Gary Bauer: Speaking Boldly to Our Times

There is an old curse that says, “May you live in interesting times.” It turns out the curse isn’t Chinese after all, but it IS still a curse.
 
Because none of us really wants to live in dangerous “interesting times.”  That has been true for all of human history.  Leading up to the American Revolution, many in the colonies wanted no part of a war with King George. The same in the 1850s with the strife over slavery.  Many Americans and Brits were in denial that Hitler meant what he said.
 
Uncle Sam may “want you!,” but we usually want this cup to pass – to take our rest or enlist someone else in the fight.
 
Over the past decade, it has become clearer than ever that this is not an option.  My good friend Eric Metaxas laid out the case for Christian engagement in a recent speech before Turning Point USA’s Faith Forward Pastors Conference.
 
Metaxas’s message was compelling.  It was a call for courage in the public square, for leaders to be leaders in every sphere.  Condemning silence on the issues of the day, Metaxas declared, “If you’re not living fearlessly, you’re failing.”
 
The left and their faithful friends in the media will insist this message is about the Church seeking power, violating the separation of church and state. But that is a smokescreen.  It’s about the survival of ordered liberty in a free nation.
 
“Freedom or liberty or self-government requires virtue, virtue requires faith and faith requires freedom,” Metaxas said.
 
He is right. American history has many examples of our churches rising to the occasion.  In colonial America, the nation’s pulpits were ablaze with the light of liberty, with the proclamation of the Founders that our rights do not issue from government, but are endowed by our Creator.
 
That vision, and not merely the force of arms, built this great country.
 
Then, as a matter of course, that vision posed the American people an unavoidable question.  Did “all men” include the slave, or could one man own another, made in the same image and likeness of God?  It took four years of one of the bloodiest wars in history – a nation torn asunder and 650,000 or more dead – to answer that question.
 
How easy would it have been to stand aside and let the politically powerful and the moneyed interests answer this question for all of us.  But the churches responded in courage and truth and fought for abolition. The Great Awakenings of the 18^th and 19^th centuries propelled these movements forward. Followers of Christ did not turn away from history but faced it and embraced their role in it.
 
It’s impossible not to see, as Metaxas underscores, that we are in another such moment now.
 
Consider what is at stake. The progressive forces in society believe they have secured the abolition of marriage.  They are shocked to find that their campaigns for drag queens in public libraries, obscene books in elementary schools, men in women’s restrooms, and nudity in the streets are finally meeting some resistance. But they are not about to give up.
 
Blue states are passing laws and adopting policies that allow the killing of infants in the womb – in the richest nation in all of time – up to the moment of birth (and even beyond). They turn away indifferent when it’s revealed a public high school has been transporting minor girls to abortion centers behind the backs of parents.
 
After a century of experiments around the world that led to economic debacles, famines, purges and millions of deaths, the Democratic Socialists are advancing mayoral candidates in some of our biggest cities who want to impose radical socialism here.  (Mamdani has opened his biggest lead yet in the latest poll.)
 
As parents and families are punished for participating in meetings of local school boards, the Left would collapse our borders and let millions enter our country with no check on their history as terrorists and criminals.
 
It is tempting to believe the progressives were defeated in November of last year.  That the strife is over.  But don’t deceive yourself.  The progressive pushback is everywhere.  Every day brings some fresh news about what the Left will do – there is little it won’t do – to reclaim power (have a look at the next item) and remake America as a pantheon of secular socialism.
 
Metaxas puts it best. “We need to know when it’s time to speak, and I’m here to tell you, the Church needs to speak loudly …  The Church needs to stop cowering and saying, ‘What am I allowed to say?’”
 
As this summer comes to an end and the pace of life picks up, as our children return to schools where the messages they hear are very much up for grabs, it falls to us to renew our strength.  We need to stand tall, pray for courage, stay awake, and speak boldly, as our fathers and mothers in the faith did to see us to this day.  That’s what I am committed to doing here at American Values with your prayers and support.