Matt Cook

Stunning and very telling. Is this because the U.S. has more immoral and unethical people in our country or simply because we’re being “discipled” to despise each other?

@Bezner The only thing, and I mean the ONLY thing I find frustrating about this verse is that I can’t shout it at some people on this platform.

The Lord will fight for you, and you must be quiet.—Exodus 14:14

@ZacharyCWagner Well and generously stated, strongly grounded. Thanks! X is not designed for considered dialogue but I do hope the “combatants” take note and respond because this is helpful.

Someone asked me to chime in on this. A few thoughts. (Apologies in advance if this is too dense or technical or long-winded for X; just how my brain works on this sort of thing.) 1. There's no single agreed-upon definition of "masculinity." Maleness is an objective thing, but it's refracted through historical contexts, cultural/subcultural contexts, family system etc. in different ways. Hence masculinity studies tends to emphasize plural *masculinities* rather than a singular *masculinity*. 2. Some versions/standards of masculinity can become "toxic" (i.e. poisonous, dehumanizing, etc.) when they are characterized by sin and form men towards vice rather than virtue. Hence "toxic masculinity" is definitely a thing and I don't think an entirely unhelpful category. 3. The trouble with the phrase "toxic masculinity" is that when some (most?) people hear it, they hear "masculinity is toxic." So even if people don't mean to imply that all masculinity is toxic, without qualifiers, this can be a rhetorically ineffective (and distracting). 4. Sometime people *actually do* mean something like "masculinity is toxic" when they use the phrase, which is, in my view, unhelpful and kinda actually genuinely misandristic. It's also un-Christian in the sense that Christians believe that maleness and femaleness are created goods, and masculinity and femininity are the natural (and potentially good) outworking of that binary. 4. Masculinity is a morally neutral *description* of culturally-situated standards of male behavior. You can make a negative value judgment of those standards by slapping the word "toxic" on as a modifier. But you can also offer aspirational visions of masculinity when you tack on a modifier like "virtuous masculinity" or talk about a "Christian" vision for masculinity. Such visions are by their very nature contestable and debatable. Someone could always say such masculinity is not really virtuous or that's it's not a faithfully Christian version of masculinity. Okay, now on to so-called "toxic empathy." 6. Masculinity and empathy are not the same in the sense that masculinity (as I've just argued) is morally neutral. Empathy is closer to a skill, emotion, or even a virtue. (People might mean different things when they use it.) 7. If empathy is a virtue then the same rules I was noting about about "masculinity" don't quite apply. Virtues *by definition* are good and un-corruptable. 8. When virtues are corrupted we don't slap modifiers on the front of them. We don't say "bad courage" or "toxic love" or "corrupt patience." We call these *vices* and have completely different words for them. Excessive courage becomes brashness. Smothering love become "abuse." Unhealthy patience becomes "passivity" or "indifference". (Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas talk a bunch about this.) 9. Virtues do not exist in isolation and must be qualified with the other virtues. The virtues are really only virtues when held in balance with the others. Patience must be governed by love which must be governed by justice which must be governed by self-control, etc. etc. (Again, cf. Aristotle, Thomas, and many others.) 10. It's not wrong to say that someone shooting for the virtue of empathy can misfire and instead act viciously. To give another example using courage, you can be trying to be brave but do it in a stupid or self-agrandizing way. Then it's no longer courage, it's being rash or self-important. Thus if you're "empathetic" in a way that compromises the virtue of justice, for example, the empathy ceases to be empathy and becomes something else entirely. So I get what folks are implying when they talk about "toxic empathy," but the phrase itself is a category error. 10. I should also point out @conservmillen is far from the first person to express skepticism about empathy. There's some stuff in the Stoics, for instance that caution strongly against getting emotionally sucked into others' problems. The entire stoic system is hyper-rational (in a way that is distinct from Christian ethics) and expresses skepticism towards all sorts of "emotional" virtues including love/attachment. 10. Rhetorically, I think there are similar dangers with "toxic empathy" as with "toxic masculinity." But the problems are worse with empathy because where masculinity is morally neutral empathy is not. From a marketing perspective, it's of course a stroke of genius because it's the book-title equivalent of rage bait. That being said, it's still a category error in a way "toxic masculinity" isn't necessarily. Addendum: I've seen @philvischer and some others going back and forth on dictionary definitions of "empathy." Frankly, I don't think this all that helpful. Dictionary definitions don't work for this sort of thing. Semantic debates (and here I'm leaning into my PhD research) for highly contestable ideas and terms are often more about word *usgae* than appealing to some objective definition that all parties can agree on. The debate exists in the first place because people can't agree on a definition and often have strong feelings about how a word *ought* to be used (see on "masculinity" above). Definitions are (imperfect) descriptions of usage rather than prescriptions for usage. Words≠concepts. My sense is that this debate about empathy is more about the concept than about the word, which makes dictionary appeals less useful.

Honestly, this is just proof that Allie Stuckey doesn’t apply her logic consistently. Toxic masculinity gets air quotes from her. Toxic empathy on the other hand gives her book sells.

@soonerad Class, Integrity, Excellence. There’s so much more that made you great at your job than championships but 26 national championships and 117 conference championships (if my math is right) is simply mind-boggling! Thanks!!!

With gratitude for all the coaches, staff, university administrators, my family, stakeholders, colleagues, donors, fans, sponsors, media and most of all, our #sooners athletes who worked so closely together to create Sooner Magic, I packed up a lifetime of memories today.

@ryanburge Discouraging and a little confusing. I’ve seen consistent data that one of the few things Americans across the political spectrum agree on, is the negative impact of polarization. If that’s true then this is “we don’t like it but please don’t talk about it.” Thoughts?

From this survey result, it's pretty apparent that very few church going Americans want to hear a lot of talk about political divisions from the pulpit.

@Bezner Get thee unto an Interim!

Just finished writing a sermon and I kind of like it?? Not sure if this is a good or bad thing. Stay tuned.

@SECcousinShane Texas at #9 is completely on brand. Even when they talk nonstop, they still can’t crack the top tier.

This true?

@Afterthought_01 @FmrRepMTG And that less lethal options were unavailable and infeasible. But if you’re okay with armed+resistant = standing sanction of deadly force then let’s go ahead get that on the record for all your followers.

@Afterthought_01 @FmrRepMTG It eliminates the need to prove the subject’s resistance could reasonably judged to become lethal.

I impeached Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, those were my articles of impeachment that passed in the House of Representatives. I unapologetically believe in border security and deporting criminal illegal aliens and I support law enforcement. However, I also unapologetically support the 2nd amendment. Legally carrying a firearm is not the same as brandishing a firearm. I support American’s 1st and 4th amendment rights. There is nothing wrong with legally peacefully protesting and videoing. MAGA, consider it like this. We lost our minds when we watched Biden’s FBI track down and aggressively carry out home invasions and arrest on peaceful J6’ers who walked in the Capitol through open doors. Imaging if one of our MAGA independent journalists or even just a MAGA supporter stood in the street outside a J6’ers house while Biden’s FBI carried out a law enforcement operation, home invasion, and arrest. Then Biden’s FBI goes to the MAGA guy videoing it all and shoves a woman with him to the ground and sprays them with bear spray then throws the MAGA guy to the ground as MAGA guy was trying to help the woman off the ground. Then Biden’s FBI beats MAGA guy on the ground, disarms MAGA guy, and then shoots him dead. What would have been our reaction? Both sides need to take off their political blinders. You are all being incited into civil war, yet none of it solves any of the real problems that we all face, and tragically people are dying.

@federalreserve @SenTedCruz @JohnCornyn Enough! Enough misuse of law enforcement against American citizens, enough weaponization of the Justice Department, enough bullying of America’s historic allies! Enough!

Video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell: federalreserve.gov/newsevents/spe…

This is the most rigorously Christian writing I’ve seen about this entire degraded mess. nytimes.com/2025/12/05/opi…

@iamdavidstonejr Your character and your heart were always evident and that would have been true no matter where you played. But we’re glad you’re a Sooner and will be rooting hard for you to see your dreams come true and for this team to do the same. Boomer Sooner!

Sooner Nation after taking the necessary time & examining my options… I have removed my name from the portal & will be furthering my education & career at 🅾️U!! Sooner Born…Sooner Bred… & when I die I’ll be Sooner dead!! #BoomerSooner

@megbasham @BrettLawrence @WellRedneck @MikeCosper @CTmagazine @TimDalrymple_ I’ve never had a journalism class but I’m reasonably confident that it’s not “the practice of journalists” to take a piece of information throw in a generous helping of insinuation and put it out for public consumption either. Unless your preferred brand of journalism is yellow.

@BrettLawrence @WellRedneck @MikeCosper @CTmagazine @TimDalrymple_ I am saying that absent some documentation I don’t know. I didn’t know at the outset, which is what I said. And at this point, I still don’t know. It is not the practice of journalists to simply repeat some organizational head’s explanation absent documentation.

So, if we are calling taking PPP loans or ERC credits “taking money to be a liberal shill,” Pastor Mark (who has a board member in OK and has apparently registered his ministries there) has some questions to answer alongside me and my @CTmagazine colleagues. @megbasham is this a Shepherd for Sale?