Some good news on the front lines of the culture wars

Until Jesus returns and sets up His perfect kingdom, the culture wars will continue to rage, and there will be many setbacks along the way. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be some real victories as well. Let’s focus on some positive, recent news.

1) The number of abortions in America continues to drop.

To be sure, this news is hardly all positive, since hundreds of thousands of babies are still aborted every year in the USA. How excited would we be about a hypothetical headline during World War II that stated, “The number of Jews being slaughtered is declining”? Or, in 1850 in America, “The number of slaves is less today than 20 years ago”?

At the same time, one less abortion means one less baby killed in the womb, and for that, we rejoice.

According to the latest reports, “The number and rate of abortions across the United States have plunged to their lowest levels since the procedure became legal nationwide in 1973, according to new figures released Wednesday” (meaning, September 18, 2019).

Specifically, “The report from the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, counted 862,000 abortions in the U.S. in 2017. That’s down from 926,000 tallied in the group’s previous report for 2014, and from just over 1 million counted for 2011.”

More importantly, “According to the report, the 2017 abortion rate was 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 — the lowest rate since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Following that ruling, the number of abortions in the U.S. rose steadily — peaking at 1.6 million in 1990 before starting a steady, still-continuing decline. The abortion rate is now less than half what is was in 1990.”

Note that last line carefully, and be encouraged: “The abortion rate is now less than half what it was in 1990.”

To be sure, some the decline is due to lower fertility rates, with women having less children in general. And some of the decline is connected to increased use of contraception.

But much of the decline is also due to a recognition of the wrongness of abortion. And so, despite the gory statistics of 862,000 reported abortions in 2017, the pro-life cause continues to gain ground.

2) New York City has decided to drop an oppressive ban on so-called conversion therapy.

As reported by Tyler O’Neil on PJ Media, “New York City will act swiftly to repeal a ban on psychotherapy to address unwanted same-sex attraction, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson announced last week. Johnson, who is himself gay, insisted that he would rather not repeal the ‘conversion therapy’ ban, but he insisted that a legal challenge forced his hand.”

And here’s the even better news: “Obviously I didn’t want to repeal this. I don’t want to be someone who is giving in to these right-wing groups,” Johnson told The New York Times. “But the Supreme Court has become conservative; the Second Circuit, which oversees New York, has become more conservative. We think this is the most responsible, prudent course.”

The bill, which became law in 2017, forbade a therapist from charging clients for “services intended to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.”

In other words, if a gay man asked a licensed therapist to help him overcome his same-sex attractions and the therapist agreed to help him, the therapist would be fined. And the fines would be stiff: $1,000 per violation.

Obviously, this law was oppressive, tyrannical, and unconstitutional, but it was easily passed in the liberal climate of New York City.

However, after an Orthodox Jewish therapist sought legal help from the Alliance Defending Freedom, the city quickly retreated. They knew they could not win in the courts, since both the State and Federal courts have become more conservative.

Could this be the first of many repeals?

3) In response to parental protests, different cities are now canceling “Drag Queen Story Hours” in local libraries. (Most recently, see here.)

Of course, it’s a shame we even need to fight this battle. But the good news is that some communities are standing up to this outrageous and offensive new practice, one that targets the most vulnerable citizens in our country: toddlers.

Perhaps it’s also good news that the opposition is showing its true colors. As reported on September 9, a California church was vandalized for opposing “Drag Queen Story Hour” in local public library.

Before their building was vandalized, Pastor Amado Huizar of South Bay Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista explained that, “My bishop and I have been vocal in trying to speak with city leaders about why this is not age appropriate, location appropriate, and messenger appropriate. And since then we have received hateful messages on social media. People have attacked our families and our personal lives.”

Amazingly (but not surprisingly), openly gay City Councilor Steven Padilla blasted Christian groups speaking out against the drag queen invasion, are “part of a group (i.e., MassResistance) that ‘promotes anti-immigrant and white-supremacist beliefs.’”

So, Pastor Huizar, who is Hispanic, and who distributed literature in English and Spanish, is now connected to alleged white-supremacists. Right.

But that was only the beginning. On the morning of “Sept. 8, early parishioners at Pastor Huizar’s church were greeted by Satanic messages painted on all four outside walls. They were quickly covered up, but it was clearly meant to terrorize both the pastor and the churchgoers because of their stand against the ‘Drag Queen’ event.”

Yet as ugly as this is, it is also positive.

This is an attack on Christian values and on Christian believers coming from Satan himself.

At least the cat is out of the bag.

Forward in faith and courage! In the end, the light will also triumph over the darkness.