A brother in the Lord recently asked for my thoughts on a viral video by Dr. Jordan Peterson. In the video, Peterson delivers a charge to the Christian church. Peterson, himself not a professing Christian, probably feels a certain comfort level with doing so because of a shared sentiment with the likes of Ben Shapiro: The church is an ally to cultural and political conservatives for the health of Western civilization, and should therefore be treated as an ally.
Those generally conservative-minded people do well to pay respect to the church’s influence over Western thinking. Philosophers like Charles Taylor have clearly shown that the Western way of thinking traces its origins back to the influence of the Christian gospel over the conscience. While much of Western thought has forsaken the Christian metaphysic of earlier times, the conservatives of the day are trying to uphold and support it. Thus there is a lot in common between the church on one side and the Shapiros, Petersons, Candace Owens’, Larry Elders, and Thomas Sowells on the other side.
In Peterson’s video, he seizes on this alliance and calls on the church to stop worrying so much about social justice and worry more about saving peoples’ souls, which is the church’s job. While it is the church’s job to advocate for justice where it is lacking, Peterson’s point is well-taken. We are to be more focused on the gospel’s ability to speak peace to peoples’ relationship to God. Thus we should focus more on souls, and, theoretically, justice should follow. No argument there.
Further, and this gets more to Peterson’s general occupational focus, the church is told to focus on discipling and training up young men. Peterson says, “Place a sign out front that says ‘Men welcome here.’” Similar to above, a corrective point is worth making: It was Christianity that uniquely established the equality of the genders such that women were regarded as of equal importance to men. This is because Christianity said that men and women were created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26-27), and that, in the gospel work of the One who is himself the Image of God (Heb. 1:3), “there is neither…male or female” (Gal. 3:28).
Nevertheless, men were created first, and thus occupy a more responsible position in God’s economy. So whereas Eve was deceived unto sinning (1 Tim. 2:13-14), Adam is the one held responsible (Rom. 5:12-21). Thus the New Testament places such an emphasis on the importance of training up godly men to lead and shepherd the home and the church. The texts are too numerous to list. But it is a plainly significant priority to the NT church. The point is this: Peterson’s charge is well-said. We need to train up young men to be men.
All of that to say, there are some issues with Jordan Peterson correcting the church in any way. There are two that I see (and there will probably be more that I think about after I publish this post).
First, Dr. Peterson is not a Christian. And since when does the church let outside voices steer its mission? Now, it is clear, as I have outlined above, that there is much in Peterson’s words that are consistent with God’s truth. Because of that, there is a lot in there which Christians can “amen.” It just seems to me that the things he is calling for are things that true churches are already doing, meanwhile, the churches that are overly focused on the world’s opinions are at least capitulating and at most are not true churches. You can tell a true church by its attentiveness to Christ’s Word. “My sheep hear my voice…they follow me” (Jn. 10:27). “The church submits to Christ” (Eph. 5:23).
I think that if those championing Dr. Peterson’s message would look around, they’d see that there are churches everywhere that are doing the very things he is acting like are not occurring. These things just are not covered by the media because the Kingdom of God grows in a way less like a darling athlete's popularity and more like leaven hidden in dough gaining an expanded roll over time (Mt. 13:33; misspelling of "role" intended). Our church, for instance is doing what we can do to shepherd souls and train men to be godly men. As long as I’m the pastor here, our church will be imperfect in such endeavors! But we are trying, and will try.
But the second issue, and this is the main one, regards something Peterson says in his charge to men to find a wife, tend a garden, build a family, etc. That run of points was a beautiful way of stating priorities that are priorities to God and should be for Christians.
But towards the end of these comments, Peterson adds that man’s job is to “build a ladder to heaven.” In such a statement, he shows that he still, sadly, has not understood the Christian gospel. It is not only principially true that one becomes a Christian when they see that they cannot build a ladder to heaven but that they need Jesus to do it, but it is explicitly true, because this is exactly what Jesus said: Echoing the story of Jacob at Bethel seeing the angels of God walking up and down a ladder to heaven (Gen. 28:10-17), the end of John 1 has Jesus telling two of his new disciples that the essence of saving faith is to see the angels of God ascending and descending on Him (Jn. 1:51). What is Jesus’ point? That He IS the ladder to heaven, and that the only way one gets to God is if Jesus takes them to Him. He came from heaven not only to “show the way” (as one old worship chorus says) but to be the Way (Jn. 14:6). By ascending the cross outside of Jerusalem around AD 35, he was constructing a ladder between heaven and earth whereby men and women can be taken to God if they come and bow the knee to the thorn-crowned King who was crucified. Man does not build a ladder to heaven. Man does not even climb the ladder to heaven on his own. Man humbles himself under the Christ-King, who then, by his cross, takes man up the ladder to God (1 Pet. 3:18). That’s why when Jesus says that the disciples know “the way,” and they respond, “What is the way?” He can respond by saying, “I am the Way”: There is a way to Heaven, it is the only one, and it is clear. But it is Jesus Himself. He is the Way, the very Kingdom of God consisting in Himself.
So you can see why Peterson’s claim is problematic. To so place the responsibility on men to build a ladder to heaven that you jettison that Jesus already has already done so is to replace reverence for him with reverence for us. While such a humanitarian impulse is understandable and even appreciated to some degree, a Christian is one who looks at humanity and sees only cause for poverty of spirit (Mt. 5:3), and then looks to Jesus and meets hope, blessed living hope (1 Pet. 1:3). A Christian refuses to bypass the cross on the way to training men to be responsible men. Truly, without the cross, we only build in vain (Ps. 127:1).
I hope that if you found yourself saying, “Amen” to Peterson’s points, you were doing so because he was upholding a lot of important points about responsibility, manhood, ministry, etc. which have been minimized in the present day and need to be recaptured. But I hope that if you’re a Christian, you were also able to sit back and say, “See, this is where the limits of my agreement are found.” Because the Christian message is that we don’t recapture integrity, responsibility, or manhood by reaching up and grabbing them ourselves. We recapture them by looking to Jesus who came to give them to us.
I suspect something, and since I don’t know peoples’ hearts, I could be wrong. But here it is: I suspect that much of the celebration of Peterson’s points stem from a desire among conservative Christians to see these godly priorities recaptured in the public sphere. And Peterson, one of our “cultural allies,” might be one of the most able voices to recapture them. Just remember one thing, believer: If we leave Jesus’ finished work out of our desire for cultural transformation, we are no different than the liberation theology that dominates progressive thinking, with their minds set on earthly things (Phil. 3:19). How are we any different if all we are focused on is things pertaining to this life? But if we start with the cross, a new creation follows (Gal. 6:15), then a new life permeated with peace, blessing, and yet trial, but in the end, eternal bliss with God (Mk. 10:30). I guess I’m just trying to say this: Don’t let cultural allies who don’t have a spiritual mind rob you of yours. It is useless to win the cultural battle but lose your soul.
