What is love and how are we to love our enemies? For our enemies exit. In Duke Divinity School There is a heretic running the placem fully converged into the narrative, who wants everything to be about diversity.
How should we love such a woman? She is in deep error. Should we leave her to wallow in it? Should we correct it? I will get to the ext in a minute, but here is an example of what true love is. .
I’m responding to Thea’s exhortation that we should attend the Racial Equity Institute Phase 1 Training scheduled for 4-5 March. In her message she made her ideological commitments clear. I’ll do the same, in the interests of free exchange.
I exhort you not to attend this training. Don’t lay waste your time by doing so. It’ll be, I predict with confidence, intellectually flaccid: there’ll be bromides, clichés, and amen-corner rah-rahs in plenty. When (if) it gets beyond that, its illiberal roots and totalitarian tendencies will show. Events of this sort are definitively anti-intellectual. (Re)trainings of intellectuals by bureaucrats and apparatchiks have a long and ignoble history; I hope you’ll keep that history in mind as you think about this instance.
We here at Duke Divinity have a mission. Such things as this training are at best a distraction from it and at worst inimical to it. Our mission is to think, read, write, and teach about the triune Lord of Christian confession. This is a hard thing. Each of us should be tense with the effort of it, thrumming like a tautly triple-woven steel thread with the work of it, consumed by the fire of it, ever eager for more of it. We have neither time nor resources to waste. This training is a waste. Please, ignore it. Keep your eyes on the prize.
I have a simple method of dealing with such. The Karakia at meetings. The obligatory mentions of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The bleating about diversity and racism. I don’t turn up: that includes not turning up to welcoming ceremonies of conferences I have run. Politicians and the politically correct give me hives.
I am less loving than the professor at Duke. 
“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
Now, this has led to the authorities taking civility and love and weaponizing them to mean you will roll over and accept what we say and do what we commqnd. They see love as their narrative. They see truth as a hate crime, and not applauding big sister as unprofessional behaviour.
In this fallen time, the truth is inflammatory. The Prof is being told to repent. He is not meeting the goals of this five year plan. The faculty of Duke no longer worship God, but instead, like evil children, play at politics.
But this will be deemed professional, while confronting and calling for repentance in the Registry will not.
According to the Duke Divinity School Conduct Covenant by which you are bound as a faculty member, “Those who claim Christ speak and live truthfully. We are called to show respect to all we meet, acknowledging in our daily behavior on and off the campus that we are called to live in the image of God. We work to strengthen one another in Christ. We are welcoming and hospitable, endeavoring to create a place where all will feel safe and free to share joys and struggles, passions and conflicts, hopes and fears.” Can you honestly say that everything about the way you have conducted yourself is in conformity with this covenant’s commitment to respect and hospitality that isn’t political correctness but a biblical mandate throughout the millennia of our tradition? Are you confident that you have no need of reconciliation regarding any aspect of your conduct before celebrating the sacred mysteries of the Eucharist?
In your open letter protesting the disciplinary proceedings, you write: “What I’ve argued in these contributions may of course be wrong; that’s a feature of the human condition.” Ignatius of Loyola would slap you in the face for that contortion of Catholic spirituality. The human condition is not an excuse for being unrepentant; it is why we need to partake of the sacrament of reconciliation often. It is why we need to examine ourselves deeply so that we do not become spiritual cancer in the body of Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than repentance. In a world of self-righteous ideology, the act of humbling yourself and publicly owning responsibility for your part of a conflict is the bravest witness you can put forward of a radically different way of life. You have the power to change the narrative to one of redemption, healing, and hope.
Duke Divinity is converged. it is a synagogue of Satan. I’m not sure if the Dean is a functional wiccan, but she is not orthodox, as a quick perusal of her web page (which is in academic code, readily unpacked) demonstrates. She has not taken the truth seriously. Her use of codes of conduct to shut down dissent reeks of the tactics of the Chekists.
She needs harsh language, so that her conscience is pricked, her self esteem deflated, and she changes. She needs to give up somve very bad habits. Any father has had to do this with his children.
So let us pray for our souls. And let us shun Duke until revival comes, with tears and holy terror.