I
love how the liberals' best argument isn't.
It
is at once hilarious and heartbreaking that so often, instead of
offering coherent and compassionate
reasons
for their beliefs, they respond with vulgarities, angry name calling,
and plenty of ALL CAPS.
Expletives
instead of explanations.
This,
of course, should win no one to their cause. Really, we should be
happy that this is all that they
have
to offer. The bankruptcy of their philosophical positions is made
evident by their masterful use of
fallacies
and their impotent use of pretty much everything else.
But
I'm not writing this to the left- may they repent and may God open
their eyes.
I'm
writing to my fellow conservatives. You know who you are, you
Chick-Fil-A eating, freedom-
loving,
Bible-thumping, gun-toting, Constitution-quoting patriot. You
understand that debt doesn't
make
for good economic policy, that inflation is theft, that socialism
makes everyone equally poor, that
babies
have the right to live, that marriage is something that God defines,
not the state.
And
you're right. Your arguments are firmly rooted in truth.
But
are you acting like it?
A
few months ago, a video of an exchange between a Chick-Fil-A employee
and a dissatisfied customer went viral. The video showed liberal
activist extraordinaire Adam Smith oh-so-tolerantly berating the
angelic Chick-Fil-A employee and her company. I say angelic because
Rachel's poised and gentle response to the man's childish attacks
were exemplary. The reactions of conservatism were far less so.
Adam
Smith and his coworkers apparently were threatened with harm (!!!),
while Smith was called every name in the book- and some names that
aren't in the book. The cries for his apology were
(rightly
so) loud and widespread.
Then
he apologized.
What
did Rachel say? “I forgive you.”
What
did conservatism say? “Yeah, right. Whatever, jerk. [expletives]”
And
suddenly, we sound just like the liberals.
The
Adam Smith issue is just a poignant example of a searing
inconsistency within conservatism- that
while
sometimes we stand on truth and speak with compassion, truly desiring
to see “them” come to
understand
the truth, sometimes we drop the truth of the matter, jump in their
sandbox, and kick sand
with
the best of them. Like so many 3-year-olds.
When
we do this, we validate the claims of the Left. We empower their
criticism. Why would anyone
want
to join a movement that can't accept an apology?
While
I'm talking about Adam Smith, it is worth noting that I'm not
suggesting that we naively embrace
Adam
Smith as a repentant and remorseful prodigal son running into the
arms of truth for a touching
reconciliation.
We can be compassionate and forgiving without being doormats. Nor
am I suggesting
that
there is never a place for well-placed satire. The occasional
well-placed “You brood of vipers!” is
never
amiss.
My
plea is that we continue to take the high road- to focus on and fight
for truth.
Jesus
said this, just hours before His death: “For this I have come to
the world, that I may testify to the
truth.”
Of
all the things that He could have said, moments before an agonizing
death, this is what Christ gave
as
His reason for coming to earth.
For
those of us who are followers of Christ- isn't that what we aspire
to?
For
those of you who are conservative but don't claim Christ- what's
wrong with you?
I
tease. We can argue over that one later- you can yell at me through
Twitter.
But
in all seriousness, isn't this what we want to do? Testify to the
truth? And if this is really about
truth,
why are we relying on superior insults and more advanced mastery of
curse words instead of
standing
on the abundance of evidence that is piled around us?
Has
this gone beyond a search for truth and into a matter of pride? Or
have the liberals, by their
incessant
flow of vitriol, finally worn us down to where we can't argue beyond
our own frustration?
If
we let them do this, they win. We become the haters.
Scripture
commands us to “overcome evil with good.” We all know that this
is the most effective
method
of argumentation.
We
have the truth to stand on. Reality is on our side. We can afford
to represent a calm,
compassionate,
confident conservatism to the world- and that is far more likely to
win others to our
cause
than kicking sand.
Let's
leave the hate speech to the liberals. It's all they have.
As
for us, let's be Rachels.
Not
Adam Smiths.
