The modern-day imperial cult

I've been getting some inquiries about Gene Bridges. I believe that's prompted by James White's 5/21 DL riposte. A few preliminaries before I talk specifics:

i) I don't have the original statement by Gene. A friend of mine transcribed what White read on the DL. So I'm going to be commenting on (most of) the excerpts from the DL. Some of Gene's remarks seem to be directed at White in particular. I don't know the original context. I'm guessing that he's miffed by White's role in The Statement on the Gospel and Social Justice–among other things. 

ii) Gene used to be a guest blogger at Triablogue. His posts are still up. He stopped posting 10 years ago. He wasn't asked to leave. He just dropped out, of his own accord, for whatever reason. I never asked. Somewhat later, for reasons I won't discuss, his connections with Triablogue were formally severed. That was a team decision. 

iii) If memory serves, Gene used to work at a gay health hotline. If so, I think his background in the gay community is skewering his analysis of the culture wars.

 

[JW begins quoting from Gene:]

8:30 How can you continue voting Republican when the GOP's economics are keeping wages low and flat for the people who are the most likely to access abortion services? 

i) Many of us continue voting Republican because the alternative is far worse.

ii) I don't know what Gene has in mind. In general, the economy has rebounded under Trump. Is Gene alluding to the $15 minimum wage? If so, that's hastened automation, pushing low-skill employees out of the workplace. So that backfired. What, exactly, is the GOP supposed to do for people who lack marketable job skills? Who's responsibility is that? There was a debate between Tucker Carlson and his critics on that issue. 

9:50 Alabama is a case study in this phenomena. And now their law seeks to imprison physicians who do this which is tantamount to stoning them. 

Stoning is a mode of execution. Imprisonment isn't tantamount to execution. 

You know full well that stoning is the option of last resort in Scripture. 

No, it's not a last resort. Some OT crimes were capital offenses and some were not. 

Georgia's law does the same thing to women. 

Is he claiming that the Georgia law seeks to imprison mothers who seek abortions?

On top of that, the motive behind these laws is outright litigiousness, which is condemned in 1 Corinthians and 2 Timothy. 

The motive is to deter the murder of babies. 

11:40 Their [Republican] motives are about holding on to power, position, and prestige. 

i) Unless Gene is an anarchist, that motivates politicians in general. 

ii) In any event, I really don't care what their motives are so long as they pass good laws or repeal bad laws. Why should we sacrifice the well-being of babies to their allegedly sullied motives? 

12:20 Aren't we supposed to resist the third temptation of Christ and litigiousness? Why are we saving the babies by ignoring other sections of Scripture? We have got to stop falling in line with GOP on abortion when these things go along with the legislation they pass. 

i) Is saving babies analogous to a devil's pact in which the Prince of Darkness bribes us with all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for abortion bans? If that's a Faustian bargain, then Mephistopheles has lost his touch. 

ii) We're not Jesus. The Devil was striving to divert Jesus from becoming the Redeemer. Where's the analogy to Christians who use the GOP as a vehicle to save babies? 

13:35 Why not find common ground with anti-abortion Democrats?

i) Anti-abortion Democrats are virtually extinct. Is Gene proposing a seance with the dead anti-abortion Democrats of yore?

ii) BTW, why is it verboten to find common ground with Republicans but not with Democrats? It's not as if Democrats are exempt from "holding on to power, position, and prestige"

14:00 Scripture prohibits divorce as an ideal, and on the other hand regulates it by way of concessions in the moral law. Scripture also sets a similar pattern with respect to providing for indentured servitude in order to prevent chattel slavery in ANE Israel. Scripture also shows us that it is not illicit to reduce the number of moral evils as crimes associated with the death penalty… That said, it is not generally a crime in a civil code. In order to end abortion we shouldn't set the bar there while failing to regulate abortion. Regulatory practices are actually on the right track in this regard. We should take the good and leave the bad.

That seems to be an oblique swipe at Abolish Human Abortion. If so, I agree with him. 

14:30 Abortion in general is murder when the motives that underwrite it are invidious, rising to the level of murder if someone aborts a child. For example, if he/she values money over carrying the child full-term, then that is in God's eyes is murder. If, however, the child will be born with an uber severe deformity like the cranium outside the muscular, then there is no murder if the motive of the parent choosing that pregnancy is for example to love the child enough to send the child to the Lord. 

i) Is murder reducible to the killer's perception of the victim? If, during the construction of the transcontinental railroad, a white guy killed a Chinese worker because he thought Chinamen were inferior or subhuman, would there be no murder? Is it just in the eyes of the beholder, or is there something objective about the nature of the victim that makes it murder? 

ii) How is citing the most extreme cases of fetal abnormality the least bit relevant to abortion in general? 

Abortion should be extremely rare at the same time safe. 

Why should wrongdoing be safe? Should we pass laws making the world safe for muggers and house-burglars? 

17:00 Physicians, physician assistants, nurse practioners, and RNs with specialist training should be authorized to carry out these procedures. 

i) "Procedure?" When the Khmer Rouge shot civilians in the back of the head, was that a "procedure"?

ii) Why should medical professionals be authorized to kill babies? 

The candidate for the procedure should be treated with kindness and respect by everyone involved. Calling women who get abortions "murderers" as well as those who perform them is not Christ-like. 

How much of this is driven by sentiment about women? Suppose we momentarily switch from abortion to pederasty. If a grown man molests little boys, should he be treated with kindness and respect by all? Is calling him a pederast, pedophile, or child rapist unChrist-like?

18:45 So this only serves to put unconstructive roadblocks up between ourselves and people who need Christ. Classifying physicians who perform abortions as felons worthy of 10 years' life is not constructive either. 

It's constructive in saving innocent life. Gene suffers from inverted moral priorities. Sometimes you have to choose between helping one person or helping another. Maybe the sniper in the clock tower needs Christian counseling. Shooting him sets up a roadblock between the sniper and his need for Jesus. 

But in the meantime, what about the pedestrians he's gunning down? If it's a choice between protecting them and protecting the sniper, what gives? Surely the answer should be obvious. 

If an abortion is performed, should be in the first trimester. Make third trimester abortions go away. Second trimester abortions are to be evaluated medically on an ad hoc basis.

How are those makeshift distinctions morally relevant? Subdividing gestation into thirds doesn't reflect natural phases or transitions. 

19:30 Comprehensive sex education with a Judeo-Christian moral component whenever possible is to be preferred over abstinence-only education.

How is teaching premarital sex, promiscuity, homosexuality, &c. preferable to abstinence-only education? 

20:00 Stop running to the courts to fix this for you. 

Why? If we use the courts to save innocent lives, what's wrong with that recourse? 

20:25 The passage of anti-abortion legislation to test the courts displays a spirit of litigiousness that does not honor God. 

The highest purpose of the law is to protect innocent life. That honors the giver of life. 

Stop cursing Ruth Bader Ginsburg as well. That is conduct unbecoming of Christians. 

I don't know what that means. Does he mean saying she's a bad person? Does he mean hoping that she will retire? If so, how is that unbecoming of Christians? Consider how Rev 17-18 exults in the downfall of Babylon. Is Revelation unchristian? 

The enemy curses, we bless. Curse Satan and the Beast, not SCOTUS justices. That applies to all parties in this societal discussion. 

Human agents can be diabolical. Indeed, the Beast and the false prophet (Rev 13) represent diabolical human agents of the state. 

20:50 [JW quickly skimming over Gene's words now:] Health and mother...homicide...pray for unity...make adoption less burdensome. It should cost you ten thousand more times to abort a baby than to adopt a baby. 

Democrats want to outlaw Christian adoption. 

21:15 Your continued insistence that what is culturally and ideologically conservative in the US is also biblical is a betrayal of biblical values. 

That's directed at James White. The allegation is too vague to respond to. 

23:50 Your attitude towards gays is also showing. On the one hand, you say correctly that if we want Muslims to become Christians we should love them as much as Christ does. And yet you use epithets online, calling our Democrats for their pink sequined shoes. 

It's true that White may be inconsistent in that regard. 

26:30 Instead of infantalizing the Christians who refuse to bake the cake for the gay couple, we should call them out for their legalism and encourage them to bake the cake with an underriding motive to love them and meet them where they are, with respect for them, and in order to shine the light of the gospel into their lives as we should.

27:40 The Bible forbids gay marriage. 

28:00 Yet it also forbids us from failing to love and serve our neighbors.

29:20 And it also teaches us that if there is no evil motive behind an action, there is no sin. Baking a cake is not a sin, and not endorsing gay marriage unless that is the motive of the baker. 

i) Gene "infantilizes" abortionists: "Calling those who perform abortions murderers is not Christ-like."

ii) Neighbor-love includes fellow Christians, as well as babies, children, teenagers, the elderly, the developmentally disabled. And once again, the wellbeing of the innocent takes precedence over the wellbeing of the perpetrators. The secular progressive agenda is a threat to multitudes. 

iii) Forcing Christian businesses to celebrate homosexuality is directly analogous to demanding that 1C Christians to practice emperor worship. Or demanding that Middle Eastern Christians profess Islam. Coercive idolatry. Lying behind these gestures is submission to the Devil. The progressive agenda is a front organization for Satan. Making everyone say evil is good. Making everyone praise evil. Just like requiring Christians to participate in the Roman imperial cult. 

iv) Suppose we paraphrase Gene's argument: Instead of infantilizing Christians who refuse to bake a cake for Satanists, we should call them out for their legalism and encourage them to bake a cake with a Satanic message, so long as they mean well. We should encourage them to attend a Black Mass, curse Jesus, and publicly worship Satan, to meet Satanists where they are, using Satanism as a bridge to Christ. 

Should we oppose transgenderism? Yes. At the same time, if you cannot be bothered to address them as they present themselves, then you don't love them the way you say Muslims should be loved. 

Again, that's directed at White. It's a clever point. If, as White would have it, we should accept what Muslims say about themselves, taking them at their word, should we not do the same for transgender men and women? However, for those of us to disagree with White, the double standard is reversible.