The Federalist ran an interesting article introducing Kirk Cameron’s new children’s book, Pride Comes Before the Fall. This is an excerpt (minus a couple of headers which I removed for ease of reading):
“America’s raging culture war drives home the importance of finding this courage — because when Christian conservatives find their voice and speak up in defense of children and truth, they effect change.
For proof, Talbot says just look at Target and Bud Light. “I think that Christian conservative parents and grandparents are starting to wake up to the fact that they have real power in our culture,” Talbot added. “It may seem like we don’t have any power or influence, but we do.”
America’s cultural confusion about pride isn’t limited to LGBT activism, of course, but pride month reminds us there’s no escaping the 21st-century culture war.
Yet some Christians try. They shy away from cultural battles of great spiritual consequence (or even cave to anti-Christian mobs) because they identify right-wing culture war champions as “proud,” and thus consider Christians who take up the same causes as morally bankrupt. This self-righteousness reeks of pride too.
So what are faithful Christians to do? Cameron urges believers to remember the perfectly humble God-Man they’re following — but also to be honest about the fact that Jesus was “very outspoken about moral issues.”
“The reason we’re in this mess is because Christians have lost their courage to speak the truth in love. So don’t put your eyes on the culture warrior who has stepped into pride land. Put your eyes on Jesus, the most humble man in the world,” Cameron told The Federalist, leaning into Jesus’ divine contrast. “He’s the one who said things like, ‘You brood of vipers!’ … ‘You ravenous wolves,’ ‘You blind guides.’”
Then Cameron practiced exactly what he preached about Jesus’ outspokenness with a blunt warning:
If you’re not in the fight to preserve a good and healthy future for our children, you’re worse than an unbeliever because this is your sacred duty: to love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. If you’re out of the culture war, then that’s not loving. You’re being complicit to the evil. All that evil needs to advance is good men to do nothing, so get involved. Be brave. Get a backbone. And follow the most humble man in the world. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
We have to fight the battle right in front of us and in the way that God has made each of us. Speaking the truth in love is never easy. John the Baptist lost his head because he did this. There is a time to speak up and a time for
silence. Only the Holy Spirit can help us be discerning and give us the courage to act when we need to do so.
The book seems like a good one for this cultural moment. Ultimately, it is in reading and absorbing God’s word that helps us see the truth, which curbs our pride. It helps us see we can only boast in Christ.
I also love the rainbow, and I have thought that one way of differentiating it from the current culture is to pair it with Noah’s ark—two by two he brought them in, male and female. That is a definitive statement that may indeed open up opportunities to witness. I think we would be surprised to know how biblically illiterate most people are, and that could be an opportunity to redeem the symbol from the hands of the enemy and the people who don’t even know they are being used by him.
Re: “. . . Cameron told The Federalist, leaning into Jesus’ divine contrast. “He’s the one who said things like, ‘You brood of vipers!’ … ‘You ravenous wolves,’ ‘You blind guides.’”
Jesus aimed those words at the religious leaders, not the unbelievers around him. Some may find those or similar words applicable to certain groups in our culture, but I hope that they would not aim them at individuals.
JUST IN: After signing a bill banning height and weight discrimination in NYC, Mayor Eric Adams tells a reporter that, "Body type is not a connection to whether you're healthy or unhealthy." pic.twitter.com/Uh9zjq4Dbb
REVEALED: Disgraced former Biden official Sam Brinton was member of "drag nun" group promoted by LA Dodgershttps://t.co/Rskr8qwlgO
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) May 26, 2023
Sam Brinton is a member of the anti catholic nuns who will be honored by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yes, it’s gross but on the plus side the Dodgers finally got a guy who can steal.
Yes. accept the perversion and grooming of children, or find another job.
“You still have to do it to do this job” “This isn’t for everyone”@Target Kiera Fernandez (Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer and VP of HR) tells all of the Target employees to accept DEI or find a new place to work. pic.twitter.com/13P6FuyvmC
Utterly shameless: Ron DeSantis is lashing out at the media for reporting on the removal of the Amanda Gorman book, calling it a "poem hoax." Again, *one single objector* got this poem removed, simply by slapping the label "hate" on it. Just preposterous:https://t.co/eFHkNuEgf4
Again, you do NOT do any research. The book was moved from one shelf to another in the same library – and is still available to ALL students at the school. The establishment media and you want to believe this so badly you still push it after it has been completely proven false.
— Charlie Johnston (@JohnstonPilgrim) May 27, 2023
Greg, the only thing utterly shameless is you still trying to push this lie.
Sinclair Ferguson on Christians living amid a hostile culture (which is the norm):
~ … One of the things I would say to people is, please read through the New Testament, moving from the Gospels and also to the letters. You will find in the New Testament a phenomenal amount of instruction about how to live in a world that’s antagonistic to the gospel.
If you think about it, the New Testament world was a pre-Christian world. We are now living—certainly in the United Kingdom, we are really living in a post-Christian world. People get angry when you speak about Christ and the gospel. It’s very similar and, therefore, in a way we’re really living in parallel times to the New Testament. And there’s a lot of counsel in the New Testament about how you live your life in a world like this.
First Peter is a great illustration of that. A friend who had been a servant of the Lord in a country that was very hostile to the gospel recently told me that Christians there found 1 Peter was the book that spoke to them in a very special way. The other book I would really encourage people to get to know is the book of Proverbs. Because the book of Proverbs is full of wisdom about how you negotiate living a godly life in an ungodly world. … ~
Amanda Gorman’s book did not get moved because it wasn’t age appropriate, it was moved because someone called it hate speech. That’s the issue. It’s true, in terms of vocabulary, it’s a middle school book. However,when you move a book from the general shelf to the middle school shelf it tells the primary teachers not only not to check it out for their students but also not to check it for a class read aloud.
One person called it hate speech and the school moved it. I would say it is cancel culture at its finest.
Divesity training is the norm in any major corporation. Most employees sleep through it. Corporations do it to avoid litigation especially if racial, class, and gender becomes an employment issue. Making this type of training mandatory lowers corporate responsibility. Republicans who complain must remember it’s their party that weakened labour rights since the 1980s. Unintentional blowback.
I remember diversity training, we had to go through that some years ago, but more focused (I think) on sexual harassment issues. Seemed like a waste of time to me as much of it was just common sense and knowing how to behave as adults, but there you go.
One person called it hate speech and the school moved it. I would say it is cancel culture at its finest.
Well that’s has been happening for some time. I recall a certain lady ..Madelyn O’Hair complains about the Bible and prayer in school…then proof it’s gone!
Next up will be Christian’s quoting scripture that goes against the grain of those opposed…hate speech…oh wait that is already happening… cancel culture indeed!!
Oh, yes, NJ, and I recall no one felt sorry for the children whose parents had them excluded from certain things. No one bent over backwards to make sure they could be included.
Two steps forward and one step back–just like in the book of Judges–merrily moving away from God’s will. No, we are not a theocracy, nevertheless, Christians are called to be both light and salt.
Of course, I did request a book be removed in my child’s library years ago. I was alerted to it by my third-grade child. All the kids were passing it around. I went to the principal, who sent me to the librarian. I was surprised because, she had actually worked at the same store as I did years earlier. The store was over an hour away. She had children just a bit younger than mine. She called me that the book was, indeed, terrible for young children and did shelf it for the higher grades. Actually, the book was a waste of time and money, not to mention disgusting. However, I had ordered books for church libraries and know how difficult it can be to assess whether or not a book is good. All this was handled quietly and with good will to all.
There are thousands of books published every year. Why waste money on garbage? I realize we all have different opinions, but some books are just obviously better than others for school settings and age groups. The fact that the opponents of removing some books, cannot even share that content with adults, should tell us something.
I’m not sure people would like prayer in public school again. When I first started teaching some schools still said the Lord’s Prayer over the intercom during the morning announcements. Nobody listened to it – better to pray quietly and respectfully or not at all. I sometimes wonder if playing the national anthem every day sends the same message – its routine and kids just ignore it. Besides in both school prayer and anthem, Jehovah’s Witness kids would step out and remain seated. You exclude or include depending on what you do.
I understand age-appropriateness in terms of content but this was just vocabulary. Amanda Gorman’s poem was appropriate for all ages just primary wouldn’t be able to read and understand. Not to mention, the parent found the poem “indirectly racist” – which is just bizarre.
Just realized it was Memorial weekend. We had Victoria Day last weekend; celebrating the birthday of a long dead queen. Strangely its only celebrated in Canada.
Wandering Views 
The Federalist ran an interesting article introducing Kirk Cameron’s new children’s book, Pride Comes Before the Fall. This is an excerpt (minus a couple of headers which I removed for ease of reading):
“America’s raging culture war drives home the importance of finding this courage — because when Christian conservatives find their voice and speak up in defense of children and truth, they effect change.
For proof, Talbot says just look at Target and Bud Light. “I think that Christian conservative parents and grandparents are starting to wake up to the fact that they have real power in our culture,” Talbot added. “It may seem like we don’t have any power or influence, but we do.”
America’s cultural confusion about pride isn’t limited to LGBT activism, of course, but pride month reminds us there’s no escaping the 21st-century culture war.
Yet some Christians try. They shy away from cultural battles of great spiritual consequence (or even cave to anti-Christian mobs) because they identify right-wing culture war champions as “proud,” and thus consider Christians who take up the same causes as morally bankrupt. This self-righteousness reeks of pride too.
So what are faithful Christians to do? Cameron urges believers to remember the perfectly humble God-Man they’re following — but also to be honest about the fact that Jesus was “very outspoken about moral issues.”
“The reason we’re in this mess is because Christians have lost their courage to speak the truth in love. So don’t put your eyes on the culture warrior who has stepped into pride land. Put your eyes on Jesus, the most humble man in the world,” Cameron told The Federalist, leaning into Jesus’ divine contrast. “He’s the one who said things like, ‘You brood of vipers!’ … ‘You ravenous wolves,’ ‘You blind guides.’”
Then Cameron practiced exactly what he preached about Jesus’ outspokenness with a blunt warning:
If you’re not in the fight to preserve a good and healthy future for our children, you’re worse than an unbeliever because this is your sacred duty: to love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. If you’re out of the culture war, then that’s not loving. You’re being complicit to the evil. All that evil needs to advance is good men to do nothing, so get involved. Be brave. Get a backbone. And follow the most humble man in the world. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
https://thefederalist.com/2023/05/26/kirk-cameron-releases-new-kind-of-pride-book-just-in-time-for-lgbt-narcissism-month/
LikeLiked by 3 people
We have to fight the battle right in front of us and in the way that God has made each of us. Speaking the truth in love is never easy. John the Baptist lost his head because he did this. There is a time to speak up and a time for
silence. Only the Holy Spirit can help us be discerning and give us the courage to act when we need to do so.
The book seems like a good one for this cultural moment. Ultimately, it is in reading and absorbing God’s word that helps us see the truth, which curbs our pride. It helps us see we can only boast in Christ.
LikeLiked by 5 people
I will not surrender the rainbow to the enemy.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I also love the rainbow, and I have thought that one way of differentiating it from the current culture is to pair it with Noah’s ark—two by two he brought them in, male and female. That is a definitive statement that may indeed open up opportunities to witness. I think we would be surprised to know how biblically illiterate most people are, and that could be an opportunity to redeem the symbol from the hands of the enemy and the people who don’t even know they are being used by him.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Re: “. . . Cameron told The Federalist, leaning into Jesus’ divine contrast. “He’s the one who said things like, ‘You brood of vipers!’ … ‘You ravenous wolves,’ ‘You blind guides.’”
Jesus aimed those words at the religious leaders, not the unbelievers around him. Some may find those or similar words applicable to certain groups in our culture, but I hope that they would not aim them at individuals.
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I would not say that HRW was being disingenuous in what he wrote about rainbows on clothes. Not everyone sees the matter in the same way.
It really should be fine to have rainbows on children’s clothing, but yeah, these days it is seen as more than merely cute rainbows.
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The rainbow has seven colors.
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I like to put a handful of M&Ms or jelly beans in rainbow order. 🙂
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Follow the science!
Oh wait….
My doctor would beg to differ.
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Oh look….
Pervs of a feather flock together….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes. accept the perversion and grooming of children, or find another job.
https://twitter.com/CooperGMacBride/status/1662176067451224066?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1662176067451224066%7Ctwgr%5E341d20bb005102e63d4df3f851fefa111cfbd429%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fsamj-3930%2F2023%2F05%2F26%2Ftargets-chief-diversity-and-inclusion-officer-tells-employees-to-accept-dei-or-find-a-new-job-watch%2F
LikeLiked by 1 person
More fake news from WaPo.
Reality, it was simply moved to an age appropriate library.
https://twitter.com/juliequan_tngop/status/1662413438063091718?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1662413438063091718%7Ctwgr%5E568e6e8913ef06a47032d0c19152529c9ee1eb83%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fbrettt-3136%2F2023%2F05%2F27%2Fwapo-columnist-calls-ron-desantis-utterly-shameless-for-calling-out-poem-hoax%2F
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sinclair Ferguson on Christians living amid a hostile culture (which is the norm):
~ … One of the things I would say to people is, please read through the New Testament, moving from the Gospels and also to the letters. You will find in the New Testament a phenomenal amount of instruction about how to live in a world that’s antagonistic to the gospel.
If you think about it, the New Testament world was a pre-Christian world. We are now living—certainly in the United Kingdom, we are really living in a post-Christian world. People get angry when you speak about Christ and the gospel. It’s very similar and, therefore, in a way we’re really living in parallel times to the New Testament. And there’s a lot of counsel in the New Testament about how you live your life in a world like this.
First Peter is a great illustration of that. A friend who had been a servant of the Lord in a country that was very hostile to the gospel recently told me that Christians there found 1 Peter was the book that spoke to them in a very special way. The other book I would really encourage people to get to know is the book of Proverbs. Because the book of Proverbs is full of wisdom about how you negotiate living a godly life in an ungodly world. … ~
LikeLiked by 1 person
(me) — the link: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/qas/when-the-gospel-is-considered-offensive-and-intolerant-how-can-i-work-without-losing-my-job
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Amanda Gorman’s book did not get moved because it wasn’t age appropriate, it was moved because someone called it hate speech. That’s the issue. It’s true, in terms of vocabulary, it’s a middle school book. However,when you move a book from the general shelf to the middle school shelf it tells the primary teachers not only not to check it out for their students but also not to check it for a class read aloud.
One person called it hate speech and the school moved it. I would say it is cancel culture at its finest.
Divesity training is the norm in any major corporation. Most employees sleep through it. Corporations do it to avoid litigation especially if racial, class, and gender becomes an employment issue. Making this type of training mandatory lowers corporate responsibility. Republicans who complain must remember it’s their party that weakened labour rights since the 1980s. Unintentional blowback.
LikeLike
I remember diversity training, we had to go through that some years ago, but more focused (I think) on sexual harassment issues. Seemed like a waste of time to me as much of it was just common sense and knowing how to behave as adults, but there you go.
LikeLiked by 4 people
One person called it hate speech and the school moved it. I would say it is cancel culture at its finest.
Well that’s has been happening for some time. I recall a certain lady ..Madelyn O’Hair complains about the Bible and prayer in school…then proof it’s gone!
Next up will be Christian’s quoting scripture that goes against the grain of those opposed…hate speech…oh wait that is already happening… cancel culture indeed!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, yes, NJ, and I recall no one felt sorry for the children whose parents had them excluded from certain things. No one bent over backwards to make sure they could be included.
Two steps forward and one step back–just like in the book of Judges–merrily moving away from God’s will. No, we are not a theocracy, nevertheless, Christians are called to be both light and salt.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course, I did request a book be removed in my child’s library years ago. I was alerted to it by my third-grade child. All the kids were passing it around. I went to the principal, who sent me to the librarian. I was surprised because, she had actually worked at the same store as I did years earlier. The store was over an hour away. She had children just a bit younger than mine. She called me that the book was, indeed, terrible for young children and did shelf it for the higher grades. Actually, the book was a waste of time and money, not to mention disgusting. However, I had ordered books for church libraries and know how difficult it can be to assess whether or not a book is good. All this was handled quietly and with good will to all.
There are thousands of books published every year. Why waste money on garbage? I realize we all have different opinions, but some books are just obviously better than others for school settings and age groups. The fact that the opponents of removing some books, cannot even share that content with adults, should tell us something.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not sure people would like prayer in public school again. When I first started teaching some schools still said the Lord’s Prayer over the intercom during the morning announcements. Nobody listened to it – better to pray quietly and respectfully or not at all. I sometimes wonder if playing the national anthem every day sends the same message – its routine and kids just ignore it. Besides in both school prayer and anthem, Jehovah’s Witness kids would step out and remain seated. You exclude or include depending on what you do.
I understand age-appropriateness in terms of content but this was just vocabulary. Amanda Gorman’s poem was appropriate for all ages just primary wouldn’t be able to read and understand. Not to mention, the parent found the poem “indirectly racist” – which is just bizarre.
Just realized it was Memorial weekend. We had Victoria Day last weekend; celebrating the birthday of a long dead queen. Strangely its only celebrated in Canada.
LikeLike