It should be obvious now that the “gay rights” movement was never about tolerance. It was always about dominance.
Time after time, on issue after issue, by refusing to fight the secular left from the moral high ground, conservatives – and more specifically, Christians – find our culture struggling under the weight of moral degeneracy.
The left has been fighting to undermine biblical values for a long time. They have attacked the sanctity of life. They have attacked the centrality of the family. They have attacked the relevance of manhood. They have attacked the notion of womanhood.
In each case, the left’s talking points began with “tolerate this” and ended with “you have no choice but to approve and celebrate it.”
As people of faith, we must recognize our culpability. We allowed the idea of “tolerance” to be redefined into the highest of virtues, and so – not wanting to upset the civic apple cart or appear in violation of secular morals – we sat silently by. Even “conservative” pastors in “Bible-believing” denominations capitulated – at best, preaching self-help pablum so as not to offend those who hate the Gospel, and at worse, abusing scripture to justify every sin endorsed by the radical left.
When someone had the temerity to speak out, they were accused of engaging in a “culture war.”
We all should have been so engaged. There has been a war going on; one side has just simply been content to wave a white flag.
Consider the twisted knots of the modern feminist movement. It was founded on the notion that women, created in the image of God, deserved equal rights under the law. We can all wholeheartedly agree with that. Pioneers like Susan B. Anthony held that women should be treated equally, and be equally responsible, under the law. She opposed abortion on religious and practical grounds, holding that abortion was a tool of oppression.
Yet in the intervening century, feminists – led astray by the left – embraced that tool of oppression.
In an alliance with the gay rights movement of the 2020s, feminists allow womanhood to be openly mocked. In drag shows, women are reduced to objects of sexual fetish with the full approval of the feminists. A man was named USA Today’s Woman of the Year in 2022. On International Women’s Day 2023, the Biden White House presented the “Women of Courage” award to … a man.
In the 1990s, Americans were told to just “tolerate” homosexual behavior. “What happens in the privacy of someone’s bedrom …” we were told repeatedly. It was an easy, comfortable lie.
To transform American society, the left didn’t present studies; they gave us “Will & Grace” and “Modern Family.” We weren’t drowned in data points; instead, publications were flooded with cherry-picked profiles of homosexuals just wanting to be “tolerated.”
Tolerated by culture … right up until the point the left could dominate culture. Today, private businesses are forced to celebrate gay “marriage” – threatened not just with private lawsuits but with government action.
The demand to “tolerate” what two men do privately in their bedroom 25 years ago has become a demand that prepubescent children be subjected to teachers talking about their sexcapades and fetishes in the classroom.
The request for tolerance was always a precursor to dominance. And it isn’t just about the actions of abortion, gender surgeries, or homosexuality. Those are symptoms.
As we are reminded in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
The war for the culture of our republic is a war waged by the forces of evil. Unless we want to see this present darkness dominate our land, we must commit ourselves to being fully engaged in the spiritual war.
