Let’s take a look at one brave conservative, former cartoonist for The Australian newspaper, Bill Leak. This man, born in Adelaide, SA on 9th January, 1956; died in Gosford, NSW on 10th March, 2017, was virtually hounded to the death by the PC leftist bureaucracy. His book, “Trigger Warning” (1), is a great legacy of his talent and ideas for everyone, especially for political conservatives. Judging by the eulogies given by his sons at Trigger Warning’s launch, he was a great, supportive dad and judging by his work, he was a talented artist, truth-lover and man of courage. His depictions of those he was caricaturing picked up their essence resulting in immediate recognition. His captions were well-articulated, immediately resonating and funny. He was an artist with insight, bold courage and a strong and well-functioning moral compass – a true conservative. We conservatives miss you Bill Leak! You were a bold, courageous and talented truth-teller – a man for our times.
God continues to provide truth and leadership in our contemporary world by using the service of Christians so God’s “will (continues to) be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Thank God for them all. I also thank God for those outside of the Church with a clear moral compass. These mysteries I do not understand but I continue to be concerned about some fundamentally wrong ideas that leftists in the Church promulgate. I hold to the title of ‘Christian conservative’. The opposite of a conservative is a ‘progressive’, also known as a leftie, leftist, radical or liberal with a lowercase ‘l’, not to be confused with ‘L’ for Liberal. The term, ‘liberal’, is often used by Americans to refer to a ‘progressive’.
Australia’s Liberal Party and National Party comfortably house conservatives within their parties although there is variation along the left/right continuum in both. Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, with its stance against multiculturalism, but not multi-ethnicity, (the two are very different), is a welcome participant in our political system. One Nation is for the upholding of Australia’s long-held values and expects immigrants to abide by our laws, not theirs. Thus, no Sharia law, no halal taxes. Pauline Hanson had been a brave conservative in this area for many years.
Progressives believe in what they think is ‘progress’ for the culture. They are forever pressing towards some utopian goal, a goal set by them and which is often obfuscated from the general public. This goal is essentially Marxist. We don’t see God in this picture because God gets in the way of the self-made image of humanity becoming god. This progressive paradigm is the default in the West today. This is why we are seeing widespread, wild protest at conservative events around the world. Unfortunately, many in today’s Church are also under the influence of this progressive paradigm, although the expression of progressivist ideas is usually different in Christians from those outside of Christian belief. The aim of progressivism is to establish a different moral, ethical and religious order to that of Christianity. The new religion is the religion of man, or human, as the self-governing, autonomous being, the one to be worshipped and obeyed. Anything, including any other religion, getting in the way of this goal needs to be expunged. The religious expressions of progressivism/Marxism include multiculturalism, feminism, outrage at manufactured racism and the encouragement of alternative sexual and other identities. Marxists have their own inherent ethical systems, totally foreign to Christian belief, and use these anti-Christian sub-groups to further themselves as a new political norm in our culture. Just as in 1917 with the Russian Revolution, workers were the pawns of Marxism to upset the existing order.
The left is happy with the current trend. The Church should not stand back and wait for the world’s decisions then somehow try to speak into that monstrous world. It needs to resist the trends, knowing that in so doing, it will make people more aware of the brainwashing they are undergoing in every sphere of human activity. The Church also needs to demonstrate that it is different from the world in fundamental ways. In this is love, that we bother to inform and try to steer the culture away from destructive forces that it is often oblivious to. There are many in the world who question at a deep, subterranean level but find the new status quo too compelling to resist because of the force of assenting voices. Some in the Church and outside of it have stood up against proposals to change our laws towards a progressive agenda. And they continue to stand up against these. But others in the Church see those who stand up as salt and light amidst a world that wants to expunge God from the once-Christian West, as Christian conservatives who have a sentimental attachment to a bygone era. This is a very mistaken view. At much personal cost, Christians who stand up as different from the culture in which they find themselves are entering a battle with the forces that would hate and oppose God Himself, for God gave us His moral law for our good. God’s laws hold metaphysical meaning. This is why it is a grave error for Christians to mock the efforts of conservatives to oppose their culture, and to mock conservative-leaning, duly elected representatives. We vote this way and do these things for our good, our progeny’s good and for the wider society’s good, if only they knew it. We are far from fighting for peripheral things that have nothing to do with the gospel. These laws that would defy God’s intention for His creatures on earth are taking people further and further from God. These laws harm people and insult God.
Jesus came into the world to die for the sins of the world that whoever believes in Him may gain eternal life. We make it very difficult for people to come to faith in God from a background of moral chaos. We also invite social chaos into our society and troubles to individuals who walk down the paths of darkness deemed to be healthy and good by pagans. I believe that what we do has a bearing on, and influences, what humans will believe in. The morality we beckon and allow are not disconnected from people’s attraction to, or repulsion from, God. The people we conservatives elect to government are not seen as gods but are acknowledged as fallen creatures, like all of us, but who are our best hope for a future that is shaped in God’s image rather than man’s. Much in current law is far from arbitrary. Traditional Western laws reveal the heart of God towards human beings. For example, by forbidding murder, God is protecting all people. Yes, individual circumstances come into the equation of justice in these matters but as a wide-sweeping rule, the West has not abided murder or torture or injustice. It does not abide unfairness by one human being towards another.
The homosexual marriage argument sees traditional Western law as treating homosexuals unfairly. But Christianity views homosexuality as an affront to God and His desire for a true expression of human sexuality. I have known some homosexual people whom I like while other homosexuals fit the stereotype of being unbelievably difficult. So, as with other human beings, they can’t all be categorised as one thing and yet they all have this in common – they are defying God’s best for them, choosing to not believe God but rather their own judgement. This is like Adam and Eve’s first sin where they disbelieved God’s command to them, opening the way for Satan and death to take up power over life on Earth. They do not understand that ‘They Have Pulled Down Deep Heaven On Their Heads’ (2). Real people are suffering under these laws and God is being mocked. For example, suicide is on the rise since we passed into law homosexual marriage. Babies are being horrifically torn from their mothers’ wombs through abortion. Drugs are a growing menace in our world for lack of meaning and truth. Help can’t reach aborigines in remote areas because of cries of ‘racism’ whenever wise policy directions are sought for those suffering.
Fallen Israel was to be a beacon to the nations, showing another way to the nations round about them, not as a self-righteous measure, but as a way of providing leadership to pagans. It is because God cared for these other nations that He provided Israel to be a beacon – not to show itself off, as if that would work. No, it was so that they would show a better way and there was an open invitation for anyone who wanted to, to join the nation of Israel. We know this from God’s commandments to Israel concerning their care of the stranger in their midst*. But God’s people failed. The ancient divided kingdom of God’s people comprised Judah (the southern kingdom) and Israel (the northern kingdom). They ignored God’s instructions to them and disobeyed God’s two central commands; to love God and neighbour. They disobeyed God’s precepts and instead copied the nations round about them. They were thus guilty of idolatry, and the injustice and lack of mercy which flow from idolatry.
As ancient Israel was punished for its abandonment of God, truth and real justice, so He will punish us. For Israel’s grave departure from Him, again and again, with the truth-tellers (prophets) being killed rather than Israel heeding their message, Israel and Judah were deported to other lands. Yet God was merciful in His preparation of those rulers to whose lands they would be deported. And God did restore Israel to their land one more time with yet one more fall of Israel in 70 AD with yet one more wonderful restoration to their own land in 1948.
Leftist Christians are focused on all the wrong things – appeasement and copying of the left. As Israel was to be a beacon to the nations, the Church is called to be salt and light to the world, including the Marxist, leftist world, otherwise God will remove our lamp stand, meaning ‘Church’. Why would anyone bother attending Church when what they get there is world-lite? I am not referring to all Churches, nor to a wholesale selling out of these Churches. Christians need to understand that Church exists as an alternative to the world; we have another understanding, another way. We believe in a distinctive God. We, the Church, would do well to heed these powerful two passages of Scripture, the first of which was initially addressed to the Ephesian Church, but which applies equally to today’s Church –
Revelation 2:4-5 (ESV) 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
Revelation 21:8 (ESV) 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Footnote
*I am not inferring here that contemporary immigration policy should be based upon open borders. In Old Testament times, immigration to a country would not have come saddled with what the West values today – multiculturalism. If someone wanted to join Israel, they knew they were going to a nation that was under God (the one God of the Bible) and that they were forsaking the pagan world from which they came. The newcomer adhered to the laws of its host country, they didn’t barge in and demand new laws that conflicted with the laws of Israel.
References
- Leak, B 2017. Trigger Warning, Wilkinson Publishing, Melbourne
- Lewis, C S 1945. That Hideous Strength, HarperCollins e-books
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