Secular Activists Want to Win at All Costs and Then Some

Secular activists are nothing like this. Activists want to win at all costs. Think Im overstating the case? Visit the comments page of any Washington Post or Politico article having anything at all to do with religion and politics. I guarantee you will be appalled at the viciousness on display not by just one or two oddballs but by dozens and dozens. Consider the behavior of the Occupy Wall Street mob and how few progressive political leaders even criticized it. Whats a Christian to do? We might start by actually listening to the Lord. He told the disciples in Matthew 10:16-18

Behold I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them and the Gentiles."

Jesus did not want us to just be doormats to be trod upon He wanted us to be as wise as serpents" in our dealings with the World. We lost that ability when we placed more value on being likeable than on being faithful witnesses. We Christians have come to care more about what the World thinks of us than what Jesus thinks of us. The latest iteration of this is the current (one-sided) debate over same sex marriage. We are being stampeded into approving something that violates many millennia of human experience as well as the explicit word of God. We are told that the trends are decisively moving in one direction so resistance is not only futile but foolish. This despite the fact that until this past November traditional marriage has won every time without exception it has been voted on and the handful of states that approved it in November were all squeakers that rode on Obamas coattails.

1. We are told that the youth are in favor of it never mind that youth always changes its mind as it grows up. If 20-year olds ran the world it wouldnt survive a generation.
2. We are told that we are bigots to oppose it even though in California for example it was blacks and Latinos that were most in favor of traditional marriage.
3. We are told that we should mind our own business that what a homosexual couple does should be of no concern to us that it should have no effect on our own marriages so why should we care.

This last is the biggest lie of all and it is one that is exceedingly hard to counter at least in a made-for-TV sound bite. And this is indeed the essential issue. In fact the actions of one segment of society does have an effect on the whole society. Society is changed either for better or worse. The sexual liberation" movement of the 1960s and 1970s has had a profound effect on the entire United States and everybody in it. The arguments for it at the time were very similar to what we are hearing today:

• Almost everybody screws around so it is hypocritical to pretend otherwise;
• It is better to be honest about these behaviors rather than hiding them in the shadows;
• We shouldnt be tied down to old-fashioned prudish morality;
• It is unhealthy to repress your basic instincts;
• Today with birth control sex is safe;
• If you dont want to do it thats your choice but why should your morality stop me from doing what I want to do?

These arguments were hard to answer other than to say that sanctions against pre-marital sex were no whim. They came about over many thousands of years of human experience they are locked into our genetic intelligence. Very little good will come of loosening our standards of sexual behavior. Its not that social disapproval will stop it from happening but that such clear disapproval will discourage it and give a safe haven from peer pressure for those who prefer to avoid the behavior. After half-a-century of this experiment in sexual liberation what do we find?

1. Despite the availability of birth control we perform well over a million abortions every year and 40 of all children are born out-of-wedlock.
2. We also have the highest rate of sexually transmitted diseases in the world with 20 million new infections every year.
3. We are systematically destroying two-parent families.
4. Boys are being raised without fathers as role models so they attach to gangs.
5. Girls are taught to dress like hookers.
6. College students no longer go on dates they have meaningless sexual hook-ups  instead.
7. To become a celebrity release a videotape of yourself having sex.
8. Our society is drenched in sex a hollow empty kind of sex that fulfills no one.

The argument that sexual promiscuity would have no effect on anyone who isnt promiscuous was absurd. In fact it may be destroying this society. The jury is still out on that. This was purposeful. It was part of a long campaign to use sex to destroy the family and Christianity. In his 1982 book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism" (which I will review here in the future) Michael Novak quotes Joseph Sobran as writing

It is no accident … that Socialism and Sex (or free love) came together as advanced ideas.  Russian dissident Igor Shafarevich … explains that the Socialist project of homogenizing society demands that the family be vitiated or destroyed. T his can be accomplished in good measure by profaning conjugal love and breaking monogamys link between Sex and loyalty."

Novak goes on to describe a Carter-era White House Conference on Families." Carter intended it as a recognition of the contribution of the family to American society but by the time his underlings were done with it it became just the opposite. His staff referred to the traditional family as the nostalgic family" as if it were already obsolete only fondly remembered from the past. More contemporary they thought were unmarried couples living together homosexual couples clusters of friends sharing a home. In their view these all were families" worthy of celebration. Yet at the time the Census bureau reported there were 101 million husbands and wives in the U.S. and only 2.3 million unmarried men and women living together. Carters people were wishing the traditional family was gone and working to make it seem so. Still why should Christians worry about what the secular society does? Because the whole charade is aimed like a dagger at your ability to practice your understanding of Scripture. Canada has had same sex marriage for ten years and it has radically transformed the entire society according to Bradley Miler of the Witherspoon Institute.  He writes

What transpired was the adoption of a new orthodoxy: that same-sex relationships are in every way the equivalent of traditional marriage and that same-sex marriage must therefore be treated identically to traditional marriage in law and public life."

Anyone who expresses reservations about all that is labeled a bigot and a hater even guilty of committing hate crimes." The Knights of Columbus was fined for refusing to rent their facilities for same sex wedding receptions. People who voice dissent are being investigated by human rights tribunals and in some cases ordered to pay fines make apologies and undertake never to speak publicly on such matters again." This includes members of the clergy speaking from the pulpit. Keep in mind that all this turmoil is over a tiny number of people. There are 21000 married same sex couples in Canada out of a total of 6.9 million married couples they make up 3 tenths of 1 of the total. The 1st Amendment may may protect Christians in the United States unless the Supreme Court invokes the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to extend federal protection to same sex couples. In this case Dan McLaughlin has written an extensive essay on this and many other problems associated with this issue here. Such a scenario could very well happen and it would place Christians in a very difficult bind. But maybe that is where Christ wants us to be. Erick Erickson writes that

Weve turned the American ideal of liberty into an idol we worship." He reminds us that The world is not on its way to Christ. The world hates Christ. The world will not allow a compromise between Christians and the world."

The United States is no less of the world" than any other country. This challenge will not be easy. In all my years of political activism only once have I encountered eye-popping spittle-spewing venom. That was when our church was debating the ordination of homosexuals. Suddenly a couple got up red in the face screamed that we were all a bunch of homophobes and stormed out of the meeting. Christians can expect much more of this as we go along. But there are voices of leadership out there we can look to for guidance. USAToday offered profiles of some including the Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Cordileone and Rev. William Owens president of the Coalition of African American Pastors. There is nothing new about any of this. When the Apostle Paul took the Gospel to the ancient Greek cities of Corinth and Ephesus he was confronted with well-established cults including the temples of Apollo and Aphrodite where prostitution was considered a holy rite and acting like a Corinthian" was a euphemism for sexual promiscuity. He was not intimidated. He had more important work to do. Greg Scandlen is a Senior Fellow of The Heartland Institute and founding director of Consumers for Health Care Choices. Scandlen has worked for the Cato Institute National Center for Policy Analysis and Galen Institute & spent 12 years in the Blue Cross Blue Shield system most recently as the national associations Director of State Research.