Contradictions of the Secular Elites

By Wallace B. Henley, Exclusive Columnist Thursday, October 04, 2018

Wallace Henley | (By CP Cartoonist Rod Anderson)

The elites that now determine our culture's values consensus are spiritually, philosophically, and morally insane, self-deluded.

Either that or they are craftily devious.

Mad or Machiavellian, they embrace and propagate dizzying contradictions that are in recent days anything but subtle.

Here is a sampling of secularist contradictions—especially among left-progressivist utopians:

1. They deny the doctrine of sin, but want judgment on those they accuse as "sinners."

Celebrities today vie with the worst of medieval inquisitionists. They consign opponents to a level in Hell not even Dante envisioned. Yet they miss the fact that if there is no Absolute holiness, there is no standard for declaring anything sinful. Worse, in such a barren worldview there is no place for grace.

2. Progressive-left secular utopians don't believe in the Kingdom of God, but want the benefits of the Kingdom anyway.

Since most of the young secular progressivist leftist utopians were educated in academic establishment institutions they learned little history, or heavily redacted versions. They don't know the history of utopian movements devoid of the values articulated by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and summarized by Paul as the Kingdom of "righteousness (justice), peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Romans 14:17) This makes secular progressive leftist utopianism frightening. It seeks a certain order in society, but believes it comes institutionally more than personally. Therefore coercion is essential, for there is no other means of establishing the regime they desire and sustaining it over time but through authoritarianism.

3. Many progressivist leftist secular utopians want sexual antinomianism but also want the persecution of those they accuse as being sexual antinomians.

"Antinomians" are those who oppose the rule of law, and strive for anarchy. (See 2 Thessalonians).

Every sexual abuser should experience the wrath of the law. Every abused person deserves justice. That justice, we are reminded, is "blind" regarding social status, position, race, or any other classification. But there is a sad inconsistency in Hollywood's love for shattering traditional boundaries about the depiction of sexual behavior while many of its voices try to join the justifiable outcry over sexual abuse. They laugh at the old preachers of a past era who warned their people not to go to "picture shows", and those pastors and other clerics today who preach against the entertainment establishment's delight in pushing the limits. Yet many who scorn the moral codes of the past protest loudly when people act in reality what they portray fictionally.

4. Important left-progressive secular intellectuals deride the Puritans of old who, they allege, loved to lock in stocks those they accused as wicked sinners, and display them for ridicule in the town square. Yet today's secular puritans relish dragging those they deem to be miscreants into the public square of media and the courts for ridicule and loss of reputation.

5. Some secular-left progressivist utopians want to present themselves as noble warriors of and for the proletariat, but live like the bourgeoisie.

In Marxist thought, the proletariat is the working class, and bourgeoisie the rich capitalist class. Under today's cultural Marxism the proletariat is the oppressed and the bourgeoisie the oppressors.

There are those who believe that wearing a baseball hat or a bandana and Che Guevara tee-shirt, or tattered jeans makes them part of downtrodden, victimized classes. But after the marching and street actions are done they like to retreat to their mansions.

Tom Wolfe and his 1970 biting description of "radical chic" comes to mind. He was writing about Leonard Bernstein's cocktail soirees for mingling Black Panthers and New York elites at his lavish Manhattan apartment.

Wolfe found this cartoonish. It seemed to give justification for people not taking serious concerns seriously.

The tragedy of secular-left progressivist utopian contradictions is that there is indeed a serious need for justice with respect to abuse, sexual and otherwise. This is not a condemnation of those who are calling for justice. What is sad is doing it in the spirit and for the cause of secular leftist progressivist utopianism. There is a much higher cause and justification for honest passions for righteousness (a word too many secularists would consider repugnant).

God told us clearly how to have an orderly civilization: honor your father and mother, don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't bear false witness against your neighbor, don't covet your neighbor's spouse or material possessions. (Exodus 20:12-17)

But none of those ideals is achievable without the first commands: worship only the true and living God, and don't make idols for yourself. Focus on the good and loving Lord, Who is Absolute, by hallowing sacred moments, expressed above all in the Sabbath. Don't take God's name in vain. In our age, among other things, we must hit the "delete" button that removes "OMG" from our speech, social media, and other modes of expression, as well as "Jesus Christ" as an expletive. (Exodus 20:1-11)

The Ten Commandments constitute the principles of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus Christ came into the world and modeled that Kingdom lifestyle for us. He gave us a startling, high vision for society at its best. He told us even to bless our enemies and pray for them.

So, in the twenty-first century a 10-year old girl took Jesus seriously. Liza Kavanaugh said to her sister, of her daddy's accuser: "We should pray for that woman."

That's true progress.

Wallace Henley is senior associate pastor at Houston's Second Baptist Church, and Chair of Belhaven University's Master of Ministry Leadership degree. He is a former White House and Congressional aide, and co-author of "God and Churchill", with Winston Churchill's great-grandson, Jonathan Sandys.