The Sin of Empathy Book Review Followup

 Dani Treweek, the author of the book review on "The Sin of Empathy" has, as expected, received pushback from people concerning that review. And she answers them well here:

On the Sin of Empathy Being a Woman

Her follow up does a good job answering the main, legitimate sounding complaints about her review.

She says lots of good things but I want to bring one thing to the forefront. Here is a quote from her writings. (There are many other good quotes touching on the same thing. I had to narrow it down and this one will do.)

when Rigney identifies empathy (weaponised, untethered, or otherwise) as the thing that leads to communities characterised by “cowardice, indifference, and cruelty,” the underlying reality he is primarily concerned about is a particular kind of sinful inclination (i.e., being emotionally swept away from reason and truth) which he sees as inherent to a particular group of people (i.e., women).

The reason I bring this up is because Treweek doesn't touch on something that I think is glaringly obvious concerning the total hypocrisy of Rigney, Doug Wilson, Canon Press (Doug's family press that published Rigney's book), and all associated with them.

Doug Wilson has displayed untethered empathy for pedophiles and abusers in his church. He is swept away by his own emotions and strong feelings that men are superior, more rational, more just than women. His feelings of superiority makes him indifferent to the horrendous amount of suffering he has caused and the injustice he has overseen against women and children.

In other words, Doug Wilson and his disciple, Joe Rigney, have untethered empathy for men, being a man, and all that this means to them, things like dominance, control, and power. Their empathy for the masculine to the exclusion and oppression of the feminine causes them a particular kind of sinful inclination as they are emotionally swept away from reason and truth. Their devotion to the cause and needs of men makes them blind to the importance and needs of women. They have such strong empathy for the masculine it boarders on worship. And through this weaponized empathy they have laid siege against all that is feminine. They attack not only the wayward feminist. They go after all women, because all women are falsely judged and found wanting in their toxic empathy for the masculine. This false balance and warped metric that they use to measure men and women makes them cowards, indifferent and cruel against women. The truth is, they are waging an unjust and relentless war against the feminine whether it's with the velvet glove approach Rigney tried (poorly) to do in his book or in one of Wilson's famous rants against women or "the bitch goddess of the state" (where Wilson almost channels Eric Cartman.).

I'm going to list a couple of links. I may add to this as things come up. But we'll start with these two:

[Updated 2] Pedophile Supported by Doug Wilson ‘Allegedly Sexually Abused** a Baby.

This pedophile is the son of man who contributes a lot of money to Doug Wilson's ministry. So Doug is carried away by his feelings of greed and has cruelly married this pedophile to a young, trusting, unassuming female.

Doug Wilson's Other Protected Pedophile

As I said, there may be more, but the above two links are a good start at exposing Doug Wilson's toxic empathy for abusers and pedophiles.

Women Seem Wicked and the "Sin" of Empathy

 Was driving down the road when a Doors song came on the radio. I'm not really a Doors fan. Their front man, Jim Morrison, rubs me the wrong way. However, the song on the radio "People Are Strange" had an interesting line that jumped out at me.

It went like this:

"Women seem wicked when you're unwanted. Streets are uneven when you're down"

And I thought in that moment, Wow, whatever I don't like about Jim Morrison, he sure is smarter than all the incels, red pillers and theobros put together.

Why do I say this? Because Jim had enough clarity, maturity, and self-understanding that he knew, just because he was feeling off didn't mean that women were wicked. They just seemed that way.

But incels, red pillers, and theobros have all decided that, because of how they feel on the inside, it must be women's fault. It's not that women seem wicked. To all these little men, women truly are wicked. All women are wicked, especially those that won't fit into the little packaged molds these men demand women to scrunch down into.

Incels, red pillers, and theobros can't zoom out from inside their head. How they feel inside must be the truth. Their heads are so far up their own orifices that they can't see beyond their own noses.

And I think this is why Joe Rigney's book "The Sin of Empathy" is so popular among the theobros. They like it inside their own heads. They don't want to be able to see beyond the limited confines of their own narrow and self-serving thoughts. They do not want to know what it might be like in a woman's shoes. They only want to be able to stand off to the side and judge women from their teeny tiny self-centered views.

"People Are Strange" Lyrics

People are strange
When you're a stranger
Faces look ugly
When you're alone

Women seem wicked
When you're unwanted
Streets are uneven
When you're down

When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange

The Sin of Being a Woman, er, I Mean Empathy

 I'm kind of late posting anything on this farce of a book.

But better late than never, right?

Especially since I've found the best little review on it.

Over on Facebook, I have gotten into several verbal disagreements with Doug Wilson and Joe Rigney fans over this accursed book. They keep saying something like, "You obviously haven't read the book because if you did, you would understand and wouldn't blindly and wildly criticize it."

In other words, they want me (and those like me) to buy the book. I let them know in no uncertain terms that Doug Wilson, Joe Rigney, and Canon Press will never get a single dime from me to fund their war on women.

"War on women?" you say?

Yes. War on women

Please read this review found here at Mere Orthodoxy to understand what I mean:

A Sham Trial: Reviewing 'The Sin of Empathy'

I'm glad Danielle Treweek read that infernal book so I don't have to

Christian Civilization and/or Nationalism?

 A long and meandering (or so it appears) essay by someone I've never heard of.

It examines what Christian Culture or Western Civilization is verses what the Bible says about following Jesus. Spoiler alert. They are not the same.

Against Christian Civilization by Paul Kingsnorth

As I continue to listen to the Sons of Patriarchy Podcast and hear about the horrors inflicted on the innocent in the name of Jesus and Christian Nationalism, this essay is a welcome reprieve. It's meanderings explore what true faith and works in Jesus look like verses the cold-hearted war-machine of Christian Nationalism and other cultic and culture war philosophies.

This essay also reminded me of a lecture given by Toby Hemenway entitled, "How Permaculture Can Save Humanity and the Earth, But Not Civilization". which I loved and wished more people could see and understand.

"What is permaculture?" you ask.

That is a huge question and way beyond the scope of this blog post. Even so, the very curious do deserve an explanation, one that isn't an hour long like the lecture by Mr. Hemenway. So below is a link to a brief video about it. There is so much more to permaculture than this six minute video could ever explain. But it is a good start for those who have never heard of it and don't have an hour to give Toby.

PERMACULTURE Explained in Six Minutes

Sorry if this post has gone in a crazy direction. And sorry if this link made between these two things mean absolutely nothing to you. I really only wanted to make this post so I could find Paul Kingsnorth's essay quickly in the future.

Bottom line: the two things that could save our planet and the people living on it as nations fall (imho) are Jesus and Permaculture. 

I Corinthian 11

 The Sunday School I am attending now is going through I Corinthians. I like this Sunday School. I like this church. They are good with having women as elders and pastors.

In our Sunday School we have lively discussions. One older woman, who loves God so much and has served Him a long time, has a lot of questions. I get the feeling that she has been beaten with the usual clobber verses because of the questions she has been asking and wanting to talk about.

We aren't to the eleventh chapter of 1 Corinthians yet. But it's coming.

I want to study the meaning of "head" in that chapter so I can have an answer for her when the questions come. So I'm linking my sources here so I can find them easily.

First Corinthians 11:2-16 line by line, part 1

1 Corinthians 11:2-16 series

Category:1 Corinthians 11:2-16

Category: Kephale ("Head") Archives

These are all Marg Mowezko references, She is in my blog roll. But I'm open to know about more.

Doug Wilson Compared to Crime Boss

 I've been listening to the Sons of Patriarchy podcast. It's been pretty good. But I've heard most of the stories before.

Today's podcast Immersive Communities: Abuse in CREC, part III presents three never publicly heard stories. All are worth a listen.

But one, in particular, caught my attention.

A former Chief Operations Officer of New St. Andrews College in Moscow named Tony had no idea what he was getting into with his job at Doug Wilson's college. He saw, first hand how the cult purposely mishandled abuse cases. When he advised going to the police with reports of abuse, he was shot down.

Tony had previous experience with inner city ministries. The neighborhoods he worked in had crime families that they had to work around and out maneuver. He said that working at St. Andrews was similar. This is found in the first 20-30 minutes of the podcast. If you get a chance, give it a listen.

Men Who Hate Women Should Not Teach the Bible

Maybe a better title should be, "Men Who Don't Understand the Love of God for both Men and Women have absolutely no business, whatsoever, teaching the Bible."

There are many such men. Mark Driscoll, formally an easy and frequent target of this blog is one. John McArthur, the man who puts women under church discipline for leaving abusive husbands is another. Then there is the new up and comer Josh Howerton who is very disrespectful of women.

The list is very long of men like these. And their raging, self-righteous followers are all over Twitter/X using the Bible as a club against women.

But today, I'm wanting to shine the light on an upcoming podcast series that takes on Doug Wilson, one of the most hateful men I've ever heard who claims to be Christian. Yes. He is even worse than Driscoll, McArthur, and Howerton. And according to WenatcheetheHatchet, Driscoll had early dealings with Wilson.

The Podcast will be starting on Monday, October 28th, and it is called Sons of Patriarchy. Here is a link to the trailer.

I am looking forward to listening and hope that it takes down that mobster pretending to be a pastor up in Moscow, Idaho.

Household Codes Podcast

 I haven't listened to it yet so I can't vouch for it at this time. But I am putting it here so I can find it again when I have more time

This Is a Great Mystery

Edited to add this as well. I may need this later.

Deeper Conversations on Purity

****

One of my favorite old links is broken

 There used to be a blog called "That Mom" that I loved.

And she used to have a blog post called "The Suffragettes and a Woman's Right to Chose" that I would often link when dealing with frothing at the mouth misogynists who blame feminism for abortion and the decline of modern civilization as we know it. And it claimed that Susan B. Anthony was pro-life but that she railed against a culture that put women in the position where abortion seemed the best option.

I am heart broken over the loss of this article so I decided to search for anything else that might explain this.

My search is not over. But I did find this article called "Marriage and Maternity" in "The Revolution" a weekly newspaper run by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. And it is this article that my friend at That Mom was quoting.

I am going to leave it here, mostly for myself, but also for any curious passerby-ers who come along. I wish to read it more fully when I have more time. While things have changed a great deal between the time the article was written (July 1969) and now, there are still things to be gleaned from this article for today.

The Revolution, July 8 1969

The reason I'm going back to this is because of a conversation that I had with a pro-life friend who wanted to make our conversation about, "it's always wrong to kill a baby" and that this was a separate issue from the rape culture we live in. 

I on the other hand agree with the author of "Marriage and Maternity" that "Much as I deplore the horrible crime of child-murder, earnestly as I desire its suppression, I cannot believe with the writer of the above mentioned article, that such a law would have the desired effect. It seems to be only mowing off the top of the noxious weed, while the root remains. "

So, since my friends wonderful article's link is broken, I'm left to do my own research. Such is life.

Response to Viral JD Vance's Twitter Clip

 Okay. To clarify. A clip from 2022 is flying around Twitter

JD Vance, a senator from Ohio said some stupid things about the sexual revolution making divorce too easy so that parents can change marriages like people changing under ware and how this is hurting kids even if the marriage might have been violent.

Due to this 2022 clip going viral JD Vance has come out to say that what we heard was not what he meant.

He said people took it out of context. 

So, okay. Whatever.

Here is some context from the article

From what Vance said: "'Maybe it worked out for the moms and dads (to divorce), though I’m skeptical. But it really didn’t work out for the kids of those marriages,' Vance said to the moderator. 'That’s what I think all of us should be honest about, is we’ve run this experiment in real time. And what we have is a lot of very, very real family dysfunction that’s making our kids unhappy.'"

Hhm. So what is he basing this on? Not my life

Senator Vance, I did it your way. I followed your social experiment. I stayed in a relationship that was not physically violent. But it was emotionally, spiritually and sexually abusive. I stayed with the narcissist because I believed the things you are preaching. I heard the men saying back in the 90s and 2000s that feminism was bad and that the sexual revolution was bad and that I needed to stay married.

And you know who has suffered the most?

My children. Yes, I also suffered. But my children, every single one of them, suffered more than me.

They are grown and trying to live their lives. But they are suffering even now and have all been to therapy. One even needs psych meds.

So you are wrong. It is your experiment that is defunct if we are truly being honest here.

I know because my children and I are living it in real time. We are paying a very high price for your bad advice.

Driscoll, MacArthur, and the Jezebel Spirit

 So, back in the day, when my mind was being blown away by the fact that Mark Driscoll was Raping and Pornifying The Song of Solomon (hither to referred to as The Songs), I was looking for someone, anyone with any kind of platform to confront these crimes against Scripture.

And I did find a guy. I linked to him and his series and thanked him on this blog for confronting Driscoll. He was John MacArthur.

However, little did I  know how much MacArthur is NOT a friend to women. I knew he was Complementarian. And really, I thought that would make others take his rebuke of Driscoll more seriously.

But John MacArthur Shamed and Excommunicated a Mother for Refusing to Take Back Her Child Abuser Husband. AND shortly after this came to light A Prominent Elder Resigned from MacArthur's Church claiming that the church was failing to protect women from abusive husbands.

Even though I was disheartened by the knowledge of how awful MacArthur is to women, I left up my posts about him confronting Driscoll. My reasoning was this: I was on a journey. I learned awful things about the Evangelical movement and Neo Calvinists. And my blog is as good a record of that journey as anything else. I am imperfect, am not omniscient. and I'm bound to make mistakes. And I did in that area out of ignorance.

So, anyway, fast forward to the last few weeks. As I watched the crazy words and behaviors of Mark Driscoll and John Lindell and what a lot of people were saying about it, I was reminded of my frustration with praising MacArthur for protecting women from Driscoll when people need to protect women from MacArthur just as much.

I read one guy's tweet that said something along the lines of, "If we need Driscoll to call out sin in our conferences, we have fallen so very low."

Now, note. I don't know that Driscoll was in the right to call out the sword swallowing act. I do know that him associating it with anything Jezebel was way out of line. And I do know that he is in no way qualified to make such judgement calls.

Please see Wenatchee's Mark Driscoll is in a strange position to opine against church leaders and cultures influenced by the Jezebel spirit when he mentioned clear heels 17 times in 13 sermons preached between January 2004 and February 2008. 

Near the bottom of this blog post Wenatchee quotes from a CBMW post (a firmly complementarian site) concerning Driscoll's Real Marriage book:

"Another problem with the way the Driscolls treat pornography has to do with the reality that many people will be guided to pornography because of their book.  Make no mistake: men and women will be introduced to pornography because of this book.  For almost my entire ministry I have been talking to at least one person a week who struggles with pornography.  I do not live in some sheltered ministry context away from people with perverse struggles.  As true as that is the Driscolls taught me a lot about pornography I wish I never knew."

With this blog post, I feel Wenatchee firmly proves that Driscoll is not qualified to define or call out sexual sin.

Mark Driscoll, World Class Attention Surfer

 As I watched the train wreck over the last week, I heard people speculate that this whole thing with Mark Driscoll stirring up crap at the Stronger Man Conference was preplanned and scripted. I even heard some say that John Lindell was in on it in order to help Mark become more likeable/platform-able. 

None of that really set well with me. But I didn't feel in the position to say any different early on. I felt confident enough to call him a World Class Attention Seeker. And while this it completely true, even that term didn't feel strong enough to describe what I was watching unfold.

When these things happen with Driscoll, I have a tendency to bounce ideas off my internet friend WenatcheeTheHatchet to get his perspective since he was at Mars Hill in the early days before things started getting askew. And Wenatchee said in a comment under his Lindell/Driscoll Coverage post,    "I don't think there's any evidence the conference stunt was staged or scripted. The accounts of how and why Driscoll crashed Strange Fire from the CT podcast and Turner's accounts don't suggest to me that Driscoll has become more calculating. It seems he's becoming more impulsive and more unpredictable."

And this confirmed what I had been thinking. As I read his comment and thought about things, the idea of Driscoll being and Attention Surfer seemed to fit better in describing him.

He goes to the places that he thinks will make the biggest waves like the Stronger Man Conference Beach or the Strange Fire Cove. And he tries to catch the biggest wave he can,

At Stronger Man, he saw a good wave. Some performer using a pole in an act. He decided to try to catch that wave and ride it but was disqualified by the officials at the event so he tried to leave as fast as possible, just like he did when his Mars Hill Wave was no longer carrying him and giving him his attention seeking thrill that he lives for. 

The officials tried to patch things up with Mark and he seemed to be willing to do so on a shallow level. Just as he made shallow apologies for Mars Hill (Mistakes were made.)

But then, when he saw a bigger wave on the Evangelical World Stage where his baby-fan-boys were supporting him, he took down his picture with Lindell. And he went to catch that newer, bigger wave not caring, perhaps even hoping, that it might be a tsunami. 

It makes me think of the scene in "Don't Look Up" where the Jennifer Lawrence character was asked by a new friend about the 'conspiracy' going on behind the scenes. She told him that it was worse than conspiracy theories. She said that they didn't know what they were doing except trying to control the narrative and looking good to the public. Or something like that. It's been a minute since I've seen that one. 

It also reminds me of a house plant that I have call Mother of Millions. That plant makes babies like crazy and sends them into the void in hopes that they will reproduce. My nick name for it is Opportunistic Little Bastard because that it what is seems like. And that is what Driscoll is.

Saying that Driscoll is an attention seeker on steroids would not be wrong.

But I think a better better way to look at it is, Driscoll is a Steroid Enhanced Attention Surfer.

He is an opportunistic little bastard that is going to get that attention. It doesn't matter who he hurts and who he betrays (looking at you Lindell as his latest victim). It doesn't matter who he has to throw under the bus. He is going to ride that wave.