Quite a few years ago, English actor Anthony Hopkins starred in a thriller movie called “Silence of the Lambs,” where he played the psychotic, sadistic, and cannibalistic Hannibal Lecter.
The only similarities between that movie and my interest today is the topic. With the tide of political correctness, the radical gay agenda, the pro-abortionist movement, and many others rising and gaining both sympathy and support from the media, the masses, and nearly all sectors of our culture, it is becoming very difficult to find people who will make a stand for family values and biblical principles publicly. Even amongst those who are men of the cloth, who are called and chosen to proclaim the truth and defend the faith, the numbers are declining. Perhaps because of restrictions and restraints that have been imposed upon them by their congregations or governing boards, these leaders and servants of God shy away from sensitive, controversial, and pressing subjects that may offend someone in their congregation or even perhaps someone near and dear to them, who may be guilty of violating God’s standards. With such restrictions and restraints placed upon them concerning their Sunday morning sermons and lessons, speaking out in the public or sending a letter to the editor is out of the question.
I truly appreciate Dr. Richard Alderman, who taught us Bible at Gordon High School during the late sixties, for being cut from a different cloth and shaped from a different mold. He has proven himself to be a man of character, conviction, and courage, who is not afraid to speak the truth and defend the faith from the pulpit to the public forum. Perhaps I am too hard and expect too much from those servants who are not as bold and outspoken as he, when it comes to defending the faith and speaking the truth. Could it actually be that he and I, with only a dismal few, have been given this awesome responsibility and charge from our Creator? Am I to believe that this is the case and reason why I can’t hold my peace nor close my eyes to injustices, bullying, and unfair treatment of others? Maybe this explains why from a youth to this present day, I’ve always felt compelled to defend the weak, the underdog, and those who are truly destitute.
I can well remember (as if it happened just last week) the times when I arose to defend some of my classmates and friends from bullies; and in rare occasions, from teachers who were abusing their authority, even to the point of physically threatening to subdue certain students, who were timid and much smaller than they were as fully developed grown men. On a more recent note, I remember being in a line at the checkout at our local Wal-Mart, a little Hispanic woman in the lane beside me was being harassed and bullied by an impatient and impolite white woman (her color did not matter to me) in line behind her. Due to the fact that this little Mexican woman had a buggy full of stuff, it was taking some time for the woman at the register to process and get her through.
This woman was very angry and insulting to the poor little woman who had done no wrong, but to bring a buggy full of stuff to the register where she was supposed to have brought it. Well, she kept running off at the mouth with her very discourteous and offensive words. Finally, I could no longer take the way she was treating this poor little woman who was afraid to defend herself. Perhaps because she had her husband or male companion with her, the little Hispanic woman kept silent. Before I could hold my words back, I shouted, “Ma’am, leave this woman alone; she hasn’t done anything to you! She was ahead of you in line and it is not her fault that it is taking so long.” My words of intervention both scared and abruptly silenced the woman. Her husband, who was with her, asked me what business of it was mine. Already angered by the ill treatment of the little woman, I stepped back from my lane and motioned to him to come to where I was and let us talk about it there. Knowing that I was serious about the matter and was not afraid of him, he nodded his head as a gesture of surrender and joined her in being silent.
I have said all of this in an attempt to drive home this point. The scriptures clearly teach that: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: …a time to keep silence, and a time to speak…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1,7). I am fully convinced that we are living in perilous times when there is a war being fought for the very soul, sanity, and survival of America. The war that I am referring to is not a war that is being fought with machine guns, tanks, artillery, naval ships, or warplanes. It is not a war for land, oil, natural resources, or anything material. It is a war that is being waged by ideas, laws, and strategies; a war where values, standards, and ethics that were once considered, by the masses, to be of divine origin and absolute are now being challenged, disrespected, and in many cases, replaced by the laws and ways of a new order and religion. This new order and religion has taken on many guises and names, such as post-modernism, secular humanism, situational ethics, and perhaps its greatest and most effective scheme thus far, political correctness.
It has many adherents, allies, and supporters in the highest echelon of government, industry, academia, media, entertainment, and even certain elements of the Christian community.
These people who are organized, unified, and hell-bent on winning this war of ideas will stop at nothing until they have silenced every significant voice of opposition through intimidation, litigation, and even character assassination. These people who are often the most intolerant group of all will label folks who will not agree with their beliefs, practices, and lifestyles due to their convictions and embrace of traditional family values and Judeo-Christian principles as intolerant, bigots, and worst. We cannot afford to stand idly by in apathy, fear, and silence and allow this group to win the battle for our culture.
Too many of us have conceded defeat and retreated to the comfort and protection of our gated communities, churches, private schools, and clubs while the forces of ultra-liberalist and social perversion are taking over and running amok. Hopefully, we will not have to look back to this day, when so much is hanging in the balance, with regret and repent to our children and grandchildren by confessing that we could have stopped this from happening, but we were too preoccupied, too scared to stand up and speak out.”
Silence is not always golden, sometimes it is an act of fear and sheer cowardice.
