Withstanding the Pain Box
We’ve been accused lately of mission drift — that we’re less focused on the liturgy and more focused on cultural matters. On the one hand, this is not quite true becuase Gottesdienst has always commented on the topics of the day that bear upon the theological task. On the other hand, it is true because we are taking up topics lately that are more focused on our life as Christians and Lutherans in society and the world, which involves more than historic vestments, rites, and rubrics. We are commenting on a Christian and Lutheran stance against the ruler of this world and his lies, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The theological liberals of the early twentieth century also cared about he liturgy, and we are not their theological allies. What does it matter if we have all the smells and bells of liturgical renewal without its counterpart in a theological confessional renewal and revival? Gottesdienst has always been about both, for they belong together. There can not be liturgical renewal without a confessional renewal as we saw in the nineteenth century with Loehe, Kliefoth, Walther, et al., (this is even true of the Oxford Movement generally). And there will not be a confessional renewal without the liturgical renewal that goes with it. Lex orandi, lex credendi.
So here is some food for thought for all those who would wish to take up the banner of both a liturgical and confessional renewal in Missouri. The world will notice that you take theology, Scripture, worship, and the life it would have lead seriously. The world will notice your zeal for the truth. And it will seek to dampen it. There will be immense pressure to become secluded and quiet. There will be immense pressure to state things so as to become just a liturgical LARPer without the trappings of real confession and faith, without actually believing something.
This pressure, I think, will not be primarily physical, though it might end up there. We sing about that every Reformation Day and on The First Sunday of Lent: “And take they our life, Goods, fame, child, and wife, Though these all be gone, Our vict’ry has been won; The Kingdom ours remaineth” (LSB 656 A Mighty Fortress Is Our God).
I think rather they will be social. There will be veiled threats of loss of life, livelihood, reputation, etc. There will be ostracizing of the world-defined leprous among us. There will be a pain box that each of us will be required to stand in. There we will see our true character and our true instincts. Will we be loyal to those whom have proven to fight valiantly next to us? Will we seek to relieve the pressure by pointing the finger elsewhere so that the world will focus on them? Will we fight the battle that is right in front of us, that anyone with eyes to see can see, or will we fight the battle the world lies about instead? Regardless of how these pressures present, we will need to be able to withstand them. We will need to stand in the pain box and not give an inch.
Below is a quotation from an interview with a former Trump aid. This is not an endorsement of Trump or his aid, so please don’t make it about that. I don’t care about Trump. It is about the pain box. I’m not sure how to train yourself for it. Surely, it entails putting yourself in a variety of situations where you must endure pain. But the best thing of all is to find a team (a closely knit group of folks) that will hold you accountable and you them in maintaining the liturgical AND confessional renewal that every generation must undertake.
"The pain box is very difficult, and people have experienced it to varying degrees. But that's basically why I thought Donald Trump was the real deal, when I saw that he could endure the pain box like no other, literally the coordinated opposition of every single institution in the country, if not the world, which was against him. And he withstood it, kept his composure and it didn't faze him. In fact, he pushed harder.
People don't appreciate just how hard that is. Human beings did not evolve for the pain box. And you know, there's a reason they say – while it's cliché and I think it bears qualification – that people are more terrified of standing in front of a crowd than death. That’s because social disapproval makes people extremely uncomfortable and the mechanism of the internet and social media has enabled a kind of social disapproval, a mechanism on steroids that also has professional repercussions, potentially legal, all sorts of things, and very, very, few human beings are constituted in a way that they can withstand that. Including a lot of wealthy human beings, in fact, especially a lot of wealthy human beings….even people with money who should know better or who should have higher aspirations, who should be a little bit more ambitious - but the pain box is the reason people avoid it. And the more you have, the more the pain box can do to you. So it's understandable.
And this gets to the question of masculinity you and I talked about. I'm not one of these guys going to the gym all the time. Maybe I should. I used to be quite fit. I like to play tennis a lot, and I've gotten more fit, but I also just I like to eat. I love Dr. Pepper, and an occasional Negroni. And I just hate the gym, I'll be honest. I think it's so boring. I can't get into it. I guess my health pays the price. I think the core of masculinity though, if I have to address it, is not about that. The core of masculinity is really having the characteristics that you need to withstand the pain box. And you know, you could be, you could be as ripped as possible. You can be in great shape, which, you know, that's good for just life generally. A lot of guys in great shape, the second they get a little hint of the pain box, they snap. They don't have what it takes, which is a kind of spiritual strength. A lot of people don't have it. So what's the point in building up your strength or any kind of equivalent of strength, building up wealth, building up anything if you ultimately don't have what it takes to be truly independent, sovereign, and to withstand social pressures? Because there's nothing more feminine than caving into social pressure.
That to me, that's masculinity. That's calm under pressure. It's withstanding social pressure, and it's the rarest thing in the world, and you just don't see it very much at all. And I'd say that's the core of masculinity. If you don't have that, you're not getting anywhere. If we don't have people who exhibit those traits, we're not getting anywhere. And so that more than any other attribute, more than muscles, more than money, more than, you know, more than Bugattis (laughs), being able to withstand the pain box, to withstand the social pressure and to hold frame is the most important and manly thing you could possibly do….It's not unique to men, but I think ultimately that ability to withstand the pain box is masculine trait, and we need more of it, and so we’ve got encourage it as much as we can."
- Darren Beattie, interviewed by Noor bin Laden (HT: Aaron Renn)