A Message to the Western Church: A Meditation on Jordan Peterson’s Ninth Rule for Life

Assume That The Person You Are Talking To Knows Something You Don’t

Earlier this year, Dr. Peterson managed to irritate most of Christendom when he retweeted a quotation from Pope Francis about #SocialJustice, commenting “There is nothing Christian about #SocialJustice. Redemptive salvation is a matter of the individual soul.” Many Christians were troubled by the fact that a public figure who has not made a public confession as a baptized Christian would criticize the teachings of the Pope. 

The public outcry from Christian thought leaders everywhere was that Jordan Peterson does not know enough about Christianity to make such a claim. The Catholic doctrines of social justice, after all, came before the postmodern neo-Marxist forms of social justice, and are rooted in the Scriptures. 

The arguments from Christian thought leaders were quite similar last year when Dr. Peterson shared a piece he had written entitled “Message to the Christian Churches,”.  In it, he called out the ways in which the Christian church has failed to inspire young men. Why should we Christians listen to Jordan Peterson as if he knows something we don’t? Is he not an outsider? 

---

Want some new merch while supporting free speech? Check out our store!

Wrong Speak T-Shirt

---

In literature, one of the most archetypal characters is that of the outsider. The outsider is often the wisest character in the book or play, having a clear perspective that those inside the narrative do not have. Some of my favorite outsiders from the Bible are Ruth and Esther. Dr. Peterson may be understood as the outsider. 

However, his wife of thirty-five years, Tammy, and his daughter, Mikhaila, are both practicing Christians and his close friend, Jonathan Pageau, is an intellectual Orthodox Christian. The influence of these dear ones on Dr. Peterson’s thinking can hardly be overstated. 

Many Christian thought leaders have called out that the contemporary Christian church in the West bears strong similarities with the seventh church from Revelations 3, the church at Laodicea. The church at Laodicea was characterized by lukewarmness or indifference. 

Our Lord said that he wished that Laodicea were either cold or hot. But the thinking that caused that vomitous lukewarmness was complacency: “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” This could certainly apply to the material prosperity of the West. It could also apply to the richness of doctrine and teaching that is readily available to us. Why should we listen to an outsider when we have need of nothing? 

Our Lord warned Laodicea: “You know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Could it be that our Lord is using Jordan Peterson to warn us likewise? 

When Jordan Peterson called out the Pope for espousing “hashtag social justice,” is it possible that he was calling out the unholy alliance between the church and the world? The creeping authoritarianism that seeks to subjugate a certain class of people? Idolatry that replaces God with ideology? Those are issues that have plagued the church all down the ages. Has the church abandoned scriptural social justice for its secular counterpart?  

Many Christians ask if Jordan Peterson is a Christian. But perhaps that’s the wrong question. As St. Paul wrote to Timothy, “The foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows them that are His.” For my part, I am convinced from my deep acquaintance with his work and his spirit that he is our brother in Christ, and unless I find out otherwise, I will consider him such, and esteem him very highly in love for his work’s sake.

There are certainly gaps in Jordan Peterson’s Biblical knowledge, as there are in ours. As St. Paul reminds us, “Now we know in part, and we prophesy in part.” Perhaps a better answer for us Christians is St. Paul’s rebuke to the church of the Romans: “Who are you to judge another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Yes, he shall be upheld, for God is able to make him stand.” God is using him mightily to build a bridge between the intellectual atheists and academics, and the church; and if God is using him, then he is God’s servant, and God will uphold him. 

Some Christians struggle to listen to Jordan Peterson because he is sometimes angry, irascible, vulgar, and crude. But so was St. Paul, who suggested that the people who were troubling the church of the Galatians should go castrate themselves. So was our Lord, who called out the religious leaders, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; for ye tithe in mint and anise, and neglect the weightier matters of the law.” 

If God can use the dumb ass to rebuke the madness of the prophet Balaam, God can use Jordan Peterson to call us complacent Christians out on our indifference and complacency. When a man like Jordan Peterson, who spent decades studying totalitarianism, is warning us that the modern social justice movement has elements of authoritarianism, we ignore, scoff, or laugh at his warnings at our peril. 

What is the way forward? Dr. Peterson says that we’re bearing our crosses and stumbling uphill toward the city of God. But what if we look around and become convicted that we are not, in fact, stumbling uphill toward the city of God? The answer is in each of the addresses to the Seven Churches: repent. We might begin by repenting of our wounded dignity and pride when we are called out on our lukewarmness and complacency. 

We often use the Scripture from the address to the church at Laodicea, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock,” as a Gospel verse. The imagery of our Lord standing at the heart’s door asking for admittance fits the Gospel message. But this is taking the verse out of context. It is addressed to those who already profess Christ, but have locked Him out of their midst. The answer to the unholy alliance between the church and the world, to idolatry and injustice and corrupt power grabs, is to open the door and let Christ in. 

We might begin by listening to someone like Jordan Peterson as though he knows something we don’t.