Every Thought Cative - Expressive Indivdualism

INTRODUCTION:

Last June we did a series entitled “Every Thought Captive.” It was an effort to understand and respond to some of the secular ideologies animating our culture.

Usually in our church we just preach through books of the Bible but every now and then we do something a little different. Today is that day. And our topic is “hot topic” especially as of late with June being Pride Month.

There is nothing quite as powerful as a “big idea.” An understanding of who we are as humans and how the world works. You don’t have to very hard to notice that the majority worldview animating most of our culture is unchristian in many ways.

Satan has been cunning and effective in weaving pagan ideologies into the pillars of our cultural consciousness.

It’s not even surprising for an unChristian world to adopt unChristian ideas and live unChristian lives from that place of deception.

But when those satanic ideologies begin to enter the church then we have a problem. Many believers are not only “not aware” of how godless ideologies are animating the culture, they are also adopting some of those same ideologies themselves!

That’s why, we must learn to “take every thought captive” and make it obedient to Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

3 For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, 4 since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

Context to 2 Corinthians

In 2 Corinthians Paul is defending his credentials against a group of “so called” super apostles who denigrated his ministry while elevating their own.

Paul warns them that their “toleration” of this different gospel was placing them and their church in a spiritually dangerous place.

They were not thinking carefully about implications of getting Jesus and the Gospel wrong.

The False Gospel in 2022

They elevated their desire to be know and promote what was popular over their desire to know and promote what was true.

I think Christians make a similar mistake today when it come to the “big ideas” that animate our culture.

This morning we’re going to tackle one of those big ideas and it’s intersection with our modern day approach to human sexuality.

The month of June is Pride Month. It’s a month wherein company after company will signal their support of the LGBTQIA+ agenda and highlight their efforts to promote equity, inclusion and diversity.

Nothing Is Neutral

QUESTION: Some might ask, “why preach on a topic like this when it’s so culturally divisive and the church’s position so culturally unpopular?”

ANSWER: if we don’t disciple people into what the Bible says about sensitive issues then the CULTURE WILL.

We can’t “not take a stance” on these issues - especially the ones that are animating our culture at a fundamental level.

There is no such thing as neutral ground in this world. We’re in a war and the nature of that warfare is ideological.

So take a stance we must. But we should do so in a Christian way (with truth & grace) and for a Christian reason (the glory of God & the good of people.)

We will never persuade people by demonizing them or insulting them. Rather, we must show them how God’s design is better suited to bring about their flourishing.

Persuasion happens when we can expose sin for what it is: foolishness that leads to greater and greater brokenness. God’s design, however, is that which brings ultimate fulfillment.

To that that effectively, we must both deeply understand what the culture believes and why they believe it AS WELL AS what God’s Word says and why it says it.

Sexuality & The Self

Today we’re going to do that with the big idea undergirding the “sexual revolution” in our culture.

We will establish what it is, how they came to be and why God’s design for sexuality offers a better pathway for human flourishing.

Instead of getting into the weeds of LGBTQ behavior, we’re going to expose the thinking that animates our culture’s approach to them.

The fact that we call the month of June PRIDE month is illustrative.

Some dictionaries define pride as “consciousness of one’s own dignity.” It’s associated with the ideas of confidence and self-respect.

The sexual revolution is merely a sub-revolution of a broader revolution in how people think about PRIDE - or becoming conscious of their own dignity.

If we can begin to make sense out of how our culture approaches self-discovery and human dignity then we will better understand the roots of our our sexual revolution.

Not only that, we will also be better equipped to show why God’s design for understanding the self is far superior.

So how does our culture approach the “self” and what’s the relationship between self-discovery and human sexuality?

The Modern Self

Carl Truman wrote a book a few years ago that answers this question. It’s called “The Rise & Triumph of the Modern Self.”

Consider the following statement: “I am a woman trapped in man’s body.”

30 years ago, this statement would’ve been perceived as incoherent gibberish. Today, it is accepted without question as meaningful and significant.

Truman’s book tries to answer how and why that’s the case. It’s probably one of the most important books of the 21st century - especially for Christians trying to understand our cultural moment.

The answer - in short - is that we have psychologized the self, we have sexualized psychology and we have politicized sexuality.

Expressive Individualism

We don’t have time to go over the entire book but lets start with that first idea. Today - self discovery begins and ends with the individual and how they feel about them selves.

The slogan that probably captures our culture’s approach to the self is summed up in the phrase, “you do you.” There are others - “be true to yourself… follow your heart… find yourself....” It’s the moral lesson behind every new Disney movie.

Philosophers have dubbed the worldview behind this sentiment as “expressive individualism.”

There are multiple definitions but at root it’s an ideology that elevates emotional authenticity above all else. Conformity to any external or absolute standard is looked at with suspicious and scorn.

According to expressive individualism, one’s purpose in life is to discover their true self and express that to the world in defiance to any/all naysayers.

Mark Sayers wrote a book called “Disappearing Church” wherein he defines this ideology under seven headings.

The highest good is individual freedom, happiness, self-definition, and self-expression.

Any restrictions against that end (structures, institutions, people) q2must be reshaped, deconstructed, or destroyed.

The more individuals are able to express themselves, the better the world will get. Technology - in particular - will help us advance towards this utopia.

Tolerance of everyone’s quest for self-discovery and expression is the highest and chief virtue. Any deviation from this ethic is dangerous and must not be tolerated.

Humans are inherently good.

Large-scale structures and institutions are suspicious at best and evil at worst.

Forms of external authority are rejected and personal authenticity is embraced.

You can probably already see ways in which this approach to self-understanding is laden with unbiblical assumptions.

Up, In, Around

Expressive individualism says self-understanding begins by looking IN - The modern approach to human freedom and happiness goes from IN to AROUND to UP.

It begins by looking IN to discover the true self. Find what makes you unique and commit to be authentic no matter the costs.

That is followed by looking around for support and affirmation. Find ways to express your true self and communities with whom you share important similarities.

Finally, if needed, one can look up for divine inspiration or sacred tradition or other things to justify, comfort or inspire.

BOTTOM LINE:

The authority to define the self is located in the individual.

The essence of your identity is located in your desires.

Your life purpose is to express yourself free of inhibitions.

If, at any point you become unhappy or disenchanted you’re free to reinvent yourself until you’re happy with who you are.

The “look around” approach”

Certainly this is not the ONLY approach to self-discovery.

Cultures outside of the Western tradition and historically most cultures before the enlightenment didn’t start by looking UP or by looking IN.

They discovered their true selves by looking AROUND.In fact, this was the majority position for most cultures throughout human history.

Self-discovery was a community project. Your identity was found in relation others; your social responsibilities and place on the social ladder.

You aren’t who YOU say you are. You’re feeling are irrelevant. You are who THEY say you are (mom, dad, society at large)

Your desires are subservient to the desire of the collective. (arranged marriages, family business, etc)

The highest goal is not self-expression it’s fitting in. You don’t want to stand out you want to blend in.

Reinvention in impossible in this life (perhaps you’ll have better luck in next life.)

Historical Underpinnings

Really, the modern approach to the self is a reaction AGAINST the external collectivist approach or Christian approach to identity.

That leads us to our next point which is the historical underpinnings of Expressive Individualism. HOW and WHEN did this come to be?

In some ways you could go all the way back to Genesis 3 and the Garden of Eden but in other ways we can find the philosophical foundations for this approach to the self in the Romantic era of the early 1700’s. (18th century)

The grandfather of this way of thinking was Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His seed thought was then watered by other important thinkers.

If you’re taking notes: it’s Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzscheand Sigmund Freud.

The Key Players

It starts with Rousseau (and other Romantics) He saw culture with its external authority and expectations as the central problem standing in the way of human happiness. (The main boogy man was Christian sexual ethics and religious authority.) So he tore it all down! He shifted the authority for defining the self to the individual. The true self is the “inner self.”

Following that tradition came Karl Marx. Like the Romantics he rejected belief in God or external authority and added an economic and political angle. AKA - these external voices who historically held authority over the self were oppressors. The inner self has been oppressed and is in need of liberation! Marx insisted that happiness and truth will only be found when we dethrone the oppressors and liberate all of the oppressed.

Charles Darwin dealt the death blow by removing the very notion of design or purpose from the picture all together. There was no universal or divinely designed “nature” to humanity. No God, no designer, no design, no purpose. Why look up when there’s nothing there to see.

Nietzsche comes along and says - in rejecting all external authority you’ve in effect “killed god.” Without God one man’s truth is just as authoritative as the next mans truth. The human project is a lawless competition of intention and will. The strongest self gets to enforce his vision on everyone else.

Rousseau exalted personal autonomy,

Marx & Darwin got rid of external authorities.

Nietzsche provided a roadmap for how to live now that God is dead.

The Nail in the Coffin

Those four men provided the intellectual tradition for expressive individualism - but where does the sexual revolution come in?

To understand that we must add one more influential figure to the mix and that’s Sigmund Freud.

Freud’s ideas were hotly contested during his own lifetime. Even today, a majority of his ideas have been rejected. One idea - however - DID stick.

For Freud, self understanding begins and ends with your sexuality.

The fact that Freud advanced this concept with the authority of “science” made it even more influential.

We all know how our culture loves “the science.” Rousseau was a poet. Nietzsche, Marx and Darwin were philosophers.

Poets and philosophers have nothing compared to “THE SCIENCE.”

Because of Freud’s influence psychology became sexualized. Sex was no longer just an “activity in which we engage.” Sex was foundational to our identity.

From Ideals to Institutions:

QUESTION: You might ask how these ideas became so influential? Not everybody reads Freud or Darwin. Why are they so influential.

Answer: They were consequential because they were raising and answering questions that deal with the core of what it means to be human.

They were wrestling with “what does it even mean to be human?

What is my purpose? How can I find happiness?

How do we fix what’s wrong with the world?”

These thinkers were giving new answers to those questions. Answers that didn’t revolve around God. As a result, it captivated the “social imaginary.”

Our cultural consensus began to change. Questions of right/wrong, allowed/not allowed, normal/taboo shifted. Along with a few other key changes there was a bifurcation between sacred and secular.

Over time, these “big ideas” began to infiltrate our cultural institutions: gradually at first (education, high brow art) then suddenly (music and entertainment)

Now it’s every where. Like I said - it’s the main plot behind every Disney movie!

What’s true for you is true for you! I could show you countless examples of these concepts in our popular culture.

Freud said you cannot understand yourself without understanding your sexuality.

Politicizing Sex

With the psychologizing of the self and the sexualization of psychology - it wasn’t long before sex became politicized.

Started with some of the sexual politics of the 60’s. Escalated with gay marriage in 2008. Between the supreme court ruling on Gay marriage and today the politicizing of sex has moved forward at break neck speed!

ILLUSTRATION: Case and point is a recent tweet by Joe Biden at the beginning of Pride Month. It’s a perfect conglomeration of all of these ideas in one sentence from the most powerful man on the planet.

“During Pride Month, we honor the resilience of the LGBTQI+ people who are fighting to live authentically and freely. We reaffirm that LGBTQI+ rights are human rights. And we recommit to delivering protections, safety, and equality so everyone can realize the full promise of America.”

You cannot understand the politics behind PRIDE MONTH without understanding the history of ideas that led to this cultural moment.

We’ve been taught to believe that the greatest and highest good is to be true to yourself and express that to the world in defiance of any and all inhibitions.

We’ve been taught to believe that you can’t understand yourself outside of your sexuality. It’s central to your identity. Whole concepts like orientation have been invented to bolster this claim.

We’ve been taught to believe that any opposition to self-expression is coercive and oppressive. It must be silenced and marginalized. Words can equate with violence because your well-being is attached to your self esteem.

The Cultural Impact (When God Dies)

Why would we be surprised that the culture acts with great hostility to Christian truth?

The Christian vision is to look UP not IN. God and his word are the fixed standard by which we come to know and understand ourselves.

We are invited to establish our identity in CHIRST not our sexual preferences. We are invited to express and grow in that with a community of other believers called the Church. Thus placing ourself in community under God’s authority.

Our hearts are deceitful and sick not reliable and true.God’s word brings FREEDOM not oppression. It’s a lamp and a light not a weight to be discarded.

The two ways of thinking could not be further apart. One leads back to God’s design and human flourishing. The other promises freedom but really leads to slavery and brokenness.

Human beings were MADE for God. We can’t live without him. Truth, goodness and beauty don’t make sense without God.

Once God is rejected, the only alternative is to ground those ideas is some other source. But it never works long term.

The consequences are cultural chaos and sexual BROKENNESS. Whether communism, Gnosticism or expressive individualism - the results are always the same.

Choice and Consequence

What exactly does that brokenness look like? Where do we see this chaos on a day to day basis?.

I want to give you five different areas. These are true in general but in light of Pride Month I want to highlight these five things in light of Transgenderism in particular.

Body = Canvas

First, if the truest self is the inner self then my body is little more than a canvas for my self expression.

Historically, if someone felt as though they were a woman trapped in a man’s body - they would go to a Dr. and he or she would say “this seems to be a problem with your “mind.”

They would say your self-evaluation is mistaken and we can help you fix that so it’s in line with your biology and the fixed world around you.

Today - a Dr/counselor would say the opposite.

They would say the problem isn’t with your mind or your soul. There can be NO problem there as it’s the authoritative standard. The problem is therefore with your body.

So let us help you fix the problem with surgery or social transition into another sex. Any lack of affirmation or suggestion that the thinking needs to be changed is untoward and perceived violence.

That is a direct result of expressive individualism.

World = Stage

Second, if my purpose is to express myself then the world is my stage.

Thanks to Neitzsche, Marx and Darwin the external world is void of any divine purpose or standard. The key to happiness is discovering the true you and expressing yourself to find comfort and affirmation.

This is why I think social media has such a powerful influence in our world. The world is a stage on which we can express ourselves as we imagine ourselves. We can present ourselves as whoever we want to be.

All technology - from the internet to plastic surgeries - are for the benefit of our artistic expression. It’s not about our moral obligations to God or to one another. It’s about us being true to ourselves and finding the affirmation we need to be happy.

Friendships are more about getting than receiving, being celebrated not serving others.

Sexual Ethics = Taste

Finally. if God is dead then sexual boundaries are a matter of taste.

This way of thinking is all over the place in our culture. Even our sexual norms and taboos are now recast in the light of preference and taste.

Outside of sex needing to be consensual - there is no limiting standard because there is no longer any design or purpose to sex.

The devastating consequences of this line of thinking are obvious.

If truth and sexual morality are located solely in the individual, what do you do when identities collide? When your inner self comes into conflict with another inner self - who wins?

By what standard are sexual taboos taboo? Because you don’t “like it?” Because it’s not popular?

What happens when culture’s sexual preferences shift? How does that relate to thing like pedophilia and beastiality?

Identity = Fluid

Fourthly - with expressive individualism one’s identity is constantly in a state of flux. Never fixed. Always fluid.

The need to be constantly reinventing yourself - adjusting to your emotional whims or the expectations of your tribe are exhausting.

It’s also psychologically damaging. This is what accounts for a great deal of the social anxiety and depression we see today.

The rate of suicide among transgender individuals who receive gender surgery is astronomical. Much of it a result of making fixed changes to an identity that needs to be fluid.

Biological changes are fixed and permanent. That’s why there’s such a hope placed in modern technology because the ability to reinvent yourself is limitless.

Opposition = Violence.

Finally, because of this worldview all forms of resistance, disagreement or criticism are received as acts of aggression. Opposition = violence.

The greatest sin you can commit is hindering one’s self-expression. Today, this even includes things as simple as verbal disagreement or criticism.

The social and political implications are disturbing. Particularly for those who hold traditional views on sex and human flourishing. (evangelicals)

What do you do with those who maintain or promote such traditional codes? You silence them or get rid of them by any means necessary.

They must be dealt with definitively and severely.

This explains our culture’s attack on the family. (mom and dad are authoritarian forces in miniature)

This explains why evangelical Christians are not just now unpopular but despised and violently excised from institutional power structures.

This explains the hostility to authority and tradition (Christian or any other) prevalent in our school system, music, arts, entertainment and more.

In the 19th Century the political struggle was predominantly financial and economic. In the 21st Century the political struggle is psychological and sexual.

Tolerance Is Not Enough

The big fight in our culture is whether or not all people are allowed the freedom to “express themselves.” The answer to that question is no. One party will be silenced. Why?

Because in our culture, tolerance isn’t enough. Affirmation and celebration is required!

Tolerance implies you believe someone else’s view is inferior or in error. That disapproval from an outside force is anathema! Unacceptable!

For you to love someone in this culture means you must affirm and celebrate their self-understanding regardless of how they see themselves or how choose to express it?

Christians are now being asked to affirm as true that which we believe to be false.

We are being asked to celebrate as helpful that which we believe to be harmful.

Refuse do either and it’ll be interpreted as violence because you’re hindering self-expression which is the highest and most noble goal of Western culture.

If identity is rooted in one’s psychology then anything that negatively impacts one’s self-esteem will be deemed a weapon.

Self-Defeating

And it’s not just Christians feeling pressure from non-Christians. You see civil wars breaking out even within the LGBTQ coalition.

The T & the Q are disrupting the ability of Gay, Lesbians and Bisexuals to express their sexual preferences without judgment or outside pressure.

This has given rise to a whole new approach to politics known as “identity politics” which has had a toxic influence on our public discourse and create hostile forms of polarization and partisanship.

This has CLEAR and present implications for freedom of speech and religion and beyond.

A Christian Response

So how then should Christians respond to this cultural moment? I want to offer three things from our passage.

First, we need shift authority away from the psychological self to the absolute standard of God and his Word.

From subjective to objective. From the creation to the creator. From us to God. This is the most dramatic and important shift. Without it, no other changes will have any lasting effect.

Looking Up

The culture says the project for self understanding begins by looking in. The Gospel says the project for self-understanding begins by looking UP.

2 Corinthians 10:4–5 (CSB)

4 since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

Christ is the highest authority. The inner self, the mind is subject to HIM.

That’s the exact opposite of what our culture says. They say look IN. Others say look AROUND. Christianity says LOOK UP.

Examine yourself. Where do you look first? IN? AROUND? or UP? How much of that expressive individualism is in US?

It’s rampant in the church. It’s behind why we join a church, why we leave or why we complain about the things that bother us.

Looking Around

The second response we should cultivate Christ-Centered community. Offer the isolated traveler a place of rest, comfort and belonging.

The culture says when your inner life isn’t producing the results you want just reinvent yourself. But that leaves many people feeling helpless and alone.

The church can offer an alternative. They can offer community. Not community based on some shared internal dynamic. But a shared love and commitment to Jesus Christ.

The self-reliance that is promoted by our culture leaves people feeling exhausted and alone. The church has a tremendous opportunity to offer an alternative.

That’s the background context for Paul’s letter the Corinth. The Christians there were finding an alternative to the solutions of their current culture.

In Christ centered community the opinion that matters most isn’t that of culture or institutional authorities. It’s not even opinions of our pastors or Christian friends.

Our affirmation and comfort comes from our Heavenly Father who loves us and accepts us based on what Christ has done on the cross. There’s nothing we can do to make him love us any more or any less!

Looking Out

Finally, Christians should disagree with our culture by promoting God’s design. We must take a stand but let us do this with conviction AND grace.

Paul says in this passage that he DEMOLISHES ARGUMENTS and every proud thing that raises itself up against the knowledge of God.

But notice the spirit with which he does it: meekness and gentleness of Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:1 (CSB)

1 Now I, Paul, myself, appeal to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble among you in person but bold toward you when absent.

I think Paul is probably speaking tongue in cheek there at the end but it does bring up an important point about how Christians ought to disagree (especially with lost people).

Meekness is a word that means “power under control.” It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t engage in the political process and try and reverse the influence of this toxic thinking in our culture.

But it does mean we should do those things in a Christ like way. Power and speech that is “under the control” of the Holy Spirit.

There’s a difference between speaking with a political voice and a pastoral voice.

A political voice is needed in a political discussion. But so often we’re not speaking to politicians. We’re speaking to PEOPLE. And people need a shepherd. They need Jesus. So let us speak to them with His Spirit.

A critical, mocking or unloving tone is unbecoming of a Christian ambassador.

That doesn’t mean we don’t disagree. It doesn’t mean we don’t speak the truth. It just means we speak the truth with grace.

We allow our speech to be seasoned with salt so that we may know how we ought to answer every person (Col 4:5-6)

Conclusion

If you’re here this morning and you’re not a Christian and you’ve been influenced by these ideas. There’s a better way.

The Gospel speaks a better word. A word of acceptance and grace. A word that says God is on the throne not us. And our flourishing is found in HIM and not ourselves.