I was looking for flowers, and – florist shops being hard to find anymore – a friend had suggested a nearby Walmart. On entering, I made a beeline for the afternoon greeter: a mustached older gentleman in the ubiquitous blue vest. He looked not a little bored, greeting those passing through his orbit with a professional tone but an expression that suggested what he’d really like was a comfortable chair.
“I understand y’all sell flowers,” I said. “Do you know where I could find them?”
He gazed at me for a moment, poker-faced. An odd light danced in his eyes. Silently, he raised his arm and pointed. Three feet from us sprawled an enormous display of hundreds of potted flowers.
I laughed. “Well, I hope that’s the hardest thing you have to do on your job all day.”
He grinned and rolled his eyes. “Oh, I just stand here,” he said. “They don’t pay me enough to call it a job.”
Amazing how easily we ignore what’s right in front of us.
An hour or two after my Walmart escapade, I happened on an article describing the national to-and-fro over the transgender movement. The article suggested that, ultimately, the dominant cultural attitude toward transgenderism will hinge – like most social attitudes – on two things: 1) whether most Americans believe the idea behind the movement is Right or Wrong, and 2) whether or not they believe the actions born of that movement are doing anyone serious harm.
Three score and seven years ago, the Civil Rights movement struggled to persuade Americans to embrace racial equality. Many, at the time, saw no problem with “separate but equal” facilities and considered racism a largely regional problem. But when their evening news programs showed firehoses and attack dogs being loosed on black children, things began to change.
Racism, it turned out, was doing serious physical harm to a lot of people – and spiritual harm to the whole nation. Americans perceived that, and the tide turned.
A few years later, abortion emerged as the issue that has now divided three generations and counting. It remains unresolved in the American conscience, because while a majority of voters believe abortion kills a living child in a woman’s womb, roughly the same number are okay with abortion deep into the second trimester of pregnancy. Not enough of us see any hypocrisy in that.
On the other hand, 20 years ago, when some began to push for same-sex unions, people quickly bought into the PR of perversion: homosexuality is “just another kind of love,” “love can’t be wrong,” ergo: “homosexuality can’t be wrong.” Redefining the meaning of marriage “doesn’t really hurt anybody.” No harm, no foul, and the Obergefell decision made it nice and legal.
And now, here’s our next contestant: transgenderism. Polls suggest that, like abortion, this issue brings out the contradictory impulses in people of all persuasions. Most don’t seem particularly opposed to the sexual confusions themselves – so long as the experiments go on behind closed doors. But many do recognize the terrible harm being done by allowing men into women’s sports and bathrooms, and by brainwashing and mutilating children.
Unfortunately, that dichotomy doesn’t bode well for the long run. After all, if we don’t really believe the idea behind the behavior is Wrong … how long are we going to object to the behavior itself?
The secret to turning our society away from embracing the transexual agenda, then, lies in convincing enough people that our sex and gender are God’s gift to us – something we’re each born with, can’t change, and should accept. And that we’ll be genuinely happier for doing so.
But whose job is it to make that case? To point out the truth right in front of those who can’t seem to see it? To persuade lost souls and wounded seekers that the solace, security, and contentment they’re looking for is within their reach … from God’s outstretched hand?
Well, it isn’t the politicians’. Grand as it would be to elect officials whose wisdom and bravery match the full-court press of the Left, the corporations, Hollywood, and the major media, the truth is that no one goes into politics to defy the collective will – but to surf on it. Public officials are not the ones to look to for spiritual guidance or moral courage. Lincolns come few and far between.
Pastors would be a better choice … but how many sermons have you heard, these last few years, that offered more than a moment’s outrage or a would-be humorous aside about transgenderism? Or any other significant social or political issue, for that matter? If those who should know the Bible best can’t find it within themselves to preach it – to bring it to bear on the matters warping our culture, abusing our families, destroying our children, and mocking our God – who will?
On the other hand, how many of us in the pews will sit still for preaching that trespasses on our private problems … subordinates our political positions to biblical teaching … and prods us to take uncomfortable action in our homes, our workplaces, our communities?
As pastors with parishioners, so it is with Christians and the culture – and sadly, with parents and their children: we respect the truth – but we’d rather be liked.
We don’t mind grousing about what’s going on around us … so long as we don’t offend anybody. We can rage at what’s happening to our children … but we’re afraid to intervene. We join with those grieving for our dying country … just don’t ask us to come together and pray.
Because, honestly, good Christians that we are, we resent having to think about these things. We don’t want to see what’s right in front of us.
Not the sinful things. And not the searching people.
The flower display at Walmart didn’t have what I needed, but I eventually found my way to the Garden section on the far side of the store. A middle-aged woman sat with her feet up on the counter, looking up at me with eyes that dared me to bother her with a question.
I did. She scowled. Shrugged. Said she didn’t know, in a tone that suggested the answer wasn’t worth pursuing. She rose with a sigh, checked me out, and went back to her magazine.
I walked back across the store to the door I’d come in through, thinking to see the man I’d talked to earlier. He still looked tired. I thanked him for his help.
“Did you get what you needed?” he asked, genuinely hoping I had.
I had. But so many, so close, never do.
A lot of us know enough to show them what they’re looking for. But that’s not really our job, we’ve decided. We don’t get paid enough for that.
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