Tag: Groothuis

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On Trans-everything. A Summary from Douglas Groothuis

“I am nearly sixty years old. I have been studying, writing about, and teaching about culture, philosophy, theology, and art diligently and for decades. I have never seen the revolt against God-given categories of being as we are seeing now. Men identify as women. Women identify as men. Whites identify as blacks. The healthy identify as disabled. Most of these bogus identifications require expensive self-mutilation.

The explanation for all of this sad perversity is simple. Without the knowledge of God, one does not know one’s true identity. If God is dead in our experience, law, traditions, then human beings are no longer reckoned as made in the image of that God. Rather, we are made (and re-made) in the image of ourselves. This contradiction leads to abysmal elasticity. X identifies as Y. So what? What is the basis for this re-identification? It is the self, untrammeled by reality or morality. This is “the protean self” of Robert Jay Lifton from 25 years ago. Yet he had no idea what the extent and depth of the protean spell might be. We do. God says:

All who hate me love death (Proverbs 8:36).”

Douglas Groothuis
Douglas Groothuis
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From Douglas Groothuis's Facebook Status

“While looking for WW I books at The Tattered Cover in Highlands Ranch, Colorado (it is the centenary of the outbreak of hostilities), I overheard part of a question-answer time by one Kevin Hearne, a science fiction writer. I had to restrain myself from walking over five feet–the books were very near the front–and giving a lecture on his absurd and glib caricatures of Christianity.

Mr Hearne, G…od help him, answered a question about whether his third book in a series (about some absurd reigio-science fiction world) would be made into a film. He say probably not, since it featured a black Jesus drinking beer. That, predictably, got a flippant wave of laughter (or smirks) from the adoringly ignoramus audience. After all, he followed up, the people who would be bothered wouldn’t know about it until a film appears, since they only read Bibles. So, the cowardly film-makers pull back. He said more but this is enough.

First, has Mr. Hearne watched any films in, oh, the last thirty years? Does he think that Hollywood is shy about religious controversy or attacks on Christianity. Has he seen “Noah” for instance? Or does he know the controversy stired twenty five years ago by “The Last Temptation of Christ?”

Well, Mr. informal, witty, paid-beyond-your-competence, listen up. The greatest literary stylists of the Twentieth Century–dim wits such as T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, and others–were Christians, Christians who have forgotten more about literature than you will ever know. Furthermore, some of us ignorant Fundies have spent our entire adult lives reading literature, philosophy, mythology, psychology, and more. I stand in their midst. So, Mr. Important, we do not all fit your small minded, cliche-ridden stereotype.

Lastly, if you want to talk about a black, beer-drinking Jesus, please ring me up. I’ll drink and talk as long as you want. Perhaps you might convince me –after, say, ten beers–to read one of your works.

By the way, after surmising the WWI books, I bought one on Stubby, the amazing war dog.“