So Pride Month has come again to Canada, when drag queens and nudists prance the streets and any politician who might find himself not entirely in lockstep with the LGBTQ Alphabet Soup crowd—or perhaps simply doesn’t care for scenes of public indecency—finds himself relentlessly harassed by the Media McCarthyites with strident questions: “Do you now, or have you ever, found yourself in disagreement with any of the fundamental tenets of our rapidly evolving views on sexuality?” The radicals who once demanded that politicians stay out of their sex lives now demand that they show up, watch, and applaud. Everyone must bend the knee.
Journalists have already begun to hound new Conservative leader Andrew Scheer with questions about his lack of attendance at Pride, and he has thus far responded with the appropriate answer to such badgering: He laughed at them. Additionally, journalists have been somewhat distracted by the ongoing faceoff between Black Lives Matter—which successfully extracted a promise out of Pride Toronto that no police uniforms would be permitted—and the gay community. Clarification may yet be needed, however, as it is not clear if Black Lives Matter only wants real cop uniforms banned or if the costumed leather guys and strippers are out of luck, too.
But there have been a few political developments in the last couple of weeks that indicate the ideological purity tests are gaining traction, picking up speed, and spitting gravel. Aside from the haranguing of Scheer, which will probably happen every year around this time until he leaves politics, dies, or genuflects to the rainbow flag, there was Senator Bernie Sanders’ shouting interrogation of a Christian nominee, where Sanders refers to the Christian belief that Jesus Christ alone can save as a “phobia.”
UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s ill-fated attempt to build a larger parliamentary majority that instead handed her a hung parliament has also provided ample opportunity for Christian-bashing, as it turns out that the political party that may prove instrumental to May’s ongoing hold on power is the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. As progressives realized this fact to their horror, the scare-mongering columns came shrieking forth: The DUP has consistently blocked gay marriage, a secular heresy that now provokes much hair-tearing. They also oppose abortion and have consistently defended the right to life of children in the womb, another position that triggers much hysteria.
And now UK politician Tim Farron has announced his resignation as leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, explaining that it no longer seemed possible to be both a faithful Christian and a politician at the same time. As The Guardian reported:
“From the very first day of my leadership, I have faced questions about my Christian faith. I’ve tried to answer with grace and patience. Sometimes my answers could have been wiser.
“The consequences of the focus on my faith is that I have found myself torn between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader,” he said in the televised statement.
“To be a political leader – especially of a progressive, liberal party in 2017 – and to live as a committed Christian, to hold faithfully to the Bible’s teaching, has felt impossible for me.”
He also hit back against some of the close scrutiny of him during the campaign, which saw him grilled repeatedly on questions such as whether he believed homosexual sex was a sin.
“I seem to be the subject of suspicion because of what I believe and who my faith is in. In which case we are kidding ourselves if we think we yet live in a tolerant, liberal society.”
Keep in mind that Farron assured everyone that he had no problem with same-sex relationships and insisted that he was pro-choice. Even with those statements, he still faced the resignation of party members over his apparently problematic Christian views. Obviously, Farron decided he could take the relentless hammering over his personal moral beliefs no longer, and felt it better to resign. It wasn’t even what he said in public that mattered anymore. Some Lib Dems apparently also wanted to be sure that even his private beliefs were in line with their agenda.
As I detailed in Chapter 8 of my recent book, the LGBT blitzkrieg has been extraordinarily effective. Even those politicians who simply do not agree with the rainbow agenda or dislike lewd exhibitionism mumble sad excuses about having prior engagements to avoid the cacophony of cawing that will erupt on the Left if they are to actually say what they believe out loud. Normal is out, freaky is in, and now it doesn’t matter if your private convictions dictate otherwise: You will be made to watch.
For anyone interested, my book on The Culture War, which analyzes the journey our culture has taken from the way it was to the way it is and examines the Sexual Revolution, hook-up culture, the rise of the porn plague, abortion, commodity culture, euthanasia, and the gay rights movement, is available for sale here.
