Dear Editor,
I deeply appreciated Edward Vines’s ‘Why society is on the slide’ (October en) and felt that he ably tracked aspects of the disintegration of the West. His material on Marx was new and welcomed. His encouragement to open one’s eyes to see how this is massive spiritual warfare is also crucially important.
However, after reading it I could not help but recall 28 May, 1940, when the British war cabinet came close to negotiating talks with Hitler’s cronies. Churchill saved the day and kept Britain fighting in what appeared to be a hopelessly-lost war until Pearl Harbour changed the game.
Judge Vines is not advocating ‘appeasement’, but his article does not appear to appreciate how much can still be done to stem the tide, reclaim the territory and change the narrative. He acknowledged prayer, the electoral process and steeling ourselves for ‘persecution’. But surely far more can be done!
And indeed, in relation to ‘persecution’, we do not see those who admonish the church to get prepared for it standing publicly with those who are presently undergoing it.
I say this from UK experience – and indeed, perhaps Judge Vines has been keen to support Kim Davies, the Oregon bakers and Dr Church, three recent examples of American Christians hung out to dry while mainstream evangelicalism does a blackout on their plights.
To be sure, these issues are complex and different modes of action will be needed. But, if nothing else, we can pray for, support and begin conversations about how best to handle the conflict between LGBT rights and faith convictions in the public sphere.
What else can be done? The church must up its game and start to engage in exposing the false and actually toxic messaging pumped into Western culture 24/7. There are excellent arguments, both secular and biblical, which are never heard and which answer some of these challenges. Our children especially need to be given the help they need to hold the line and engage with views and values which are antithetical to their faith. This is a war of information and knowledge is power.
The ‘opposition’, so to speak, has made the progress it has because (among other factors) our side is too busy with non-controversial, politically-correct programmes which are good, but not enough. We must move beyond a ‘preaching the gospel’ paradigm to one of ‘living the gospel’, with all that is entailed.
Yours sincerely,
