The Sanity Threshold

… that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life …
[Philippians 2:15-16]

 

How surprising is it that this recent public statement is … not surprising?

Some White colonizers “adopted” Black children. They “civilized” these “savage” children in the “superior” ways of White people, while using them as props in their lifelong pictures of denial, while cutting the biological parents of these children out of the picture of humanity.
[ Ibram X. Kendi ]

Personally attacking and casting aspersions on a white family because they adopted black children from a deeply impoverished country? Just a few years ago, such a statement would have been considered crazy by people on the right and many on the left. Now, not so much.

Sadly, while this comment is not even the worst case of hate and distorted reality, it does reflect the new normal. We’d better get used to it. And some of us need to wake up from being “woke” – so that we can see clearly who the left is, what they believe, what they are doing, and what they will do.

The level of societal darkness, desensitization, and delusion has grown so much that this insanity and the subsequent demonization of good is now commonplace. What is more, mere shoulder shrugs or total paralysis have replaced outrage and decisive action. Even worse, this type of thing is cheered by many—and not just the usual suspects in academia, the media, and among anti-Christians—but in churches all over America.

In sad irony, many who are celebrating this assault on a compassionate, conservative, white woman who claims Christ (Amy Coney Barrett) are themselves compassionate (former) conservative white women who also claim or used to claim Christ. Tragically, this new class of white-woke women are undermining and subverting the truth and the Church as much as anyone else.

• Compassion – discernment = deception + destruction      [see Counterfeits]

The quote in question (a tweet by a chief proponent of deceitful, divisive, and deadly Critical Race Theory) is an example of an all-too-common inversion of reality currently taking place in our world. The more this is accepted, the more it increases the hate, polarization, and destruction in our society—and even in the Church. It also helps explain the upside-down world we live in where love is hate, hate is love, good is evil, and evil is good.

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
 Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
 Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
[ Isaiah 5:20 ]

Of course, this inversion is hardly new. But it is becoming increasingly blatant and overt. Rather than subtly appearing here and there, it is much more out in the open—and increasing in intensity.

Actually, the biggest problem is not that people on the left believe this. That has always been the case. What makes it far worse today is the fact that there are many self-proclaiming Christ-followers who have bought into this mindset (often through “social justice”). And because they have compromised with and conformed to the world and its wisdom, they either cannot or will not stand up to this growing deception. Worse, there are many who now eagerly spread such vitriol, and do so in the name of love, justice, compassion, and even Jesus Christ Himself.

 

WHAT IS YOUR THRESHOLD?

So how much is too much? What is your threshold for error and madness?

• Threshold: the point or level at which something begins or changes; a point of beginning : a minimum requirement for further action

We all have a pain threshold. We all tolerate some pain, and some people are able to tolerate more pain than others. However, at a certain point—when the pain becomes too much, when it crosses our pain threshold—we are then sufficiently motivated to take certain action (e.g., going to the emergency room, or calling a doctor, dentist, counselor, or pastor).

When it comes to the madness going on in our world, we also have a Sanity Threshold. Or, more accurately, some of us do, and some of us used to. It seems many who previously cared a great deal have now become wholly desensitized. As a result, they can no longer detect the flagrant falsehoods in the milieu of madness we find ourselves in today.

Now, it is simply a matter of how many people will fall for and be engulfed in these egregiously false ideas and harmful actions. Or, on the other end, how many will wake up and call it for what it is (e.g., slanderous; hateful; false; evil). And perhaps the single most important deciding factor here is a person’s Sanity Threshold.

In other words, as things get more and more crazy, and the madness grows, there is a point at which some people will say, “Okay, that is too far. That’s way over the line. I was with you up to that point, but now I’m done.” Their Sanity Threshold has been crossed. For some, they will wake up from being “woke” and say, “Wow, that is crazy. I’m out. I can see now what is really going on.”

As of late, this departure from madness and error has been happening more and more. There are even names and official groups for these movements (e.g., “Blexit:” “Lexit;” “leftleave;” “leaving the left;” #WalkAway; etc.). Unfortunately, there are others who will continue to accept and endorse whatever the left says and does, including believing any false accusation and demonization they make of others.

This is how an echo chamber works. And it always produces this kind of groupthink. Therefore, for some, whatever the left does and says, no matter how insane or opposed to reality, it must be true, loving, just, and righteous. And whatever those on the right say and do is, for the most part, wrong, evil, racist, and a lie. What a truly hopeless place to be (cp. 2 Tim 4:3-4; 1 Tim 4:1-2; Is 30:9-11; 2 Thess 2:9-11).

Nevertheless, there is hope. God gave us a mind to think critically, along with an innate Sanity Threshold, as well as an Error Threshold. However, if we neglect our discernment and stop thinking for ourselves, we will likely sear our own conscience, subsequently forfeiting God’s built in life-saving devices. Even worse, if it continues, God will eventually give us over to this darkness and deceit (Rom 1:24, 26, 28; Eph 4:17-19).

 

HOW FAR IS TOO FAR?

So, what is too far for you? At what point do these crazy ideas and actions violate what is sacred in your heart and life? Which of the following would you say are too far and should cause anyone to see the whole picture—to wake up from “woke-ness”?

 

• Embracing Marxism and socialism—the deadliest, most oppressive ideologies known to mankind
• Replacing the gospel with the social gospel (e.g., Jesus came to start a revolution of justice, save the earth, and make the world a better place through social activism)—one of the deadliest theologies known to mankind
• Insisting “Jesus was a socialist!”
• Hating and condemning Christianity and the Bible, even burning Bibles
• Undermining and seeking to destroy the nuclear family
• Minimizing, defending, and celebrating lawlessness
• Ignoring, minimizing, or excusing the sexualization of young children—and then blame-shifting and attacking those who seek to protect them from this evil (recent case in point: the Netflix debacle over the movie Cuties)
• Demanding and celebrating the suppression and elimination of free speech, along with many other freedoms
• Legalizing the killing of unborn babies, including in the third trimester, and even after the baby is born [see the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act]
• Demanding to de-fund and/or abolish the police, all while presenting no rational or logical alternative, as well as minimizing the reality of the destruction that would inevitably result
• Falsely accusing, demonizing, and seeking to destroy the lives of police officers (calling for “Death to the police”; believing ACAB/“All Cops Are Bad”; celebrating police officers being attacked or killed)
• Falsely claiming America is an evil country (even though millions of people attempt to enter the U.S. every year and very few leave)
• Falsely claiming that the United States is a white supremacist country and/or horribly racist, when it is likely the least racist country in the world, and people of every color and ethnicity risk a great deal to come to America
• Judging and demonizing people solely because of the color of their skin—but almost always only those who are “white”
• Condemning all white people as racist, while also declaring that non-white people cannot be racist (in reality, racism exists among all people)
• Openly and aggressively seeking the death of others based solely on their skin color: “Kill Whitey”; “Kill A White On Sight”; “Whiteness is Violence”; “All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide” (that last one comes from Professor George Ciccariello of Drexel University)
• Witnessing every major sports league directly supporting all of the above; while if any individual member disagrees in the slightest, he/she is mocked, vilified, and their career is put in jeopardy
• Observing virtually all of Hollywood, the media, and academia supporting every one of the above; and if any individual member disagrees, then they get the same treatment as in sports
• Minimizing, ignoring, excusing, and blame-shifting all of the above (lawlessness; Marxism/socialism; the heinousness of desiring to kill people over the color of their skin), particularly by those who have the power to prevent and change this (government officials; church leaders; the media; academia; etc.)

All of the above scenarios are real. They are not made up. They are going on right now. Yet often the response is to bypass, distort, or deny the reality of these things. And perhaps the primary response is to blame-shift onto others—usually conservatives—and twist it into some form of false accusation like: “Oh yeah, what about people on the right? They are racist white supremacists who don’t want people to have health insurance, hate immigrants, want to oppress women, and …” The truth is that every falsehood they express only further inverts reality and keeps these individuals in darkness.

So, how much is too much? What is your Sanity Threshold, and if, when, and in what ways has it been crossed?

 

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Here is the reality: There is a growing number of people who are working to subvert Christianity, and many of them are inside the Church. We examine this in greater detail in our recent book Making Sense of The Madness. Ultimately, what it comes down to is that there are only really two sides in this, as Scripture says.

And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”
[ 1 Kings 18:21 ]

To put it bluntly: you need to pick one side or the other, if you haven’t already. I pray it is the side of the truth – with the God of truth, according to His Word of truth.

Also, examine your own heart (2 Cor 13:5; Matt 7:3-5) and look for ways you can grow in the truth, and in truth-based love. Pray for people like Ibram X. Kendi, and those who falsely accuse you or attack you and your dearly held beliefs (Matt 5:10-12; 43-48). Ask that God would soften and shine light into their hearts, and, ultimately, bring them into the light (e.g., 1 Jn 1:5ff).

Finally, pray that you would grow in your own discernment and love for the truth, along with love for God and others—based solely on the truth. Let your light shine in the darkness so that others may know the truth and experience true salvation.

… that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life …
[ Philippians 2:15-16 ]