Video Transcript: Critical Conflict Theory

Henry - So we are moving along here and this last topic,  

Steve - - I hope going over through these has been good for you. I hope we  have said things in a gracious manner.  

Henry - Right? You know, in some ways we like to have fun. And I know that  we're smiling in times of great social injustice. Because we know in Christ that  he's overcome the world. So if you felt offended, because your situation, there a  lot of ways, you know, it's funny, you know, Abigail Dominiak, when we were  taping this before, you're going to like address all the subjects. She was worried  about us. Like dad, be careful what you say and see, 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 one's own  causes. Everyone wants a win, win. wins everything. Winning is everything  current social manifestations, power, conflict in politics.  

Henry - And winning, 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 we Brian DeCook, former chairman of the board of Christian  leaders ministries now in runs. And still, Dr. Stollerboard runs Peacefire, His  entire ministry, most of his adult life has been peacefire, trying to address that.  And in 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 to beat. 

Steve - You want to win rather than have the peace. right.  

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

Steve - Lot. So we have all these conflicts, that conflict is like a fight or a  competition. Right? If I'm an argument with you, we're in like a competition. And  I want to say and do things to win.  

Henry - Well, it really is true. I like to golf 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,  right? Otherwise, what's the point. In it to win it? Business? Politics, you know,  business, you're gonna work really hard every day and lose the contract. Right?  Is your goal to lose? No, no, you want to win that contract?  

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

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

Henry - Is it because winning feels like salvation without God or even somebody who was close to the Lord, the euphoria of winning is all you get.  

Steve - I think that's, I think, you know, God, I think created a competitive world. I mean, he in Genesis, he started his out the contest is introduced. 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 of 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 in the very beginning, God set up this game. So  we got one, and we got the other side, and here's the rules, this is winning, and  this is losing.  

Henry - So that explains why you get euphoria winning. It's so deep within our  DNA within us that we actually there is a contest we're made to win. And then 

Steve - in the conflict, it was a contest in 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 5 million blame,  and shame game creates enmity. The real conflict is good and evil life. Chaos  and peace until we see right away in Genesis 3:15, I will put enmity between  you and the woman between your offspring and her's, 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 and good and 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 that, you know, what  the devil was trying to do is distract people from that real game. The real game.  So now it's did God say? And then, you know, eat of the fruit and now it's just a  eating fruit game, right? It's not disobeying God.  

Henry - The Lord ii's a eating 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 death is your victory. Where talk O Death is  your sting, the sting of death is death. 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 of victory. Therefore, my dear brothers stand firm, we're still playing this game. Let nothing  move you. Always give yourself 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, what 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 our culture that has taken God out of things, has  elevated these things to like incredible importance. Right? And so people are  striving and trying to win, but then we find so many at the end of their life, 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, 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 that 

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 in the world of these debates, critical theories.  Critical conflict Theory is, is out there right now, and it to is a Marxist ideology.  You kinow one of the Marxist ideology is to break everything down and disrupt  everything, a new utopia is going to occur. You create a conflict, something good will come out and just create conflict. And we saw that in our world and in  various riotings and everything like that that would have occurred. And there's  social justice reasons. There are problems. In fact, because we are the 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 to 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're 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. The 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 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 you  could be depressed, and you're a victor. You can be happy and your 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 hope, the game of joy. The game  of peace. With that talk to you soon.