Reflect for a moment, if you will, on a gathering of Christians in Nashville, TN, a week ago. A few hundred of the most prominent Christian leaders in the country across all denominations came together to sign what is being called "The Nashville Statement."
The statement merely reaffirms 2,000 years of orthodox Christianity. The statement reaffirms marriage is between one man and one woman. It reaffirms God made us male and female and therefore transgenderism is incompatible with the Christian faith. It reaffirms the Bible lists homosexuality as a sin thereby rendering its acceptance as incompatible with the Christian faith.
These are not new ideas. In fact, they are ideas specifically found in any Bible you pick up. They are New Testament ideas. These are ideas inside mainstream Christianity. They are views shared by more than one billion Christians around the world. Nonetheless, you would have thought John Piper, John MacArthur, Russell Moore and R.C. Sproul had murdered someone in Nashville last weekend.
The mayor of Nashville denounced the Nashville Statement for using the name of the city to perpetuate hate. For the record, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which organized the statement signing, names the statements generated by the group by the city in which they are signed. Other people assailed the statement for being signed the same weekend Harvey hit Texas as if a long scheduled meeting in Tennessee needed to contemplate the weather patterns of the Atlantic Hurricane Season.
The hysteria from people who never read the Bible telling people who take the Bible seriously what is in it has been off the charts. Some people, like author Jen Hatmaker, objected to the Nashville Statement purely on emotional grounds. She, like so many others, has substituted Christian doctrine and sound theology for the emotion of what makes one's self feel good. If you feel good, that must be what Jesus wanted. I assure you he did not feel good when nailed on the cross.
Now, step away from religion and delve into the other subject one is not supposed to talk about in polite company -- politics. In Charlottesville, VA, white nationalists were met by Antifa protestors. Even the police reported Antifa showed up looking for a fight. But if anyone pointed that out, they were accused of excusing the white nationalists' behavior. Last week, Antifa savagely beat people in Berkeley, CA. Despite there being no white supremacists counter-protesting, many prominent leftwing activists denounced anyone who called out Antifa. To them, Antifa had a moral calling to push back against their kissing cousins in the white supremacist movement. And they are kissing cousins, just as the Nazis and Communists were.
In both instances, silence is a weapon. The devil cannot perpetuate lies when truth is spoken. As long as people speak up, it is harder to capture the minds of the young. So you must shut up and be silent. Those who would turn the world upside down are committed to ensuring your silence. You will be bullied, harassed, chased out of business, and run out of the town square. A single candle in darkness provides light so all the candles must be blown out.
The devil's silence is coming most noticeably for the church in America. Cultural revolutionaries assail orthodoxy Christianity as hateful and bigoted. If you adhere to the faith, you must be one of those hicks or rubes bitterly clinging to guns and religion. What these cultural revolutionaries will not say, but know, is that you are a hopeless cause. They are, instead, targeting your children.
That is why you have an obligation to speak up. They only win in silence. The lie only stands in the absence of truth. That is why they try to make it costly for you to speak up. At a minimum they hope to convince you, your spouse, your pastor, and your friends that it is not worth it to speak up. But speak up you must.
The secular left in America is increasingly angry and increasingly violent. But both are just weapons with which they will intimidate you into silence. So speak up.