentence. The sentence doesn't make sense. You've got to get it in so many words. I'm going to skip. Sentence doesn't make sense. She basically questions that you can't see how blind you are with what you're trying to do. So basically she's saying the cisness of what you're doing, the cisness of it all. Yes. Well, he says, absolutely. And I'm working to deconstruct that as much as I can. I also am constantly aware that I still have a long way to go. He's basically saying, I'm your ally. I'm helping you change the world to, you know, your way of you. I'm on your team. she's saying you're not on my team and you know what she well that's right here's what she says she says well whites and cis folks aren't the ones able to dismantle this stuff you should look to marginalized folks as you learn hmm you're not marginalized enough I don't care that you're trying to help I don't care that you think you're on my team you're not the folk to dismantle this stuff you got a look to the marginalized folk so Here's Trevin Wax's comment, apparently to be queer doesn't make you marginalized enough. As a white cisgender male, he must seek out the truly marginalized. In other words, people like Robin, who are also of a different ethnicity and transgender. In other words, the more strikes against you in this society, the more your voice counts. That's the point. The experiential authority that we're talking about. So here's Brandon, he's really trying to, he's really trying hard. You give him an attaboy for that. Okay. And since he's cis, we can say attaboy and he's okay with that. He's okay with that. Robin wouldn't. No, no, no. She's non-binary. She'd say that uh. Boy, yeah. That uh. Atta. Atta. I don't know, atta. She needs some Ativan. No, I'm just kidding. Being ugly. No. So Brandon says, absolutely. That's a good reminder and we'll definitely continue to try to do better. So then, he tries to reach out one more time, you know, he wants to be a friend, and he basically wants to get together with her. Now remember, her advice was, you need to learn from marginalized folks. So he says, let's get together. Because you're marginalized. You're marginalized, let me learn from you. All right, here's her response. As a queer person of color, it's not my responsibility to help whites. I call stuff out when I see it. She didn't use the word stuff. So she's like, I'm not getting together with you. Not my responsibility to help whites. And he said, no, no, no, no, no, no. He says, I don't assume it is. This is Brandon's response. I really feel sorry for this guy, just so you know. He says, I don't assume it is. That's what I'm trying to learn myself. So thank you for calling it out. I mean, it is sad. Here's what Wax says, and he says it right. I'm kind of tongue in cheek when I say I feel sorry for this guy. I don't. I do, but I don't. I know. The whole exchange is sad. Guy's doing his dead level best, Wax says, the queer of the world. only to discover that the ideology he espouses shuts down his own efforts and silences his own voice. That's the point. The ravenous ideology of identity politics devours its own devotees. Oh me. That's the reality. That's the reality. And this is what I said at the outset. So the goal is not understanding the goal is to, to experience silence, I guess. I don't know what she's trying to say. Does she say she doesn't, who's going to? The point is, it's the logical conclusion. I don't understand. Yeah. Well, it's the logical, that's right. But it's the logical conclusion of the ideology. Yeah. that if you're not part of my identity group, because it's all identity politics. It's impossible to get it. Yeah, and if you're not part of it, you don't get it, you can't speak for it, so just shut up. Just shut up. And so they're all going to be telling each other to shut up, which is going to cause further splintering. And what's interesting is, in saying what you just said, This is how the issue really manifests itself. Wax goes on to talk about Oberlin one more time. And he says, and I know you haven't read the piece, but this is just, I mean, it just makes so much sense. See, I told you it'd make sense once we started going down this road. But he says, some of the students have chosen to voluntarily silence themselves. Wow. Okay. I mean, here's poor Brandon. Poor queer boy, you know, trying to queer the world, but they won't let him now. You can't, you're not good. You're not, you're not a trans. You're not a minority. No, you're just a poor white boy. That's all you are. So shut up. That's what Robin said. I'm not here to help you. I just call stuff out when I see it. That's all you are stuff. I mean, that's what she's saying. So anyway, you got other students who get that, and so they just silence themselves. So, back to the New Yorker, and I know we're going back and forth here, but just think, here's Heller, he summarizes an essay in the college paper from a girl urging white students like her to speak up less. See, she needs to talk to Brandon. Brandon, dude. Cis dude. Poor white boy. Just be quiet. You need to be quiet. Here's what this girl says. I understand that I am not just an individual concerned only with comfort, but also a part of a society that I believe will benefit from my silence. Well, you know what I say to that? Hallelujah. I think it will benefit from your silence. I wish Robin would be quiet too. You know, we're laughing, it's just, what are you gonna do? You cry or laugh? I mean, if I met these people face to face, I'd be crying. I wouldn't be laughing at them, okay? I'm not trying to be ugly, it's just... Oh my goodness, yes, but here's the logic of it, you know? I just think society is now, it's gonna benefit from my silence. I have no authority! If the atmosphere at Oberlin is indicative of the future, Treven Whack says, then we will soon find it more and more difficult to carry on rational, logical conversations or espouse positions that do not fall captive to identity politics. That's exactly right. Now let's hear it from Heller one more time, and then we're gonna talk it out to the end. The fear in class is talking about on these college campuses. The fear in class isn't getting something wrong. but having your voice rejected. People are so amazed that other people could have a different opinion from them that they don't want to hear it. That's our culture. It's no longer free speech. It's no longer- It's no longer bouncing back of thoughts and ideas. That's right. Idea exchange. No longer. We don't want that. We don't even want you defending us if you're not part of our group. You have no authority. And if you're part of a group that's perceived privileged, you can never talk again. That's right. Well, yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. I mean, I there's nobody wants to hear anything I got to say in this culture, right? Right. I'm white. I'm male. I'm cis. I'm Christian. So you should be silenced. That's right. Oops. Oops. And of course, from a Christian perspective, what we're saying, we always say the gospel overcomes, that's the whole point. Okay, yes, but let's think about this. Why are we at this point? Well, again, stating the obvious, but it's because we have rejected objective truth. We've rejected our source of authority. Our source of authority has never been ourselves. It's never been our own logic. It's not even rationality that we exalt. It's never been our own experience. It's never been that we're part of a particular identity group or a part of a group or even part of the human race. Our source of authority is God. And once you reject God as your source of authority, once you reject that source of authority, then... It's all like sinking sand. The man who built his house on the sand, it's gotta sink. That's exactly right. The only result, the only result is increasing chaos because it's all going to be a matter of opinion and you can see it. It's expanding exponentially now. Why? Just because of where we've gone and so quickly. Well yeah, where we've gone and we've gone there so quickly because of social media, because of access and conversations and 24-7 and you know the global communication that we have now and it's unbelievable. Things are changing so rapidly and what is sad is that you know, the progressive don't see the destructive nature of what they're doing. And what's going to have to happen, unless God simply intervenes with revival, the culture will be completely destroyed. And a lot of people are going to suffer when that happens. They're going to suffer monetarily, you know, financially. They're going to suffer physically. People are going to die. That's why this is so important. It's not just people disagree with us. We're talking about death and destruction. That's why we have to keep praying and preaching the gospel. The opinions expressed on today's program are those of the announcers, their guests, and callers, and do not necessarily represent those of the staff and management of His Radio Network, the Radio Training Network, or iHeart Media.