Learning When To "Fight By Flight"

Is God is calling both the harvest and the workers to a healthier field?

It seems inevitable that whenever Christians engage on social media, discourse quickly  escalates to life or death stakes regarding the future of culture and politics. Our myopic focus on the issues at hand causes us to forget that the tyranny of potential censorship pales in comparison with the wide and rapid spread of information afforded to us by these platforms.  

In an environment such as this, a perfectly reasonable idea almost needs to be misrepresented to surface above the fray. It’s no surprise therefore that while debate on X rages back and forth over the definitions and use of terms like Christian Nationalism and Patriarchy, a sizeable controversy was stirred up over the mundane topic of moving from one state to another - something millions of Christians do every year, for a whole host of reasons. 

Nevertheless, this is the case with the short book, Fight By Flight, by Pastor Joel Webbon - someone so passionate about the topic that he has released the book for free on his website. 

I became familiar with Pastor Joel’s “Right Response” ministry via algorithmic suggestion on YouTube, as he industriously produces a large amount of content of various lengths. The shorter clips make him seem much more controversial, as they bear provocative titles and sometimes jarring statements, but once you get through the engagement mining strategies necessary to grab clicks and draw eyeballs, his humor and good nature start to come through. 

As seems to be a regular occurrence in my life, a book falls in my lap not so much to introduce a new idea, but to validate some conclusion at which I’ve already arrived. Such was the case with Fight By Flight, as Pastor Joel’s story bears a striking number of similarities to my own tale. 

The Canon Press audiobook comes in at just under 2 hours, and I was able to listen to it twice to make sure I grasped all the relevant details. I nodded along in understanding as Joel recounted his ambitious call to ministry, and the youthful excitement to do great things for the Kingdom, by bringing the Gospel to the city of San Diego. Like Joel, I had a brief stint working for a church in that beautiful city, but when the program that provided me with housing and a tiny stipend shut down, I realized that the economic reality of living there was completely untenable. 

The apartments in our neighborhood were full of young people who had moved there for the sunshine and surfing, but soon realized that basic living required an uncomfortable number of roommates; everyone with multiple jobs as cashiers, waiters, and baristas. I had no ties to the city, so despite my fondness for the weather, I headed back home to live with my parents until I could figure out what came next. 

Unfortunately, this meant moving back to the east-coast version of California - Massachusetts. While I love my home state, and its rich Christian heritage going all the way back to the Mayflower, economic and political realities have made it inhospitable for young Christian families, especially those who wish to enter vocational ministry. 

This was the reality in which I lived and breathed. I was extremely blessed by the spiritual inheritance that my father and mother passed on to my siblings and I. There were valuable lessons to be learned in the way they sacrificed earthly goods to provide spiritual health for their family. My father made less money by teaching at Christian schools. He became a bi-vocational minister when our pastor retired, a job that provided us with a bigger home than the tiny duplex where I had to share a single bedroom with both my brother and my sister. Our new home was a parsonage owned by the tiny church, the bulk of his remuneration for the late nights and long weekends spent shepherding that tiny flock, yet it provided us with no lasting equity. They made the big decision to homeschool us, partly possible because my mother was able to earn income working at home as a graphic designer.

My dad spent summers working as a handyman, two or three kids in tow;  - something I’m extremely grateful for now, as it provided me with the basic skills I used to break into the construction trade. 

But while the Lord was always faithful to provide, it seemed like He was constantly bailing us out of trouble. My siblings and I were keenly aware of the financial struggles in which our family lived. Things like vacations and birthdays were stressful during some seasons, as my parents were often relying on the generosity of others. Meanwhile, the homes and neighborhoods around us were undergoing a constant state of progressive gentrification, as the commuter class drove up housing prices in an ever expanding circle around the high-tech economy of greater Boston.

When I arrived back from California, I struggled mightily. How could I find a high enough paying job to escape my parents basement when I was only qualified for ministry within one particular denomination, in a place where most churches were struggling? How long could I tough it out at some soul-sucking entry level office job? How could I ever afford marriage and family? 

God provided a means of escape from much of that drudgery as I began to work in a number of positions at the Christians school down the street, which provided housing, and the opportunity to marry my wonderful wife. Thankfully, her heart for ministry meant she was just as happily working for peanuts at the same school. 

I wouldn’t trade the memories or the lessons learned from our time in Massachusetts. But we were on the same life path as my parents - considering if we would have to use a closet to house our first baby’s crib until a larger apartment became available at the last minute; squeaking by on bills every month, arguing about whether or not we could use our meager savings for a modest vacation, and the only things we owned (our cars) were rapidly depreciating in value.

Like Pastor Joel, our theological culture blinded us to many of the foolish choices we were making. No time to worry about money! God will provide if you are being faithful - there’s souls that need saving! As a closet Calvinist working in an AG church, I later came to recognize that it was partly the belief, rarely articulated, that our salvation could be forfeited, or our election unsure, that drove an imbalanced urgency to always keep working, working, working. Only for the kingdom, not for yourself, nor even for your own family. 

I was growing increasingly skeptical of rapture theology at that time; perceiving that while it led the more zealous believers to engage in fervent evangelism (the kind that results in conversions, but rarely discipleship), most regular people adopted a bunker mentality - just make it through these troubled times till Jesus sucks us up to heaven! 

But it was during the pandemic that I saw intentional fear mongering designed to neutralize Christians that really woke me up. I perceived that the complex systems of end-times prophecy interpretation resulted in a sort of predictive programming. Whether from the ideas of men or demons, the powers and principalities are continuously serving up Christians the very nightmares (or rumors of nightmares) that they have imagined from the book of revelation. 

The title of the book, Fight By Flight of course recalls the fight or flight response that creatures exhibit in the face of immediate danger. Humans are susceptible to these responses in the face of real physical threats, but it's rare that we encounter such an enemy in our current day. The type of threats we encounter are constant, wearisome, worrying and anxiety producing. It’s a more subtle attack, similar to the unman Weston in C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra, who keeps pestering Ransom simply to disrupt his sleep, keeping him constantly on edge. 

This is the type of attack that many conservative Christians feel on a daily basis, and especially the parents of young children. A thousand bureaucratic paper cuts constantly sap the resources of those who pursue marriage, family, and the ability to build generational wealth. The gradual transformation from freedoms to rights have marginalized the normal for the sake of the fringe. The generous souls of the American people have been guilted into submission to socialist ideals through weaponized compassion.

The constant barrage of gender and sexual identity politics invading media, schools and the marketplace means Christian parents must remain vigilant at all times, with no safe quarter to retreat to. A good church community can be an oasis in the midst of this societal turmoil, and can be creatively employed to assist parents in other ways. The K-12 school at our old church hired as many parents to teach as possible, the main benefit being free tuition for their kids. But in high-cost blue states like California and New England, this still requires one parent to have a relatively high paying job, and it’s still a significant sacrifice. 

As Webbon points out in the book, voting power is basically nonexistent for Christian minorities in these states. Growing up in the homeschool movement, you discover that many of the opportunities now available to Christian families were not the result of legislative decisions, but legal action, as groups like HSLDA fought court cases against states seeking total control over the indoctrination of children. This means that for many pioneers in the early years of the Christian homeschool movement, it required not only a single income high enough to support a large family, but enough extra time and resources to engage in protracted legal battles to secure those freedoms.  

With the odds stacked against the average Christian family in this way, it seems like a no-brainer to suggest that families should move out of states that are hostile towards them. But the wisdom to flee Sodom sticks in the craw of many church leaders when confronted with young men called to preach the gospel. After all, it is the lost sheep that Christ has sent us out to gather, and there’s plenty of lost sheep in California. 

But to send a young family out to a place like San Diego to plant a church, without equipping them to survive financially (which really means giving them enough to care for their kids) is almost as foolish as the early Pentecostal missionaries who went to foreign lands expecting the Holy Spirit to speak through them without actually learning the language. 

After all, to “leave the ninety nine” implies that they are all safely gathered in a spot relatively free of wolves. But this also implies a flock large enough to weather some storms. It doesn’t say the shepherd leaves the ewe and two little lambs to go seek a lost sheep. 

The call to missional living is a good thing, but some mission fields are just plain harder than others. The late Timothy Keller was older than Joel Webbon is now when he planted Redeemer in NYC, and despite complaints about his politics later in life, he didn’t pander in his preaching, nor was he popular with the elite crowd right off the bat. No one knew who he was before The Reason for God came out in 2008. While the success of his church in a difficult urban environment may be attributed to his personal style or insights, there was a deep foundation of denominational support undergirding his mission. Similar things can be said of Rick Warren, and many other “overnight success” churches in unreached urban environments.The romantic vision of a dynamic young preacher bringing revival to the big city is simply not realistic. 

Yet the heart behind that vision, however naive, is still a true reflection of the heart of God. One aspect of Webbon’s ministry that I deeply appreciate is that despite changing his theological stance on many issues, he still has a missional heart. This is evident not only in the fact that he planted yet another church in his move back to Texas, but also in the way that he reaches out charitably towards those who haven’t quite arrived at the same theological positions he has. I was impressed when I saw him speaking with Mike Winger, someone many reformed intellectuals would not take seriously,  despite the fact that the somewhat milquetoast youth pastor has millions of people watching his middle of the road answers to common theological questions. 

I applaud this effort to build bridges, and I think it’s a much needed resource in the age of the internet. Many online apologists preface quotes from reformed theologians with “I’m not a Calvinist, but they have some good things to say about XYZ…” The only reason they do this is that “Calvinist” has been turned into a pejorative by the poor behavior of many who claim the moniker proudly. Once you get past the clickbait, Webbon represents the true virtues of Calvinism quite well.

The best part of the book was the final chapter, where Pastor Joel gives a wise admonition against bitterness by exegeting the book of Jonah. This is a much needed reminder to many of us who have completed the exodus from blue state tyranny and have found “the promised land” here in Texas. Let us show grace to those who are still battling it out for the kingdom against the odds in big cities; let us show grace for the non-committal sheep that make life frustrating for church planters, and let us show grace to the leftists who love to call us bigots. They will figure it out eventually, if not in this life, then in the next. 

There are people who will repent in California, and I fervently hope that a new revival will break out, as the many people who have mutilated their bodies and minds in the service of false idols will find their true peace in Christ. But maybe they are best reached by the bachelors, or the empty-nesters looking for a new adventure. Christians will always rise up in the places of persecution. 

Christians should not fear for the lost when leaving the stronghold of the enemy. There are also many people moving to red states who don’t know Christ, because the places they are leaving have pushed things beyond the limits of human reason. Many of them are settling in places like Texas.

In the next years and decades, the red/blue distinction will likely increase, as cities like New York and San Francisco become increasingly hollowed out and depraved, the wealth will dry up and follow the hard working people to places like Texas, Florida and Tennessee. Eventually, the lie that equity and social justice can be achieved by penalizing the industrious and redistributing their wealth will fall flat in the face of clear evidence to the contrary. In the meantime, the common sense, good natured people leaving those places still need to discover why they believe that boundaries and morals exist - in other words, it is in the red states that the fields are ripening for harvest. 

My initial hesitancy with the basic premise of a book like this is that the only solution to many people in reformed circles seems to be an impulse to create Geneva 2.0, as if the problem with every other cloistered enclave was that true Calvinism had not yet been tried. Thus many of the newly minted postmillennialists are moving to Moscow, Idaho, hoping to shield their children from ever seeing or meeting an unbeliever, without realizing that the original reason Wilson went to Moscow was for a strategic missional opportunity.

I think this is one reason why I (like Joel) can’t quite get behind infant baptism. It’s not so much about the belief that your children aren’t really saved, I think baby dedication (although mocked by many) is an excellent ritual to express a parents desire to raise their children in the knowledge of the Lord, and an act of faith to believe that God will keep them and use them to expand His kingdom. But the visible act of baptism reflects an inward act of repentance, a change of direction - for those raised in church, it’s a rejection of childishness and an embrace of adult responsibility. For those coming in from the outside, it reflects a rejection of the ways of the world and a new way of life. Parents should use every means at their disposal to raise their children to love and serve God, but part of that should include a tangible effort to bring those lost sheep into God’s fold. 

This is where the role of fathers is especially important. To shield a child from all harm is the impulse of the devouring mother, to use a Jungian term - the wise father imparts strength by allowing measured trials and failures that challenge the child and cause them to grow. There is a time where shielding is most important, and for parents of small children, I think it is absolutely wise to find not only churches, but wider communities and cities that will support them and allow them to prosper. As was the case of Ruth and Naomi:

 “Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.”¹

When you can’t afford to feed your children, it’s time to move somewhere with more food. However, as children grow older, it’s the place of the father to expose them to the needs of the world - in a wise and judicious manner. This doesn’t mean bringing them to picket at a pride parade. That is ineffective and foolish; but if there are fatherless children in your community, let your children see you stepping in. If there are elderly people without sons or daughters, take your children with you to mow their lawns or share a meal. Let them see the Gospel in action. 

Finally, I would like to address one other concern that I see not in Joel Webbon’s book, but in many of the people surrounding his ideas and movements. Primarily there has been some controversy around Stephen Wolfe’s book The Case for Christian Nationalism, and his online statements, which some have said are white supremacist. These center around the debate over whether or not the greater affection for one's own kind is a good or natural thing. 

I think it can be well established that ministers and missionaries can, and sadly often do, go so far in their attempts to reach the lost that they forsake the spiritual well being of their own children. It’s an unhealthy sacrifice, and for many there may come a time when your own children need to see you step away from ministry, or certain aspects of it, to know that your love of God also means that you truly love them. At that moment, they are the sheep that are wandering away - not the people on the street. The deconstruction of PK’s with workaholic fathers is a real thing. 

On the other hand, there are those who go too far in defending the concept of the homogenized unit. From my point of view, I would say this is the one area where Wolfe’s Thomism is in the driver's seat, as it reflects Aristotle’s collectivist beliefs on politics. This is the belief that for a society to have true unity, they must all speak the same language, worship the same gods, dance the same dances, and celebrate the same holidays. This belief has two outcomes only, forcibly silencing opposition, or splitting the body. The history of Christendom reflects an ever increasing number of factions who fall into either one category, or the other. 

There is a real sense of unity within the Body of Christ, that goes deeper than skin. It is something tangibly experienced when we meet other believers who love Christ, despite vast cultural differences. Part of the beauty of this is that it does transcend natural affections, the love of Christ toward His bride is hierarchically superior to the love of kin or countrymen. 

Personal preference against interracial marriage is a real thing that is neither good nor bad, though it may not be polite to discuss. If someone is not comfortable seeking a spouse outside their culture, or they do not find certain people physically attractive, no one should force them to do otherwise. But those who try to make it an issue of sin are wrong; unless someone comes from an isolated tribe in the dark corner of the amazon, chances are at least some of your ancestors were at war with each other in ages past. 

People may decry the policies that try to force a “melting pot” situation, but America has always been a land of immigrants. In this respect, those fleeing from blue states to red should have a degree of compassion on the ethnic minorities in their community. If you know what it’s like to flee from a state that makes life difficult for traditional families, chances are they can relate. 

This could be one of the biggest areas where leftist hubris could come to backfire, if implemented properly. Yes, it is bad for people to enter a country illegally. Yes, strong borders are a good thing to protect a nation and its citizens. However, the vast majority of those fleeing from Latin America are coming because the situation is far worse in their home country. 

They want to come to America for the same reasons that Christian families want to move to Texas and Florida. The leftists assume that these immigrants will support progressive policies because it’s what traditionally has been done. They care nothing for them as individuals, only as potential for power. But if those immigrants are made to understand how transgressive to family values these policies actually are, they could be easily won over; it’s all about who is there to make an overture towards them. 

A very interesting example of this can be found in the Christian Reformed Church of North America. This denomination, straddling the line between mainline and evangelical, had at one time a huge cultural impact within the Dutch community in North America. Grand Rapids Michigan over the last century was probably closer to Geneva 2.0 than Moscow Idaho is today. 

The Liberal drift that seems to occur to most institutions over time has affected the denomination, and many of the progressive academics and denominational leaders have been pushing for an acceptance of LGBT affirming theology. However, it’s become abundantly clear that in an unusual reversal of trends, the denomination as a whole has become much more conservative, two years in a row voting to adopt language that clearly condemns any form of sexuality outside of traditional marriage as sinful. 

What caused this unusual change from liberal to conservatism? An influx of immigrant churches into the denomination, primarily Korean and Latino churches who strongly believe in family values. These churches joined the CRC because of the strong confessional standard that is not so easily bent to shifting cultural whims. Yet unity in confessional status does not mean conformity of culture; each local church reflects different aspects of the body in its makeup and liturgical practice. 

In conclusion, I would like to contrast the message of Fight By Flight with another book I read recently, Embracing The New Samaria by Alejandro Mandes. There are some details about the book that might irk some of the people who are drawing up blueprints for Christendom 2.0; Dr. Mandes is from the older generation, and while he does a good job trying to be apolitical, some of the views on things such as pandemic response clearly come from a very different perspective than that of Pastor Webbon. 

Despite these minor concerns, the book lays out an enthusiastic and optimistic message for the church to embrace the different cultures in our communities by focusing on our shared love of Christ. The views reflect something very like the vision of postmillennial eschatology, yet the focus is much more on the grassroots efforts of local churches, something over which Pastors like Webbon have much more control. So for those who have escaped exile from a blue state, we should remember what it was like to live in a hostile land, and seek to create an inviting space for the other refugees around us. As God spoke to the Israelites

“You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”²

Fleeing Godless places may be the first step towards creating a more Christian nation, but once we have escaped the fire, let us not forget to create a space for the strangers around us. Christian Nationalism will only work after we learn how to succeed at Christian localism. This is a two way street, and I hope that many more Arminians, Baptists, Pentecostals, immigrants and foreigners would be willing to read a book like Fight By Flight. But for those who are already onboard, let us remember that the theonomic vision is a field with fuzzy margins; strangers in our community are part of God’s plan, much like Ruth was for Boaz. If they are already in the promised land, let's invite them to fight tyranny by staying.

1. Ruth 1:6

2. Exodus 22:21