On Your Feet or on Your Knees?
The relevant question Christians and Conservatives need to answer
“On your feet or on your knees?”
Actor Richard Jenkins poses that question to his boss in the 2007 movie “The Kingdom”, and it’s pertinent to my post today. Here’s the 2-minute clip:
For those following along with my “Fantasy Land” series of posts, I’m working on the next installment and will continue those later on.
Today, I want to highlight how many conservatives on the right and Christians particularly seem to have chosen to go out “on their knees”, and why that’s a problem.
Glossing Over the Uncomfortable Parts
For those of you of the Christian faith (and/or conservative ideology), it’s time to wake up.
Your faith and attitudes are being weaponized against you.
It’s basic game theory.
The radical, communist leftists assume that no matter what they do, you’ll forgive and forget.
So, they punch you.
Repeatedly.
And they know, that you won’t punch back. It’s “win-win” for them. Meanwhile, too many Christians have become a pacifist, on your knees version of the Gospel. We’ve taken “turn the other cheek” to mean, roll over completely.
It’s a sign that the sermon at my church this past Sunday, dealt with “righteous anger”. Speaking from the Gospel of John, the minister laid out the first clearing of the Temple, detailed in John, Chapter 2.
See, like the scene with Richard Jenkins, too many on the right, the ideological space that most Christians occupy, have chosen to focus only on one aspect of Jesus’ teachings. They either ignore, or gloss over, the parts where Jesus reacts with a righteous anger when dealing with greed and blasphemy, like when he turned over the tables of the money changers who were bastardizing his Father’s house by making it a den of sin (and profit).
They also forget that Jesus warned people not to harm or corrupt “the little ones”, as I wrote about in December 2021:
Jesus opposed those who would harm children or put themselves above God.
“But, Cal, what does that have to do with what’s going on today?
“He Gets Us”…But We Don’t Get Him
If you watch any TV at all, you’ve seen the series of “He Gets Us” commercials. I’ve seen them on news networks, during games, etc. While noble, it reinforces my basic point. They only focus on the times and situations where Jesus preached forgiveness and kindness and ignore the parts where he fights for justice or gets angry.
This makes me question who and what money is really behind these commercials. Is it more misguided Christians, the kind who host drag events at the church to be “inclusive”? Or worse, is it leftist communists pulling a psy-op on Christians and the right to preemptively get us to lay down our weapons?
Whether misguided or intentionally deceptive, via lies of omission about Biblical teaching, these commercials aim to push more Christians (and by extension, conservatives and those on the right) on their knees.
“Jesus was a refugee” = “just stop bitching about illegal immigrants and let them overwhelm services and change the electoral map”
“Jesus loved us no matter what we do” = “so just ignore that the trans agenda puts themselves above God, by claiming that he made a mistake and put them in the wrong body”.
Oh, and while we’re at it, Jesus did not have such “kind” things to say about those who would corrupt little children. The entire trans ideology right now seems to focus on euphemisms like “gender affirming care” and indoctrination into validating pre-teen kids “feelings” about their “true” gender.
This “Jesus Gets Us” campaign corrupts what he said to fit a modern agenda, and Jesus warned people against corrupting kids.
You do that, and you’d best grab something heavy and jump in the ocean, because one way or another, you’re going to be punished.
Severely.
A False Version of Faith and Forgiveness
And yet, over the last few weeks, what do we see?
Scores of Christians and conservatives on their knees.
They worry about demanding to see the manifesto or boycotting Bud Light.
“This isn’t the hill to die on!” scream so many useless, on your knees leaders, who are supposedly on our side.
We’ve got the school in Nashville fundraising…FUNDRAISING!!!... to pay for the trans shooter’s funeral who slaughtered six of their own, like they’re trying to win “Christian virtue points”. That’s not “the Christian thing to do”. It’s more “on your knees” Christianity that appeases a destructive movement and warps Biblical teachings.
They should be rejecting it and demanding that the manifesto is released to expose her motives.
Then, you’ve got Trump and other Republicans telling consumers to ease up on Anheuser-Busch for putting a man masquerading as a woman on their beer. A-B did this days after the Covenant School shooting. I question whether this is a case of poor taste, poor timing, or being tone deaf to the ramifications of glorifying the trans ideology so soon after the slaughter of three 9-year-olds and three adults, or if it’s a callousness towards their conservative, Christian customers in a blatant attempt to mock and demean them.
I’d bet it’s the latter.
Yet, we avoid asking those tough questions or confronting inconvenient, uncomfortable, or awkward realities. We practice avoidance of issues. We act like it’s tolerance or being inclusive. We conflate meekness with humility. We think being nice will stop the attacks and help us avoid persecution.
Persecution Will Come
But persecution, just like the “end” Richard Jenkins refers to in the clip, will come.
And Christianity isn’t about tolerance.
Many Christians and conservatives fold as soon as the communist left uses one of its favorite tools of persecution: name calling.
Don’t dare question the violence of the trans movement or they’ll call you a “transphobe”. Don’t dare point out that closing the border and deporting illegals likely would have stopped the Allen, Texas shooting, or they’ll label you a “racist” or “xenophobe”.
Too many Christians and people on the right cower in the face of persecution and attacks. They fall to their knees not with humility but in fear. They seem to think if they just accept the terms and the parameters of those constantly calling them names and attacking them, their political views, and their faith, that eventually, the beatings will stop.
They won’t.
Not until you’ve caved completely and lost all sense of right and wrong and morality.
They want you to accept that it’s transphobic to want the manifesto released or it’s racist to question how New York City, his family, and the justice system failed Jordan Neely and his 40+ arrests prior to his death.
On Your Feet!!
So, what to do?
For starters, stop accepting how these vile demons frame every argument. If a pre-teen suffered from anorexia, would you “affirm” them by getting them a tummy tuck and other surgeries? No. It’s still classified as more of a mental disorder than a physical one.
Ask yourself how this current trans push is any different. Ask yourself how it’s “affirming” them to mutilate the same pre-teen who questions their sex or identity.
Stop playing defense and accepting their terms and start going on offense.
It’s not “gender affirming care”. It’s mutilation. Period.
They want to make these types of events about their agenda, like “gun control”.
Just get on your feet and say “NO!!”
The issue isn’t about guns. It’s about enforcing existing laws, whether immigration laws or existing gun laws. Soft on crime policies lead to these terrible outcomes not lack of gun laws. New laws are useless if they selectively enforce them or don’t enforce them at all.
Refuse to accept their calls for more gun control and instead, insist that existing laws are enforced and criminals are punished.
No compromise until that point.
If you’re a Christian and/or a conservative troubled by what’s going on in our world, you should think about how you act and react in these situations. Are you dropping to your knees in fear of what may happen if you don’t fall into line? Or do you get on your feet and act with purpose, knowing that someday, your job and your life will end?
You need to start accepting that finality of “the end” and act accordingly. Someday, all of this will end. When it does, how do you want to go out?
On your knees?
Or on your feet?
I know which one I’m choosing.