The Evil of Playing it Safe..
It seems to me that a number of historic American liberties are edging closer to the perils of mob rule, judicial fiat, or executive order. In conversation after conversation, I hear people worrying about their 2nd Amendment rights, their ability to express their beliefs publicly, and even their right to raise and educate their children as their conscience dictates. Among conservative Christian media types, many draw the “Go To Persecution Jail” card; they just assume there is no option but to be brow-beaten, fined, and jailed by green haired ladies, sporting mustaches, and pretending to be the Romans 13 magistrate. The ascendant LGBTQ-whatever crowd regard you as “the wicked,” and they are coming for you.
But here’s the irony: the folks who are worrying — ponder my words carefully — represent the American majority. You folks should learn something from Chic-Fil-A and the election of Donald Trump. Do you really think those femme-boys in Portland, pretending to be anti-Fascists, have a following beyond the last feminist/vape shop in the grunge district? Take a deep breath and remember this: most Americans can’t even be bothered with these stories and the rest are raising families.
That doesn’t mean, however, that the lunatic left can’t prevail, but it’s not because their ideas have any currency; it’s because conservative American Christians are so anxious to have a persecution narrative, they won’t even speak, much less fight.
Some of you are thinking: “Wait. I fight. I speak out. I preach the Word.”
Good, but ponder that scenario I just outlined: A major American evangelical uses his platform to announce “coming persecution.” What is our response usually? We quietly, and miserably, agree. We nod our heads.
What happened to “Onward Christian Soldiers?” What happened to “Battle Hymn of the Republic?” What happened, in short, to our theology? Where is the guy, up at the podium, who taps on the persecution-pastor’s shoulder and says, “thanks for the warning, pastor, but what say we put a little Godly whoop-ass on them, instead?”
Consider something: why do the identity-grievance pimps, the progressive “great society” warriors, the ultra-deviants and the radical jihadists get their way? They are a bit like the most violent, loud member of your extended family. Your kin folk keep telling you, “be quiet, and maybe he’ll settle down.” But he simply will not settle down, and the entire family suffers while he’s coddled.
You might be thinking, “but, that’s not our way, brother. If possible, so far as it depends [on us, we] are to be at peace with all men.”
Re-read that verse and ponder the conclusion your forefathers came to. It isn’t always possible to be at peace with all men — or women for that matter. If your local civil rights gendarmes demand your teenagers apologize for their race or their faith or their heterosexuality, you should be on their front sidewalk at dawn, letting all of their neighbors know they’re living next to tyrants and a fascists. Use the first amendment, before you have to use the second. Be loud. Be obnoxious. Be public. Be united. Be vindictive. Be litigious. (Guess what, Conservatives win most of these cases.)
There are a thousand, perhaps a million, beautiful ways to be belligerent, but you need to remember first of all that being belligerent is what God wants you to be. He didn’t give you a wife, a family, a business, a badge, a country so that you can watch it all go to hell. If your pastor is a weakling, tell him to man up. If your college aged children are repeating “woke” bilge, challenge them. If your school board is asking 8th grade girls to engage in a race to see who can put the condom on the cucumber the fastest, you need to get down to that school board and call the local burghers perverts — and you need to bring your whole cheering church with you.
Your “smart” friends will tell you to play it safe, be “winsome,” be “loving.” Keep your head down. Make the fortune while you can, and then, maybe someday, you’ll be able to use it to make a nice tidy donation to a solid, conservative ministry or Christian college, like Baylor, where a “pastor” recently asked God forgiveness for too much fossil fuel and too many “straight, white men.”
How has “nice” been working out for us?
