More than once in the last few years I’ve asked myself the question, “Has the whole world gone mad? Has everyone in our society lost the ability to think clearly? Are people no longer able to process facts and information? Are they so dominated by their emotions and by sound bites that truth and logic don’t seem to matter?”
I remember vividly talking to a young man at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, a few months ago. The rally was surrounding the so-called “bathroom bill” that would have made all of the city’s public bathrooms and locker rooms gender-neutral.
This young man, who was in favor of the bill, told me that it was “primitive” for hospitals to determine the gender of a baby (as in, “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!”) based on the baby’s biological and chromosomal sex. Primitive! Instead, gender was whatever you perceived it to be—presumably at any given point in time.
How do you reason with someone like that? What facts can you present to change their minds? And what do you say to someone who says, “If you believe you’re a horse, you can use the stable?” (That was another conversation I had that night.)
In times like this, it’s good to remember some of these quotes. They will help you preserve your moral sanity.
1. “In a time of universal deceit—telling the truth is a revolutionary act” (George Orwell). Even if the whole world has gone mad, speak the truth anyway. It’s the revolutionary thing to do.
2. “Right is right even if nobody does it. Wrong is wrong even if everybody is wrong about it” (G. K. Chesterton). Right and wrong have never been determined by majority rule or by societal trends or by public opinion. So do what is right because it is right.
3. “For we can do nothing against the truth but only for the truth” (the apostle Paul, 2 Corinthians 13:8). Kingdoms will come and go; giant mountains will crumble into the dust; the entire physical world will be shaken one day. But God’s truth will remain stable and firm. Be sure to stand with the truth, not against it.
4. “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself” (Augustine). Be bold. Propagate the truth. Get the message out without apology. The truth will fight for itself.
5. “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened” (Billy Graham). Why not determine to be that brave man or woman? If you do this in your private life, you will soon be doing it in your public life. Perhaps you’ll actually help spark a revolution.
6. “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it” (G. K. Chesterton). Are you dead or alive? Then prove it by swimming against the tide and going against the grain.
7. “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching” (C. S. Lewis). If you live to please God, you will never be disappointed. He sees your heart and He knows the truth, and when no one else is watching, He is watching intently.
8. “Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency ask the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But, conscience ask the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right” (Martin Luther King, Jr.). Now is that time. Enough said.
9. “The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Is. 40:7-8). Count on it. When the names of the most famous men and women of this generation are long forgotten, God’s Word will be standing strong.
10. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away” (Jesus, Matthew 24:35). Count on this too. When the boasts and threats of radical Islam no longer exist, when the mockery of the new atheists is remembered with pity, when the voice of the hostile media is no longer heard, when Internet is looked at as a primitive antique, the words of Jesus will still be revered.
So, with this in mind, keep on doing what is right and speaking what is right and living what is right. You will be vindicated in the end.
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