The Silent Majority: 4 Ways to Speak Up to Change the Culture

THIS ARTICLE IS A FOLLOW-UP TO MY ONE CALLED 7 LIES AMERICANS ARE BELIEVING, WHICH WAS VIEWED MORE THAN 29,000 TIMES IN THE FIRST TWO WEEKS OF POSTING.

The majority of American conservatives have been taught to be nice and fair. The Left – as opposed to classic liberals and classic conservatives - has been taught to be sneaky, using force and slander.

So it’s easier for small groups of leftists to take over larger groups of conservatives, because conservatives are hesitant to roll up their sleeves and fight. The Left uses fear and mob rule.

Leftists use underhanded tactics that conservatives are hesitant to use. That is true socially, politically, and in religious circles.

I’ve seen it in churches for years. People who want to take over a local congregation and wield power will work behind the scenes for years and be very sly and political. The rest of the people just want to enjoy each other and the experience, and they often realize too late that the manipulative ones have been working behind the scenes to gain control.

And now this has happened in America.

 

A Cultural Civil War

John Davidson writes in his article, We’reIn A Cultural Civil War. It’s Time For Conservatives To Fight Back, “If you think what’s happening in America right now is crazy, you’re not alone. It’s true that something’s changed, that we’re in the middle of a crisis, that a cultural civil war is underway and escalating.

But it’s not true that this is a majoritarian movement. It’s not true that America fundamentally changed overnight. The hordes of protesters, impressive as them seem, don’t represent the country at large.”

Leftists infiltrated many of our American universities decades ago.

The Left has systematically indoctrinated our culture with its deadly ideologies:

(1) The jettison of absolute truth

(2) The “don’t offend anyone” narrative.

(3) The “every idea is equally valid” falsity.

(4) The “America is fundamentally flawed” and is not great lies.

And the Left uses fear and punishment to scare people into silence. Read the article here, Fear of the Left: The Most Powerful Force in America Today.

 

Forceful People

Jesus Christ described people who grow the kingdom of God: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12 ESV).

Ellicot’s Commentary for English Readers explains, “The ‘violent’ are men of eager, impetuous zeal, who grasp the kingdom of heaven—i.e., its peace, and pardon, and blessedness—with as much eagerness as men would snatch and carry off as their own the spoil of a conquered city.”

Unfortunately, we have not done a great of teaching people in our churches to be such “violent” citizens. Christians have often thought we have to be the “nice guy” instead of the forceful one.

The modern era includes the fallacy that the church and pastors should stay out of and stay silent about politics.  One result of such a stance is the church's weak influence on society.  While secularists and godless men and women worked feverishly to reshape our nation (after their own lusts and idols), the church often claimed that politics was not their business.  Instead, they should only care about saving souls.

Such a stance does not reflect a biblical worldview.

Lawyer and talk show host Dennis Prager calls our modern battle America’s Second Civil War. He writes that in the Second Civil war, “one side has been doing nearly all the fighting. That is how it has been able to take over schools — from elementary schools, to high schools, to universities — and indoctrinate America’s young people; how it has taken over nearly all the news media; and how it has taken over entertainment media.

The conservative side has lost on every one of these fronts because it has rarely fought back with anything near the ferocity with which the left fights.”

Lawyer turned evangelist Charles Finney wrote in the 1800’s, “The Church must take right ground in regards to politics . . . The time has come for Christians to vote for honest men, and take consistent ground in politics or the Lord will curse them . . . .

God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the Church will take right ground. Politics are a part of a religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to their country as a part of their duty to God . . .

God will bless or curse this nation according to the course Christians take in politics.”

Davidson writes, “It’s long past time to fight back. That won’t be easy, in part because the radicals are largely in control of messaging. They have the sympathies—if not the outright allegiance—of the mainstream media, big tech, and corporate America. They also more or less control the Democratic Party and much of the petty bureaucracy, including public schools.”

Respect for law and order, for policemen, for the Constitution, for God, for the Bible, for people of different races, for the sanctity of human life, and for the people of America is constantly challenged.

This country became great because of its Judeo-Christian values, and it will become great again as we protect the freedom to nurture those values. The progressive Left showed the country in the Kavanaugh hearings – and now in the domestic terrorist assault on our country from the Black Lives Matter movement -  what to expect if they rule - mob law, gross deception, massive character assassination, no regard for the rule of law, and as Hillary Clinton authenticated - no civility.

We live in a day where the church must speak truth into the culture.  Christians must communicate into the national and political processes.  

Believers must not be silent.  We must speak.

What actions can normal Americans take who love their neighbors, their freedom, and their country?

1. Pray

Our current climate is one where the church needs to pray with fervor and steadfastness. This is also a time when we need to be adding fasting to our praying. The Lord said that some problems only experience deliverance through fasting and prayer (Matthew 17:21).

Abraham Lincoln and President Ronald Reagan both said the United States was the last best hope of the earth. No, not in terms of theological salvation, but in our modern era America has been the bastion of freedom and religious liberty for the world.

Today a great battle rages for the soul of this nation – and it is not only a battle between people. A spiritual battle rages in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12). When such wars erupt, God’s people must not only fight in the worldly realm – but fight with prayer and fasting.

2. Love your neighbor

For years, schools taught The Golden Rule – Jesus’ instruction to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

One of the reasons America is basically good is because her people generally treat each other with goodness. Since all of this Anitfa and Black Lives Matter movement have shaken our country, I’ve made  a habit of noticing how people in public treat each other. I see people of all races, ages, and both genders showing respect, civility, and kindness to each other.

Our family visited Nashville, Tennessee, recently. A black waiter generously told us at lunch, “You don’t need to fear being outside in our downtown. This city is very safe. We have police on every block, so you don’t need to be afraid.

We experienced that very thing, and I made it a point to stop and talk with policemen several times and say, “Thank you for your presence here. We appreciate you. We feel very safe here.”

This is the time to not hold back in loving your neighbors, serving each other, and showing other people the real substance of America.

3. Resist the cultural narrative

John MacArthur writes, “To be a Christian is to swim against the flow of the world, to go against its grain, because the adversary-Satan, his demons, and the world system-are extremely powerful. Those who enter the kingdom of grace through faith in Christ do so with great effort through the sovereign power of the convicting and converting Holy Spirit.”

There was a time when values espoused by the American media, public education, entertainment industry, political parties, and “polite society” generally coincided with Christian, biblical values. Today, much of the cultural narrative is controlled by the Left, which has gradually gotten control of the media, the entertainment industry, and much of public education. And many of those values stand in contrast to a biblical worldview.

For years, the three centers of influence – Hollywood, New York, and Washington, D.C., have been out of touch with the values of average Americans.

The Bible reminds believers, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2 NLT).

The JB Phillips translation adds this emphasis: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

4. Speak up.

The Left has consistently pushed their ways forward on our culture for years. They have worked to monopolize the airwaves and use fear tactics to make people afraid to disagree with them.

Suddenly, many good, average Americans realize their country is being systematically taken over.

The Black Lives Matter movement, along with their bully force Antifa, use force and fear to topple our democracy.

This is not the time to just be the nice guy. This is the time to speak up and challenge the narrative.  But it means several things that most Americans don’t like:

+ You may offend people.

+ You may lose “friends” or the respect of certain people. An English professor approached a friend of mine years ago at our liberal religious college and said, “Gene, the things you believe are not accepted any more be polite society.” My friend, who is now an evangelical missionary, responded, “Dr. so-and-so, with all due respect, I don’t care what polite society thinks. One day, I will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and give an account to Him of my life, and He is the One I aim to please.”

+ You may be attacked by people – especially on social media. But keep this in mind. Antifa has vowed that after they wreak havoc on our major cities, they plan on going into the residential neighborhoods. What that means is they plan on going into your suburb where your children play and ride their bikes, where people swim at the community pool, and where your family eats, sleeps, and lives, and they will spray paint or burn down your houses, beat up your older people, and kill some of your younger ones.

In Italy, Germany, Cuba, and the U.S.S.R., the Left started by ridiculing people for their beliefs and values. Eventually, when they had enough power, they jailed, beat, raped, tortured, and murdered people. And that could happen here.

+ You will have to learn how to logically challenge the thinking of the Left. You will have to learn to think through and discuss why you disagree with some of what your children hear from Hollywood elites, late night talk show hosts, prime time sitcoms, CNN, and some of their high school teachers or college professors. You will have to learn how to THINK – perhaps like never before.

 

Here are a few suggestions for where and how to speak up:

1. Make sure and start in your home and talk with your children about why you believe what you believe. Provide them an intellectual framework to think from your kitchen table.

2. Speak out – with respect and love – but with truth - on social media. Don’t let social media be overtaken by the Left. Remember, sometimes truth divides – and it cuts. When you need immediate open-heart surgery, you don't get offended if the doctor cuts into your skin.

3. Write letters to your local newspaper – or post articles on your favorite blog sites.

4. Contact your centers of influence and let your voice be heard. This includes, but is not limited to, the following: national and state Congressmen and representatives, Governors, mayors, city and town councils, local school boards, state Supreme Courts, etc. Believe me, the Left is and has been making their voices heard to these entities. It’s time for the average American to be “forceful.”

5. Speak up in your centers of influence: your church, your home owner’s association, your local PTA, your sports club, your alumni association, etc.

6. When you see our basic liberties – like the freedom of speech – being taken away, speak up. Speak out. If we do not, we will lose them for good.

7. Consider running for office at the local or state level – or get behind some godly, conservative people who will. Ask your pastor(s) to consider running for these positions. The American Renewal Project is a good resource. 

Prager writes, “This is likely the last chance liberals, conservatives and the right have to defeat the American left. But it will not happen until these groups understand that we are fighting for the survival of America no less than the Union troops were in the First Civil War.”

Remembering Jesus' reference of John the Baptizer, instead of just trying to be the nice guy in the room, maybe it's time to be the forceful one.

It's time for Christians and conservatives to come out of hiding and re-engage the public square.

Liberty is at stake.

 

See also my article, 7 Lies Americans are Believing.

See my article, America: Where Most Blacks and Whites Don't Hate Each Other.

Pictures used by permission from Pixabay.