I’ll begin with a question. When did challenging the dominant narrative become offensive? I think a lot of Americans are looking at the actual numbers in this covid crisis and they’re saying, “Is this virus really so dangerous that it justifies destroying the lives of tens of millions of people in the name of ‘protection’ or ‘public health’?”
For others it’s become much more personal than that. It’s the business they’ve worked so hard to build or the job that puts food on the table and pays the rent for their families.
Some are speaking up. They look at those numbers I’ve referenced and they say this doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t add up. They want more than just statements by highly placed officials that say this is so dangerous that they ought to be happy to give up their businesses and their jobs. The answers they’re getting just don’t do it for them.
Too many people who carry those questions are simply afraid to be vocal with their questions for fear of the viciousness of the backlash they suffer for asking. You’re made to feel guilty if you doubt the narrative or quote the research that others have done that contradicts the dominant narrative.
Long ago I prophesied that a tsunami wave of hatred was coming to engulf our nation. I was mocked by some on the left for pointing it out as it began to manifest and was told, That’s just politics. You don’t understand how politics work. They’ll insult each other on Friday and play golf together on Saturday.
But the bitterness grew. The mocking of one side against the other grew. Words were twisted and accusations flew until we had the Russian collusion investigation and then an impeachment proceeding, both of which failed. The speaker of the house tore up the president’s state of the union speech in a disgusting demonstration of hate and disrespect. Words have been twisted. Facts have been distorted.
This is not and never was just politics. It’s a war of a different kind with no intent or desire to meet in the middle or come to real compromises. It first manifested in left versus right, progressive versus conservative, but now it tears families apart and destroys communities.
Over time, rational discussion, exchange of ideas and respect for differing opinions became impossible. At first it was just political conflict over philosophies but it grew into hatred. And hate is a disease more deadly than any virus.
Now that disease has metastasized into differences of opinion over the virus and what should be done to deal with it. Our culture now seems to think that if you disagree with me, you hate me. What happened to iron sharpening iron in respectful discussion? Can you hear the serpent’s tongue in this attitude?
Hatred is always irrational. No matter where it manifests it squelches real civil discourse and shatters constructive relationships. If you study history you know that this is the foundation for fascism and the suppression of freedoms. On the domestic level it leads to violence in families, breakups of friendships and divisions between neighbors.
Beware America! We are desperately in need of a culture-wide movement of repentance, not just for the obvious sins of moral trespass, but for some foundational sins of the heart at the deepest level before everything we ever knew about our nation and its freedoms Is gone forever.
Questioning the narrative is what Americans do. It’s in our DNA as a people. The freedom to question the narrative, to challenge one another and to question our government is part of what has made this nation great. The lessons of history show us that failure to question the narrative, or fear to stand up and do so, was a major part of what got Hitler into power and created Nazi Germany. That led to unimaginable loss of life and the destruction of a great nation and a great people whom I love.
In the Bible, in the city of Thessalonica, there were Jews who were afraid, or just unwilling, to question the Pharisees’ view of things in order to entertain new ideas and new facts from Scripture. And so they rejected what the apostle Paul and Silas were teaching about Jesus, refusing even to examine and consider what they presented. So, as happens when it becomes offensive to question the prevailing narrative, they were reacting violently against those who had received and believed what Paul was revealing.
The opposition became serious enough that the brethren had to send Paul and Silas out of town in order to save their lives. And so you come to the Bereans. Acts 17:11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
17:12 Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. They chose to question the dominant way of thinking they’d been fed by those in power at the time. Notice that they didn’t just uncritically accept what Paul and Silas were telling them. They examined the facts for themselves, defied the dominant way of thinking and believing, and eagerly accepted a way of faith that ran counter to everything they’d been told. 17:13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds.
Hatred is always irrational and always blind. Hatred is easily provoked and threatened and will always seek to stamp out anything that challenges its assumptions.
This nation, the United States, was founded by men who questioned the prevailing narrative concerning the authority of the king. Their questioning was met with violence until the founding fathers were forced to launch a revolution that established a state in which men could debate one another, vigorously discuss the issues, and present varying ideas with mutual respect that led to conclusions that flowed from those discussions.
Now hatred has so infected our national character that rational discussion has become impossible, even in the face of a national crisis that threatens to destroy us.
The course we Christians must take is to refuse to participate in the hatred in any manner at any level. Investigate the facts. Be the honorable ones who seek to know if these things we are being told about this crisis are so. Weigh them for yourself. Present your opinion firmly and respectfully, but do it without vilifying the other side. Do it without condemning or hurling insults. Do it without spewing anything that looks, smells or feels like disrespect, hatred or defilement. That kind of thing only deepens the crisis.
Urgently repent for the sins of our nation, the tens of millions of murdered babies, the moral compromises, the rejection of God’s law, the loss of fear of the Lord and for participation in any form of unclean talk or hatred. A big part of the problem we now face is the result of a generation of preaching that has neglected repentance, holiness, the cross and the blood. This must be remedied.
Pray for the revelation of truth, whatever that is in this situation. Obediently pray for our leaders, no matter how you feel about them. Walk a different path than the world around us. Speak the truth but be a people of light.