Send in the Clowns

"Stand firm" we are told over and over. We are to "stand firm in the faith" (1 Cor 16:13) and, with God's armor, "stand firm against the schemes of the devil" (Eph 6:11-14). We are to "stand firm in the Lord" (Php 4:1; 1 Thess 3:8) and "stand firm and hold the traditions which you were taught" (2 Thess 2:15). Paul asks, "If God is for us, who is against us?" (Rom 8:31). He goes on to say, "In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us" (Rom 8:37).

Feels like big talk these days. Americans in general (you know, "the land of the free and the home of the brave") and churches in particular seem to be folding rather than standing. We're not standing firm; we're scared to death. We're scared if we're white. We're scared if we're male. We're scared if we're Christians. There ... I think I just listed the Trinity of Evil today. So we cave. We surrender. "You're right; we're the cause of all known misery in the world today." Doesn't look a lot like "stand firm." A recent public service announcement I saw urged us, among other things, to "be sure to keep your family informed about the CDC guidelines for COVID" because, clearly they change often. But it doesn't matter. We're scared ¹. "Do I need a mask? Two masks? An injection? Two? Three? Okay, just tell me how many because we are all gonna die." Doesn't sound like "stand firm" to me.

It does resemble a pattern we've liked to follow. "We've understood from the start that marriage was between a man and a woman and same-sex behavior was a sin. Oh, wait, you don't? Well, okay, then we don't either." "We believe that worship should be respectful and worshipful. Oh, you don't? Okay, neither do we." "We believe that God's Word is reliable and authoritative. Oh, hang on. Hold that thought. Nope, we're in the minority, now. Let's jettison that one, too." So instead of "stand firm," we go with "surrender often."

I'm wondering what's next. We're already the dupes of the media who tells us what to believe and we believe it. I can't imagine most American Christians will be able to stand against our new Techno-Masters. Orwell had nothing on this new thought-control society with our up-and-coming social credit system to keep our subversive thoughts (like "I serve Jesus" or "I can think for myself") under control. We're already mostly pleased with the new "Meta" concept where Zuckerberg's empire can make us all happy and whole again ... at the mere cost of freedom. If we've collapsed under the barrage of "you're white, so you're evil" (instead of the ideas of that early white supremacist, Martin Luther King Jr, who urged we judge people by their character rather than the color of their skin) and found the Dr. Fauci's of this world to be definitive even as they change their tune ... again, I suspect we'll soon arrive at the point where they can send in clowns to cow us into submission. "Oh, thank you, sir. No, we won't stand for Christ. We understand that can be offensive. Oh, yes, yes, you're right! Our Bibles tell us so (1 Cor 1:22-24). We don't want to offend. We'll stop. (Aside: You know, clowns are scary.)" And we'll call it "standing firm."
________

¹ You think we're not scared? The governor of New York has declared an emergency for the Omicron variant ... even though no cases have been detected in the U.S. and they don't think the vaccine will handle it.