The Dulcet Tones Of Evil

 

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The biggest thing I took from Jacinda Ardern's Prime Ministership of her country, is that you can be as tyrannical as you want, but if you do it with an empathetic look on your face, and an, "I'm just your loving mother looking after you," persona, you will not only get away with it, you'll cause many Christians to be disarmed as to what is really happening.

This speaks to a bigger problem in the Church today. There are many Christians who just want their leaders, either in the Church or in government etc, to fit social conventions, and if they do then those Christians will be quiet and accept the evil that leader does without making much noise about it. Because it is polite, it is nice. 

For example, the hysteria in the evangelical church over Trump was constant, people were regularly talking about how dangerous his speech was, how bad it was for the world, how it could lead to war, how irresponsible his tweets were etc, etc. Yet he started no new wars, prevented war happening in Ukraine under his leadership, and drew down war efforts in other countries. I remember one prominent Christian said online how good it was to have someone in the Oval office who speaks in a responsible way once Trump was gone. Like that was the primary concern. 

However, the current President is constantly putting pressure on a world power with nukes, has turned what could have been a regional conflict into what will very possibly be World War 3.* But many of those same Christian leaders remain silent about it, because he talks in measured tones.

For many people it is not the acts which cause offense, it is the mannerisms of the people doing them. This is why so many people find all the discussion about tone abhorrent, because we see people justifying evil in dulcet tones, and meanwhile many of the watchmen in the Church care more about how people call this out, than the evil being committed.

The Bible is filled with warnings about the smooth talker who is plotting evil, "5 A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet" (Proverbs 29:5). The Bible again and again notes how often it is the people who look respectable (e.g. the Pharisees) who are dangerous, and the one who speaks and looks roughly (e.g. John the Baptist) who are often the earnest followers of the Lord. With exceptions of course, but this is a common presentation in the Bible.

Coming from a lower socioeconomic background outside the middle class, and into the middle class, it stands out how much nonsense the middle class will put up with, if people are just polite about it. This idol of politeness is very stark to someone who comes from a background where people call stuff what it is. If it's b.s. they call it b.s., if it's honourable they respect it. But the middle class will tolerate a lot of b.s. until someone calls it that, and then they turn their wrath on the one who called it out, because that's not polite. It is fascinating to observe and devastating for society when applied to times of intense coercion like we have experienced.

It is incredible how much these warnings to avoid the dangerous man or woman with the smooth tongue are ignored by people today. Jacinda Arden ruled over her people harshly during the last few years, and yet she did it with a nice empathetic look on her face, and so the polite people will think of her pleasantly. But the acts should get more attention and outrage than the tone of the person doing them.

*Yes, I am aware that it is actually America that is pushing for the war, and ramping up the war and making it harder and harder for Russia to end the war quickly. I understand this, but it doesn't change my point. Many church leaders appear to not care one wit about the war happening, they just care about how war, or anything else, is spoken about. At least their lowered evidence of outrage gives this impression.