It’s a common complaint in pro-life circles: Why is it often so hard to get the churches involved in social causes? We know that Christians have abortions, too—so it is impacting us personally. We know that Christians are, for the most part, very anti-abortion—so it’s not as if they disagree with the pro-life movement. So what is holding so many people back from getting involved?
Apathy is part of it. Lack of awareness is part of it. But by and large, the real reason is an attitude that runs much deeper. The answer is simple: Church-going people are often traditional, conservative people. And here I don’t mean those terms in the way that political analysts might use them, to describe specific policy positions. I mean simply that they are people who want to work hard, raise their children, and be left alone.
Prayer is out, queer theory is in, and many a middle-aged conservative has found occasion recently to splutter his coffee and gape at his newspaper: “How did things change so fast?”
“Have you ever met a parent of nine kids who was a Democratic activist?” Dennis Praeger once asked wryly. Everyone laughed. Perhaps not everyone even knew why it was so funny—it was just an absurd thought. Such a parent, everyone presumes, would have better things to do. People like my grandparents, who immigrated virtually penniless to Canada from the Netherlands in 1953, began working the land, and raised eleven children on a farm they built through blood, sweat, toil, and tears. They were too busy raising children and putting food on the table to trouble themselves with the screechings of Canadian feminists and other such activists.
Herein lies the problem the pro-life and pro-family movement has in recruiting conservative people to engage the culture to combat the social ills infecting our society: There is something fundamentally foreign about “activism.” Indeed, the term “conservative activist” itself seems to be something of a contradiction in terms. Small-c conservatives and traditionalists do not want to change the world. They want to live in it and not be bothered.
It’s in the very root of the word—“conserve.” It is markedly different in temperament from “liberal,” which denotes “liberalizing”—action. Thus, many suspicious church people even find that the word “activism” carries with it a whiff of liberalism. Ambrose Bierce brilliantly encapsulated the contrast between these two temperaments when he defined a conservative as, “A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the liberal who wishes to replace them with others.”
Which brings us to our present unpleasant realization that from a cultural perspective, the traditionalists and conservatives have been thoroughly beaten in the war for the culture. For the most part, we never even showed up. We raised families, built farms and businesses, and attended church functions while secular revolutionaries took over the entertainment industry, the media, academia—and finally, the public education system that now dutifully serves as a conduit for secular “values.” Prayer is out, queer theory is in, and many a middle-aged conservative has found occasion recently to splutter his coffee and gape at his newspaper: “How did things change so fast?”
They didn’t, of course. The Sexual Revolution has been unfolding now for over sixty years. But now, for the first time, people are beginning to wake up and realize that what is happening is not something we can ignore, because very rapidly, it is beginning to happen to us. Already, the influences of the entertainment industry and pornography are showing in the youth. It’s why Christian publications mourn the rise of “sexual atheists”—people who still believe in God, but just don’t think His rules apply to their sex life. Churches across North America are hemorrhaging young people as the public education system dutifully does what it was put in place to do: Plant skepticism, undermine the beliefs of any children from Christian homes, and then send them off to university so that the faculty there can finish the job. It’s why enormous numbers of Christians lose their faith during university.
The government, too, will no longer leave us alone. As I wrote previously concerning Ontario’s war over sex education, the government needs the ability to re-educate children into the values of their secular system, and will go to war with parents for the right to do so. In some European countries, children are being taken away from their parents because Christian beliefs could “harm” the children—and some academics are already suggesting that Christianity could, one day, be “treatable.”
Conservatives want to be left alone to raise their children. The unfortunate fact is that we won’t be.
The secularists never had any intention of letting us carve out enclaves where we could live in peace—and a stream of legislation like Alberta’s Bill 10, which would force home-schoolers and private schools to change their teaching on sexuality, is simply the most recent evidence.
This is why the tables have been turned. Now, it is secular progressive ideology that is the status quo, having successfully infiltrated and established itself in every major institution. They have achieved a new status quo, and we traditionalists have been left with nothing left to “conserve” in the first place. We can no longer be Chamberlain giving up territory bit-by-bit—we are now the frog in boiling water, and have to decide how to confront these encroachments to retain the freedoms we need to live as Christians in a society that increasingly holds us in contempt.
How can one be a conservative in a society with nothing left to conserve and everything to fight for? It’s a pressing, imminent question that demands our attention. The twofold task of passing our Christian beliefs on to our children and preventing the government from interfering in that process was once easy—we could just live and let live. That was always a questionable strategy, especially as it ignored the massive loss of life through abortion happening in our own towns and cities. Standing up for our pre-born neighbors is not just a “cause,” but a biblical command. But now, it is in our self-interest to engage. It is not just the children of others we should be worried about, but our own. We will not have the luxury of raising children the way our parents and grandparents did. The time to speak Truth to power is now.
via Life Site
Corey
The revelation that God has given me for 2019 is “Bold Faith”. In this climate it is my prayer and my expectation that He will walk and run with me as He is the One Who gave me the revelation. I am excited and anxious at the same time.
Mungo Writes
Live and let live in-did us plus shallow Christianity. Conservative values did dominate the secular at one time. Else we would not have the Golden Age of television. Cable, ratings for movies, premium channels was like connecting a sewer into our homes. In 1996 I walked in to my living room, on a Saturday afternoon to see my girls where just a commercial was showing. To me the commercial (for a show that evening) was so obscene I jerked the cable off. I cancelled my cable and just stuck with video rentals and their VHS library.
2018 I still do not watch cable and the he oldest daughter is a married school teacher who graduated from a Christian college. My other daughter makes $56,000 recruiting engineers and scientist for a firm in Denver.
She belongs to a church and is going to get a CCP.
That is my perspective. The root cause of societal ills is lostness, fatherlessnesss, and not caring enough. The solution is controlling where we spend our money, evangelical outreach, and a good spanking.
Dee
You’re correct on cable TV but very incorrect on the last part: sorry but the church allowed for “spanking” to be completely taken over by the “porn” industry and a huge number of angry men were allowed to take out their anger on their own children: SHAME ON THEM….ask any DYFS office in the nation what “a good spanking” brought to this culture, in fact many children were actually MURDERED that way….and it’s the church that turned a blind eye to that!! Repentance fear friend is what works, not a spanking….
Mary
I don’t any respect for DYFS, they do more harm than good.
Jacqueline
I wish we would of pulled our cable years ago!
You were truly a front runner. And as far as spankings, I couldn’t agree more!
sean
Well said. Couldn’t agree more. Its all a matter of motivation. Not caring enough also means not enough motivation to deal with the issues.
Tom tyler
The citadel , that was Christian America could never be taken in a frontal assault , so the hateful, hissing toads of Marxism ,were turned loose , to rot the body politic .A diabolical plan was implemented to destroy their goodness , by making them Godless . Destroy the youth , by making them blind and ignorant . Cripple the economy with the pitchfork. of “Cloward and Piven ” , then strangle industry with the rope of phony “global alarms” , and environmental hysteria . By now the youth that was robbed of their goodness , and common sense , are in positions of power , to implement the new ‘Bible” , “Political correctness” . The once noble giant, bleeding now ,from numerous festering wounds, limps pitifully along, poor ,blind ,and naked , while the “progressive” ( Marxist ) news outlets rave about the “Emperor’s ” marvelous new clothes …………Now if only they could do something about those pesky guns……
Dee
Excellent article and so very true!! We fell asleep, to our detriment….and now we must get off our collective “lazy chairs” and CONFRONT the anti christ spirit in our culture….I’m readyand I pray the majority of conservatives will be also
Amy
Dee, I agree. I also see television, and now the mobile screens accessing various distractions and evil. Society no longer seeks truth, rather whatever those with the means to get it out on TV, movies, and the internet influence one to believe will make one feel valued and part of society.
Eileen
Being Born Again in the late ‘80’s, my children were raised believers. That’s when Public Schools still celebrated Christmas and the holidays. The Jehovah Witnesses were the ones who chose to not stand for the pledge. Two children went to Christian Colleges, one State. I was working in a Public Grade Scool in 2005 and it wasn’t any different than the school I left in another state. I have been reading and finding out some of the awful things going on in schools and colleges. I think it exploded when Obama was elected ( transformation). Charter Schools, private, homeschooling, Christian seem to have a new meaning. My grandson who is 4, just was switched to a Christian Preschool due to the lack of even traditional teaching. I pray for all my grandchildren and their schools. It is good now. It can be scary, but trust God. My job now is taking care of my grandchildren who live near me. My husband is not a believer, but am trusting God. Fight the good fight.
Ken
Maybe the problem is Democracy. Parents need to devote themselves to rearing children. If we didn’t have stinking elections every two years, we wouldn’t have to constantly expend so much money, time, and energy fighting against progressivism.
John Allcott
By all means, vote and boycott and write emails…But the main thing the Church needs to do is make disciples in all nations.
Dustin Koellhoffer
Leftists do not see good as good, but see good as evil, and liberals are too morally ignorant to understand that they are wrong.
https://liberalsbackwardsthink.com/2019/01/24/the-face-of-evil/
John
In case you missed it, this is the End Game.
It’s OVER! DONE!! KAPUT!!!
The time has come to prepare for the WRATH OF ALMIGHTY GOD!
Read the book of Revelation and tremble!
All of this has been prophesied from the beginning. Do not be surprised, but OPEN YOUR EYES!
Remember, prepare yourselves. For soon, “Every mountain will be moved from its place!”
Nicholas Daniels
It was NEVER enough to work hard, raise a family, and hope to be left alone. That mantra goes against everything that the scripture teaches. Rather than going into all the world and preaching the gospel, those who claim the name of Christ have chosen rather to pursue the American dream and their best life now. We are now faced with the fruits of all those unevangelized masses and still refusing to use the ONLY weapon (the gospel), that we were ever given to combat evil. Today’s Christianity has become a tool and promoter of a manmade government that is the antithesis of God’s plan for his creation. The sovereignty and authority of the affairs of men that belongs to God alone have been given to a government system that has only worldly and selfish goals, and to align oneself with this worldly system is indeed enmity with God. We are reaping what we have sown and what we continue to sow.
AirborneSaint
In my humble opinion, it’s that we somehow forgot that it is the Gospel that is the power of God for salvation. We can create and enact all kinds of laws. Vote for all the “right” people. Demand morality on our TV/Computer/Phone screens. But the heart of the human problem is the problem with the human heart. What man needs is a new nature – a born again – born from above – Christ like nature. This only comes from the preaching/proclamation/sharing of the Gospel.
Over the years I’ve seen a huge sift. Folks said, we have to “show” Christ… love your neighbor, work hard, do right, live well. But they never actually shared the Gospel – How shall they believe unless they hear? Paul asked. Meaning that “sharing” the Gospel meant speaking and proclaiming it with words. I’ve seen missionaries come back from mission trips, where they built huts destroyed by hurricanes, and dug water wells for people who had no water nearby, but when asked if they actually shared the Gospel, they look at you like you’re nuts? They say, “What do you mean? We built huts, and dug water wells – we showed them the love of Christ.” Great… DID YOU PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL, with words? And more often than not there reply was, “Uhm… not exactly.”
Christians adopted the unbiblical mantra of “Share the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.” and the unbelieving world was appreciative of the huts, and water wells, and the nice neighbors we were, as they continued to slide into immorality, wickedness, and sin.
Until Christians recover this Biblical mandate to PREACH the Gospel, we’ll never see real, true repentance or revival in this nation.