Has This Good Girl Gone Bad?

By SUSAN STAMPER BROWN

February 14, 2017
Tuesday PM

(SitNews) - Apparently, fighting for the soul of America is an unacceptable occupation for believers. I'm also hearing that it is exceptionally inappropriate for former good girls like me, a widowed pastor's wife, who is supposedly nosediving toward Hades because she speaks out against the darkness of these days using her writing.

Of course, those who believe that kind of nonsense are ridiculously deceived. Jesus' command to love our neighbors means many things including getting involved when we see corrupting moral influences affecting families, marriages, and children. When we speak out, we help shape and sometimes lead public policy.

America is suffocating under the weight of former President Obama's eight-year fundamental transformation of the country. Evangelicals, in particular, have been hit hard. There is a reason why most evangelicals voted for President Trump, beginning with the Little Sisters of the Poor and ending with Supreme Court appointments and a thousand other issues sandwiched in between.

My critics' time would be better spent getting a grasp on what's happened to America rather than misjudging the good guys as bad guys simply because they call out lies, refuse to compromise with evil, and occasionally participate in political policy shouting matches.

In a recent email to me, someone wrote: "...the God I choose to worship is a God of love and has enough room in his heart and at his table to love those on both the right and left side of the political aisles." Well, yes, he does. But the same Jesus who dined at tables with sinners overturned tables in the temple and drove sinners out with a whip.

We barter in cheap grace when we choose to see God's love and ignore the reality of his wrath.

Love might dine with wolves, but love won't allow wolves to dine with sheep.

And by golly, love might even build a wall to protect those sheep! A man named Nehemiah was a pragmatic leader who taught people to pray and trust God but also instructed them to build a wall for protection and arm themselves for battle. He said, "Our God will fight for us," but that was not an invitation for people to lay down their weapons, but rather, a reminder that God would be by their side in battle, were they attacked.

Religion of Peace
By Rick McKee ©, The Augusta Chronicle

Love sometimes uses name-calling to make a point. Jesus said, "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." He called them "ravenous wolves" not naughty puppy-dogs. On another occasion, he called people "vipers." It's not a stretch to think he might have used terms like "brainwashed snowflakes" or "foul feminists" or "nasty women" were it applicable at the time.

Which brings us to America in 2017. Whether we acknowledge it or not, there is a war being waged on the soul of this nation by leftists circling around the sheep like wolves. Those of us who see it for what it is understand it is no longer a time to be silent. King Solomon wrote: "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens," including "a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace."

Sometimes love means fighting with all your might for what is right. We protect what God loves when we speak against things he hates.

War is messy and the people who care enough to fight get hit. Those calling warriors out for calling out the warmongering wolves need to get a grip. History is filled with stories about those who paid the price for swimming against the tide to keep government accountable. Former good girls like me who refuse to compromise with evil will get bruised and broken. And we are rarely popular. But, that doesn't mean we aren't doing what's right or dangerous or difficult to protect the unaware sheep, for such a time as this.

This column has been edited by the author. Representations of fact and opinions are solely those of the author.