Truth Should Not Be Silenced
- Debbie Frederick
- Mar 17, 2023
- 6 min read
Last month, I came across an article about Candace Cameron Bure regarding her casting in movies with traditional families. She said of the notorious network, "Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core." In addition, the network will, "lean into the faith element," which means, "more storytelling about the Christian faith and talking about God, and not just making God a general statement of belief, but actually talking about Jesus and more specifics of the Christian faith” (Bure, 2022). I was pleased to hear someone speak out regarding traditional marriages and the hopes of keeping the christian faith a central part of mainstream media. After reading, I curiously scrolled through the comments wondering if anyone supported or opposed her stance.
“Stand firm with your Christian views and values, way to go!”
“Good for you Candace!”
“I’m definitely watching Great American Family. I Love Candace Cameron. She is a great role model for young girls!”
Encouraged to see that many supported her stance without receiving any backlash, I decided to join the fun and chime in!
“I’m pleased to see someone standing up for traditional marriages. It’s not just about what Candace said, but let’s ask ourselves, what does the Lord say about traditional marriage?
My comment was fairly similar to the rest; however, the only difference was I added, “what does the Lord say?” Well, this led to a series of replies, most of which viciously opposed my stance.
“Everyone has a right to choose who they want to marry!”
“What exactly is a traditional marriage, and do we look down on the people in non-traditional marriage? I always thought love is love!”
“Debbie Frederick, those who live by the Lord are the biggest hypocrites!
Well, that certainly didn’t go as planned! I felt like I was in the midst of devouring wolves ready to eat me alive; were they offended about my comment, or were they offended because it was true? Despite the ridicule and criticism I experienced, I was not about to be silenced by a crowd of people who didn’t like what I said solely because it confronted their lifestyle. Due to the nature of their replies, I quickly realized some had bad experiences with Christians condemning their sinful lifestyles. My goal wasn’t to condemn anyone because of their choices; however, I saw it as an opportunity to stand up for what I believed in - to stand up for truth. It was discouraging yet alarming to observe I couldn’t share my Christian views openly; however, I understand sinners will live sinfully until they come to repentance and faith in the transformative power of Christ, and because of that, I chose to have compassion on their lost souls.
One person said I was being hypocritical, because I wanted them to conform to my lifestyle, but I was unwilling to conform to theirs. I tried to be patient, since they did not understand being in Christ meant I am born again and strive to live blamelessly and holy - to conform to their lifestyle would mean opposing God’s standard of righteousness. Homosexuality, is a sin just like deception, lying, gossiping, hatred, fornication, adultery and the many others that break God’s holy law. Psalm 51:5 says, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” We are by nature sinners, that’s why we all need the forgiving power of God to cleanse and deliver us from sin. Over the next few weeks, I thought about the comments but chose not to take them personally - not to retaliate. Instead, I prayed that their eyes would be opened to the truth. I realized that if someone is not a follower of Christ, they are a slave to their sin, so why fight? I ought to demonstrate God’s love by being kind, gentle, patient and graciously speaking the truth. Despite the retaliation I experienced, I was encouraged to read the responses of fellow believers that supported my stance.
“Even though Debbie wasn't around when the books of the Bible were written, God's word is written on her heart. She is filled with the Holy Spirit. Because of this God has granted her wisdom and discernment to love that which is righteous and to hate sin. Doesn't mean she is or ever will be perfect, doesn't mean she doesn't sin, but she doesn't celebrate it either. God bless my sister in Christ.”
How encouraging it is when fellow believers support one another! A few weeks after that incident, I came across the word relativism while reading an article. The word leaped out at me, so I quickly looked up the meaning and continued reading. Later that day, I came across the same word while reading a devotional. There it was again, leaping right off the page - relativism. This was certainly not a coincidence! I felt led to do a bit of investigating, and that’s exactly what I did. I intently looked up its meaning, and discovered relativism is, “the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute” (Dictionary.com) I felt this was directly related to my previous encounter with the comments from a few weeks ago, which sent me on a quest to do some more digging! Here are my findings according to Slick (2008):
Relativism is a family of philosophical views which deny claims to objectivity within a particular domain and assert that valuations in that domain are relative to the perspective of an observer or the context in which they are assessed. There are many different forms of relativism, with a great deal of variation in scope and differing degrees of controversy among them.
Moral relativism encompasses the differences in moral judgments among people and cultures.
Epistemic relativism holds that there are no absolute principles regarding normative belief, justification, or rationality, and that there are only relative ones.
Alethic relativism (also factual relativism) is the doctrine that there are no absolute truths, i.e., that truth is always relative to some particular frame of reference, such as a language or a culture (cultural relativism). Some forms of relativism also bear a resemblance to philosophical skepticism.
Descriptive relativism seeks to describe the differences among cultures and people without evaluation, while normative relativism evaluates the morality or truthfulness of views within a given framework.
As I meditated on these findings, I came to the conclusion we are living in a world of Moral Relativism. Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (2008) stated, “the plague of moral relativism is encouraging everyone to accept homosexuality, pornography, fornication, adultery and a host of other sins that were once considered wrong but are now being accepted and even promoted in society. It is becoming so pervasive that if you speak out against moral relativism and its “anything goes” philosophy, you’re labeled as an intolerant bigot. Of course, this is incredibly hypocritical of those who profess that all points of view are true, yet reject those who profess absolutes in morality. It seems that what is really meant by the moral relativists is that all points of view are true except for the views that teach moral absolutes, an absolute God, or absolute right and wrong.” This statement shedded a better light on the word and its relevance to our world today. It showed me the power society holds to dictate how its citizens live their lives contrary to the laws of God. Up until this article, I was oblivious to how moral relativism affected how society viewed truth, and how many have shied away from speaking it.
As I look at the life of Christ, He didn’t condemn men because of their sin, but He did preach repentance which calls for men to turn from their sin and put their faith in Christ. He graciously spoke the truth in love, with the aim of saving men from their sins. That was Christ’s mission, to save sinful men from their sins, and it should be our mission to speak the truth that sets men free from their sin. My prayer is for God to open our eyes to see the truth that lies within the pages of his Word. The bible tells us in Isaiah 5:20, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” My encouragement is that we will stand firm on the word of God, and graciously speak the truth - even though it contradicts popular opinion.
References
Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. What is Relativism? 2008, December 5 https://carm.org/relativism/what-is-relativism/
Variety Magazine. Candace Cameron Bure Says Great American Family Will Not Feature Gay Couples, Focus on ‘Traditional Marriage’ Instead. 2022, November 14
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