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Purity Tests

Purity Tests

Last updated on: December 8, 2020 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

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Purity Tests 2020-12-05T14:48:12-05:00 Gene Veith

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Could you pass a purity test?

The Bible says that we could not: “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). And even the scraps of righteousness that we might achieve are far from pure (Isaiah 64:6).

Christianity is not about achieving purity, but about being redeemed, forgiven, and cleansed: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:23-25).

Not that purity is a bad thing. The Bible commends it highly. It’s just impossible to achieve of ourselves. Some Christians have imposed “purity tests” in matters of doctrine and practice. But these can easily go wrong. The “Puritans,” for example, wanted to “purify” the church by eliminating what they considered remnants of Catholicism–liturgy, ecclesiastical art, a high view of the sacraments–but what we Lutherans consider quite pure. At least the Puritans still believed the Gospel, that our impurities are cleansed by the blood of Christ.

Interestingly, though, many of today’s secularists, in rejecting that Gospel, are nevertheless reverting to an insistence on purity, for themselves and others. Not moral purity, exactly, and certainly not sexual purity, but an ideological purity that has the force of those traditional categories. The result is a moralism without morality, a legalism without the law, and, as Mark Mitchell has studied, a Puritanism without the Christianity.

And because there is no Gospel in this kind of Puritanism, there is no mechanism for redemption or forgiveness, so the scrutiny goes way back into the past of those who are targets for the inquisition, and the slightest transgression is met with harsh rejection.

We have been seeing this phenomenon in social media, with its judgmental hectoring and its marshaling of social disapproval. It has now become an issue as Joe Biden attempts to staff his administration.

From Zack Colman in Politico, Climate purity tests for Biden nominees split enviros

Climate change activists who helped rally progressive voters behind Joe Biden in the election are now testing their political capital by putting the president-elect’s nominees through a purity test to make sure they are devoted to eliminating fossil fuels.

Many green activists are insisting Biden reject anyone for posts in his administration who previously worked with fossil fuel companies or Wall Street firms that invested in coal, oil or natural gas. But that no-compromise stance is causing splits inside the climate movement, since it would rule out some top Obama administration hands with years of experience from helping implement the climate policies that Biden has said would be a centerpiece of his presidency.

Not even working for a company that invested in fossil fuels? As if an employee had control over what the bosses invested in. But the standard of no connection whatsoever with the fossil fuel industry rules out nearly all experts in the field of energy.

And even many environmentalists cannot live up to this level of purity. One job candidate getting flak is Arun Majumdar, who ran a much-praised clean energy program for the Department of Energy under President Obama. But, says Colman, “activists have zeroed in on his past comments allowing space for fossil fuels in a transition to a net-zero emissions economy.” You can’t even comment that we will have to transition from fossil fuels? We must eliminate them over night?

The big target of controversy is Brian Deese, whom Biden is considering to lead the National Economic Council. As an Obama advisor, he was behind some of that administration’s biggest climate change initiatives. But since then, he has been working with BlackRock, “to help the investment management giant bring climate change into its decision-making.” This is considered bad because the company, “the world’s largest asset manager,” includes in its vast investments some fossil fuel companies. You can’t even help a company become more environmental-friendly if it owns stock in an oil company?

There is also an abortion purity test. Gina Raimondo, the governor of Rhode Island, is up to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. She is pro-abortion, has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood, and has codified Roe v. Wade into Rhode Island Law.

But, following a court order, her state required insurance companies under Obamacare to offer some plans that exclude abortion, along with other plans that do. Furthermore, 36% of the residents in Rhode Island live in counties with no abortion clinics. That’s her fault? And there are only five counties in the miniscule state! The whole state is only 37 miles wide and 48 miles long! Has anyone in Rhode Island not been able to drive to an abortion clinic and to have an abortion paid for by insurance? Probably not. But this gives Gov. Raimondo a “mixed” record on abortion, which, in the minds of some Democrats, disqualifies her from serving in the Biden administration.

So far, Biden seems to be populating his administration with veterans of the Obama administration and members of the Democratic establishment. The more extreme progressive zealots are not having their way so far, though Biden will have to throw them some bones, and the extent of their influence remains to be seen.

The fact is, Biden himself is not considered “pure” by their exacting standards. Perhaps they will reject him, or perhaps, tired of their scolding, he will reject them.

At any rate, there seems to be some projection going on. Those who themselves are not pure are the ones who see impurity everywhere. As St. Paul says, “To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled” (Titus 1:15).

Illustration: Ivory Soap: 99 44/100% Pure (1954), from Procter and Gamble Heritage Center, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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