When Will You Stand?

July 4th, 1776 marked the day when a group of men took a stand and pledged their lives to proclaim their independence from the tyranny of the King of England.  In doing so, they gave birth to a nation that would do more to advance the cause of liberty and throw down the forces of oppression than any other nation or empire in the history of the world.  They created the freedom for an economic system that would foster innovations to cure previously incurable diseases, cheaply feed the masses, and give our current working class a lifestyle more comfortable than the king of their day.
 
To view that day through the narrow prism of our current culture is to miss the profundity of that moment.  The skin color of those men is irrelevant.  Did some of them own slaves even as they spoke of freeing men?  Yes.  That was a contradiction not lost on many of them, the unjustly maligned Thomas Jefferson among them.  That was a battle for another day, for slavery had been interwoven into the fabric of society and economics since the earliest days of human civilization.  To wage that intellectual war among their own ranks was to guarantee a division that would make the first step for the better world they envisioned impossible.
 
To view this event and these men in the proper context, we must never lose sight of the fallen nature of Man.  Jesus famously spoke “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”.  Judging from the number of stone throwers that have emerged in recent weeks, one might think we have suddenly entered the perfected Millennial reign of Christ.  But alas, no, for what we are seeing is nothing more than an age-old display of human hypocrisy and judgement.
 
Those who celebrate an ideology (Marxism) that has thrown more people into prison camps and graves than even the worst slaveholders in American history could contemplate, would tear down all the good that was done on that July 4th so many years ago.  For make no mistake, these new revolutionaries are not content to just tear down statues.  They mean to tear down American society itself.
 
They wear Che Guevara shirts as they splash red paint on statues of Washington and Jefferson to symbolize the blood on the hands of the Founders of this nation.  Che, who lined up those who were perceived as threats to Castro’s Marxist Utopia and shot them dead.  His hands were hardly unblemished, but perhaps he gets a pass because he killed the “right” people.  Marxism is very proficient at making sure all the “right” people are eliminated.  From Soviet Russia to Communist China, the road to Marxist Utopias is always paved with the bodies of millions who just refused to get “woke”, if you will, to the new more “just” society that was being created.  After all, to build a perfect society, you must first eliminate all those imperfect people.
 
And lest you be under any illusions, the people leading this new revolution are indeed Marxists.  If you do not believe me, do some research on the leaders of Black Lives Matter and these other social justice groups.  Yes, I am suggesting that you actually do a little intellectual work before you add your voice to the cacophony that is calling for the complete overthrow of Western Civilization.  In an age where we are discussing “what is owed”, you owe us that much, fellow citizen. 
 
I think I speak for many when I say that I am sick and tired of being brow-beaten and held under the threat of “cancellation” by the willfully ignorant and dangerously uninformed among us.  I am equally weary of those who want all the benefits of American culture but are too “busy” to do anything to help protect it.  I am speaking of those Christian conservatives among us who had time to binge-watch “Tiger King” but cannot be bothered to watch some of the great work men like Glenn Beck, Steve Deace, and Mark Levin have done to expose the concerted effort taking place to dismantle our society.  We are approaching the time of Rome again, only now many Christians have decided it is much more comfortable to partake in the bread and circuses than to stand on the floor of the Coliseum.
 
When will you stand?  They redefined marriage and you did nothing.  When will you stand?  They redefined gender, telling you with a straight face that men can have babies and menstrual cycles and you did nothing.  When will you stand?  They are programming your children to stand against every value you hold dear and you are doing nothing – worse than nothing – you are funding the reprogramming.  When will you stand?  They are in the streets of your communities burning your businesses, defacing your landmarks, and threatening to come for you if you do not bend the knee.  When will you stand?  In the name of protecting us all from a virus, they told you to sacrifice your business, to stay away from your church, to cancel all funerals, weddings, and graduations, and yet they cheered on massive groups of protestors, vandals, and LGBTQ pride celebrations and now they are telling you to sacrifice your business again and to continue to stay away from your church.  When will you stand?  They release prisoners from jail and allow looters to roam free, yet handcuff mothers at playgrounds, raid Jewish funerals, and arrest hair stylists.  When will you stand?
 
Voting for a Republican will not save you.  Posting a snarky meme on Facebook or Twitter will not save you.  Calling in to a talk show will not save you.  Complaining to your friends over the Starbucks coffee you bought and thereby helped fund their contribution to the destruction of society will not save you.
 
What will save you?  Run for political office.  If you are tired of the leaders we have, become the leader – and stand your ground once you are in office.  This applies to all levels from the school board to the United States Senate.
 
Engage in targeted boycotts.  The forces at work to destroy our society have so deeply penetrated the corporate world that it is very difficult to boycott everything all at once.  I suggest we develop a campaign to identify one organization at a time and engage in a very deliberate and tenacious boycott.  For example, let us say we launch a social media campaign to stop buying Disney products and services until they stop all funding and support for the causes that are destroying our society.  The same would go for social media platforms.  You do not need to boycott all of them at once.  Let us say we all just decided to close our Twitter accounts and moved to the Parler platform (https://parler.com/).  The financial impact of just one or two of these concerted efforts would be enough to remind all companies what the true values are of the majority of their customer base.  We have been taken for granted for far too long and it is our own fault because we let them do it.
 
And should anyone come into your community and tell you how you should live, you stand.  You do not cower in your home, however nor do you go out and engage in violence.  You stand and you let them see you stand.  If enough of us stand, the strength of our numbers will be sufficient to stare down any mob.
 
Most importantly, you must know why you are standing.  It is not out of blind allegiance to a flag or in hero worship of some long dead men.  It is not to prop up a president or put down a group of people.  It is out of love that we stand.  Love for God, love for our families, love for our neighbors, and love for people we do not even know.  We stand because no system of government or economic model has done more to advance the prosperity of humans and protect their liberty than the American capitalist system.  It is not perfect, but perhaps its greatest feature is the fact that it allows its imperfections to be pointed out and repaired.
 
Stand for the truth, no matter the cost.  Never let them force you to proclaim that men can be women and women can be men.  Never let them force you to apologize for sins you have not committed.  Never let them shame you into silence.  You may lose your job.  You may lose friends.  Family members may turn their back on you.  But despite it all you must stand for the truth.  When no one stands for the truth, any lie will be believed and lies lead to destruction.
 
But the sad truth of history is that too often people refuse to stand during that window early on when standing would have been enough to avert tragedy.  Instead, they stayed quiet and hidden away from the commotion being caused by those “fringe” groups.  Then one day the window closes, and they wake up and find their society completely transformed and those fringe groups are now their leaders – leading some of them to re-education camps and others to firing squads.  Our window is closing.  When will you stand?