Life is a battlefield, and we are waving the white flag.
Whether you like it or not, the culture war has been, is, and will be on your doorstep. The villainous, tyrannical forces of evil pervade your soul and your children every time you turn on the television or leave the house to go to a shopping center.
I know so many people who try to distance themselves from reality. They avoid watching the news, they censor their movies, and put content blockers on the computer. These people keep their children out of the schools and allow association only with other like-minded people. They hope that the only influence on their kids will be theirs and approved friends and family.
That is just not realistic.
They go to the mall and hear unapproved music on the speakers, they see unapproved sexual images on billboards, DVD cases, album covers, and magazine covers at the checkout line. Our kids watch unapproved movies on displays at Wal-Mart and Best Buy to help sell high definition televisions. We all notice the unapproved attire being modeled by other customers in our shopping trips.
This is all around us, and it is endless.
Playing the ostrich burying your heads in the sand will not protect yourself or your children from the evils of the world. What makes matters worse is that your silence is part of the problem.
There is a lot of feigned outrage out there. A lesbian couple claimed $135,000 worth of emotional damages from not getting a wedding cake from a business that served them several times in the past. Celebrities are crying on national television over the death of a lion that they’ve never met in a country they’ve barely even heard of.
What happens when something truly outrageous happens? Nothing.
This is because of the silence of the principled.
Christians and political conservatives share many of the same principles. In fact, I cannot comprehend any other political philosophy that a Christian could possibly adhere to. However, the Left—which used to be the “far” left before social justice became the mainstream—is destroying all that we hold dear. They are effective, while we remain impotent because of just a few reasons that we want to ignore.
- They utilize social media.
Rather than posting hundreds of pictures of their children or delicious meals, the cultural engineers are on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pasting #hashtags all over every outlet they can. Bloggers take to social media with legions of likeminded mobs and dominate the trending topics.
Cynics make fun of these “wackos” for sitting in their parent’s basements in their underwear. Conservative commentators mock leftist bloggers and hashtag diplomacy, but guess what?
They are getting what they want!
While we sit idly by and laugh at their seemingly inconsequential efforts, they are reshaping society. The major media, always seeking to capitalize on public infatuation, picks up the trending topics on Facebook and Twitter, and stories like Cecil the Lion are discussed by ALL media. Even if it is to express displeasure in the stupidity of the outrage, talking about Cecil means not talking about ISIS or Planned Parenthood.
- They utilize boycotts and protests.
We love to de-emphasize the effectiveness of protestors. We sit in our ivory towers and mock the gatherings of radicals that take to the streets to “occupy” or march to Washington for whatever cause is the flavor of the month.
Yet we ignore that such a large number of protests cannot simply be ignored forever. As idiotic as we thought the call for $15 an hour minimum wage at McDonalds, there have not only been states that have implemented the policy, but the major Democratic presidential candidates have begun to run on the idea.
Boycotts have caused television shows to be ripped from the airwaves, like the Christian home improvement brothers from HGTV, but have shut down entire businesses.
Racial protests in Ferguson and Baltimore have led to cities being burned, businesses closing, and provided an entryway for the federal government to begin to police on local levels.
What happens to any company that Christians disagree with? Nothing. How is Planned Parenthood doing? Congress can not even remove tax dollars from their coffers. How about ESPN, which routinely skirts our principles by glorifying the homosexual kiss of Michael Sam or giving “Caitlyn” Jenner a hero award? They are doing just fine. And who owns ESPN?
Disney.
Disney is responsible for hero worshiping a transsexual over a war veteran and a female athlete who bravely fought but ultimately lost her life to cancer. Could you toss your Princess DVDs in the trash? How about *gasp* not watching the new Star Wars movie in protest?
That would never happen, and Disney/ESPN knows it.
- They utilize passion.
As insane as we may think they are, our enemies actually care about what they are doing. They have a mission to remake society, and they will stop at nothing to do so. They use every single tool at their disposal to demonize conservatives and Christians. They blast us on film and television. They distort our views on the news and roll over us in debates. They teach our children, if not through public schools, through college, movies, or peer pressure from friends who cave into evil beliefs.
And we remain apathetic.
- They capitalize on our apathy.
Not only have we stopped caring, but they know that we have. They count on it. On the very rare occasion that Christians stand up for themselves, like with Chic-Fil-A, it throws our enemies into turmoil. They are so shocked that they wail and cry, but they know that it is not likely to happen to the next cause.
They overwhelm us into submission, and we eventually give them anything they want. Like the United States and Iran, we capitulate to their every desire without getting anything in return.
The solution to all this is for you to WAKE UP! Stand your ground to your friends, family, co-workers, and social media. Start a movement on Facebook and watch it spread like wildfire. Write a blog. Have meetings with your pastors. Donate to a political campaign—volunteer if you have to. Get engaged with like-minded people and form a mob. Do SOMETHING!
I spend hours a day thinking about this stuff. I take the time to write down my thoughts in hope that SOMEONE WILL PAY ATTENTION!
It has yet to work, but at least I am trying. Can you say the same? I cannot promise you success, but I can promise that your apathy will lead to the complete loss of our culture.
Simmons' Opinions 