We are living in tender times. Mild I guess, compared to many other nations yet madness compared to the days we have previously known. It's crazy that we find ourselves hemmed in by political correctness so ludicrous, that you can now literally be arrested if your opinion hurts someone's feelings or you simply think in a different way. Free speech is most certainly a thing of the past. We instead find ourselves at the mercy of crooked laws being so deceptively executed in order to muzzle the voice of truth and to violently unleash the poisonous din of extreme liberalism. No doubt it won't be long before a book such as my recently published Sacred Sexuality will be banned, the Bible will find itself on seriously shaky ground and expressing an opinion that doesn't line up with liberal ideologies will invariably render you behind bars before you can even utter the words "freedom of speech."
It's not surprising then that there has been a recent outcry with the people of this nation and across the pond waking up and demanding their voice back. People are becoming acutely aware that there is something so dysfunctional and perverse occurring in our western world right now, which somehow gives certain people the privilege to have a voice and a right to live as they choose even if they are deceived, armed, dangerous or destructive whilst others (much like many minorities have long experienced in other parts of the world) are being left vulnerable, their voices silenced, they are being cornered, intimidated and persecuted.
Following political activist Tommy Robinson's horrific recent arrest where on YouTube I watched his freedom so perversely violated and unfairly snatched away from him with sheer disbelief, I am aware that things will only get worse. To consider that this freedom fighter whom I rate tremdendously is doing thirteen months in jail for apparent court of contempt, without even being allowed a trial and being unfairly punished with a prison sentence that he is unlikely to make through alive, is complete injustice. It's truly heartbreaking. I weep at the thought of it.
To think that he is deemed a racist and a bigot simply because he has the balls to speak up against the extreme islamisation of the UK where very few people would have the courage to. When he was arrested he was reporting on an ongoing eperdemic of mainly Pakistani grooming gangs - responsible for grooming and raping thousands of white girls over the last thirty years. An eperdemic that the police has predominately ignored, failing thousands of children and families because they have unfortunately lacked the courage and conviction to confront the communities responsible for these hideous crimes, for fear of being labelled racists. How insanely heartbreaking.
Likewise, an elderly preacher in his seventies I heard about recently being arrested in Ireland for preaching a sermon about radical Islam is a sign of the times. Whaaaat? I mean to think that radical islamists are getting away with murder in this nation. Like literally. And we are not allowed to say diddly squat about it. Luton amongst other areas in the U.K. is swarming with terrorists, known to the police and on government watch lists yet they are seemingly being allowed entry into this country after completing their Jihadist training without anyone batting an eyelid - but then you hear about innocent foreigners being arrested, imprisoned and banned from the UK when they try and visit this nation to delve into this issue or try to speak up against the casualties of political correctness gone mad. How do these double standards work? I mean it's all actually nuts.
It's also crazy to consider that we are living in a time where you have to be eighteen years old to vote but a four year old can decide they don't want to be their assigned gender. At an age where you don't even know what your surname is, you can choose to undergo life altering transitional surgery that will impact every single area of your existence including your psyche, your identity, your relationships, your sexuality and your ability to reproduce, to name but a few things - yet a teacher can get sacked because she isn't allowed the right to hold onto her own conviction and refrain from calling that child by their new adopted gender if it goes against her own beliefs. Seriously? Seemingly only liberals are being granted freedom of choice. We are literally living in a time where you are only allowed to have one opinion and if your opinion doesn't line up with it you will be penalised and punished.
I am increasingly discovering that many a time it will in fact be a Christian view which will be sacrificed in order to exercise the rights of a liberal view. It is clear to see that as Christians we simply won't be allowed to hold our Christian ideologies much longer. A person of any faith should have the right to believe what they believe as long as they don't enforce their view on others and as long as they walk in love, right? Yet in this nation this is no longer a privilege enjoyed by people of faith. Especially for Christians it seems. I'm sure many would beg to differ. Many may consider there to be plenty of religious tolerance. Others may consider their own religious group the most persecuted and untolerated and deem other faiths as having far too much tolerance. In my own personal experience Conservative Christianity can often be perceived as right wing extremism and untolerated by much of society. In fact I believe many even hold Christianity directly responsible for the world's problems.
I guess it's one of the reasons that our nation has long discarded its Christian heritage. Yet this is where I believe our nation actually started losing its identity and it's balls frankly - when it gave up its Judeo-Christian values. I desperately wish the UK had been proud to hold onto its Christian heritage and not discarded it as outdated and exclusive. Instead in the name of inclusivity, God was taken out of the schools, universities, hospitals and culture, the Bible was removed from all public places and a big fat spiritual vacuum ensued. Rather than inviting multinational cultures who came to the UK to hold their own values and enjoy their own faiths but to honour and respect the cultural and spiritual heritage of the land we instead accommodated every other faith apart from our own.
As a result I believe true British values that should be unapologetically and boldly upheld have been discarded in the name of political correctness and tolerance and the Christian voice and biblical values now hold very little significance. Cultures that have stronger convictions have taken ground and we as a nation devoid of spiritual backbone have simply stood by and watched. The church hasn't done enough to speak up; Christians are now persecuted and biblical ideologies are literally being wiped out. Not just in the UK but across the nations.
For example in the state of California there is currently a push for immediate laws to be passed for all literature in any way opposing a LBGTQ lifestyle to be banned (including the Bible). Additionally if the bill is passed the law would prevent anyone from counselling someone who willingly desires to leave a homosexual lifestyle. Breaking these laws would lead to prosecution. How can this be? It is madness. Absolute madness. Please don't misunderstand me. This does not mean that I do not love and value people who are practising a homosexual lifestyle or those who may identify as transgender. This is most certainly not the case. I absolutely want to love all people no matter what their sexual orientation or behaviour may be. The same way someone can hopefully love me despite my sexual choices, my behaviour or my religious views.
Because you see I believe that ultimately we have all been created in the image of God, with free will - and none of us should be forced to sacrifice our belief systems to appease another's. We certainly should never be forced or bullied to change our convictions for the sake of political correctness. I know gay people that would be horrified to think that people are being persecuted for not holding the same beliefs as them. Similarly I would never dream of forcing a gay person to silence their homosexual beliefs and command them by law to accept the views of a Christian. It's a choice that comes from the heart. It's a conviction, not something you bully someone into.
Yet in this day and age expressing thoughts such as these will have you labelled as a bigot or a racist. Yet I know that I have the love of God within me and I am not seeking to hurt in any way. I also do not for even one minute consider myself to be racist simply because I'm speaking up about radical Islam. In fact I am so aware that there are thousands of peace loving Muslims who are equally as outraged about the terror and destruction caused by radical Islam. My own sister is one. In the same way, my comments about the deliberate failure of our authorities to deal with predominantly Pakistani grooming gangs are not in any way intended to be racist or judgemental. Rather it breaks my heart that our police have felt too intimidated to confront the culprits because of fear of backlash.
And though I know my thoughts come from a place of compassion, righteous indignation and desire for integrity, freedom and peace I am quite aware that we are approaching a time where personal opinion expressed in this blog on such matters, will simply no longer be acceptable. The truth is that the belief system that I live by as a believer in Jesus Christ is so far removed from the humanist, secular, liberal and pretty much satanic ideology that we are continuously having shoved down our throats in the name of political correctness. I am increasingly finding that the liberty of a secular society is being demanded at the expense of my freedom as a Christian. Sad sad times.
Yet frustrations and human rights aside, how am I to respond as a Christian? Not as a citizen of Britain, or a human being. But as a believer in Christ who has long died to my own rights and is now a new creation who is called to live by the law of love, to be a law abiding citizen, honour those in authority, pray for kings and leaders and to be a peacemaker. As someone who is aware that ultimately this is a spiritual battle and not a political one. I have certainly wrestled with this question massively in the last few years or so as the bubbling persecution which is undeniably imminent is beginning to take its place in a land that I've grown up always associating the statement "it's a free country innit" with. This is no longer the case though. Still, as a Christian I am aware that this very state of affairs is what the Bible speaks of concerning the last days. And this is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Yet I also know this - that no matter what laws may come in, no matter what changes may happen in society and no matter how liberal we may become I know I am not governed by the precepts of this realm. I am free. I am free indeed. Whether my voice or my rights or possessions are taken away from me, I am eternally free. If I were chained on the outside, enslaved in the natural, with mouth and opinion muzzled, still my song of freedom cannot be silenced and the liberty on the inside of me cannot be shaken, taken or broken. All my Bibles could be burned or taken away and I would remain a living epistle. My opinions could be silenced and my perspective shut down yet the God on the inside of me would shine brighter still.
Even with this divine comfort and hopeful assurance still I have been prayerfully contemplating my position as a Christian in these tender times - what should my stance be in this ever intensifying fight amongst the people of our generation to have their voice returned to them - in this pursuit for many including myself, to sustain the legacy of our land, as a nation built upon Judeo Christian values? Do I stay silent? Do I march along? Do I fight back? Do I rebel? As a Christian - one who is in the world but not of this world I most certainly believe I have a crucial role to play. It is not to rant and rave or criticise and judge. It is certainly not be be passive, mind my own business and bury my head in the sand whilst all this is going on. It is not to be a political activist. On the contrary it's to be a spiritual activist. To pray like never before. It's to cry out for mercy over our land. It is to petition heaven for true freedom to become substance in our society. It is to make my voice heard in the courts of heaven.
You see even if I let society silence my voice I simply refuse to be a silent bystander in the realm of the spirit. I refuse to be on mute in the only place where my voice can truly make a difference. Because I absolutely want to see truth, righteousness, purity and love prevail in this world. In the face of political correctness I want to see integrity arise. And out of that place of connection with heaven's solutions I want to march side by side with those who are fighting a worthy cause as they protest for freedom of speech and I want to come alongside this national outcry for liberty and bringing tears of compassion and secret place travailing I want to release heavens ethos and Kingdom culture into the atmosphere, with every marching step we take together so that an explosion of hope and freedom of an eternal kind would be released afresh into our temporary and passing world.
I don't want to demonise or criticise the leaders of our land but I want to pray for them, weep for them and cry out for wisdom and mercy for them. I want to pray for courage for our police and authorities and conviction for our government. I want to declare God's very best over the nations. I don't want to be sedated by the lies of the mass media but I want to champion a culture of honouring, love-drenched arts and entertainment that comes in the opposite spirit to the deception, lies and slander infiltrating our society and instead releases hope, joy and peace.
I don't want to point a finger at precious muslims seeking an encounter with God longing to peace and wholeness - I want to pray for them. I want to also lament and cry out for the salvation of every Islamic terrorist on earth, interceding on their behalf that they would come to know the truth. That they are worthy, loved and created for life, not death. I want to pray for the girls who have been raped by the thousands, by grooming gangs and weep for their justice, yet I want to be standing in the gap for the perpetrators to come to know the truth of God's love.
I want to be a pillar of hope in a hopeless society that surveys all that's going on around it as the poo hits the fan and wonders if things will ever improve. I want to be there to speak love, unity and life when hatred, division and prejudice threatens to intimidate, paralyse and break down. I want to be a joy bomb when doom seems to be drawing ever close. I want to be a voice of love even when everything else fails. I want to pray tide-turning prayers and make nation changing declarations. I want to be a history maker. I want to be in the midst of it all, releasing a fresh statement of love and redemption - with all that I am.
Therefore I am compelled as a child of God to find my voice like never before. In these turbulent times when free speech is being silenced, if truth be told I simply cannot afford to lose my voice. For it is my voice that is shaping my world. My words are creating and shaping the culture around me. They are releasing heaven on earth. For I truly believe that heaven on earth is the only hope we have. So in these tender times when our speech is no longer free and our opinions will soon be muzzled, I know in my heart that even if the whole world would command that I be silenced, it will quite simply be impossible. For the truth, the way and the life of Christ's love within me, can never be muted. x
*This blog post is dedicated to Tommy Robinson, who's safety and freedom I continue to pray for as he remains in prison serving a thirteen month sentence. Though I do not agree with everything he stands for but I respect him massively and my heart goes out to him. I sincerely pray that he would be released without delay and he would come to know the unconditional, overwhelming love of God.
