Minnesota, ICE, and the Indulged Temper Tantrum

It's Joe Rogan's fault

The Revelation study begins tonight! Details below, but first, here’s today’s post:

What you're seeing in the Minnesota ICE riots is the same disease that runs through our homes and churches: the indulged temper tantrum.

It’s a simple enough process: somebody makes a decision about what needs to be done. People who disagree think that if they throw a big enough temper tantrum, the decision will be abandoned. And, unfortunately, they’re usually right.

Good, honest people don’t throw temper tantrums, so they keep on losing. They also have a good-natured aversion to being seen as troublemakers, being called judgmental or arrogant, or bearing other social costs of taking unpopular stands. The perverse incentive structure has gone on for too long.

So much of the misery we see in our world today comes from indulged temper tantrums, and it will only go away when enough people get the backbone required to shut them down.

Spouses divorce (or live in silent misery) over successful temper tantrums all the time.
Children grow up with zero moral compass because of the successful temper tantrum.
Good, God-fearing church leaders get fired or driven out thanks to successful temper tantrums.
And, perfectly sane and moral laws like “Don’t come into our country without permission” can’t be enforced because leftists will scream, riot, and even put their lives on the line to stop it.

How the Neutrals Break the Tie

Usually the temper tantrum works not because of the people throwing the temper tantrum, but because of all the neutral people. Party A makes decision. Party B calls Party A every name in the book and insists they’re the problem. The people in the middle now think the skirmish is all Party A’s fault.

If Party A hadn’t said anything, or if they hadn’t stood behind their decision, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Rather than telling Party B to sit down and shut up, the neutrals join Party B in hopes that they can make Party A stand down and thereby make the temper tantrum stop.

Boy, that brings back some grim flashbacks. Way, way too many of us have been there.

In the case of Minnesota, it takes the form of people like Joe Rogan saying he doesn’t like the optics of the Renee Good situation. Though he’s about as centrist as it gets, Rogan endorsed President Trump, but now he’s calling foul.

People like him are okay with some immigration enforcement in theory, but the application of it makes them uneasy. And when there’s a little pushback in the streets, the whole project has to be abandoned.

Once again, the same dynamic we see in Minnesota plays out everywhere else:

• Marriage counselors side with the temper tantrum throwing spouse, disinterested in helping the couple get grounded in truth.

• Disapproving peers tsk tsk those who dare discipline their children, or grandparents step in and shield the grandchild from consequences.

• Church members get vocal about leaders who hold the line, yet they won't dare say a word to the people who cross it.

In Numbers 16, after watching God cause the ground to open up and swallow Korah and his rebellious men, the people of Israel had the gall to criticize Moses and Aaron for it. Somehow, they decided Moses and Aaron were the troublemakers and not the men whom God had just killed for their insubordination.

To say that God was not pleased would be a colossal understatement—He killed almost 15,000 people and only stopped at Aaron’s petition (16:46-50). That’s how God feels about all of these “reasonable centrists” in our homes and churches.

If you don’t have the backbone for necessary confrontation, that’s fine. But stop tying the hands of the people who do.

What’s a leader to do?

What we’re seeing now is the exceedingly rare appearance of a 21st century backbone. Yes, the optics are bad. But the mission is still the mission, and so far, they’re going to keep doing it despite the temper tantrums.

This is what must be done across the board. Unfortunately, usually it’s at this point that weak leaders cave, right before patting themselves on the back for being "servant leaders" who "managed a crisis." Those days must end if we’re ever going to make our marriages, our parenting, our churches, and our culture better.

Be warned, though: what’s even worse is that most temper tantrums work the first time. Most people haven’t even seen the intensity of a second and third wave of temper tantrum. It only gets worse before it gets better. But if you don’t have the stomach for confrontation, you don’t need to be leading.

When Paul told Timothy to do his work “in season and out of season” and that people weren’t always going to endure sound doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:1-4), it paints exactly the kind of picture we’re talking about. Just for preaching the Gospel, people were going to turn on Timothy. This was not his sign to stop. On the contrary, it was his sign to keep going.

When you make a hard decision that you feel is right, stand by it. The storm that results isn't proof you need to change your decision—it's proof you need to stand by it.

What gets rewarded gets repeated. Until temper tantrums stop working, they're going to keep happening.

---

Notes

Join me tonight for the first episode of a study through Revelation!
Each study will last 20-30 minutes. If you want to hop in the chat with comments or questions, be sure to join the livestream at 8 CT on Facebook or YouTube.

If you can’t join the livestream, I’ll be sending out a video link and posting audio to the Church Reset podcast feed tomorrow.