Back in 2015, David French observed rightly:

“Especially among Evangelicals, there is a naïve belief that if only we were winsome enough, kind enough, and compassionate enough, the culture would welcome us with open arms. But now our love … is hate.”

Then, yesterday, he offered this cumulative expression supporting a constitutional right to same-sex marriage:

The magic of the American republic is that it can create space for people who possess deeply different world views to live together, work together, and thrive together, even as they stay true to their different religious faiths and moral convictions. The Senate’s Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t solve every issue in America’s culture war (much less every issue related to marriage), but it’s a bipartisan step in the right direction. It demonstrates that compromise still works, and that pluralism has life left in it yet.

French’s pluralism has been absorbed into his very framework. Drag Queen hour, same-sex marriage, and now there is no limit for which he will not trespass in favor of a pluralistic society. All of this stems from the winsome strategy, which David rightly abhorred in 2015, but now endorses lexically and logically.

So, I would like to offer an overview of a biblical approach as a strategy and policy in an age of winsome apologists. Several recent essays have offered a rich description of what has happened to the winsome phenomenon. Evangelical writers and theologians once known for defending the good have sought to minimize Gospel realities by maximizing opportunities for ecumenical endeavors.

These endeavors did not produce the fruit expected, and, instead, it has led inevitably to the prodigalness of the evangelical left. The result is a Babylonian conundrum leaving these figures defending the other side instead of protecting the voices most closely aligned with the cause of the Gospel.

The winsome project has led to the adulteration of the good by compromising the good. My premise is that these authors have failed to see the Church’s role as that of protecting the creational order and priorities at all costs. These priorities negate the winsome strategy and advocate for something more distinctly assertive regarding our relationship with ungodliness in this world.

To provide a bit of a rationale for what I call “A creational apologetic for mockery,” let me begin by offering some propositions and then conclude with some observations about the state of things in the Church.

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Dear friend,

You expressed so much joy in coming into a liturgical understanding of time. As you and I have experienced growing up in non-liturgical traditions, the Church Calendar is a tough sell in our evangelical culture. You inquired further about where you should begin communicating these thoughts with family and friends.

The first point to consider is that a lack of calendar knowledge is not a lack of godliness. So, you should avoid chronological snobbery when considering these issues, and you should remember just how long it took you to get here.

I don’t think the denial of a church calendar stems primarily from historical illiteracy, though it may at times. The issue is not “to calendar?” but rather “which calendar?” Most in our culture have chosen calendars of their own making. They are fond of national, localized, athletic festivities over and above other ecclesiastical memorials.

As I’ve said, it’s not a poor keeping of time; it’s a selected keeping of time. I want to argue that there is a time that supersedes civic time, which is Church time. Of course, some take strict positions based on confessional commitments. I have little beef with them, and they are not my audience. My audience is those still uncertain about this business and eager to contemplate its place in their lives.

Now, I know that once we begin this conversation, there will be all sorts of fears about celebrating days for saints, angels, and other such things. But I am simply arguing for a celebration of the basic church calendar, namely the five evangelical feast days: Advent, Christmas, Good Friday, Easter (Ascension), and Pentecost. If most churches cherished and celebrated a general outline for the calendar, we could begin to see a greater harmonization of themes, topics, and vision for the church universal.

If some were to say, “Why can’t we sing Christmas carols whenever we want to; after all, every Sunday is Christmas?” The answer is: “For the same reason you don’t sing “Happy Birthday” to your child whenever you want to. Every Sunday is indeed Christmas, but every Sunday is also Easter and Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, etc.”

You can do those things, but it takes away from the appointed observance of such a time. If some were to say: “Why am I bound to observe this church calendar?” Answer: “You are not bound to. Your church is not bound to; simply, history has shown its wisdom, and its longevity has shown its importance.” But most importantly, the Bible offers a rich theology of time, and God’s people throughout sacred history have followed such patterns in remembering and commemorating defining moments in the lives of our forefathers.

There is a historical harmony established on these general feast days that all churches of all ages share. This alone should be a persuasive argument.

In sum, my point is that patterns and rhythms, and feasts play a role in the rationale of the Scriptures, and this is a good place to begin these dialogues.

Many blessings as we approach the final Sunday of the Church year.

Pastor Uriesou Brito

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We celebrate —together with a vast majority of Christian Churches in the world–the feast of All Saints. On this day, we honor and remember the saints gone before us. Traditionally, All Saints Day is the day after All Hallowed Eve on October 31st, and the Church celebrates it on the closest Sunday to the first of November.

All Saints Day is also known as the day when we celebrate the hallowed ones, those who have been honored by God because of their faithful lives. The Bible does this frequently when it says that we must give honor to whom honor is due (Prov. 3:27) and when it lists the great heroes of the faith and praises them for their mighty actions in the face of grave danger (Heb. 11). All Saints’ Day is the benediction of God upon martyrs, the “well done” upon the faithful, and the clothing in white robes on all those who, from their labors rest.

By celebrating the life of the saints, ultimately, we are celebrating the death of death. We celebrate that in the death of the faithful ones, Satan has been mocked. In fact, All Saints testify to the humiliation of the devil and evil throughout history. The Christian Church rejoices over evil by mocking death. The third-century theologian Athanasius gives a good example of the early church’s attitude toward death:

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