Fool's Gold

When I was a boy, there existed an amusement park in Las Vegas called Old Vegas. It was reminiscent of Vegas as an old mining town, complete with gunfights between cowboys and prospectors mining precious metals. One of the souvenirs was a bag of gold that could be bought for a few dollars. Of course, when I bought it I thought I was rich. These people must have not known what they had. I was so ecstatic when I bought one. I immediately imagined all of the Star Wars toys I could buy with it, as that was the most valuable thing in the world to a small boy in those days. Imagine my disappointment when after all of my boasting and excitement for being rich, my mother informed me that it was not a bag of gold, but fool’s gold, otherwise known as iron pyrite. It was called “fool’s gold” because it looks like gold, but is, in fact, just a shiny rock that is completely worthless.

I was reminded of this when recently a couple of apostates from our church announced on facebook that they were no longer Christians, and because of this, they were more loving and empathetic now that they did not believe. I can only assume that is the case because Christianity is exclusive in its love, and therefore, excludes others from partaking in the things that God grants to those He exclusively loves in Christ.

Of course, I have argued many times on this blog that this type of inclusive love and empathy is contrary not only to the Bible but to common sense. There simply is no such thing as inclusive love and empathy. It doesn’t exist; and in fact, those who surmise that they practice it are actually arguing for a system that is less loving and less empathetic than that of the Bible or any practice of exclusive love, i.e., real love.

Love isn't generic. It is specific, and therefore, it is exclusive. Generic love never loves anyone, but always ends up hating those placed specifically under our care.

The wife who spends her time going from house to house and opening her legs for all of the guys in the neighborhood isn’t more loving because she is inclusive. She is less loving to her husband and family, not more. She has simply excluded her family from love and empathy in an effort to give it to everyone. The man who distributes a limited amount of food to all of the kids in the neighborhood is not more loving because he is inclusive, since he has starved his children by doing so. He has excluded his children from love and empathy, as they are malnourished and will likely die from such “love.” The hospital that has limited funds and decides to buy the entire city an aspirin each rather than spend its money curing those under its care is not more loving because it is inclusive. Inclusivity has killed its patients. What is more unloving and lacking in empathy than that? As I’ve said before, inclusive love doesn’t exist. It always excludes one group over another. A man can decide to love the murderer who comes into the house to kill his children by not shooting him, or he can decide to love his children by killing the murderer. He cannot do both. To give one homeless man your couch is to exclude the other twenty on your street from sleeping there.

Love and hatred are choices one makes to include and exclude people from one’s care. Apart from this, the words are an empty means of virtue signaling spoken by thoughtless and empty-headed people. Empathy is given to one group, precisely, because one is compassionate to give to one group by not giving to the other. The very nature of these things is exclusive.

Inclusive love isn’t love. It’s hatred. Inclusive empathy isn’t empathy. It’s apathy. And it still chooses one group over another. It’s still doing what it claims it is not doing.

God’s love, of course, is true love because it is exclusive love, not despite it. Christians truly love because their love is exclusive, not despite it.

My only thought can be that love and empathy are being defined in sappy, emotional terms and not by specific acts and behaviors that are done toward individuals. Even this, however, is contrary to what is being claimed by inclusivists, as the man who lets his children die is apathetic toward them. That’s why he lets them die and chooses the life of others over them. The woman who lets her family suffer by being a whore is apathetic toward what she is doing to her family. She lacks empathy.

The great absurdity is that even the claim of these apostates, i.e., that they are more loving and empathetic than Christians, is praising non-Christians as more loving, and condemning Christians as being hateful. In other words, it excludes Christians from praise and only includes non-Christians in that praise by grouping them in particular categories. It is apathetic toward the feelings of Christians and impugns their reputation and empathetic toward the feelings of apostates and builds up their reputation as admirable. It is itself exclusive, and if exclusive love is hatred then it is a hateful thing to say. Oh, the irony. The truth is that these people don't have a more inclusive love at all. They just have a culturally conditioned set of criteria for including and excluding that is set by other modern people rather than God via revelation. In other words, they have an alternate value system that decides who will be included and excluded, a value system that is not based in God's will, but in their and their culture's own rebellious and arroagant desires.

God reveals, however, that He loves His people because He removes the wicked who destroy them from their midst. He restores a safe and harmonious existence in creation by removing those who prevent it. He excludes Group B from living among Group A, precisely, because to let them live together isn’t loving everyone. It is an act that hates Group A. To let the oppressors and the oppressed remain together, treating them as though they are one and the same group, giving salvation to both and condemnation to none is actually to condemn the oppressed to forever live under the physical and spiritual tyranny of their oppressors.

Instead, God’s disfavor is on the destroyers His people, precisely, because His favor is on His people, not despite it. Likewise, Christians are to mimic God’s love as He has revealed it and in accordance with common sense.

What is really happening is that these apostates have now included people who society has made them feel bad about themselves for excluding, and excluded people, i.e., Christians, that society has made them feel good about themselves for excluding. This has nothing to do with being loving and empathetic and everything to do with feeling better about oneself because one’s self-image is being stroked by societal norms and sentiments. In other words, it isn’t actually about loving others at all. It is about loving oneself by being accepted by our society as a loving person. It’s about being given a merit badge by a culture that can’t think straight about what love actually looks like.

There simply is no one as loving as the God who is exclusive, and there are not people who are as loving as Christians who are exclusive in theirs. He is love and they are His people, not because they love everyone without respect to persons, but because they love “one another.”

The person who thinks he is more loving, however, has pockets full of pyrite. He pats himself on the back and gets really excited about how rich he is now. He and his “love,” however, are impoverished and lack any value in the world. His “gold” is only valuable to a fool, and he will be shown to be such both now and in the end.