Kanye West’s new album, Jesus is King, has literally taken social media by storm! Kanye’s recent conversion to Christianity has caused a buzz in both the Christian and non-Christian worlds.

Perhaps his most controversial track on the new gospel album is a song called “Closed on Sunday,” (see lyrics) which Kanye performed recently on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

This line in the song has offended many people, especially those in the LGBTQ community:

Closed on Sunday, you my Chick-fil-A
You’re my number one, with the lemonade

Many media outlets including Business Insider, Cosmopolitan, FoxNews and others have written on how Kanye is promoting a fast-food brand, and one that has a strong connection to Christianity. LGBTQ activists are outraged that he would recommend a “homophobic” restaurant that does not celebrate their lifestyles.

It always surprises me how much outrage a Christian-owned chicken sandwich company can generate. But they aren’t the real story here.

In an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Kayne used the term “closed on Sunday,” in the context of his family life.

“I have to protect and take care of my family and make sure with the power that God has put in my hands that I do everything that I can, as the father, to provide the best chance (for them to be) the maximum success they can be.”

I believe the term, “Chick-fil-A,” in the song is simply a metaphor for a larger context. In the corporate world, the restaurant chain has surprised business analysts by choosing to close one day out of seven, in honor of the Bible’s admonition. Honoring God has paid off in huge financial dividends for the company.

Kanye takes that analogy and applies it to the responsibility a father has in stewarding his home (in the same way a CEO must steward a corporation). Tough decisions need to be made. Can a family take time away from digital and social media in order to focus on God and each other? Can we learn to take a Sabbath from the constant pull from the screens in our pocket?

Hold the selfies, put the ’Gram away
Get your family, y’all hold hands and pray

He is referring here to Instagram (the social media of choice for many teens). He suggests that our time could be better spent looking to the Lord, rather than pictures of ourselves.

He also warns of the dangers that lurk in the world and the need for fathers to protect their children.

When you got daughters, always keep ’em safe
Watch out for vipers, don’t let them indoctrinate

Raise our sons, train them in the faith
Through temptations, make sure they’re wide awake
Follow Jesus, listen and obey
No more livin’ for the culture, we nobody’s slave

As a father of ten, I resonate with these words. This is my desire as well.

In the interview mentioned above, he also described the devastating impact a life-long pornography addiction has had in his life. From his first exposure when he was only five, he said his addiction fueled most of his decisions throughout his life and career. As a Christian man now, he is battling back. As fathers, we all know the temptations that exist for our families. Being intentional and making tough decisions to honor God above our flesh, will result in spiritual health for us, just as Chick-fil-A has experienced business and financial success. In 1 Samuel 2:15 we are told, “Those who honor Me, I will honor.”

Speaking to this issue of temptation, Kayne says, “Jezebel don’t even stand a chance.”

Realizing the parallel Kanye is making by using the “Closed on Sunday” metaphor, and applying it to our need as families to shut things down and re-prioritize, the song shifts from being a cheap advertisement for a company, or a confusing mishmash of random concepts, to a brilliant apologetic for fathers to fight for their families and make hard decisions to honor God and do what is right. The media has this all wrong. This song has nothing to do with chicken, and everything to do with family.

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As John Stonestreet taught in his sessions at the IFI Worldview Conference, it is important for Christians to engage with culture, for culture-making is something God created us to do; to avoid culture is to avoid the world that God has given us. But how should we go about engaging culture? What about the situations we’ve all heard about, and are unsure of how to handle?

In this Q&A session for his four lectures on culture at the 2019 IFI Worldview Conference, John Stonestreet answers questions on Kanye West, social media bullying, identity politics, and gay wedding cakes, among others.

How are we to respond to the cultural darkness of this perverse and foolish generation? We cannot stress enough the importance and primacy of leading our families in Biblical worldview training. These Stonestreet worldview video sessions are just some of the great resources we provide to help equip you and your family to navigate life in an increasingly pagan culture.

Equipping ourselves, our children and grandchildren becomes increasing important with each passing day. The schemes and snares of the Evil One are multiplying quickly and hostility for the things of God are increasing at a rapid pace.

You can watch this presentation on the IFI YouTube channel, and find the other worldview sessions here.

Background

John Stonestreet serves as president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. He’s a sought-after author and speaker on areas of faith and culture, theology, worldview, education and apologetics. John is the daily voice of BreakPoint, the nationally syndicated commentary on  the culture founded by the late Chuck Colson.

Before coming to the Colson Center in 2010, John served in various leadership capacities with Summit Ministries and was on the biblical studies faculty at Bryan College (TN). John has co-authored four books: A Practical Guide to Culture, Restoring All Things, Same-Sex Marriage, and Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN). He and his wife, Sarah, have four children and live in Colorado Springs, CO.

You can follow him on Twitter @jbstonestreet.

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Leftists, controlled by “LGBTQ” activists and in thrall to their dogma, have redefined yet another term: bullying. They seek to impose their redefinition on all of society in their relentless quest to socially condition everyone into affirmation of their sexuality ideology. There’s no better evidence that they have redefined “bullying” than their claim that Melania Trump’s campaign against cyberbullying is hypocritical because her husband allegedly cyberbullies.

The often-foolish Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank recently made that claim in a column in which he argued that President Donald Trump cyberbullied former CIA director John Brennan by calling him a “political hack.” Milbank also accused Trump of cyberbullying special counsel Robert Mueller, former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, John Dean, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Charles Schumer (D-NY), Governors Andrew Cuomo, (D-NY) and John Kasich (R-OH). Milbank’s evidence that Trump cyberbullied these people? He called them names on Twitter.

Milbank’s argument raises the question “What is a bully?”

My Random House Dictionary defines a bully as “a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people.”

My American Heritage Dictionary defines it as “a person who is habitually cruel, esp. to smaller or weaker people.”

My Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “a tyrannical coward who makes himself a terror to the weak.”

My Oxford American Dictionary defines it as “a person who uses strength or power to coerce others by fear.”

Is calling famous adults in positions of cultural power names “cruel”? Are John Brennan, Robert Mueller, Chuck Schumer weak? Are they terrified by Trump’s tweets? Does tweeting mean things about famous adults in positions of cultural power constitute the use of coercive strength and power?

Apparently, the spanking new Leftist definition of “bully” omits all references to smaller or weaker people, which means that untold numbers of people—including countless “progressive” pundits, politicians, professors, teachers, and actors—are guilty of bullying.

If all epithets constitute bullying, then was former Obama press secretary, Jay Carney a bully when he called Milbank a “hack.”

When Milbank called U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) a coward and said the president is “surrounded by hooligans,” was Milbank bullying?

When perpetual power-seeker Hillary Clinton called Trump supporters “deplorables,” was she bullying?

When Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn called opponents of the legal recognition of homosexual unions as marriages sophomoric Bible-thumpers, hankie-twisters, and poisonous debaters, was he bullying?

When the editor and publisher of the “progressive” magazine The Nation, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, said former president George Bush was incompetent, untrustworthy, and dishonest, was she bullying?

When former President Barack Obama called Kanye West a “jackass,” was he bullying? When Obama called a segment of the population bitter Bible-clingers was he bullying?

Are “progressives” bullies when they call theologically orthodox Christians ignorant, hate-filled bigots for their belief that homosexual acts are immoral?

Was Jesus a bully when he called the Pharisees a “brood of vipers?”

If someone is a hack, a jackass, or a viper, is it bullying to say so?

If we use the true definition of bullying, it becomes clear who the bullies are. Bullies are those who possess cultural power—and by cultural power, I mean our dominant cultural institutions—and wield it against those with little or no cultural power.

It is “progressives” who control government schools, academia, the arts, professional medical and mental health organizations, mainstream media, social media, and corporate America. When Trump tweeted that John Brennan is a “political hack,” he was not guilty of bullying. When Carney called Milbank a hack, he was not bullying. When cultural power-brokers call an elderly florist a bigot, they’re bullying.

For tactical reasons, “progressives” have decided that when it comes to adults talking about adults, bullying no longer refers to coercive, threatening, cruel treatment of weaker people. They do that all the time. Now it refers to any speech by conservatives that’s not pleasant, sufficiently obsequious, or ideologically aligned with their views. But remember, no one has an obligation to acquiesce to Leftist language rules.

This is not an endorsement of speech that is uncivil or intemperate, but not all unpleasant speech is uncivil or intemperate. There is even a cultural place for expressions of hatred. Decent people with properly formed consciences will hate wicked acts and will say so even in the face of coercive bullying by the culturally powerful.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Leftists-Redefine-Bullying.mp3

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