What Christ followers must realize is that the entire point IS transgression. Of God, His Son, His image, his creation, or symbols associated with him. Meryl Streep as Aslan (upcoming Magician’s Nephew), Cynthia Erivo as Jesus (Jesus Christ Superstar) Instead of using art as worship , postmodern art is transgressive at its very core -🧵/1

If you don't know the meaning of deathworks, or the subversive and hateful intent of people who make these, then you will likely make a fool of yourself scoffing at fans for being upset over Narnia vandalism. " 'Deathwork' is a term used by sociologist Philip Rieff. It refers to the act of using the sacred symbols of a previous era in order to subvert, and then destroy, their original significance and purpose. Rieff uses Andres Serrano’s notorious 1987 picture Piss Christ to illustrate this. The work is a photograph of something considered sacred—in this case a crucifix—submerged in the artist’s own urine. As Rieff puts it, in Serrano’s photo the sacramental has been made excremental. Or, to borrow a phrase from Marx— that which was holy has been profaned." --Carl Trueman

Please would you please define specifically what you mean by Christian nationalism ? What is the difference between being a Christian that is a patriot and a CN? You mentioned what it is not (not honoring, praying or seeking the good of the city), but what IS it and how do you know that someone is a CN? Do you have it in India? If so, what does it look like? im noticing a signal of Christian influencers writing articles about CN. Was there something that prompted you writing this? Did you read JD Greear’s article in TGC before deciding to write this? I also find it fascinating that this messaging tends to come out like clockwork 4-6 weeks before a major US election and the outcome seems to be that MILLIONS of Christians don’t even participate in the electoral process. It is a travesty that Christians abdicate their votes to those who definitely have agendas to steal, kill and destroy.

What Christ followers must realize is that the entire point IS transgression. Of God, His Son, His image, his creation, or symbols associated with him. Meryl Streep as Aslan (upcoming Magician’s Nephew), Cynthia Erivo as Jesus (Jesus Christ Superstar) Instead of using art as worship , postmodern art is transgressive at its very core -🧵/1

To make something queer is a transgressive act. @LoganLancing discusses this in his work. /3

Great share Andrew and imho Lewis really nails the ‘ordinary-ness’ of tyranny here because it’s very easy to presume ‘well, I’m not one of those ‘Conditioners’, I’m not brutal or scheming or even overtly political etc. I’m just a regular person, trying to do my best, going about my job in order to support my family’. Lewis illustrates how the tyrannical operation doesn’t require most participants to think of themselves ‘as’ Conditioners. It requires ordinary people to perform conditioning functions as what they’ve been educationally formed and professionally trained in ‘ordinary professional duties’. The teacher applies the approved pedagogical framework. The HR officer implements the inclusion protocol. The physician follows the clinical pathway. The administrator applies the eligibility criteria. The lawyer works within the accepted jurisprudential framework. The civil servant implements policy and on it goes…….standards frameworks, protocols, policies, procedures, institutional/organizational authority…..etc. Each employee can truthfully say; ‘I was doing my job’ and not even recognize that they were only ‘following orders’ because they had no foundational constitutive understanding of their obligated duty - only to institutionally and organizationally imposed procedure and process. In operation - usurpation, reinforcing itself in subsidiary fashion right down to the smallest scale. That is precisely what makes the operation scalable!!!! If the desire of tyranny is ‘to remake man’, an institution adopts ‘policy’. Professional standards ‘require this practice’ and you go along with it saying ‘it’s simply correct procedure’ and ‘I am obliged to perform it’. In your ‘professional capacity’ you have willingly given over your own agency and if you’re a clever sort (the Head), you’ll probably even rationalize that to defend yourself. If you’re less aware, you’ll maybe more easily default to ‘just following orders’ and the many Media narratives running cover for that as defence - better still - no defence needed when you can demonize anyone who points out that utter abdication of conscience, courage and agency (failure of the Chest). So when Power wants to redefine and remake man in its own image and for its own ends, it ensures that negation of man’s created nature, negation of equality before the rule of law and usurpation of constitutive governance all arrives at your individual employee level (across sectors, Fields/domains) as an ‘apparently neutral’ job requirement. Just doing my job. Do you see how and why Lewis’s ‘few lucky people in one lucky generation’ is not about cat stroking Bond villains and is much more disturbing and more powerful. The ‘few’ do not have to perform all the shaping (man as clay) themselves. They need institutions capable of translating the desired shape into; curricula, standards, protocols, competencies, regulations, professional obligations and routine administrative acts - with you sufficiently (mal)formed and ‘well’ trained to regard compliance with those instruments (of mediation) as ‘responsible conduct’ for which you are rewarded (and often esteemed). The ‘Conditioner’ was installed as institutional workflow. It’s been increasingly digitized further outside the managed perimeters of what you’ve been (malformed) to (not) see and what you’re institutionally (and socially) rewarded for (not) saying. Ordinary tyranny (by far the most successful and long term sustaining) is operationalized through you - by your own hand - unless you hold the line of But Not Through Me.

Sometimes the person you’re arguing with online is a paid agent whose job is to set the frame, not win an argument. The frame matters more because claims are disposable. A frame shapes how you understand the issue and how you talk about it. A frame tells you what the argument is about before you ever start arguing. It decides which questions get debated, which assumptions pass without scrutiny, and what never gets discussed. So you can “demolish” someone with facts and still lose if you accept their frame. That’s why states and powerful interests pay to seed frames. If they can get you arguing inside theirs, they don’t need to win. They need enough people to carry the frame for free and keep everyone arguing inside it. Once that happens, the propaganda no longer needs the propagandist. Look, the debate is often just bait. Setting the frame is the real goal for propagandists.