Democratic voting is not the answer to “holding the line”, whether it is ecclesiastical, political or secular.

Democracy works when the loser accepts the result of a vote, but accepting defeat has been abandoned in recent decades. Donald Trump had no sooner won his first term in office as the US President when protests began on the day of the result. Similarly in other situations, bad losers are becoming the norm, and even dangerous, certainly to democracy. The peaceful transfer of power is under threat.

When a group that does not allow free speech becomes the majority in an elected setting, a tipping point is reached from which free speech cannot be recovered. This has been demonstrated time and again in ecclesiastical, political and secular settings. The only solution is “to begin again”.

Jordan Peterson spoke out against the woke agenda in Canada, but he was overwhelmed by voting majorities. The ability to speak and articulate clearly one’s position did not prevent his being cancelled.

He had to “begin again” and launched his online Peterson Academy, like his fellow-thinker Niall Ferguson who in 2024 launched the woke-free University of Austin. Peterson’s academy is critiqued on Wikipedia: “Observers have pointed out” that standard accreditation is unavailable. The usual Wokepedia blue pencil [Who? sources?], etc. is absent, and the idea that some people might want a good education is subordinated to worldly acclaim and accreditation.

I use this example because it is recent and easily referenced, but it is a long-standing problem – the failure of leaders in democratic situations to hold the line against dogmaticians and bad losers. Once dogmaticians gain control by superior numbers in a cancel culture situation, a tipping point is reached and there is no going back. After a variable amount of time, there will be a need “to begin again”.

“Beginning again” is a feature of being unable “to hold the line” in the original setting. It is seen in ecclesiastical, political and secular settings.

Each new political party is an attempt “to begin again”. Reform UK is the “true” Conservative Party beginning again.

Brexit was an attempt for Britain “to begin again”.

Every new ecclesiastical group arises from the failure to hold the line in the larger setting from which it emerged. The 16th-century European Reformation was true Christianity “beginning again”, unable to have its voice heard in the larger Roman Catholic institution. Cancel culture has a long history.

The concept of “fighting from within” is flawed as soon as the majority cancels the ability to do so. The plea that people should stay to fight from within is losing credibility in this age of cancel culture, the modern manifestation of a long-standing issue. Freedom-loving people need to recognize the tipping point and to learn to act at least when it is reached.

Free speech and holding the line

The inability “to hold the line” is related to the inability to openly critique and propose alternatives. This is happening throughout the Western world where free speech is under threat.

A Constitution cannot hold the line because a majority will change the Constitution if it wants to. This draws attention to the trustworthiness of those in power to uphold and act according to the Constitution.

Whether it is church or state, the inability “to hold the line” is manifest. In the Christian context, the 19th-century Brethren movement was an attempt “to begin again” but only succeeded in developing a new theology and ecclesiology with different groups of Brethren and a variety of Dispensational views in 20th-century America, from which 21st-century America is only slowly recovering the biblical basis from which it departed, like many other sects which arose in 19th and 20th-century America. In Scotland and England, the national churches have failed the nations and are now failing their own people by failing to preach the biblical Gospel, majorities in each of their supreme courts having locked in unbiblical practices. Like Roman Catholicism’s boast Semper idem ‘always the same’, the national churches seem irreformable, far removed from the Reformed mantra Semper Reformanda ‘always reforming’.

Trustworthiness

The Christian New Testament has told the Christian Church how to hold the line. It depends upon the trustworthiness of its office-bearers.

Paul told Timothy to commit the Christian Gospel “to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also”.

2Timothy 2:2

This is expanded here.

The church and the world needs “faithful men” to guide their affairs, otherwise an edifice will be built only to be taken over by others less faithful.

Links

22 Feb 2023: holding the line in Scottish Presbyterianism.

11 Dec 2023: Niall Ferguson on totalitarianism in his book Doom.