Reading: Transcript - Critical Conflict Theory

Henry: So, we are moving along here with this last topic.

Steve: I hope going through these has been beneficial for you. I hope we have conveyed everything in a gracious manner.

Henry: Right. You know, we like to have fun sometimes, and I know that we're smiling in times of great social injustice. Because we know, in Christ, that He has overcome the world. So, if you felt offended because of your situation, there are a lot of ways, you know, it's funny... Abigail Dominiak, when we were taping this before, you're going to address all the subjects. She was worried about us. Like, "Dad, be careful what you say," and "Steve, be careful." With this one, too, probably encompasses a lot of that.

Steve: Critical conflict theory. Number one, everything relates to conflict. Number two, everyone competes with everyone else and fights for their own causes. Everyone wants a win; winning is everything. Current social manifestations include power conflicts in politics.

Henry: And winning the Senate, winning the presidency, winning in your local...

Steve: Winning in your marriage, winning in the church. The church is about politics, families, so much. Right. Conflict, conflict, conflict.

Henry: I mean, it's almost like there's a whole industry of conflict-messing attorneys like Brian DeCook, former chairman of the board of Christian Leaders Ministries, now runs Peacefire. His entire ministry, most of his adult life, has been about Peacefire, trying to address that. And one of the things he often says is like, "Just like somebody comes to me, and they want me to help them show that they're right. But few even Christians come to me and say, 'I want peace.'"

Steve: You want to win rather than have peace, right?

Henry: So, why the fixation on winning? Even if they know maybe winning isn't the best thing for them?

Steve: Exactly. We have all these conflicts; conflict is like a fight or a competition. Right? If I'm in an argument with you, it's like a competition. And I want to say and do things to win.

Henry: Well, it really is true. Like related to golf, we like to win.

Steve: So if you're going to play a sport, why wouldn't you play it to win? Right? Otherwise, what's the point? You're in it to win it, whether it’s business, politics... you're going to work really hard every day and lose the contract? Right? Is your goal to lose? No, you want to win that contract.

Henry: Well, politics too. I mean, so much of the narrative in the news media, and in their own networks, is about the winning team in America. Democrats, CNN, then there were Republicans, Fox. And then there are other networks that align, and each time you tune into any of them, it is clearly about, "We're going to win, control the Senate, we're going to win all of this." It's an important issue. And like, we're talking about some of these social issues, which are hugely discussed earlier. And then there's winning in relationships, right?

Steve: Right. So at every turn, winning is what people are striving for, and they don't want to lose. It seems people are willing to almost do anything to win. In sports, you take steroids. In the social world, you go on Facebook, and you will defame someone who's on the other team or honor someone who's on your team. It's like the gloves come off in conflict situations. Husband and wife, they vow to love each other, and they wanted to get married, and yet when they're in the middle of a conflict, they're yelling, screaming, storming out the door, making ultimatums. And these are two people who love each other.

Henry: Is it because winning feels like salvation without God, or even for someone who was close to the Lord, the euphoria of winning is all you get?

Steve: I think, you know, God created a competitive world. In Genesis, He set up this contest right from the start. Before the winning of the contest, so in Genesis 2, the Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die." It's almost like from the very beginning, God set up this game. So we got one side, and we got the other side, and here are the rules; this is winning, and this is losing.

Henry: So that explains why there's euphoria in winning. It's so deeply embedded within our DNA that there actually is a contest; we're made to win. And then...

Steve: In the conflict, it was a contest at the beginning, and after the fall, it becomes a conflict. Right? Conflict happens after the fall.

Henry: The underbelly of contest is conflict, happens after the blame, and the shame game creates enmity. The real conflict is between good and evil, life and chaos, and peace. And we see right away in Genesis 3:15, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

Steve: So we have this natural bent towards contests. God created the world where there was this contest. Evil existed before God created Jesus, fallen in sin and the angels. That contest was there; it became conflict after sin came into the world. And it seems like the heart of what the devil was trying to do is distract people from the real game. So now it's "Did God say?" And then, "eat of the fruit," and now it's just an eating fruit game, right? It's not about disobeying God.

Henry: The Lord is making it a pseudo game. As Christians, we already won the cosmic game of good and evil, life and death, chaos and peace, and we see that in I Corinthians 15:55-58, "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." It's a lot about victory. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. The game goes on.

Steve: But now we're fighting the real game. I think, you know, our culture ends up doing and why winning is so important is it's built in. And we get a feeling of salvation by winning all these little games. So if your football team wins, then you have this feeling like something important has happened. And you were a part of it. My life has purpose and meaning because we won this game, or you got a promotion, or you got a raise, or you finally could afford a house, or whatever it might be; you won in some arena of life. And we're not saying that those arenas are bad things. Those are good things to go after. But what we're saying is our culture that has taken God out of things has elevated these things to incredible importance. Right? And so people are striving and trying to win, but then we find so many at the end of their life, at the extremity, they won, and then they start looking at what they won and it's ashes in their hands. You know, what did I win? Right? What do I really have in the end? And a lot of times, people will strive to win at these games, and they end up losing the important things like their marriage, they end up losing their family, and they certainly end up losing their connection to an almighty God who loves them, and then they end up with nothing. And what did you win? Well, your football team won, but what did you win?

Henry: Right, you know, in the world of these debates, critical theories, critical conflict theory is out there right now, and it too is a Marxist ideology. One of the Marxist ideologies is to break everything down and disrupt everything; a new utopia is going to occur. You create a conflict; something good will come out, just create conflict. And we saw that in our world and in various riotings and everything like that that would have occurred. And there are social justice reasons. There are problems. In fact, because we are in a world of sin. We are in a world with problems, but the only hope is Jesus Christ. So the gospel is the opposite. We say, No, you don't destroy people, you build them up. We say, you don't tear down every structure; you encourage it, and you pray for your leaders. You know, we say, Don't make your winning every day. The only real winning. You know, feel to you know, there are times, Christians too in the church. In ministry, what can happen is, we can feel like we have to win at being the leader, our egos, you know, need stroking. And then there are times when we have to win, that we feel in the end, Jesus Christ is the Lord. You know, if we're faced in pastoral ministry, we're going out we're visiting people, and they have said, they have cancer. The world says, it's probably God's fault but we say wow, you're at the beginning of this incredible journey. Death is defeated. Our biggest victory is not that we get five more years, 10 more years; our biggest victory is that we are lost in life. We are hidden in Christ, we are resurrected from the dead, right? We will we are in it to win it.

Steve: So our lives are not in vain. The difficulties we face in some of the, you know, we may lose these little battles here and there in our lives, but we win the big one. And so all of our struggles become more important in the light of everything we do, becomes important because we can make an eternal difference in the lives of the people around

Henry: So we live life in victory. And even our defeats or whatever. We are victorious. We can be poor, we can be rich. We're victors. You know, we could be depressed, and you're a victor. You can be happy and you're a Victor. Christ has won and defeated sin and death, and there is a new game in town. A sheriff in town, a new game. And we are in this game. And we are in it to win it. The game of love. The Game of Life, the game of hope, the game of joy. The game of peace. Talk to you soon.