David (aka Jollyblogger) calls attention to a post by Kacy of Semper Reformanda entitled “10 Reasons Why I Am a Calvinist,” a tongue-in-check list meant to provide a little in-house TULIP humor. Now, I’m no TULIP but I always enjoy laughing at those who are; thus, I was immediately drawn to Kacy’s site.

David also encourages us to look at some of the responses that Kacy has gotten. I did and, while I was not surprised, I found myself being disappointed and frustrated by some of the responses to her post. (This is how I justify my anger, i.e., by labeling it “righteous indignation.”) Here’s her post (but go to her site to tell her you appreciate her and that you get the joke):

My friend Rebakha got this in an e-mail forward, so I did a google search for it inorder to share it with everyone here…

10 REASONS WHY I AM A CALVINIST

1. Calvinists tend to wear wool and cotton. Dispensationalists tend to wear lime-green polyester leisure suits.

2. John Calvin was French…being French is very chic.

3. Calvin sounds like Calvin Klein…and his clothes are very chic.

4. Calvinists can drink.

5. Calvinists can smoke.

6. Dispensationalists are into prophecy conferences where they talk about Star-Trek eschatology and the mark of the Beast. Calvinists have conferences on “life and culture”, art, social justice, and other high- brow things like that. Afterwards, we go to the local pub and talk about philosophy over a pint of Bass ale.

7. Calvinists have close ties with Scotland and Scotland is very cool: you know –Sean Connery, the movie Highlander, Bagpipes, the Loch Ness Monster, Glenlivet 18 year old Scotch, the movie Train Spotting, Braveheart, etc.

8. Calvinists think we are smarter than anybody else.

9. It is more socially acceptable to say, “I go to Grace Presbyterian Church” than to say, “I go to Washed In The Blood Worship Center”, “I go to Sonlife Charismatic Believers Assembly”, or to say “I go to Boston Berean Bible Believing Baptist Bethel”, or to say “I go to the Latter-Day- Rain Deliverance Tabernacle Prophecy Center, Inc.”, or to say “I go to the Philadelphia Church of the Majority Text”, or to say “I go to the Lithuanian Apostolic Orthodox Autocephalic Church of the Baltic union of 1838″.

10. Ultimately, I am a Calvinist because I had no choice in the matter.

Seems pretty harmless to me (BTW, as a dispensationalist, I must say that I do not own a lime-green polyester leisure suit – anymore). But here’s a distillation of a couple comments she garnered that is representative of the negative ones. (I’ve thrown in my own comments to the comment in brackets.)

I didn’t think the [post] was funny. This exalts man, exalts arrogance and pride, and it fails to glorify God.

I believe it’s blasphemous.

['Blasphemous.' Not bad taste or not funny, but blasphemous, as in equal to acting treacherously toward God (Ezek 20:27), speaking derogatorily against God's Name (Lev 24:16), or abusing the Holy Spirit (Mk 3:29).]

True Calvinism does not bring pride, but it brings humility.

[This is why I am a False Calvinist: I do not want to be as humble as this guy.]

Maybe I don’t have a sense of humor. I actually would like to think that I do have one, but for some reason this just isn’t funny, but repulsive. For instance, the comment made about “Calvinists think we are smarter than everyone else”…the pride here is outrageous. Do we see the pride?

[Actually, the more you write, the more we see it.]

Do we see the arrogance in this comment? The sad reality in this matter is that this isn’t the only comment in this [post] that promotes pride and exalts man.

As servants of our most humble Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we must never be a people of pride, but always a people of humility. May we never ever forget this humility that Christ has shown us.

[He seems to be quite proud of his humility and lack of pride, reflected here and above: "True Calvinism does not bring pride, but it brings humility. " Apparently, he possesses true Calvinism and its attendant humility.]

If we are called to take every thought captive and submit unto God in order that we may glorify Christ as we ought, then I believe that this includes that which we entertain our minds with. Our sense of humor is something that should be sanctified, and although this may seem like an “alien” concept – [Why is 'alien' in quotations? Most of us probably recognize that it's not a reference to extraterrestrials.] – I believe that in all sincerety we should submit our sense of humor unto Christ so that it might be pleasing to Him. Not for our sake, but for God’s namesake, may we be a people who are careful about what we delight in . . . We’re Christians. Everything we do should be for the Glory of God. So I asked myself the question: Does this forward bring glory to God?

[I would love to see an example of his own humor, which he believes he has and which he feels glorifies God.]

When we laugh at a satirical email forward that promotes pride and exalts man we should not be led to laugh, but led to weep over what led the author of the forward to write what they wrote and how that as a whole it fails to bring honor to Jesus Christ.

["I thank you, God, that I am not like other men . . . "]

Happily, Kacy does not yield to these latter-day Pharisees. She posts a comment of her own but does not apologize for the original post. Good for her.

Like a topical preacher, however, I want to use this incident to speak about something only tangentially related: giving offense and taking offense. But that will have to wait until later today.


2 Cor 1:13