An article in The Times earlier this month highlighted the extent of the culture change that is taking place in Britain today. It stated: “Good people are silenced in an Orwellian nightmare where a tyrannical minority decide what we are allowed to say”.¹

The tyrannical minority referred to in the article is not the extreme right ultranationalists; or even the Dominic Cummings regime in Number 10 that many think is becoming a Downing Street autocracy, dominating Whitehall and seeking to centralise power in Westminster. Surprise, surprise, the tyrannical minority is the new woke left, who are now even side-lining the old left-wing cultural liberals.

The Great Shaking

The great shaking of all the institutions in the nations that we have been foretelling in this magazine for many years is now hitting some remarkable sectors. But the recent controversy over JK Rowling’s common-sense comments on gender has shaken the old left: that anyone as high-profile in advocating counterculture as Rowling could be blackballed by the rising new ‘cancel culture’ seems unthinkable. The career assassination of those who were once the darlings of the left for daring to make statements upholding freedom of speech marks a new low in the development of critical culture.

Prominent authors and academics have been ‘no platformed’ and ‘dis-invited’ from giving lectures on courses to which they have contributed for years. Others have had their articles refused publication in journals to which they have contributed regularly in the past. It is an astonishing culture that we are witnessing developing in our society that is ruled by the unruly ‘new’ left, who preach tolerance but are the most intolerant of any who question their judgments.

The career assassination of those who were once the darlings of the left for daring to make statements upholding freedom of speech marks a new low in critical culture.

Cultural Anarchy

What we are witnessing today is not just a battle for freedom of speech. It is essentially a battle of cultural anarchy with no plumbline of truth, seeking to dominate the rest of society. The Prophet Jeremiah hit the nail on the head when he said: “Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, WHAT KIND OF WISDOM DO THEY HAVE?” (Jer 8:9).

Jeremiah recognised that once you reject the ultimate standard of truth you are left with nothing but a maelstrom of conflicting opinions coming from all those who raise their voices – and it is usually those who shout loudest who are heard – even though their opinions are salted with vile abuse or utter nonsense. Another quote that I’ve often used on these pages is also from Jeremiah, who complained, “Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips” (Jer 7:28).

And Isaiah was even more specific about the changes that were taking place in the nation in his day. He said, “So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honestly cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found” (Isa 59:14-15).

Denied Truth

That is a pretty accurate description of our society, not only in Britain but in most of the Western nations where our civilisation is crumbling because its foundations in the value system that was predicated upon the Bible have been slowly eroded by corruption and neglect. We now have a generation of young people, including parents of schoolchildren, who have been deliberately denied access to the ultimate source of truth from infancy. It is a whole generation ago that we stopped ensuring that every child in our state schools had some teaching on the Bible, so that at least they knew the difference between right and wrong.

We may not have been a godly nation in times when I grew up, even though most people went to church and two thirds of the nation’s children went to Sunday School – but at least people had a knowledge of basic truth and were therefore responsible for the morality of their own lives and could measure their behaviour against the norms of righteousness based upon truth.

Now we have a generation that is not only ignorant of truth, but they have not even been taught the fundamentals of righteousness in terms of human relationships, where faithfulness, loyalty and self-sacrifice are determinants that produce health and happiness.

We now have a generation of young people, including parents of schoolchildren, who have been deliberately denied access to the ultimate source of truth from infancy.

Whose Responsibility?

Christians must accept a lot of responsibility for the catastrophic culture that has been generated by our politicians. The Church has largely been silent as one piece of legislation after another has added to the mix that has driven truth from the streets of the nation and left young people with no yardstick by which to measure their words and their behaviour. Is it any wonder that knife crime and drugs dominate the culture of many young people in our inner cities today?

When will the ‘silent Church’ wake up, recognise the mess that has been created and cry out in penitence to God for forgiveness?

But instead of coming before God in penitence for our share of responsibility for the state of the nation, many of our church leaders are seeking to make the churches more ‘inclusive’ and to conform more closely to the acceptable standards of the prevailing culture. Surely, as Billy Graham once said, if God does not bring down judgment upon us, he will have to apologise to Sodom and Gomorrah.

References

1 Turner, J. The Times, Saturday 11 July 2020. Read it here.