The Silenced Christian Voice — E.A. Johnston

Speaking Up Against Public Immorality

Years ago, when my daughter was four years old, I took her to our local library to get a book, and in the lobby of that library was prominently displayed a poster advertising a local theatrical production, and the poster was offensive to me because it showed two women kissing in a lesbian embrace.

I went up to the librarian's desk and I said to her, I'm a Christian, and I'm offended by that poster, and I have my little impressionable daughter here with me, and I don't want her to be forced to look at that because you have it hanging in such a prominent place.

And the librarian said to me, well, what do you want me to do about it? I said, I want you to take that poster down. She said I'd have to speak with her boss, who was not there. So I got that person's name and number, and later that day I telephoned her, and she said she had no authority to remove the poster.

I'd have to take it up with the branch director in charge of the libraries for the entire city. Well, I got that person's name and number, and it took me two days of telephoning and leaving messages before I finally reached that person in charge, and I made my point known that I was a Christian and the poster of the two women was offensive to me.

Well, what did the library do? They took the poster down because I had spoken up. There was a time in this nation, years ago, when the voice of the church had authority in the land. In the last century, Post Toasties was an early American breakfast cereal, and in 1904 it was originally sold as Elijah's Manna, until criticism from religious groups and a consequent loss of sales led to a change of name in 1908, so they renamed it from Elijah's Manna to Post Toasties.

Well, I ate that cereal when I grew up, but I didn't know it used to be called Elijah's Manna until the Christian public boycotted it and demanded a name change. The same thing occurred in the 1950s when a television commercial put an outhouse in it, and they were forced to remove that TV commercial off the air because of the outcry of the Methodist church.

And in the 1950s, if an atheist cried out against God, there were more than enough Christians to shout that person down because God still had a majority in the land back then. But few as we are today.

The Church's Duty to Stand Against Evil

Is it not our duty as Christians to speak up and take a stand for God and what is good, and cry out against what God calls evil? I direct your attention, friends, to the word of God in Titus chapter 2.

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We'll be in chapter 2 in Titus, and I want to read us verses 11 through 15 as the Apostle Paul exhorts his disciple Titus to stand for God in a godless society, and may these words stir our own hearts to action.

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself peculiar people zealous at good works.

These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority. I'll let no man despise thee. But what has happened to the Christian voice in this land? Why has it fallen silent? Why has it bowed the knee to political correctness?

The Loss of Spiritual Authority Through Compromise

I'll tell you why, friends, and I believe it can be summed up in the following quote by Alan Redpath, former pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, and this was written back in the early 1960s. My, has everything changed since then, but listen to what he wrote.

Today the Christian church is helpless, behind the scenes and away from the public arena. We are facing powers of darkness too strong for us, because somewhere in our personal lives we have forfeited all right to the Spirit's anointing, his authority, his power.

In his absence, all we can do is to substitute planning and organization, schemes and techniques. I agree with those comments of Alan Redpath, friends, and I believe that that's a proper assessment of our church in this land today.

And because of our compromise with the world, we have lost our influence to a sin-loving society. The voice of authority has been silenced in our churches, because when there is a vacuum of light, it is filled by darkness.

Recovering the Christian Voice in a Dark Age

We have given up ground to that darkness because of our pervading silence. Let each of us live with the expectation of looking for a blessed hope as we live for him in this present dark age, and heaven help us to make a difference in society and speak out against the evils in our day while we still can.

Let us pray.