Erick-Woods Erickson
By now, you know the Paris Olympics opened with a recreation of Da Vinci’s Last Supper painting with drag and transgender pagans.
By now, you probably also know that Olympic organizers deny it and have instead connected it to a celebration of Greek gods and pagan mythology.
In fact, a number of reporters have now “fact-checked” the presentation and declared it false to claim it represented the Lord Jesus and the Last Supper.
There’s just one problem.
The actual name of the presentation in the program for the opening ceremonies was “La Cène Sur Un Scène Sur La Seine,” which translates to “The Last Supper on a Stage on the Seine.”
Hmmmm…
Yallah, Yallah, Trump.
Growing up in Dubai with an Arabic teacher who seemed to hate all the kids, Mrs. Wahabi would yell at us all the time, “Yallah, Yallah!:” or hurry, hurry. When my kids were growing up, I’d (okay, I still do) yell at them, “Yallah,” when they’d fall behind.
Right now, the Trump team needs some Yallah.
The Democrats are working faster to define J. D. Vance than the GOP is to define Harris. Harris has received a big spike in favorability as Democrats consolidate behind her and independents take a look.
Meanwhile, Vance is the first millennial national candidate with all the millennial vices — a Spotify playlist, an old blog, group chats, etc. They have been a treasure trove for the left, along with his former friends now throwing him under the bus for no longer seeing eye to eye with them. Millennials and Gen Z all like to declare former friends heretics in public ways as a form of narcissistic self-righteousness and now Vance and his wife’s friends are the victims of that.
Within two weeks, the Vances will make Frank and Claire Underwood look like upstanding, normal people of modest political ambition. Democrats are rushing and have a national press corps helping them do this.
The GOP needs to move fast.
A VP would normally not be such a big deal, except a whole lot of people dislike Trump. A VP could take the edge off and smooth out Trump’s rough spots. But Vance is a doubling down on MAGA and a legacy play. Adding a candidate who voters perceive as equally unlikable or even more unlikeable is going to weigh down the Trump campaign and doesn’t pull back voters lost in 2020.
Meanwhile, Harris is getting a pass. She has a deep record and can, herself, come across as overly ambitious and unlikable. Focusing on her being childless or a DEI candidate, two of the current GOP attacks, make people defend her who might not. But her record is indefensible. That record needs to be hit.
More than anything, though, the GOP needs to act quickly to define Harris before she can define herself at the Democratic Convention. Yallah.
Cat Ladies
There are things I can say because I am not running for high office and have no desire to. There are also things I have learned as a talk host over the years.
For example, if I do not mention single mothers during a Father’s Day monologue, I get hate mail from single mothers who feel ignored. At this point, I tend to throw in a side reference that I’m not talking about single mothers on Father’s Day, and if they get offended, that’s on them.
If I, as I literally have, talk about the rise of childless cat ladies, I get hate mail from aggrieved women who have tried to have children and could not and it does not matter how many caveats and clarifications I make, they get defensive about a remark I do not even mean about them.
The single cat lady phenomenon and DINK (dual income no kids) phenomenon are real and, for the future of a nation, a problem.
But there are things I can say that a contender for high office cannot. If you’re going to do internet edge lording and run for office, expect blowback, rightly or wrongly.
JD Vance’s point is sound. It is also one that many women who want kids but do not have them will take personally, just as blasting Kamala Harris as a DEI candidate will make many black people who don’t like her defensive on her behalf. After all, many of them got good jobs and were stigmatized by suggestions their rise was due to affirmation action and not merit.
How we talk and the positions we take when we talk matter, whether you think so or not.
The Gates of Hell Will Not Prevail
Elon Musk, over the weekend, tweeted, “Unless there is more bravery to stand up for what is fair and right, Christianity will perish.”
If your first reaction to Musk’s tweet is to agree, it is not my opinion that you are wrong. You are, actually and factually wrong.
I have to admit I was a bit shocked by self-described Christians who agreed with him.
Historically, Christianity has thrived in persecution. It is, right now, the fastest-growing religion in China and Iran, two areas that ruthlessly persecute Christians.
Romans ruthlessly persecuted the early church, and it grew. Christ was crucified. The Apostles were all, except John, executed. The first several generations of the church were used bodily to light the streets of Rome. In fact, the Romans so ruthlessly persecuted Christians, and Christianity grew so strong in that persecution that some modern scholars actually now argue the persecution could not have been that bad since the church survived.
Good times, historically, have been hard times for the church. Hard times have pruned and strengthened the church.
But, beyond the history of the church, the reality is this.
Christianity will not perish because Christ did not perish. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church.
If everyone tomorrow decided to sit down and do nothing to defend or advance Christianity, Christianity would still spread because (1) it is true, (2) God is sovereign, and (3) you cannot stop the Holy Spirit from moving.
Christianity has, most often, regressed when men have decided they need to step in, stand up, and do something of their own accord to defend the faith.
The bottom line is this: if Christianity is true, nothing anyone does will stop it from spreading. If Christianity is not true, it deserves to perish. If you think you must do something of your own accord to advance the faith, you will harm the faith and the church’s witness. If, however, you let God work through you and around you, the church will thrive. His will be done, not ours. And if you cannot discern the difference between actions of your own accord and God working through you, read the Bible more.
The Emperors of Rome were sure they were exterminating the Christian faith, and, frankly, brave people stood up and did what was fair and right in the eyes of Rome and slaughtered the Christians who were viewed as atheist nuts, destabilizing the glory of Rome. Yes, the Christians were viewed as atheists because the Romans believed a living person could not be a God.
And what happened? You all know.
Elon Musk is not a believer. Among a certain sort of hyper online personality, “cultural Christianity” is becoming a thing. But cultural Christianity is a Christianity without Christ that makes you the center of it and, in its narcissism, breeds the idea that you must act because Christianity cannot advance without you.
If you want to do something, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Luke 10:27 (NIV).
God will take care of the rest.