721: Easy Optimism vs Durable Hope With Sharon McMahon  🔗 **Source:** [721: Easy Optimism vs Durable Hope With Sharon McMahon](https://share.snipd.com/episode/a3bf6fec-a962-4fcc-a999-462a16e9c2be) ## Highlights - **Rededication Without Repentance Misses Biblical Model** - National rededication events without lament or repentance diverge from biblical covenant renewals like Nehemiah, which required confession. - Skye Jethani points out historical reparation and confession (e.g., acknowledging theft of land, slavery) were absent from the National Mall ceremony. Transcript: Skye Jethani You know where this occurs? Oh, tell me. You know, Nehemiah. Yeah, Nehemiah. They read the law. And Ezra. But what did they do, though, in addition to reading the law? Speaker 4 There's a lot of sacrifices. Skye Jethani And there's a big part. Repentance. Repentance and confession of their sins. But we don't have any, Esau. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like they said, and for those of you who don't know, you read it to Nehemiah 9. Nehemiah goes, we made a mess of things. We worship idols. We did all of this other stuff and things went poorly for us and we're suffering. And now we want to say, sorry about that, God. Now let us renew our commitment by turning from our ways and running towards the Lord. Now, obviously we're not in the same kind of covenant like that we are with like the blessings and curses, promises in the old Testament. But if you're going to say something like, we're going to have a national event and there is no reckoning with our past in the context of renewal. So for example, hey, we kind of came and stole this land and killed a bunch of people and enslaved people. Phil Vischer That wasn't the best thing. Sorry about that. But that's when we were dedicated to God. That's what I'm saying. ([Time 0:10:45](https://share.snipd.com/snip/70f278f2-c663-49a1-8f70-54eef867aef5)) - **250th Rededication Was A Narrow Political Religious Circle** - The National Mall rededication skewed heavily toward a niche movement (New Apostolic Reformation) and MAGA-aligned influencers rather than broad religious representation. - Phil and Esau note speakers included Mark Driscoll, Eric Metaxas, and figures tied to prophecy and the Seven Mountains strategy. Transcript: Phil Vischer Yeah, it was the bicentennial. This one is the semi-sesquicentennial, the semi-quincentennial, I think is the actual name. Speaker 4 I know 150 is sesquicentennial. Phil Vischer Yeah, whatever. Whatever. Anyway, the bicentennial was not partisan and it was not religious. It was just us being happy about America. Right. I was there. It was a simpler time. It was a simpler time. Okay. I'm trying to count back to what year that was. 1976. 76. Skye Jethani I wonder how simple it was in 76. Yeah, no. Actually, we were... Speaker 4 From white people in Iowa, it was pretty simple. Phil Vischer No, we'd just come through the OPEC oil crisis in 74 and Watergate in 73. And I remember those things too. I remember how high gas prices got. It's just funny that you can say Watergate was simpler times. It was though. Speaker 4 He said that. No, no. But that's when our politicians had a sense of shame. Yeah, I know. Skye Jethani There is something fundamentally different. So I was just giving you a hard time. Yeah, you're right. Phil Vischer No, give him a hard time. Yeah, and you a hard time. There we go. The Holy Post is sponsored by Rocket Money. I was having a hard time figuring out where our money was going. Subscriptions to streaming services, gaming sites, news sites, Bible apps, music services. It was out of control. At one point, we had three subscriptions to the same app. Then I found Rocket Money. Only can Rocket Money identify all of our subscriptions, in many cases it can cancel them for you. Just click a button. Done! But it does way more than that, helping me track all our expenses so I know where our money is going every month. Do I still have a lot of subscriptions? I do! But they're the ones I want. Get your finances under control with Rocket Money. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. ([Time 0:20:04](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9d7f04a1-393e-4d68-b407-ddd2cbf199bc)) - **Gen Z Wants Immediate Justice Not Explanations** - Gen Z often asks why bad people aren't punished rather than why bad things happen to good people, reflecting exposure to widespread injustice via social media. - Panelists link this to imprecatory longing for swift justice and growing tolerance for political violence among young people. Transcript: Phil Vischer And he noticed something among his Gen Z students. He says, Gen Z isn't asking why bad things happen to good people. He's writing for Christianity Today. He says among his students, he says, as I've begun my career as a Gen Z Bible professor to Gen Z students, I've realized my undergraduates aren't asking the questions, why do bad things Happen to good people? And how can a good God let evil happen? Time and again, I hear instead some variation of another question, where is God's judgment against oppressors? If God is real, why hasn't he struck down these people for their sin? Or more bluntly, why don't bad things happen to bad people? He talks about teaching the story of David and Bathsheba. And the big concern from his students wasn't David's sin, but that he got off too easily. That there was too much mercy. The difficulty for them, he says, was God's forgiveness and mercy. From my observation in the classroom, Gen Z seems to be expectant of evil and brokenness. That isn't giving them issues. What they want is to see evil and brokenness punished harshly and quickly. And that they're taking more of the attitude of the imprecatory psalms, smash the teeth of my enemies. They speak of a deep desire to see justice, especially for the oppressed. Imprecatory Psalms are often written from a position of powerlessness. The experience of Gen Z is unique, though, and this is his theory, how digital media exposes young people to suffering, oppression, and violence against others en masse. Zoomers' interest in imprecation and justice comes not only from their personal experiences, but also from the daily witness of social media of the harm done to others around the world. And studies show that Gen Z is becoming more comfortable with the idea of political violence, for example, that it may be necessary to get the change in the world that you want. ([Time 0:35:44](https://share.snipd.com/snip/27d08e24-3de7-41cf-9ced-90ffd1282886)) - **Viral Context Post Led To Doxxing And Targeting Of Family** - Sharon archived a widely viewed post about Charlie Kirk because doxxing and threats targeted her children and child's workplace. - She says the post had 200,000 likes but continued visibility led people to call her child's boss and mail copies of the child's school address. Transcript: Esau McCaulley It's a very unusual scenario. And when people started like figuring out where my children went to school and what my home address was and mailing me copies of the outside of my children's school. And when they started planning a coordinated effort to try to get my child fired from their job, like calling my child's boss. And then having a series of people call every day for a period of time in an effort to try to get them fired, it just became not worth having in my feed any longer. Even though I was continuing to gain thousands of followers from that post, it just was not worth the trade off to my children, right? To my children's safety. So I archived that post a couple of months ago, not because I don't, there's nothing in it that I would take back. There's nothing in it that I would say, oh, I should have said that differently or whatever. Like I believe wholeheartedly in everything that I wrote. I know the intention with which I wrote it. I know where my heart is and I carefully considered my words. But solely the reason I took it down was solely because of the effects, the collateral damage for my children that they don't deserve. ([Time 0:59:42](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3e31ff51-205f-438c-aded-74e99aff0195)) - **Commencement Security Planning Included Bulletproof Vest Talk** - Security planning for Sharon's UVU speech raised questions like whether she should wear a bulletproof vest under her robe. - Campus law required weapons be allowed, complicating security and contributing to the university's decision to cancel. Transcript: Esau McCaulley They're required to allow weapons in the building. So it became a very difficult event to secure. Yeah, yeah. Had multiple security conversations with like a dozen people, with local law enforcement, with security on campus, with campus police, with administration, with my private security That I hired. And in those conversations, we were having to say things like, does Sharon have to wear a bulletproof vest under her commencement robe? Oh my goodness. And then like, are the optics of wearing a bulletproof vest really bad? And will the commencement robe, which are very loose and flowy, will the commencement robe like cover it enough so that the students won't know? These are the kinds of conversations that were being had. So all of that just created this perfect storm. ([Time 1:05:11](https://share.snipd.com/snip/cdd2f3e9-0b75-4c13-83f9-9bc40ce4687e)) - **Coordinated Political Pressure Creates Real Security Risks** - Threats and coordinated political pressure reveal persistent patterns of intimidation against marginalized groups in America today. - Sharon McMahon says her removal from UVU commencement showed how elected officials and activists can weaponize funding threats and media to escalate local conflicts. Transcript: Esau McCaulley Mm. You know, one of the things I've learned is that despite the American experiment coming up on its 250th anniversary this year, that we are still grappling with many of the same issues And questions that we have always grappled with. And this is in many communities, the idea of a threat of violence for using your rights, especially if you're a Black American, if you're an American from a minority group, a racial minority Group, an ethnic minority group, religious minority group, if you're in the LGBTQ community, if you are a member of one of those groups, the idea that the threats of violence would be Used against you for exercising your rights, that is not an uncommon experience in those communities, even to this day. And as much as I would like to be like, this is horrifying and has never happened in American history before. It certainly has happened far less frequently to well-educated white women like me. It certainly has happened far less frequently to people like me than it has to other people in America. And so I hesitate to, I don't view myself as like, oh, I'm this horrible victim. Nobody's ever been a victim the way I am. I I don't, I don't view it that way at all. What I have is a greater sense of empathy for what many Americans have lived through for centuries. That seeking to, seeking with only pure intention to exercise their free speech rights or their right to vote or their right to peaceably assemble, seeking only to exercise their own Rights. They have been turned back by threats of violence over and over. This is a pattern throughout American history. And as much as I would like to say, well, we're over it. ([Time 1:09:38](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0698e6e2-dfc1-4909-b9f6-75fb32eea520)) - **Durable Hope Versus Easy Optimism** - Easy optimism collapses under trauma because it depends on uninterrupted good outcomes. - Sharon contrasts this with durable hope, likening it to a 'hand in the dark' that carries you through crises when sunny narratives fail. Transcript: Sharon McMahon And often when we're talking about this on the podcast, we're talking about Christian hope. But I think there's a similar dynamic here where people go, is this like pie in the sky optimism? Is it just like slap a happy face on? And sometimes we'll even get criticized by people who say, are you not paying enough attention to like every horrible thing that's happening in the world? And I loved how you described this. So give us a little bit of the sense of what is the difference between easy optimism and durable hope? Esau McCaulley And easy optimism is the idea that things are going to work out, that you're going to win the game, or that you're going to get the race, or that the road ahead is wide and flat, and that what's Ahead for you is just as blue skies and opportunity. And that easy optimism crumbles the second a diagnosis comes, the second a loved one passes away, the second something terrible happens in your community. The second somebody you love is subjected to a horrific event, that easy optimism crumbles and it shakes the foundation of what you believed to be true. And so it's as easy as it is for us to want to reach for that sense of like, things are working out. That is ultimately a shaky foundation on which to build a worldview. And I encouraged, I was hoping to encourage students to reach for something that is something more durable, something that is longer lasting, will last even through the difficult Times, that is not dependent upon an easy path forward in order to feel that what you do matters. And a durable hope, I liken it in the speech to a hand in the dark. When all it feels like is a hand in the dark, that's all I have. I don't have the bluebirds and the blue skies and the wide flat road to go 80 miles an hour on. All I have is a hand in the dark. That hand in the dark will get you through when uneasy optimism crumbles. ([Time 1:12:24](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9d079257-aeac-4b75-a20d-19004e6725a7)) - **Choose Small Daily Acts Over Grand Saving Narratives** - Do focus on small, concrete acts rather than trying to 'save the world' to make meaningful, sustainable impact. - Sharon urges graduates to measure their legacy by everyday choices like forgiveness and speaking hard truths, not by accumulating power. Transcript: Esau McCaulley Was that important? This is something that I hear from people all the time, that when they're reading history or they're watching the news, it's very easy to feel like, hello, I'm not Elon Musk. I don't have a trillion, million billion dollars. I didn't invent some satellite technology. I'm not George Washington. Hello, I stayed home with little children. I teach elementary school. I work in a doctor's office. It's very easy for us to count ourselves out of the narrative because we view the scale of our own lives to be so small as to not be meaningful. And over and over, history proves that that's wrong, that that actually is wrong, that what you do on a daily basis actually matters a lot. And I am constantly trying to encourage people to stop thinking about, it's my job to change the world. It's my job to save the world. It's my job. No, it's not. It's actually absolutely not your job. That is not your job. And it actually feels far more empowering to me to be told that what I do and who I am matters, where I am at the life stage that I'm in with the resources available to me than to be like, become Elon Musk. Right? Like that's not, first of all, no. Secondly, I'm not interested in that. And so So consequently, does my small life even make a difference? I wanted graduates to know that in fact, even though these are the times that try men's souls, that what they leave to the future is far bigger I'm they can ever realize. ([Time 1:17:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/16747953-64ea-42b6-b90a-0bb663a0a315)) - **Reject Cynicism Because It Surrenders The Future** - Avoid cynicism as a default because it removes agency and capacity to shape the future. - Sharon contrasts cynical despair with constructive action, urging people to do what they can instead of retreating into smart-sounding hopelessness. Transcript: Esau McCaulley I think you're absolutely right that it seems like your brain just easily reaches for, I mean, hello, we're going to hell in a handbasket inside of a dumpster fire, inside of a train wreck. Like, look around. It seems easy to even mock people who are trying to hold on to hope because everything truly seems horrific. So this penchant for cynicism feels internally to some people like the more intelligent option. It seems like if I feel cynical, I have correctly assessed the state of the world. I can see through all of these, this all is a set. This is just like a pretend blue skies. This is all just an act. And I know the truth. It helps people, it guards against injury by setting up a very cynical wall for ourselves that becomes impenetrable and allows us to feel as though nothing matters and so we don't need To try. And ultimately, that is not the fertile soil from which good things have ever grown. Anyone that you admire from history, anyone, whether it's Abraham Lincoln, whether it's Harriet Tubman, whether it's a figure from the Bible, and anyone you admire from history has Never made a name for themselves based on cynicism. And it is not because they felt incredible feelings of optimism and like, everything's going to turn out for me. Do you think Abraham Lincoln was like, everything's turning out for me? No. No. People were actively trying to kill him. He dodged being assassinated multiple times. His child died while he's president. His wife is severely mentally ill. And like talking to ghosts upstairs at the White House, nothing was like, half the country hated him so much. They were like, you know what? I'd rather get shot in the face than go along with your ideas. That's quite literally what was happening. There was no sense of an easy optimism. And I could talk about Abraham Lincoln's depression for another episode, but he never had an easy optimism. But neither did he allow himself to sink into a cynical despair in which they believe that nothing can change. We do have the ability to impact the future. We don't know what the future holds. And sinking into a sense of cynicism and despair removes our ability to impact the future. ([Time 1:20:16](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e4acfac7-d49d-4f50-8445-af987cbb14c0))