Have you ever encountered someone who seems to literally change their convictions with the wind? One day, they’re all conservative and Fox News-watching on nearly everything. The next day, they’re watching only CNN, and everything they say comes from a hard left perspective. Obviously, their convictions couldn’t have been that deep to begin with, and they weren’t very deeply rooted. If they were, then they wouldn’t get pulled up—swayed—so easily by the smallest of efforts.
I’ve coined a new phrase for these kinds of folks who swing back and forth from one extreme to the next. I call them “Pendulists.” (Give it time; it will make the Urban Dictionary before long.) These people don’t really look into movements and deep convictions—or even what’s right or wrong. They just put their finger in the wind and see if they can sense which way the cultural winds are going to blow so they can get ahead of the next pendulum swing.
And they almost always get it wrong.
But for now, pendulists find themselves not only failing to realize that the pendulum has swung but also failing to see that the secular pendulum is almost never where they thought it was to begin with.
King Saul—A Pendulist from Biblical Times
This was certainly the case for King Saul of the Old Testament. He was a classic narcissist of biblical proportions. He seldom considered the stellar character and loyalty of God’s chosen next king, David, because he was too blinded by his own desire to be the people’s favorite of all time.
If he ever just looked at the facts of young David’s life, he would have never allowed the pendulum to keep swinging wildly to such damaging extremes, supporting David one day and wanting to kill him the next day.
Modern-Day Pendulists
Today, pendulists are allergic to facts. What motivates them is emotion. And feelings are the fuel that keeps them in orbit far above planet Earth and reality. Passion pushes the pendulum from one side to the other over and over again, like two tennis players who aren’t playing to win but, rather, playing not to lose. Pendulists play not to offend.
As I introduce this new and troublesome group, you might be thinking it’s not that big of a deal. If that’s you, I ask you to consider something with me for a moment and, hopefully, get your self woke. Almost every facet of leadership, guidance, teaching, education, mentoring, and so on in our society has already been captured by pendulists—from universities to social media, mass media, politics, corporate culture, and—better hold on to your britches for this last one—even many of our churches. Pendulists believe that the pendulum has swung far away from God, away from freedom, away from free speech, and toward secular humanism and socialism (if not outright communism). And, the labeling of all speech on the opposite side of the pendulum is now just hate speech.
(Now, are you starting to see it?)
And so, in order to stop the whiplash and keep the pendulum from moving ever again—because it’s in a place they like—pendulists have gone after all the “isms.” I looked at a list of hundreds of isms, and I was shocked to discover that just about everything on the list that you can think of has already been taken over by pendulists, including socialism, globalism, pantheism fanaticism, liberalism, multiculturalism, fascism, communism, materialism, narcissism, alarmism, Maoism, atheism, environmentalism, secularism, Islamism, progressivism, cronyism, Fabianisms (look it up), totalitarianism, elitism, defeatism, collectivism, despotism, establishmentarianism, feminism, humanism, vitalism, transsexualism…you get it…the list goes on and on. About the only ism they seem uninterested in these days is ventriloquism, but I’m sure they’ll add it soon enough. Putting words in other people’s mouths is just too much of a temptation to pass up.
Oh, and I also forgot truism, but pendulists hate that one.
The Solution to the Pendulist’s Dilemma
So, I know what you’re thinking. If those opposed to authenticity and godliness have already captured all these isms, Pastor Rob, what hope is there? If pendulists have already shored up all these loose-ism-ends that you’ve mentioned (and others that we can’t even think of), is there much prospect of turning all this around?
Yeah, there is. There is one ism that trumps them of all: theism. It’s the doctrine or belief in the existence of a God, the one true God, the God of the Bible, God the Father, and His one and only true Son, Jesus Christ, trumps them all. Besides, the isms are just the institutions that pendulists have captured. The most powerful institution of them all remains uncaptured.
Jesus made it plain that the most powerful institution on earth is his bride, the Church. As long as the Church stays strong and true to biblical principles, all these hijacked institutions combined will not be able to withstand her. She’s that powerful.
I talk about how we can protect and strengthen the secret weapon of God’s bride—the church—for the advancement of God’s kingdom, even as our society goes after it with everything it’s got, in my book, Overliked: Finding Direction, Courage, and Meaningful Relationships in a Society Crippled by Social Media. You’ll learn more about the optics that sway pendulists to their extremes and how to live a life of freedom that facts and truth can bring. Order your copy today!
Until next Thursday, focus on God’s truth, not the swaying of the pendulum.
~Pastor Rob
Aka, P-Ro