Hope in the Culture Wars

Admittedly things are looking rather grim at the moment. All over the West it seems like evil, the devil, insanity, runaway political correctness, sexual perversion, and moral anarchy reign. Things are getting darker and darker. Those who care about all this are working and praying to turn things around, but their numbers are small and seem to be dwindling.

Sometimes we can be so engaged in all these battles that we need a quick reminder that God is certainly still at work, and we need to step back for a moment and catch sight of the bigger spiritual picture. A great culture warrior and prayer warrior called me this morning to excitedly tell me about how amazing things have been lately in Australia.

He reminded me again of how much can be achieved with a lot of hard work and a lot of prayer. Consider the whole controversy over the so-called Safe Schools Coalition. It has been discussed all over the place of late, and even non-Christians and non-conservatives are raising alarm bells about it.

Newspapers like the Australian seem to be running daily stories on it, sometimes even front-page stories. Concerning all this, Warwick Marsh just released this statement:

Something has changed. Many are waking up to the dangers of the Safe Schools Coalition Australia program to our children.
Here is a sampling of recent events:
13 Feb -The Weekend Australian, in a half-page article entitled ‘Sexual Politics in the Classroom’, pointed to the strong possibility that Safe Schools Coalition Australia is infused with Marxist ideals.
17 Feb – An open letter to the Prime Minister, written by Family Voice Australia and signed by 14,100 Australians, was handed to Malcolm Turnbull as well as a presentation pack, which explains that the Safe Schools Coalition Australia program is “primarily about politics and ideology, not bullying.”
17 Feb – Bill Muehlenberg of CultureWatch wrote “the Safe Schools Coalition has nothing to do with bullying as is commonly understood. Instead it has everything to do with a massive social engineering campaign to force-feed homosexuality into every Australian school and onto every Australian child.”
22 Feb – The Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce voiced his opposition to the Safe Schools Coalition Australia program that teaches young children about sexual orientation which is “completely at odds with what the mums and dads who send their kids to school want.”
23 Feb – Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi tabled a quick petition, signed by 9,500 concerned Australians, to withdraw funding for Safe Schools Coalition Australia program saying “we’ve had enough of wasteful government spending, social engineering agendas and the insidious doctrine of political correctness.”
23 Feb – Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ordered a snap review into the Safe Schools Coalition Australia program. The review is to be led by University of Western Australia professors Bill Louden and Donna Cross who will focus on whether the program is age-appropriate, educationally sound and aligned to the national curriculum. Their report is due to be submitted to Education Minister Simon Birmingham by 11 March 2016.
24 Feb – Labor Senator Joe Bullock said “I think it is a terrible program” and called for the program to be suspended while the review was being conducted.
That same day Federal Nationals MP, George Christensen, rose in the House of Reps as a voice for thousands of parents who have been shocked by the Safe Schools Coalition Australia program. In his speech he exposed some of the material that the Safe Schools Coalition Australia program is allowing school students to access. These include pornographic websites, sex shops, adult online communities, and sex clubs. He said if parents knew what their children had access to they would probably not let them go to school or call the police!

The ACL and other groups have also been standing strong here. And I might add that even today the Australian is still running with this story, and has another piece critical of the SSC: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/left-falls-into-queer-extremists-trap-with-safe-schools-program/news-story/4cb53ec9a0779aba50e30275b83ce01a

Consider also the current inquiries taking place on pornography at both state and federal levels. I and others have been fighting the porn plague for decades now, and for our efforts we normally got nothing but derision, mockery, hate and abuse. But now we even have secular academics holding conferences on the harms of porn, and federal inquiries – at least on the harm done to children.

As I have said in my submissions, porn harms everyone, not just children, but this is a good start. The deadline for the federal inquiry is March 10. Please put in a submission now, no matter how short. Details are here: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/Online_access_to_porn/Terms_of_Reference

One final item: last night WA Labor Senator Joe Bullock resigned from the party because of their pro-homosexual marriage stance. I salute Joe for standing on principle instead of just pushing the immoral Labor agenda. As I said last night, “sometimes honourable men need to get into politics – sometimes they need to get out”.

The truth is, in all these battles, there has been a lot of work and a lot of prayer involved. It can get overwhelming at times, and it is so easy to get discouraged. But God is at work. And because God is working, we must work. And we must pray.

And don’t worry about the fact that in all these battles the other side has all the advantages: money, power, government support, the media, academia – everything seems to be on their side, while we just have a handful of volunteers with little or no money, government support, and so on.

We are always outnumbered, outgunned, and out-spent in these battles. But as Christians, we know that God plus one is a majority. And we also know that God prefers to work this way: he uses minorities to get the job done. He uses a godly remnant to achieve his purposes.

Israel of old had to always be reminded of this. Recall in Judges 7 how God had to get Gideon to whittle his forces down from 32,000 fighting men to just 300 to capture Midian. The reason for this is clearly spelled out in Judges 7:2: “The Lord said to Gideon, ‘You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, “My own strength has saved me”.’”

Even in the culture wars the glory of God must always be preeminent. So even though we get involved with few co-workers, limited resources, and little external support, we keep on fighting. When some victories take place, then God gets the glory, not us – and that is the way it always should be.

So hang in there friends. Now is not the time to despair or give up. Now is the time to double our efforts; to pray more, to work more and to care more. We will not win every battle, but we can win some, by the grace of God. So please keep on keeping on.

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