Hey there class! Its been awhile but I’ve been studying and taking care of personal responsibilities and am now ready with some more blogs, starting with this: Have you ever heard of a Strawman and wondered what it is? Let’s dive into this short introduction to some future blogs!

So you’re wondering, or asking, “What is a strawman?” Is it a character in The Wizard of Oz? What we put in gardens to scare away crows? A logical fallacy? Well it’s all three, but we want to look specifically at the latter: A logical fallacy. Today’s blog we will discuss this form of debate tactic that to often is used on Christians and can cause small doubts to creep into the believer. So put on our whole armor of God and lets tackle this topic of the Strawman Argument.

A Strawman Argument is similar to something called Argumentum Ad Passiones. Which is Latin for: Appeal to Emotions. It’s an argument tactic used by people to draw sadness, anger, and doubt out of the one holding a certain position to cause them to doubt their stance. It often goes something like this. I might say that I like brussel sprouts; To which my wife might say “Oh you so hate what I made huh? Wish I would have made something else?!” Now that couldn’t be further from the truth. Me simply saying in a discussion over the supper table that I like a certain vegetable doesn’t negate that fact that the meal before me is amazing. It simply means I ALSO like something else not on that nights menu. But, to my wife it is a deflection of the conversation and an attack on what I might like and not an answer to my comment about foods I like. Does it make sense? A strawman is a weaker and easier to attack object in a conversation than having the difficult conversation about the actual topic. Here’s another: Person A is a Christian who stands for the Biblical model of marriage, which is one woman, and one man for life. Person B comes along and a discussion ensues about this topic to which Person B oversimplifies, and misrepresents the topic into “So you hate people that don’t conform to your thinking huh?”. See the strawman? Instead of having the hard conversation about what is a marriage, the hearer instead deflects and misrepresents the original premise. This again will often cause frustration, doubt and even unbelief to creep into the unprepared Person A.

This happens so much in our word today; and while a Strawman Argument is actually an old argument taught in philosophy and even ancient military tactics, it is something that goes back further than that. It goes back to the Garden of Eden. To the serpents conversation with Eve. Then we find it with Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness(so who’s the father of this form of argument?). What we can learn from this is two things: when used on an unsuspecting Christian, it can cause surprise and even doubt in the mind of the Believer, like with Eve in the Garden. But, when used on someone who is grounded and studying the Word of God it falls flat and will not deter the Christian from the right way like Jesus during His temptation.

Is it any wonder why the Deconstructing movement in the church today has gained the traction it has when a recent Pew Research poll showed only 20% of Americans view the Bible as true. Of the 20%, about 58% of those believed it’s inspired but not literally the Word of God. So that leaves a parcely 25% of Christians believe it’s literally the breathed out Word of God. And a meager 17% says it’s just fables. If only a quarter of professing followers of Christ are actually in the Word and growing, then that’s a lot of people ready to fall into doubt when Satan brings strawman arguments to the church.

So while it might be easy to dismiss as something we shouldn’t worry about, the facts show otherwise. Satan is at work in his kingdom of darkness to sow seeds of doubt and lies about who God is, what His Word says, and His plan. Topics like Did the Genesis Flood happen?, What about the Amalekite Genocide?, Was King David Even Real, or just Israels’ King Arthur?, Is Hell Real?, and more. So, for the next series of blogs through the months of April and May we will look at some short Strawman Arguments leveled at the Bride of Christ and how to better answer those untruths. So get out your thinking caps, your Bibles and highlighters and let’s dig into the Word together to better defend this faith “…once delivered to the saints.” – Jude 1:3b