Proclaimer Blog
Carl Trueman’s Republocrat
I've just spent an enjoyable day reading Carl Trueman's Republocrat (it's not a long book). I didn't bother with it when it first came out because I thought it would be focused on the US political scene. But after a friend read it (and recommended that I read it too) and also after reading Guy Davies' review, I thought I would give it a try. In fact, although it does have a lot to say about the US scene, Carl also relates his observations to UK politics and politics/church life in general – stuff I found very stimulating and useful. Moreover, you don't need to agree with his conclusions to find that the book, as Michael Horton says in his commendation, "will delight, frustrate and encourage healthy discussions that we have needed to have for a long time."
Others have reviewed the book better than I could, but two observations struck me forcibly. The first is that the politics of the left has changed. It used to be interested in protecting the interests of those unable to speak up for themselves – the poor, the marginalised, the unemployed, the unhealthy and so on. But somewhere along the line, the oppressed changed. "Oppression was psychologised " (p10).
For someone like me, here lies the heart of the problem of the New Left; once the concerns of the Left shifted from material, empirical issues – hunger, thirst, nakedness, poverty, disease – to pyschological categories, the door was open to everyone to become a victim and for anyone with a lobby group to make his or her issue the Big One for this generation…..this is why media outrage that greets a perceived racist or homophobic comment often far outstrips that which greets scenes of poverty and famine…
The second, almost by-the-way, observation is to do with church membership. Again, the boy Carl is noticeably perceptive:
There are those, of course, who argue that church membership is not mentioned in Scripture and therefore unbiblical. This is not the place to address this objection; suffice it here to say that church membership is the practical expression of clear principles of commitment to one another and respect for an established leadership, which are both stated in the Bible. The real problem, I suspect, with many who argue that church membership is unbiblical is not that their consciences are wounded by the notion, but rather that they want to avoid commitment. They want to treat the church as they treat, say, a supermarket or a cinema; they go along and take what they need without the troublesome issues created by a personal commitment.
The book has much more to it than these two (almsot incidental) insights, of course. I loved reading it and found it very stimulating and warmly commend it.
Carl is coming to our November autumn ministers conference for which booking is now open.