Upon initial observation, the way modern pop culture and mainstream media, which shall be referenced in this post collectively as "modern secular progressives", cower to ISIS seems extremely ironic. The barbaric violence, hatred of gays, abuses of women, and power hungry imperialism that characterize this band of misfits seem so counter to modern liberalism that one would expect progressives to rise up against ISIS. Yet, ISIS warriors still receive acceptance in Europe and North America, even after their acts of terror (or sheer horror) continue to escalate. Why are such obviously racist, bigoted, homophobic, terrorist hate groups given asylum (or released from prison) and offered full entitlement benefits
while peaceful, loving Christian families who put no burden on government doles or educational funding whatsoever are deported?
Does this public acceptance of our enemies by Obama, Hillary, the media, and those in elite progressive circles stem from fear? After all, it is easier to bully a Christian who forgives "seventy times seven" and turns the other cheek than to bully someone who may detonate a bomb at any moment. Appease the enemy is the mantra of progressive foreign policy even though we know how that worked out for France during WW2 and can see how it's working out for most of Europe where terrorist cells are harbored.
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Update on 11/6/2016:
Now we know that some of the motivation for being such a friend to ISIS came from the fact that the same governments that fund ISIS fund the Clinton Foundation.
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A closer look, however, reveals some striking parallels between ISIS and secular progressives. When those parallels are exposed, the initial paradoxes seem less ironic, and
ISIS looks more like a physical representation of some of the core ideologies guiding modern progressive (regressive) culture.
Similar Enemies
While the ISIS enemy list is infinitely broader and longer than the enemy target list guiding modern secular progressives, both place Judaism, Christianity, and liberty (democracy, capitalism, self-government) at the top of their lists.
ISIS warriors refer to their enemies as "infidels" while progressives call their enemies by a wide array of expletives or unflattering terms (extremists, right wingers, homophobes, haters, bigots, racists, fundamentalists, etc.), but the real enemy for both groups is anyone who disagrees with their ideology or stands in the way of their goals. While progressive preach tolerance, they are just like ISIS in that they are only tolerant of those who share their self-centered views. Anyone who disagrees or opposes them becomes an enemy target.
Similar Methods
ISIS primarily uses propaganda (videos, media headlines, etc.), violence, fear, intimidation, shock, emotional manipulation, deceit, and murder to persecute and destroy their enemies. The grotesque, violent, and cruel methods ISIS uses to torment their victims (all while cameras are rolling to incite horror, shock, and fear across the globe with the internet as their message vehicle) are only rivaled by those of the ancient Assyrians described in the Old Testament.
With the mainstream media, younger generations, a compliant citizenry, academia, and a growing number of public education systems under its thumb, progressivism has been effectively spreading lies and propaganda for decades with the goal of indoctrinating all generations. As exposed in the documentary,
Expelled, and experienced by Christian conservatives on university campuses for at least the past three decades, liberal philosophies are forced upon students, not through violent acts, but through intimidation, bullying, and peer pressure. If you don't join the herd, you are pushed out. Professors who question progressive theories with scientific laws are denied tenure, and students who present valid arguments for alternative views are immediately silenced and/or unjustly punished.
Censorship at Harvard is so severe that students aren't even allowed to discuss non-liberal viewpoint in an ethics class or to attend certain classes if they hold pro-life views that may offend another student. Bible verses are deemed controversial and not allowed in class discussions. U.S. flags are even viewed as offensive by some students and banned in dorm rooms.
Progressive pop culture icons like Miley Cyrus, Beyonce', Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, and Lena Dunham, in their desperation for validation and attention, force their obscene, immoral, nude, and/or shocking images into the minds and hearts of people everywhere through social media and deliver distasteful "performances" on stage or in front of video cameras to further deaden the sensitivity of the human heart to all that is profane.
LGBT activists have used bullying, legal powers such as the well-funded ACLU, manipulation, activist judges, and threats of financial ruin on small businesses to force not only tolerance of their new liberal moral code, but full endorsement of it, even by those whose freedom of religion should exempt them from violating their deep rooted moral convictions. While
Hobby Lobby has been fighting it's religious freedom battles against Obamacare from day one of its inception, smaller business owners such as
Sweet Cakes,
Masterpiece Cakeshop,
farm owners, and
florists have not had the resources to win lawsuits by those who pressured them to provide services for gay weddings.
Hillary Clinton has pledged that if elected POTUS, she will force Christians to change their beliefs so she can enact her progressive liberal agenda.
While secular progressives may not be as violent as ISIS, progressivism does advocate abortion at every stage of pregnancy, and at taxpayers' expense. Abortion is
just as violent as many of the cruel acts perpetrated by ISIS. Abortion is excruciatingly painful for both the baby and the mother. ISIS warriors use a machete to dismember body parts, while an abortion doctor uses a scalpel, but the processes are very similar. Abortion clinics even sell these body parts for profit.
Abortion occurs far more often than deaths by ISIS.
In 2014, Planned Parenthood killed 327,000 babies. Between June and December of that same year,
ISIS killed approximately 2000 people, but their terrorist activities have grown considerably since that data was published.
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| http://www.priestsforlife.org/resources/medical/d-and-e.aspx |
The
partial birth abortion procedure is especially horrific in that the baby is delivered breach with the entire body except the head outside of the woman's body. As the body dangles or dances, the doctor uses scissors to cut a hole in the full term baby's brain and then sucks the brains out, killing the baby just seconds before full delivery is complete. More details are provided at the preceding link, but I will refrain from posting pictures since they would make this post R-rated for violence.
There is simply no mercy in abortion.
This procedure is not used to save the life on the mother, for it actually puts the mother's life in greater danger. Mothers in crisis pregnancy situations are lied to, manipulated at their most vulnerable points, and abused. They will suffer consequences from their abortions for the rest of their lives apart from the healing, redemptive power of Christ. Consequences will follow, whether in the form of later pregnancy complications, unexplained depression, relationship struggles, etc. Loving counseling is critical to healing a mother's heart.
Radical progressives offer similar disdain and disregard for human life if such life creates any inconvenience or financial burden, such as experienced by those possessing some perceived physical or mental impairment or by simply growing older.
Similar Motivations
What could possibly drive someone to join ISIS? Americans working in ISIS occupied countries have observed that young men are compelled by a desire for identity or purpose. Poverty and unemployment are huge problems in Arabic nations, leading to depression and hopelessness. Joining ISIS gives them a reason, wicked as it may be, for living. It gives them something to do instead of mourning their perceived insignificance in a coffee shop all day. They think fighting will make them feel powerful when they are so overcome by their own powerlessness to change their circumstances. ISIS provides a sense of belonging for those who feel all alone. Others are motivated by feelings of anger, resentment, or hostility fueled by the bitterness that grows when past hurts are not forgiven. ISIS fighters are allowed to rape and abuse the women they conquer and are often provided with a group of female captives whom they have made into prostitutes to feed the lusts of their flesh. The promise of 72 virgins (the correct translation is grapes, not virgins btw) in paradise, though not explicitly stated that way in the Koran, is said to be the primary incentive for Islamic martyrs. Hopeless, unemployed, depressed, possibly suicidal young men are easily enticed into joining ISIS, especially if martyrdom is like a "get out of jail free" card with sexual fantasies and sensual ecstasy to go with it. Bottom line:
ISIS fighters are motivated by wounded feelings and carnal desires.
Extreme progressive ideology also appeals to sensual, sexual fantasy and to the emotions. This new social order forces society to accept any and every deviant form of sexual behavior as normal. Nothing is taboo anymore, so anything goes. Those who dare oppose such moral depravity and speak out for truth, justice, and virtue are verbally or physically abused by the progressive herd.
Progressive ideology is now opening doors for rapists, perverts, and pedophiles to gain easier access to women and children through the new bathroom law movements.
The smear campaign covering North Carolina's HB2 is a classic example of liberalism's use of deceit and force to ram their agenda even where the majority oppose it. Based on a set of lies developed by the radical lobby group filing suit against North Carolina, the Human Rights Campaign, the
Obama Administration is now threatening to withhold all education funding (holding children hostage) until N.C. repeals the law that is in every respects legal. Lies, threats, manipulation, and threats of financial ruin are all at work in this progressive assault on the privacy and protection of women and children.
Progressives also uses name calling, threats, and other bullying strategies to keep the citizenry from using their brains to think critically, apply facts, or evaluate issues logically. Secular progressives insist that people be guided by erratic, deceptive, irrational, easily offended feelings. While they may not physically decapitate their enemies as ISIS does, radical liberalism does metaphorically decapitate their neighbors by insisting that truth is irrelevant and that feelings are all that matter. The result is a society filled with headless bodies ruled by out-of-control carnal passions. Unthinking, irrational, hate filled citizens will follow their progressive leaders anywhere, for they "feel like" their progressive government leaders know what is best for them, when in truth, the progressive powers only want to expand their dominion, like all the imperialistic dictators before them....and just like ISIS.
Similar Malady
At the core of every person within each radical group, be it the new extreme progressive liberalism or the religious radicalism of ISIS, is an empty soul, longing to be filled. Every human heart and mind seeks lasting satisfaction. We all are born with a desire to love and to be loved, to belong to a community, to fulfill some greater purpose beyond ourselves, and to know that we have value. Darwinian theory (fundamentally flawed as it is) reduced man's perception of his/her infinite, intrinsic, infinite value to nothing more than a cosmic accident, and it gave man an excuse to follow after his/her own carnal desires instead of pursuing God. While ISIS warriors do claim to worship one god, they do not worship in spirit or in truth (
John 4:24). They falsely believe that by fighting, they can have their cake (sinful desires) and eat it too in paradise forever with the martyr's free pass. But nothing in this world can satisfy a soul that was created for Heaven. Neither extreme progressivism nor ISIS's conquests will ever bring peace on earth or bring peace to the restless human heart.
Turning off the mind will not turn off the longings of the heart, for they are connected and must function together to accomplish anything of lasting value.
Same Remedy
Both ISIS fighters and progressives have chosen the wrong enemy. There is One who loves every human being with an infinite, unconditional, sacrificial love that is more than enough to satisfy the human soul. His love is so great that he suffered a horrific death in our place, so we would not have to suffer the full penalty of our sins while receiving forgiveness for every wrong thought or action. His power is so infinite that He defeated death and rose again, so that we too may be raised with Him if we trust Him for salvation and let Him lead our lives instead of enslaving ourselves to the lusts of our flesh. He has a wonderful and perfect plan in motion that no one can hinder. He equips each one of us uniquely to fulfill His purpose in that glorious plan He is unveiling moment by moment for the salvation of many and for His glory. Instead of persecuting Christ and His followers, the remedy is receiving Christ as Savior and Lord and letting His love and peace fill each person to overflowing. He gives abundant joy and peace to all who join His army of saints. His love and forgiveness extends to all people, yes even to ISIS warriors, who come to Him in repentance and genuine faith.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.....
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 1-11, 37-39)
