The ongoing culture war in America seems to have reached a tipping point in favor of leftist views. The courts have ruled against traditional American values by legalizing gay marriage and transgender rights and, with the death of Antonin Scalia, appear to be poised to curb gun rights. The courts have been shifting leftward for years and now, as a result of the many appointments made to federal courts made by President Obama, the trend has accelerated.
And, the courts are just one avenue of change. There is also a huge cultural shift going on around the country on various college campuses where political correctness has run amok. The University of Michigan is the latest institution of "higher learning" to give into the lunacy by allowing students to choose which pronoun is to be used when referring to them. On a lighter note, one enterprising conservative student has chosen the beautiful pronoun, "His Majesty," as his preferred form of address.
I am thankful a good sense of humor is still important in defeating these modern-day Marxists. We may all need a sense of humor just to maintain our sanity. Some colleges now offer 40 or 50 different gender choices from which a student may choose. I promise, I am not making this up.
I think it is sad to see transgender rights trumping rights guaranteed to us in the Bill of Rights -- to see trumped up individual rights being held up as more important than the rights of privacy for the many. So, we see where a guy can claim to "feel" female and choose to use the girls' restroom at school, as well as their shower room, locker room, and so on -- not to mention being able to play girls' sports which they (surprise, surprise) tend to dominate. It doesn't seem to matter if allowing a guy to undress and shower with a room full of girls impinges on the girls' rights to privacy. The girls' feelings must be subordinated to the feelings of the guy who is confused as to what gender he really is.
For me, one of the most troubling aspects of this particular issue is the federal governments' insistence on forcing public schools into compliance or risk losing federal funding, or to see the government trying to force private Christian schools to comply with its leftist agenda even when it goes against the schools' stated principles. It seems the government feels it has the right to meddle with religion, but it absolutely does not allow religion to play a role in public life.
It is a sign of a cultural shift when a high school coach gets fired for praying on the field before a game but members of Black Lives Matter can chant death to cops. Why is BLM not listed as a hate group? Sad to say, we have often seen President Obama lecturing the nation on prejudice after a shooting of a black person regardless of the facts surrounding the shooting. On the other hand, Kate Steinle and other whites get murdered by illegal aliens and the president has yet to speak out against those illegals or to show any support for Kate's family.
The narrative is so important and, oftentimes, the left controls the narrative. For instance, when newscasters on CNN or MSNBC and other mainstream media outlets refer to the shooting at Ferguson, Mo., it is referred to as just one of several instances where a white cop has shot a defenseless black man for no apparent good reason. This narrative doesn't let the facts get in the way. The fact that the young man had just robbed a store or that he was high on marijuana or that he refused to get out of the street as the officer had asked him, or that he attacked the officer and tried to take his gun away from him, or that the narrative saying he was kneeling with his hands up was a bold-faced lie told by his friends all become irrelevant since they don't fit the left's agenda.
According to Time magazine, men can now have periods and babies, but this is only true if these "men" came into the world as females. And, although it is possible for a man to have sex-change surgery, no woman has ever been turned into a man -- at least not one with a working penis. So, there is that, at least.
Taken all around, we are living in a crazy world even if you may feel that the culture wars don't affect you or that you are so separate from the happenings of the world that it doesn't matter. On the contrary, this cultural shift, which I refer to as war, will impact all of us at some point if it hasn't already. You see, the camp of the saints is being compassed about. And this will affect a much bigger circle than the camp of the saints, albeit the enemies' thrust is against God's people.
While many are yet indifferent to the culture shift, I believe the time is coming when we will no longer have the luxury of simply living our lives as we see fit. We will make the shift along with the culture, or will perish in standing against it -- or we will see the coming of the Lord and His judgment. Those are the only options. If the men of Sodom felt they had the "right" of forcing themselves on Lot and his angelic guests, let's not make the mistake of thinking we are exempt; we aren't. I believe that time is near at hand.
Sam Byrnes is a Gentry-area resident and weekly contributor to the Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 10/05/2016