http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/12/19/duck-dynasty-bible-religion-palin-robertson-column/4124181/A&E fowls up 'Duck' flap: Column
Steve Deace 11:45 a.m. EST December 19, 2013
The 'tolerance' society demands from Christians really is silent compliance.A nation founded by pilgrims who came here to worship the God of the Bible freely without interference and persecution from ruling elites and those opposed to Christianity's influence on the culture, has now come to the proverbial fork in the road. After years of attempting to balance traditional Americana with political correctness, those pushing the new "my way or the highway" definition of "tolerance" have decided accommodating our differences of opinion is defeat.
Irrefutable history documents that the Bible and its teachings were the biggest influence on those that founded the freest and most prosperous nation in human history. Yet nowadays if you believe that same Bible is true you will either silence your beliefs, or you will be silenced. Just ask Phil Robertson, one of the stars of Duck Dynasty, among the most successful shows on TV.
In an interview with GQ, Robertson plainly repeated simple truths that are fundamental to western civilization — the Bible calls all sexual activity outside of holy matrimony sin and immoral, and it's natural for a man to be attracted to a woman. You know, the birds and the bees.
For that, the tolerance mob demanded his head on a platter, and the wannabe King Herods that work at A&E, the network that made untold millions off of Robertson's enormous popularity, gladly obliged. When we have now come to the point that pop culture would rather bow at the altar of rabid political correctness than make a profit, then we have reached a point of no return as a people.
Especially in an era when government believes it has the power to compel a Christian baker to make wedding cakes for homosexuals, compel a Christian photographer to photograph a homosexual union in a state that doesn't even recognize them, and tell a Christian company it has to provide birth control to its employees in violation of its owners moral conscience. We have reached the point where government believes it gets to play God.Let the record show which side of this debate is pushing their agenda on everyone else, and using the coercive force of government and bullying tactics in the media and pop culture to do so. It is not the Christians. The sad truth is most American Christians would prefer to leave people in their sin provided Christians are left alone in turn.
For Christians, that is total disobedience to the Gospel. That's why the culture is at this point in the first place. The American Church has too often been plagued by scandal, or has scandalously pursued money and fame more than the healing of a lost and broken world.
However, the message of Christmas is that God was not content to leave the world drowning in its sins, so He gave us His Son born humbly in a manger to become "God with us." And that "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that through him the world may be saved."
Yet those preaching the new tolerance of unconditional surrender and nothing less are dragging Christians who don't have the courage of Phil Robertson kicking and screaming into the debate. They're also demanding those of a more libertarian or "live and let live" mindset choose a side when they would rather abstain, for neutrality is no longer an option. This is a movement that would like to change our national motto from "in God we trust" to "you will be made to care."
Back to that proverbial fork in the road. One sign says "liberty." The other sign says "political correctness." Every individual American and every American institution will have to choose one or the other. We can no longer have both, and the truth is we really never could. It was always going to end this way, we just didn't want to believe it.
Steve Deace is a syndicated radio host. You can follow him on Twitter @SteveDeaceShow.
