R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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As I listened to the speaker, I sought a theological analogue for the character I heard. I think I’ve found it.
Based on the quality of +/- I encountered, I see the speaker as the political equivalent of the Arminian Baptist who finally “sees the light,” and becomes one of the most doctrinaire 5-pointers you ever met. But he’s not done traveling yet. The speaker is a political FederalVisionist. He got clarity on the Left’s missing “moral vision,” which has led him to an embrace of the necessity for the Right to “recapture the institutions.” I think he repeated more hysterical Right-wing tropes in the first 15 minutes than I heard from various political candidates running for office in 2004.
I realize that being the entertainer he is, he pulled them all out for his HF audience. Still, it was incredibly over-the-top. And some of the stuff is so dated now, after nearly a decade. The Right has furtively swept a lot of those indefensible claims down the memory hole. Hard to believe anyone (even then!) could whitewash AbuGhraib. That’s amazing.
Just like the paedocommunionist is the flip-side of the Baptist mind, the speaker is the flip-side of the secular-liberal mind. Just like so many Baptist-converts to paedobaptism–whose new commitment is not the conclusion of adopting a new (covenant) hermenutic–finally get consistent with their (largely unchanged) hermeneutic, and slide out of their Reformed halfway house on the way to quasi- or full blown sacramentalism. This dude has every quirk of the “The Righteous Mind” http://www.amazon.com/The-Righteous-Mind-Politics-Religion/dp/0307377903
I agree that we are past a tipping point. The Titanic is nearly vertical. Our speaker has a bullhorn, and is hollering for everyone to run to starboard, because the ship is about to capsize.
Ah… no, dude. True and false; true in the sense you know that people with a fundamentally skewed vision of reality have been at the helm for way too long; false in the sense that you’re begging blind-hubris to grab the wheel.
He should do a lot more reading before he goes on the speaker’s circuit. That’s the way I see it.
Amen, Mark. Thanks for your comments! Very well expressed. It really can be difficult feeling alone in a church when nobody seems to care about truth enough to separate it from falsehood.
The video is interesting, am partly thru it but will come back.
I have not insight or clever remarks. I just thought he was finny.
Fascinating.
Am I correct to assume he’s been kicked out of Hollyweird by now (?)
I didn’t expect to sit through this video but I found his comments on the “indiscriminate” mind very informing. It sheds light on a lot of the backwards things going on in our country.
Yet I was thinking about this “indiscriminate” mind and how it impacts churches today. When it comes to doctrine, I am amazed at how often people take an “indiscriminate” approach to error. Often false doctrine is seen as “just different”. I have been personally wrestling with Reformed views on baptism and eschatology. In trying to work through these things I had a conversation with a friend about them and after laying out some of the arguments for the Reformed position on eschatology his response was: “Can’t they both be right?” Now my friend is not a relativist, yet this illustrates the discomfort in evangelical circles to take a stand and discriminate between truth and error. One of the things that I have come to appreciate from reading your blog and others of your tradition is your willingness to stand and defend your positions. I am personally tired of watered-down, minimalistic approaches to doctrine that is so prevalent in our churches today. If you believe in a particular view of baptism, then defend it and stand on it. Don’t treat it as a non-issue and move on. My limited knowledge of church history has made it clear that it is not a non-issue.
Due to the “indiscriminate” mind towards doctrine, churches are now uniting together with other churches of different theological backgrounds. There are two instances in my location, of churches getting together do help the community, tell people about Christ, and Pastors getting together to pray. Now, I’m sure that there are some instances in which this is ok. Yet, these actions are presented as if these churches are no different than us. We all are united on the gospel they say, yet are not other doctrines important? Do I want churches that have a different view on baptism, spiritual gifts, or ecclesiology influencing my people if I believe them to be in error? It just seems backwards to me, and I wonder if it is due to our unwillingness to discriminate.
Ding, ding, ding!