Jordan Peterson wrote, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos and Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life. The simple idea I received was that if you integrate into your life a dozen or two dozen rules that your life or the culture will go from chaos to order.
Since many followers of King Jesus seemed to admire Jordan and consume his teachings, I decided to jump into the first book.
The title of the book gave me pause. Anyone who knows the Bible should recognize the “retribution principle” being promoted in the title.
“The retribution principle (often abbreviated RP) is a term used in Ancient Near East studies and Old Testament studies to refer to various forms of the belief that the righteous will prosper while the wicked will suffer.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retribution_principle#:~:text=The%20retribution%20principle%20(often%20abbreviated,while%20the%20wicked%20will%20suffer.%22
The retribution principle is arguably best presented in the Bible in Deuteronomy 27-28.
When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. 13 And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali. 27:12
The retribution principle found in the Bible contains truth, but is not universally true and the rest of the Bible shows this in its concurrent teaching of disaster falling upon the righteous and mercy being extended to the wicked. Jesus on the cross flies in the face of the retribution principle.
Beyond the title, the first book is summarized well by the following.
1-Sentence-Summary: 12 Rules For Life is a stern, story-based, and entertaining self-help manual for young people that lays out a set of simple principles that can help us become more disciplined, behave better, act with integrity, and balance our lives while enjoying them as much as we can. https://fourminutebooks.com/12-rules-for-life-summary/#:~:text=1%2DSentence%2DSummary%3A%2012,as%20much%20as%20we%20can.
These rules contain some truth, but they do not look like Jesus. When I read this, I kept thinking where is the compassion, empathy, kindness and faithful love. I t felt like he was demanding and cruel often.
After Jordan wrote the first book, he spiraled up to great fame and then spiral down to great pain. Eventually, he wrote the second book which had to look at life in times of instability and suffering. I have not read this book.
From what I have read and heard, I find that Jordan Peterson acts cruelly towards others. His latest was a tweet about a swimsuit model. “Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that.” The young lady who was featured in the picture was larger than most swimsuit models and Jordan felt compelled to attack her looks. After the fallout of this comment, Jordan decided to get off Twitter because of the chaos he started.
Instead of 12 rules, I would prefer to be consumed by the 9 fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
First posted May 22, 2022
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