March 22, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — We are engaged in a battle. It’s a battle for the very soul of humanity. It is a battle that good folks wished had never come to them, but nevertheless, it was forced upon them. When babies began to be killed in the name of “choice” and the elderly began to be killed in the name of “autonomy,” good folks knew they had to step forward and take a stand.
When the natural family structure of a mom and a dad — in which children flourish best — was assaulted in the name of “equality,” and children were told that being male or female was a personal choice in the name of “gender rights,” good folks knew that the future of their children demanded that they step forward and take a stand.
When children went to school and, instead of simply learning about reading, writing, and mathematics, they also learned through a course called sex-ed that pleasure, not babies, is the purpose for sexual activity, that every form of sexual activity is normal, and that sexual “taboos” must be overcome for the sake of sexual freedom, good folks knew that the future of humanity demanded that they step forward and take a stand.
As a writer for LifeSiteNews, I’ve seen, heard, and written about it all. I’ve seen first hand the front lines of the battle. I’ve seen the heroic sallies made by so many good folks in the fight for life, family, and culture. I’ve also seen the compromise and even devastating betrayals by those who at first seemed to be on the side of the good folks, but then proved to have their own agendas. I’ve listened to good folks as they’ve wonder how long they can hold out, how long they can continue to stand in the breach when they seem so alone and so outnumbered.
But as many good folks stepped out to take that courageous stand and say “enough is enough,” many found themselves alone and isolated. Sometimes, those who should have been their closest allies and supporters either failed to show up or, in some unexpected cases, even turned and betrayed them.
As a writer for LifeSiteNews, I’ve seen, heard, and written about it all. I’ve seen first hand the front lines of the battle. I’ve seen the heroic sallies made by so many good folks in the fight for life, family, and culture.
‘We hold on’
It is during times of compromise and betrayal from political and spiritual leaders who have left good folks stranded that I often think of a character in C.S. Lewis’ Narnia stories who exemplifies what I think it means to “hold fast” in the face of a bleak and even desperate situation.
We meet the badger Trufflehunter in the story Prince Caspian. He is a true Narnian who lives, along with all the other talking animals and dwarves, as an exile in hiding from the villainous usurper to the throne Miraz, who killed the true king and is now raising the true king’s son Caspian.
The situation for all the Old Narnians couldn’t be worse. Miraz has practically stamped them out. He has forbidden the old tales, songs, and rites in his attempt to stamp out even the memory of old Narnia. The few Old Narnians who remain survive by cunning, stealth, and with the hope that Aslan the lion, the great King of Kings, will return and set things aright.
When the Old Narnians begin to lose heart in the promises of Aslan, the good badger — whose job it is to remember the past — reminds them to be true to what’s been handed down to them, to have faith in the old songs and stories.
He is unshakable in his faith that Aslan, in one way or another, will come through for them. “Help will come,” he’s always telling his friends. The badger finds strength and courage by faithfully living according to his nature as a talking beast and according to the old true ways.
“I’m a beast, I am, and a Badger what’s more. We don’t change. We hold on,” he tells his friends at one point.
When one of the badger’s companions — who eventually becomes a Judas — challenges the veracity of the old tales and songs, he replies: “I tell you, we don’t change, we beasts…We don’t forget,” adding that he believes in the tales and songs “as firmly as I believe in Aslan [the son of the emperor over the sea] himself.”
With Christianity under siege, I as a Christian find myself taking the badger’s message to heart in our own times. I find myself paying more attention to and holding more closely in my heart the old Christian stories, songs, and beliefs in the face of so many forces opposing them and trying to stamp them out.
What faithful Christian is not alarmed upon seeing their brothers and sisters jailed or fined for refusing to bake a cake or sell flowers or sign a register because they did not support the lie of “equality?” What faithful Christian does not experience fear upon seeing a tyrannical government ruthlessly forcing their brothers and sisters to pay for chemicals that prevent new life and for practices that kill new life? What Christian is not appalled to see this same government, the most powerful in the world, being the monetary backer and even most outspoken champion of an evil organization that exists to exterminate babies in their mothers’ wombs?
What discerning Christian can hear the “climate change” alarmism coming from the most powerful politicians and spiritual leaders and see as well the great evil that is shaping up to be unleashed upon the world in the name of “sustainable development” and not perceive that a deception of great magnitude has swept over countless souls?
Our times are fraught with evil. True and faithful Christians are being assaulted on every side. There seems to have arisen a secular will to stamp them, and the memory of them, completely out. The Church, following the footsteps of Jesus, seems to be entering its own “passion” of suffering and death where truth has suddenly become negotiable, where political expediency trumps real justice, and where it appears as if God has forsaken his own.
‘Help will come’
In such dark troubling times, I think of my literary friend the badger. Like him, we Christians must “hold on” to the old ways, the old songs, the old truths. We must teach our children to do the same. We must have faith that “help will come,” whether it be in the form of likeminded friends encouraging us to stay true, or in the form of God’s grace to help us stay true to our faith in the face of great opposition, even if that opposition wants to send us to our death because of our beliefs.
We are one of the few news services on the web where our stories are written from the only perspective that, in the end, really matters, namely from the perspective of the beauty and goodness of life, family, faith, and freedom and how all these are being undermined by the most insidious of enemies.
As Christians, we are people of hope, because we know that no matter what, Jesus has already won the victory by his death and resurrection. He has conquered death. He has overpowered Satan. He has proved that love is stronger than hate, truth more powerful than any hidden agenda, and that God is ultimately in control of the situation, bringing even a greater good out of evil. In our times of confusion, deception, betrayal, Christians must “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23).
We must be like Trufflehunter the badger. We must hold on to the memory of our past. We must hold fast to the truth we have received. We must take a stand, no matter what the odds are of success. We must never give up. We must never surrender.
We at LifeSiteNews, like the good old Narnians, “don’t change. We hold on.”
LifeSiteNews exists to keep alive the old stories, the old truths, the old ways. We write to keep alive the memory of the truth entrusted to humanity, both from the book of nature and the book of revelation.
We are one of the few news services on the web where our stories are written from the only perspective that, in the end, really matters, namely from the perspective of the beauty and goodness of life, family, faith, and freedom and how all these are being undermined by the most insidious of enemies. In writing from this perspective, we empower others to join in the battle, to take a stand, and to say “enough is enough.” By writing from this perspective, we expose the enemy’s plans for the evil that they are, and by bringing such evil to the light, at times we even manage to frustrate these plans. But we cannot fight this battle alone.
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May this holy season be a time of blessings on you and your loved ones.