A number of days ago, David Von Drehle of The Washington Post scolded pro-lifers for allowing so-called “zealots” to take over their movement after winning the victory of overturning Roe v. Wade. In the piece, he compared pro-lifers to the Khmer Rouge of Nineteen Seventies Cambodia, which, after its victory, began murdering its own members for trivial “offenses.” In Von Drehle’s mind, pro-lifers who at the moment are calling attention to the moral problems with IVF are doing the identical thing: allowing counterproductive radicals to take over the movement within the wake of a victory.
The irony here is that the type of radical overreach Von Drehle is talking about is happening, just not within the pro-life movement. Rather, his evaluation more closely describes one other major political movement that, not too way back, won a decisive victory on the Supreme Court. In the years for the reason that Court redefined marriage for the entire country in 2015 in Obergefell v. Hodges, the LGBTQ movement has been overtaken by its most radical wing, who has demanded every kind of recent rights.
No sooner had marriage “equality” been achieved, these activists demanded “transgender equality” that included giving men access to women’s bathrooms and lockers, hosting “drag queen story hours” at libraries, providing tax-funded gender transitions, and indoctrinating kids and taking them away from their parents. Some relentlessly persecuted businesspeople, akin to cake artist Jack Phillips and florist Barronelle Stutzman, for refusing to hitch their celebrations. And most began demanding your entire population adopt latest language, obey pronoun requirements, and join various “pride” celebrations.
Perhaps then, we shouldn’t wonder that the years-long trend of growing support for so-called gay “marriage” has paused. Perhaps, it’s even reversed.
A recent poll by the Public Religion Research Institute found that support for same-sex “marriage” dropped by at the very least two points last yr, and support for “gay rights” anti-discrimination policies fell by 4 points. Also, opposition to businesses refusing certain services on religious grounds fell by five points.
Every major media outlet that reported on these findings quickly assured readers that a big majority of Americans still support gay “marriage” and “rights.” Still, this reversal is critical. It may even suggest a possible backlash, especially since even young Americans are losing their rainbow zeal. The PRRI study also found that those 18-29 at the moment are eight points less prone to support nondiscrimination laws than they were in 2020. The LGBTQ movement, remember, has long prided itself on its high youth support.
At the identical time, Pew Research reported that a growing majority of registered voters within the U.S. affirm that “an individual’s gender is decided by their sex at birth.” In 2017, only 53% of voters thought gender was determined by sex. Today, 65% say it’s—this after years of incessant preaching by activists and elites that gender is subjective and has nothing to do with an individual’s body.
This is the movement that has experienced the form of takeover by zealots that Von Drehle accused pro-lifers of allowing. In the times after Obergefell, LGBTQ activists decided the culture was theirs for the taking, and there was not anyone standing in the way in which of their broader agenda. The “T” particularly, whose proponents have not all the time had one of the best relationship with the “L” or the “G,” decided to piggyback off their success, nevertheless it appears to have backfired. At the very least, their cultural progress has stalled, and the movement is losing ground. Perhaps Americans have just uninterested in the preaching. Consider how “pride month” festivities this yr seem a bit subdued.
The lesson here is considered one of cautious encouragement. The cultural ascendency of bad ideas is just not inevitable, neither is it irreversible. Often, those bad ideas carry inside themselves the seeds of their very own destruction, which suggests there is no such thing as a excuse to provide up or stop telling the reality, even when it seems the tide of cultural opinion is against us. Tides are inclined to turn, and movements that win quickly are inclined to let it go to their heads.
Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.
