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Battle of Protesters: Westboro Baptist Church v. LBGTQ+ Supporters & Agenda – They both win! – Part III

Posted by :admin On : March 17, 2024
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Category: American Church, Archives, Culture Wars, Homosexuality

Update on the death of Nex Benedict and the Political Aftermath

The death of Nex Benedict on February 8, 2024, was tragic. After Part II of this series was posted about the incident at Owasso High School, the results of the toxicology report revealed that Nex Benedict died of suicide. “The medical examiner’s report listed the probable cause of death as ‘combined toxicity’ from two drugs, one of which is available over the counter and the other by prescription.”[1] Another report indicated the probable cause of death “was a suicide, an overdose caused by a combination of diphenhydramine (commonly known as Benadryl) and fluoxetine (commonly, Prozac).”[2] However, there was no explanation as to how the medical examiner distinguished between death by suicide and death by accidental means.

Many are attempting to fix the blame for Benedict’s suicide on: (1) an alleged bullying incident at Owasso High School and (2) the supposed anti-LBGTQ+ policies and pronouncements of Ryan Walters, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction. In the first instance, Benedict initiated and participated in the fight when she threw water on one or more of the girls. Benedict was guilty of initiating the fight after an exchange of words with the three girls. Also, she was equally guilty along with her friend of fighting in the school bathroom. In the second instance, The LBGTQ+ lobby and the left-wing media have accused Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters as indirectly causing Benedict’s death and have launched a strong campaign to have Walters removed from his office to which he was elected by Oklahoma voters.

(New York, NY – March 12, 2024) GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, is announcing the launch of an ad calling out the ways in which Ryan Walters, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction, is unfit for office, and encourages viewers to call their state representatives to advocate for Walters’ removal. The 30-second spot, which will run in Oklahoma starting today, is supported by a five-figure buy. Released just a month after the tragic death of Nex Benedict, the ad highlights a number of actions from Walters that call into question his ability to properly lead Oklahoma’s students. The ad asks viewers to ask their representatives to remove Walters from office.[3]

In Part II of this series, it was noted that Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, Ryan Walters, and the great majority of both houses of the Oklahoma State legislature have enacted legislation and established regulations in support of the education, safety, and well-being of students and families in Oklahoma. The homosexual lobby’s litany of supposed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and regulations are almost exact counterpoints to Oklahoma’s legislation and regulations enacted to by the State of Oklahoma to protect Oklahoma children from becoming victims of mental and physical abuse by the national and Oklahoma LBGTQ+ juggernaut and its agenda.

As stated in Part I of this series, the homosexual lobby and their supporters in every facet of American culture do not really care about Nex Benedict and multitudes of children and teenagers like her. The priority of the homosexual lobby’s agenda is to impose their actions, ideas, and philosophy on every facet of society and therefore every American. These actions, ideas, and philosophy stand in direct contradiction to the Judeo-Christian/biblical worldview upon which America was founded. This conflict is what the culture wars are about, and the agenda of the homosexual lobby is just one battle in this war of worldviews. It is this war to which the remainder of this article will address.

Homosexuality vs. the Judeo-Christian Worldview

The Judeo-Christian worldview is based on the Bible. The Bible gives a very explicit condemnation of the practice of homosexuality.

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. Romans 1:24-27 [NLT]

The Bible is the Word of God and therefore infallible and inerrant. In other words, the truth of God’s word is objective, not subjective, and therefore unchanging over time.

Homosexuality has been present in societies since the creation of mankind and was often venerated in various civilizations through ages, e.g., ancient Greece and Rome. However, none of those societies and cultures survived. Quoted at the end of Part II of this series, Richard Weaver gave the reason for their destruction in his book Visions of Order-The Cultural Crisis of Our Time written 65 year ago. Weaver stated that when a culture, “…‘by ignorant popular attitudes or by social derangements’ imposes a political concept that creates a different principle of ordering society contrary to universal truths, dissatisfactions arise because society has tampered with the ‘nature of things’.”[4]

Homosexuality is one of those disorganizing concepts with regard to human relationships, and as it becomes successfully imposed on a society, it is ultimately disorganizing in building a stable, enduring society. Where traditional views of marriage and human sexuality declines, so do those societies decline that allow it to occur. In modern America, the homosexual view of human sexuality has become a political concept whose advocates wish to legitimize and impose on American society which is substantially built on the Judeo-Christian worldview and upon which the nation was founded. Only one of these two worldviews will ultimately prevail – the truth of the Judeo-Christian worldview as recorded in the Bible or the lie of humanism’s man-centric interpretations of existence.

Those who advocate for the cultural acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle or variations thereof argue that the biblical two-gender view of mankind (i.e., God created male and female) is outdated in modern times. Therefore, they argue that, “In the 21st century, the gender binary is increasingly considered to be a social construct that reinforces gender roles and stereotypes, a tendency that harms even those who are cisgender (that is, identify with the gender assigned at their birth).”[5]

According to the homosexual worldview, the requirement to limit human sexual relations between a male and a female is merely a social construct. Therefore, homosexuality, transgenderism, and various combinations thereof are not objectively evil as described in Roman 1:24-27. As the narrative typically goes, those that are wedded to the idea that only heterosexual view of human sexuality is allowed can’t accept that the world is moving on from these outdated attitudes.

In William Bennett’s book The Broken Hearth, he describes the battle of worldviews between homosexuality and the Judeo-Christian worldview. The following are quotes from Bennett’s book included in my 2011 book Ye Shall be as gods – Humanism & Christianity – The Battle for Supremacy in the American Cultural Vision.

If the arguments of the proponents of homosexuality fail to diminish the importance and exclusivity of the reproductive act in defining marriage, the proponents fight on other fronts. One tactic with which they have been very effective and successful is casting the proponents of homosexuality and same-sex marriage as commanding the moral high ground. They present themselves and their cause as morally superior to their opponents who are cast as villains in the morality play widely disseminated in popular culture. To oppose homosexuality is deemed the moral equivalence of racism, bigotry, ignorance, and homophobia. Those persons who are not accepting of homosexuality are labeled as intolerant. But Bennett identifies the humanists’ perversion of the concept of tolerance. He calls it “…the disfigurement of the idea of tolerance at the hands of the agenda- pushers of our day…that would brand as bigots those of us who exercise our elementary responsibility…to make firm moral judgments in matters touching on marriage and the raising of our children.” The humanist would force all to worship at the shrine of tolerance, but their price of admission is a tolerance rooted in moral relativism with no room for finding truth or judging something based on the concept of right and wrong. For those that fail to enter the humanist shrine, they become the objects of intolerant harassment through restrictions on free speech (speech codes), coercion, and intimidation. To the proponents of homosexuality, tolerance means forced acceptance, and such acceptance necessitates “normalization, validation, public legitimization, and finally public endorsement.”[6]

Why have so many of the religious elite fallen into the camps of the proponents of homosexuality? Writing 200 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville, the author of Democracy in America, warned of religions that depend upon the principles of this world.

…when religion aims to depend upon the principles of this world, it becomes almost as vulnerable as all other powers on this earth. By itself, it may aspire to immortality but, linked to fleeting powers, it follows their fortunes and often collapses together with those passions which sustain them for a day.[7]

Many of mainstream Christian churches have linked themselves to the humanistic worldview, and their affinity for the cause of homosexuality is one of the principles of this (humanistic) worldview upon which they have come to depend. Those churches which have embraced the homosexual agenda have seen their number of adherents decline dramatically. By contrast, those churches which have grown are the ones that have stood against the assaults of secular culture and taught unequivocal biblical morality and salvation.[8]

Now it appears that the large numbers of evangelical churches have embraced the homosexual agenda or at least become silent in faithfully and regularly preaching the biblical standard against homosexuality as shown in Romans 1:24-27. Franklin Graham said, “Those who are afraid to address moral issues are no better than those who commit transgressions.”[9] This fear of speaking out about homosexuality has silenced much of the evangelical church.

Eric Metaxas, in his 2022 book, Letter to the American Church, captures the essence of how the church has become silent in the face of evil.

…those who behave as though there is really nothing to worry about, who seem to think—as such prominent pastors as Andy Stanley and others do—that we ought to assiduously avoid fighting these threats and be “apolitical” are tragically mistaken, are burying their heads in the sand and exhorting others to do the same …Do we not realize that no good ever can come of such silence and inaction, that human beings whom God loves suffer when His own people fail to express boldly what He has said and why they fail to live as He has called them to live?[10]

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] “Death of Transgender Student Nex Benedict ruled Suicide by Medical Examiner,” NBC News, March 12, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nex-benedict-suicide-death-oklahoma-student-lgbtq-rcna143298 (accessed 3-16-2024).
[2] “The unanswered questions surrounding the tragic death of Nex Benedict,” VOX, 3-13-2024.https://www.vox.com/culture/24092224/nex-benedict-death-what-happened-okhlahoma-anti-trans-laws-backlash (accessed 3-16-2024).
[3] “New Ad Campaign calls for the removal of Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters,” Glaad.org, March 13, 2024. https://glaad.org/releases/new-ad-campaign-calls-for-removal-of-oklahoma-superintendent-of-public-instruction-ryan-walters/ (accessed 3-16-2024).
[4] Richard M. Weaver, Visions of Order – The Cultural Crisis of Our Time, (Wilmington, Delaware: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1995, 2006), p. 22.
[5] “Nonbinary gender,” Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/nonbinary-gender (accessed 3-3-2024).
[6] Larry G. Johnson, Ye shall be as gods – Humanism & Christianity – The Battle for Supremacy in the American Cultural Vision, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House Books, 2011), pages 356-357. Quoting William Bennett, The Broken Hearth, (New York: Doubleday, 2001), pages 105-107, 121, 138.
[7] Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Translated by Gerald E. Bevan, (New York: Penguin Books, 2003), p.348.
[8] Robert H. Bork, Slouching Toward Gomorrah, (New York: Regan Books, 1996), p. 286.
[9] Mario Marillo, “Is He Right?” MarioMurillo.org, 2-12-2024. https://mariomurillo.org/2024/02/12/is-he-right/ (accessed 3-16-2024).
[10] Eric Metaxas, Letter to the American Church, (Washington, D.C.: Salem Books, 2022), p. 51

Battle of Protesters: Westboro Baptist Church v. LBGTQ+ Supporters & Agenda – They both win! – Part II

Posted by :admin On : March 9, 2024
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Category: American Church, Archives, Christianity, Homosexuality

[If you wish to read the article on the Internet, go to: https://www.culturewarrior.net/ Please forward this post to your family and friends on social media.]

Theater of the Absurd

The long anticipated clash of protesters and counter-protesters at Owasso High School ended peacefully on a sunny March 6th Wednesday afternoon. The Westboro Baptist Church protesters initially met in front of the Owasso School District’s administrative offices at 2:15 PM. At 2:30 PM the WBC protestors had moved to a sidewalk next to Owasso High School where they were met with hundreds of counter-protesters from at least five LBGTQ+ organizations from various states which included The Rainbow Youth Project headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the Diversity Center of Oklahoma.[1] Owasso Police had separated the protest and counter-protest groups by placing each on the opposite side of the street from the other.

The colorful Parasol Patrol based in Denver, Colorado, was led by co-founder Eli Bazan who spoke on camera with the Fox 23 News reporter to express the Parasol Patrol’s support of LGBTQ+ students in Owasso.

The Fox 23 News camera crew recorded the husky Mr. Bazan, sporting a beard, shaven head, and a pink knee-length skirt, as he led a large contingent of his supporters across the street to a point adjacent to the Westboro protesters. It was very apparent that this was contrary to police instructions. Consequently, the two groups now very close to each other and not separated by a street but only a few police officers. Fortunately, a physical confrontation was avoided, and loud cheers arose from the counter-protesters when the Westboro protesters eventually ended their protest and left.[2]

A Fox 23 News commentator reminded the viewing audience that the Westboro Baptist Church was considered a hate group according to the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and it was the policy of Fox 23 News to not film any hate group. He stated the news channel did not normally cover hate groups but that they decided to cover the afternoon’s protests and counter-protests because of the safety concerns raised by Owasso Public Schools.[3]

While Fox 23 News correctly identifies Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group, it failed to identify the LGBTQ+ counter-protesters as groups embracing the beliefs of far-left radical organizations such as the SPLC. It behooves news reporters and their listening audience to check the integrity and agenda of any organization that proposes to identify hate groups before one similarly designate that organization as a hate group. Without doubt the Westboro Baptist Church qualifies as a hate group. But Fox 23 News based their decision in part on the SPLC’s hate list. However, the SPLC is notorious for labeling many organizations with conservative political views, espouse traditional family values, and in general support the Judeo-Christian worldview upon which America was founded. The SPLC’s lack of credibility and agenda is exposed when its blacklist of supposed Anti-LGBT hate groups is examined. Some of the most well-known and respected organizations in America have been designated as hate groups by the SPLC: American Family Association, Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Research Council, American College of Pediatricians, and D. James Kennedy Ministries.[4]

They both won!

The national attention devoted to the incident that occurred on February 7, 2024, at Owasso Public Schools is astounding. This incident at the center of these protests was described in Part I posted on culturewarrior.net on Monday, March 4, 2024. The two opposing protest groups each achieved their goals—publicity for their respective causes.

In the first group of protesters were members of the tiny unaffiliated Westboro Baptist Church cult of seventy individuals in Topeka, Kansas. WBC is nationally known for their absurd and nonsensical distortion of the Bible and inflammatory denigration of atheists, Jews, Muslims, other Christian denominations, homosexuals and transgender people, and a host of other targets. WBC’s goal is to gain attention and publicity through their outrageous slogans and actions at protests around the nation on a schedule published on their website. If publicity was truly the goal of their protest, they were wildly successful.

But the degree of WBC’s success is infinitesimal compared to that of the second group – the homosexual lobby in the United States. Even before WBC’s planned protest was known, the LBGTQ+ movement mobilized and coordinated efforts to accomplish their agenda through their allies in government and bureaucracy from national to local levels, business, media, and educational institutions at all levels.

Based on this single incident at Owasso High School, the well-funded and well-oiled machinery of the LBGTQ+ movement thrust Owasso, Oklahoma, into a frenzy of national scorn and derision based on incomplete information, half-truths, and outright lies. The following are just a few of many thousands of stories promoting the LBGTQ+ agenda based on the incident at Owasso High School.

• “WWhite House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at the daily press briefing on Friday addressed the media about the heart-wrenching death of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager from Owasso High School in Oklahoma who died recently after being bullied. Jean-Pierre opened her remarks with a personal acknowledgment of the tragedy.”[5]

• “In a powerful condemnation of the circumstances leading to the tragic death of nonbinary, Indigenous teenager Nex Benedict in Oklahoma, Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, is calling on the federal government to take decisive action…Robinson expressed profound concern over the hostile environment fostered by anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and rhetoric in the state (Oklahoma)… Robinson criticized Oklahoma’s rank as fifth in the nation for moving anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, including gender-affirming care bans, bathroom bills, and attempts to ban books, highlighting the violent political rhetoric from state officials as a significant contributing factor to the dangerous climate.”[6]

• “In response to a formal complaint the Human Rights Campaign lodged last week regarding the handling of sex-based harassment incidents, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has initiated an investigation into Owasso Public Schools. The investigation, announced late Friday, aims to address the Oklahoma school district’s response to harassment that may have contributed to the tragic death of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old transgender student of Choctaw heritage.”[7]

• “As an Oklahoma community near Tulsa comes to terms with the death of a transgender high school student in early February, many critics of Republican policies in the state are voicing concerns about the anti-LGBTQ+ environment fostered by the right that enables bullying. In a poignant display of defiance and solidarity, Sean Cummings, an Oklahoma City business owner and local politician, went viral after a video posted online showed him laying blame for what happened on Ryan Walters, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, during a public meeting held by the Oklahoma Department of Education Thursday morning.”[8]

• “More than 350 LGBTQ+ organizations, activists, and celebrities are urging the removal of Ryan Walters as Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction, saying he has encouraged ‘a climate of hate and bigotry.’…‘We are outraged that a climate of hate and bigotry has been not only allowed to thrive, but encouraged by the person who is responsible for education in the state of Oklahoma. State officials must be held accountable for bringing the politics of hate into Oklahoma’s schools and making our most vulnerable youth pay the price…Superintendent Walters’ reprehensible conduct shows a willful rejection of his duty to protect the health and welfare of the children in Oklahoma’s public schools and instead has created an environment that allows for hostility and harm for youth like Nex.’”[9]

Oklahoma legislation: Anti-LBGTQ+ OR Pro-child and Pro-family?

These articles purport that Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, and the Oklahoma legislature elected by the citizens of Oklahoma have enacted anti-LBGTQ+ legislation “including gender-affirming care bans, bathroom bills, and attempts to ban books, highlighting the violent political rhetoric from state officials as a significant contributing factor to the dangerous climate.”

The various LBGTQ+ groups will most certainly consider the following to be anti-LGBTQ+ legislation:

• Prohibition of instruction on LGBTQ+ topics in the public schools
• Bars transgender student athletes in K-12 and college from playing on sports teams that match their gender identities.
• Prohibits instruction on human sexuality to students in pre-kindergarten and elementary grades.
• Prohibit the promotion and use of cross-sex hormones, surgical procedures, and puberty-blockers, all based on the child’s perceived gender identity.
• Prevent drag queen story hours in schools and public libraries.
• Prevent the requirement to use pronouns based on the perceived gender identity.
• Removal of pornographic books and other materials from Oklahoma school libraries and classrooms including sexually explicit homosexual books and materials.

Time, space, and the reader’s patience do not allow this writer to respond to each of these and dozens of other legislative initiatives necessary to protect children from becoming mentally and physically victims of the LBGTQ+ juggernaut and its agenda.

Perhaps, the best description of the position of Governor Stitt, Superintendent Walters, and the State legislature when dealing generally with these types of issues in Oklahoma Public Schools is to examine the one issue that appears to be the most offensive to LBGTQ+ supporters and their advocates. That issue is the so-called “bathroom bill” signed into Oklahoma law in May 2022 and which has been labeled by the homosexual lobby and their supporters as a prime example of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

An Oklahoma bill limiting access to public-school bathrooms by a person’s birth sex is now law…School districts and charter schools that don’t comply face a 5% deduction in their state funding. That could subtract thousands to millions of dollars, depending on the school system. Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 615 into law Wednesday. An emergency provision in the bill caused it to take effect as soon as the governor wrote his signature. “Governor Stitt believes girls should use girl restrooms and boys should use boy restrooms,” Stitt’s spokesperson, Carly Atchison, said in a statement Wednesday evening.

All public-school restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms or shower rooms are now to be designated for exclusive use of the female or male sex. Use of these rooms is restricted to the sex listed on a person’s original birth certificate. The law requires schools to offer single-occupancy bathrooms and changing rooms for those who don’t want to use the facility that aligns with their birth sex.[10]

The vast majority of parents of k-12 students in public schools endorse this legislation. Parents do not want schools to allow use of school bathrooms by students based on their assumed LBGTQ+ gender identity. Parents do want their children to use bathrooms that align with their child’s birth sex. Therefore, the Governor, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and state legislature have enacted laws and enforce those laws that reflect the will of the people of Oklahoma.

Battle of Worldviews

The more one understands the blazing culture wars in America, the more one realizes that there cannot be and will not be a compromise on these hot-button issues because in their essence these are fundamental issues of two differing worldviews, and only one worldview will prevail. In America, this conflict of worldviews is between the truth of Christianity’s belief in the Judeo-Christian God as recorded in the Bible and the lie of humanism’s man-centric interpretations of existence.

In his book Visions of Order-The Cultural Crisis of Our Time written 65 year ago, Richard Weaver states that when a culture “… by ignorant popular attitudes or by social derangements” imposes a political concept that creates a different principle of ordering society contrary to universal truths, dissatisfactions arise because society has tampered with the “nature of things.”[11] Homosexuality is one of those disorganizing concepts with regard to human relationships and ultimately disorganizing in building stable, enduring societies. Where traditional views of marriage and human sexuality declines, so do those societies decline that allow it to occur.

In Part III we will present an in-depth examination of:

• Homosexuality as a disorganizing concept with regard to human relationships and society
• The consequences of the tsunami of homosexual activism in its effort to undermine Judeo-Christian foundations of America society
• Why the American church allowed the disorganizing concept of homosexuality to “tamper with the nature of things?”

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:
[1]Amy Hybels, “Planned Protest and counter protest outside Owasso High School ends peacefully.” Fox 23 News, March 7, 2023. https://www.fox23.com/news/planned-protest-and-counter-protest-outside-owasso-high-school-end-peacefully/article_560edaf0-dc12-11ee-9b1d-3fae72469bc9.html (accessed 3-8-2024).
[2]Ibid.
[3]Ibid.
[4] “List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups, Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organizations_designated_by_the_Southern_Poverty_Law_Center_as_hate_groups (accessed 3-8-2024)
[5] “Karine Jean-Pierre ‘absolutely heartbroken’ over Oklahoma teen Nex Benedict’s death,” Advocate, 2-23-2024.
https://www.advocate.com/news/white-house-highlights-nex-benedict (accessed 3-6-2023).
[6] “HRC president demands federal investigations into Nex Benedict’s death amid Oklahoma’s anti-LGBTQ+
climate,” Advocate, 2-22-2024. https://www.advocate.com/news/kelley-robinson-doj-nex-benedict (accessed 3-6-2024).
[7] “Federal investigation opens into Owasso Public Schools after death of Nex Benedict,” Advocate, 3-1-2024.
https://news.yahoo.com/breaking-federal-investigation-opens-owasso-191300199.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall (accessed 3-6-2024).
[8] “Oklahoma politician roasts Ryan Walters for Nex Benedict’s death to transphobic superintendent’s face,”
Advocate, 2-27-2024. https://www.advocate.com/news/oklahoma-nex-benedict-viral-video (accessed 3-6-2024).
[9] After Nex Benedict’s death, 350 LGBTQ+ groups, activists, and celebs urge Oklahoma superintendent’s
removal,” Advocate, 2-28-2024. https://www.advocate.com/news/activists-demand-ryan-walters-removal (accessed 3-6-2024).
[10] “Oklahoma’s Gov. Stitt signs bill restricting school bathrooms to birth sex, effective
immediately,” The Oklahoman, May 25, 2022. https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/education/2022/05/25/stitt-
signs-oklahoma-bathroom-bill-restricting-transgender-school-access-birth-sex/9900609002/
[11] Richard M. Weaver, Visions of Order – The Cultural Crisis of Our Time, (Wilmington, Delaware: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1995, 2006), p. 22.

Battle of Protesters: Westboro Baptist Church v. LBGTQ+ Supporters & Agenda – They both win! – Part I

Posted by :admin On : March 4, 2024
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Category: American Church, Archives, Christianity, Homosexuality

[Please forward this post to your family and friends on social media.]

Members of Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas, plan to protest at Owasso Public Schools on March 6, 2024 in response to the death of a self-described nonbinary individual[1] (see endnote for definition) one day following an incident at Owasso Public Schools on February 7, 2024. The Westboro protest is not about the unfortunate death of an Owasso Public School student, the Owasso Public School student body, the City of Owasso, and most certainly does present the true message about homosexuality as found in the Bible. What the protest is about is (1) publicity for a tiny sect of misguided false teachers, and (2) a massive public relations campaign to gain sympathy and support for the LGBTQ+ agenda and its followers.

What is the Westboro Baptist Church and what do their followers they believe?

The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is an American, unaffiliated Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, that was founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps. It is widely considered a hate group, and is known for its public protests against homosexuals and for its usage of the slogans such as “God hates fags” and “Thank God for dead soldiers.” It also engages in hate speech against atheists, Jews, Muslims, transgender people, and other Christian denominations…WBC has been protesting against homosexuality since 1989. Within a few years, the group expanded to protesting across the country. They often protest at public and private events, including funerals, sports games, and concerts…In 2016, Forbes stated WBC had about 70 members…The group is known to deface the American flag or fly it upside down while protesting. It also draws counter-protests. The group primarily consists of members of Phelps’s extended family, although many of its members have either left and/or been excommunicated.[2]

WBC is a cult that has clothed itself in a distorted form of Christianity and therefore is not Christian but a cult. Although WMC members vigorously teach and preach the five points of Calvinist doctrine, they twist or distort the true meaning of the Scripture such that it bears little resemblance to the doctrine of the vast majority of Baptist churches or other churches that adhere to five-point Calvinism.[3]

Although the message of WBC is almost universally repugnant, the vast majority of Americans are substantially ignorant of what the Bible and Christianity actually teaches about homosexuality and how to engage its practitioners. They condemn the WBC’s message but do not realize that their message is an absurd and nonsensical distortion of the Bible and the meaning of Christianity. Based on WBC’s miniscule size, we can unequivocally know that the WBC protests have been and remain one of Satan’s greatest successes in legitimizing the homosexual lifestyle and the LGBTQ+ agenda in the minds of Americans over the last thirty-five years since WBC began protesting homosexuality in 1989.

Satan’s success has occurred in two ways:

(1) Because most Americans (including many Christians) are ignorant or blind to WMC’s perversion of Scripture and the precepts of Christianity, their knee-jerk reaction is to paint Christianity as morally evil and/or the Bible as irrelevant when it comes to the moral condemnation of the practice of homosexuality and its many branches.

(2) Satan is also successful in using WBC’s message to silence a large number of American pastors and their congregants (including large numbers of evangelical churches) with regard to speaking the truth about the sin and consequences of homosexuality for fear of being tarred with the same brush as used to condemn the WMC and their followers. The consequences of this silence have been disastrous for America and its culture for over a half-century.

Since 2013 when President Obama and Vice President Biden openly and forcefully endorsed same–sex marriage, the legitimization of homosexuality and transgenderism has come to dominate every facet of American life: government, politics, military, education, arts and entertainment, media, education, business and economics, and the family. Not one facet has escaped the draconian force of this evil because the American evangelical church ceded its moral authority through its silence. This was predicted in the very first article posted on culturewarrior.net on March 6, 2013.[4]

To mark the 10th Anniversary of this website, an Culture Warrior article was posted on March 4, 2023, that described the astounding success of the LGBTQ+ agenda through the infiltration and corruption of every sphere of American life as noted above.[5] This article reveals how the initial 2013 Trojan horse of equality in the battle for cultural acceptance of gay marriage was just the beginning of the homosexual agenda’s efforts to dramatically undermined America’s moral foundations informed by the Bible and the founders’ Judeo-Christian worldview.

Events leading up to the March 6th protest by Westboro Baptist Church

The events preceding the death of Nex Benedict (born Dagny Ellis Benedict) is just a microcosm of the culture wars swirling in American in 2024. What is known at this time is that a 16-year old girl by the name of Nex Benedict, who identified as nonbinary, was involved in an altercation with three other girls in a restroom at Owasso High School. The timeline of events at Owasso High School and thereafter is found on the Owasso Police Departments website.[6]

Investigation Update 02-21-2024:
Since February 7th, 2024, the Owasso Police Department has been actively involved in an investigation into a physical altercation that occurred at the Owasso High School and Owasso Public Schools has been cooperative throughout the investigation. The students involved in the incident were all juveniles and juvenile files are confidential and inaccessible to the public in most circumstances.

From reports, records, and statements of witnesses, it appears that:
• On February 7, 2024, a physical altercation occurred in a restroom at the Owasso High School West Campus.
• The physical altercation was broken up by other students who were present in the restroom and a school staff member who was supervising outside of the restroom.
• All students involved in the altercation walked under their own power to the assistant principal’s office and nurse’s office.
• School administrators began taking statements from the students present in the restroom and began contacting parents/guardians of the students involved in the physical altercation.
• Each of the students involved in the altercation was given a health assessment by a registered nurse at the school and it was determined that ambulance service was not required.
• While it was determined that ambulance service was not required, the school nurse recommended that Nex Benedict visit a medical facility for further examination.
• On the afternoon of February 7, 2024, an Owasso School Resource Officer was assigned to respond to Bailey Medical Center where Nex Benedict was being examined. The School Resource Officer interviewed Nex and their parent concerning the altercation at the Owasso High School.
• The following morning, the School Resource Officer followed up with the parent.
• On the afternoon of February 8, 2024, Owasso Fire Department medics were dispatched to a medical emergency involving Nex Benedict, who was transported to the St. Francis Pediatric Emergency Room where they later died.
• While the investigation continues into the altercation, preliminary information from the medical examiner’s office is that a complete autopsy was performed and indicated that the decedent did not die as a result of trauma. At this time, any further comments on the cause of death are currently pending until toxicology results and other ancillary testing results are received. The official autopsy report will be available at a later date. The invesigtion is ongoing.

A 21-minute video from the body camera footage from School Resource Officer Caleb Thompson captured a critical conversation in the emergency room between Thompson, Nex, and Sue Benedict, the teen’s grandmother and adoptive mother. This video is available on the internet on YouTube.[7]

The essence of the video and police report is that three girls in a girls’ restroom at Owasso High School were making derogatory remarks about how other girls in their presence were dressed. One of the other girls (Nex Benedict) threw water from a container on at least one of the girls who had made derogatory remarks. An altercation began between the three girls and Nex whose friends joined the fight. Nex stated that she threw one of the girls from the opposing group into a towel dispenser (According to another report, the girl was thrown by Nex with such force that the towel dispenser was broken open and the door hung by one hinge). Nex states that she was thrown to the floor and they “were beating the sh*t out of me.” The above police report shows that the school’s registered nurse performed a health assessment of all participants after the altercation, and it was determined that ambulance service was not required. However, the nurse recommended that Nex Benedict visit a medical facility for further examination.

As noted in the above police report, preliminary information from the medical examiner’s office indicated that a complete autopsy was performed and indicated that the decedent did not die as a result of trauma. The police will make no other comments on the cause of death pending receipt of the results of a toxicology report and other ancillary testing. It should be noted that forensic toxicology testing is performed after a person’s death and is known as postmortem drug testing to identify and quantify potential toxins, which include prescription medications and drugs of abuse and interpretations of the findings.

Regardless of the cause, the death of Nex Benedict is a tragedy as is the death of all young people at such an early age. Unfortunately, the scheduled protests and counter-protests on Wednesday, March 6, will continue to poison the civil discourse in America and advance the agendas of both Westboro Baptist Church and the LBGTQ+ movement and its supporters.
We shall take another look at these issues in Part II following Wednesday’s protests and counter-protests.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:
[1] Nonbinary gender, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/nonbinary-gender (accessed 3-3-2024). “A nonbinary gender identity is adopted by individuals who feel that they do not fit into the traditional male/female gender binary. In the 21st century, the gender binary is increasingly considered to be a social construct that reinforces gender roles and stereotypes, a tendency that harms even those who are cisgender (that is, identify with the gender assigned at their birth). Those who identify as nonbinary may not feel that they are a man or a woman… Nonbinary is an umbrella term under which many labels fall: bigender and pangender individuals may identify with both or all genders at once, while genderfluid or genderflux individuals may feel that their gender identity fluctuates over time…Those who identify as nonbinary generally consider themselves a part of the LGBTQ+ community. They may identify as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, or any other sexual orientation.”
[2] Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church.
[3] Westboro Baptist Church website. https://www.godhatesfags.com/index.html
[4] Larry G. Johnson, “Equality – The Homosexual Agenda’s Trojan Horse in its Battle for Cultural Acceptance,” culturewarrior.net, 3-6-2013. https://www.culturewarrior.net/2013/03/06/equality-the-homosexual-agendas-trojan-horse-in-its-battle-for-cultural-acceptance/
[5] Larry G. Johnson, “Tenth Anniversary of CultureWarrior.Net – March 6, 2013 – March 6 2023,” culturewarrior.net, March 4, 2023. https://www.culturewarrior.net/2023/03/04/tenth-anniversary-of-culturewarrior-net-march-6-2013-march-6-2023/
[6] Owasso Police Department, Investigation update 2021-2024, Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/story.php/?story_fbid=797096819120305&id=100064599824990
[7] OPD 2024-3316 Community Release, YouTube, originally recorded 2-7-2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJaBumoyRGg&t=12s (accessed 3-4-2023)

Silence in the face of Evil – The Modern American Evangelical Church

Posted by :admin On : February 23, 2024
0

Category: American Church, Archives, Culture Wars, Government

Dear Reader – I believe the following article may be the most important one I have written compared to over 250 articles I have posted on CultureWarrior.net over the last eleven years. Please forward this post to your family and friends on social media. Thank you. Larry G. Johnson

On February 7-8, 2024, one thousand Assemblies of God pastors gathered at the “1000+ AG Lead Pastor Connect” conference in Miami, Florida. This gathering was designed for lead pastors from the largest one thousand churches among the thirteen thousand plus AG churches in the United States. John Maxwell was the featured speaker, and the core of his message to the pastors was “to avoid politics, because it is polarizing.” Maxwell’s message has created a firestorm among the faithful inside and outside of the denomination.

Who is John Maxwell? The biography in the 1000+ AG Lead Pastor Connect Internet brochure[1] advertising the conference reads as follows:

John C. Maxwell is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, speaker, coach and leader who has sold more than 34 million books. He is the founder of Maxwell Leadership—a leadership development organization that has trained tens of millions of leaders in every nation. Having been recognized as the #1 leader in business and as the world’s most influential leadership expert, Maxwell continues to influence individuals and organizations worldwide—from Fortune 500 CEOs and national leaders to entrepreneurs and the leaders of tomorrow.[2]

Here we have an expert on business and leadership advising pastors on what to preach! However, what preachers preach is determined through a process of prayer, rightly dividing the Word, and leading of the Holy Spirit. This is the same John Maxwell who glowingly endorsed Andy Stanley’s new book Not in it to win it-Why choosing sides sidelines the church (2022). Andy Stanley is a false teacher but highly influential evangelical leader who also wrote Irresistible-Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World (2108) which teaches Christians to reject the Old Testament’s teachings (including Ten Commandments) because they are not applicable to Christians today. Maxwell also endorsed Stanley’s book Irresistible in which he states that he was challenged to “do more connecting and less correcting of others…I love how Andy loves people…”

What were General Superintendent Doug Clay and the rest of the Executive Presbytery thinking when they determined to invite Maxwell to speak to and influence one thousand pastors from the AG’s largest churches to stay out of American politics? Where were their discernment, knowledge of the Word, and critical thinking skills?! Mario Marillo asked the question, “Why did these 1,000 AG ministers not drop everything and cry out to God for mercy on America? Is it because they are more interested in the hottest new business model for church growth?”[3]

Effectively, the actions of the AG leadership in allowing Maxwell to speak have encouraged AG pastors to remain silent in their pulpits about politics only eight months prior to the most critical political moment in our nation’s history. The outcome of the November 2024 elections will determine if it will be the last election in which the destiny of America will remain in the hands of the people or be vested in an all-powerful ruling elite of anti-God socialists/Marxists bent on world domination. Apparently, John Maxwell and the AG leadership have been living under a rock and are unaware of what is happening in America.

The Big Lie – Churches must avoid politics inside and outside the church

A brief look at Scripture exposes Maxwell’s lie that the church must avoid all politics, inside and outside the church. That has always been the goal of Satan in American churches. Beginning significantly in the 1960s, churches and Christians have been coerced to keep their opinions inside the walls of the church and not interfere or influence the remaining spheres of American life: government, politics, business and commerce, physical and social sciences, media, arts and entertainment, education, and the family. There is not a single sphere where churches, Christians and Christianity are not under a full frontal assault from Satan and his minions. Without restraint exerted by the church, how would Maxwell and his sycophants combat the carnage that has spread across America? Their typical response is that “we should pray about it.”

Do the scriptures encourage Christians to stay out of politics? The words of Christ and the early church leaders expose the lie that pastors and churches should avoid politics. When Christians speak truth, it is polarizing because Satan is a liar and is the father of lies. Truth can be offensive to many and does not bring peace. Mario Marillo presents three examples that expose the Big Lie.[4]

• In Matthew 10:34-36, Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.” [NKJV]

• John the Baptist confronted King Herod in Luke 3:18-20, “And with many other exhortations he preached to the people. But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, also added this, above all, that he shut John up in prison.” [NKJV]

• Peter and John refused to obey an evil government in Acts 5:23-29: “And when they had brought them, they set them before the council (Sanhedrin). And the high priest asked them, saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!” [NKJV]

Silence in the pulpits of American churches began long before Maxwell and Stanley arrived on the scene

The modern evangelical church since the 1960s began embracing the Big Lie that the church must avoid politics. Many evangelical churches in the 1960s to the present day ignored the voices of earlier 20th Century giants beyond our shores who defended the freedom to speak truth not only from the pulpits of churches but for all mankind. The following are excerpts from Chapter 12 of my sixth book published in 2020, Defending the Good Society – The Assault on Order, Justice, and Freedom.[5]

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) was born in Russia and studied mathematics, philosophy, literature, and history at the university level. He was a thrice decorated for personal heroism as a Russian Army Officer during the fight against the Nazis in World War II. In 1945 he was arrested for criticizing Stalin in private correspondence and sentenced to an eight-year term in a labor camp. From that experience he wrote One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich which was published in 1962, the first of many books. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1974, he was stripped of his citizenship and expelled from the Soviet Union whereupon he moved to Vermont with his wife and four sons.[6]

Solzhenitsyn’s background, experiences, and powerful words in defense of truth speaks far louder than the din of lies shouted by egalitarianism’s Ministry of Truth and its toadies including spineless politicians, the corrupt media, universities in name only, complicit mega-corporation billionaires, ranting Hollywood leftists, self-proclaimed “intellectuals,” and many corrupt voices and false teachers in the church. However, such lies cannot long stand against timeless truth of which God is the author and finisher.

Solzhenitsyn gives both the diagnosis of the plight of the good society and a prescription for preserving its Judeo-Christian cultural heritage and its attendant freedom.

In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it (evil) will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers . . . we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.

The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.[7]

The defenders of the good society must raise their voices in the defense of the language and free speech from the lies and distortions of radical egalitarians. Silence only emboldens the evil doers and digs the graves of our children and grandchildren’s moral and civil order, justice, and freedom.

Martin Niemöller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer

At the beginning of 1933, the German church stood at a crossroads. The great majority of German Lutheran churches chose the path of Hitler and the Nazis instead of the teachings of Jesus Christ.[8] There was a minority of Christians and churches in Germany that opposed Hitler and the apostatized German Christians. The resistance centered within the new “Confessing Church” led by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Niemöller, and a few others. As Nazi pressure was ratcheted up against the dissenting churchmen, Bonhoeffer and Niemöller were criticized by their fellow churchmen for opposing Hitler and his policies. Eventually over two thousand would choose the route of appeasement and safety and abandoned support of Bonhoeffer and Niemöller’s efforts in resisting the Nazis. “They believed that appeasement was the best strategy; they thought that if they remained silent they could live with Hitler’s intrusion into church affairs and his political policies.”[9]

In the late summer of 1933, Niemöller wrote a letter to a friend about his opposition to Hitler.

Although I am working with all my might for the church opposition, it is perfectly clear to me that this opposition is only a very temporary transition to an opposition of a very different kind, and that very few of those engaged in this preliminary skirmish will be part of the next struggle. And I believe that the whole of Christendom should pray with us that it will be a “resistance unto death,” and that the people will be found to suffer it.[10]

In early 1934 from the pulpit of his church in the Berlin suburb of Dahlem, Niemöller spoke of the coming trials that faced the German church.

We have all of us—the whole Church and the whole community—we’ve been thrown into the Tempter’s sieve, and he is shaking and the wind is blowing, and it must now become manifest whether we are wheat or chaff! Verily, a time of sifting has come upon us, and even the most indolent and peaceful person among us must see that the calm of a meditative Christianity is at an end…

It is now springtime for the hopeful and expectant Christian Church—it is testing time, and God is giving Satan a free hand, so he may shake us up and so that it may be seen what manner of men we are!…

Satan swings his sieve and Christianity is thrown hither and thither; and he who is not ready to suffer, he who called himself a Christian only because he thereby hoped to gain something good for his race and his nations is blown away like chaff by the wind of time.[11]

In 1937, Niemöller and more than eight hundred other churchmen were arrested and imprisoned for their opposition to the Nazis. Following release from prison after eight months, Niemöller was immediately arrested again as a “personal prisoner” of the Führer himself and spent the next seven years in Dachau, one the Nazis’ most infamous concentration camps. He was freed by the Allies in 1945.[12] After the war, in his sorrow for not recognizing and speaking out in the early days of the Nazi rise to power, Niemöller penned this sorrowful message.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.[13]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was discussed in chapter 8 (Defending the Good Society) with regard to his views on church-state relationships. Bonhoeffer knew well the cost of silence in the church when faced with evil in the public square. His ardent faith and boldness in confronting evil cost him his life. He called silence when faced with evil what it was…sin.

We have been silent witness of evil deeds; we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretense; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open…Will our inward power of resistance be strong enough, and our honesty with ourselves remorseless enough, for us to find our way back to simplicity and straightforwardness?[14]

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil, God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.[15]

The words of Solzhenitsyn, Niemöller, and Bonhoeffer all carry the same message. Defenders of the good society must not remain silent. We must speak out with truth and take action to confront the evil of humanism and its handmaidens—egalitarianism’s lies and falsehoods and socialism’s corrupt order.

Silence in the face of evil occurs because of cowardice in the leadership of local churches

Franklin Graham said, “Those who are afraid to address moral issues are no better than those who commit transgressions.”[16] The truth of his powerful words is confirmed in Revelation 21:8, “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (emphasis added) [NKJV] In his commentary on this verse, Donald Stamps states that,

The “cowardly” are those who lack faith in God and who fear the disapproval and threat of people more than they value loyalty to Christ and the truth of his Word. Their personal security and status among others on earth mean more to him than faithfulness to God. The “cowardly” include the compromisers among God’s people who give up the spiritual light and do not overcome evil.[17]

There are many facets of cowardice including fear of retribution, fear of being accused as intolerant and judgmental, fear of being culturally exiled, and desire for acceptance. However, in spite of the cost, the church, individual Christians, and other defenders of the Judeo-Christian worldview are called to soldier in a much larger ongoing conflict which I described eight years ago in my book Evangelical Winter – Restoring New Testament Christianity.

In addition to the liberal apostate church of the last 120 years, there is also a faithful but mostly silent church in America that is content to preach the gospel and ignore the culture. But Erwin Lutzer disagreed with hiding behind the gospel while ignoring the culture. He wrote, “whether in Nazi German or America, believers cannot choose to remain silent under the guise of preaching the Gospel…we must live out the implications of the cross in every area of our lives. We must be prepared to submit to the Lordship of Christ in all ‘spheres’.”[18] [emphasis added]

As we live out the implications of the cross in every area of our lives, we must understand that the culture wars in which we soldier for Christ are not about maintaining the American dream however one may define it. Rather, the culture wars are about restoring the biblical understanding of truth in all spheres of our national life. To do so one must speak the truth in the face of lies, stand on biblical principles when others compromise, and take right actions in spite of consequences.[19]

If we are not actively living out our faith by fighting the wickedness in society and the culture of our time (in the schools, government, business, popular culture, arts, entertainment, media, and so forth), God will view our inaction (neutrality) as participation in the enemy’s wicked cause. In other words, God will not find us guiltless. Here we speak of individual and collective guilt.

In closing, we must note that perhaps there is no arena of public affairs where the silence of the local churches is more heartbreaking than their silence with regard to the welfare of our children in America’s K-12 educational system. The very youngest of children in most local schools are being fed pernicious ideas on the subject of sexuality—ideas with which their young minds are quite unable to cope, and to which their own parents object. Older children are being so confused by sexual activists that they agree to have their bodies mutilated, so they can never become the men and women God has created them to be. We cannot help but wonder where are all of the leading American pastors today on the issues of sexuality and transgender craziness. Are they afraid to speak? Like lemmings, it appears that local pastors across the nation have also lost their voices and backbones in their failure to consistently and repeatedly address these issues in their pulpits and at local school board meetings.

Eric Metaxas in his 2022 book, Letter to the American Church, captures the essence of how the church has become silent in the face of evil.

…those who behave as though there is really nothing to worry about, who seem to think—as such prominent pastors as Andy Stanley and others do—that we ought to assiduously avoid fighting these threats and be “apolitical” are tragically mistaken, are burying their heads in the sand and exhorting others to do the same …Do we not realize that no good ever can come of such silence and inaction, that human beings whom God loves suffer when His own people fail to express boldly what He has said and why they fail to live as He has called them to live?[20]

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:
[1] 1000+ AG Lead Pastor Connect, https://churchmultiplication.net/1000plus (accessed 2-21-2024
[2] Ibid.
[3] Mario Marilla, “Politics in the Pulpit?” Mario Marillo Ministries, February 12, 2024. https://mariomurillo.org/2024/02/12/is-he-right/ (accessed 2-22-2024).
[4] Ibid.
[5] Larry G. Johnson, Defending the Good Society – The Assault on Order, Justice, and Freedom, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House Publishers, 2020), pp. 109-112.
[6] “Biography,” The Aleksandra Solzhenitsyn Center, https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/his-life-overview/biography (accessed June 18, 2020).
[7] Solzhenitsyn, AZ Quotes. https://www.azquotes.com/
[8] Erwin W. Lutzer, When a Nation Forgets God, (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2010), p. 44.
[9] Ibid., pp. 19-21.
[10] Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2010), p. 197.
[11] Lutzer, When a Nation Forgets God, p. 32-32.
[12] Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, pp. 293, 295.
[13] Ibid., p. 192.
[14] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Letters and Papers from Prison Quotes,” goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1153999-widerstand-und-ergebung-briefe-und-aufzeichnungen-aus-der-haft (accessed June 29, 2018 (accessed June 29, 2018).
[15] “20 Influential Quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” Crosswalk.com. https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/inspiring-quotes/20-influential-quotes-by-dietrich-bonhoeffer.html (accessed June 29, 2018).
[16] Marillo, “Politics in the Pulpit?”
[17] Donald Stamps, Commentary on Revelation 21:8, Fire Bible: Global Study Edition, New International Version, Gen. Ed. Donald Stamps, (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC, Copyright 2009 by Life Publishers International, Springfield, Missouri), p. 2565.
[18] Lutzer, When a Nation Forgets God, pp. 31-32.
[19] Larry G. Johnson, “Pornography in Owasso Public Schools – Will local churches remain silent?” CultureWarrior.net, November 8, 2022. https://www.culturewarrior.net/2022/11/08/pornography-in-owasso-public-schools-silence-of-the-local-churches/
[20] Eric Metaxas, Letter to the American Church, (Washington, D.C.: Salem Books, 2022), p. 51

Pornography in Owasso Public Schools – Will local churches remain silent?

Posted by :admin On : November 8, 2022
1

Category: American Church, Archives, Culture Wars, Education

On October 17, 2022, KTUL Channel 8 aired a story about an Owasso parent’s efforts to have a graphic novel removed from the school library. The book had been randomly checked out by his 14-year-old daughter. The parent described what he found in the book.

There was children with their penises showing that were urinating in each other’s faces. There was scenes, and this is graphic, images of ejaculation. There are scenes of teen sex. There are also scenes of a child, a child being raped in the book, and all in graphic depiction.[1]

The parent stated that when he first told school officials about it, they didn’t pay him much mind until he brought copies of the pages to the assistant superintendent who then, he says, pulled the book for review. The parent stated that he was very happy with that and thanked him and sent emails thanking them.[2]

The parent then attended a school board meeting on October 10, hoping the district would establish a policy that addressed his concerns about pornographic materials in the school. Apparently other parents in attendance voiced similar concerns to the board as well. According to the parent, those wanting pornographic materials removed from the school were accused of “just trying to ban books or burn books” in spite the parents claims that they were just trying to protect their children from pornography. In spite of their efforts, the board took no action to address a policy change on what books would be allowed in the school.[3]

After the meeting the parent spoke to school board member Brent England in the parking lot about the concerns of the parents. Within three or four days after the meeting the parent received a letter from Owasso School Superintendent Margaret Coates informing him that he had “committed one or more acts” that interfered “with the peaceful activities on District property.” Specifically, the letter stated, “You are hereby directed to leave the Owasso Public Schools and all of its grounds including sports events, sports venues, and not return.” The Channel 8 news reporter asked the parent if he could pick up his kids. The parent responded that, “I cannot pick up my children without written permission from Margaret Coates. It feels very retaliatory.”[4]

Subsequently, U.S. District Judge John Heil issued a temporary injunction that prevents Owasso Public Schools’ efforts to ban the parent from attending school board meetings, dropping off and picking up his children from school, and attending parent-teacher conferences and other extracurricular activities. The judge noted that it “is clear” that Owasso’s ban was “substantially motivated as a response to Plaintiff’s criticism of the Board’s decision and his petition for a redress of grievances” which is protected under the First Amendment.[5]

Pornography in Oklahoma’s K-12 schools is widespread and deeply embedded

Owasso Public Schools is not the only school system that has been found to have pornography in its libraries and classrooms. The State Board of Education recently voted to sanction Tulsa Public Schools, Oklahoma’s second largest district, by significantly reducing its accreditation status to “accreditation with warning” for violating the provisions of House Bill 1775 passed by the Oklahoma legislature in 2021. HB 1775 prohibits the promotion or teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in Oklahoma K-12 classrooms. The recent vote to sanction Tulsa Public Schools for violation of HB 1775 occurred the same week that the Twitter account, Libs of Tik Tok, highlighted two books available to Tulsa students in the school library—“Gender Queer” and “Flamer.” The Twitter account reported that the books contain sexually explicit and pornographic content. When the sexually-explicit images from the books were posted on Facebook, the tech giant quickly shut down the post citing its graphic content.[6]

Oklahoma Senate Pro Tempore Greg Treat, called the news “appalling and nothing short of deplorable.” Further, he stated,

It is indefensible to have children exposed to images and material that is the definition of pornography. It makes no difference whether its same sex, opposing sex, or anything in between, children should never be able to view the images in a public school sanctioned library setting.[7]

State Representative Sherrie Conley, a former teacher and school administrator, warned that “materials such as these are not just in Tulsa Public schools but in other school libraries throughout the state.”[8]

Owasso is just one of many school boards across the nation that has tried to prevent parents and other critics from participating in school policy actions and decisions. Although present for years, these efforts significantly increased in 2021 with school administrators’ inclusion of critical race theory in classroom instruction. The National Association of School Boards in a letter to the Biden administration sought to label parental resistance as being equivalent to “a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes” and requested that federal law enforcement officials investigate protestors under federal anti-terrorism and hate—crimes laws. This was quickly followed by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s memorandum to the FBI to meet with state and local officials to develop “strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.” Many state school boards associations across the nation denounced the NSBA’s actions and announced their departure from the NSBA. However, the Oklahoma State School Boards Association has never publicly denounced NSBA’s action and has continued its affiliation with the group.[9]

Pornography is just one of several weapons used by the purveyors of the liberal-woke-Marxist agenda aimed at the overt sexualization of elementary and secondary school children throughout the nation. In addition to inclusion of pornographic materials in libraries and classrooms, this overt and well-organized sexualization process includes legitimization and promotion of the LGBTQ philosophy and lifestyle. The LGBTQ agenda for K-12 schools includes promotion and use of cross-sex hormones, surgical procedures, and puberty blockers, all based on their perceived gender identity. Parents of K-12 students must be on constant alert for these and a host of other issues that have infiltrated many public school systems such as Marxist/socialist indoctrination and criteria race theory.

How can local communities once again gain control of their local schools boards and administrators?

The first step is to elect school board members who respect and reflect the Judeo-Christian values and morals upon which the nation was founded. But when the local school boards actions or lack thereof no longer represent or reflect those values and morals, the parents and local citizenry have a powerful voice residing in almost every community. This powerful group is comprised of the local churches which means, first and foremost the pastor, followed by their staff and board of deacons, and backed by the congregations.

Unfortunately, the voice of the church in America became silent during the last half of the 20th century as most pastors and their churches have substantially ceased to speak into and influence their community beyond the walls of the church. For several decades the silence of the church has extended far beyond silence about local affairs. This is the foremost cause of the nation’s moral, social, political, and cultural turmoil and decline. It appears this failure to speak into the various spheres of American life has infiltrated into a large majority of Owasso’s churches.

“Silence in the face of evil is evil itself. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. God will not hold us guiltless.”

Many believe the above quote originated with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the World War II German pastor who resisted the Nazis and was martyred on the direct order of Adolf Hitler at the end of the war in 1945. Although not directly attributable to Bonhoeffer, “it so well sums up what he desperately tried to communicate to those who believed they could safely stand on the sidelines in the battle of that time.”[10]

If we are not actively living out our faith by fighting the wickedness in society and the culture of our time (in the schools, government, business, popular culture, arts, entertainment, media, and so forth), God will view our inaction (neutrality) as participation in the enemy’s wicked cause. In other words, God will not find us guiltless. Here we speak of collective and individual guilt.

Eric Metaxas in his new book, Letter to the American Church, captures the essence of how the church has become silent in the face of evil.

…those who behave as though there is really nothing to worry about, who seem to think—as such prominent pastors as Andy Stanley and others do—that we ought to assiduously avoid fighting these threats and be “apolitical” are tragically mistaken, are burying their heads in the sand and exhorting others to do the same …Do we not realize that no good ever can come of such silence and inaction, that human beings whom God loves suffer when His own people fail to express boldly what He has said and why they fail to live as He has called them to live?[11]

Such silence has led American schools to where they are today.

The very youngest of children in schools are being fed pernicious ideas on the subject of sexuality—ideas with which their young minds are quite unable to cope, and to which their own parents object. Older children are being so confused by sexual activists that they agree to have their bodies mutilated, so they can never become the men and women God has created them to be.[12]

We cannot help but wonder where are all of the leading American pastors today on the issues of sexuality and transgender craziness. Are they afraid to speak? Like lemmings, it appears that local pastors across the nation have also lost their voices and backbones as well. The question I have for Owasso pastors is this, have you regularly spoken to your congregations about these issues? God calls us to speak truth to power. John the Baptist spoke truth to Herod, and it cost him his head. Jesus spoke truth to the religious leaders of his day knowing they would bring about His crucifixion.

Plan of action for Owasso pastors

Pastors must organize, speak, and act for Owasso’s K-12 students who are unable to defend them themselves from the vicious attacks from the enemy of our souls.

1. Preach frequently and frankly to your congregations with passion fired by the Holy Spirit about the evils of pornography, the LGBTQ agenda, Marxism and socialism, and other evils facing our children in the public schools?

2. Pastors should deliver formal notifications of their churches’ opposition to any policies and practices that allow, tolerate, or encourage the presence of pornographic materials in Owasso Public Schools. This document should be signed by the pastor and every congregational member willing to do so and delivered to the Owasso School Board and Superintendent.

3. Encourage like-minded pastors willing to break their silence to come together as a group and attend an Owasso School Board with spokespersons prepared to demand changes to school’s policies and practices that would eradicate pornographic materials from K-12 classrooms and libraries, both now and in the future.

4. Using both social and print media, the Owasso ministerial alliance should publicly addressed the dangers of pornography and other philosophies and practices that promote sexualization of our children in public schools.

Removal of pornography from Owasso Pubic Schools is just one tiny skirmish in the culture wars. Fellow Christians and other defenders of the Judeo-Christian worldview are called to soldier in a much larger ongoing conflict which I described eight years ago in my book Evangelical Winter – Restoring New Testament Christianity.

Apart from the apostate church, there is also a faithful but mostly silent church in America that is content to preach the gospel and ignore the culture. Erwin Lutzer wrote, “whether in Nazi German or America, believers cannot choose to remain silent under the guise of preaching the Gospel…we must live out the implications of the cross in every area of our lives. We must be prepared to submit to the Lordship of Christ in all ‘spheres’.” Yet, as we live out the implications of the cross in every area of our lives, we must understand that the culture wars in which we soldier for Christ are not about maintaining the American dream however one may define it. Rather, the culture wars are about restoring the biblical understanding of truth in all spheres of our national life. To do so one must speak the truth in the face of lies, stand on biblical principles when others compromise, and take right actions in spite of consequences.[13]

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:
[1] Burt Mummolo, “Owasso parent banned from school grounds after asking for pornographic book to be removed,”
KTUL Channel 8, October 17, 2022, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/owasso-parent-banned-from-school-grounds-after-asking-for-pornographic-book-to-be-removed/ar-AA134R0f
The video version of this telecast may be viewed at: https://ktul.com/news/local/owasso-parent-banned-from-school-grounds-after-asking-for-poronographic-book-to-be-removed
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ray Carter, “Court prevents Owasso school from banning parent critic,” Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs,
November 2, 2022, https://www.ocpathink.org/post/court-prevents-owasso-school-from-banning-parent-critic
[6] Ray Carter, “Concerns over racism, porn lead to Tulsa school sanction,” Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs,
July 28, 2022, https://www.ocpathink.org/post/concerns-over-racism-porn-lead-to-tulsa-school-sanction
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Eric Metaxas, Letter to the American Church, (Washington, D.C.: Salem Books, 2022), p. 51.
[11] Ibid, pp. xiii, 51.
[12] Ibid, p. 84.
[13] Larry G. Johnson, Evangelical Winter – Restoring New Testament Christianity, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House
Publishing, 2016) p. 265.