Author: Uri Brito

As someone who grew up in the south, as in 700 miles south of the equator, I grew up removed from much of the southern culture in the U.S., though I have learned to treasure it immensely in my last twelve years in North Florida; or as we call it, Lower Alabama.

I often hear from friends in the North/Northwest part of the country who seem to view the south with a profound sense of incomprehensibility. “Why all the ‘yes, sirs’ and ‘no ma’ams'”? “What’s with all the smiling?” A friend even told me it feels like they are playing the deception game of niceness first, then knife in the back second.

At other times, similar friends inquire how can I as a liturgical minister function in a southern baptist culture that share little to no liturgical sympathies with us? Much of it requires an adjustment that can be quite difficult for those coming from other parts of the country. There is an answer to this, however, and it’s as simple as apple pie and grits. It’s actually in the concept of linguistic familiarity.

Linguistic familiarity implies, a) accepted expressions, and b) a priori commitment to ideals. The reason we, in the south, can function in such a harmonious level politically, religiously, and sociologically is because we agree with forms and styles of speech, but more than that we also share a commitment to certain moral ideals that are simply assumed down here. It may be lived imperfectly, but it is certainly assumed.

For instance, Southern Baptists may not think in liturgical categories, but we can all gather around a fire from completely different denomination histories and share a high sense of biblical authority, and a deep affection for the providence of God. Now, this may be demonstrated differently by some, but by and large, my affections for a southern baptist will always be greater than the local episcopal church whose origins climb up north in the country.

Another way this plays out is in the sense of familiarity we may have with complete strangers wherever we may be. We affirm similar rituals for daily life. Greeting others, holding doors, praying in restaurants, and a little “God bless” here and there provide a sense of comfort and home which incidentally is why no one who has lived here for some time will say, “Well, I am looking for the cultural warmth of California for a change.”

I remember a visit I did to Oregon many years ago. I sat down in a restaurant with my host. And then I made a grave mistake. When the waitress, whose attitude was more undeveloped than a three-year old child, asked if I wanted a refill, I promptly said, “Yes, ma’am.” Her panic at my reply led me immediately to think I had cussed at her in a foreign tongue, which in her estimation was exactly what I had done. I had insulted her age and made her feel like she was, you know, old…like in her 40’s. How dare I! My host quickly jumped in and told her that I was from the south. The waitress sounded relieved but also annoyed.

Of course, there are multitudes out there who cherish the inherent beauty of their land, but they may never understand the homogeneity of southern culture because they don’t have the fabric of a familiar speech or presupposed unity of ideals. For many, this unified view of life down here leads to charges of superficial Christianity and memes about guns and trucks. But you know, ya’ll, I like the familiarity of culture and language. It assumes we can all come together at the church’s potluck this Sunday.

You inquired about what general principle I’d give as a pastor on how to shepherd daughters. You noted my little book on fatherhood where I mainly focused on training boys to be kings. But there is a different kind of texture when it comes to parenting girls that the book does not apply.

One central principle is brewing in my mind over the last few years and I want to lay a brief overview of it. One of the first concerns facing young ladies in our day is the need to embrace femininity in its all glory. After all, woman functions as the glory of man (I Cor. 11:7) and that biblical assessment ought to shape how fathers prepare their daughters. The woman is not the head of the man, and therefore, her role is fundamentally doxological. She exists to be glory before she glorifies.

Young teenage girls are not in need of exposure to the world or pep talks on how professional you can be in a man-saturated world, she is called to understand what glory means and how her presence can communicate that role in the life of her future husband and community. Fathers should not instruct young ladies in the art of the deal, but in the art of glory. Therefore, she is formed first and foremost to bring glory to God as a future woman, and to prepare herself to be a source and giver of glory to others.

But what is glory? The concept of δόξα (doxa) in Paul’s writing provides a clear relation between the glory a woman bestows as a result of the proper headship of a man. A woman cannot–in its pristine sense–bestow glory unless or until the man adequately understands his role as head. A thwarted version of headship belittles the woman’s glory-role. Thus, in its ordinary role, a father prepares his daughter to be a glory-bearer to her future husband.

It appears that we have not said that loud enough because we are not accused enough of patriarchalism. A well-informed Christian father/man should know that when ungodly voices accuse us of patriarchalism because we believe in the priority of the home for our daughters or that we imprison our little girls with archaic ideals, we should rightly laugh. The reality is they don’t know just how powerful godly and principled women can be reigning from their headquarters.

The other false sense of daughter-raising we hear from unseemly voices is that we are keeping our daughters in a servile posture all their lives. But that is false in every conceivable way. We are not training daughters to never leave the home, we are training daughters to be satisfied in the home so they can shine their glory outside of it. If dads attempt to raise overly assertive/independent young ladies who despise the home and cherish the professional standards of the world, they will quickly realize that they are contributing to the rise of feminism and not femininity.

The mothers I know are not only feminine, but they are also glory-givers in their hospitality, kindness, and wisdom. Fathers need to begin their principled training with their young daughters with that end in mind. Equip them to glorify the home and their husbands, and many of the other societal concerns fade. I know I have more to say about this in the future.

Leisure plays an important part in the Christian life. Some scholars see leisure as anything that is not a part of earning a living. So, they talk about enjoyment, eating out, fellowship with friends, etc. Some say that leisure is a form of contemplative time when a person sits and meditates on the blessed realities of life like remembering the goodness of God outside of work. It’s a fascinating area of study.

For the Christian, the entire endeavor under the category of leisure or recreation is fairly holistic. The Apostle Paul says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it to the glory of God.” Paul saw the whole body of human endeavor and said, “Here’s the deal: just do everything out of sheer doxology.” Love, work, work and love, leisure and contemplation, contemplation and leisure, singing and chewing, chewing and singing.

For the Christian, we take pleasure in the act of worship for though it takes work to praise Yahweh, it is also an act of sheer pleasure and joy. Worship is the playground of God where servants take up instruments of praise, where children lift up holy hands and the house of God becomes a joyful invitation to the world. Come and play with us! Come and taste and see the goodness of God. Come, let us worship!

The one clear fact about Donald Trump is that he is not antagonistic to that little matter of Christendom known as the Church. Or, as the ancients and Paul would call it, “Our Mother” (Gal. 4:26). Before Trump was elected the conversation centered around policies that the Endorian Hillary wished to apply. Among those noble pursuits was the explicit advancement of gay rights, assaulting religious liberty by speaking favorably–shall we say–about removing tax exempt status from “organizations that dissent from settled public policy on matters of race or sexuality.” This was all reported as the New York Times flexed their ideological muscles before the Trump train arrived in town. As Jiminy Glick used to say, “Wonderful! Wonderful!”

The left has now strengthened their tropical storm to Sally so that under Biden they can go all Ivan on us mere Christendom advocates. In the meanwhile, COVID came dressed in a multi-colored robe. It has brought health dangers to many elderly Americans, and others around the world, but it has also served to show that anytime the media says, “Boo!” we quickly give them all the candy we have. And for those saying we are too easily alarmed in America, take a look at countries that have for too long served government rather than God and you will see a people willing to do 700 extra jumping jacks to appease the authoritariat.

And then here in the US of A, there are some Christians in Moscow, ID strategically–and why shouldn’t they–singing psalms and hymns to God in the public square. This was not one of those lengthy and hearty Psalm-Roars, mind you; this was a brief “flash” singing event. I have said before that all it takes is the first line of Psalm 2 to get demons back to work. When you surround this entire situation by that nasty thing called facts, you have a mayor who gathered around 50 people for a wedding with little concern for the droplets of others (remember that cops have imprisoned people for hosting private parties all over the country), and who extended a mask mandate until January of 2021 without–and get this–NO DEATHS in the county. I have asked a few folks at what point would they endorse the absurd? What if Pensacola’s mayor (peace be upon him) decided to enforce a mask mandate until 2021 (set the proportion of deaths and size of the city to match Moscow,ID), would we be willingly favorable to such policies? Would we gently smile and say, “Well, governments are going to gov?” And what if your local church had a history of being singularly targeted by the local authorities? Let’s say for 20 years or so? Would you–descendants of the Revolutionary War–be so easily persuaded to take their offer?

I would also put on the radar the level of faithfulness and the longevity of godly preaching is to be considered in such matters. If Joel Osteen’s church came out and said, “Look, the tyrants are coming!” my reaction would be that, “Well, that’s what happens when you preach a gospel that even a tyrant can swallow!” But when a Church has been faithfully proclaiming Jesus and his authority and power, singing Psalms, setting an example of steadfastness, and establishing a culture of high-class education, music, festivity, etc., I confess I am prone to supporting these brothers in their protest. A quick look through the videos (and I watched a considerable amount of it), we are dealing with one of the most respectable protests I have ever heard of in my life. These saints were not only singing along to John Newton, they were kindly saying, “Look, this stuff is no bueno, and we urge you to re-consider stupidity as a policy and as a general practice.” I think they accomplished both.

For those claiming that those fellas were using this as a stunt to get attention, well, they got it (though remember that these guys were having these Psalm-sings all throughout this COVID season). And they got the attention of English politicians to FOX News. As far as I am aware, it was the first time in televised history that Schütz’s Psalm 20 made it to national television. What they did was put this on the map with perfect background music. Was it religious persecution? Not in the least. That is, if you put it next to St. Stephen, Hebrews 11, Fox’s Book of Martyrs, and general hellish damage wicked men do to saints in dark parts of the world, but was it religious? Yep. Si. No doubt. There is no neutrality. If a local government has a reputation of arresting no one, and then suddenly they arrest a couple of peaceful saints (including a music teacher and another running for local office), then we have ourselves at least the seed of a problem, don’t you think?

Back to Trump: if we cannot get our act together during COVID under a relatively pro-liberty, pro-church president, how many jumping jacks will we be willing to do under a Biden presidency if the next tempest rises? How much longer will we be willing to keep our churches closed? How much more will we be willing to subscribe to government mailing lists? How much more will we be willing to spread fear as a virtue? How much more will we be willing to concede? As was recently published, there is a trend of remarkable growth among smaller, faithful churches around the country during this season. Let’s not kid ourselves. When they tell us to shut up, take your masks off and sing.

Last night, as many as 200 people turned out for the “Flash Psalm Sing” sponsored by Moscow’s Christ Church. These were peaceful protesters assembled to simply sing; not acts of physical destruction, but exercising their vocal chords as a response to unreasonable codes. For those of you tuning in, singing psalms and hymns is considered one of the most common christianized expressions of the faith going all the way back to Adam who first sang in thanks to God through poetry. Suffice to say, it is a cherished tradition. But in a city whose mayor shows favoritism to the unjust, singing becomes a threat. In fact, it becomes such a threat that assembled Christians are arrested for violating a nebulous resolution that is applied to some, but not others. Gabriel Rench, Sean and Rachel Bohnet were among the three arrested at the singing gathering for not wearing a mask. But remember, rules are only applied to those who dare do what the righteous do. As for others, who openly mock the name of God, they receive badges of honor.

We should all remember that simple acts of faith shall undermine those in authority who will use mandates formed out of thin air, unnecessary, unsubstantiated, unequally applied to arrest the peaceful. As you watch the entire thing, you quickly digest the imbecility of local officials who have no interest in protecting sanity, but are invested in the task of forgetting their own vows to protect the sane.

Let us remember also that city officials are deacons of righteousness called to exercise God’s righteous judgment. But when righteousness flees a nation, sin becomes a cherished pursuit, and among those pursuits is the unequal distribution of justice. What prideful schemes are they in vain devising!

In solidarity with our brothers in Moscow,ID, Providence Church (CREC) in Pensacola,FL is hosting a Psalm-Roar at 3301 E. Johnson Ave. at 6PM on September 26th. We are providing pizza and hymnals. If you intend to join us, RSVP below in the comments.

“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.”

Dear friend,

Your question was a very direct one. You inquired about certain authors who have blessed you immensely in the past and now seem to have embraced forms of Critical Race Theory and other ideologies generally associated with a more liberal trajectory. Therefore, you pondered, should I continue to read their material or should I proceed to find more reliable authors?

I have addressed this question some years ago over various controversies regarding the then Bishop of Durham, N.T. Wright. At the time, he was an extraordinarily well-known figure publishing prolifically on matters related to Second Temple Judaism, the Apostle Paul, and Jesus. Further, he added tremendous insights into modern scholarship. Back in 2014, I wrote the following about Tom Wright:

“…when one poses the question of whether we should eliminate such an author from our library because he is wrong on an issue, no matter how important the issue may be, he is betraying the charitable nature of the Christian vision. Of course, he may choose to avoid Wright, and other authors who also had some questionable theological presuppositions (like C.S. Lewis), but his theological vision will be narrow, and his ability to articulate a vision of the world will stop at the wardrobe.”

I am content with my assessment six years ago. But let me add a caveat. Authors specialize in certain fields. For instance, Tim Keller is an eloquent apologetic commentator. He has a remarkable grasp of the philosophical underpinnings of the secularists. His experience ministering to the skeptic has proven beneficial and I find his book “The Reason for God” to be a phenomenal contribution to modern discussions and a helpful tool in conversing with the unbeliever. At the same, I am also very aware that the tribe that follows Keller comes with a certain social venom that I find unattractive and on issues pertaining to sociology and sexuality, I find certain of their trends to be wholly unhelpful. There is much to be said about the disciples of a man. Disciples generally follow a trajectory to its happy or unhappy end.

Of course, engage as broadly as possible, but because one author opined helpfully on one subject does not mean he will on all the others. There is no secret, but we all have that internal sense that detects when something smells odd or does not seem to comport with our biblical tradition or general school of thought.

In sum, don’t dismiss those helpful authors who blessed you, but don’t feel any obligation to stay with them to the end. I suspect you will be a better thinker as a result.