Samuel Sey is one of the most level-headed and fair-handed, yet zealous Christian writers out there.
Earlier this week, Samuel sent out this tweet about his 4-month-old son and ignited a firestorm among progressive "Christians" who saw an opportunity.
In this tweet, which was an effort by Sey to do what he always does and try to proclaim truths about God and theology, Sey repeated the concept found in Psalm 51 that humans are conceived in sin, sinful from birth, inheriting the sin of Adam.
However, some folks on the Left who oppose Samuel's work and worldview keyed in on one word: "Discipline."
And, of course, they assume "discipline" is a code word for "beating" even though it can mean many things, including what it meant in this instance:
Sleep training.
Sey said his baby would not sleep and it pained him to have to put him in the crib to cry for a short time - something many parents know well.
On that night, my son was unusually difficult. He was very sleepy, but though he had a clean diaper and a full belly, he wouldn't stop crying no matter how I held him. So I figured I should place him in his crib. I decided to let him cry in his crib momentarily — which was very hard for me. I was heartbroken knowing he wanted me to pick him up, but I thought it was necessary. Moments later, he fell asleep and stayed asleep until the morning.
This first instance of "discipline" made him think of the journey of fatherhood ahead: How there would be times he would have to make difficult decisions for the good of his son, even when it breaks his own heart.
That's it. That's what my tweet was about. I hated hearing him cry in the crib. I wish I didn't have to do that. I love my son, and I love rocking him to sleep. But I knew it was necessary. I was teaching him how to sleep on his own. That's all. I assumed that kind of sleep training falls under the umbrella of "discipline."
Sey is a Ghanaian immigrant. That's an important thing to note in the mix of linguistics at play, especially when one is a sleep-deprived new dad opining on our Heavenly Father's discipline for us (Hebrews 12:7-13) and trying to put a soundbite of that thought on social media.
Since I wasn't familiar with the term until recently, I couldn't remember it when I was writing my tweet. So I used a word (discipline) that is generally synonymous with the word "training."
So the lefties who hate Sey - you know, the ones constantly tweeting about love and forgiveness and tolerance and inclusion - decided to publicly destroy an African brother in Christ and call the authorities to take his child away.
That tweet has 50k likes. 50,000 people who think Samuel Sey is an evil man because of a tweet that lacked explanation and context.
This is just pure evil:
That's what we're dealing with now people. Calling this the "negative world" for Christians is charitable.
This is DefCon 1. They are attacking and trying to destroy the life of a Christian man precisely because they disagree with his conservative politics.
Fortunately, Sey is getting support from conservative Christians of all denominations.
Brian Suavé disagrees with Sey on the topic of Christian Nationalism (Suavé being in favor), but that doesn't mean he's about to jump on the bandwagon against Sey or that he's going to ignore it.
Meg Basham had an appropriate biblical take as well for those who were shocked to hear that a Christian like Sey believes we are sinful from birth.
I hope this story wakes a few people up.
If they'd take this out-of-context tweet and try to ruin a black Christian's life because they disagree with him, what makes you think that anyone on the right is safe?
Don't think they won't come for you next.
They'll accuse you of abuse simply for wanting to homeschool your kids!
The tyranny of the moral busybody is endless. As Tacitus said, they will make a desert out of a garden and call it peace. Creating a void of fatherlessness in the name of their kind of "compassion" rivals the evil of the devil himself.
And fatherlessness is precisely what Sey is worried about the most.
You see, my father abandoned me before I was born, being a bad father is something I'm deeply afraid of. Before my son was born, I was anxious that since my father didn't love me, perhaps I also wouldn't love my son.
But to my joy, I adore my son, by the grace of God. I would never abandon him or harm him in any way. I desperately want to be a good father to him. I want to discipline him in appropriate ways, which is what scripture commands.
Samuel and his wife live in Ohio. I would ask your prayers for them. There has been no word if authorities will follow up or harass them because of this hate campaign, but it would not surprise me.
Too many faithful fathers and mothers have been silenced by wicked people, even in the reddest of red states ... and they are coming for you next.
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