The Return of CRC Lions and the Scattering of its Exiled Foxes

Lion Culture Returns to the Christian Reformed Church

Those who follow my videos know I’ve been working the “lion culture” “fox culture” analogy since ARC2023. These dynamics help us understand the sea change in the Christian Reformed Church in the last 20 years.

Here’s an AI generated summary of Pareto’s metaphor.

AI Summary

Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian sociologist and economist, developed a
theory of elite rule that categorized political leaders into two main
types: lions and foxes[1][3].

## Lions

Lions are characterized by:
- Use of force and aggression to maintain power[2]
- Conservative tendencies[3]
- Emphasis on unity, homogeneity, and established ways[3]
- Comfort with centralized, hierarchical bureaucracies[3]
- Populist and xenophobic tendencies[4]
- Preference for simplistic, uncompromising action over negotiation[4]

## Foxes

Foxes are characterized by:
- Use of cunning, manipulation, and diplomatic skills[1][2]
- Liberal and internationalist tendencies[4]
- Emphasis on decentralization, plurality, and skepticism[3]
- Discomfort with the use of force[3]
- Reliance on negotiation and persuasion[4]

Pareto argued that history is a cyclical process of elite circulation, with power alternating between lions and foxes[3]. When one type of elite becomes ineffective or corrupt, it is replaced by the other[3][4]. This theory suggests that political power is always held by a minority elite, regardless of the apparent form of government[1].

It's important to note that these categories are not mutually exclusive, and individual leaders may exhibit traits of both lions and foxes depending on the context[2]. Pareto's theory continues to be applied to modern political analysis, with some observers drawing parallels between his concepts and contemporary political figures and
movements[3][4].

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/explain-vilfredo-pareto-lion-a-WFr8lgAMTSO_9njv4c4wqw

Lion Culture Was Coming

CRC leadership strategy has been MOSTLY fox style since the takeover by the Boomers. This is parallel boomer leadership more broadly. Heavy handed use of power was discouraged, soft power encouraged.

It was assumed that the "arc of history" would come with gentle guidance. Synod would acquiesce to the realities on the ground when we reached a tipping point. Heidelberg Catechism services and preaching would quietly go away. There needed a push to get WICO over the hump but after that we'd allow Synod to be "integrated" after 50% of classes seated women. That will come, the arc of history will insure it.

That of course was the "judicial strategy" of All-One-Body. Will and Grace on TV would do its work. University education, Netflix, the gay good daughter of the preacher or elder, the woman who had been a deacon, always gay but now openly married. The script was set. What we didn't quite know was the timing. We didn't know what COVID would be or COVID would do.

Even now there might be some exiles who wonder "did we get the timing wrong?" And there are others that speculate on the counter-factual "if we had waited another decade could this whole mess have been avoided?"

I still think the answer is no. After the death of the circulatory system the denomination was clearly moving in two directions, the CRC future, as with the nation, is more conservative.

CRC Circulatory System written about by me https://paulvanderklay.me/2024/05/21/what-to-do-with-dutch-crc-member-berries/

And Kent Hendricks

The CRC circulatory system

“Community Leaders” Couldn’t Save the Foxes

I found

Mary Harrington

a bit murky today but I did glean a very helpful paragraph from another piece she was quoting.

As has been noted by others, the state is increasingly unwilling
to mediate directly with many of its subjects and has proven reluctant
to directly police a select set of ethnic and religious groups without
the consent and approval of unelected and self-appointed ‘community
leaders’. This policing approach is the necessary consequence of the
idiom of communities and stakeholders now endemic in public life and
which is informed by the communitarian notions of the ‘Big Society’
and the Third Way. Far from suffering from too much individualism,
Britain appears to be governed by the communitarian dogmas that
post-liberals advocate.

Part of the strategy of fox culture is to lean on the "community leaders" to do the quiet work beneath the water line so that when it comes to the "official" change above the water line it's all been settled. Sure there will be some neanderthals who didn’t know what year it was but for the most part the great "arc of history" can be trusted to move the demos towards the eschaton.

ABIDE was naturally seen by the reigning foxes as retrograde, a vestigial organ like the old "Christian Renewal" paper that fought and lost WICO and was imagined that "the community' leaders would of course hold sway. This is part of why Synod 2022-2024 felt so "Not-CRC" even though it was very CRC before the boomer regime. Pre-Boomer CRC knew how to use power and was unafraid of using it. It was a pro lion culture. You feared the Dominee. Who really fears "Pastor Bob", that quivering mass of availability. He's such a nice guy. He's going to serve communion to anyone who is willing to receive it. Church discipline went away with the lions. Foxes will sit down with a tissue box and sympathize with your feelings for hours.

Progressive Wannabe Lions

This post originated on CRC-Voices where on the previous day’s post I referenced resonances between the CRC and the Ezra Klein conversation about Democrats not learning from 2024.

The other Ezra Klein piece that caught my attention is his new book rollout with Derek Thompson of the Atlantic. Here's a review.

Book review: "Abundance"

Klein and others are lamenting that progressives can’t seem to get anything done. They want to “build back better” but unlike Thiel or Andreesen they want to do it i their progressive, green way.

Having recently returned from the ARC 2025 conference it all sounded quite familiar.

Between Ezra Klein talking to exile Bari Weiss and Gavin Newsom's new podcast we're watching the experimental explorations of how the Dems want to counter the 2024 election.

The question that is motivating Klein is "can foxes get anything done really?"

Many have noted, including David Chapelle, that our common parlance around terms like "the LGBTQ community" has been a useful but fraying fiction. These "communities" when tested reliably fell apart especially as the alphabets got longer. This to me was never more evident when during the George Floyd moment people spoke about defunding the police from "the black community". When peak "black community" was operating its complexities were never more obvious because there were actually lion-ish leaders whose differences were obvious to all. MLK was not Malcolm X was not the Black Panthers, etc. etc.

Moderate Foxes Watching the Lions do some Work

The fox-style CRC leadership believed that lions had been relegated to the dustbins of history and no matter how Minnkota tried to roar from flyover country they would never have the votes to cause a crisis. Well, the lions have returned, and the foxes are scattered.

Lions however, are seldom as unitary as their imaginations would hope. Lion cultures fight. Modern and often monarchical European lion culture ended with two world wars only to be followed by the far more foxy Pax Americana where the lion could rule more like a fox until the orange man with the mane and spray tan who really likes acting like a lion ended the game. What game is coming is anyone's guess now.

You Can't Make Me

In the Christian Reformed Church we'll now see what comes. Lion and fox dynamics happen for a reason. Too much lioning could fragment the CRC into tiny little clusters that will probably be meaningless. We really don’t know what denomoinations mean in the age of the Internet and rising metagelicalism. Balkan sized lion states perhaps? We don't know.

To me the exiles are in an Ezra Klein moment. Do they want to build? Or do they want to go RCA to continue fox culture where "the communities" have sway making it hard to build apartment buildings in San Francisco.

CRC confessional conservative lions are of course dreaming big. I think moderates are more cautiously foxish waiting to act or lead until they really must.