Discussing reality is an arms race. Christians should win it

This is a larger follow-up to my previous article about trying not to be offended as a Christian. This one will discuss the bigger picture of why right now is a bad time to be sensitive, ignorant, or judgmental, and how pop culture is a tool in the arsenal of a mature believer.

Reality is The Only Topic

Have you noticed that all anyone talks about anymore is reality?

Twenty years ago, “reality TV” was becoming a sensation. For about two generations prior, people wanted to see carefully-crafted dramas with lessons and themes on TV, but now they were intrigued by a raw, chaotic, unpolished look at weird little people living weird little lives—or at least poorly-paid people having genuine reactions to weird situations. Some of these setups resembled game-shows, but some of them were more like character studies or social experiments. Even terrible Reality TV became popular, because people just liked to have their guilty pleasure of making predictions about the meaningless drama. Before that, in the mid-1990s, a very similar thing was happening with professional wrestling, which had become much less of a “sport” and much more of a soap opera marketed as high-energy live performance art.

I remember the shift. Newspapers, magazines, and radio had been the place for gossip, topical discussion, and controversies, while the Internet was a clunky thing for nerds. We used it to talk about dumb things there, blogging our personal lives, sharing our nerdy interests, or playing video games with each other. Nobody took it seriously, and that’s what made it great. Then the iPhone was invented, and the 2010s rolled around, and the “normies” flooded into shared public spaces with nothing interesting to say. Naturally, they gravitated to whatever the news was talking about. Every waking hour became an opportunity to pick a side, make predictions, and invest in drama again, only on a bigger scale than ever. Experts tried to wrangle the cacophony, and failed. And then there was podcasts. They slowly transformed from a relaxing, radio-like conversation that we listened to on our way to work, to being The Big Important Immediate Conversation About Everything Right Now, which cut through the endless chatter of social media and allowed “important” people to talk about “important” things for hours without interruption (except the frequent ad breaks for boner pills and gambling).

Yes this is a metaphor for Christianity racing against the Aquarian Conspiracy.

And I did expect this to happen. I knew that my generation, the Millennials, were always destined to interrogate reality with increasing awareness, sharing our findings and cross-examining claims, until we had cracked the code of how things actually work. Mainstream media tried to ignore us, mock us, censor us, cancel us, and turn our entire economy upside down in order to marginalize our voices, but the conversation never stopped. We got jobs, became parents, and had to live in the real world, which only raised the stakes for us. Reality has become the only topic that matters anymore. Those who foster this discussion are drawing in audiences unthinkable ten years ago. And in my own experience, nobody younger than 40 cares about fiction the way people used to. It’s the old people who still wish things were clean and simple and fake.

But of course, what is fake? Is it fiction? Can fiction be more real than what you see on the street? Can a story be more true than a personal experience? Is one day in real life more real than a lifetime we find in a tale? What is reality (lowercase), and what is Reality (uppercase)?

Should We Love Reality?

I received more comments than usual in my last article, and I suspect it’s because I did a bad job of explaining my view. There’s a particular series of comments from a user who challenged my argument, which I appreciate. I think her remarks provide a good basis for fleshing out what I was trying to say, but didn’t quite.

Second: "Love reality"? Really? Are you sure you want to go with that Subtitle? How do you get THAT out of the Bible?

This is pretty straightforward to me. But I see now why it sounded strange.

Reality is the Truth. If you don’t love Reality, you don’t love the Truth. There is no way to love the Truth but hate Reality, because the two cannot be separated. The way things are — that’s all there is. This is it! What we’re experiencing right now is not only God’s Creation, but the culmination of all the important things that came before. Today, with me and you and the people around us, with the problems we’re faced with: this is the current sum of the Universe, and we have the opportunity to experience it for a few moments until we die. We matter enough to be shown it, and God is using it to teach us something, and we are supposed to teach each other what we learn from it. Moses and Solomon and Julius Caesar are nowhere to be found, these days. I think we would be wise to take Reality—which we could also call The Right Now, All Things Considered—as the greatest Reality TV show ever devised. I enjoy it.

We know that Jesus Christ is the Truth. He created all things, and all things are made for him. Therefore, Reality itself is in service to him, when correctly interpreted. His message permeates and frames the entire collective human experience, from Adam to us. That means that we, as Christians, have the best possible insight necessary to see the Truth everywhere, including in the parts that are ugly. But that’s good. Ugliness is what God wants us to see, along with beauty and hope and the vanity of temporary things. We love the Reality, not because we endorse of event that happens, but because it is all necessary:

(Romans 8:28) And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.

ALL THINGS, he says — REALITY. Not just the nice things, but the evil things, too. Sin, fear, struggle, tragedy, confusion, it is all paint on God’s canvas. He is creating a masterpiece, and we are meant to testify about it. We should love God’s work, and we should recognize that He works all things. If you believe the Bible, you believe that.

(John 9:1-3) His disciples asked, 'Rabbi, who is it that sinned, this man or his parents, so that he was born blind?' But Jesus answered, 'It was not this man who sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.'

So it is neither justice or injustice, but simple poetic necessity, which bends Reality and gives rise to the condition. God knows ahead of time how suffering will play its role in His grand story, and it is not an accident. God is doing things constantly around us to prove His point, and to further His plans, and to teach all those who love Reality (which is the Truth, or perhaps we should say God’s Truth) a little more at a time about what matters, and what to do about it.

But we are not only supposed to witness Reality, we’re supposed to prepare for it. To do so requires us to love it as well. Because as Jesus explains, the conclusion is already part of the premise; the outcome is already part of the offer. To be a Christian in this world means to hate everyone and embrace death:

(Luke 14:28-30) "Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life!—he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’"

I’m sorry, but how can we possibly hate our father and mother, our wife and children, our brothers and sisters, and even our own life? And why would this be required to follow Jesus? To somebody who hates Reality, it seems outrageous.

But as Jesus says, this is because we must count the cost first. We must understand the price and not shy away from it. It’s a good price! It’s a fantastic deal! We should have no cognitive dissonance about it. We should see the outcome ahead of time, and love it, not hate it. Otherwise, we are like a fool who starts to build something important, but never bothered to think it through and build up the resources necessary. Those who love the project will collect as much as necessary, and build it gladly!

Look again. Does Jesus say that we should hate death, or our own life? Does he say that we should hate the cross, which represents painful, unjust, public execution? Does he say we should hate him for giving us this morbid burden? Not at all! Rather, these things are good for us. We must not only face the Reality of opposition and persecution, but embrace it as part of our project; that is the cost he is referring to. Or do you think we are meant to hate the metaphorical tower that we are building? Do you think we are supposed to resent Jesus and the Gospel because it makes us the enemy of the world? No, I love the price, and I will work to build the tower as best I can, until completion. To me, a “good thought” is not one that avoids the truth because it is unhappy (to the former self) but one that reminds me of the truth.

(Matthew 18:7) “Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! It is necessary that stumbling blocks come, but woe to the person through whom they come.”

Yes, it is “necessary” for stumbling blocks to come, in a cosmic, divine sense. And yet there is “woe” to those who produce them. They are playing a role that ends badly. Reality includes stumbling blocks. I don’t have to love the stumbling block itself, insofar as it creates problems, but I do have to embrace the Reality which, by divine necessity, includes the stumbling block as part of the much bigger story.

Where to find Reality

Third: Hollywood is not reality. Watching The Sopranos and Berserk is not "wading into a sinful world and discovering what God wants to do with it."

Let’s say I go to a political rally. I’ve decided that it’s time to get offline and make a difference in the “real world”. With some luck, I even get to meet the politician. We shake hands, and I tell her my concerns, and she tells me she’s going to fix that problem. We smile and I notice her perfume, and somebody takes a picture that might end up somewhere. Then our time is up, and the next person gets to say a few words to her. In an hour or two I end up back home, and I tell myself that I had a real experience with a real person in the real world, which really mattered, because it will lead to real results that affect reality. The only problem is, it’s all bullshit.

As Tony Soprano would say, “Bullshit.”

Let’s say I go to the local food bank and volunteer. I sort through the crates of donations, meet people, and by the day’s end I’ve helped hundreds of pounds of food and household items go to people who say they need it. I tell myself that these are desperate people who have fallen on hard times, and that the donations are a vital lifeline. Every toothbrush and jug of milk is going to be cherished by somebody who just needs a helping hand. Problem is, this is bullshit too. (Food banks and charities are serving the needs of scammers and thieves more than the needy.)

Walk under the bridges and in the alleys where the homeless live. Talk to them.

Every conversation I’ve had with a homeless person was pure bullshit. Mid-conversation I notice that they’re wearing luxury items under their stained clothes. When they talk about addiction, I do some mental math about how much money they must have spent on very expensive drugs and alcohol. When I ask about their backstory, they lie about everything, very poorly. Around where I live they are so comfortable with scamming ignorant do-gooder Christians that they instinctively adapt their story to include some bullshit about how they lost their job because they were being too Christian at their totally real job, which they only recently lost but can’t exactly describe, and how the system really just persecutes good Christians like them! The funny thing is, I didn’t even have to bring up religion! They always bring it up first, because they can tell just from looking at me that I must be one. Like any con artist, they size up a potential “mark”.

Get the SH*T scared out of you when an actual demon talks back to you.

The very fact that you got the shit scared out of you by a demonic-sounding voice may indicate that you have some more maturing to do as a Christian. Assuming this is a real experience you had, did the demon know you by name? Did they prove their demonic insight into the hidden world of spirits? Did you test the spirit (1 John 4:1)? Or was it a guy whose vocal chords were messed up from abusing so many substances? And even if it was some unclean spirit, demons are not scary; homeless people are not scary; death is not scary. God is scary. Demons are scared of God; and they’re scared of Christians who have the Holy Spirit. Evil is normal and weak. God is terrifying and unstoppable. You are on the side of the terrifying and unstoppable force, and they are on the weak and normal force.

Get deeply sad when you realize how broken these people are, how much evil there is in this world that got these people to this place.

The “broken people” I’ve met (and I’ll be the first to admit, that’s not a lot) have all quit a decent life in order to exploit an overly-generous system—and naive Christians especially. My approach begins with open-mindedness, sympathy, and understanding, of course, but things start to go south because I’m not willing to simply lump all suffering people together into a “victim” category and take them at their word. There are people who suffer because they choose to suffer, and then there are true victims of misfortune who would recover if they had the chance.

I’ve met people who planned to be homeless, because they knew some good spots where dumb Christians gave them money consistently, or a church they could take advantage of, which enabled their drug habit quite effectively. The number one thing they all specialize in (in my experience) is telling Christians what they want to hear, and pretending to be oh-so-close to a religious experience which might just turn their whole life around like a Disney movie! Maybe just a few more dollars first though, right? Eat first, pray later! Navigating Christian rhetoric seems to be the number one skill they develop (although from my observation they’re still very bad at it, which tells you about their other skills). People understand how to scam, steal, beg, and deceive to get by in our society, and it’s not a virtue to empower it. If I were actually wealthy, or able to give people jobs, opportunities, etc. I’d like to get creative with trying to solve some deeper issues like that, but what you’ve suggested—meandering into rough areas and taking a poverty tour—sounds more self-serving than practical.

Then find out that when you get home, you don't want to turn on the Sopranos or Berserk and fill your mind with more evil crap, but that all you want to do is pray and read your Bible, and talk to people who are already helping the homeless so you can too.

Well, I read my Bible regardless of anything else because I love the Word of God, so I don’t know why I would need to get spooked in an alleyway to appreciate it. And those who pretend to only read their Bible are lying anyway. You watch YouTube or TikTok or Instagram, and you’re on Substack right now, which is a website full of non-Bible stuff. I feel that I’m one of a relatively tiny fraction of writers here who devote entire articles to biblical study. Most of what’s on Substack is gossip and clickbait, less worthwhile than an episode of The Sopranos, which I will repeat is a masterpiece of literary fiction and deals with many relevant social problems, themes, and dynamics.

Least of Any Christian

And as for talking to people who have volunteered to help the homeless, or who have taught in Sunday School for many years, or who have volunteered to help the autistic, I have often done that, too, because they’re my family and friends. But do you know what always ends up happening? Every single time I talk to them about any of that stuff, the exact same thing happens: I end up commiserating with them, helping them to recognize, and acknowledge, and then process the endless pent up bullshit they have to deal with in this world, as they try to be a good person. Somehow, I become an oasis of sanity in their life. Me! The guy who doesn’t volunteer at shelters or roam around under random bridges trying to get a little adrenaline going (because of how boring my life is as a working class suburbanite)! Isn’t that crazy?

Why is it that every person who gets to know me eventually uses me as their reprieve from (what I have long come to recognize as) a malaise of pent-up existential frustration? Why do people end up pouring out their hearts to me—the least of any Christian—only to later admit that they’ve been walking around with black sludge in their psyche for weeks? What do you suppose it is, which sets me apart from the dozens of other “good Christians” they talk to every day? Why do they feel like everyone around them has their head buried in the sand, and that I’m a lifeline to Reality? You’d be amazed how many people have apologized to me for “dumping” their secrets on me, trusting me with things that they never thought they would admit out loud, or coming to a realization that they’ve been fighting with for years. Those are pretty meaningful moments to me, and to them.

Do you suppose it could have anything to do with my relationship to Reality?

For a long time I felt like this was some kind of running joke that everyone knew besides me. Because even from the time I was a teenager it would keep happening, and I couldn’t believe that there was anything special about me that would make people feel so comfortable being honest. Yes I do love people, and I listen, and I care about their problems, and I am not afraid to delve into the dark corners of life, but shouldn’t that be normal for Christians? These people have pastors, youth leaders, siblings, social networks, and coworkers who identify as Christian, but yet they all censor themselves around each other and can’t have honest dialogue!

And again, why do you suppose I would be the target of relatively frequent conspiracies in my very tiny little life than literally anyone else I know? Why do total strangers end up aligning against me to spread lies about me, tamper with my personal property, or even threaten me to my face, when I don’t even know their names and have never done them wrong? I’ve had to get restraining orders on people that I’ve only known in passing. And that idea was not my own, since I never considered reporting their threats to the police, but recommended to me by authorities. Would you be surprised if I told you that these people always and without exception were deeply miserable liars who were trying to run scams? Even though I did not go against them (I generally try to stay out of things) they recognized me from a mile away as a threat and began to plot how to get me out of the picture. I won’t go into detail, but when I do tell people some of these stories they can’t help but laugh, because it sounds like I’m dealing with crazy people all over. But they’re not crazy, and they don’t do that to others. There’s something about me that irks them irrationally, just as there is something about those who love the truth that endears me to them, irrationally.

Do you suppose that could have anything to do with my relationship to Reality?

fill your mind with more evil crap

I think this is evidence of your disinterest in reality (never mind Reality). Because for you to dismiss generationally-influential art as simply “more evil crap” just because it has elements and themes that offend your sensitivities, proves to me how you are not actually interested in knowing the reality of what you’re even talking about. You don’t have to watch anything you don’t like, of course, but the dismissal means that you refuse to consider what redeeming qualities it might have, or even understand why it became a touchstone that inspired a dozen other highly artistic works. You walked under a bridge and got scared! Will that story live on and touch people’s lives? Is it relevant to anything? Stories have been around since the dawn of humanity, and they get passed down and transform lives. Parables are fiction too, you know. Jesus himself was a fiction creator, and some of his tales had not-so-nice elements in them!

The truth is, you must draw out the relevance of everything in reality by how deeply you see the world, not by curating what you’re exposed to. A dismissive attitude and a shallow mind turn the world flat anywhere you go, but somebody who loves the Truth will not be afraid to notice all the nuance, and what’s below the surface, even if it’s uncomfortable. Where does every true story lead, eventually? Where does Reality lead, when you follow it fearlessly? What do people really need to hear, and why do they talk to somebody like me about their deepest struggles, when I apparently consume “evil crap” and they don’t? Why do Christians only try to shine their light in a bright room? Aren’t we supposed to go into darkness and illuminate what’s there?

Intolerance or Irrelevance?

Now let me ask it another way. What is the bigger crisis in society around us today: feeding hungry people, or making sense of reality? We live in a world where the most advanced psychological warfare programs are being waged against us 24/7, with very real and organized military units devoted to destroying fundamental building blocks of logic, objectivity, decency, heterosexuality, gender, and the relationship between parent and child. Evil is called good, and good is called evil, and the arguments about it are mediated by rigged systems. What I see is an epidemic of despair and demoralization born out of a lack of Reality. We are being starved of it. In its place, we are force-fed bullshit from high-level con artists who are propped up by invisible donors. Professional liars. A conspiracy of deception meant to divide and conquer the minds of those who would pose a challenge if they realized where the real fight was taking place. Convincing Christians that they should stick to their own church culture or merely dabble in volunteer work, siloing themselves off from the larger culture, insulating themselves from anything relevant — that’s a psyop.

The world is begging Christians to get real and tell them the truth. Cults, grifts, and genocides are flourishing because too many Christians have blinded themselves.

Fourth: If you're making a case that you should watch those shows and listen to Tool to immerse yourself in reality, […]

I did not say that Tool was immersion into reality. I said it was a harmless and silly thing, not able to threaten a solid faith.

you might as well go to Strip Clubs too! To evangelize! I'm sure that's what God is calling you to do in order to Love Reality!

What I said was, “Christians have license to explore the culture around us fully … even if we refrain from subjecting ourselves to the worst scum simply for the sake of it.” So are you telling the truth about me, or lying? We could actually have an interesting discussion about whether Jesus would step foot into a strip club to find “broken people” as you call them, since he did keep company with actual prostitutes in an area that was known for depravity. He gave them sympathy and warned them. He showed mercy. He was relevant to real people in the real world because he was not afraid of facing the dark parts of life. He was the light in that darkness.

As I have drawn closer to Him in the last five years through more serious, focused Bible study and prayer, I find that I have less and less tolerance for the world's entertainment. Movies and music I used to love, I can't listen to anymore. It promotes sin and doesn’t honor God. I keep culling my DVD collection.

You are being overcome by harmless fiction. Paul tells us that even eating meat offered to idols is morally neutral, and that the only reason to avoid it is for the sake of ignorant people who jump to wrong conclusions. Why don’t you try listening to your old favorite music again, but with a spirit of liberty and strength, rather than neurosis and guilt? What do you think Jesus cares about?

(Matthew 15:11) “It is not what is enters the mouth that defiles a man, but what goes forth out of the mouth — this defiles him."

We know that in Israelite law, which was given by God Himself, dietary restrictions were extremely important for hundreds of years. It was cut and dry sin for them to break those laws! But Jesus came by and said that they were too worried about consumption, and not worried enough about production. Listening to your favorite music is not a sin at all. Your DVDs won’t hurt you; in fact, they may lift your spirits and inspire you (on a human level, as art). Be above it. Culture is not a forbidden fruit that should tempt us, as we are prohibited from enjoying a great song or fascinating book. How childish! Being easily offended is a sign of weakness, and it leads to a life of retreat and isolation, rather than conquest and engagement.

Not because a preacher told me to, but because as I’ve learned what God loves and what God hates, I have to stop halfway through watching it because it promotes sin without glorifying God in the process, and I don't think I'm pleasing God by watching it.

God hates when Christians are afraid of nothing. God loves when His followers are immunized against scandal. God hates boring people:

(Matthew 5:13) “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”

God loves enthusiasm and a boldness, and hates mediocrity:

(Revelation 3:15-16) I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!

But please, do not mistake me for saying you must enjoy anything that you aren’t deriving good from. My argument is not that anyone should go out of their way to learn how to appreciate secular art, or desensitize themselves to offensive material, but to make the case for it being perfectly within the license of Christianity, with a potential upside for those who can handle it.

Music: The last public community dance party we went to played “classic rock", and I had to stop dancing and walk away. I was singing every word that had been programmed into me, and I found that I couldn't sing them anymore. I couldn’t sing the lyrics out loud with happiness, surrounded by people that I loved, because they were depraved. The lyrics offended God. The lyrics promoted sin. So I walked away.

I’m assuming you mean that the lyrics were depraved, not the people you loved. Personally, I’ve always hated socials and dancing. I wouldn’t be singing along anyway, but not because it’s sinful or offensive to God. It’s because I think it’s a way to escape from reality, ironically. What I suggest is, if you hear something or watch something you like, appreciate the artistry and think about why it appeals to you aesthetically (the composition, performance, etc.), rather than identifying with the message itself or internalizing it. You might find that there is a lot to appreciate about it, regardless of its “proposition”, if you think of it that way. And there’s no need to be dramatic about something that mundane anyway. We should be less impressionable than that.

I've been a Christian for years, and I'm getting more and more sensitized by the transforming of my mind to God's mind by His word and my conversations with Him. I don't need to put filth and sin in my mind on purpose. I don't have to watch what Hollywood puts out in order to know the true depravity of the evil in this world. You're making a very strange case with this article that is the opposite of my experience in my walk with God.

Again, if we’re using the examples I gave, what you’re call filth and sin is just artistic exploration of deeper subjects that involve filth and sin. From everything you’ve said, it seems you are highly susceptible to letting your imagination get carried away, and to not be able to distinguish between fiction and reality. Good fiction is a window into the human condition, which is valuable. Nothing is as powerful a window into the human condition as the Bible, of course, but it’s still food for thought. Fiction can be educational, teaching us about parts of the world we have no access to. Fiction can make us question our assumptions and be more realistic—yes, fiction reflects on reality, this is obvious—and more in touch with what people from various backgrounds and ideologies live through. Music also a kind of fiction. The band are playing characters, and they’re telling stories, or performing an idea, not reality. Even your most down-home country blues singer is making up tale for the sake of expressing themselves; or rather, playing a part to convey the thing they find interesting enough to write about. Many artists with wholesome messages are privately involved in shocking and sinful things, while many artists who play a violent or sinful character are simply business people with loving families, who abide by the law and have entirely separate identities.

Conclusion

If I haven’t changed your mind, then God bless you anyway. I wish you the best in your walk. I’m not here to judge you at all, and you aren’t here to judge me. We both answer to the same boss, and we probably have different roles.

But I must insist, do not accuse me of crediting the media for my worldview. That would be as stupid as crediting a chicken breast for an athlete’s abilities. The athlete is an athlete because of his discipline, hard work, knowledge, and training, and he may choose to eat a chicken breast if he feels like it because he finds that it has some value for him. He could also not eat it, and choose something else. Likewise, my worldview is built from discipline, hard work, knowledge, and training—although intellectually and spiritually—so that I can choose to watch whatever I want, in order to get value from it. I also eat junk food (in terms of food and intellectually,) because it’s not a big deal. Just because it’s not health food doesn’t mean it’s poison. And to continue the metaphor, the nutrients are digested and the rest is expelled, so-to-speak. A strong system filters the junk and uses the good; a weak system shuts down and develops symptoms quickly.

Anyone who is so immature that they mindlessly absorb any and all the culture they witness is in the lowest state of infantile thought. Then again, I’ve even seen infants exercise some minimal judgment before. It is a travesty how unprepared and emasculated the minds of Christians generally are in this regard. I’m not speaking about the person who left those comments, but the whole church culture. Decency, soberness, gratitude, gentleness, love, and all the other virtues are wonderful to have among a fellowship of Christians. But we are not meant to be ignorant or timid.

(Matthew 10:16) “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be shrewd as serpents and harmless as doves.”

Serpents were (and still are) known for cunning, subtlety, and malice. We are supposed to be wise/shrewd, as they are. We must adopt their level of realism, even though we operate in the opposite direction and fight for a different cause. Do you think that a serpent only daydreams about friendship and communion? Do you think they are scandalized by inappropriate things? They are dangerous creatures, with an urge to kill by ambushing. We are harmless, but we should understand the mindset of a killer. Christians are converted from being unrepentant sinners to avid workers for God, not from participating in the world to being cut off and afraid of it.

And lastly, let me make it clear that simply having a strong mind and a tolerance for controversial ideas will not save anyone, either. (I will talk to the infants here.) Everything I say about appreciating art or having a less sheltered outlook should only be a goal long after conversion, after salvation, after growth, after discipline, after training. I could never recommended to anyone that they subject themselves (or a fellow new Christian) to something offensive as if it would they would derive good from it. That would probably just be a stumbling block, which is not good. And no, I would also not recommend giving steak to an infant that doesn’t have teeth yet, or recommend working with a cutting torch if you don’t know which side the fire comes out of. There are billions of ways that Christians can appreciate Reality, and I’m simply saying that we’re in an arms race to be relevant and powerful in how we discuss it. I want to use all of the tools at our disposal and take no prisoners.

God gave us the law of liberty and a mandate to be relevant. This overrides any tendency for squeamishness, in my opinion. I’ve met fellow servants who are completely comfortable seeing and hearing explicit things in the media—including footage of real-life gore and atrocities, which I personally still avoid—who nevertheless don’t find it interesting for the most part to explore fiction, and prefer to keep their minds in other kinds of research and study. There are people who literally travel around doing conferences, interviews, and have a busy life that precludes them from enjoying much art in their free time. There are people who are blessed with wives, husbands, or families that are always engaged in wholesome activities, community-building, or some kind of positive change. And those people have my respect, as do any Christians who establish a working system for serving the Kingdom of God. But many times, when I do meet these people, I tend to notice a deep sense of relief when they can let their guard down and “be real” with me, an antisocial nerd who keeps to himself, and keeps one eye on the world of art and the other on the things I see in the “real world” (if we can even call it that anymore). Maybe it’s because I see this world as being one big story with a billion little subplots, not much different from fiction.

I’ll leave you with this:

(James 2:12-13) Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom. For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.