Avoiding Ethical Quicksand and Helping Members of the Next Generation Avoid It as Well, Part 3

If words aren’t worth fighting for, what on earth would be?
—G. K. Chesterton—

If we as Christians do not speak out as authoritarian governments grow from within or come from outside, eventually we or our children will be the enemy of society and the state. No truly authoritarian government can tolerate those who have real absolute by which to judge its arbitrary absolutes and who speak out and act upon that absolute.
—Francis A. Schaeffer—

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Key point: You show me a nation that has embraced relativism, and I’ll show you a nation that, unless it changes course, is headed toward tyranny.

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Access all the articles in this series, as well as articles in a related series, here. A Bible study titled “Could Jesus Have Been a Good Teacher Without Being God?” is available here.

Recently I wrote a couple of articles on the newspeak that is systemic in the culture of the mainstream media. Members of the media are 1) ignoring harsh realities that contradict leftist narratives and, in a clear effort to preserve those same narratives, are 2) contradicting realities their viewers can see right before their very eyes. These articles are dated August 4 and August 6, respectively.

A prime example of this is MSNBC reporter Ari Velshi’s declaring the protest on which he was reporting “is not, generally speaking, unruly,” even as a fire set by protesters consumes a building behind him.

Words and their meanings matter. We cannot maintain cohesiveness in society, nor can we function as a free society, if people cannot be trusted to represent reality in what they say.

This article demonstrates that media outlets continue to push the “mostly peaceful protest” narrative, despite all the evidence in current events refuting it. As we will continue to see, the sad truth is that what’s happening with words in the news media is reflective of what’s going on in the larger culture.

It’s Happening Everywhere

In my previous two articles (published August 14 and 21, respectively), I wrote about the assault on the shared meanings of words in society at large—in other words, the attempts made to redefine words whose meanings have been commonly understood by people for many, many years—even in some cases for generations. This is happening more than we realize, and we need to wake up and reclaim lost ground.¹

The most egregious attempts to redefine words, and thus remake reality, are in the areas of marriage (which we will consider briefly in a subsequent post) and sexuality. Just this week, citing the recent Supreme Court decision in Bostock vs. Clayton Country, (a case we highlighted last time), the 4^th US Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a transgender student, Gavin Grimm. Born a female, Gavin identifies as a male. We reported on her case four years ago in this post. Please understand, no offense is intended here; I only am trying to convey the urgent reality at hand. Increasingly, especially after the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock, we are going to see public policies implemented  that infringe on the inherent rights of the majority to accommodate the artificial rights of a minority that insists on imposing its own version of morality on the rest of society. Francis Schaeffer called this an imposition of “arbitrary absolutes,” and it is nothing short of tyranny.

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Increasingly we are going to see public policies implemented  that infringe on the inherent rights of the majority to accommodate the artificial rights of a minority that insists on imposing its version of morality on the rest of society. Francis Schaeffer called this an imposition of “arbitrary absolutes,” and it is nothing short of tyranny.

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1984 Is Unfolding Before Our Very Eyes

In the world depicted by George Orwell in his dystopian novel, 1984, newspeak prevails. Newspeak and related “programs” implemented by the state in the novel aren’t only about redefining words, but about turning their meanings on their heads: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” The ultimate goal is control of the populace. Writer Linda Goudsmit explains, not just some of the approaches taken in Orwell’s novel, but also how the left is using these and similar ideas and methods to manipulate individuals and society in general in America today.

George Orwell introduced the language of doublespeak in his dystopian novel “1984” published in 1949. Doublespeak is the language of opposites. Up is down and down is up.

The word doublespeak derives from two Orwellian words “doublethink” and “newspeak.” Doublethink is when a person accepts two mutually contradictory thoughts as correct without being aware or troubled by the glaring contradiction between them. Doublethink statements like “war is peace” “freedom is slavery” “ignorance is strength” are made without discomfort. Newspeak is a method of controlling thought through language — it is the language of fake news. Doublespeak combines doublethink and newspeak in language that deliberately obscures, distorts, disguises, or reverses the meaning of words to manipulate public opinion in a mass social engineering effort.

Orwellian doublespeak is the language of the hard Left leading a coup against Western democracies and their national sovereignty. Barack Obama spoke doublespeak when he promised hope and change. Obama deliberately obscured and disguised his hope for changing American democracy into socialism. Most Americans understood hope and change to mean a better life and the realization of the American dream — a hope to improve our democracy not to destroy it.

The left-wing liberal agenda seeks to destroy the socio-political infrastructure of American democracy and transform it into a dependent socialist state with cradle to grave control by the government. Their strategy of destruction is to target the traditional American institutions of family, religion, and education that promote independence, adulthood, individualism, and ego strength — the qualities that made America great and support American democracy and sovereignty.

The 21^st century Leftist progressives speak doublespeak — their “progressive” narrative is entirely regressive.

Recall this famous line from President Bill Clinton which he gave in Grand Jury testimony response to a question about sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky: “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” This is the kind of manipulation of words and their meanings to which we are referring, although Bill Clinton was pretty blatant. Wherever and whenever leftists can make their efforts subtle, they will. Again, the goal is to gain and maintain control of the people.

Not Fiction Anymore

If this sounds far-fetched, listen to Jim DeMint, former US Senator. The planks proposed for the 2020 Democrat platform and rhetoric from Democrats like Biden have led DeMint to warn that Biden, his Democrat colleagues, and their proposals “would put our country in the dark ages.”

DeMint has written a book titled Saving America from Socialism. He indicates that a decade ago when he started writing and warning about the subject, he saw it as an issue looming on the horizon. Now he sees it as a reality at our doorstep, one we must oppose and strongly reject. Socialism is a real threat to America and American liberties because it is “top-down management of practically everything.” The United States, by contrast, rose from the “bottom-up, [with] millions of people making their own decisions about what they want to do, and how they want to live their lives and what they believe.” Socialism eliminates those freedoms and the incentives and productivity they engender.

Power-hungry Leaders

When the state controls everything, it controls everyone. It acts as god, and it will not tolerate dissenting views or allegiance to anyone or anything that emboldens people to challenge it. We are seeing this currently in California, where churches are being told they cannot open because they’re non-essential (go here and here). The entire country, in fact, is still at least partially straightjacketed because of elites who have abused their constitutional authority and enforced policies in the name of enhancing “safety,” yet freedoms have been severely curtailed. Questions now are being asked about when these abuses of power finally will end. The time is now; we must

ask, how far will this go? At some point, we will have sacrificed so much liberty for security that neither remains. We must not regard the government’s power as unlimited. It isn’t from politicians that we derive our human rights; those are inalienable.

If we don’t draw a line in the sand now, our rights will continue to erode — and as a nation, we will arrive at a very ugly place. Drawing that line includes voting to keep tyrants out of office. While no political candidate is perfect, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, along with all or nearly all of the candidates running on the Democrat ticket in general, pose ominous threats to liberty in America.

• • • • In 2018, “Former Vice President Joe Biden bashed Christians opposing the homosexual agenda as ‘forces of intolerance’ and ‘virulent dregs of society’ at a recent LGBT event.”
      • Also in 2018, Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said, “We have to have total clarity about what we do when it comes to everything—a woman’s right to choose, gay marriage.…And if there’s some collateral damage for some others who do not share our view, well, so be it.”
      • More recently, Biden, now the presidential nominee of the Democrat party, has said that “transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.”
      • Biden also declared, “It’s a simple proposition, health care is a right not dependent on race, gender, income, or zip code. As president I’m going to do everything in my power to expand access to quality affordable health care for women.” Translation: I will promote unlimited access to abortion, and even infanticide, just as the members of my party have done. (Go here and here.)
      • The Democrat nominee also said this: “I will be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving, until we control the virus,” There’s nothing like killing the country’s economy (and who knows how many people in the process) in order to make sure we save people from the coronavirus, is there? Moreover, scientists disagree about what steps should be taken. When he was “[a]sked specifically whether he’d push to shutter economic activity if scientists said it was necessary, Biden replied: ‘I would shut it down.'”
      • Further, Biden has promised to work to establish “free ‘universal preschool’ for three-year old children.” Does “free” really mean free? Of course not. It can’t. Still, the larger, more important issue is indoctrination of our children. If you don’t believe that, you haven’t been paying attention to what has been taking place in our public schools, both now and even before the pandemic hit or widespread violence occurred after George Floyd’s death. Parents in particular need to watch and share this important video.
      • Biden wants to “abolish America’s suburban communities” (also go here).

In the end, the state’s gaining and maintaining control in these and other areas means the curtailment of liberty. It means government’s not allowing anyone to think for himself or herself, but getting everyone to hold the politically correct perspective of the state.

Refuting Even Irrefutable Truths

In 1984, Winston Smith wants desperately to maintain the freedom to say, even to himself, that 2 + 2 = 4. This statement, take note, is mathematical; there is nothing subjective about it. Yet even now, as we noted recently, “professors of higher education [currently] are contending that math “reeks of white supremacist patriarchy” and that “mathematics itself operates as whiteness.”

So, even our “freedom” to say that 2 + 2 = 4 is under attack. Back to 1984. O’Brien, the State agent who interrogates Smith, gives him a lecture on truth, and who determines what truth is:

You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes; only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth. (Emphasis added.)

The Road To Tyranny Is Paved with Relativism

Here is a key step in the process of moving the citizens of a country from thinking independently to thinking as the state wishes them to: Capitalize on relativism, the idea that people can make up their own personal truth. People who believe in relativism have rejected absolute truth, so they have no anchor grounding them to true reality, no way to push back against myths, misinformation, and outright lies they might encounter.

Jesus, by the way, was not a relativist. As we studied last time, He said,

²⁴ “[W]hoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: ²⁵ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

²⁶ “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: ²⁷ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall” (Matt. 7:24-27).

In these concluding words of His Sermon on the Mount we’ve just cited, Jesus upheld absolute truth, just as he did during the sermon when He upheld God’s moral law. He said,

¹⁷ “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. ¹⁸ For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.¹⁹ Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Of course, None of this negates the reality that God’s grace is essential for salvation.² Yet, even though we’re saved by grace, God still expects us to revere and obey His moral law, including the absolutes we call the Ten Commandments.

Mark it down. The Ten Commandments aren’t just for individuals, but for societies and cultures, too. When a society respects and obeys them, that society is infused with mutual respect and with the order and cohesiveness that makes liberty possible. In the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments, Moses put it this way: “There is no freedom without the law.”

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There is no freedom without the law.
—Moses in the 1956 epic The Ten Commandments—

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Our Founding Fathers and the early citizens of the United States of America understood and believed this principle. Though controversial, it ought to be a belief we hold and defend today. Why? Because it is true! Our forebears believed, as O’Brien described when he was interrogating Winston Smith, that “the nature of reality is self-evident.” Reality, keep in mind, includes “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” that the Founders affirmed in the Declaration of Independence.

Rest assured that Moses was right. “There is no freedom without the law.” We in 21^st-century America must embrace and reimplement this principle if we would have any hope of preserving liberty in our nation. In the newly released Bible study, “Principles of Liberty: Ten Biblical Truths Embedded in the Declaration of Independence,” the second ideal examined is this one: “Absolute truths exist and are knowable.” As the title of the study indicates, this indeed is a biblical truth.

The Church’s Duty

Alarmingly, today relativism isn’t just embraced in the culture, but also in the church. Christians, both individually and corporately, must lead the way in preserving liberty. This means it’s imperative that the church explicitly refute relativism and uphold absolute truth.

Next time we will explore this aspect of avoiding ethical quicksand and helping members of the next generation do the same. Part 4 likely will contain the most urgent pleas I will issue in this series.

Be ready to respond to a call to action.

 

Copyright © 2020 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.

top image credit: Photo by Louis Reed on Unsplash

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture has been taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Notes:

¹In an excellent video from Prager University titled “Control the Words, Control the Culture,” Michael Knowles explains the importance of words and the urgency preventing the leftists from using them as weapons to promote their own agendas.

²We are not saved by keeping the law, for we cannot keep it completely. We are saved by the grace—the unmerited favor—of God, yet we must come to Him on His conditions. This means coming to Him repenting of our sins and believing “that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Yet, even though we’re saved by grace, God still expects us to revere and obey His moral law, including the Ten Commandments.