Lawlessness and bullying go hand in hand in our world. One of the most ghastly examples in history is remembered a few days after Christmas – the massacre of every boy under two years of age in the town of Bethlehem by a king as paranoid as he was tyrannical. King Herod would stop at nothing to eliminate a baby he understood to be the rightful king of Israel as a rival to his reign of terror. The irony is Herod was elected by the Romans, not the Jews, to be the Jewish king; he lacked even the requisite (for that day and culture) ethnic qualifications to be a legitimate candidate. He spent his tenure suppressing that truth in brutality that engulfed even his immediate family.
On a much smaller scale – so far – we see lawlessness in our government today and bullying on the part of politically correct plutocrats that is designed as much to suppress truth as to enforce conformity to their views. In January an administrative law judge in Oregon ordered Aaron Klein to make a wedding cake for a same sex couple or face fines; Klein shut down his business rather than violate his faith. In December a federal judge in New Mexico ordered wedding photographers Elane and Jonathan Huguenin to make their services available to homosexual couples in response to a 2006 lawsuit after the Huguenins cited religious conviction mandating their refusal. Gay marriage was not legal in New Mexico at the time and the Alliance Defending Freedom is appealing the case to the US Supreme Court. In Colorado this Fall baker Jack Phillips was ordered by a federal judge to service a gay couple’s wedding even though gay marriage remains illegal in that state. In constitutional America faith trumps government – especially where consumers are free to patronize other businesses who share their views. Ideas become law when enacted by a legislative body, not because a judge decrees it. Judges who behave as these judges have are just as much criminals as others who flout the law.
On the plutocratic scale we have the recent specter of ESPN – lest readers think gay activists have cornered the market on bullying – refusing to run Christmas ads for a Catholic hospital that names Jesus as the reason for the season. More recent is the controversy over the A & E Network’s Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson. Robertson was suspended indefinitely from the show for comments he made to GQ Magazine having nothing to do with the show but yet disagreeing with the gay lifestyle and agenda. Personally I grow increasingly testy over the constant cries that gay people are being bullied when most instances of bullying over homosexuality making news feature gays as the bullies. After a public opinion uprising both ESPN and A & E backed down. But it will keep happening and the only question should be what should decent people do.
And the advice I give is for everybody, but I suspect only professing Christians will find the inner strength for its sustained activation.
The first thing is to spend our sympathy on those who are being bullied, not on the bullies themselves. That does not mean privately deploring the injustice; it means vocal and public support from each and every one of us who loves decency and fair play. Phil Robertson ought to have the biggest fan club in the nation; Jack Phillips ought to be doing a land office business. It doesn’t matter whether we agree or disagree with their views; we defend their right to express their convictions. If they express themselves poorly, as the Robertson family acknowledges he did, the right remains intact.
Public outcry is potent. Cracker Barrel Restaurants has apologized to their patrons for removing Duck Dynasty products from their shelves; the products are back. The public uprising over Chick fil A resulted in a bummer for the bullies.
The second thing is to not waste our sympathy by indulging in hatred ourselves. I sat near a grandfather filling his grandson’s head with homophobic jokes in a restaurant yesterday and – frankly – if all I knew about it was what I heard from this moron I would be out marching in favor of the gay agenda myself today. I have always taught congregations I pastored that if we would speak on this topic at all it should be from the standpoint of a heart broken for wounded and suffering people; otherwise we do well not to speak at all. If we are not part of a solution both truthful and compassionate we are just part of the problem.
The third and climactic thing is to actively believe the words of Jackson Senyonga, “The condition of society is the report card of the Church.” That means what goes on in the world – for better or worse – is the responsibility of those carrying the Spirit of God. Jesus said, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” The Church – led by Her pastors – should become a mighty (albeit non-violent) army taking a cue from the groups of veterans and truckers who marched peacefully and respectfully on Washington during the shutdown to protest federal bullying. They emulated those who marched to DC behind the Rev. Martin Luther King in 1963. It was this kind of action – undertaken by this kind of humanity – that brought Abraham Lincoln to the presidency and galvanized Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon after him to preside over the Civil Rights Revolution. The same equation threw the dictator Marcos out of the Philippines and broke the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall. It is time we demanded a return to a nation of laws and justice rather than politically correct chaos.
There is a catch.
I took the title for this piece from the famous verse in John 8 in which Jesus tells His disciples the truth will set them free. Reality is that – taken out of context – His statement is meaningless. He actually said if we continue as His disciples – if we hang with Him and hang every dimension of our lives on Him – we will then know the truth and the truth will make us free. He is truth. And no amount of political action will restore our nation to its God given greatness. Only a Great Awakening can do that.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at
