Sick and Tired of It!

By Dr. Rick Flanders

“The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined…The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous: thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them…The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things: who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?  For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him…The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.”

(Psalm 10:2, 4, and 5; Psalm 12:3-5, 8)

My ministry has me travelling all the time, and on recent trips I have experienced a few encounters with what I think may be an encouraging trend.  The first one of this type of which I took special notice was the friendly greeting of a flight attendant as I was leaving her plane.  She simply looked at each of us as we prepared to visit her city, and said very deliberately, “Have a merry Christmas!”  Accustomed as I am to the avoidance of this greeting that has spread in our country in recent years, I was pleasantly taken back by it.

Another experience that seemed to reflect the same trend occurred as my wife and I were leaving a restaurant not long after the Christmas greeting on the airplane.  A fine pastor had taken us out to eat with his family after a service.  When we got up to leave, I noticed a seasonal button that our waitress was wearing, and commented on the prominence of the name “Jesus” on it.  She answered that she was very glad to identify herself with the Savior at this time of the year.  Then she said something to the effect that she is always willing to identify herself as a Christian.  She told us all what church she attends, and then said, “I’m a loud and proud Jesus girl!”

I began wondering, quite hopefully, if the tide is turning against the anti-Christian prejudice that has dominated American public life in recent years.  More and more people seem to be willing and even eager to express approval of the Christian faith with its beliefs, its morals, its practices, and its celebrations.  Are people getting sick and tired of the pressure to remain neutral and muted about the faith and values upon which the country was built?  Do a growing number of our countrymen want to defy political correctness and come out openly for the religion of our forefathers? 

I remember when I first heard the term, “politically correct” a good number of years ago.  It was a reference to new speech regulations on prominent college campuses.  You just couldn’t say certain things.  The challenges that professors for many years have been throwing at traditional values had developed into the standards of a new orthodoxy.  Students who dared to defend more traditional beliefs were not only ridiculed on campus; they were to be punished!  “Politically correct” has a distinctly fascist ring to it, doesn’t it?  Those who identified and condemned the “politically incorrect,” however, wanted, strangely, to be regarded as “liberal” and “open-minded,” even though the term was clearly intolerant.  In time, the use of the term in an approving way seemed to fall out of use, probably because of the hypocrisy involved, and its use came to be the property of those who criticize it.  When people today talk about something being PC, their tongues are in their cheeks, and they are mocking it.  And yet political correctness still exists, even though its proponents prefer not to use the term, and it is still very powerful.

It is remarkable what has become politically correct and incorrect.  Everyone is expected to defer to the opinions of very small minorities that have climbed to the top of the PC heap.  We cannot offend atheists by referring to God or traditional religion in public life.  We cannot hurt the feelings of homosexuals by disagreeing with or disapproving of their way of life.  We ought not to speak plainly in defense of unborn human beings, lest an imagined pro-choice majority be put off.  Somewhere many have forgotten that disagreement is not intolerance.  The people who founded the United States of America came through the experience of real intolerance and persecution, and would not allow it under the new order they created.  They had no problem with people disagreeing about religion, morals, or politics and haranguing and condemning each other.  But they would let anybody jail or hang those whose views they despise.  These great men and women understood that tolerance does not exclude strong disagreement.  It requires that men not harm those with whom they disagree.  Oddly, in these times, the most grievous incidents of real intolerance are committed by those who speak the most loudly for tolerance!  People who speak for what has been deemed incorrect must be silenced, they assert.  And traditionalists have come to cower under this pressure.  But it seems that recently they have become sick of cowering in silence.

The groups before whom we have been cowering are startlingly small.  Did you know that those who call themselves atheists in this country amount to 5% or 6% of our population?  To delete the word “God” as if it were a “four-letter word” is like fearing to offend racists.  Real and rabid racists like the Ku Klux Klan are probably about the same or a little more in number than those who deny the existence of God.  Do we take extreme measures to keep from offending Klansmen?  Why should we do such a thing for the tiny minority who crusade for atheism? 

Homosexuals are really 2% to 4% of our population, although much larger numbers are sometimes falsely claimed by them.  Nearly all Americans prefer not to practice this way of life.  Why are the vast majority not allowed to express their views in opposition to the viewpoint of this minority?  The situation in regard to homosexuality in this country has not been reasonable for maybe forty years, but it may soon change.  We never hear anyone advocating the punishment or persecution of moral minorities, but the standard now is not even to criticize their way of life.  It doesn’t make sense.

Most people think that the trend about abortion has moved strongly to the pro-choice position.  However, the fact is that approval of abortion has been losing ground.  Those espousing the so-called pro-choice view have dropped to 41% in reputable polls recently, while pro-life responders make up 48%.  Why should defenders of human life keep quiet?  Why should politicians avoid this issue like the plague?  There is reason to expect the timidity of pro-lifers to evaporate this election year.

In the Psalms, the Bible describes the situation when “the wicked” come to prominence and power in a nation (Read Psalms 10 and 12).  When “vile” opponents of what is right “are exalted,” the morally corrupt seem to multiply.  And they all use their tongues to persecute the seemingly weak followers of God.  However, eventually the Lord will take up the cause of His devoted servants, and the wicked will be brought down.  The biggest problem an enemy of God must face is the fact that there is a God.  And when God (Who is longsuffering and merciful and does not act when the first volleys are launched against Him) rises to put him down, there is no beating Him.  Christians ought to take courage because of the apparent change in the attitude of their countrymen, but they must also recognize that when a majority finally gets sick and tired of the oppression of a minority, it doesn’t mean that a revival has come.  Christians should take courage when we see God at work, and humble ourselves before Him to seek the revival we need.  When revival comes, Christianity will rise to meet the challenge of her enemies, and win the multitudes to her God.  Let’s see this reaction to the lies of the devil as an open door to resume our God-given role as His witnesses in this world and turn many to Christ!