Jordan Peterson Interviews Pastor Greg Laurie

 

Greg Laurie Has Something To Say, If Only Peterson Would Let Him

I saw Jordan Peterson interview Greg Laurie. YouTube had the whole interview minus the Daily Wire subscriber stuff. Greg is the real life character from The Jesus Revolution who was part of the Jesus freaks movement in southern California in the 1970’s. The movie goes into this a little bit. Greg was raised by a single, alcoholic mother who moved around a lot. Predictably he got into drugs and alcohol at a young age. A common theme of the interview was the chaos of his early life. He didn’t have a father figure or even a close male relative to look up to after they moved west. He had to keep his mother from drinking too much and ending up dead.

Anyone who is familiar with Jordan Peterson understands his particular way of conversing. He is a clinical phycologist who talks a lot about hierarchies, motivations and inner turmoil. Pastor Laurie gives straightforward answers about his childhood and Peterson examines it. It doesn’t work. I’ll show my bias toward Greg with this, but nothing is more significant than the gospel. That story of life change, salvation, and sacrifice is the best thing you will ever hear. It cuts across all the cultural baggage and class designations we live under. It’s the truest thing, and as such needs a wide berth. Don’t jump in and try to categorize it along philosophical or anthropological lines. You’ll just muddy it up.

Peterson would do well to just let answers speak for themselves. He can’t help it.

 I’ve seen a few of his interviews now and I find them a struggle to get through. Jordan is a much better interviewee than interviewer. I can appreciate that he has his own methods for evaluating answers and putting new information into his intellectual framework. But not every answer requires deep examination. Also, his question set ups are exhaustingly complex. I found myself scrubbing through his long questions to the part when Pastor Laurie begins to talk. Jordan’s not a classic interviewer, fine. He brings a lot of professional understanding of human behavior into the talk. But the segments have a way of highlighting Peterson and not his opposite.

I’m a big fan of Dr. Peterson however. He knows the importance of the Bible in Western literature. Know one dissects Post Modernism's influence on academia like him. When he’s on the Joe Rogan experience, it’s the best show all year. I’ll put everything on hold. Intuitively he understands the intricate connections between the Old Testament and New. He’s responsible for introducing the scriptures, likely for the first time, to a new audience. Unchurched young men don’t think they have any need for the bible. But Peterson illuminates it like only a scholar can. Most people have never heard it talked about in such an elevated way. He’s probably a Christian himself but it’s not clear because he stays away from hard declarations.  

Still, hearing him add commentary to Greg’s direct and simple answers, left me feeling queasy. Not only is the gospel being shared on this heavily viewed show, but it’s a very moving testimony. Peterson kept trying to shoehorn Greg’s story of redemption into something clinical and cold. I’m sure he didn’t mean to. It was like when your uncle comes home from a foreign trip and regals the family with stories about his time. Every time he finishes another vignette, your younger brother adds a note about what he’s learning in his sophomore Middle East history class.

 I’m not a subscriber to Daily Wire so I can’t complain. I’m not getting this ‘Peterson as interviewer’ thing they’re doing. It’s clunky and awkward. Maybe I’m misunderstanding what the show is supposed to be. They might be trying to do a conversational thing like Rogan has. The problem is all the questions go one way. Peterson asks them. The best  interviews I’ve seen were from Brian Lamb of Q&A on C-Span. I know, that’s an old format and an old style. But Lamb seemed to get that the show was about the person being questioned. He didn’t bring a ‘gotcha’ style or add personal asides.

 When the subject is about the gospel you should sit back and learn something. Or at least, recognize that people watching the interview will be deeply affected.  

Maybe that’s at the heart of my critique. I kept thinking about all viewers who haven’t probably heard a lot of redemption stories. How many will follow Greg Laurie’s example and seek out the one true God? But I’m not giving the Holy Spirit enough credit. Whenever the good news is preached it has an effect. For all Jordan Peterson’s parsing, Laurie’s testimony still finds an audience, the way it always has.