July 23, 2023
As I mentioned last week, after a pause of my usual Sunday spiritual ramblings, which you can find in their entirety here, I've decided to return to a brief weekly foray into all matters spiritual.
This new spiritual series will be pretty straightforward: you can expect a quick and easy-to-read bullet-point digest of spiritually meaningful discoveries I've encountered throughout the week, which may also occasionally foray into political, economic, family, and other matters that may not fall under the body, brain and biohacking umbrellas.
Be sure to leave me any thoughts you have in the comments section below.
1. I listened to a controversial interview Tucker Carlson had with Andrew Tate. Seemed like Tate was a reasonable guy. But then I watched pastor Shane Winnings Andrew Tate video: “You won’t believe what Andrew Tate did…” and now I think a bit differently. Shocking, really.
2. 1 Corinthians 13: Many greats of the past and present were and are strong proponents of memorizing scripture including religious icons such as Martin Luther, Fanny Crosby, Bill Gothard, and Chuck Swindoll. My own family memorizes bits of the Bible every day. For example, at the beginning of the year, we memorized Romans 8, during the summer we memorized Proverbs 3, and we are now launching into what I consider to be one of the best-ever chapters written about love: 1 Corinthians 13 . This sermon by pastor John MacArthur is a good intro. Who wants to join us? We go with a cadence of about 1 verse per day when memorizing passages like this, and just like anything, the mind is a muscle and you get better as you go.
3. Great sermon: This sermon by Mark Driscoll on listening for God in the silence titled “Why You Need To Speak More And Less” expounds upon the spiritual disciplines of silence and speaking, preaching that there is a time for both in each of our lives. It's a good one. I recommend listening!
That's all for this week. I hope you enjoy these tidbits.
I was really surprised to see Ben reference Bill Gothard as a religious icon. Gothard’s destructive and manipulative principles brought tremendous damage to a lot of people and is quite well documented.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/june-web-only/shiny-happy-people-bill-gothard-dugger-family-parent-child.html
Love Ben’s work, and appreciate his leaning into spirituality too, as it’s much needed. Was this an oversight or is Gothard someone you admire, Ben?
I don’t even understand this article. It’s saying he’s a bad person because he spanked his kids? Is that what you’re saying?
Hey Ben! No not at all. Spanking is only mentioned once here (there is however countless reports of spankings turning into beatings within this culture). Gothard’s theology of ‘quiverfull families’ and headship roles have delivered extensive damage via abuse within many families. Most notably seen through the doc Shiny Happy People, which I would strongly recommend to anyone. The most alarming of his teachings is that the biblical view of headship be so extreme and distorted, it creates environments where abuse, physical, emotional and sexual, are accepted. This has been documented by many, many individuals from the ATI world. Gothard himself also has sexual abuse allegations against him by over 40 women.
Growing up in a very similar legalistic vein as ATI, his fundamentalist and anti-biblical teachings on things like adoption, women only wearing dresses, alcohol, regulations on sex and overall emphasis that he has the correct ‘precepts’ or answers by God set him up in a cult-like way. All of this made more concerning since he’s speaking from the position of a) one who is not even married and b) one who is not a pastor. He has an astoundingly detailed level of expectations or ‘insights from God’ for women and children for one who never married or became a father and his moral authority over thousands of lives was self-proclaimed and not given within a local church context (not that one needs that to speak truth, I just find it ironic for someone who is so dogmatic to also be so autonomous).
Assuming only the best, as I said Ben, I love your stuff. This just seemed like an curious reference to a figure that is both unbiblical and has caused harm to so many. So many solid christian men and women we can claim as icons, why this one?
(For a deeper dive into his theology: https://www.donowsley.com/articles-1/an-overview-of-some-problems-with-bill-gothards-teachings)
I see. I will look into him more. Thank you for your concern.
Thank you sir, and thanks for the engagement.