The Woke Campus Preacher

~ Clarissa

I listened to our famous campus preacher today. A protestant preacher, of course. He said, and this is a close quote, “It doesn’t matter if you’ve been baptized. It doesn’t matter if you’ve done any sacraments or even know what they are. It doesn’t matter if you go to church. All that matters is that you know in your heart of hearts that you trust Jesus to save you.”

And this is the entire bloody problem right there. This isn’t about religion and whose is better. It’s about the mentality of the primacy of feelings over everything. “Feelings cannot be wrong! If you feel it, it’s the ultimate truth!”

But it’s bunk. Feelings can be very much wrong. And an individual shouldn’t be a completely closed system where he’s the judge of good and evil based on how he feels. This is a very bad approach.

Campus wokesters have protested the preacher’s presence for years. But they are dumb because he’s doing their job for them. The preacher’s approach is at the heart of the woke mentality. All you need to do is take one little step of excluding this powerless, subservient Jesus from the equation altogether and put your ever important, ever feeling self in his place.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Clarissa

29 thoughts on “The Woke Campus Preacher”

  1. This is why I dislike a lot of Protestant preachers, especially Evangelicals. It’s all about feelings, about your fee-fees instead of thinking and studying. I’m Catholic and I couldn’t imagine myself as that kind of Protestant, if I had to convert. Religion without thinking and studying and strong theology isn’t appealing, Catholics and mainline Protestants have a long history and culture of serious theology, it’s not surprising that the most famous books from Evangelicals are the Left Behind novels

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. A minor quibble, and I am no theologian, so don’t assume it’s dogmatically sound:

      One of the great, gaping blunders, IMO, that Catholicism has been bashing into for centuries, is the whole over-intellectualization of Christianity. Augustine—->Aquinas is the source of some sketchy theology, weirdly alienating attitudes, and a fairly enormous obstacle to the reunification of the church. For a lot of us, that’s where Roman Catholicism really went off the rails.

      You can’t reason your way to salvation.

      Christianity is a relationship, personal and collective, with the One triune God. It’s not a set of logical postulates.

      “your fee-fees instead of thinking and studying…”

      Agreed it’s not your feelings. Disagree that it’s primarily thinking and studying. Salvation is for all. If it excludes the intellectually handicapped, you’ve lost the thread somewhere.

      There’s an important place for the thinking and studying, but it’s not central.

      Where did Saint Mary of Egypt study theology?

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. … the Way isn’t through feelings *or* intellect. It’s through self-abnegation, ascesis, spiritual discipline, humility, and love, which can be pursued diligently by all, with no contingence on intellectual or emotional capacity.

        Liked by 3 people

        Reply

        1. Exactly. There should be some barriers to entry and some accountability in the process of entering. It’s not whoever says or feels they are doing it right. It’s whoever is actually doing it as witnessed by the priest and the parish. It can’t be a lonely journey.

          Liked by 2 people

          Reply

          1. Sorry, but your wrong on this one. Anyone can come to the Lord, at nearly any time (obviously its a bit late after you die of course.) Its not just limited to those being witnessed by a priest and parish, thats just silly.

            Salvation is between you and God, not between you, God, and your local community.

            • – W

            Like

            Reply

            1. Yes. The thief on the cross was indeed saved. 11th hour and all that.

              It does not follow that this is the model path for everyone to follow. For many, perhaps most, of us, we need a Christian community, spiritual authorities, and a certain amount of accountability, to help us along the path to salvation.

              Can you do it without all that? Yes. It’s been done.

              see: St. Mary of Egypt. But it’s sort of a trick question there. It’s like the Orthodox version of a koan: Was St. Mary a frequent or infrequent receiver of communion?

              Well, she got baptized and then went and spent 40 years alone in the desert. No church, no Bible, no confessor, no community.

              Where she communed with Christ and the angels, and was taught by them. We revere her as one of the greatest of saints.

              So on the one hand, she was alone, and on the other hand, she still didn’t DIY her way to salvation: she had an amazing community of believers assisting her.

              If anything, the common theme in the story of the desert saints is… sure, you *can* be saved in solitude, by the help of God. But what that looks like is pretty universally: you give up everything. No ego. No possessions. No status. No companionship. You leave the world of commerce and friends, go into the desert with only the clothes on your back, pray, and do battle with the passions.

              I see a lot of Protestants asserting that you can DIY your way to salvation, but I don’t see anything of the picture the saints have painted for us, of what that really looks like. The general belief seems to be: I don’t need a church community, I don’t need sacraments or confession or advice, I can interpret scripture all on my own, and I can bootstrap my way to Christ without giving up my comfortable first-world lifestyle.

              For the sake of everybody trying out that route, I really hope it’s possible. But I don’t see any precedent for it in all the history of the church.

              Liked by 1 person

              Reply

              1. “see: St. Mary of Egypt”

                Is she treated as real by Orthodox? I thought she was more of a legend… although all I know is the concert semi-opera by Respighi. The scene of her being prevented from entering the church and repenting and hearing a voice telling her to go into the desert has some amazingly beautiful music…. if the youtube link shows up go to about 36.00

                Like

          2. The thing is despite what the Catholics say, if you actually read your Bible, you will find that Salvation comes through FAITH in the blood sacrifice of Jesus, he died in our place.

            Ours is a blood bought salvation, not a work we do, not a I’m good thus the Lord must let me into heaven, no it was paid for by Jesus and offered to us as a gift.

            Romans 3:19-26 “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and its prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

            Romans 5:1-2 “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

            Romans 5:8-11 “But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now recieved the atonement.”

            Revelation 1:5 “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”

            We are saved through faith in the blood of Jesus. This is explained by Paul in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4 “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”

            So the question is if we are saved by faith in what Jesus did, how do you have faith. This too is answered.

            Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

            So no, that protestant preacher is correct, you are saved through faith in the blood of Jesus, and faith comes by hearing the word of God. Note we are not told you must go to the preachers, nor a parish, nor be baptized. We are told simply to believe. Believe in what Jesus has done for us. He offers us the gift of salvation, of having our sins covered by his blood when we stand before God at the judgement. It is not something you can do to get salvation, that is a work and your works can’t save you. Jesus paid the price, he died sinless in the place of any who would believe and accept his sacrifice.

            This isn’t a matter of feelings, its a matter of choice. Are you willing to trust in what Jesus did for you. Are you willing to accept by faith that Jesus paid the price for your sin with his blood on the cross. Or will you continue to stubbornly demand that you are saved by works. Works done by you a human covered in sins, demanding that God accept your sin covered works instead of trusting what Jesus who was sent by God to save us did in order to offer us the gift of salvation.

            As always every single person has free will and thus is offered the choice. Choose wisely, choose faith in Jesus and come with us when it is time.

            • – W

            Like

            Reply

            1. Orthodox do not believe in salvation by works. That’s a protestant slander.

              We also don’t believe in salvation-by-intellectual-affirmation, or once-saved-always-saved, or any number of other interesting Protestant innovations. I don’t believe Protestants are engaged in any kind of deliberate malign intent, just that… if the Bible’s all you’ve got left, because you’ve ditched everything else in your rush to shed the sins of Catholicism… you’re missing some stuff, and it’s hard to forensically reconstruct it out of nothing.

              The church pre-dates the Bible. It was the church that assembled and codified the Bible– the Scriptures as we know them were compiled by the Church for its own use. There is quite a lot of church writing, theology, commentary, and a very rich tradition that the protestant west lost access to, and is only just beginning to rediscover.

              We do not say “I am saved”. God is the only one who can know. We may say “I am being saved”. It’s a process, and that process doesn’t really look a lot like the Protestant conception of salvation.

              That’s unfortunate, and causes a lot of (I think) unnecessary friction and misunderstanding. I think you are mistaking us for an enemy, when ultimately we want the same thing: the unification of all humanity with Christ.

              Like

              Reply

  2. “All that matters is that you know in your heart of hearts that you trust Jesus to save you”

    Even for low church that’s pushing it. The party line from evangelical types is a bit different (I grew up in a milieu in which, if not dominant, evangelicals were pretty thick on the ground).

    The idea is less about an institution (buildings are unimportant to them and rituals are mostly also unimportant) and more individual, the ‘personal relationship’ with Jesus as savior is the starting point. It’s a relationship that’s supposed to be entered into only by adults (college students are pushing it). That’s why Baptists, for instance, don’t baptise babies and only recognize baptism of adults.

    And part of that relationship is to avoid ‘sinful’ behavior and read the Bible….. a lot and to pray a lot and to not be disappointed when prayers aren’t answered or things don’t work out.

    Of course with so much left to the individual a certain percentage are liable to get confused and wander into weird areas (like snake handling or dancing to achieve altered states of consciousness like pentecostals).

    But this sounds like some kind of generic evangelical lite….

    Like

    Reply

  3. The current pope even makes it optional to believe in Jesus lol.

    “There is only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sheik, Muslim, Hindu, Christians; they are different ways to God.”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Pope Francis seems to be a victim of a poor translation yet again. I don’t even like the man but the media constantly makes him out to be even more liberal than he actually is.

      Like

      Reply

  4. Why do Israelli Jews hold bold Xtianity and Islam in utter and complete contempt. Both come under the Av tumah avoda zarah abominations category!

    Does Man live through the Spirit breath he breathes or the words spoken throughout life? Spirits Aint Words Just as Prophetic Mussar Aint history.

    יום הדין על מה?

    Simply not enough to run around like a chicken with its head cut off saying: “!יום הדין! יום הדין”.

    What a total disgrace in the Yeshiva world! The fool rabbis fail to teach young students יום הדין על מה?. What an utter abysmal error. Answer: “יום הדין על הברית”.

    To cut a Torah oath brit requires שם ומלכת. Another silly dumbass rabbinic incompetence. The rabbis take a literal טיפש פשט of these two absolutely critical undefined terms; they fail to connect the mitzva of blowing the shofar as the בנין אב precedent wisdom, of just how the Cohen Ha’Gadol pronounces the שם השם לשמה. These rabbinic morons equally fail to affix one of the 13 tohor middot, first revealed to Moshe, 40 Days after the Golden Calf,, as the required term, מלך of ברכות.

    These rabbinic morons likewise fail to point out that ברכת כהנים, קראה שמע, ושמון עשרי כולם חוסר שם ומלכות…required to swear a Torah oath/brit and likewise swear a Torah blessing. Furthermore these rabbinic morons fail to teach the מאי נפקא מינא question which separates and makes the required הבדלה between תהלים כנגד שמון עשרי. The former a שבח whereas the latter a ברכה, which requires שם ומלכות – as do all sworn Torah oaths. All through the month of Elul uneducated Yidden cry out unto the 13 middot Oral Torah revelation, yet never once ask: what separates the k’vanna from אל to רחום to חנון to ערך הפנים etc.

    The sin of the Golden Calf\avoda zarah translated יהוה to a word: specifically to the word אלהים. But any perversion of the רוח הקודש שם השם לשמה to word distortions, equals to –the sin of the Golden Calf. Hence the 13 middot breathe as Spirits and NOT SPOKEN WORDS.

    The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (Shelosh-‘Esreh Middot HaRakhamim) their revelation of the פרדס Oral Torah. The Breath of the Divine: they breath spirits rather than pronounce words from the lips of Man. Hence Oral Torah logic, worlds apart from the logic developed by Plato, Aristotle and later by Hagel. These attributes, not merely linguistic expressions; they most essentially serve as conduits of Divine-life energy to the Cohen Chosen People.

    These tohor time-oriented commandments require k’vanna. It requires prophetic mussar to interpret the k’vanna of the 13 tohor middot. When the shofar: blown, it emits spirit middot, together with a physical sound. Words too emit sounds. But words do not compare to spirit middot. The interplay between the physical and the spiritual, the tangible and the ineffable.

    When the shofar sounds, it’s as if the Divine breathes Life unto the Souls of His Chosen People. Just as the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, Spirits more than words, so too the shofar more than just sounds. They intersect in that liminal space—the place where language meets spirit. Man lives through the spirits he breaths and not through words he speaks.

    ברית means oath sworn alliance between allies. To swear a Torah oath requires שם ומלכות. No word captures the רוח הקודש שם השם לשמה. In fact word translations define the sin of the Golden Calf throughout the generations of Man Kind on this Earth.

    The Hebrew term מלכות too does not translate as “king”. Swearing a Torah oath or swearing a תפילה while standing before a Sefer Torah, hence the שמון עשרי also called “Amidah”/standing prayer. Why? A person must stand before a Sefer Torah to swear a Torah oath brit. The false translation covenant does not transport this crucial idea. Hence covenant a bad translation of ברית.

    The mitzva of תפילה a Man swears an oath of dedication by which he commits to behave in the future with family, friends, or people, with prophetic mussar defined middot. The prophetic vision of the NaCH prophets: they define through mussar the k’vanna of the 13 פרדסOral Torah middot revealed to Moshe Rabbeinu at Horev 40 days after the Sin of the Golden Calf translation perversion which corrupted יהוה unto the word אלהים.

    Like

    Reply

  5. As a fellow Orthodox I want to thank both methylethyl and Clarissa for so beautifully and succinctly expressing what stands at the heart of the Orthodox Way: there is no liturgy without community. We may also pray individually, but the Divine Liturgy is the Church praying as one.

    This should not appear unusual to a Jew. Even in Judaism, no communal prayer is valid without a minyan of ten male adults. The תפילה of Jews as a people – and not as individuals reciting a בְּרָכָה – is still today the commonest form of prayer among Jews and as such it was inherited by Christians. As a Jewish convert to Orthodoxy I see many similarities between the two, as is natural, one being the daughter of the other.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. The idea of a minyan, not that it matters to a religious pervert oops convert LOL. A person can swear a Torah oath in front of a quorum of 10 Torah observant Jews. Tefillah shares nothing in common with prayers made by Goyim avoda zarah religions. To swear a Torah oath requires שם ומלכות. These abstract terms their translations mean less than shit. Name and Kingship – utterly moronic. The first has to do with doing mitzvot in accordance to the 1st Sinai commandment – the greatest Torah commandment above all others. The 2nd term has to do with tohor middot and דרך ארץ, a subject which requires an extensive education in T’NaCH prophetic mussar. But now once again ya made me laugh. LOL

      Like

      Reply

      1. Dear Mosckerr, as a convert I am a pervert in your eyes and that is fine by me, but in Hebrew a גר is not a pervert. Ruth the Moabite was a giyoret and King David descends from her lineage. יִשָּׂא יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלום

        Still, you have your T’NaCh and you can look up what follows:

        Proverbs 20:3– It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling.

        Proverbs 12:15– The way of a fool is right in his own eyes…

        Proverbs 18:2– A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

        Proverbs 14:17- leave the presence of a fool, for there you will not find words of knowledge.

        Need I go on? I think this is enough. יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

Leave a reply to mosckerr Cancel reply