Every Friday we’ll take a break from topical posts and will post some random personal thoughts.
—
A Cuppa Joe – Random Ramblings from a Fellow Struggler #8
“Are You Now, or Have You Ever Been, an Evangelical?”
We look at the McCarthy blacklist era of the 1950’s with contempt for its promoters, and shame for everyone who went along with them. In the name of enhancing national security, the House on Un-American Activities, headed by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, launched a reign of terror that brought moguls and movie stars to their knees. Anyone named as a suspected Communist could expect to be hauled before the committee to respond to the generic Are you now or have you ever been a Communist? inquisition, and if a remote connection could be found between the accused and any form of Communism, they could expect financial and professional ruin, or even prison if they refused to name other alleged commie sympathizers.
Well, as a cute little girl in a well-known ghost story once said, “They’re baaaaaaaack!” But this time the undesirable element society must purge itself of is not the Communist. It’s the conservative Evangelical, the born again believer who insists that there is a Creator; that the Creator has specific intentions for His creation; that those intentions are clarified in an inspired document called the Bible; and that they extend themselves to our family and sexual relationships.
Just ask Blake Mycoskie about being associated with one of those. Evidently Mycoskie did a terrible thing. Never mind that as the Founder of TOMS, he’s been putting shoes on the feet of countless third world children through his innovative enterprise, by which a pair of shoes is sent to a needy child each time a pair of TOMS is purchased. Good works notwithstanding, he rubbed elbows with the wrong crowd, and for that he must be punished.
He spoke at a (horrors!) Focus on the Family event. Not about anything so controversial as traditional marriage, mind you, but about enterprise and innovation. Never mind; it’s the association, not the topic, that put a rope around his neck. It hit the fan, and countless TOMS wearers are now pounding the podium with their now-unacceptable sneakers, Khrushchev-style, demanding an apology, an explanation, or a lynching.
Poor Blake is giving it his best defensive shot, however lamely. He wouldn’t have spoken at the event “if I had known the full extent of Focus on the Family’s beliefs”, he’s stated by way of apology.
Uh-huh. Like it’s hard to know where Focus on the Family stands, they’re so subtle. Believe me, as someone who’s proudly associated with FOTF for over a decade now, I know first-hand that you may disagree with their positions, or perhaps hate their positions, but if you even casually know them, you darned well know their positions as well. Even their enemies must give them this – they’re clear and forthright. No secret as to where they stand.
Regardless, no doubt Blake’s PR team will continue to handle this mess, which is only getting more muddied by his waffling retractions. But the larger issue should raise our hackles even more, and the larger issue is this: We’re entering into a season of fear. The real, tangible, gut-wrenching kind. It won’t take a Senate Committee to bring you down if you’re one of Those. In this age of immediate communication and spin, one wrong sentence or association and your business can fold, a lawsuit may follow, your tax exempt status can be threatened, and you can be so effectively ostracized that any credibility you’ve built over the years is demolished. And all because you hold traditional beliefs about sex and family.
Maybe we’ve had it too easy. Maybe America’s longstanding (until recently) harmony with Biblical beliefs left Her churches ill equipped to defend the faith and the principles associated with it, since there was little need for defense. Maybe the Christian population is like someone who never needed to learn self-defense because he was raised in such a comfortable neighborhood, but has now been transplanted to a dangerous community where fighting skills are a necessity. Regardless, there is a debate to be had, and we’re ill prepared. Now, more than ever, we need our apologists and teachers to equip us for life in 2011 and beyond, because at the risk of being labeled paranoid, my guess is that no matter how quietly and amiably you seek to live, if you hold to beliefs clearly spelled out in Scripture, you will at some point feel the discomfort of being stared at with raised eyebrows as your questioner asks,
“Are you now, or have you ever been —“
