The Standard of Liberty Voice
For God,Religion,Family,Freedom
A publication of The Standard of Liberty Foundation
www.standardofliberty.org
Aug.3, 2005, #2

Science Fiction, Our New Reality

A few weeks ago I happened upon an article in BYU’s Daily Universe about a World Family Policy Forum going on at the university. My husband Steve made a few calls and ended up as an attendee. He met people from all over the world, places like El Salvador and Sri Lanka, who are concerned about the preservation of conjugal marriage and the natural family as the preferred and ideal unit of society. He brought home a huge stack of literature–binders, spiral notebooks, booklets, presentations– written by experts on these subjects. I have been plowing my way through them (slow going because of the scientific, legal, and political language) and have really had my eyes opened.

The funny thing is, I am both encouraged and disheartened. A great deal of unified, brilliant effort is being put into this cause, which is wonderful. But the whole idea that we now have to go to great lengths to defend the obvious facts that men are men, women are women, marriage between them is good and right, children do best being raised by their parents, etc. is like something out of a twentieth century science fiction novel. I really thought I had entered the Twilight Zone. This dangerous alternate reality is where our extremely dedicated but now corrupt radical civil rights, feminist, and gay activists have taken us.

One of my favorite presentations from the Forum was written by a political columnist from New Zealand, Alexis Stuart, a conservative mother of three. I emailed her thanking her for her work and we started up a little correspondence, sharing books and encouragement. Her country, though small, is the United Nations’ poster child for anti-family legislation. All of the highest government posts are held by radical feminists who have been pushing their agendas for decades (although there’s an election soon Alexis hopes will change that). I never realized what far-reaching havoc a certain brand of extreme feminism has come to wreak. They are no longer about improving the quality of women’s lives; it is power and social revolution they are after. They are actually against things I didn’t think it was possible to be against – they are anti-conventional marriage, anti-motherhood, anti-abstinence before marriage, just to name a few. And they are for things you wouldn’t think it was possible to be for – they are pro-prostitution, pro-pornography, pro-indoctrinating our children, just to name a few. There is actually a book called Defending Pornography (Scribner, 1995) by feminist Nadine Strossen (pres. of the ACLU), which claims to be all about freedom of speech and sexual expression.

That’s the thing. Before we can be of any help we have to take a deep breath and start paying attention to what’s happening to our country, distasteful as it is. We have to humble down and face the fact that those seeking to change our culture are extremely clever. They plan their strategy in secret. They disguise their tactics to look not only harmless but helpful and preferable. They use and exploit the innocent and well-meaning. They attack and try to destroy people whose opinions and goals differ from theirs.

Alexis suggested I read The New Thought Police and The Death of Right and Wrong by Tammy Bruce. I’ve started the first one and it’s like I’ve been beamed back to high school when I read George Orwell’s 1984, only Tammy is saying that what Orwell only imagined is now happening for real in America. As the shock wears off, I am left with a new resolve to stand up for what I believe before it’s too late and I’m not allowed to!

To end with good news, at the closing dinner of the World Family Policy Forum, Steve met some LDS leaders and handed each of them a copy of our book My Darling from the Lions. He was surprised at one leader's enthusiastic acceptance of his gift. She had heard about it in Geneva, Switzerland at a World Conference on Families a few weeks earlier.

It’s not only a small world, but it has become filled with unimagined horrors. Small, ordinary people must now do what they can to restore it to a healthy reality.

-Stephen & Janice Graham

 


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