an answer to Jordan Peterson

Becoming Spiritual as a Christian has always been influenced by the culture of the day. Some of those cultures seem outright bizarre to us today, like the Crusades where joining private armies to kill people was thought to be a spiritual exercise! Just as the Crusades came to an end because of their disasters, our secular world born from the Enlightenment is coming to an end in today’s developing cultural disaster. We are entering a post-secular age. A change like this in major epochs takes decades if not centuries of cultural adaptation, like changing from believing in a flat earth to sailing around a globe. We are entering one such change period now. One of the first to point the way, a Galileo, is Jordan Peterson as a personality as well as a writer. Peterson is not a Christian but there is much we can understand from him as he points to a new post-secular age.

The “12 Rules for Life” self-help book written by clinical psychologist Peterson is a best seller that undoubtedly has helped many people in the world. The book offers a set of guiding principles for individuals to live a better life. The “Rules” are based on Peterson’s observations and insights in his work as a secular psychologist plus his own personal experience. He uses many Biblical truths with secular insights to build a theory of healthy being. His “Rules” are practical and applicable for everyday life. They encourage self-improvement, self-discipline, and a focus on personal responsibility and growth, rather than letting external circumstances or other people’s opinions drive life negatively. All good things. The Rules are helpful as a secular alternative to acknowledging and following God Himself.

Unwittingly, Peterson points to a spiritual source for strength as he points out in interviews, “life is hard and terrible.” His ’12 Rules” besides using secular sources are are also sourced from primary and secondary Christian writings. Together he makes a framework to help those trying to save themselves from a life of misery or basic dullness. Peterson as a secularist is one of the first to see the secular to be complete needs known spiritual wisdom. Without a spiritual foundation the secular can not survive. The spiritual culture has immutable truths for all time through the spirit of God revealed in the Bible. Peterson is moving into a post-secular worldview.

The “Rules” themselves are self-centred trying to imbibe a deep Christian spirituality without the commitment Godly spirituality takes. Like many secular psychologists Peterson, without God, needs to focus on the lonely inner self, the ego, as the way to get life improvement. As a result the “12 Rules” are based on discovering the depravity of one’s soul and changing that for the positive. A run from the abyss. Christians are drawn spiritually to his Rules because of understanding the spiritual bankruptcy of everyone’s deep seated depravity.

The “Rules” are useful for Christians for simple life maturity but are devoid of the grace of God for Christian maturity. They can be useful to add to the Christian life but the Bible had them all along. The “Rules” are foundationally negative, a discipline to do by one’s own strength, which as most Christian know almost always and ultimately leads to failure. My Rules are simply what Christians have known or should have known all along.

Christians today also need “12 Rules” but our twelve rules are based on being sons and daughters of God looking to Jesus as our elder Brother, our leader. How are we to become disciples? My, or maybe I should give credit where it belongs, God’s, “12 Christian Rules” are a way to emulate Him for a meaningful and fulfilling life. Using Peterson’s outline, the “12 Christian Rules” are:

1. “Do not be ashamed of the gospel” (Romans 1:16) (“Stand up straight with your shoulders back.”)Yes, we are all failures, we are as Peterson says, “complete bastards” when left to our own devices. He is correct in saying this proves there is a God. Everyone is a sinner. To Peterson this means there is no real happiness. There is no escape but self help. Life is drudgery. Christians know happiness is given by the grace of God, not by our strength. Peterson follows the Greek mythos idea of masculinity as order, femininity as chaos. They are neither, “in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” God is both creative and factual. Males are “hard nosed” working the land, females are inquisitively creative in working the land. This is the opposite of Peterson’s quoted Nietzsche idea of happiness being useless and unobtainable because there is no real spiritual purpose to life, “it is just hard.” Happiness is gained by seeking to expand God’s purpose of sacrifice (order) and love (loyalty.) It is in our prayer “Thy kingdom come on earth.” Will not everyone be happy and as one in heaven? Want happiness, then unashamedly stand up and speak of the good news of having heaven now if you identify with the Jesus Kingdom.
2. “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Luke 10:27) (“Treat yourself like you are someone you are responsible for helping.”)The story of the Good Samaritan shows us it is not about being kind and generous. It is not about being responsible to treat someone as yourself selfishly. It is treat, no, beyond treat, love others better than yourself as fellow humans created by God. In the story the priest and Levite the religious people undoubtedly treated themselves as superior. They would have stayed at good lodging and would eat well, resting comfortably. They would still be as guilty if they took their money and paid for the Samaritan. It is not just treat but love as demonstrated by the Samaritan as he got blood on his hands and walked so he could save the man. In his promise of more to the innkeeper on return, the more is sacrificial love heaped upon his already demonstrated love. No matter our resources or abilities a Christian is never so tall as when they stoop to help another in love, no matter the personal cost. It is not out of our strength. It is our real love demonstrated. Being spiritual is not a badge of honour, but is a step in being like Jesus in being put out joyfully. Religious purity is not spiritual maturity. The greatest love is Christian Rule 1.
3. “Make Jesus your best friend” (1John 3:1) (“Make friends with people who want the best for you.”)Many Christians make the mistake they must help everyone. There were no social programs in Jesus’ day. Jesus likely walked past hundreds of beggars and sick people compared to every one He helped. He tells a the woman of Tyre and Sidon to stop bothering me several times. (He does relent at seeing her faith.) Jesus warns of those wasting the disciples time when he sends out the 72 with the good news. The instructions are to move on from those who make no commitment. Don’t waste time. There are plenty of people seeking your message if you only opened your mouth to tell them. Peterson also warns us to be aware of those who will drag you down. For us our best friend should be Jesus so we have no need to get validation by letting some distract us from greater work in God’s will. The problem is not enough willing to listen but enough of those willing to speak. “The fields are ripe for harvest but the workers few.”

4. “Remember you were a sinner estranged from God” (Romans 3:9) (Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.)Peterson recommends “getting on your knees and pray” and not doing so is simply being blinded to who you really are. Absolutely correct. The thing is choosing who to pray to or even knowing who you will pray to because that is who you will be. Once you were lost but now you are not as Peter says. Sinners without seeing Jesus, blinded. Jesus is for today. Peterson is true without Christ but contradictory if Jesus is for you today. Don’t be jealous because you were a mess yesterday without Jesus and no better a sinner than anyone else with Jesus.
5. “Do not discourage your children” (Colossians 3:21) (Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.)For what children are not disciplined by their father? (Hebrews 12:7) Not discouraging is not the same as not disciplining. Peterson says don’t listen to the lefties, slap your children. The “slaps” are progressively different over the child’s age. “Slaps” can not be capricious, the child must have both the ability to understand the wrong and be warned of the wrong. They should be reserved only for wilful disobedience of things that don’t make you a hypocrite. Being a hypocrite will discourage your child. For example, if you smoke don’t discipline your children if you don’t want them to smoke, quit smoking first. Being your “child’s friend” is simply giving up on yourself as a mature individual. You are the leader, the parent. We will always be wiser than even your smartest child. It is not the children’s fault, its yours.
6. “Be salt and light in the world” (Matthew 5:13-16) (Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.)Stop moaning! With Peterson having peered into the abyss of death and “nothingness” and all the negative struggles in his life Peterson thinks to quit “moaning” is impossible. It is just a question of not being a hypocrite. But, the everlasting life we are given though Christ means we can actually stop moaning. The resurrection of Jesus actually makes us salt, a substance that is put in to make things that spoil better and long lasting, and light, a property that draws people to it from the dark. Being salt means we are to insert ourselves into other people’s lives with being a Christian. Being light means we draw people in with our shining Christian lives. Both are necessary to be a mature Christian as well as a mature church. Whatever happens we in all things can rejoice because we share in Christ’s glory which He suffered for us.

7. “Ask your self what would Jesus do in your same situation” (1Thesselonnians 1:6) (Pursue what is meaningful not what is expedient)Peterson relies on Nietzsche (God is dead) to assert “life is suffering” and claims Genesis supports this. To Peterson, Life is at its core meaningless, so pursue deep meaning not the moment. He misses the point of Genesis completely, God created us for good and is in total control. Meaningfulness was demonstrated in the example God as Father gave us in Jesus Christ. Not only Jesus as a physical example but also giving us a way out in life failures and hope in knowing what life is. Without understanding who Jesus is the only option left is the negative “life is suffering” Even Nietzsche himself says without God there is no truth, that is chaos, personally and globally. The more you ask what would Jesus do the more meaning for your life is obtained.
8. “Let your yes be yes and your no be no” (Matthew 5:37) (“Tell the truth – or, at least, don’t lie.”)Peterson knows truth is important for personal peace obtained through integrity, but he points out the dangers of making oneself better than others by thinking you can find “your truth.” The problem with truth is if it left to individuals it becomes “my truth.” Human truth is subjective and variably changing with the information available or the most recent scientific study. Christians have absolute truth for reality, a way to measure real truth in any discussion by considering and respecting the person you are speaking truth to. It is moral truth that checks the excess in declaring absolute scientific or political or any other worldly truth. The Bible is absolute spiritual truth because it is about discovering truthful relationships, starting with God as creator and working its way down to even the simplest conversation. This is not easy, and takes practice. It is even harder in our narcissistic culture. Exaggeration is not truth either. Every untruth, realized or unconscious, is evil unless spoken without full knowledge in a spirit of love, then it is the responsibility of God, forgiven by Jesus if realized.
9. A fool speaks without knowing, the wise listen (Proverbs 12:15) (Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t)An interesting study discovered what is now known as the Kruger-Dunning effect. Basically, a person who knows a little about something is sure they are right and know a lot, while those who do know a lot about something do think they may not know a lot. It is only over time that those who do know a lot begin to realize it but they never match the surety of the “knows everything” fool. The journey to wisdom reminds the wise to continue listening. Wisdom takes time, and is only achieved through listening (and experience.) Listening takes work, Peterson suggests to summarize what the other says to make sure you are listening, not to get your own points ready! For today it seems a lot of Christians in their unwillingness to listen demonstrate their foolishness and get rejected by the world.
10. “Be anxious for nothing.” Philippians 4:6) (“Be precise in your speech.”)Christians often think taking everything to prayer will magically make the anxiety producing problem go away. No. Its a place to start for events but anxiety is not given normally or consistently given by God, it is the result of events which may be the result of disobeying God or embracing the Devil. Many of the problems creating anxiety are of our own making, usually by lying, both to others or to ourselves. Anxiety is created by not recognizing in detail your own sinful nature or the world’s then asking God’s help in the wrong spirit. Missing a car or credit card payment because of your spending habits is lying to yourself, to others and then praying God fixes it is mocking God. Precision in speech requires relying on God in everything, imprecise speech leads to lying to avoid reality which leads to anxiety and chaos. The tongue is hard to tame.
11. “Make sure your own ego is not bigger than God” (Romans 2:2,3) (Do not bother children while they are skateboarding.)The same things we do and are referred to as being worshipped in Romans 2 are nature, animals and men instead of God in chapter 1. Many Christians say they are not doing any of these but are they. Nature is gambling or superstitious “luck”, following the environmental movement or fad diets because we have to save the world. No we have to care for the world, which includes us using it. How many Christians think their cats or dogs are their children? Or are involved in animal rights like people rights. Is this not exchanging what God’s intends for the unnatural. Homosexuality and related lifestyles are the extreme of worshipping men. Are not our admiration of movie stars and following a pop singer or “influencer” not just the same thing? The only difference in sin and not sin is degree and perception. Accepting or criticizing any of these in judgment is probably the result of a Christian giving up on Rules 1, 2, 3 and 4.
12. “So I recommend you have fun” (Ecclesiastes 8:15) (Pet a cat when you encounter one in the street.)Happiness is a choice. Yes life is hard and it is fearful that most will die in pain but everyone smiles when they pet a cat and it purrs or pet a dog and it wags it tail. It is a choice to bring that smile to your face. For Christians we have the added incentive to rejoice in the Lord always. For Paul who was beaten, stoned, hated and derided, shipwrecked, and imprisoned there was joy because he knew he was already living in God’s eternity, what happens in this life is much less important than the next. It is religion, not faith that makes us upset with others. But we are not doormats either, everyone should be upset at the things that bring shame to the gospel, Rule 1. So live full lives under God whatever happens.

Peterson should be appreciated by Christians, he has not only stood on the edge and stared into the abyss but he fell part way into the abyss. He was abused by psychiatric physicians who addicted him to psychotropic drugs, anti-depressants, making his life absolute hell, literally. Over 20% of the population have also now been addicted by the evil wrought by so many psychiatrists. Some of the social attack Peterson endured may have been the result of years of “happy” thinking brought by the drugs he was prescribed. Peterson went into the abyss but was quick, bright enough and financially able to save himself. In the process he has revealed the reality of evil and sin which by simple definition means there is good and righteousness. Definitions dependant on each other. The heroic effort in revealing evil and sin makes his “12 Rules” even more important. There are a lot of people in his “boat.” Being in the abyss had Peterson seeking good and righteousness, God. He became the trail blazer in leading us to a more spiritual, religious post-secular society. His wife and daughter, have become Christians, maybe the first fruits of the cultural change to a post-secular world. Peterson’s “Rules” point the way to a post-secular worldview. They point to the shipwreck of sin, being estranged from God. “12 Christian Rules” is the next step showing where Christians need to be and where the post-secularist needs to aim for.

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