Have We Lost The Culture War?
The Long March Won
By Bob Shillingstad
In the last article that ran recently we went back in time to lay out the complete takeover of the critical institutions that establish truth and morality in our culture. That included education, main stream media, colleges, law, entertainment and popular culture. If you thought that was a stretch you only had to look at the news these past few weeks. Babies were found in medical waste buckets outside a Washington D.C. abortionist’s clinic. They were between 21 to 32+ weeks old.
But wait, many states are making it legal to kill children full term in a pregnancy and even after birth. We congratulate ourselves in Idaho because we passed a more restrictive heartbeat bill regarding abortion…..not so fast…our Attorney General Wasden put a hold on implementing the bill until Planned Parenthood could present their arguments in front of the Idaho Supreme Court.
If you watched the video of “A Day At The Library CDA” on Rumble you were probably sickened and appalled that this could happen in Idaho. Here is the latest news on the library front, the American Library Association just picked their new President on a vote of 5,410 to 4,622 votes. This is the group that drives the training of U.S. librarians and their use of public funds. How does this affect Idaho you might ask? She is Emily Drabinski who leads the Boise public library and describes herself as a “Marxist Lesbian (for more information read the full article at The Federalist). She is very open about her agenda and she has a big megaphone.
If you thought Florida was the only state being bullied by a big business like Disney, Idaho is included also. This so-called infiltration into Idaho libraries, public schools and universities by Critical Race Theory and sexual groomers is all false. Because Rod Gramer, who is the president and CEO of Idaho Business for Education, a group of nearly 250 businesses across the state who advocated for liberal causes tells us so. Rod was another surrogate voice for the woke media from big business telling us that Hillsdale College, Idaho Freedom Foundation and anyone questioning local school districts is under the influence of conspiracy spreaders. The citizens in Virginia, a “blue” state that rose up to change their state government….obviously deluded! Look at the big dollars being funneled into the campaigns of Little, Bedke and Wasden. This is big business and outside interests buying their influence.
As you read through the stories that we started with you realize that we are not in a political battle but the spiritual fight against the “spirit of the age” that has been present since the garden and we are facing evil as strong as any time in our history. The question that confronts us, especially the church leadership, do we have the courage to stand up to this? As Chuck Colson asked, “Can freedom survive where virtue isn’t able to flourish?’ Chuck went on to say, “Do we have the courage to lay it all on the line? Do we have the courage to speak out for traditional marriage when we know we’ll be called bigots and worse? Or would you have the courage to stand up at a school board meeting and speak against a curriculum that indoctrinates kids and sexual license? You’d have to prepare to be shouted down.”
On Easter Sunday there was an interesting editorial response to action taken by the Coeur d’Alene city council. Previously the Kootenai County Ministerial Association would choose a spiritual leader to give an opening prayer. Newly elected mayor Jim Hammond decided to adopt a new policy where the council would decide who would speak and that could include cults, Buddhists, Moslems, etc. The Press joined in and applauded this decision to be more “open and inclusive” as they “applauded the decision by Hammond for not feeling threatened by a broader representation of the people they serve. We can’t help but think Jesus would approve, too”
I had a member of the association call me upset about the decision. My first question was this: Isn’t this the same city council that appoints the library board that purchased the LGBTQ+ books for the library? Don’t they also provide concurrence and funding for the “Rainbow Squad” meetings? Has any member of the association brought this up? Have they ever presented a petition in objection to these programs? There is some irony in this situation.
Each year at Harvard the graduating class can invite a speaker for class day to speak the night before commencement. In 1982 they invited Sandra Day O’Conner, the first woman on the Supreme Court but she couldn’t make it. They then invited Alan Alda the star of the TV series MASH and he also declined. One student suggested a speaker who was speaking in the area and this person accepted. The speaker surprised everyone with telling the students that “virginity is the greatest gift a man and a woman can give to one another and condemned the sexual sin in our culture.” The next topic was condemning abortion and one of the lines from the speech said, “’Those who so fear having a baby that they choose abortion instead are ‘the poorest of the poor.’’ The solemnity of the speech was in a sharp contrast to the traditional mood of Class Day, which is marked by picnics, parties and celebrations. There was applause and a standing ovation at the end.
Who was the speaker you ask? Mother Teresa. That is an example of true moral authority with a message to a hurting world.
I know what you might be thinking, “sure that worked in 1982 but this is 2022! “ Did the church raise its voice in 1992? 2002? 2012? Will they in 2022? This is not meant to be a condemning article but yet one that challenges us to unity and action today. The election on May 17th is important but our battle is more than political.
The Open Arms pregnancy center will move into their new building this month and also distribute baby bottles to most churches to help fund their operations for the year. Wouldn’t it be a great message for the churches, in exchange for the bottles, give Open Arms a sizable check to retire what is left of the mortgage on their building on Mother’s Day? This could become a tradition in Kootenai County as they build that “moral authority” that goes beyond an invocation and locks arm to support ministry.
Oh, I forgot, we have to fix the parking lot….but we teach verse by verse through the Bible.