Culture Friday: Worship of death

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday, August 29th. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. It’s Culture Friday and John Stonestreet joins us. He’s president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint Podcast. Good morning, John!

JOHN STONESTREET: Good morning.

EICHER:  John, on Wednesday morning in Minneapolis, a gunman opened fire during Mass at Annunciation Catholic School. Sadly, tragically, two children were killed, and eighteen others were wounded, most of whom were students. We have to bear in mind that, whether injured or not, those who were present are likely scarred for life.

Authorities report that the shooter, a 23-year-old male who identified as a transgender woman, left behind a video manifesto filled with anti-Catholic rage, anti-Semitism, hatred for the president. No significant criminal record, but clear signs of mental instability. He’d steeped himself in violence and gender ideology.

What stands out now is the way this tragedy is being portrayed in the media across the country and what it reveals about a deeper detachment from truth and reality. The way the media frame stories like this significantly influences public perception, and can shape worldview. What are you observing at this early stage?

STONESTREET: The media coverage here is very different on a couple levels. The Nashville shooting, it was like there was no information to be had about who the shooter was, what the shooter’s motivation was, that the shooter was very anti-religious, and also identified as a transgender, born a woman identifying a man. And so almost immediately, way, way, way more was known about Robin Westman than was ever known about the shooter in Nashville.

Interesting also was the willingness of at least a handful more media outlets to identify the shooter as trans, whereas there were plenty of progressive outlets still using pronouns and still downplaying that fact. Others seemed to suggest that it was important to notice these things, because it suggested, first of all, the fact that this isn’t the only time that this has happened. It’s probably too early to call it a trend, but there certainly is a level of anger and violence by some in the transgender community, and that was not only illustrated by the actions, but by some of the images that came out of the videos.

This shooter wrote on weapons and ammunition things like “6 million were not enough,” statements of anti-Semitism, statements against Donald Trump, statements against God and religion, and certainly a worship and love of death. But you know, at the end of the day, we have been told now by so many people, including many of these same media outlets that are still willing to use pronouns and call a man a woman, as in this case, that this is not a mental illness, but actually is someone being his or her own true self.

And that has obviously never been the case, but it’s also never been more obvious that it’s not the case. To detach from reality on something so obvious and then pretend like that won’t have any sort of comorbidity or connection to other mental illness or to anger or another way to disconnect from reality, it was always nonsensical. Now we have another example of people who paid the price.

It’s also interesting, and I think it needs to be said, that disconnecting from reality and disconnecting from God are directly related. Romans 1 says this in very clear terms, and we see it in reality at a time like this—not to mention that that then is accompanied by things like violence and irrational hatred to children who are praying in a mass.

EICHER: The mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, has had more than his share of national attention — first during the George Floyd crisis, and now this. Maybe emotion got the better of him, but something he said after the shooting struck a chord in certain corners of the media. Here’s what lit the match:

FREY: These were Minneapolis families. These were American families, and the amount of pain that they are suffering right now is extraordinary. Don't just say this is about “thoughts and prayers” right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.

Former White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki — now hosting on MSNBC— she had the mayor on her show. Psaki loved the positioning.

PSAKI: We're sort of grateful to you for saying it stopped tweeting things like “thoughts and prayers,” which I felt the same way.

Anchor Ali Velshi then brought in one of the most liberal members of Congress, Maxwell Frost of Florida, to double-down even harder — though at least he censored himself in the retelling.

VELSHI: You expressed a sentiment very far from “thoughts and prayers.” You said these children were probably praying when they were shot to death at Catholic school. Don't give us your effing “thoughts and prayers.” You, like my friend Jen Psaki, have had it with the “thoughts and prayers.”

FROST: Yeah, man, thanks for having me on we've had it with the “thoughts and prayers” for years, for decades.

So, John, we hear it again: “thoughts and prayers aren’t enough.” That’s become almost the default refrain after tragedies like this. How do you respond?

STONESTREET: Well, I mean, think of the irony of that statement: “Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough, but gun laws are.” I mean, look, gun laws have proven not to be enough. We know that because Minneapolis is one of the most heavily regulated cities when it comes to gun ownership in America, and it didn’t stop this.

We shouldn’t expect God to act on our behalf, but we should expect politicians to be able to fix this problem. I mean, listen, if that’s not the political illusion, I don’t know what is. None of that makes any sense, and all of it is a way of just ignoring what is obviously in front of us, and that is young people in America are not okay, especially young men. And not always exclusively young men, but especially young men like in this case.

We’ve known this for a long time. We’ve known this in terms of educational outcomes. We’ve known this in terms of motivation. We’ve known this in terms of people just detaching from the reality of who they are—not to mention the reality of morality, not to mention hating other people, not to mention obvious comorbidities when it comes to mental illnesses and other kinds of psychological breaks. I mean, all of this is like right out in front of us, right? It’s just clear.

The fact that there was a much higher percentage of gun ownership in the past and much lower rates of these kinds of mass incidents. In other words, the problem is us. The problem is the kind of people that we are cultivating. And if you see someone with such a definitive break from reality, like someone who struggles with who they are even though their body is telling them clearly who they are, we ought not be too surprised that there are going to be other breaks of reality.

I’m not saying that all trans people are murderers. It doesn’t always happen that way. But there is a clear and obvious break from reality, so we shouldn’t be surprised when other things happen. But it’s such selective outrage on behalf of the Minneapolis mayor and others to say that this is somehow the fault of those who want to pray at a time like this. I mean, what a silly thing to say.

BROWN: John, I did get to view your Truth Rising documentary we talked about a couple of weeks ago. It’ll be released a week from today. So timely. Because the one thing that absolutely jumps out at me—in light of this horrible story in Minneapolis—is the journey of Chloe Cole.

Here’s a young girl swept up in transgender ideology, pushed into hormones and even surgery before she was old enough to drive.

What her story shows … and it’s told so well in the documentary … is the deep pain and despair that come with believing a lie … and then the hope she found when Christians loved her and pointed her to Christ. How does her journey help us understand what’s really at stake here?

STONESTREET: I think that’s such an interesting context for us, having just told that story of Chloe in the Truth Rising film. And here’s someone who was likewise deceived, who believed one of the most destructive ideas of our lifetimes, and then had the courage to say, “I was wrong.” Had the courage to say that truth does not lie with some sort of inner knowledge that I have that’s disconnected from the real world.

And then she came to that truth about herself, and that truth about herself ultimately pointed her to God, who is the source of truth. And so she has this epic line in our film: “It is not my truth or your truth. Jesus is the truth.” And that’s something more true. That’s something deeper than she would have said when she started her activism against the ideology that led to her losing two healthy breasts and made her a perpetual patient under the care of these doctors.

How different is that and the peace that she now exhibits and has found versus the torture that not only Robin Westman clearly felt but also then inflicted on others. And it just demonstrates to me both that a detachment from God is a detachment from reality, and once you detach from reality, you further detach from reality.

But also that redemption is possible and that renewal is possible, and that reattachment to what is true, particularly what’s true about who we are, is also possible. And that’s the task of the church. I mean, clearly our political officials are going to completely lose perspective on this and whatever pet cause they want to endorse and miss the real crisis that has overwhelmed young people today.

So who has the answer? Who can point to what’s true? Who can help people reattach to what is true about who they are? This is the task of God’s people right now. I mean, if George Orwell said, which I think he did, in Age of Deception, “Telling the truth is a revolutionary act,” Christians are to be revolutionaries in this sense. And not just some of us—all of us.

Because people rubbed shoulders with Robin Westman prior to this decision, and we don’t know who the next one is going to be. God forbid there are any more. But what is our task? To tell the truth to those who have been deceived. We’ve been told it’s intolerant. We’ve been told to do that is hateful. But then stories like this happen, you realize no—to do that is good, to do that is kind, to do that is loving, to do that is gracious, to do that is the calling of God’s people today.

BROWN: John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast, thanks, John.

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

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