Acquiesce or fight?
When people say the culture wars are not real I bristle.
Maybe I’m triggered.
In today’s Australian, the Jesuit Priest and lawyer Father Frank Brennan said of Cardinal George Pell: “Though convinced of his innocence, I still don’t subscribe to his culture wars”.
In what was a very charitable article about Pell by someone who has been a long-time critic, Brennan didn’t elaborate on what he meant by this.
Although, he made it clear he did not agree with Pell (and presumably his own Roman Catholic Church) on same-sex marriage or women priests.
I’m perfectly comfortable with churches ordaining women but I’m with Pell and the Catholic church on marriage.
If anyone thinks there has not been a “war” over the definition of marriage, they have probably been living on another planet.
I don’t know how else one describes the LGBTIQA+ political movement’s fight to shut down free speech on biological gender.
Try advocating for the rights of children to wherever possible know the love of both their mother and father. You’ll be labelled a “bigot” or a “hater”. Are these not fighting words?
In what category would one put the quest to legalise abortion-to-birth with no controls even over men who coerce women to kill their babies?
Even sex-selection abortions, practiced by some ethic communities who favour boys over girls, is not outlawed by our abortion enthusiasts. Is this not a war on girls?
Of course one side of politics is waging what can only be described as a war on the vulnerable.
When people like Cardinal Pell oppose these political agendas they, funnily enough, are accused of engaging in a “culture war”.
Sadly, too many good people like Brennan are happy to acquiesce rather than fight.
Using fine-sounding words they criticise those who are in the fight, putting rocks in the shoes of other would-be soldiers.
In a lecture given to an on-line conference in the US this week, Australian academic Dr Steve Chavura warns that the cultural left’s “wokeness” enacted into laws like the Equality Act will result in Christians going to prison during our lifetime.
Let that sink in. Watch Dr Chavura’s lecture. Are we naive to think we will continue to have peace in our time?
Anyone who thinks there is no culture war should consider the “collateral damage” which is inevitably visited upon weak and vulnerable people.
Lyle Shelton is the author of I Kid You Not – Notes from 20 Years in the Trenches of the Culture Wars. Get your copy here.