If you’re Christian, shut up. Are you are conservative, just shut up. If you are a capitalist, shut up. That’s the unmistakable message of the Left. Karen Pence took a lambasting for her decision to teach at a Christian school.
Sen. Mazie Hirono made an inquiry of a judicial nominee about his membership in the Catholic Knights of Columbus. She then said the organization is a member of the “alt right.” The K of C… Hirono was wrong and in her statement outed herself as a bigot.
A group of teenage Catholic schoolkids waiting for a bus at the March for Life was attacked. First, they were attacked by professional demonstrators then by mainstream news media. Of course, none of these incidents was about the people; Karen Pence or Brian Buescher, or Ryan Sandmann. Not at all, instead, it’s about intimidating everyone else.
What are we teaching our children?
It’s telling the husband or wife of an up-and-coming lawmaker; want to teach, better choose a non-Christian location. If you don’t, your spouse will be ensnared in a media cycle over discrimination. This is telling the law student dreaming of someday becoming a judge; no matter how appealing he finds joining a Catholic charitable organization. Don’t do it, it can be career-limiting.
And it’s telling schools, students and parents; no matter if they are willing to deal with the expense. No matter they are willing to deal with the trouble of hauling students to Washington, D.C., on buses. They are sending the message don’t have them sleep on gym floors. It can be a bad idea because of the damage to students’ reputations, careers, and college prospects. It could all be gone with one viral video.
That could happen if the students come to Washington. It may all be about whether they fight for gun control or raise awareness of climate change. Or it can happen just because they’re there to speak up for the babies who can’t.
What kind of country do we want?
The 2018 election was a shock for conventional D.C. wisdom. It is, or should be obvious there are plenty of silent Americans. Deplorable who, in the privacy of the ballot box, dare to defy the politically correct, woke male bovine excrement spewing from cultural and political leaders. But it’s not enough to vote.
We should be glad Karen Pence did not back down and resign. And thrilled Brian Buescher is remaining a member of the Knights of Columbus. We should be happy Sen. Ben Sasse introduced a resolution saying there’s nothing wrong with a judge being in the Knights. I’m heartened that the Covington students have a settlement with the first of what should be many media organizations. But they can’t do this all on their own.
About 70% of Americans are Christian, according to the Pew Research Center. They and everyone who believes in religious freedom need to start speaking up. This is less about those attacked than it is about the Left’s campaign of personal destruction. You don’t have to agree with Buescher’s judicial philosophy to say that in the United States, there should be no religious test for judges.
Do on to others
You don’t have to have attended a Catholic school or be pro-life to say that a group of teen boys being awkward around a professional activist… An activist who later that weekend tried to bring a group of protesters to disrupt a Catholic Mass… That should not be a news story, much less a reputation destroyer.
You don’t have to agree with Immanuel Christian School’s faith tenets. We should all defend Karen Pence’s right to choose the school where she wants to teach. Wouldn’t you want others to do so for you?
You know what breeds intolerance? Silence. It’s easy for someone to kvetch about the Covington boys. It is easy to mock the second lady as a bigot at the water cooler. It is easy if you have no reason to believe any other colleague will speak up and correct you.
How to respond…
We need to take a lesson from the left’s playbook. Here’s what leftists do really well: They share their stories. And they make it personal. We need to do the same.
Did your son or daughter go to the March for Life? Talk about it. Share how proud you were that they cared about the lives of unborn babies. You should share that you are proud of their level of commitment. Share they spent 20 hours on a bus and sleep on a crowded gym floor. You should share how scared you are that they, too, could become targets of social media activists and mainstream media. Share that they didn’t know the appropriate public relations strategy to deal with a protest. Would you know the correct strategy?
Does it make you feel like an alien in your own country? Do you stop to understand what you hear from the pews on Sunday could make you ineligible to do certain jobs in our system? Express that anxiety. Tell the truth about how you don’t like being treated like a second-class citizen in your own nation. The left is executing a strategy of intimidation.
Sometimes we have a duty to speak up
Are you appalled that your mom’s job at a Christian school could get her branded as a bigot? Say that. Share the facts: Plenty of Christian denominations adhere to 2,000 years of sexual morality. Many demand no sex outside of marriage… straight or LGBT. The left is not moral… it is what they are. Don’t be afraid to express your moral views.
If we keep talking, things will change. People know that if their colleague is pro-life, or their hairstylist is Christian or their neighbor teaches at a Christian school, they will think twice. That doesn’t mean they will agree with any of them but they will respect their positions.
It means they will realize it’s unfair to assume all pro-lifers hate women. They will realize not all Christians hate LGBT people. They will realize it’s more complex than the “woke” leaders of social media say it is. Maybe then we can have real discussions and real dialogues, person to person.
It can be hard but the best things in life are…
It’s hard. We are, most all of us, often more of a coward than we’d like. It’s hard to speak up. It is especially hard if you’re scared people will judge you. It is harder still when you fear hidden consequences… promotions that never occur, networking that abruptly stops. But we don’t have a choice.
It is important in the United States to be working overtime to make it clear. Stand up for your Christian beliefs, your pro-life beliefs and you will pay. It is wrong for that to be the case but it cannot change until we stand up and refuse to be silenced.
But we can rise up. If there’s one thing we should have learned in the Trump era, it it that standing up to bullies works. And we need to. There’s nothing American about a future where holding certain religious beliefs makes you a second-class citizen. We the people have rights. It’s time to exercise them.
