How Kind?

How the Cult of Kindness is Increasingly Unkind

I feel bad circling past so many already rehearsed themes on this blog, but perhaps not all of you have gotten to know my deep thoughts about them, and, even though I’ve said everything, they remain as pathetically relevant as ever. In this case, the thing jangling around in my mind—again—is Kindness TM.

Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash

I encountered kindness in its current iteration whilst reviewing the 2021 Revioce Conference where Preston Sprinkle served as one of the keynotes. Sprinkle spoke movingly about how kindness ought to be a measure for Christian life but then, as you might expect, claimed that the Church had not shown “kindness that leads to repentance” towards those identifying themselves by the l.g.b.t.q.i.a acronym. Rather than delving into the haunting and strange way that God overturns human cruelty by his perfect and providential love, Sprinkle castigated those kinds of Christians who have not accepted the agenda and assumptions of Revoice. Not accepting the current, mostly sexual view of the person constitutes unkindness, for Sprinkle.

It’s interesting to me that The Great Sex Rescue came out as Revoice was taking off and America’s political culture was melting down. The burning embers of self-dom were suddenly fanned into an enormous blaze and many people (like me) who thought “we” were all talking about important ideas on a rocky and undulating, but still navigable playing field, were suddenly caught off guard. As the smoke cleared, there appeared through the haze an enormous hedge of protection elaborately constructed, chiefly with bricks of “kindness,” around those who wanted Christian ideas to align ever more closely with secular, nay, pagan ones.