Neutral on Jordan Peterson

This is not aimed at anyone in particular; I’ve had a few hints and questions from several readers.

You don’t need me to tell you what to think about people like Jordan Peterson. All I can do is tell that he is very intelligent, but that his clarity of vision is limited to a few things he does well. Those things are manifestations of his profession as a psychologist. He’s very good at coaching people to adjust to the reality in which they live.

However, the quality of his work in that field is also limited by the context. He’s not good at ferreting out and explaining universal truth. He buys into all kinds of stuff that is very much against what Scripture says. The reason he gives those things credence is because they reflect the world in which we live today. He knows our world is pretty messed up, but he doesn’t believe in the Fall. He misses the point on how and why things are messed up, and his solutions are highly contextual. They will do you some good within the context. You may even feel prompted to keep exploring until you come to yet better answers, but he won’t take you there.

So I noted yesterday that he supports the globalist agenda because he isn’t aware that it’s not where we need to be. Most of his best work is limited to correcting a lot of the madness of those who work toward a globalist one-world culture. In other words, he’s very pragmatic about how globalism can work, but doesn’t examine the question of whether it should. So when he criticizes some aspects of globalist activism, he has exceptional clarity about what’s wrong with it. I agree with his criticisms of the extremists in the movement. I don’t agree with his fundamental orientation about what is real and what is in our best interests long term.

You can make up your own mind. I’m not going to crusade against his work; he is mostly irrelevant to what I’m doing. The only reason I mentioned him was because he was prominent in an article I cited, and that was in turn because he’s exceptionally popular right now. So in passing I noted where he was, and cited some source I don’t really like, because that source had one thing right: Peterson worked on a UN project that is devoted to globalist policy. What he did was help remove a lot of senseless junk from a report so that it stuck with the primary issues. But the primary issues were how best to achieve globalist goals.

Peterson is an example of someone who is heart-led, but committed to the wrong god. He doesn’t follow the teachings of Jesus, though he does seem to understand some parts of what Jesus taught better than most Westerners. His analysis is at times useful; feel free to watch his videos and read his books if you are so inclined. He’s a lot better than most of the range of commentators who vie for our attention every day. But I’m not a fan of his, nor his enemy.

The real issue I hope you understand is the Bible teaches that in our fallen state, it is utterly impossible to unite mankind on this earth. We can have “peace on earth” — a reference to shalom — by obeying Biblical Law. No depth or amount of human reasoning can come up with a better answer. The Tower of Babel narrative makes it clear that God will not bless our efforts if we seek global unity on any terms. Instead, Biblical Law describes a world where humanity is clustered in thousands of very tiny nations in feudal tribal covenants. Without that foundation, there can be no “peace on earth.” That’s the Word of God. Everyone chasing any other vision is fundamentally wrong.