The Cultural Revolution’s Holdouts
We live in a country where the political and social narrative is controlled by liberal elitists. It’s no accident that last month when the state of Indiana seemed to erupt over religious freedom legislation, there was a barrage of news anchors, protestors, activists, business moguls, and comedians at-the-ready to respond with the politically-correct groupthink designed to make sure the public knew that conservatives had gotten it wrong. The Religious Right became the punch line of the hour. Even many plotlines for television shows highlighted the controversy and villainized Christians who support religious freedom legislation as bigots who were setting the country back 100 years.
It made no difference that some of the most liberal politicians of recent history were the original sponsors of this religious freedom language. It didn’t matter that President Clinton had signed the original religious freedom legislation into federal law in 1993. It made no difference that 19 other states had passed nearly identical legislation including Illinois where it was voted for by then State Senator Barack Obama. It made no difference that the law was designed to protect Muslims, American Indians, Jews and other faiths. The battle line was drawn. The Religious Right was labeled hateful dogmatists and there was no way the other side was going to listen – the debate was essentially over. The conversation had been controlled and it was a one-sided smear campaign.
In his book, Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior Is Changing Everything, Robert Reilly states the following:
“…The differences over which the culture war is being fought are not subject to reasoned discourse. Persons protecting themselves by rationalizing are interested not in finding the truth, but in maintaining the illusion that allows them to continue their behavior. This necessarily becomes a group effort. For them to succeed in this, everyone must accede to the rationalization. This is why revolutionary change is required, using all the tools of compulsion. – Since the necessity for self-justification requires the complicity of the whole culture, holdouts cannot be tolerated, because they are potential rebukes.”
The cultural battle we are currently facing is a revolution and it’s an all or nothing proposition for the homosexual agenda. The goal has never been for America to extend mere tolerance toward the homosexual lifestyle. The goal has been for every American to accept and validate the lifestyle as morally equivalent to the heterosexual lifestyle. A vocal army, as we watched so painfully play out in Indiana, quickly silenced any dissenters or holdouts from this position.
I was there in the Indiana Governor’s office the day the RFRA Bill was signed. A photo, of some of us standing with the Governor, was distributed to the media and many were quickly targeted as intolerant religious extremists. We weren’t in hiding, or not willing to respond to the accusations, as some suggested. Our support and attendance at the Bill signing had made our position clear. Engaging in any argumentative aftermath was futile and whether well-reasoned or compelling would have fallen on deaf ears. We do believe that religious freedom should be protected. We are the cultural revolution’s holdouts.