Culture Warriors: Form Without Substance

Recently I was poking around on Facebook and encountered someone I knew from a couple of years ago. I've thought about this guy quite often. He grew up in Reformed circles but admitted that he knew very little in the way of doctrine. This came up during a conversation after services in which I tried to engage him a bit on some issues that had come up in the sermon. He didn't have the vocabulary, familiarity with the doctrine... or with the text for that matter.

What did his parents teach him?

Well, he named his children after war heroes from both the Revolutionary War and World War II and now I see that he's certainly taken the time to 'educate' himself in Trumpian dogma and arcana.

Of course Trumpism is little more than bumper-sticker slogans, lies and conspiracy theories which though at times contain an element of truth are often absurd exercises in grandstanding. But as usual most Trump supporters lack the basic knowledge to actually interact with either the conspiracy theory itself or the subject about which it purports to reveal.

I hope by now you feel the burden that I do. This is a sad thing to behold and there's more. This man can espouse Dominionism without really being able to explain what it is, has embraced something close to Quiverfull ideology, is immersed in the GOP-Libertarian-Trump-FOX universe and quite conversant in its verbiage and concepts...

And yet, doesn't know his Bible or the body of doctrines related to the tradition to which he claims affinity.

This is an indictment of him, his parents and certainly the elders of the congregations to which he has belonged.

While his zeal on Facebook may have disproportionately struck me, he is by no means unique. I have encountered many such men.

I will grant that I will also encounter political zealots who also know the doctrine, text etc... While I'm hardly consoled by this, I can at least respect them to a degree.

Interestingly this other variety that I'm citing here, seems to be the province of a slightly younger generation. They're Culture Warriors. They've got the Dominionist form.

But they have no substance.