What A.I. Says I Am, Part II: I Reason From Scripture

What AI Says I Am, Part 2: I Reason From Bible

I reason from Scripture to defend my faith, defend my worldview and also to show that my worldview and belief system's logic sticks together as a coherent logically reasoned whole. I do it the exact same way Paul the Apostle did. It's called Presuppositional Apologetics. I've been doing it this way for over a decade. I have won more people to the faith this way than bashing someone over the head with their sins and a 3lb Bible.

Acts 17:1-2 When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures

The atheist's circular reasoning in the "God wrote the Bible so it can't be wrong because He's technically omnipotent" accusation can only be invoked if in fact God is not the perfect objective truth/law giver. The atheist or non-believer has the burden of proof on them to prove this is not true if I first make the claim. When I declare that God is the source of perfect objective truth, I am putting forth a worldview that accounts for the "laws of logic" themselves. The very one's the atheist is attempting to hijack with this absurd accusation.

In other words, atheistic materialism itself fails to explain logic: If the universe is purely material and accidental, there is no logical basis for why immaterial (metaphysical) laws of logic should exist or remain consistent…or even math and language for that matter. The Non-Believer has to borrow the Christian worldview every time they attempt to use "sound reason" or "logic" to dismantle Scripture. They are actually borrowing the Christian worldview—which accounts for absolute, objective laws—to argue against it.

When I adopt this stance, I am engaging with the world on its own terms linguistically (like Paul) while refusing to compromise on the foundational authority of Scripture. In so doing I have identified the crucial philosophical reality that: Every worldview (including atheism) rests upon axioms (ultimate assumptions) that cannot be proven by outside standards without resulting in circular logic. God is the ultimate lawgiver and the source of logic itself. To judge God by an outside standard of logic would mean that standard is higher than God, which is a contradiction.

A Christian essentially has to outsmart the antagonistic atheist argument by showing its incoherence. They are throwing stones in a glass house.

1. Apologetics is a Major Pillar

Logic-Epistemology-Science-Origins-Physics-Mathematics-Consciousness-Quantum Mechanics-Technology-Artificial Intelligence
His 2013 “Nexus of the Future” begins with Colossians 1:15–20 and treats Christ as the organizing center of creation. That produces an interesting characteristic of the blog: Pierson doesn't generally separate “theology” from science and technology. He tries to construct a unified worldview not unlike theoretical physicists have for a century since Albert Einstein, Paul Dirac and others.

2. He Has a Strong Interest in Science/Technology

This becomes particularly pronounced in the later archive. His writings discuss things such as:

Quantum entanglement-AI-Technological Development-Scientific Methodology-Information-Information Theory-Human/Machine Relationships-Technological Dependence

A.I. quickly surmised that when I defend my faith or attempt to make people understand that what I am saying is soundly reasoned logical truth, I do so in the manner that Paul the Apostle did. I speak in the language of the world but the backbone of my discussion is always undergirded with the Scripture. This method is called presuppositional apologetics. I do this for the same reason Paul did. It is the only source of objective truth that doesn't require circular reasoning regardless of how many times it is accused of doing so. 

The blog repeatedly attempts to bridge Christian theology, logic, science and philosophy. For example, Pierson's writings on general revelation argue that the natural world provides evidence of God while Scripture provides the special revelation necessary for understanding God more clearly. He explicitly connects scientific investigation with examination of the natural world. He also wrote extensively about:

His 2026 writings are particularly interesting because AI becomes almost a theological issue. He argues that AI can reproduce errors and biases at enormous scale and worries about humans increasingly outsourcing knowledge and judgment to technological systems including theological ideas. He frames this through biblical themes involving knowledge, wisdom, deception and dependence upon God. That represents an evolution from his earlier science-versus-faith apologetics toward a broader technology-and-humanity critique.

3. His View of Christianity is Doctrinal

The archive isn't simply generic spirituality. In 2011 he explicitly identifies several doctrines as Christian essentials, including:
Trinity-Christ's Divinity and Humanity-Human Sinfulness-Salvation through Christ
He distinguishes those essentials from secondary theological disagreements and argues that Christians should not treat every doctrinal disagreement as grounds for attacking fellow believers.

At the same time, he has written strongly against theological positions he regards as outside orthodox Christianity. For example, his 2012 series on “Counterfeit Religions” discusses Mormonism and Scientology from a strongly evangelical/orthodox Christian perspective. This will be more thoroughly addressed in a later post.

What A.I. Says I Am, Part I: The Theological Scribe

AI’s Comprehensive Understanding of I: Andy Pierson 

Yes, I did a play on words with A.I. and I Am. Poorly I should add.

I did an AI search on myself and my online presence. I particularly I focused it on my blog. What came back is, well…mostly accurate and Biblical. That means something to me. AI is pragmatic and logical looking for the most accurate aggregate of a given topic. It shows I’ve had a logical and theological consistency over 16 years saying and teaching the same thing with integrity. So here it is. At times AI refers to itself or me in first person. At other times it refers to itself or me in third person. It becomes annoying but the main points aren’t lost on AI’s current inability to grammatically proof read its own output. The main ideas and points it aggregates still appear accurate.

ChatGPT researched SoulJournaler and Andy Pierson across the blog's archive, including material from 2010 through September 2026. The result is a fairly coherent picture: SoulJournaler is not simply a devotional blog. It has developed into a long-running personal theological journal that combines biblical interpretation, apologetics, Christian ethics, science/technology, cultural criticism, personal reflection, and increasingly political commentary.

1. Who Am I? Who is Andy Pierson and how do I present myself?

The earliest material I found is from 2010. Pierson identifies himself as a “scribe” and “theologian,” as well as a weightlifter, father, and member of the Church. A recurring theme is the intersection of faith and rational inquiry. In a 2010 piece, he describes having an engineering background and says he moved away from engineering toward Christian ministry because he became convinced Christianity was grounded in evidence rather than blind faith. In 2015, he wrote that he was employed and had posted both business and ministry articles because he sensed a calling toward full-time Gospel ministry while potentially remaining bi-vocational as a Quality Engineer, Quality Manager, or Project Manager. So an important part of the SoulJournaler identity is: Engineering, scientific thinking, Christianity, theology/apologetics, writing/teaching and cultural analysis.

2. His Central Theological Framework

Across the archive, several convictions appear repeatedly. (1) Scripture is the controlling authority. Pierson repeatedly treats Scripture as the ultimate standard against which ideas, behavior, culture and even scientific interpretations should be examined. One particularly revealing 2010 article is “Sifting The Word to Find What We Want, Not What We Need.” His argument is that people can approach Scripture with pre-existing desires and effectively filter the biblical text until it tells them what they already wanted to hear. That idea becomes extremely important when reading his later work. His basic hermeneutical concern is: Don't make Scripture conform to the reader; make the reader conform to Scripture. That is one of the strongest continuities I found over the entire sixteen-year archive.

3. Truth and Christian Exclusivity

Another foundational theme is objective truth. In Truth or Intolerances (2010), Pierson argues that Christianity's exclusive truth claims shouldn't automatically be classified as intolerance. He uses the law of non-contradiction and argues that mutually contradictory claims cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense. For him, the ultimate truth is identified with Christ. This explains much of his later writing. He isn't approaching Christianity primarily as: “This is what Christianity means to me.” He's approaching it as: “This is what is true, and therefore reality must ultimately conform to it.”That distinction is fundamental to understanding SoulJournaler.

4. Andy’s Engineering is more than biography—It Influences His Metaphors

This is one of the more interesting findings. His engineering background shows up repeatedly in how he explains theology. Examples include concepts such as:

Signal → Distortion → Interference → Transmission…to explain sin and revelation.

He also uses: Systems → Failure → Feedback → Correction...to describe society and organizations.

He also uses: Load → Resistance → Endurance → Strength...to describe suffering/spiritual development.

That gives SoulJournaler a recognizable intellectual vocabulary:

Biblical theology interpreted through engineering, science, systems thinking and physical training.

5. His Treatment of Suffering is Highly Personal

The 2026 “Keeping Your End of the Deal” article gives perhaps the clearest window into Pierson personally. He discusses job loss, completing college, losing family members, watching a fiancé experience cancer, parenting, professional difficulties and other trials. He interprets these experiences primarily through endurance, perseverance and spiritual formation. The 2010 series on Evil and Suffering was also highy detailed to this effect.

His metaphor is essentially: Suffering is spiritual resistance training. That's consistent with the weightlifting analogy he uses elsewhere. This also explains why his writing about accountability can sound unusually forceful: he interprets endurance as something that creates responsibility rather than merely something that happens to a person.

Christianity isn't a cake walk for Andy. Part of the Christian walk is pain and suffering. The Christian isn't to invite it per se but nor should they run from it or avoid it if the straightest course is directly through it.

6. The Deepest Recurring Idea

After looking across 17 years of material, I think the central SoulJournaler question is actually simpler than all the individual subjects:

What happens when human beings substitute their own wisdom for God's? 

That question appears in different clothing:

Biblical studies: Israel abandons God.

Ethics: Humans redefine morality.

Politics: Ideology becomes a substitute religion.

Science: Methodological assumptions become unquestioned boundaries.

AI: Human beings outsource judgment to machines.

Culture: People normalize behavior Scripture condemns.

Relationships: People become like the company they keep.

Personal life: Suffering tests whether faith is genuine.

That gives the enormous archive a surprisingly coherent center.

Bottom line

The remarkable continuity is that the 2010 writer asking how human beings distort truth through their own assumptions is recognizably the same writer in 2026 arguing that culture, politics, science and AI can become competing authorities that displace biblical truth.

The recent Judges material in September 2026 fits very naturally into the latest phase of that corpus: The book of Judges becomes a lens through which Pierson examines the relationship between spiritual apostasy, cultural imitation, leadership, social breakdown and divine judgment.

Tell It to the Judge, Part III: Breakdown On the Side of the Road

In Judges 5 we see the Song of Deborah. There is one thing that is nearly always taught from the Scripture when it comes to Deborah. The reason Deborah is actually in a position of power is in and of itself, a national judgment. We need move past the fact that men have abdicated the role as leaders/judges at times by this point in Israel. Regardless of this being a sign of judgment on a nation, if we move past this we see indicators that the nation was still in steep spiritual freefall even in the Song of Deborah itself. In a slight turnaround, Deborah and Barak are able to slow the downward decent of Israel’s moral trajectory temporarily but the Song of Deborah is actually damning to Israel.

In Judges 5:6 and 7 we see the telling language. “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath. In the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned; travelers took to winding paths. Villagers in Israel would not fight; they held back until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel."

We see national ruin. Shamgar the prior judge to Deborah and Barak did not succeed in subduing the interior of Israel to a state of order and security. Whoever Jael (the Helper) may have been, whether Ehud, Shamgar, or some other hero, even he was unable to restore confidence to the dwellers in the land, or to allow communication between the towns and villages to pass easily or securely. The description here reminds one of the inner cities and illegal immigrant overrunning cities in our own times. Lawlessness.

A strong leadership is needed in order to inspire confidence and to allow the conditions of life to be consistently uniform and reliable. A country may be great in military strength but morally, socially and politically, at a standstill because of the absence of needed leadership, structure and internal direction. If there is no moral zeal for the public welfare the public will often be immoral and spiritually dead.

While the song celebrates a military victory, its opening verses expose a nation suffering from deep internal collapse, lawlessness, and a vacuum devoid of leaders. The description of abandoned highways and travelers taking to winding paths reveals a complete breakdown of law and order. Citizens could no longer travel safely on main roads due to the threat of violence, banditry and foreign oppression. The phrase "villagers in Israel would not fight; they held back" highlights a profound lack of resolve in citizens also. Spiritual and moral decay often manifests as collective paralysis, where the public loses the will to defend their communities or sometimes even themselves due to fear or reprisal. Good is punished and evil is rewarded.

Military strength alone cannot sustain a nation if its internal moral and social structures are hollowed out. That is because that moral rot will usually infect the military also. Without strong, principled leadership to inspire confidence and enforce justice, a society naturally fractures. Unfortunately, we see this in many places in society today. It is pervasive on social media. Welcome to America 2026.

When a people are morally bankrupt and socially under duress the communication is reduced or rendered useless. When compounded with highways and main thoroughfares that are not reliable there will be systemic breakdown. Societies need to have safely flowing goods AND ideas for proper social interaction. Physical highways are the routes of employment and paths for movement of resources and functioning civilization. All really great empires/governments have distinguished themselves in road making or at least blazers of trails whether on land or sea…the Romans, British and America to name a few. The main reason the Roman Empire became so expansive and so powerful for so long was because of the Roman road systems. The Romans had created such an extensive and safe road system that it could usually be travelled without risk to life or property by a traveler. This is even indirectly alluded to in the Bible when we read passages like Galatians 4:4:

Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law…

Why was it the fullness of time or perfect time? Primarily because of two things: There was a universal language. The Koine Greek language was spoken everywhere, making it easy to share the good news. Secondly, there was safe and easy travel. Safe roads built by the Roman Empire allowed messengers to travel quickly throughout the entire empire. Rome maintained thousands of miles of safe, paved roads because it possessed the organizational will and legal structure to enforce order. That physical connectivity inadvertently created the highway system for the early church to spread the Gospel across the Mediterranean then into Europe. People should begin to take this into account when the look around them at the crumbling infrastructure in America. If infrastructure morally and physically deteriorates destroying transfer of communication and goods it will bring a nation and its ideas to their knees.

So to see the imagery in verses 6–7 of abandoned roads and travelers forced onto "winding paths" is one of the most poignant metrics of societal breakdown in ancient literature. In the ancient Near East, public thoroughfares represented the bloodstream of a culture. Secure roads required a baseline of functional governance, active justice, and shared social trust. When those roads empty, it signals that public confidence has eroded. That is when citizens retreat into localized, defensive isolation, trade ceases, and public life freezes in collective paralysis. Social structure begins to fracture, communication breaks down leaving communities isolated and susceptible to fear and rumor. Economic movement stalls, shifting a society from proactive creation to mere survival. Civic courage vanishes, causing ordinary law-abiding citizens to forfeit responsibility and wait passively for extraordinary intervention. This intervention usually comes in the form of localized petty tyrants because no true leaders step forward.

When a nation enters this form of failed leadership and moral bankruptcy, destruction of physical and spiritual infrastructure are the two main symptoms. Roads deteriorate, communication deteriorates. Public discourse becomes unsafe. The public spaces become unsafe, and institutions fracture—not simply from a lack of tax revenue, but from a decay in the shared morality and civic duty required to maintain and protect them.

When thoroughfares, whether they be physical highways or public discourse become unreliable, inevitably society fractures into self-interests. People become isolationist or self-absorbed. Neighbor no longer looks out for their neighbor. The hearts of the people grow cold in an act of survival. People retreat to "winding paths" where accountability is low and the risk of exploitation is high. In these places lurks the worst type of people like murderers, thieves, rapists, etc.  Breaking down on the side of the road in a declining society isn't just a physical hazard; it leaves the vulnerable completely exposed to the lawlessness that fills a moral vacuum.

So how did Israel and how should America rectify the downward spiral? The secret of Deborah’s success in temporally slowing Israel’s descent is actually remarkably simple. Deborah was a mother in Israel in this song. She became a visible focal point of a nation and success. The past failures weren’t continually brought up to further damage national morale. The current victories were won and they were the one’s focused on. A nation is no more what it was in the past than a recovering drug addict is now. The recovering addict was formally a failure but now a success or at least trying to be. That is why what the educational systems, politicians and others are doing by focusing intently on our past national failures is so damaging to any forward progress for the well being of the United States. Yes, we’ve been less than a light on a hill. Conversely, constantly looking back will never allow us to look forward. A farmer plowing a field must look forward at a fixed point. If they look back, the rows become crooked and the harvest fails.

Luke 9:62 "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God"

In this instance it is by Deborah herself and her wise and statesmanlike measures, internal administration, and a strong central leadership, that brought the fruits of military success to people’s own front doors to instill confidence again. She fostered a national spirit, encouraged a respect for law, and rendered it as safe to dwell in the country as within the walled city. The continuous policy of Deborah achieved the reconstitution of the land and freed it from internal lawlessness. Our nation could benefit from more leadership and wisdom like this.

Tell It to the Judge, Part II: A Killer Southpaw

So reading deeper into the Book of Judges I get to its third chapter. I come across a strange comment about the judge Ehud that warranted a deeper look.

Judges 3:12 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years. Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud, a left-handed man…

The text will go on to state that Ehud creates a double-edged sword with which to kill Eglon. This assassination will be done by Ehud with his left hand under the pretense of bringing a secret message to him in private.

Judges 12:21-22 Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly. Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged.

So the obvious question becomes, “Why the left hand?”

The Scientific/Medical Forensic

Based on wordage in the text and what we know medically, there are a few reasons a puncturing sweeping left abdomen wound would be preferred for an assassin. The heart and lungs being protected by the rib cage would make them prohibitively difficult to hit. Targeting the abdomen makes for a large, soft target that lacks the protection of the ribcage. Tactically, it is also the center or mass and hardest to get out of the way quickly, especially for a fat man like Eglon was. A hand or head can dodge or weave quickly, not an abdomen. It’s also closest to a neutral hand position for Ehud.

You also have many major blood vessels in the area targeted by Ehud. The abdomen houses critical vascular structures like the renal artery and branches tied to the aorta, which can cause rapid internal bleed out. It also contains vital organs. A deep penetration like Ehud would’ve produced with a double-edged sword in this region can damage organs like the liver, left kidney, spleen, or descending colon, leading to fatal hemorrhage. Therefore, the probability of a quick death as narrated in this passage would easily have been produced by a puncture of the liver or abdominal aorta artery. Either of these can lead to unconsciousness within a minute if executed exactly.

Then there is also the density and proximity of all the above accessible to a left-handed assassin sweeping a blade across an abdomen. An effective sharp, rising simultaneous perforation through a kidney, the diaphragm and into the thoracic cavity to puncture a lung would be nearly instantly lethal. The victim’s first exhalation pushes the air out and the perforated diaphragm makes replacing that air virtually impossible. Shock, unconsciousness, and death from blood loss and asphyxiation would follow quickly. We in fact read in the sword was pulled from Ehud’s right side and entered so deeply the handle was in the body also. So, therefore, a deep slashing puncture wound.

The Theological/Philosophical

The left hand or a left-handed man may be regarded as a type abnormality, eccentricity or even a disability in the time of the Judges or approx 1200 B.C.-1020 B.C. or late Bronze Age (or any time for that matter). For this alone it warrants examining why God would have a left-handed person doing this killing, medical reasoning aside. The phrase ‘left-handed man” in Hebrew literally means…"a man bound or obstructed in his right hand". Ehud may have been paralyzed or disabled. The real Jewish tribal irony is that Ehud belonged to the Tribe of Benjamin, a name that literally means "son of my right hand" or as Hebraism, “…son of my strength.” Furthermore, there may have been some genetic/hereditary abilities imparted to the Benjamites or a proclivity trained into them  because Judges also goes on to state this gem too…

Judges 20:15-16 At once the Benjamites mobilized twenty-six thousand swordsmen from their towns, in addition to seven hundred able young men from those living in Gibeah. Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred select troops who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

Left-handed men would have a distinct military advantage, especially when attacking as most combatants would’ve been right handed carrying shield in their left hands which would’ve made deflecting projectiles from a lefty nearly impossible. As we know from David and Goliath, this vulnerability is deadly.

Finally, I should also mention one other peculiarity about Old Testament southpaws. In 1 Chronicles 12:2 there is mention of another contingent of lefty soldiers who were also Benjamites. Again, this lends credence to the possibility there might have been something genetically unique about Benjamite manual dexterity. David's general Joab (Tribe of Judah, closely linked to Judah and southern kingdom) is shown to be either left-handed or ambidextrous in 2 Samuel 20:8-10. He grabs his opponents beard with his right hand while holding a sword in his left. The opponent takes no heed of the sword in his left and is undefended when Joab strikes.

So to surmise:

Benjamin was a “son of the right hand.” Ehud (and 700+ others) were Benjamite men whose right hand was somehow restricted either through disability or binding. Yet God places the sword or slings of deliverance in their left hands.

The Paradoxical Nature of God

In God’s providential goodness he permits peculiar variations from the norms of society. God does not form all men according to one exact pattern or mold. There is great variety in the nature, capacity and position of people. While many are in the center of the bell-curve there are some that are far removed from it. There is a high probability therefore that Eglon wouldn’t have deemed a left-handed man a direct immediate threat when is sword was fastened on his non-dominate side. Unfortunately, what Eglon failed to understand is that the left-handed man has the same heart as the right-handed man….capable of the highest good but also the ugliness of lethality when pressed by desperation. Guards usually searched visitors on their left side assuming they were right-handed and drew swords from their left hip; Ehud concealed his double-edged sword on his right thigh, bypassing security. Ehud is then able to implement his shocking purpose more securely through the element of surprise and Eglon letting his guard down in what appears to have been arrogance.

Ehud’s eccentricity or abnormal dexterity is turned to advantage. What first appears at first as nothing but a societal abnormality becomes a special aptitude. A peculiarity or shortcoming can always be turned into a positive. It may enable those who suffer from it to sympathize with and help others with similar difficulty. The the blind have a mission to the blind, the alcoholic to the alcoholic, the cancer survivor consuls the cancer patient. Suffering is the language and medium to consul the sufferer. A peculiarity itself becomes the tool or path by which God’s needed work is accomplished. Paradoxically, a peculiar disadvantage in one direction is often compensated for by peculiar advantages in another. This is often the mode by which God works through man. The first last and the last first.

A man who is weak in the right hand, is often strong in the left-hand. The blind often have a rare skill in music. Muscular weakness is often offset by intellectual strength. Deficient physical health is equalized by spiritual power. Therefore, instead of complaining of shortcomings we should associate with others not avoid those who have had similar issues and determine how to turn disadvantage into an advantage. It is the proverbial turning of lemons into lemonade.

God can use even the useless as a very useful thing. Therein we have the story of God using Onesimus in Philemon. The paradoxical abnormality in the letter to Philemon is that Philemon was a free man who owned a slave. Onesimus was the slave that Paul writes to Philemon about to free him. Paul is writing to him from Roman imprisonment. Onesmus’ name means ‘useless’ in Greek, but he is very useful in making a point to shame Philemon into freeing Onesimus even while Paul is in prison so that Onesimus can carry Paul’s message to the world outside the prison.

In the end it is just another example of thousands that the Bible shows divine subversion of human arrogance or supposed cleverness. Christian and Jewish thought highlights how God consistently uses what society deems weak, overlooked, or disabled to turn the tides of history.

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

The Lindsey Clancy Horrorshow

So apparently people still don't get the full panoptic of what we're dealing with in society. The inability to understand the staggering injustice of Lindsey Clancy methodically killing her children is merely a symptom of a much larger spiritual disease that is actually a judgment against a nation. America is not only in decline, it is actively under judgment by Biblical standards. I've said it numerous times before but it warrants saying again because I've heard so many implying a question through a statement similar to this:

"I honestly do not understand what is going on in society anymore with this Clancy case. I can't comprehend a mother killing her children. What is more troubling is the women supporting it under the guise of postpartum depression."

I present a quick Biblical aside from 2 Timothy 3:1-6 and and a detour to Paul’s letter to the Romans in this post.

There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God......They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires...

The passage above is describing the root cause of a complete breakdown of society during "terrible times" in the last days. The text warns that people will become "unloving or specifically without natural affection" or astorgoi/ ἄστοργοι in Greek. Theologically the historical interpretation of this Greek word in context is understood as the ultimate corruption of natural bonds—specifically parents becoming callous, cold, or negligent toward the welfare of their own children.

In the context of the Lindsey Clancy horror show the phrase “unloving/without natural affection” is significant because storgē refers to natural familial affection or the bonds between her and the children she brutally murdered. Paul places the absence of astorgoi/ ἄστοργοι alongside brutality, lack of self-control and rejection of what is good. When a society begins losing its understanding of paternal love, it is not merely experiencing a political or moral problem. It is experiencing a massive spiritual problem. So this passage now provides us a biblical framework for discussing the horrifying breakdown of natural moral bonds in this case. If family is the building block of society it would begin to explain why the entirety of society is now in full freefall.

The family also needs to be seen as the building block of the Church which is why Paul writes this portion. It is a warning not just to individuals but to the Church. The endgame for the Devil is to bring the Church down. Family destruction is just a collateral damage or serendipitous side effects of the evil. Timothy is not merely being given a lesson about wicked people “out there.” Paul is warning Timothy about conditions that will affect the people and communities within normal society and the Church. That is the exact reason I have seen women on social media who claim to be Christian right within the Church touting support for Clancy. Their minds are twisted or they’re gullible.

While the Clancy case isn't necessarily the cause of the cultural problem—it is an especially horrifying illustration of a deeper problem Paul warned about. The erosion of self-control, moral restraint and love of God. The farther we've gotten away from God and scripture the more debased our actions have become. Paul described the corruption of the instincts that ordinarily hold human society together. Paternal instincts. That is why so many are making perplexed statements of disbelief searching for an answer to the madness. Those stating types of statements can’t possibly comprehend what is going on with the cold, callous people since they are not one of them. To understand the madness, you must become the madness.

What we now need to contend with is the degeneration of society. What happens to a society when self-control, natural affection and love for God have eroded? The Christian answer cannot simply be, “I don't understand how society got this way.” Paul told us what happens when humanity turns away from God in these passages. When God is rejected, His truth is rejected. When His truth is rejected, moral boundaries are rejected. When moral boundaries are rejected, desires that once were restrained become celebrated, defended, and normalized.

Romans 1:28-31 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil

Furthermore…

Romans 1:32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

The irony of v.32 tells us exactly why there are so many women supporting a murderer who slaughtered her three children, “…they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” Many of these women have what some would call toxic empathy. Those supporting this have had their brains seared because they are godless. So their minds don’t function in the manner they were made to. This is why Paul would earlier say:

1 Timothy 4:1-2 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

The act of searing flesh will, over time numb it by destroying nerve endings near the surface due to scar tissue that builds up. Repeated burning will only increase and thicken the scar tissue. In society people’s minds and thinking have become numb over repetitive searing.

The further society moves from God, the more deeply human rebellion and enmity against God digs its heels in and affects our understanding of gender, marriage, family, sexuality, responsibility, authority, self-control, and value of human life. This is why we should not be surprised when a culture that has spent a century rejecting biblical authority begins producing increasingly distorted ideas about morality.

If we ever hope of living in a normal society again, Christians need to do the following to push back against the tide of darkness we see enveloping us…

• We should grieve the victims.
• We should condemn evil.
• We should name the evil explicitly while holding people accountable that committed it.
• We should show compassion toward those suffering from mental illness.
• We should be able to discern if said actions are actually demonic in origin stop it.
• We should study the spiritual/moral condition of the culture and turn to God to fix what we can.

While we can simultaneously have compassion for people suffering from real mental illness, we must never be confused with calling evil good or the demonic a mental issue. The Bible delineates the two. Lindsey Clancy clearly stated she heard a male voice tell her to do it. We can acknowledge the devastating effects of postpartum and other psychiatric illnesses while still maintaining the biblical conviction that the taking of innocent human life is profoundly evil and needs to be punished, not acquitted or freed of all responsibility because of blame shifting.

When the bonds that God designed to hold families together begin to unravel, the consequences will not remain confined to the family. They will eventually be felt throughout society destroying society and inevitably the Church. 

So…the question isn’t: 

“What is wrong with society?” 

The more important question is: 

“How far have we wandered from God and how do we get back?”

Tell It to the Judge, Part I: Judged by the Company You Keep

The Book of Judges. In the book what we see is a cycle of sin and disobedience to God over and over. The people repent and cry to God for help. Their deliverance comes when God raises up a temporary leader, or judge, to save them. Over the course of the book and over time, both the people and the judges become increasingly corrupt, mirroring the ways of surrounding nations. In the beginning of Judges we see the tail end of the conquest of the Book of Joshua.

Judges 1:1-6 After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” And Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you.”

There are three main things that can be seen in this passage. I will elaborate on them over the next three posts. The first one is that before taking in hand any important matter I need to seek god's direction in prayer (v. 1). In verse 1 its says, “Israel inquired of the Lord.”  This is always the best place to start. Praying or looking to God in the midst of change, stress or struggle. I’ve seen this in my own life. I am going through it now in the process of changing jobs.

The key point is to seek God before acting, even through the stress of facing a major transition. I didn’t just seek God asking Him to bless a decision we’ve already made—I literally asked Him to direct the decision in the first place to the point that I believe he gave me signs to do so. Transitional times are times when a person especially needs God’s direction. In Judges, Joshua was gone, and Israel was entering a new season. Likewise, changing jobs can bring uncertainty about finances, relationships, responsibilities, and the future.

Prayer should come before action. Israel didn’t immediately decide which tribe should attack. They first “asked the Lord.” God may give direction one step at a time. Thereby encouraging or even forcing us to go to Him in prayer continually to determine each subsequent step. God answered Israel’s question specifically: “Judah shall go up.” He did not give Israel the entire plan at once though. Likewise, I may not receive the whole plan for my future, but I can ask God to show us the next faithful step. Seeking God doesn’t mean there will be no difficulty. Judah still had to fight. Prayer doesn’t necessarily remove the challenge; it puts us in the right posture to face it mentally. Our confidence ultimately rests in God’s leading. God said, “I have given the land into his hand.” Israel’s success was ultimately dependent upon God rather than their own strength. Yet…there were actions the Israelites had to perform themselves. Just as I had to put the next step of my plan in motion by resigning and entering into a risky period of no pay and no healthcare.

This means I had to start distrusting my own wisdom. I was already having misgivings as to my motives to take the job I just resigned from. What I realized is seeking God’s direction means more than asking God to bless my plans. It means being willing to surrender my plans to His answer if it does not align with mine. The job I have inevitably taken is one I normally wouldn’t have. My previous job was one I thought was an easy decision. In these two instances, logic was flipped. God’s will should’ve been abided by. I believe only in the most recent scenario this path was followed. The decision to take the last job as based in my understanding and aligned with my comfort zone. A mistake to be sure. All events are in the hands of God's unerring providence even the decision to take the last job. It was to fulfill something God desired of me even if it is not plainly evident. Success and failure should always prompt us to look to God for guidance. Nothing is a failure in God's plan.

Is what is happening now God’s genuine will for me? I guess I need to ask myself: (1) Am I genuinely asking God what He wants, or am I asking Him to confirm what I already want? (2) Am I willing to accept “no” or “wait” as an answer? (3) Are my motives being shaped by Scripture, prayer, wise counsel—or by comfort, money, frustration, or fear? (4) Am I trusting God’s providence even when I cannot see how everything will work out? As my father used to say, "To make a deal, you have to be willing to walk away from it."

There is also a good balance here. Seeking God doesn't mean becoming paralyzed and waiting for some extraordinary sign. I use Scripture, prayer, wisdom, counsel, circumstances, and godly judgment, while recognizing that God remains sovereign over the outcome.

There is a counterbalance to the idea to whether I am in my will, or God’s outlined in Jeremiah 41. A passage that helps me assure whether or not I am in God’s will. The Israelites are already engaged in change or trial and are looking for direction…

Jeremiah 41: 1-3 Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah[a] son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached 2 Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, “Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. 3 Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.”

In verse 7 or as the narrative states, ten days later God answered Jeremiah’s petition.

Jeremiah 41:10-16 If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.’ “However, if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and so disobey the Lord your God, and if you say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,’ then hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die.

The Jeremiah passage gives me a particularly powerful sentence to incorporate into my lesson here: I must be careful that my interpretation of God’s will is not simply my own desires dressed in a facade and religious clothing. Unfortunately, as is often the case, I have asked God's direction, hoping that the answer will be in alignment  with my own desires, and then do my best to twist it into that alignment. Sadly, what I do when I do this is I am confabulating God’s holy answer with my own sin/error. Even then, God can bend my disobedience and sin to His will. He can bend out mistakes to His desired outcome. Regardless, when seeking God's guidance, special care should be taken so to humble my will. I need to be able to do that so that I can be ready to act upon the answer God gives me. No matter how contrary it may be to my own heart. This exact idea fits with Judges because the larger problem in the book is that Israel repeatedly did what was right in their own eyes. The book begins with Israel asking God, “Who shall go up first?”—but as the story progresses, they increasingly stop looking to God and follow their own wisdom.

As a human this can be very hard to accept especially when cases of financial loss, sacrifice of worldly advantages or pleasures, self-humiliation and self-denial, resentment, jealousy, pride, vanity, praise are at stake. We’re all human. We’re all flawed. All have desires contrary to the will of God. I need to crush them and align myself to God.

What ways do I "Ask the Lord" concerning the course I need to pursue? I have a few tried and true courses of action.

(1) First and foremost I pray and engage conversation with God directly. Its a relationship first.

(2) Secondly, if God doesn’t plainly reveal it in the Scripture, He can impress it upon my mind directly in thought or dream.

(3) Third, I seek the counsel of Scripture. That I will see light and truth from the words that are the expression of the mind and will of God. There is no state of darkness, or confusion as to the path of my duty to God in the Word. In the Bible it is in black and white. Most often my answers to prayer are outlined in the Scripture. It may take a little cleverness and inductive thinking to see the answer, but it’s in there. God’s word is always a light on my path  (Psalm 119:105). There is no question of morality or conduct that the Bible cannot shed truth on. The Bible has an answer for every question if approached with the right heart and mind. The answer must be sought in intelligent, prayerful study, not as a matter of blind chance or in the presumptuous expectation of a miraculous answer.

(4) He can work through others through wise counsel. In this way my own family, friends and acquaintances have acted as judges and prophets in my very own life. The interesting thing about working through others is that some of those others may not even be believers. He can even work through my enemies and has. I am not so arrogant that I cannot learn a lesson vicariously though those I do not like (that is one of the reasons we are called to love our enemies). If God can use Satan to His ends, he can use any method or agency.

The instruments of His will are endless. Suffering, stress, affliction, success and so on. If the answer is sought faithfully and earnestly, it will come eventually. It may not come on my schedule which it often doesn’t but then again…patience isn’t one of my strengths.

An answer will unquestionably come, either by the Spirit suggesting to my mind or strengthening of what is at the time a doubt or lack of confidence, building it into a strong conviction. He will make my decision into firm reasoning by clearing away any last clouds of doubt. This last example being the most powerful form of God answering my prayer and bolstering it to perform the duty he called me to by building me from within. Conviction.

In the end it is not hard to assume my character, morals and decisions match the person, people or things I choose to spend the most time with. The people or things I surround myself with influence the direction of my life for good and bad. Who has the greatest influence on my thinking? The God/god I chose to listen to changes what I worship. Is it the One True God or the god of the world and my own making?

Keeping Your End of the Deal

I am continually pressed to strengthen my faith. Trials and unpleasant events have been a constant in my life since God entered back into it full blast around 2005. I have taken jobs and I have lost jobs. I completed a college degree. I lost a parent and family members. I watched my fiancé suffer through cancer. I have gone through the highs and lows of parenting and watch my sons surmount their own trials. Discomfort has become the norm and comfort is often fleeting.

Each trial and overcoming of trial has built on the last. The trials are common for me and those around me now. They say just one really stressful event in any given year can be traumatizing. I have gone through two or three of them in some years. You learn longsuffering. You learn pain and how God allows you to cope with it. Endurance. Perseverence.

Some of my problems are self-wrought. At times I am unable to remain silent and not tell people truth if I know it is damaging mentally or physically…from the entry level employee to the CEO of companies. What I have found nearly without question is there is a deficit of accountability in society. Many outside observers often point to the unemployed, uneducated clerical position or the youth to blame for this type unaccountability. The real truth is the blight extends all the way to upper managers, leader pastors, political ‘leaders’ and their ilk. It extends to people who in middle-age should know better but chose to sit idle. Passivity is a plague of inaction and has infected a large portion of society. The Bible even condemns it in Luke 12.

Luke 12:48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

It is apathy, unaccountability or inaction. It is the reason I’ve just resigned from a high paying job. It was never about the money. It was about making lives better and getting a better return on investment. The problem in the company was the same as the society at large. Most are content to sit on what they have and make little effort to either maintain or gain by investing energy and time. In layman’s terms sloth or laziness in abundance.

There’s an important distinction above between suffering and personal formation though. The events themselves—divorce, losing employment, completing a degree, losing parents, watching my children struggle and grow—aren’t necessarily good or bad things in themselves. What I’m saying is that, over time, surviving them has produced capacities that I did not possess before: Patience, endurance, longsuffering, and an increased ability to tolerate discomfort without immediately needing it removed. I get time to learn from the pain as I walk through it. The grind in life is the same as the pain of bearing the tonnage of weightlifting. The pain produces strength. I was born to be a spiritual pack mule.

James speaks of the testing of faith producing steadfastness; Paul likewise connects suffering, endurance, character, and hope. The point isn't that Christians are supposed to enjoy suffering but we’re not to avoid it either. In my life I have run directly towards it. That is the difference between my pro-activity and hyper focus to achieve a goal and the passivity of others whether it be as a lifter or a leader of people in work or the Body of Christ. Faith becomes something tested and emboldened when circumstances give you reasons to abandon it.

The accountability end of my comment comes in at this point because it connects directly to the second half of what I wrote. I have a conviction that being entrusted with something creates an obligation to act, not merely an entitlement to possess it. These statements are not restricted to money or formal authority. I can be entrusted with knowledge, intelligence, responsibility, influence, employees, a congregation, children, or simply the ability to recognize that something is wrong. In each case, the question becomes: What did I do with what I was given?

That's also why my frustration with passivity and lack of accountability runs much deeper than ordinary dissatisfaction. It is a spiritual discontent. I’m not merely saying, “These people aren't working hard enough.” I’m saying, “These people have been entrusted with something, they know what needs to be done, and nevertheless they choose to do little or nothing.”

Lastly, I need to address the counter argument. There needs to be a tension even in the unbridled energy I bring to bear on a situation even at almost 60 years old. People are human and some cannot necessarily perform at an exceedingly high level. There is a balance between passive idle and full throttle that is the sweet spot for an engine. Idling gets nothing done. Full throttle burns up an engine and abuses it.

The willingness to tell an uncomfortable truth can be a virtue or a sin. But the conviction that one must always tell that truth can itself become a temptation. Sometimes silence is golden. Ecclesiastes says there is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” Paul tells believers to speak the truth in love. Blurting out a truth that will clearly maim someone in spirit is not helpful or productive. Nathan confronted David; John the Baptist confronted Herod; Christ confronted religious authorities. But Christ also remained silent before His accusers when silence served its purpose. Perhaps the better principle isn't: “If I know something is wrong, I must tell someone.” Instead, it should be, “If God has given me knowledge and responsibility, I must discern whether, when, and how or even if I am obligated to act.”

The distinction matters because otherwise accountability can turn into personal responsibility for everybody else's behavior. In business they call it scope creep. In weight lifting it's called an injury. And that's a burden God hasn't necessarily given me. That is His responsibility to make others see that they need to act. I can tell the CEO what I believe he needs to hear. I can warn the pastor. I can confront the employee. I can resign when remaining would make me complicit in the sin or failure. But after I've faithfully done what I believe God obligated me to do, their response belongs to them and my responsibility ends.

In the end it comes back to faith and realizing I need to turn it over to God after my responsibility in the situation is complete. This is where all of it becomes a faith-building exercise for me. Earlier trials taught me how to endure what happened. The most recent trial seems to have taught me how to release what I can never control. Know when to walk away.

It requires a large amount of faith to say and believe, “God, I have done what I believe You required of me. Now I will trust You with what happens next.” This kind of faith can be extraordinarily difficult for someone like me whose conscience is strongly oriented toward action and accountability, because inaction by other people feels almost like something I am morally compelled to correct. I can’t. My resignation wasn’t about escaping discomfort or trial so much as it was about refusing to spend my strength and energy sustaining a system whose stewards were unwilling to steward it. I can't make others carry their end of the weight. Not all burdens are mine to carry.

I believe this is the lesson I was to learn from this. It was a modern day Parable of the Talents. How did I steward my responsibility (Matthew 25:14–30). My faithfulness is inextricably attached to stewardship. This is not the case for so many others. I was accountable to God. In the end many are not. 

Romans 14:12: “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

Stewardship asks the question: What have I done with what God gave me?

Accountability asks the question: What will I say when I must answer to God for it?

Faithfulness asks the question: Was I faithful with what I was entrusted with?

A Bird on Barbwire

The greatest lie ever told about totalitarianism by the left is that totalitarian movements are in fact a few strong men or Übermensch imposing their will on the unwilling participants. That people like Trump or Gavin Newsom are the embodiment of this at the federal or state levels.  The opposite of this is actually true. This subtle correction to the simplistic "dictator imposes tyranny on everyone" model flips the script on the mindless liberal assertion of one powerful person taking over the masses.

Totalitarian movements generally require mass participation, or at least substantial popular mobilization. They don't merely suppress an unwilling society from above; they seek to transform society from within-through propaganda, ideological conformity, political organizations, rallies, protests, surveillance and pressure to demonstrate enthusiasm organically that is actually artificial.

The paradox is that coercion and consent can coexist and are not mutually exclusive. A population may initially embrace a movement (BLM, Trans rights, etc, participate actively in and genuinely believe its ideology, while the resulting regime simultaneously destroys alternatives and makes dissent increasingly dangerous and then destroys these ‘useful idiots’.

Hannah Arendt emphasized something like this in The Origins of Totalitarianism. Totalitarian movements drew power from mass society and sought to organize otherwise politically atomized people into an ideological movement. In other words, the rogues, those left out or perceived as left out or the lone gunmen and lunatics. The "strong man" is therefore not the whole explanation; the movement and its mass base matter enormously if it is to succeed. A distinction needs to be made though.

Authoritarianism primarily asks people to obey. Totalitarianism seeks to mobilize them -to make them participate in, identify with, and reproduce the ideology of the regime. That is the reason totalitarianism can be more socially invasive and violent than ordinary dictatorship. That is why we are seeing a mobilization of the weak and marginalized in society to protest law-abiding agents of change such as ICE and other paramilitary organizations incorporated by the sitting government.

Recruiting the weak and the isolated creates a mass of weak individuals that imposes its will on a majority of sane and responsible citizens. We see it in the transgender movement, in the lunacy of the post partum killer Lindsay Clancy, and similar support of otherwise insane ideologies. At its core it is cultural Marxism. For this Marxism to take over it needs to isolate and kill of its main threat. The masculine male in a traditional male role…father, soldier, leader. Modern progressives believe that if they suppress the male drive toward strength, tyranny stays caged. They have it completely backwards and support the destructive outcome of putting weak morally rudderless males or even morally debased women in charge.

This ‘collectivism’ runs on social causes regardless of how depraved or mental they are. They enforcement by what should be considered ‘consensus enforcement’ or the ‘will of the mob’. What Americans should really be doing is shifting our focus from the so-called dictator or predator complex (Trump as Hitler) and realize that we need focus on the isolated individual as a recruit for collective power and the recruiters. The people like those supporting Lindsey Clancy, the would-be assassins of Trump and the morally bankrupt media recruitment agents. They are the cooperative agents in the hidden tyrannical takeover.

In other worlds, true totalitarians regimes exploit isolated and politically aggravated people. This applies to both sides of the aisle in America too. Both view themselves as the underdog and oppressed. Both willing to resort to violence to make a point. The left being quicker to pull the trigger than the right. The truth and time has shown that suppressing individual strength doesn't necessarily prevent tyranny; if anything, a population of fragmented, dependent, and socially insecure individuals are easier for an organized movement to mobilize.

The protesting of the oddball left therefore needs to be seen as ‘consensus enforcement’ and is born of a weak population too beta-ized and demasculinized to stand on its own. Through this weakness the true dictator steps in to take advantage of the weak and feebleminded. People who outsource their lives to the state and look to it for rescue from an existence they cannot bear. Ostracism, reputational ruin, and cancellation work best on those too frail to face rejection. A mind that judges independently, backed by a spine willing to absorb the anger that follows, is the only thing that stands against a mass movement. That is exactly why ‘acceptance’ is not only desired by the progressive left, it is demanded.

The one trait that defends against this tyranny, masculinity, is then labeled as toxic an undesirable, harmful of even extreme. There is even a biological and scientific support of this argument. Testosterone in men has fallen roughly 1% a year since the 1980s, a decline the endocrinology literature documents independent of age. A man today carries meaningfully less than his father did at the same stage of life. A growing body of research points one direction. As alcoholism and drug use increase, testosterone falls even more. As testosterone falls, so does the capacity to withstand social pressure. We are building a society where the internal capacity for dissent is falling while institutions raise the penalty for dissenting. Compliance is expected. Compounding this fact, increasingly women, more physically vulnerable by nature, move into positions of power and men grow weaker, the herd instinct that drives every collective movement takes hold due to sheer numbers or rule of the mob, not actual strength.

At this point, the herd is the precondition for every totalitarian project. The volume of sheer numbers an the mindlessness of the mob wins over the individual masculine resistance. Like a white blood cell being overwhelmed by a horde of diseased cells or a malignant cancer. The immune response to stop the spread of contagion is overwhelmed by design. The diseased cell attacks the healthy one by surrounding it, suffocating and killing it.

What is the easiest way to stop this? It is also happens to be the hardest. It requires a critical mass of strong, independent, responsible individuals, enough to outweigh the compliant mass. It begins with the refusal to pretend that sexual perversion and gender identities are okay. That illegal immigrant invaders can just do as they please. That no-fault divorce is okay and raping men blind of everything they invested in a family is a legal recourse for unemployed women with a vendetta. That women can wantonly murder children in the womb and the medical establishment gets away with calling it healthcare.

As Carl Jung wrote, resistance to the organized mass can only be affected by the man who is as well organized in his individuality as the parasitic mass is itself. The best defense against a dangerous but organized mass isn't simply physical aggression or "strength," but an individual sufficiently integrated to withstand the psychological cost of disagreeing with the group.

To summarize: Societies become weak and vulnerable when individuals become psychologically, economically, and socially dependent on institutions for identity and security. Conformity is the logical out come in oppressive societies like this because dissent then carries severely higher reputational costs. We all saw this during COVID if someone actively resisted or refused vaccination.  A free society doesn't merely need citizens who are willing to resist a tyrant…it needs citizens willing and capable of resisting their own neighbors and family if morally required. Sometimes...you just have to do the hard thing.