I had a discussion last night, before heading to the room I must vacate this morning. I reminded a very erudite colleague — who had noted many of the rooms are like cells, that this was originally a monastic place. She commented that at least you did not need a crazy religion to be here any more: so I recalled that until the Victorian reforms this reformed person would have never been a don because you (a) had to be a communicant in the Anglican church and (b) take holy orders. And not marry. The community was celibate.

Which she thought was a reason we should fight religious fanaticism. I disagreed.

I really should have prayed for her soul, but I slept instead.

But I wonder if I was too polite and too nice. As if niceness is something that is Christian. It is not: faithfulness is.

For many believers, this new era will present a unique challenge. Christians often strive to be seen as the “nicest” or “most loving” people in their communities. Especially among Evangelicals, there is a naïve belief that if only we were winsome enough, kind enough, and compassionate enough, the culture would welcome us with open arms. But now our love — expressed in the fullness of a Gospel that identifies homosexual conduct as sin but then provides eternal hope through justification and sanctification — is hate.
Christians who’ve not suffered for their faith often romanticize persecution. They imagine themselves willing to lose their jobs, their liberty, or even their lives for standing up for the Gospel. Yet when the moment comes, at least here in the United States, they often find that they simply can’t abide being called “hateful.” It creates a desperate, panicked response. “No, you don’t understand. I’m not like those people — the religious right.” Thus, at the end of the day, a church that descends from apostles who withstood beatings finds itself unable to withstand tweetings. Social scorn is worse than the lash.

May it not be. I Worry when people call me nice: I’m used to being called a fool, or in error, or saying things which cannot be said. That are unloving, or hateful. As if we should let our enemies define hate, or love, or regulate our actions.

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Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the LORD will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the LORD, that he may send thunder and rain. And you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking for yourselves a king.” So Samuel called upon the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel.

And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.” And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”

(1 Samuel 12:16-25 ESV)

A hat tip to Stacey McCain, who collects examples of those who would try to regulate our speech by saying they are hated against and that all must change so that they are not offended, but the examples he gives are some of many.

The Left celebrates cruel, selfish cowards like Laurie Penny, who gain fame and wealth by denouncing the success of honest, decent people. She is a typical totalitarian, dishonest and sadistic, her politics inspired by a malign appetite for the power to make other people shut up.

All because she is so “lonely . . . ugly and unloveable,” you see.

Having secured herself a platform from which she can promote bad ideas — and get paid for doing it — Ms. Penny then got paid for writing a column in which she demanded action to silence those who criticize or disagree with her. And she wonders why people consider her a Stalinist.

Now, my colleague from North America is not a Stalinist. I don’t think she would denounce me for not having goodthink: she would chalk it up to antipodean ignorance and unenlightenment. But the zombies of Stalin do exist. If they cannot get you on what you have written, they will make stuff up. Their denouncements will be seen as innocent and pure.

By other zombies.

But we have another duty. We have to pray, yes, for our peoples and our nation and I must pray for this colleague, even though if I say that to her I will be, in this post-christian nation, deemed to be highly rude.

And we must continue to say what is good and right and true and acknoweldge the beautiful and worthy. Those things are always good and of benefit, and here Samuel is an example.

But be at one with the braindead who crawl around, demanding we all place every thought under their control? May that not be.

Let the Zombies call me a hater. They want my brain, and they ain’t going to get it. I want my thoughts to be ruled by the Holy Spirit and submit to the maker of all that is good and true, not to this bunch of loud offendatari.

IF you should not be part of the elite, then you should definately not be a member of their neo-stalinist legions of living dead. Let the accusations of hatred flow like a thousand blossoms, to the point where all see, and all know, that this witch hunt for the haters is a lie.

Do not be them, or like them.