Most workplaces these days have multiple online video training courses for us, the not-rich men north of Richmond. One is "Discovering Your Unconscious Bias." As you've probably guessed, its theme is you're a bigot whether you know it. I believe this is best labeled as perpetrating the white fragility myth under a different name.

Should you ever want to blow what little mind the champions of such tripe possess, show them in the Bible where they were beaten to the punch 2,000 years ago. As Paul wrote:

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

The latest Cephas Hour episode touches on this and other topics, including the unavoidable truth that Christians are human and, thus, do not always get it right, and why there are few tasks more difficult than being a Christian and a politician. Artists in this episode are Altar Boys, Bob Bennett, Crystoria, Daniel Amos, Fireworks, Mark Scudder, Petra, Terry Scott Taylor, The Choir, The Lost Dogs, Undercover, Vector, and Veil of Ashes. The show is available on demand at its website cephashour.com. It is also available via the following podcast services:

• Amazon
• Apple
• Audacy
• Google
• iHeart
• radio.net
• TuneIn

Hope it helps. Thanks.

In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, which he wrote shortly before his death at the hands of the Romans, he included this exhortation:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

It’s interesting how two thousand years later, we see this Scripture embodied in many cultural aspects one would normally not associate with anything out of the Bible. What Paul called “itching ears” is now known as “confirmation bias.” We see this in the church and outside the church. 

Looking at the latter, regardless of anyone’s political persuasion, it’s well nigh impossible not to notice how the overwhelming majority of discussion on any side of things focuses not on laying out a logical, fact-based foundation for any given position but rather lampooning the other side while making no effort to validate assumptions proclaimed as irrefutable fact. An opinion is not a truth, nor is an assumption based on personal biases a truth. 

The Gospel is neither conservative nor liberal. It does not bend to our will and whims. It proclaims the raw truth of Christ crucified to pay the penalty for our sins and Christ risen, thus destroying death’s hold on us. It proclaims a Day of Judgment for all, one where nothing stands between us and an eternity in isolation and torment except the grace of God through Jesus Christ. In a world swift to condemn the sins, be they real or perceived, of others while failing to admit its own, these are not the things to soothe itching ears or feed confirmation bias. But they are the truth.

There is a little-known fact about Christians. Rumors to the contrary that we’re all a saved and sanctified Mr. Spock variant, we do have emotions and feelings and all that other icky human stuff going on. Sometimes we fall in love. Sometimes, we fall out. 

Sometimes, we get it right when we believe we’ve found our one true soulmate, the one whom God Himself has ordained to be the other half of our living embodiment of a Mizpah coin. Other times, not so much. God loves and uses us anyway. He’s cool like that. 

From the fourth chapter of Ephesians: 

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. 

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. 

No wonder there are so few Christians in politics.