Can Israel learn this lesson about not capitulating to intimidation?
The victory of National Trust volunteers who objected to wearing badges showing support for gay pride was as welcome as it was unexpected – given the current politically correct climate.
For those outside the UK, the National Trust is charged with looking after many of the nation’s great estates, particularly in cases where their upkeep is no longer economically viable for the original owners. Now, following an outcry to a new directive barring volunteers from public-facing duties at a Norfolk stately home if they refuse to wear the gay ‘rainbow’ symbol, over which dozens have quit, the Trust has backed down.
Unpaid staff at Felbrigg Hall had been offered behind-the-scenes roles after saying they were “uncomfortable” with the idea – part of a six-week ‘Prejudice and Pride’ event marking 50 years since the de-criminalisation of homosexuality.1
As Trust members, my wife and I were already concerned about the trend shown in their magazine to promote the homosexual legacy linked with some of their country houses, so I suppose this ‘badge of honour’ was the next inevitable step. But the Trust has tripped up, fulfilling a biblical promise that “whoever leads the upright along an evil path will fall into their own trap, but the blameless will receive a good inheritance” (Prov 28:10).
The Beginning of a Fight Back?
The BBC and other media are milking the ‘golden’ anniversary for all its worth, plaguing us with a veritable flood of gay propaganda - so much so that it seems hardly possible to find alternative viewing. Their clear agenda is to heap this new morality on millions of people, forced to pay for the ‘privilege’ with a hefty license fee.
That is bad enough, but when the national body entrusted with the immense privilege of looking after vast swathes of our magnificent cultural and historical heritage takes up the same baton, for which they have absolutely no mandate (neither does the BBC, for that matter), things have gone too far.
When the National Trust picks up the same baton as the BBC, for which neither have a mandate, things have gone too far.
The courage of the National Trust workers is to be applauded. It shows there is still a remnant of decent folk – whether Christians or not - who have decided against having their hard-fought freedoms, principles and consciences dictated to any longer. The shame is that our spineless church leaders failed to lead the way in what could be the beginning of a fight-back for a recovery of Christian standards.
Violence Closes Down Justice
Of course, it’s too early to say if a backlash has truly begun – and things could yet get worse. After all – riots, terror and intimidation seem to have successfully shut down justice in Israel, where murder and mayhem followed the killing by terrorists of two Israeli border policemen on the Temple Mount in July. These riots were not incited by Jews, whom you might have thought would have been justified in doing so, but by Palestinians.
Because of the slaying of the policemen, the Israeli Government installed metal detectors at several Temple Mount entries as an obvious safety measure – and this is what sparked the riots (said to have been inflamed by Israel’s arch-enemy Iran). To their shame, however, the Israeli authorities eventually backed off as tensions threatened to get out of control.
Bizarrely, Jews visiting the Mount – where their first and second Temples stood 2,000-plus years ago and which Muslims now claim as their own2 – are not even permitted to pray on what is their holiest site! And they do not object to metal detectors, as they have no intention of harming anyone.
The Word of God is Clear
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to caving in to mob-rule in the ongoing battle between gay rights and God’s laws in Britain.
In Hull, Yorkshire – once renowned from its predominance of evangelicals including the legendary William Wilberforce – a Church of England minister has held a special service to mark the city’s homosexual pride celebrations. The event was addressed by a transsexual activist who was born male but lives as a woman and describes himself as a lesbian.3
There is still a remnant of decent folk who have decided against having their hard-fought freedoms, principles and consciences dictated to any longer.
Meanwhile, the Emmaus Group4 have launched a series of articles highlighting what they refer to as increasing acts of sedition5 against our most holy God. “One of the biggest challenges hitting the church right now is the storm of secularism and humanism with its LGBT and transgender movements,” they said, adding: “The word of God is clear, concise and unambiguous: no sexually immoral person will have a place in the kingdom of heaven.”
Also among those denied entry to God’s eternal dwelling, they point out, are “all liars” – and they will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev 21:8). Such people “willfully pursue what is in opposition to God’s will and practice it with pride. So it should be no surprise the LGBT movements hold what they call ‘pride’ festivals…celebrating all that is abominable before God. And church leaders who advocate in favour of such iniquity will be judged more harshly.”
For the Joy Set Before Us
I nevertheless hope and pray that we have turned a corner. Ordinary, decent folk also have rights – especially to a quiet life devoid of manipulation, intimidation and interference from busybodies determined to force their agenda onto an unsuspecting world.
The words of King Solomon are so true of today – and they also give us hope: “When the wicked thrive, so does sin, but the righteous will see their downfall” (Prov 29:16).
Christians, meanwhile, need to shed their flabby compromise and start “training in righteousness” under the word of God (2 Tim 3:16). Like the first century Galatians, too many have been led astray by false teaching, earning the fiery rebuke of St Paul: “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?” (Gal 5:7).
The writer to the Hebrews urges us to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us” – not to throw in the towel at the first sign of muscle strain or breathlessness, but focusing on Jesus who endured opposition, pain and suffering “for the joy set before him” (Heb 12:1-3).
Notes
1 BBC Radio 4 and Daily Telegraph online, 5 August 2017; Mail on Sunday, 6 August 2017.
2 Though temporarily handed over to the charge of the Jordanian-based Waqf (Muslim authority) in order to reduce tensions following the 1967 Six-Day War when Israel took back territory illegally annexed in 1948, the Mount is actually under Israeli sovereignty and has been linked to the Jews for thousands of years.
3 Hull CofE minister criticised for homosexual pride service. Christian Institute, 1 August 2017.
4 A forum seeking to reconcile the Church with her Hebraic roots while also highlighting the plight of Christians and Jews in the Middle East and challenging the body of Christ over obedience to God’s commands.
5 Dictionary definition: an offence that tends to undermine the authority of a state; an incitement to public disorder.
