hillary clinton

No, Mrs. Clinton: Christian Men (and Women) Are Part of the Solution to the World’s Woes

Earlier this week, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said out loud what many socially conservative Christian believers have long suspected radical factions of culture contend to be fact:

White, Christian, heterosexual men are the cause of all kinds of problems, and maybe even behind the collapse of Western Civilization itself.

Speaking on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” Mrs. Clinton stated:

We haven’t gotten to the more perfect union, and we fought a civil war over part of it. And people have been protesting, you know, for hundreds of years that, you know, things were not as they should be, given our ideals and how we should be moving toward them. So I think that’s what makes us so special as a country.

Then came the kill shot:

And the idea that you could turn the clock back and try to recreate a world that never was, dominated by, you know, let’s say it, white men of a certain persuasion, a certain religion, a certain point of view, a certain ideology, is just doing such damage to what we should be aiming for. And we were on the path toward that, I mean, imperfectly, lots of, you know, bumps along the way. 

Mrs. Clinton’s claim that conservatives are trying to go back to a time that didn’t exist belies a fundamental fact:

In most cases, it’s the radicals who are trying to jump ahead and reimagine a world that never was. 

Since the beginning of time, it’s been established there are two genders — male and female. Suggesting that one’s biological sex at birth is malleable is pure lunacy. There is no such thing as a “trans” anybody. It’s made up. It’s make believe. It’s rooted in mental illness.

The sexual revolution that strived to separate sex from marriage has wreaked unspeakable harm and wrecked countless lives and families. 

Redefining the family is a radical act that seeks to shake upside down and inside out multi-millennia-old norms. Commodifying children via surrogacy and reckless fertility treatments is something that’s never been done before, and not simply because the technology to do so hasn’t previously existed.

Regardless of political ideology, it’s long been understood that children thrive in a family with a married mother and father. In fact, it’s been a given for thousands of years that no child should be deliberately deprived of having one of both. It’s been common sense. Until now. It’s now increasingly uncommon for the radical revolutionaries to put the interests of children in front of their own selfish lusts and desires.

Hillary Clinton’s broad swipe attack on biblical Christianity is curious in its lack of specificity. We’re left to speculate on what she meant, but she presumably doesn’t approve of the way many of us have sought to see the world through the truths of scripture: the sanctity of life, the exclusivity of one-man, one-woman marriage, two genders, etc.

But if not for Scripture’s teachings, the world would be in far worse shape than it currently is. Christianity has brought enormous advances in education, medicine, human rights, science, the arts and numerous other areas. Christian philanthropy has eased suffering and served countless people through the ages. It has been a bright light in an otherwise darkening world.

One of the great ironies surrounding attacks on America’s Judeo-Christian heritage is that the people attacking it almost all have their platforms because of it.

Yet, Hillary Clinton is right about this one thing: Biblical Christianity is doing damage to the radical ideas that comprise the agenda of those who seek to upend the teachings of God’s timeless Word — and that is a very good thing.  

Hillary Clinton and Allie Beth Stuckey: A War of Worldviews

It’s not too often that you see former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Christian podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey in the same story — but that’s exactly what happened last week.

Writing in the Atlantic, Mrs. Clinton called out Mrs. Stuckey for her use of the term “toxic empathy” — which is also the name of the social conservative’s bestselling book. In the context of the magazine article, though, the former Secretary of State was incredulous that a Christian could string those two words together.

“Toxic empathy!” Clinton wrote. “What an oxymoron. I don’t know if the phrase reflects moral blindness or moral bankruptcy, but either way it’s appalling.”

Mrs. Clinton’s comments certainly reflect her worldview. 

Allie Beth Stuckey is neither morally blind nor bankrupt. In fact, she is one of the leading Christian lights of the social conservative movement — willing to wade into controversial topics and unafraid to say what so many others seem reluctant to declare.

According to Allie Beth, “Empathy becomes toxic when it encourages you to affirm sin, validate lies or support destructive policies.”

In her Atlantic piece, Mrs. Clinton suggested “that Christians like me — and people of faith more generally — have a responsibility to stand up to the extremists who use religion to divide our society and undermine our democracy.”

It takes a certain degree of confusion and distortion to pack so many falsehoods into a single sentence. 

Mrs. Clinton goes on to deride Allie Beth Stuckey as the “Commissar of MAGA morality.” It’s curious how quickly critics of social conservative policy resort to name-calling, especially likening evangelical Christians to members of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party. 

It’s unlikely that Mrs. Clinton recognizes the irony of her criticism of Allie Beth, but it’s instructive and illustrative of the gaping ideological cultural divide we’re all navigating as Christian believers in the public square.

In short, she’s making Allie Beth Stuckey’s point.

Toxic empathy isn’t an oxymoron but an apt description of taking a strength to an extreme, and often blindly going along to get along. It discourages thoughtful discernment and instead relies on pure emotion.

In a biblical context, “empathy” is active compassion and a willingness to bear another’s burden — it’s not the suspension of the law or the absence of critical thinking. It’s to be tenderhearted but also not be someone with tunnel vision. Wise Christians understand and appreciate that decisions have consequences. To love someone is to want what God believes is best for them — not what they necessarily believe or want.

True empathy is protecting an innocent pre-born baby by encouraging and showing a mother there are ways to navigate a difficult situation. Toxic empathy is encouraging that same women to unburden herself by aborting the baby. Genuine empathy is protecting our borders to protect the innocent people in America from violent criminals trying to break into the country. Toxic empathy is throwing open the border and assuming and taking comfort in the belief most of the people coming in mean no harm.

Allie Beth Stuckey’s Christian worldview rightly appreciates that sinful men and women of faith are susceptible to distorting even good things.

“If you feel so deeply what someone else feels, you can forget that there are other people involved in this moral equation,” she told Major Garrett this past week. “You can even be blinded to objective reality and morality.”

For years, seasoned Christian social conservatives have been praying and calling for a new generation of believers to rise, defend and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to a sleepy and rebellious culture. Allie Beth Stuckey is an answer to those many prayers.