Inquisition3

(This is a continuation of yesterday’s post, Everybody Expects…The Liberal Inquisition! Please click here to read that Part 1 post if you have not yet done so, since things will make a whole lot more sense in context than they will outside of it.)

Eight months after Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech at the Republican Party National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, Americans were given another revealing glimpse into the philosophy shaping our nation’s culture.

This moment came when a young woman from the American West committed the unpardonable sin of politically incorrect public speech. This violation of the new American speech code inspired the unrestrained wrath of vigilant thought police across the nation. The whole episode began on April 19th of 2009, when the following question echoed through the Theatre for the Performing Arts in Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada:

“Vermont recently became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit? Why or why not?”

This was the question asked of Carrie Prejean, representing the state of California in the Miss USA pageant. The question was asked by openly gay pageant judge Perez Hilton as a part of the Miss USA selection process.

Miss Prejean answered Hilton’s politically and religiously motivated question as follows:

“I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And, you know what? In my country and in my family, I think that – I believe that – a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think that it should be: Between a man and a woman. Thank you.”

While for many of us it may be difficult to imagine a more respectful, defensive, kind and even sheepish defense of the actual institution of marriage than that which Miss Prejean offered, the simple fact that she affirmed a personal belief, when asked, that marriage was to be “between a man and a woman”, was enough for impartial, unbiased, politically and religiously neutral judge Perez Hilton to come completely unglued.

As a result of honestly answering the question put to her in an excruciatingly polite manner consistent with the well-reasoned and time-tested beliefs of the overwhelming majority of American citizens since the founding of the republic, Carrie Prejean was denied the Miss USA crown and Perez Hilton went into full blown offended drama queen mode.

Hilton immediately recorded a video blog for release on YouTube, which included the following fabulous commentary:

“Hello…okay…so…Miss USA literally just finished and I have to make a video blog. Everybody’s gonna be talking about it! I was the YouTube moment of the show – the pageant – when I asked Miss California her question, and when she gave the…worst…answer…in pageant history! She got booed! I think that was the first time in Miss USA e-ver that a contestant has been booed. Now, lemme explain to you: She lost, not because she doesn’t believe in gay marriage. Miss California lost because she’s a dumb b***h, okay? This is how a person with half a brain answers the question I posed to her, which is: ‘Vermont recently legalized same-sex marriages. Do you think other states should follow suit? Why or why not?’ Well, if I was Miss California, with half a brain, I would have said, ‘hmm…Perez, that’s a great question! That’s a very hot topic in our country right now, and I think that that is a question that each state should decide for themselves, because that’s how our forefathers designed our government, you know. The states rule themselves, and then there’s certain laws which are federal.’ She could have said something along those lines, but she didn’t! She gave an awful, awful answer which alienated so many people, and Miss California – Miss USA – she doesn’t alienate, she unites! She inspires! I am so disappointed in Miss California representing my country, not because she doesn’t believe in gay marriage, but because she doesn’t inspire and she doesn’t unite! And that is what a Miss California and a Miss USA should. And I could not believe when she became first runner up! If that girl would have won Miss USA – California – I would have gone up on stage – I s**t you not – I would have gone up on stage, snatched that tiara off her head and run out the door. And then I probably would have been arrested, but you know what? So be it! Ooooh! Thank goodness Miss South Carolina won – or North Carolina – whichever one won, because she deserved it so much more! Okay…I need a cocktail now.”

In a subsequent appearance on NBC’s Today Show, the lovely and gracious Mr. Hilton went on to further elaborate on his open-minded, inclusive philosophy of kindness and tolerance: “I personally would have appreciated it, had she left her politics and her religion out, because Miss USA represents all Americans. I think I gave her the easy way out. She could have answered that question so many different ways. She could have said, ‘Well, I wanna leave my politics out of the question and I think that it’s important for the states to make those decisions for themselves, and I think that would have been a better answer than the one that she gave, because the answer she gave alienated myself, millions of gays and lesbians, their friends, their family, their coworkers, and their supporters. And Miss USA is not a person that’s alienating. Miss USA is not a person that’s politically incorrect! Miss USA is someone who represents me, who represents all America and is inclusive.”

After pausing for a moment of intermission to digest those bits of brilliance and purge any thoughts of Perez Hilton as Miss California from our temporarily scarred minds, we are well served to consider a question of our own:

Throughout this incident and the firestorm of controversy that followed, Carrie Prejean’s position was painted as suspiciously defensive in most Statist media presentations, while the Perez Hilton position was generally treated as normative and therefore worthy of less scrutiny or criticism than Miss Prejean’s. Why is this so?

The answer to this question as well as many related issues swirling about the perpetual conspiracy to assassinate Sarah Palin are found in the very nature and identity of the counter-Christian culture in which we live. In an America teetering on the brink of a shift from post-Christian to anti-Christian state, the Secular Inquisition has begun.

While Carrie Prejean’s tepid, defensive, limp-wristed (and she didn’t even get points for that), ever-so polite response to Perez Hilton’s question did indeed cost her the title of Miss USA, it also managed to reap a wealth of useful information.  However flamboyant a representative of contemporary American leftism Mr. Hilton may be, his views are largely representative of the hyper-relativistic brand of secular humanism that currently dictates the course and rate of decline for our culture. Sadly, Hilton’s is the favored position, at least from the perspective of the secular forces driving our nation. This makes the Prejean/Hilton exchange worthy of further consideration.

I’d like to begin this examination by offering a list of post-Christian American truths made plain through Perez Hilton’s response to Carrie Prejean:

  1. Biblically submissive Christians cannot represent America. “All of America” includes ridiculous living caricatures of homosexuality; it does not include biblically submissive Christians.
  2. Biblically submissive Christians can be excluded in the name of inclusiveness. Put another way, alienating Christians is perfectly acceptable for the simple reason that they are perceived to alienate others.
  3. Political expression is reserved exclusively for those expressing politically correct views.
  4. Religious expressions, if they must be made at all, are allowed only insofar as they conform completely to anti-Christian standards, thus rendering the Christian silent.
  5. Political and religious questions, when asked of a Christian by an anti-Christian, cannot be answered honestly or accurately, as the Christian response must universally conform to anti-Christian standards and is therefore impossible. In this light, anti-Christians really do not ask Christians questions at all – they merely use a question format to inform the Christian of truth from and anti-Christian perspective. It’s kind of like a satanic twist on Jeopardy!
  6. So complete is the subjugation of the liberal lemming’s mind that they are literally incapable of noticing their own flagrantly religious and political expressions as anything but the completely benign norm for all of humanity. They literally do not realize that their opinion is an opinion. As William F. Buckley, Jr. put it, “Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”
  7. Expressing an anti-Christian opinion in the promotion of tolerance, acceptance and unity is a natural and good thing, while expressing a Christian opinion on the same matter is almost always an open violation of goodness and decency at every level.
  8. Perez and Paris Hilton are of roughly equal value to western civilization.

There are many more useful points that could be listed, to be sure, but the true nature of the new American thought police is revealed clearly enough by these alone. In a nutshell: Bible believing Christians are, by definition, wrong and must be silent. This is the guiding principle of the Secular Inquisition.

This movement has been underway in America for some time now. It continues to gather steam, having moved beyond its base of Statist media support and into the deeper fabric of the culture, primarily through the public education system. Its goal is, for now, the silence and suppression of Christian thought. As such, every Common Believer is a threat and legitimate target of the Secular Inquisition.

Any public expression of distinctly Christian thought must be met. It must be countered. It must be crushed.

And soon, it must be banned.

There are those who would say that the above contention paints an over-dramatic picture, that the author here is presenting a skewed take on reality for the sake of promoting alarm and implying the existence of an evil conspiracy against liberty where in reality there is no such thing to be found. To these critics we need only reply with a simple point north…to Canada, where the Liberal Inquisition has been at work for just a little bit longer…

On April 29th, 2004, Canada’s governor general signed into law a measure that criminalized public expression in opposition to homosexual behavior, officially categorizing some orthodox Christian beliefs, when verbalized publically, as “hate speech”.

Welcome to the hopey, changey world of tolerance and inclusiveness, Perez Hilton style.

Dr. Albert Mohler Jr. addressed this seismic legal and cultural shift in an opinion piece titled The End of Religious Liberty in Canada:

“It’s all over but the funeral. Free speech and religious liberty are now effectively dead in Canada, and recent developments across our northern border should awaken Americans to the peril of political correctness and its restrictions on freedom.

On April 28, the Canadian Senate passed bill C-250 by a vote of 59 to 11. In passing this legislation, the Canadian Parliament added “sexual orientation” to the nation’s laws criminalizing “hate speech.” The end result is that the Bible may now be considered a form of criminalized hate literature and Christians who teach that homosexuality is sinful may face criminal charges.”

This reality is worthy of our pause and careful consideration. The categorization of biblical content as hate speech deserving of punishment constitutes state-sponsored persecution of Christians. This is what Canada has become. This is what America is becoming.

Dr. Mohler concluded his warning to Christendom with the following:

“The pattern of criminalizing speech about homosexuals is spreading across liberal societies. In Sweden, pastors are explicitly warned that any sermons critical of homosexuality can lead to criminal charges. The same logic is spreading through the courts and legislatures of many European countries–and now has jumped the Atlantic to Canada.

The truly threatening character of the Canadian legislation is further demonstrated in the fact that police do not have to charge persons with breaking a law. Any Canadian citizen can file a complaint against any other citizen, resulting in charges. At that point, the defendant is simply left to the dangerous whims of the liberal judiciary and governmental human rights commissions. The potential legal costs would alone intimidate some persons from talking about homosexuality.

The most important part of the newly-revised criminal code reads: “Every one who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, willfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty of . . . an indictable offense and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.”

During a recent debate, the Canadian attorney general refused to comment on whether or not the Bible is, in itself, hate speech. That matter, we are now warned, will be left for the courts to determine.

We are fooling ourselves if we believe this threat to religious liberty will stay on the Canadian side of the border. This same logic is already accepted by many law professors and judges in the United States. The passage of C-250 is a warning to us all. When free speech is denied and the preachers are told what they can and cannot say, religious liberty is effectively dead.”

Man has spoken. The spirit of the “progressive” left has spoken. The Canadian thought police have spoken: God’s perfect Word on homosexuality is evil and its public proclamation can therefore result in punishment by law.

Liberal fascism is on the march on both sides of the US/Canadian border. The Liberal Inquisition is hardly confined by national boundaries. It is a global ideology simultaneously consumed and fueled by its overt hatred of truth and its author. The thought police are on a mission. As they march forward, they aim for nothing less than the total subjugation of our nation to their politically correct code…one suppressed individual at a time.

So as we wonder what the American branch of the Liberal Inquisition might have in mind for us, we need only look North.

And then there are the Secular Conservative allies of the Inquisition , faithfully (though often unknowingly) guarding the Liberals’ flank…while usually claiming to oppose them, of course…

What will this Conservative wing of the Secular Inquisition do to distract and confuse the professing Christians who find its practical, pragmatic appeals so very tempting?

More man-centered “solutions”?

More concessions to the “inevitability” of Socialism in practice as massive State-empowering programs like Social Security, Medicare, and the State-controlled “education” of children are piled higher and higher in the “untouchable” category? More lectures and conventions and candidates proclaiming the Party Line of “how things work in the real world” while assuring us all that to actually apply God’s perfect Word in that “real world” is pure foolishness and nothing short of impossible – a foundational view that is in perfect harmony with their Liberal Inquisitor counterparts, of course?

Yes, yes, and yes again. This is definitely what we will get from here on out from Christ-dismissing “conservatives”, just as we have gotten it from them at every turn along the way to our dark and deteriorating present.

The Secular Inquisition – both its Liberal and Conservative wings, will constantly strive to paint those who dare stand for the Word in application here and now as everything from “unloving”, “unkind”, and “unreasonable” to “fanatical”, “obsessed”, and, ultimately insane.

And at the end of this road – this secular worldview driven path – we who refuse to recant and repent of our open devotion to God as He has revealed Himself in His perfect Word will be persecuted more and more intensely. This persecution will build into the ultimate, final solution to “the fanatical, obsessed Christian problem”.

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Yes, this can happen in America…and it most certainly will, so long as we allow the Secular Inquisition to define our culture and fuel the fire of an increasingly antagonistic anti-Christian worldview.

So it is all on us, Christians.

In this most challenging time, God has given us all that we need for peace, joy, prosperity and victory: the Gospel and the Great Commission.

Now the question for us is: What are we going to do?

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See also:

Problem>Reaction>Solution: Why we will beg to have our freedoms taken away and go to war forever.

The America Idol (Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Almighty State)

US raises terror threat level to “Orwellian”: Citizens line up to hand over more freedoms

Singing Sweet, Sweet Lies in the “Land of the Free” and the Home of the NSA

Why Americans don’t do repentance.

7 Empowering Truths for Politically Active Christians

Politics, Religion, and the Threat of Spontaneous Combustion

The (church built) Zombie Apocalypse is upon us…

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© 2014 Scott Alan Buss – All Rights Reserved.

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