Rabble rousing riff raff rarely results in redemption.

Readership: Christians
Theme: A Mini-Series on Church Policy and Sacramental Marriage
Length: 900 words
Reading Time: 4.5 minutes

“I have revealed Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have followed Your word.”

Jesus’ prayer in John 17:6 (NASB)

Sectarian Judgment

St. Paul warned us against sectarianism in 1 Corinthians 3.

Sectarian judgment in the Christian Manosphere has been a monumentous roadblock to the development of further CRP knowledge, as well as ministry and evangelism, ever since the Christian Manosphere broke away from the Secular Manosphere in 2020.†  This issue has recently come to a head again.  We’ve even had some hellfire sermons!

We had a discussion about this (starting here), and I’ve had to place a couple commenters in moderation for making arguments in bad faith / intellectual dishonesty / trolling.

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Fellow blogger and Lutheran Brother Matthew E. Cochran has witnessed the scuffle and has prepared an appropriate exhortation for our “Men’s Red Pill church service”, complete with an audio sermon: Moral Wisdom vs Adding to God’s Law (2023/6/5).  He notes that 500 years ago, Sola Scriptura was employed as a corrective response to the heavy handed Magisterium’s habit of interpreting what Scripture is allowed to say, and to restore the Bible’s proper use as a tool of judgment over traditional errors.  But in the 21st century, Sola Scriptura is now a source of fractal division and is absurdly abused to eschew creeds, traditions, and human reason, and I’ll add mystical faith to the list.  He correctly calls out the widespread foolishness of being trigger happy with canned doctrinal arguments while failing to exercise spiritual discernment. Readers who’ve been disheveled by all the commotion here would greatly benefit from clicking over to Cochran’s place and feeding from his perspicacious revelations for a wisely spent 13 minutes.

Current Divides

The biggest “divides” that I can see right now in the Christian Manosphere are as follows, and roughly in this order. I think these could be extended to describe Christianity in general. (Converged churchianity is not included here.)

  1. The Sola Scriptura camp vs. the Mystical Faith camp.
  2. Moral Absolutists vs. Moral Relativists vs. Moral Discernment / Wisdom.
  3. The Ecclesiastical camp* (those having an allegiance to an established faith tradition) vs. the Independents (those who’ve had a bad experience with organized religion).
  4. The Sex = Marriage camp vs. the Sex ≠ Marriage camp.**
  5. The Headship Authority camp vs. the Peaceful Unity*** camp.

* I think the differences among the various Ecclesiastical camps (denominations, sects, etc.) are not a dividing issue in themselves, but certain doctrinal beliefs tend to sweep hardliners into one of the above camps.  For example, I’ve had the impression that Sola Scriptura Calvinists make up the majority of the Sex ≠ Marriage camp while the Sola Scriptura Mennonites / Mormons subscribe to the Sex = Marriage camp.  Many in the Mystical Faith camp are Independents.  I am interested to know if readers have had these same impressions or any others they may have noticed.

** I believe there are more fundamental differences that have not yet been ascertained, probably something to do with Law vs. Grace.

*** I’ve invented the label Peaceful Unity to describe Derek L. Ramsey’s concept of the ideal Christian marital relationship structure. He has written many posts about what it is NOT in relation to the Authoritative Headship model, and I am putting together a post about what it IS. He is the only person I know who is pushing this model.

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Would the “Real Christians” please stand taller?

Whenever we see comments to the tune of “If you believe X, then you’re not a real Christian”, it would be wise for us to interpret this reaction as a defense of one’s psychological integrity. The true meaning of such a statement is roughly translated as, “If you believe X, then you’re not a duly-qualified member of my own camp that I firmly believe has an indisputable monopoly on God’s salvation. I would rather walk away with my ego intact than to reexamine my own beliefs under the speculum of alternative but well-established Christian interpretations / traditions. And furthermore, I’m so hard-hearted that I’m willing to employ a curse of damnation as a dual strategy to end the discussion immediately and to send you off with a punishment for subjecting me to the implied suggestion that I should do so.” The short version of this would be, “HOW DARE YOU touch my comfort zone!”

This habit of judging who the “real Christians” are, as it is currently used as a deterrent method to stump an ecumenical discussion, is a hump that the Christian Manosphere will have to overcome at some point if we are to move on to bigger things like a “Biblical / Red Pill church” or “Biblical / Red Pill techniques to attain sanctity in marriage”, etc.  Some readers have suggested such things, and TBH, I have the same ideas in mind.

† After the secular RP arm petered out, taking with it the last of the PUAs, it was thereafter replaced by a plethora of Red Pill YouTube channels that spread RP lore across the internet and took it mainstream.  Interestingly enough, its dissolution and rebirth fits the Christian archetype of death and resurrection.  Meanwhile, the Christian RP staggers on like a zombie.

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