LIMITING
THE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS: SILENCE OF THE LAMB
PART 2 of 2
By Debra Rae
October 21, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
Newsweek’s “Special Report: Spirituality 2005” noted that increasing numbers of Americans, especially those younger than sixty, embrace “no religious affiliation,” yet still describe themselves as “spiritual.” That is to say, the impulse to link with a higher being is on the rise.
Devoid of any spiritual compass, religious universalists contend that all religions (or none) provide an equal basis for enlightenment. As a result, a perplexing blend of Eastern philosophy and Western thought—best described as neo-pantheistic syncretism—has effectively hooked the curious, lured to what cosmic humanists call “the inner force,” but what the Bible calls “seducing spirits.” This touchy-feely nouveau spirituality dismisses creed, commandments and ritual for inner guidance of one’s higher self.
Selective Tolerance
In tenor with this spiritual trend, UNESCO’s Declaration on Tolerance requires “the rejection of dogmatism and absolutism” (as found in the Bible). Be aware, however, that the new tolerance is decidedly selective. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights upholds the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; but Article 29 limits these rights to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Accordingly, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (3 April 1992) sets open-ended limits on religious freedom and “peaceful assembly” (Trinity Law Professor, James Hirsen). As a result, Christians gradually forfeit the same liberty afforded politically correct Earth pagans who worship Gaia; Muslims who worship the Moon God, Allah; and neo-pantheists who worship “the god within”—all freely and openly.
Hate Crimes
Perhaps not surprisingly, a Time magazine article (1 July 2002) judged the Bible view of gays and lesbians to be, “not just eccentric, but downright odious,” yet those who decline to celebrate so-called diversity are tagged by some as “homophobes,” “breeders” and “hate-mongers.” The author of Canada’s hate-propaganda law, Svend Robinson holds that vilifying gays is reprehensible, but then he freely besmirches Christian leaders as “ecclesiastical dictators.”
That same Time issue conceded that fully thirty-six percent of Americans believe that the Bible, taken literally, is God’s Word; yet Ted Kennedy would hold libel any preacher who dares to teach the Bible view on homosexuality. Furthermore, for opposing Missouri’s efforts to license gays as foster parents, a Christian social worker was outright fired.
Activists from ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and OUT (Oppression under Target) chant, march, and invade businesses and government offices while angrily thrusting their oft-vulgar signs into the faces of “intolerant” traditionalists. While fringe anti-gay advocates reportedly act in similarly unseemly fashion, media portrayal more often than not favors the politically correct.
The National Endowment for the Arts funds Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi, retelling the Passion Play from a gay perspective offensive to some 70,000 Christian churchgoers whose taxes fund it. Like it or not, tax dollars likewise support the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Lesbian Visual Arts and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.
While these events generate a ton of business for merchants, thus returning tax money to the cities, this is not a monetary matter. To Christians, it’s a matter of faith and the free exercise thereof.
Political Correctness Gone Awry
Simply put, today’s PC brand of relativism employs inequitable scales. So much for “no rights or wrongs”: Political correctness denounces harming Mother Earth as wrong; saving her, right. Sanctified sex is wrong; “safe sex,” right. Racism and sexism are wrong and tolerance, right.
All too often, independent and traditional thinkers are forced to wave the white flag of surrender to politically-correct secularists. Freelance writer and self-proclaimed card-carrying agnostic, Seattle’s own Mike Davis rightly suggests that changing “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays” (or some other innocuous phrase as “Happy Neutral Non-secular Celebration”) is “a load of … well, reindeer manure.”
Now that we’re on the subject, the so-called “Three Reindeer Rule” requires a municipality to place a sufficient number of secular objects in close enough proximity to a Christmas symbol to render the overall display “sufficiently secular.” (As if a red-nosed reindeer in and of itself fails to qualify!)
In such matters, irony takes on hypocrisy. For example, the Parks Board in San José, California removed a nativity scene from the very park housing a statue of an Aztec god (constructed with ½-million dollars of scarce public resources). Nothing “sufficiently secular” about that!
The last time Davis checked, we still live in the US of A, where dictatorial regulations and thought police are unwanted. Given that over ninety-five percent of Americans celebrate Christmas, there’s no need to talk about “winter break” or “holiday parties” when referencing a Christmas event. To believe otherwise is to manifest what Davis calls secular bigotry. The Constitution forbids government to make laws regarding free exercise of religion. For some, this includes celebrating Christmas.
While increasing numbers of Wiccans celebrate Halloween as one of their eight major festivals, it is broadly viewed, albeit wrongly so, as a secular celebration. In fact, all three major holidays of the so-called holiday season (Halloween included) have religious significance. While Halloween is opportune time for Wiccans to rendez-vous with the Lord of Death, Thanksgiving and Christmas encourage Christians to acknowledge God for His love and provision.
No one insists that Wiccan symbols be balanced by comparable Christmas, Jewish, Hindu or Muslim symbols. Yet Halloween and Christmas—both celebrated secularly (with taffy pulling and Santa Claus)—are likewise decidedly religious (in celebrating Wicca’s New Year and birth of the Savior). Funny, but trappings of Halloween hold no interest to Nativity Nazis. Only Christmas falls prey to “distancing” and “proximity” rules.
The point is this: Under attack is not holiday symbolism—e.g., turkey-with-fixings or ringing sleigh bells—not even the day itself. The Bible never requires believers to celebrate the birth of Christ. Rather, it is the Judeo-Christian faith of our fathers. This is what agenda-driven, anti-Christian legal entities pummel with relentless tactics of intimidation and disinformation—all under the banner of First Amendment rights.
Zealous do-gooders, as these, claim to grasp the separation principle better than Fisher Ames, the First Amendment’s author who, in turn, introduced it to the House of Representatives. When asked, “Should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book?” Ames affirmed that “its morals are pure, its examples captivating and noble.” These are not exactly the words of a Christian-bashing secularist.
In a PC world gone loony, Christians who eschew witches and vampires are silenced as fanatics all the while First Amendment activists freely sully candy-striped poles and red-nosed reindeer! Forget about witches, sacred black cats and the Devil. Instead, denigrate Santa Claus, Christmas trees, toy soldiers and teddy bears as “indirect, remote, and incidental benefit to the advancement of religion” (Lynch v. Donnelly).
Never mind that none of these symbols bears even the slightest resemblance to biblical Christianity.
Parallel Society
Missionaries are now being deported from Germany for the crime of home schooling and, thus, promoting “parallel societies.” Founder of Home School Legal Defense Alliance wrote “It seems as if a week doesn’t go by without another family being threatened with fines, imprisonment or the loss of their children.”
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This is no small matter. Even now, “the land of the free and the home of the brave” is kowtowing to the anti-Christian trend. Be sure the Global Village wants access to your child and mine—to your faith and mine.
But the Lamb won’t be silenced. Not if vigilant Christians shake sleep and give voice to that Lamb, also known as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah! Then, and only then, will the world hear Him roar! For part one click below.
Click here for part -----> 1,
