In police states which feign some degree of freedom, oppressive governments have various ways to repress dissent and keep the masses from expressing their concerns. Militias or government forces dressed in civilian clothing will often patrol the public spaces on the lookout for any signs of rebellion or protest.
When such outbursts of freedom and democracy are encountered, they are quickly dealt with: beatings, arrests, intimidation and coercion are all weapons of the totalist state. In the face of such crackdowns on free speech and contrary views, we can all be glad to live in the free West. But are things really all that different here?
One very ironic aspect of the contemporary Western world is that the more we trumpet the values of tolerance and inclusiveness, the more intolerant we seem to be becoming. Western freedoms and democracy are being used and abused by militant activist groups to push their agendas, regardless of the rest of society’s approval.
And increasingly these activist groups are imitating the attack squads found in the police states. They regularly go around searching out any signs of dissent, and often disrupt any public meetings or gatherings where free-thinking individuals dare to question the agendas of the activist groups.
An obvious example of this are the militant homosexual activists who are continually on the prowl to disrupt, shout down, or even force the closure of any group activity which they do not approve of. They not only target any public meeting, but increasingly private ones as well. They are happy to disrupt church services and intimidate private citizens going about their own business.
Many Christians have felt the full wrath and fury of these forces of ‘tolerance’. Indeed, many examples of this anti-Christian bigotry have been documented. One pastor has even written up a harrowing account of how the homosexualist attack squads have assaulted his family and church. See Chuck and Donna McIlhenny, When the Wicked Seize a City (Huntington House, 1993).
No wonder they are increasingly referred to as the gaystapo. They are the self-appointed vigilantes for political correctness and the homosexualist cause. And so often they have the tacit support of the state. With harmful ‘hate crime’ laws being passed all around the Western world, the State is siding with these militant groups, and clamping down on the freedoms of ordinary citizens.
And plenty of institutions – both public and private – are embracing the cause of the militants, using coercive measures to ensure that their agenda is fully carried out. Corporations, schools, universities, workplaces and other bodies are all becoming willing or unwilling standard-bearers for the radical homosexual agenda.
The modern Western university is certainly a prime example of this. Such places are supposed to be the home of free inquiry and open debate. But more and more they are becoming closed shops, with only one viewpoint and ideology allowed. Any competing views are quickly and effectively squashed.
If the schools themselves are not engaging in such censorship and discrimination, there are plenty of activist groups that seem to be freely allowed to initiate their own reign of terror on campus. Consider yet another recent example of this.
Dr Robert Gagnon is a New Testament scholar who has dared to affirm the biblical view on the issue of homosexuality. For this ‘crime’ he is regularly targeted by the homosexualist assault squads. If they cannot prevent him from speaking, they will do all they can to disrupt him, demonise him, and make life miserable for him. All in the name of ‘tolerance’ of course.
He has just written up the most recent ordeal he has had to endure at the hands of the militant homosexualists. It is well worth reading in its entirety, but I here reprint a few choice snippets. He begins, “My speaking engagement at Bowdoin College near Portland, Maine, on Friday Oct. 30 presented me with a glimpse into the oppressive future of homosexualist ascendancy. The talk was attended by about 150 persons, including a large contingent of ‘GLBT’ students and staff who, I heard from other students, had been planning how they might derail my presentation.”
He continues, “The talk lasted about an hour-and-a-half. The Q&A time that followed lasted about 45 minutes. The questions/comments were almost entirely from the aggressive ‘GLBT’ side of the audience. I think the evangelical Christians were, for the most part, too intimidated to say anything. Throughout my presentation and responses in Q&A there were many from the ‘GLBT’ contingent who behaved rudely: eye-rolling, turning to talk to others while I was speaking, some abortive attempts at ridicule.”
He describes how instead of intelligent discussion, he was simply verbally abused time and time again, with ad hominem attacks the main form of ‘debate’. But what is also of interest is the university itself. It is so typical of where most schools are at today in the West. Those individuals who would stand up for traditional family and moral values have become the new blacks. It is becoming ever harder to simply get a fair and even-handed hearing.
Says Gagnon, “I was invited by the Intervarsity chapter at Bowdoin to give a presentation on the Bible and homosexual practice primarily intended for the Bowdoin Christian Fellowship (BCF) but also open to the whole campus.”
But to take up such an invitation is risky business indeed. In fact, sending your kids to a typical Western university today is risky business: “Yet, if you are thinking of sending your child to Bowdoin, consider this: Bowdoin suffers from a major inhibitor of free speech. Let’s just say that if you want to go to a college where homosexualist ideology reigns supreme at the highest levels, a place where you will be belittled as a homophobic bigot if you express your conviction that homosexual practice is wrong, then Bowdoin is the place for you. Bowdoin has not only the usual ‘Gay and Lesbian Studies’ program but also a special ‘Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity,’ just recently renamed from the more descriptive ‘Queer-Trans Resource Center.’ The Center has its own building and full-time director.”
And consider what the university demanded of the Christian group: “The school had the night before brought over Marvin Ellison, a self-professed ‘gay man’… I discovered that the administration had pressured Bowdoin Christian Fellowship to co-sponsor Ellison and to consider Ellison their reliable guide to a proper Christian perspective on homosexuality. In his own research Ellison has shown little understanding of Scripture in its historical and literary context, which makes his attempts at hermeneutical appropriation weak indeed. While wanting an evangelical group to co-sponsor a homosexualist advocate, homosexual administrators were quite unhappy with BCF bringing up an expert to explain and defend the position held by the vast majority of BCF members, namely, the biblical position for male-female sexual prerequisite.”
He goes on to cite the recent case of a Massachusetts man who was fired from his job “because of his traditional beliefs on same-sex marriage”. He then concludes with these words: “Bowdoin College gave me a glimpse of the oppressive future coming from legal support for homosexualist ideologies. The example, along with many others … shows how insane it is for anyone who believes homosexual practice to be immoral to support, or fail to vote against, ‘sexual orientation’ laws and ‘gay marriage,’ or even to keep in office those who support such agendas. In effect, such a person would be voting for his or her own oppression by the state.”
He is quite right. His recent experience is just where the entire Western world is headed. We have homosexualist hit squads on the lookout for anyone who dares to say anything counter to their aggressive agenda. Needed today are courageous men and women who value truth more than acceptance, who value genuine debate over stifling political correctness.
Robert Gagnon is a very brave man – and a rare one. Very few today are willing to stand up to the intimidation and bullying of the homosexual militants. Most would rather deny the truth than risk being subject to their wrath. So please support Dr Gagnon and keep him in your prayers. The opposition will keep seeking to work him over until they fully silence him as well.
16 Replies to “More Intolerance by the Forces of Tolerance”
Bill, from a totally different context, I had occasion a few days ago to flummox a vituperative and bitter person who had sprayed another person on a computer forum in an ad hominem email reply.
All I wrote was
“ad hominem non falsificare”
I wanted to point out that attacking a person doesn’t falsify the statements that person makes.
Now, I am happy for those with better Latin to correct me, but I knew the attacker would not be better at Latin than I.
Maybe it could be a banner for public debates…?
John Angelico
Surely, universities have long since ceased to be places where there is open expression – in reality. I well remember, in the University of Birmingham (England), in 1974 or 5 (my first lot of post-grad), the “controversial” psychologist H. J. Eysenck (“right wing”, of course) was booked to speak. Student activists painted a slogan on a large, too-convenient wall below the library (the authorities eventually grew ivy on it; best move) “Preserve Academic Freedom – Don’t let Eysenck Speak” – no really, I’d swear on my life.
John Thomas, UK
Also, Bill, you suggest the idea of these peoples’ claim to be furthering tolerance, or supposed tolerance – but surely even they have abandoned this vacuous pretence by now. What has come to an end is the process of rival ideas/values meeting and arguing in a civilised way. People on US websites, who seek to oppose left-wing tactics, would say that the fascistic way of proceeding was formally set out and advocated in the 1970s/80s, and this is all we’re seeing. And they also say “Scratch a ‘liberal’ and you’ll find a fascist underneath” – and there’s surely some truth in that.
John Thomas, UK
I cannot vote Conservative but I might nominate someone like Sir Richard Dannatt on my ballot paper next year.
Hit the poiticians where it hurts them: in the vote
David Skinner, UK
With the constant drive in the west to make perversion the new normal I wonder what will happen when the wheels come off the wagon ?
It is sad, but not surprising, that groups in favor of the normalizing of sexual deviancy seem so bent on making everybody agree with them that they will seek to suppress any questioning of their agenda. What is even sadder and actually a little surprising, is that they will throw others of their own group under the bus in an effort to advance their agenda as well.
Try daring to suggest that deviant sexual practice comes with high physical and psychic costs. You get shouted down then as well, even though the data overwhelmingly supports the obvious reality.
Jason Rennie
As a Bowdoin student who identifies as a Christian, I would like to express my opinion on Dr. Gagnon’s impressions at visiting our school. Unfortunately I was not able to attend the program, but I would like to share what I have learned about homosexuality at Bowdoin. Through meeting many wonderful loving people who happen to identify as homosexual, I have been taught that a person’s sexuality should not prevent someone from loving and cherishing that perosn for the child of God that they are. I have learned about hate speech through my contacts with the gender and sexuality resource centers (I am not accusing Dr. Gagnon of this in any way, I am just illustrating part of the sexuality education that does happen at Bowdoin and what is unacceptable on that campus) and how this hurts the people I care about. I think that most Christian’s would agree this kind of hatefulness towards another person is unacceptable, therefore learning about it is beneficial to Christian values. To quote Luke 6:37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” As a Christian woman, it is for me to love people and for God to judge them.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Walsh, Bowdoin ’10
Thanks Kathleen
You say you ‘identify’ as a Christian, but based on what you said, one can ask with all due respect just how strong that identification is. Indeed, it appears from what you have said that you have simply soaked up the spirit of the age – complete with all the pro-homosexual propaganda at your school – with very little biblical knowledge or understanding.
You have completely fallen for this bogus notion of ‘hate speech’ wherein anyone who dares to speak the truth about homosexuality, or challenges their agenda, is simply dismissed as being hate-filled and bigoted. That is one way to always win a debate – just ignore the actual arguments and facts, and simply dismiss your opponent as hate-filled.
And you of course are quite happy to jettison scriptural teaching in order to get along with the homosexual agenda. Yes it is true that we are to love everyone and show them the love of Christ. But biblical love never means allowing a person to continue in their sin and harmful sexual addictions. Biblical love is always about willing the highest good for the other person.
The highest good for another person is what God demands of each of us. Scripture is quite clear that no homosexual will enter the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-11). So how can you even claim to love homosexuals – or any other sinner, which we all are, but some of us are forgiven sinners – if you are allowing them to enter a lost eternity? How can you claim biblical love when you simply allow behaviour which the Bible clearly calls sinful? Sadly your notion of love seems to be mere mushy sentimentalism and worldly tolerance, not biblical love.
And you have managed to completely mangle the Lukan version of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus never for a moment intended us to suspend judgment, critical evaluation, discernment, and the testing of all things. Christians are everywhere called upon to make loving judgments. Love and discernment are not opposites, but are very much two sides to the same coin.
Sorry, but it seems clear from your comment that you have much more fully identified with secular humanism, and have very little identification at all with biblical Christianity.
Thus it is a real pity that you missed Dr Gagnon’s lecture. It sounds like it would have done you a lot of good in clearing up some sloppy thinking and mushy moralising.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Kathleen – You’re right, gay people are like you say. The gay people I’ve known have been … well, it’s not inappropriate to say loveable people – too nice, in fact, for any of them to be plunged into the kind of hideous life, practices, physical/medical dangers they’re inevitably bound for (do you really know how most gay people live?) – and yes, that’s in this life. The real haters of gays are those who would “legitimise” and “normalise” their “lifestyle”, and inevitably pitch them into the terrible life most will experience. But to the ideological people, individual men are just expendable cannon-fodder in the culture wars. I suggest it’s people such as Dr Gagnon who exhibit real love for gay men.
John Thomas, UK
With regard to John Thomas’ post on Eysenck, this great psychologist also ran into opposition in Australia when he attempted to discuss the relationship between race and IQ in the light of reputable research. Leftwing, socially “progressive” folk can be remarkably touchy on this subject, possibly because the mention of it reminds them of the “racist” thoughts that pop inconveniently into their consciousnesses at times, as unwelcome thoughts from the subconscious tend to do.
I had an opportunity to meet Eysenck but refused to pay the exorbitant fee for the privilege.
With regard to the matter of some homosexuals being likeable as persons, indeed some are. Neurotics can be likeable too, but that does not warrant a view that neurosis is a desirable, unproblematic state. In any case, how likeable someone is depends partly on how much you know about them. Years ago I had a homosexual colleague whom I liked because he was intelligent and cultured. My view of him changed after several visits to his home. On the first occasion he introduced me to his flatmate, an adolescent boy whom he was “looking after”. The boy was a homeless runaway. On the second occasion I was invited with a group of colleagues during our lunchbreak. This fellow’s idea of socialising was to put on a video of “Deep Throat”. I walked out. The last I heard of him was that he had legal problems relating to an attempt at picking up a youth. He seems to avoid the social company of his former colleagues. Possibly it is because he has a low opinion of himself.
John Snowden
Kathleen’s response may not be hate filled but it is certainly scary. It reveals just how far the secular leftists are winning the psychological war. Accuse anyone of harbouring feelings of hatred and they are automatically accused, judged and condemned for being a homophobe. Precisely that for which the LGBTs accuse us.
But thank God we have scripture to endorse and encourage rejection of all that is contrary to the word of God.
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” -Matthew 10:34-39
The love that Kathleen describes is adulterous and idolatrous for it misplaces the love of another human being above that of God. As Lewis reminded us, it is not so much that we love people too much, but we don’t love God enough. This then becomes idolatry. To really love people, we must love them God’s way.
David Skinner, UK
John Snowden, thanks for the memory jog. I have often wondered who did this research, good old Eysenck. He certainly copped a lot of flack for being honest.
Stan Fishley
Stanley Fishley, the research partly predates Eysenck. But what is interesting is the touchiness of the subject. Years ago I innocently mentioned this research to a group of Humanistic types. Within a few years one listener had transformed in his memory a passing remark of mine into insinuated racism on my part. If you look at the world-view of these touchy liberal types, you’ll find it’s second-hand Darwinian (as it was in the case of my listener). There is nothing in evolutionary theory that predicts all human racial groups would be of equal intelligence, given that intelligence is largely genetically determined. Personally I don’t think the difference is important. One racial group can be as stupid as the other.
John Snowden
In a broader ‘western’ sense I thought this CS Lewis statement appropriate: “He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself… ”
Keep playing a straight bat Bill, you do a mighty job. And I am more and more active because of it.
Jamie Bowman
Many thanks Jamie
And thanks for the Lewis quote.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Some people perceive every act of denunciation of homosexuality as an equivalent of the Westboro Baptist Church. Maybe, Bill, you could tell us what you think of this group?
Thanks, Pascal Denault, Montréal
Thanks Pascal
I of course don’t think highly of them at all. They give the pro-faith and pro-family camp a very bad name.
We are to speak the truth in love. That can sometimes be a difficult thing to do. But we must try nonetheless. While God does hate sin, he does love each of us, and seeks to woo us back to himself. The love of God and the holiness of God must always be kept in proper biblical balance.
The truth is, we are all sinners, and we all deserve eternal separation from the Father. But Jesus made it possible for us all to return to God through his substitutionary sacrifice at Calvary. In a sense, it is not one particular sin that keeps us from being reunited with a righteous, pure and holy God, but a sinful nature that is fixated on self.
Conversion involves a change of allegiance from self to the rightful centre of the universe. So it is not homosexuality as such – or adultery, or theft, or murder, or whatever – that is keeping us from God, but our own unwillingness to let God be God, and to bow our knee to Him.
Every person on the planet needs to keep hearing the good news. As Jesus so clearly taught in John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Bill, from a totally different context, I had occasion a few days ago to flummox a vituperative and bitter person who had sprayed another person on a computer forum in an ad hominem email reply.
All I wrote was
“ad hominem non falsificare”
I wanted to point out that attacking a person doesn’t falsify the statements that person makes.
Now, I am happy for those with better Latin to correct me, but I knew the attacker would not be better at Latin than I.
Maybe it could be a banner for public debates…?
John Angelico
Surely, universities have long since ceased to be places where there is open expression – in reality. I well remember, in the University of Birmingham (England), in 1974 or 5 (my first lot of post-grad), the “controversial” psychologist H. J. Eysenck (“right wing”, of course) was booked to speak. Student activists painted a slogan on a large, too-convenient wall below the library (the authorities eventually grew ivy on it; best move) “Preserve Academic Freedom – Don’t let Eysenck Speak” – no really, I’d swear on my life.
John Thomas, UK
Also, Bill, you suggest the idea of these peoples’ claim to be furthering tolerance, or supposed tolerance – but surely even they have abandoned this vacuous pretence by now. What has come to an end is the process of rival ideas/values meeting and arguing in a civilised way. People on US websites, who seek to oppose left-wing tactics, would say that the fascistic way of proceeding was formally set out and advocated in the 1970s/80s, and this is all we’re seeing. And they also say “Scratch a ‘liberal’ and you’ll find a fascist underneath” – and there’s surely some truth in that.
John Thomas, UK
I cannot vote Conservative but I might nominate someone like Sir Richard Dannatt on my ballot paper next year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8VkYFAGR9I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaIz4qjSji0
Hit the poiticians where it hurts them: in the vote
David Skinner, UK
With the constant drive in the west to make perversion the new normal I wonder what will happen when the wheels come off the wagon ?
It is sad, but not surprising, that groups in favor of the normalizing of sexual deviancy seem so bent on making everybody agree with them that they will seek to suppress any questioning of their agenda. What is even sadder and actually a little surprising, is that they will throw others of their own group under the bus in an effort to advance their agenda as well.
Try daring to suggest that deviant sexual practice comes with high physical and psychic costs. You get shouted down then as well, even though the data overwhelmingly supports the obvious reality.
Jason Rennie
As a Bowdoin student who identifies as a Christian, I would like to express my opinion on Dr. Gagnon’s impressions at visiting our school. Unfortunately I was not able to attend the program, but I would like to share what I have learned about homosexuality at Bowdoin. Through meeting many wonderful loving people who happen to identify as homosexual, I have been taught that a person’s sexuality should not prevent someone from loving and cherishing that perosn for the child of God that they are. I have learned about hate speech through my contacts with the gender and sexuality resource centers (I am not accusing Dr. Gagnon of this in any way, I am just illustrating part of the sexuality education that does happen at Bowdoin and what is unacceptable on that campus) and how this hurts the people I care about. I think that most Christian’s would agree this kind of hatefulness towards another person is unacceptable, therefore learning about it is beneficial to Christian values. To quote Luke 6:37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” As a Christian woman, it is for me to love people and for God to judge them.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Walsh, Bowdoin ’10
Thanks Kathleen
You say you ‘identify’ as a Christian, but based on what you said, one can ask with all due respect just how strong that identification is. Indeed, it appears from what you have said that you have simply soaked up the spirit of the age – complete with all the pro-homosexual propaganda at your school – with very little biblical knowledge or understanding.
You have completely fallen for this bogus notion of ‘hate speech’ wherein anyone who dares to speak the truth about homosexuality, or challenges their agenda, is simply dismissed as being hate-filled and bigoted. That is one way to always win a debate – just ignore the actual arguments and facts, and simply dismiss your opponent as hate-filled.
And you of course are quite happy to jettison scriptural teaching in order to get along with the homosexual agenda. Yes it is true that we are to love everyone and show them the love of Christ. But biblical love never means allowing a person to continue in their sin and harmful sexual addictions. Biblical love is always about willing the highest good for the other person.
The highest good for another person is what God demands of each of us. Scripture is quite clear that no homosexual will enter the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-11). So how can you even claim to love homosexuals – or any other sinner, which we all are, but some of us are forgiven sinners – if you are allowing them to enter a lost eternity? How can you claim biblical love when you simply allow behaviour which the Bible clearly calls sinful? Sadly your notion of love seems to be mere mushy sentimentalism and worldly tolerance, not biblical love.
And you have managed to completely mangle the Lukan version of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus never for a moment intended us to suspend judgment, critical evaluation, discernment, and the testing of all things. Christians are everywhere called upon to make loving judgments. Love and discernment are not opposites, but are very much two sides to the same coin.
But I have more fully discussed this elsewhere:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2008/10/08/thou-shalt-judge/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2007/06/14/jesus-and-judgment/
Sorry, but it seems clear from your comment that you have much more fully identified with secular humanism, and have very little identification at all with biblical Christianity.
Thus it is a real pity that you missed Dr Gagnon’s lecture. It sounds like it would have done you a lot of good in clearing up some sloppy thinking and mushy moralising.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Kathleen – You’re right, gay people are like you say. The gay people I’ve known have been … well, it’s not inappropriate to say loveable people – too nice, in fact, for any of them to be plunged into the kind of hideous life, practices, physical/medical dangers they’re inevitably bound for (do you really know how most gay people live?) – and yes, that’s in this life. The real haters of gays are those who would “legitimise” and “normalise” their “lifestyle”, and inevitably pitch them into the terrible life most will experience. But to the ideological people, individual men are just expendable cannon-fodder in the culture wars. I suggest it’s people such as Dr Gagnon who exhibit real love for gay men.
John Thomas, UK
With regard to John Thomas’ post on Eysenck, this great psychologist also ran into opposition in Australia when he attempted to discuss the relationship between race and IQ in the light of reputable research. Leftwing, socially “progressive” folk can be remarkably touchy on this subject, possibly because the mention of it reminds them of the “racist” thoughts that pop inconveniently into their consciousnesses at times, as unwelcome thoughts from the subconscious tend to do.
I had an opportunity to meet Eysenck but refused to pay the exorbitant fee for the privilege.
With regard to the matter of some homosexuals being likeable as persons, indeed some are. Neurotics can be likeable too, but that does not warrant a view that neurosis is a desirable, unproblematic state. In any case, how likeable someone is depends partly on how much you know about them. Years ago I had a homosexual colleague whom I liked because he was intelligent and cultured. My view of him changed after several visits to his home. On the first occasion he introduced me to his flatmate, an adolescent boy whom he was “looking after”. The boy was a homeless runaway. On the second occasion I was invited with a group of colleagues during our lunchbreak. This fellow’s idea of socialising was to put on a video of “Deep Throat”. I walked out. The last I heard of him was that he had legal problems relating to an attempt at picking up a youth. He seems to avoid the social company of his former colleagues. Possibly it is because he has a low opinion of himself.
John Snowden
Kathleen’s response may not be hate filled but it is certainly scary. It reveals just how far the secular leftists are winning the psychological war. Accuse anyone of harbouring feelings of hatred and they are automatically accused, judged and condemned for being a homophobe. Precisely that for which the LGBTs accuse us.
But thank God we have scripture to endorse and encourage rejection of all that is contrary to the word of God.
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” -Matthew 10:34-39
The love that Kathleen describes is adulterous and idolatrous for it misplaces the love of another human being above that of God. As Lewis reminded us, it is not so much that we love people too much, but we don’t love God enough. This then becomes idolatry. To really love people, we must love them God’s way.
David Skinner, UK
John Snowden, thanks for the memory jog. I have often wondered who did this research, good old Eysenck. He certainly copped a lot of flack for being honest.
Stan Fishley
Stanley Fishley, the research partly predates Eysenck. But what is interesting is the touchiness of the subject. Years ago I innocently mentioned this research to a group of Humanistic types. Within a few years one listener had transformed in his memory a passing remark of mine into insinuated racism on my part. If you look at the world-view of these touchy liberal types, you’ll find it’s second-hand Darwinian (as it was in the case of my listener). There is nothing in evolutionary theory that predicts all human racial groups would be of equal intelligence, given that intelligence is largely genetically determined. Personally I don’t think the difference is important. One racial group can be as stupid as the other.
John Snowden
In a broader ‘western’ sense I thought this CS Lewis statement appropriate: “He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself… ”
Keep playing a straight bat Bill, you do a mighty job. And I am more and more active because of it.
Jamie Bowman
Many thanks Jamie
And thanks for the Lewis quote.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Some people perceive every act of denunciation of homosexuality as an equivalent of the Westboro Baptist Church. Maybe, Bill, you could tell us what you think of this group?
Thanks, Pascal Denault, Montréal
Thanks Pascal
I of course don’t think highly of them at all. They give the pro-faith and pro-family camp a very bad name.
We are to speak the truth in love. That can sometimes be a difficult thing to do. But we must try nonetheless. While God does hate sin, he does love each of us, and seeks to woo us back to himself. The love of God and the holiness of God must always be kept in proper biblical balance.
The truth is, we are all sinners, and we all deserve eternal separation from the Father. But Jesus made it possible for us all to return to God through his substitutionary sacrifice at Calvary. In a sense, it is not one particular sin that keeps us from being reunited with a righteous, pure and holy God, but a sinful nature that is fixated on self.
Conversion involves a change of allegiance from self to the rightful centre of the universe. So it is not homosexuality as such – or adultery, or theft, or murder, or whatever – that is keeping us from God, but our own unwillingness to let God be God, and to bow our knee to Him.
Every person on the planet needs to keep hearing the good news. As Jesus so clearly taught in John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch