Changing How People Think
How quickly people can change their views. In many nations, there has been a change with an increasing acceptance of homosexuality, including in the United States, where 72% say it should be accepted. This is compared with just 49% as recently as 2007. In Kenya, only 1 in 100 said homosexuality should be accepted in 2002, compared with 14% who say this now.
"The spectacular success of the homosexual movement stands as one of the most fascinating phenomena of our time. In less than two decades, homosexuality has moved from ‘The love that dares not speak its name’, to the centre of America’s public life. The homosexual agenda has advanced even more quickly than its most ardent proponents had expected, and social change of this magnitude demands some explanation.”
How has this rapid change been brought about? In 1989 Marshall Kirk and Hunter Johnson wrote a book ‘After the Ball’ that outlined the strategy they considered that needed to be followed to change the way society viewed homosexuality. The following techniques were advocated,
1. Use the media widely
2. Imbue the public with a sense of guilt
3. Use of damning terminology
4. Be willing to misrepresent the truth for the cause
5. Exert psychological pressure on opponents
Use and Abuse of the Media
The campaign to change public attitudes has been very carefully orchestrated. The plan is to inundate the media with sexual material till people are numbed andaccepting. This has happened. One analyst has concluded,
“Although a number of lobby groups have campaigned for exposure on the airwaves, the gay lobby has been by far the most organised and best co-ordinated, soon gaining a reputation as the most sophisticated and successful group operating in network television.”
One gay writer openly acknowledged how ‘gay writers’ have cornered the market of ‘situation comedy’ so it is little wonder that traditional sexual ethics are undermined in the vast majority of these programmes. He wrote,
“There are openly gay writers on almost every major prime-time situation comedy you can think of. . . . In short, when it comes to sitcoms, gays rule.”
The BBC’s ‘Children in Need’ appeal has supported a group called ‘Educate and Celebrate’ whose website makes their agenda clear. Here again those who disapprove are labelled as “phobic.”
“Educate and Celebrate is an Ofsted and DFE recognised best practice award programme that gives staff, students, parents and governors the confidence and strategies to implement an LGBT+ Inclusive curriculum to successfully eradicate homophobia, biphobia and transphobia from our nursery, primary and secondary schools, colleges, Universities, organisations and communities.”
Famous people who ‘come out’ and support a cause can have a massive effect on changing the way a society thinks, especially if this is well publicised. Names such as Elton John, Boy George, Ian McKellan and Courtney Love have undoubtedly served to promote the changed perception of gay lifestyles and the acceptance of homosexual activities.
Imbue opponents with a sense of guilt
The campaign to normalise and make homosexual and bisexual behaviour acceptable across society has been assisted by making those with traditional values feel they are out of touch and bigoted. The word ‘homophobic’ is commonly used of people who consider homosexual acts to be wrong. It is deliberately inflammatory, it literally means a dread or a fear of homosexuals, just as claustrophobia means a fear of close spaces, arachnophobia a fear of spiders and agoraphobia a fear of crowds. To use this term for those who consider sexual activity between people of the same sex is a calumny, a false charge maliciously calculated to damage other’s reputations.
It appears to have been utilised deliberately to make those who oppose homosexuality to appear aggressively antagonistic to people within the homosexual community. However Christians believe in the God who loves all people, who is slow to anger. Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God and therefore consider that homosexual acts are both sinful and eventually harmful to society. Christians should follow their Lord in condemning the activity God hates whilst loving those whom God still loves.
Although people have been given great freedom in this world, the Bible teaches we do not have the right to redefine what is right and what is wrong – that is God’s prerogative, and his alone - man may never eat of the ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil’; we are not the arbitrators of right and wrong, God is.
Misrepresent the truth
Dishonesty appears to have abounded in the promotion of these new ideas. Masha Gessen, a lesbian author and activist has acknowledged this is one of their weapons,
“Fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we’re going to do with marriage when we get there. Because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie. The institution of marriage is going to change and it should change, and again, I don’t think it should exist.”
While not all homosexuals agree with the use of deceptive psychological tactics, leading homosexual activists wilfully employ them. “After the Ball’ is widely regarded as the handbook for the gay agenda. This book advocated that gays should stop being portrayed as aggressive challengers, but as victims instead, so making all their opponents as evil persecutors. As a means of the latter, they used jamming, in which Christians, traditionalists, or anyone else who opposes the gay agenda, are publicly smeared. Their strategy was based on the following premises,
“In any campaign to win over the public, Gays must be portrayed as victims in need of protection so that straights will be inclined by reflex to adopt the role of protector. The purpose of victim imagery is to make straight people feel very uncomfortable.”
"Thus propagandistic advertising can depict all opponents of the gay movement as homophobic bigots who are 'not Christian' and the propaganda can further show them homosexuals as being criticized, hated and shunned..."
“Propaganda is to be used whereby those who are traditional in their stance on the gay issue are portrayed as loud mouthed homophobes – rednecks of a Klu Klux Klan stripe (and no one wants to be associated with them, thus creating a feeling of shame), and such people should be shown to be disapproved of which in turn will ‘cause them to keep their heads down and mouths shut.”
They even considered it legitimate to be dishonest to achieve this end,
“It makes no difference that the ads are lies; not to us, because we’re using them to ethically good effect, to counter negative stereotypes that are every bit as much lies, and far more wicked ones; do not be bigots, because the ads will have their effect on them whether they believe them or not.”
Unfortunately the facts do not support the common notion that homosexual relationships, even marriages, are stable.
How people are portrayed in the media does influence people’s thinking. Whenever gay couples, whether married or not, appear in the media they are nearly always portrayed as being in a happy stable monogamous relationship, akin to a stable heterosexual marriage.
The early report by Kinsey observed that long-term monogamous homosexual relationships were very uncommon. A study of gay male couples found that 41.3% had open sexual relationships with some restrictions and 10% had no restrictions on sexual relationships with others. 21.9% admitted breaking their agreement in the previous 12 months and 13.2% had had unprotected anal intercourse with an outside partner without knowing the HIV status of their partner.
An earlier study on ‘The Male Couple’ written by a homosexual couple, found that no male couple was able to remain faithful to their relationship for more than five years. They said, ‘The single most important factor that keeps couples together past the ten year mark is the lack of possessiveness they feel. They investigated one hundred and fifty six homosexual couples and found only seven had maintained sexual fidelity and, of those seven, none had been together more than five years. They reported,
“The expectation for outside sexual activity was the rule for male couples and the exception for heterosexuals. Heterosexual couples lived with some expectation that their relationships were to last ‘Until death us do part,’ whereas gay couples wondered if their relationships could survive.’
One study noted that although there is often a longing for relationships with stability, sexual continuity, intimacy, love and affection, only one couple in the study had maintained a monogamous relationship for ten years. This study commented,
‘For many homosexuals, one night stands or short term relationships are typical.’
In an autobiographical study one homosexual wrote,
‘Gay life is most typical and works best when sexual contacts are impersonal and even anonymous. As a group the homosexuals I have known seem far more preoccupied with sex than heterosexuals are, and far more likely to think of a good sex life as many partners under many exciting circumstances.’
Exert Pressure
Following the barrage of propaganda, this is the next step – make people feel that they have to comply with the new way of thinking or they will suffer .
Vaclav Havel was a leader of the Charter 77 movement in Czechoslovakia in 1989 which led to the successful Velvet Revolution. Their motto was ‘Live the Truth’. Havel asks how normal people have come to not only accept the communist philosophy but to collude with it. He suggests that it starts by people being asked to put up signs saying ‘Workers of the world unite.’ He complies, not because he is enthusiastic about the idea but simply because others are doing this and he doesn’t want to be seen as different. He says,
“I am obedient and therefore have the right to be left in peace.”
Havel recognised the need for people to speak out against oppression, whether through the media or through political pressure. We cannot abdicate from our responsibilities about moral issues to others. Havel noted,
“. . . an essential aspect of this ideology is the consignment of reason and conscience to a higher authority.”
Sainsbury’s stores and the majority of schools have put up posters supporting LGBT activities. Is it really because all the store managers and executives support this way of thinking. Of course not – the way to an easier life is to be compliant with what someone in authority has said. Most people have not investigated the consequences of this movement which ultimately will be one of the causes of the breakdown of family life as we know it.
High profile cases confirm that deliberate discrimination is being used to help the cause. Asher’s Bakery Belfast, run by the McArthurs, a Christian family, were accused of breaking political, religious and sexual orientation laws by the tax-funded Equality Commission because they declined an order to make a £36.50 cake with the campaign slogan ‘Support Gay Marriage’ for a gay rights event, because they felt it conflicted with their deeply-held religious beliefs. The Belfast County Court ruled against them and in 2016 the Court of Appeal in Belfast upheld that decision. However the case was then taken to the Supreme Court where the five Supreme Court judges unanimously upheld the appeal.
After the case the McArthurs commented,
“Family businesses like ours are free to focus on giving all their customers the best service they can – without being forced to promote other people’s campaigns.”
It is such adverse pressure from authorities and individuals, so often well orchestrated, that prevents people from speaking out. The actor, Jeremy Irons has said in a recent Daily Telegraph that “he is ‘terrified’ of the prospect of social media backlash.” In the past he has made comments on gay marriage and abortion but now says that ‘he has retreated from expressing his political views because things are only seen as ‘black and white’ on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.’ He added,
“With the current climate I tend to keep my mouth shut.”
It is this fear of others reactions to anything we say that prevents people saying what they really feel. The well rehearsed and orchestrated take the stage and woe betide any who then speak up from the audience.
Key Questions
Ultimately the questions at stake are ‘Is there a God and if so, is the Bible the reliable word of God?” As Christians we believe that we are all directed by what God has judged to be right and wrong and that the Bible clearly states that homosexual acts are a sin and are offensive to God. There is no fear, no dread and therefore no homophobia, just a sincerely held belief that homosexual acts are sinful in the eyes of God and in the long run are harmful to society.
BVP
