The USA is a country divided between two extremes. Both extremes do not hide their intention to silence or neuter their ideological opponents. Both sides accuse the other side of violence, symbolic or actual, against their side. In the middle is a moderate group that appears to be growing smaller. I doubt there is anything resembling a silent majority anymore, though there is undoubtedly a silent minority.
How do we learn to live with each other again? How do we learn to allow each other as much freedom as possible? How do we prevent ourselves from trying to coerce the other side using rules and laws to force a change into only what we believe? Or is this country bound and determined to impose some ideological limits, exchanging our vaunted freedom of speech for speech limitations or imposed speech guidelines? You cannot successfully ban certain religious expressions in schools and specific religious arguments in the courts, then be surprised when certain of your books are banned in libraries and entire DEI departments are gutted and extinguished. Tit for tat is a terrible way to live.
Ultimately, there is no difference between the right-wing book censors and the left-wing DEI censors. Both attempt to silence the other side by preventing access to certain concepts via book banning or imposing a linguistic schema that forces people to speak in ways that violate their convictions. Both sides justify their actions with false or exaggerated charges against the other. Both sides deliberately intrude into the other’s space to accuse the other side of palpably and demonstrably untrue things.
To state it bluntly, It is a lie to say that a traditionalist or religious person has a psychological problem simply because they disagree with you. Traditionalists and religious believers are not homophobes or transphobes or …. They are not psychologically adverse to you. They intellectually or religiously disagree with you. They do not need to be fixed, be given electroshock therapy, or be classified as unstable. It would be best if you tried to change their conviction. Failing that, it would be good to attempt to reach a détente. By now, you should be beginning to realize that forcing them to use language with which they strongly disagree is counterproductive and leads to an intense backlash. Rather than the path of persuasion, you chose the path of power and now see its predictable results. Speaking truth to power sounds great until you become the power and someone speaks truth to you.
To state it bluntly, It is a lie to say that an LGBTQ+ person is a groomer or that a liberal heterosexual supporter of LGBTQ+ is a groomer-enabler. If you are going to make that claim, then you need to also go after some of the wilder lingerie advertisements easily visible on all media for grooming heterosexual misbehavior. It has long ago been pointed out that heterosexual grooming is part of many advertisements, that is, unless you believe that a sexy woman draped over a car is a perfectly harmless photograph that does not subliminally point you toward heterosexual misbehavior. You need to clean some of your own house. The number of adulterous heterosexual relationships among influential clergy leaders is a source of shame and an example of successful heterosexual grooming. Being a traditionalist or religious sounds excellent until your behavior no longer matches what is proclaimed. Remember that Martin Luther King’s letter “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written to supposedly godly pastors who supported segregation, anti-miscegenation laws, poll taxes, etc.
Both sides make charges against the other while demonstrating a severe lack of introspection. I would appeal to both sides to engage in some weighty introspection. We cannot flaunt our delight in being American while violating some of this country’s founding principles. How do we live as Americans in this modern world?
Finally, a word to my fellow Christians. The Orthodox Church of America says the following in an online article on faithfulness:
Faithfulness is characterized by stability of body and soul; the utter refusal to move or be moved for any unworthy reason; the complete dedication to what God gives one to do, with the faith, grace and strength that God gives to do it. As it is written in the sayings of the fathers of the desert: “As a tree cannot bear fruit if it is often transplanted, no more can a monk (or any person) that is often changing his mind and moving from place to place.” The only way to receive the “crown of life” is to be “faithful until death” in the place where God has put us (Rev 2.10).
I understand that there are some issues on which we cannot compromise. A big one is the sanctity of life as expressed within Orthodox guidelines. I write it this way because I am not a Roman Catholic; thus, I am not against birth control. (For those ready to jump in with all types of micro-definitions of birth control, please resist. I am faithful to Orthodox teachings expressed by our bishops and saints, no more and no less.) Nevertheless, there are issues on which we do not need to win. More importantly, we need to give a witness so that our words might be believed. That witness is found all through Scripture and the Fathers, but I will choose a passage from Matthew 25:34-40.
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’
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