If you dare to speak out on any controversial issue of the day and you will be attacked by those on the left and those on the right; those for you and those against you; those who are believers and who are non-believers; those who are intimates and those who are strangers.
So if you want no one picking a fight with you and dumping on you, simply say nothing – and do nothing. But that is not what I am about, so I will have to keep taking the pummelling I guess. Examples of this are numerous. I lost heaps of friends for daring to not worship at the Trump altar over the past year.
But now for daring to give him credit when he does do or say something right, I am still being attacked – this time by the Trump opponents. I just can’t win. So too with my last article on Milo and free speech. I of course defended his right to free speech and of course attacked the feral left for carrying on like fascists.
That did not mean that I approve of everything Milo says or does. How could it? I am a Christian and a conservative. Milo is not a Christian and is only partly conservative. He is very good on some issues that conservatives often deal with: free speech, the threat of Islam, the mob mentality of the left, and so on.
But as a very out and proud homosexual, and someone who is rather arrogant, and keen to be as flamboyant and shocking as he can be, he can come close to being just like another out and proud homosexual, but of the left: Dan Savage. Both are quite proud of their homosexuality, and both are happy to use outrageous and foul language to make their case.
As a conservative and a Christian I cannot go along with that – and that should go without saying. So to promote some of what Milo does and says does not mean that I promote and defend everything that he does and says. And that would be true of just about everyone on the planet – indeed, I sometimes don’t always agree with myself!
But much of this has to do with what we call co-belligerency: being willing to work together with others you may not always agree with on limited and tactical campaigns. This can be quite worthwhile at times in my view, especially in the culture wars. I have written on this far too often already. See some of these pieces for starters:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/09/02/on-co-belligerency/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2009/11/27/on-biblical-cooperation-and-separation/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2012/06/30/8405/ (Francis Schaeffer on allies)
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/12/12/co-belligerency-again/
http://www.equip.org/articles/should-christians-be-cobelligerents-in-ecumenical-coalitions/
And another important point is this: when free speech is stripped away from one person or group, it can easily be stripped away from us all. That is something we all should be concerned about. Thus I may not agree with or particularly like much of what someone like Milo does and says, but it bothers me greatly to see his rights to speak freely being trampled by leftist mobs.
In that sense the famous words of the German pastor and Holocaust survivor Martin Niemoller who bravely resisted Hitler are quite relevant here:
In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Those Christians who attack me for defending (within reason and to a limited extent) the rights of folks like Milo to speak would likely disagree with Niemoller as well, sadly. They just don’t get it. They don’t see the bigger picture. They are being unnecessarily inflexible here.
And if they throw at me verses like 2 Corinthians 6:14 which speak about not being yoked together with unbelievers, I have to differ there as well. Briefly, it has to do with close, intimate associations, such as marriage, or perhaps a business partnership. It does not have to do with sharing a platform with a non-Christian at a pro-marriage rally, or quoting some terrific snippet from a non-believer’s writings.
But I have already dealt with the misuse and abuse of that particular passage elsewhere: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2009/11/27/on-biblical-cooperation-and-separation/
So I will keep sharing platforms with non-Christians and others when it seems appropriate and biblically advantageous to do so. I will keep quoting non-Christians and others when they speak truth. And I will keep supporting non-Christians and others when they stand for what is right.
But let me return to the UC Berkeley rioting. I have already discussed it here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2017/02/03/free-speech-fascism-left/
Since then many others have written on this. One of my favourite commentators is David French. As to the delicate snowflakes and their perpetual offence motion machine, French says this:
In the United States of America, rioting to stop free speech is unlawful and reprehensible. Period. Full stop. It’s not “understandable.” It’s not excusable. There should be no tolerance and no sympathy for people who pepper-spray young women, beat bystanders senseless, and tear up property because they’re mad that another human being is speaking.
Last night’s spectacle in Berkeley, Calif., was disgraceful. In response to a planned speech by Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos, a “peaceful” protest turned rapidly violent, and by late evening on the East Coast, television and Twitter were filling up with images of people and property being attacked by black-clad thugs, part of the so-called “black bloc” and “antifa” (anti-fascist) movements.
For those who don’t know, the black bloc refers to the practice of gangs of rioters who show up to protests clad entirely in black (often armed with bats, Molotov cocktails, and other weapons), hide their identities, and move as a group to attack people, destroy property, and intimidate the public. A media that’s intent on whitewashing their growth and influence often refer to these gangs as just a “few dozen” malcontents, the tiny few who pollute otherwise-peaceful movements.
The visual evidence, however, can show how the media understates their size and their actual role in left-wing protest. Look at the image below, taken last night:
What you’ll notice (and what you’ll experience, if you ever find yourself in the middle of violent left-wing protest) is that the rioters and the “peaceful” protesters have a symbiotic relationship. The rioters break people and destroy things, then melt back into a crowd that often quickly and purposefully closes behind them. They’re typically cheered wildly (to be sure, some yell at them to stop) and often treated as heroes by the rest of the mob — almost like they’re the SEAL Team Six of left-wing protest.
Law enforcement should prioritize identifying, locating, and arresting members of the black bloc, and it should treat them as the political terrorists they are.
And he also deals with critics who challenge him because he in part is defending Milo from these anti-free speech militants:
You’ll note that I’ve said nothing about Yiannopoulos or what he believes — in spite of the fact that my family has been subjected to an avalanche of hate from the very alt-right that he defends. That’s intentional. For the purposes of protecting free speech, his views do not matter. There is nothing — nothing — that he has said that justifies or excuses this violence, and public officials in California should treat the rioters exactly as they would treat, say, the KKK if it rioted to shut down speech public officials liked.
That has been my point all along. The hypocrisy of the left and the dangers they pose is what matters here. Yes there is much I am not happy with when it comes to Milo. But I am also very unhappy about the militant fascism of the left which seems to be getting worse by the day.
We can and should be concerned about both things it seems to me. I will keep standing for free speech, defend those who seek to exercise that right, and stand against the toxic left which is seeking to shut down all debate.
But I will also hold others to account, be it a Donald Trump, a Milo Yiannopoulos, an Andrew Bolt, a Brendan O’Neill, a Geert Wilders, or other non-believers who are more or less part of the broader conservative and/or libertarian movement.
I will support their right to speak, I will applaud them when they say true things, and I will pray that they become Christians. I will also pray that folks like Milo get set free of their homosexuality and dead-end lifestyles. If my critics don’t like this, well, sorry, but I just can’t please everyone. Nor do I want to.
15 Replies to “Free Speech, Milo, Christians and Culture Wars”
Jesus Christ, Paul and Apostles teach us a great deal concerning the cost of speaking the truth even if it costs us being the only one left on the planet speaking it. Being in harmony and unity with one another, like the Psalm 133 says, is the ideal
1How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!
2It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down on the collar of his robe.
However the reality, is that we are born into a world at war. For the sake not being discomforted we naturally avoid dispute . Anything for peace. But as Jeremiah said there is no peace.
Looking at the evidence that Trump will come like the cavalry over the hill to rescue Christians in America from persecution I believe is fake hope. I believe he will make Hillary Clinton look like an amateur. Persecution is what we need to get prepared for.
You cannot fault Milo’s courage. Since the news of the Berkeley riots broke he gained thousands of new followers and his book shot to number one on Amazon.
PS Orwell’s 1984 is number 2 on Amazon!
I don’t know if this helpful, but I have made a little compilation of the Cultural Marxists attempting to silence all debate and dissent to the Gay Mafia. On the face of it those behaving like brute beasts are decent, respectable, educated and civilized people . They are members of our family, our children, our neighbors, who can suddenly become possessed by a demonic spirit of hatred. But for me to present this evidence to them is regarded as hatred and they will tell me, “There’s no room for hatred in a civilized society.”
Doesn’t make much sense that those who shut the event down were shutting down someone you would think was one of their own? Hmm, doesn’t it say somewhere a house divided will not stand?
I would love to know if they were students or a hired crowd?
If I may offer the suggestion that Milo is an infiltrator. Like all gay activists they follow the money and the power. It does not matter much on whose side they are fighting as long as they can eventually take control of both left and right. They can have it all.
Milo is a conflicted neurotic who am sure is sometimes either possessed or under the influence of drugs or both. The last thing that GOP need is this parasite.
In essence what we see at Berkley Marxist and Fascist queers fighting it out.
The militant left must really hate Milo….they want all homosexuals to be as militant as them, and when one actually speaks a more conservative voice they become like rabid dogs. He also doesn’t fit their extreme agenda. I have seen quite a few videos of him on Youtube, and although he is crude and disgusting when talking about his lifestyle he has admitted that he thinks homosexuals can change and doesn’t think it is inherited. He even hints that he wishes he might be able to be a heterosexual in one video.
It’s easy to see why he is now a strong target of the left and gaystapo – he doesn’t suit their very extreme rhetoric and cultural marxism. One wonders if he might’ve been killed if the event had gone ahead yesterday?
I thought this piece sums it up very well:-
An apology to the people of the United States of America
By David Craig, on February 3rd, 2017
(Friday/Saturday/Sunday blog)
On behalf of all real British people, I would like to apologise to the people of the United States of America and to their democratically-elected President, Donald Trump.
When I write “on behalf of all real British people” I don’t include the millions of Third-World, inbred, illiterate, parasitic freeloaders who have flooded into Britain to live off welfare while screaming how much they loathe British society and values. Nor do I include the greedy, treacherous, self-serving, holier-than-thou, virtue-signalling elites, (like those who are the sole occupants of the corridors of the BBC), who would willingly hand over control of Britain to a new German Empire because they despise ordinary British people, their history and their way of life.
“All real British people” means the tens of millions of hard-working, law-abiding British citizens who respect Britain’s laws and culture and who feel pride in their small country’s great achievements.
On behalf of all real British people I would like to abjectly apologise to the people of the United States of America, and especially to President Trump, for:
the way our elites, sycophantically supported by our disgracefully-biased mainstream media, have waged a campaign of scorn and insults against Donald Trump and those who sensibly chose to vote for him
the way our elites, supported by a grovelling, politically-correct mainstream media, did everything they could to help the loathsome, crooked Hilary Clinton in the recent US presidential election
the way our sneering elites laughed and mocked when American voters had the courage and intelligence to vote for Donald Trump – the only candidate who put American interests first
the arrogant, supercilious sense of superiority shown by our ruling classes when Trump won the presidency.
Further, I would like to apologise for the overblown, manufactured, fake outrage of our ruling elites and their mainstream media poodles at President Trump’s sensible and legal Executive Orders to temporarily restrict travel to the USA from seven countries even the Obama administration classed as a risk to the American people.
I would like to apologise for all the mentally-retarded, self-important, virtue-signalling, idiotic liberals who have protested against President Trump’s actions, who have falsely called the Executive Orders a ‘ban on M*sl*ms’ and who have disgustingly compared your President Donald Trump to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s idol – Adolf Hitler.
On behalf of all real British people, I am ashamed of these shallow, self-serving, ignorant, publicity-seeking fools.
I would also like to apologise for the way our cowardly rulers have handed over our country to a new German Empire – the supposed ‘European Union’.
For the third time in one hundred years, we cowardly Europeans have allowed Germany to take over our continent. And, as usual, the Germans are hell-bent on destroying what they have conquered – this time by flooding Europe with an invading army of illiterate, inbred, military-age, violent, West-loathing, subhuman, Third-World scum.
As Europe falls under the control of the invading armies and all critics of the invasion are branded ‘racists’ and silenced, I express our admiration (and even envy) for the way that your President Trump has correctly identified the catastrophe that is happening in Europe due to the stupidity of the European ruling elites and has pledged to do all he can to protect your great country from making Europe’s dreadful mistakes.
Once again Europe has fallen under German control and is committing cultural and civilisational suicide. And once again we will need the great people of the United States of America to rescue us from our folly. And I’m sure America will save us from ourselves as you have done in the past at the cost of hundreds of thousands of American lives.
For this and so much more, I apologise to the people of the United States of America and their President, Donald Trump.
I feel nothing but shame at the way we British and Europeans have behaved and hope you Americans will forgive our stupidity, arrogance, selfishness and blindness.
February 3rd, 2017
Hi Bill
Thank you for your thought provoking articles – I really appreciate them.
It looks like from the responses you get get from Christians that there is sadly a far right & far left amongst them as well. I trust all of us can see the danger that is already here by not standing up for what we believe in and allowing the PC activists & lefties to shut us down.
Thanks again
Thanks guys. Once again I am not here to defend Milo, and I don’t want to belabour all this. But at the very least, he does take on the homosexual lobby, he does talk about not wanting to be homosexual, and that it is not in your genes, etc. That is a start. See here eg:
As I say – and need to keep repeating – we need to pray for him. The idea that he is completely irredeemable is foolish and dangerous – and unbiblical.
Well said Bill. Remember, at the end of the day, it is God who will hold us to account for what we have said and done – not people.
Jesus Christ, Paul and Apostles teach us a great deal concerning the cost of speaking the truth even if it costs us being the only one left on the planet speaking it. Being in harmony and unity with one another, like the Psalm 133 says, is the ideal
1How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!
2It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down on the collar of his robe.
However the reality, is that we are born into a world at war. For the sake not being discomforted we naturally avoid dispute . Anything for peace. But as Jeremiah said there is no peace.
Looking at the evidence that Trump will come like the cavalry over the hill to rescue Christians in America from persecution I believe is fake hope. I believe he will make Hillary Clinton look like an amateur. Persecution is what we need to get prepared for.
You cannot fault Milo’s courage. Since the news of the Berkeley riots broke he gained thousands of new followers and his book shot to number one on Amazon.
PS Orwell’s 1984 is number 2 on Amazon!
I don’t know if this helpful, but I have made a little compilation of the Cultural Marxists attempting to silence all debate and dissent to the Gay Mafia. On the face of it those behaving like brute beasts are decent, respectable, educated and civilized people . They are members of our family, our children, our neighbors, who can suddenly become possessed by a demonic spirit of hatred. But for me to present this evidence to them is regarded as hatred and they will tell me, “There’s no room for hatred in a civilized society.”
Riot at Smith College shuts down speech
i) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-sJKjZpKGM
ii) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o40wj6bYPzQ
Counter protest to French-led anti gay marriage rally in Trafalgar Square
iii) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oowTV8Cj7M
Same Sex Marriage Supporters and Opponents,
iv) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_HHQyoVtZU
Children being encouraged to us foul language against marriage defenders
v) http://www.christian.org.uk/news/video-swearing-kids-used-in-gay-marriage-hate-video/
2009. Manchester Pride does Lily Allen, ‘F*** You’
vi) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sWaTGLmppg
Classic film of rabid hatred of gays.
viii) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrRxFoBSPng
David Skinner UK
Doesn’t make much sense that those who shut the event down were shutting down someone you would think was one of their own? Hmm, doesn’t it say somewhere a house divided will not stand?
I would love to know if they were students or a hired crowd?
If I may offer the suggestion that Milo is an infiltrator. Like all gay activists they follow the money and the power. It does not matter much on whose side they are fighting as long as they can eventually take control of both left and right. They can have it all.
Milo is a conflicted neurotic who am sure is sometimes either possessed or under the influence of drugs or both. The last thing that GOP need is this parasite.
In essence what we see at Berkley Marxist and Fascist queers fighting it out.
Dr Scott Lively has written an excellent appraisal of Milo. Having read this fog and mist suddenly clear
http://www.scottlively.net/2017/02/02/milo-yiannopoulos-and-the-rise-of-american-nazism/
The militant left must really hate Milo….they want all homosexuals to be as militant as them, and when one actually speaks a more conservative voice they become like rabid dogs. He also doesn’t fit their extreme agenda. I have seen quite a few videos of him on Youtube, and although he is crude and disgusting when talking about his lifestyle he has admitted that he thinks homosexuals can change and doesn’t think it is inherited. He even hints that he wishes he might be able to be a heterosexual in one video.
It’s easy to see why he is now a strong target of the left and gaystapo – he doesn’t suit their very extreme rhetoric and cultural marxism. One wonders if he might’ve been killed if the event had gone ahead yesterday?
I thought this piece sums it up very well:-
An apology to the people of the United States of America
By David Craig, on February 3rd, 2017
(Friday/Saturday/Sunday blog)
On behalf of all real British people, I would like to apologise to the people of the United States of America and to their democratically-elected President, Donald Trump.
When I write “on behalf of all real British people” I don’t include the millions of Third-World, inbred, illiterate, parasitic freeloaders who have flooded into Britain to live off welfare while screaming how much they loathe British society and values. Nor do I include the greedy, treacherous, self-serving, holier-than-thou, virtue-signalling elites, (like those who are the sole occupants of the corridors of the BBC), who would willingly hand over control of Britain to a new German Empire because they despise ordinary British people, their history and their way of life.
“All real British people” means the tens of millions of hard-working, law-abiding British citizens who respect Britain’s laws and culture and who feel pride in their small country’s great achievements.
On behalf of all real British people I would like to abjectly apologise to the people of the United States of America, and especially to President Trump, for:
the way our elites, sycophantically supported by our disgracefully-biased mainstream media, have waged a campaign of scorn and insults against Donald Trump and those who sensibly chose to vote for him
the way our elites, supported by a grovelling, politically-correct mainstream media, did everything they could to help the loathsome, crooked Hilary Clinton in the recent US presidential election
the way our sneering elites laughed and mocked when American voters had the courage and intelligence to vote for Donald Trump – the only candidate who put American interests first
the arrogant, supercilious sense of superiority shown by our ruling classes when Trump won the presidency.
Further, I would like to apologise for the overblown, manufactured, fake outrage of our ruling elites and their mainstream media poodles at President Trump’s sensible and legal Executive Orders to temporarily restrict travel to the USA from seven countries even the Obama administration classed as a risk to the American people.
I would like to apologise for all the mentally-retarded, self-important, virtue-signalling, idiotic liberals who have protested against President Trump’s actions, who have falsely called the Executive Orders a ‘ban on M*sl*ms’ and who have disgustingly compared your President Donald Trump to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s idol – Adolf Hitler.
On behalf of all real British people, I am ashamed of these shallow, self-serving, ignorant, publicity-seeking fools.
I would also like to apologise for the way our cowardly rulers have handed over our country to a new German Empire – the supposed ‘European Union’.
For the third time in one hundred years, we cowardly Europeans have allowed Germany to take over our continent. And, as usual, the Germans are hell-bent on destroying what they have conquered – this time by flooding Europe with an invading army of illiterate, inbred, military-age, violent, West-loathing, subhuman, Third-World scum.
As Europe falls under the control of the invading armies and all critics of the invasion are branded ‘racists’ and silenced, I express our admiration (and even envy) for the way that your President Trump has correctly identified the catastrophe that is happening in Europe due to the stupidity of the European ruling elites and has pledged to do all he can to protect your great country from making Europe’s dreadful mistakes.
Once again Europe has fallen under German control and is committing cultural and civilisational suicide. And once again we will need the great people of the United States of America to rescue us from our folly. And I’m sure America will save us from ourselves as you have done in the past at the cost of hundreds of thousands of American lives.
For this and so much more, I apologise to the people of the United States of America and their President, Donald Trump.
I feel nothing but shame at the way we British and Europeans have behaved and hope you Americans will forgive our stupidity, arrogance, selfishness and blindness.
February 3rd, 2017
Hi Bill
Thank you for your thought provoking articles – I really appreciate them.
It looks like from the responses you get get from Christians that there is sadly a far right & far left amongst them as well. I trust all of us can see the danger that is already here by not standing up for what we believe in and allowing the PC activists & lefties to shut us down.
Thanks again
Thanks guys. Once again I am not here to defend Milo, and I don’t want to belabour all this. But at the very least, he does take on the homosexual lobby, he does talk about not wanting to be homosexual, and that it is not in your genes, etc. That is a start. See here eg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgoyQevEhhQ&feature=share
As I say – and need to keep repeating – we need to pray for him. The idea that he is completely irredeemable is foolish and dangerous – and unbiblical.
Well said Bill. Remember, at the end of the day, it is God who will hold us to account for what we have said and done – not people.
For Americans (I’m not sure if non-Americans should sign):
https://actright.com/petition/289
Meanwhile for Australians, trouble brewing:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/liberals-to-push-samesex-marriage-vote/news-story/ce0bfd4bc8e530d0dd4649c7d23e7bd0
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/government-mps-working-to-bring-samesex-marriage-policy-to-a-head-over-next-fortnight-20170203-gu4t75
Find and contact your Australian MPs:
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Members
And another important petition:
http://www.austfamily.com.au/freedomofreligion
Milo is half-Jewish, half Roman Catholic. He is in fact a staunch defender of Christianity.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Milo+on+atheism&view=detail&mid=1218384491FC38C6562B1218384491FC38C6562B&FORM=VIRE