Happy belated Valentine's Day. Let's talk about love in our culture today. So many people say that "love is all that matters". The LGBTQ community is searching for what they mean by "love is love". It is evident in romance movies, books, and it is on so many billboards. No matter how cheesy this sounds, they are not all wrong. In fact, they might be a little bit right. However, their definition of love if what needs to be established. Searching for love in the world is not going to lead anywhere. But genuine peace and trust is found when the love of Christ is found and recognized. So, I began with this idea of an article about two years ago. But this has been a topic in American culture for years now. While I could (and probably will in the near future) home in on the community specifically, I want to highlight the issues of reading only a small portion of a viewpoint for anything through the use of a personal example.
One time as my family was in a new neighborhood for a holiday celebration, I took a walk with my mom. As we wandered on the main roads and a few side roads we saw countless democratic signs in people's yards. Not democratic in the simple "Vote Democrat" or one specifical catchphrase. Instead, these black signs with intentionally colored letters stood to represent almost everything that extreme Democrats stand for. The signs all read: "Vote democrat, black lives matter, women's rights = human rights, no human is illegal, science is real, love is love, diversity makes us stronger, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". While my mom has always carried strong opinions that she has shared with her kids, especially against signs and beliefs such as this, it really hit me hard this time. I was in my early adult years and as I was working on figuring out what I really believed about the world around me, I was hit again with the truth that these signs brought to my attention- two people can be using the same words and communicating two totally different things.
While that is the highlight of what I want to talk about, I also want to point out that the opposite is true- two people can be using different words and mean the same thing. Both prove the importance of defining your terms. The instance I always go back to for the second encounter was one summer when a group of my friends were having a conversation all about plagiarism. Now, believe it or not, I am an English teacher. I have always had strong grammatical opinions. This was one of them. I worked as a leader of the tutoring center at my college, but that summer one of my friends was taking my place. In the conversation a third friend commented that he used some of his writing from a previous class and submitted it for this class. Now, I quickly piped in to say that he should not be plagiarizing himself. What we later came to realize was that this tutoring friend was agreeing with me- it was a choice that he should not be making. But what came out of our mouths was opposite information. I strongly argued that the third friend "could plagiarize [himself]" while my tutoring friend emphatically stated that "[he] could not plagiarize [himself]". After we both mouthed back and forth with this third friend and a few eyewitnesses in the middle of this, I took a deep breath and asked my friend to define what she was saying. We quickly realized we were on the same page when I said that I meant "It is possible to plagiarize yourself by stealing work you completed for one class and submitting it as work for another class". My friend was saying "Plagiarism of your own work is a choice you should not make". Once we cleared that up, the situation calmed down rapidly. But it proved that we both were getting worked up about nothing- we were using different words to say the same thing.
Politics love to do this. "If we use a word that everyone would know it means one thing" they say "and we have it represent something else or slightly alter the meaning to match our standards, then no one will know and everyone will turn to us." politicians might say- or might mean without fully realizing it. The "Love is Love" leftist sign is an example of this. For example, take the first phrase on the poster: "Black Lives Matter". In today's culture, if anyone argues that black (aka African American) lives do not matter, they are racist. However, if one was to look at the Black Lives Matter website, they would find out what this movement stands for. One great example of their contradictory nature is that the movement is pro-abortion. So, BLM is saying that black lives matter as long as they are outside of the womb. That is not all lives, then! Or, what irks me the most is that this movement tries to paint the world in, well, black and white. But, there are others as well! Hispanic lives matter, too! Asian lives matter, too! African Americans are not the only minority race, but they were the loudest in 2020.
Then, the poster also says "Women's Rights = Human Rights". Yet again, by the quote alone I would agree. I don't know anyone who is arguing that women do not deserve rights, No one is arguing that women are not human in this culture. Some men do not treat women with the same respect as men. Some people treat other people as objects because of how they view sex and it's purpose. But that does not mean that anyone would argue that women's rights is more like animal's rights. What needs to be clarified- what needs to be defined is what "women's rights" means. I mean, other than obviously that it is human rights. What does that mean? What rights are you talking about? The right to vote is already won! The right to be paid fairly? The right to better maternity leave? SPECIFY what you mean.
"No Human is Illegal." Yes, I agree. How could humans be illegal themselves? I mean, similar to the points made above, every human has rights. I would argue that one of those rights is that they are not illegal. However, humans can choose to make choices that our government has determined is not acceptable. Thus, the person is considered "an illegal" because of the choices that they make. This is brought up by the left typically in relation to those who crossed into our country illegally. However, this is not the only type of legality we have in America. We have rules about drinking, driving, smoking, murder, etc. If someone was to break one of these rules, for example, they also should be considered an "illegal". All actions have consequences- whether enforced by the current government or not. We know that we are all held accountable for our actions by the Lord Himself. This is true for those who crossed into our country illegally- the easiest consequence is removing them from our country. As a teacher, I know this personally: if you give someone what they want when they are in the wrong, they will never improve. Even adult Americans need this same advice, too. Just saying "that is illegal, don't do it again" is not enough if we let them stay. America is not making it impossible to enter. If one cannot get in, I have to believe that it is for a justifiable reason.
On the poster they advertise that "Science is Real". Need I say, yet again, I do not disagree with the argument presented by itself. Unless one is a conspiracy theorist, most people know that science is real. But, that does not mean that I agree with the poster. I will always question "why is this important to bring up in a political argument?" This helps me understand the real point that a person is trying to make. I will admit, of all of the quotes on these posters, this is the one that I am the most confused with- I am not familiar why this would be a big deal to someone who has these posters in their yards. From what little research I have done in this area, however, (because again I am not going to leave this as-is without putting in the work) I have found that this is often used as a tool to ask people to believe whatever is published about modern scientific discoveries without questioning the source. I do have to say knowing that science is real and believing anything that any "scientist" tells me on the news are two totally different things.
They say, "Love is Love" but the question is still "What do you mean by 'love'?". The world loves to focus on the romance side of love. The cute-sy & cuddly side. But that is not what love is. Love is sacrificial. Love is kind, Love is selfless. Love is forgiving. The list goes on (a good list is found in 1 Corinthians 13). Also, worth noting, the Bible talks of four different kinds of love. It is worth noting which Greek word for love we are talking about to truly understand the debate. Because of this piece of information, I will say that 1 Cor 13 is talking about "agape" love- the selfless love that God shows to all. This is probably not what the left is referring to. However, "eros" love (the lovie-dovie love that the leftist ARE probably referring too) should have agape love at the base. Aka, 1 Cor. 13 love should be true to everyone that one also shows "eros" love to.
Also, God is love. That does not mean that God loves all things. God is a perfect God. God hates sin. Many people struggle to recognize that this is truth. Recently I heard a quote that stuck with me: The purpose of the gospel is repentance, not love. God did not come just to love us, or to accept us "as we are" like the secular modern world prefers to push. Yes, He loves us. But it does not mean that He loves the choices that we make- the sin that we live in. In fact, He is absolutely NOT okay with this. The beauty of the gospel is in the results of our repentance. When we accept the free gift He offers us, which has us admit that we cannot save ourselves, we are redeemed and free!
All this to say, be careful what you see and do your research to know what people mean before you are quick to agree with them. Hear people out- listen to their perspective. Maybe you will learn something that helps you shape your worldview as well.
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