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Pastors Show How to Fight Back Against Creeping Progressivism

(Scott Threlkeld/The Advocate via AP)
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As someone who has been critical of the failure of pastors and their churches to take up an active role in fighting for our culture, this development is more than welcome. Ministers across the country are stepping up to counteract the influence of far-left ideology.

The prevalence of the Drag Queen Story Hour movement has become almost ubiquitous in our society. Even in red states, libraries are hosting drag queens dressed in sexually provocative garb to read to young children as a way of conditioning them to be more accepting of this lifestyle.

The Daily Wire reported that “Months after a handful of ministers visited their libraries with Pastor Story Hour,” more leaders in the faith have begun doing this across the nation.

From the report:

The promotion of the LGBTQ movement among young children through vulgar drag performances and events in government schools has recently garnered national headlines. Dale Partridge, the pastor of Reformation Fellowship in Arizona, and Michael Foster, the pastor of East River Church in Ohio, invited members of their communities to discover biblical teachings about gender last year, while Christian actor and conservative activist Kirk Cameron launched a tour of libraries across the country.

The Daily Wire interviewed some of these pastors, who “emphasized the necessity for Christians to accompany mere complaints” about those advancing the LGBTQ agenda among children. “The Daily Wire has learned of several Pastor Story Hour events scheduled across the nation over the next several weeks,” author Ben Zeisloft wrote

Owen Strachan, provost of Grace Bible Theological Seminary in Conway, Arkansas, will be at Conway Public Library on January 14 to read a picture book and preach the gospel. He has already shown up on the radar of progressive activists, who have planned a rival story hour at the same time as the minister’s event.

“Our culture now privileges drag queens over biblical kings. Tragically, children have been placed in the middle of this confusion,” Strachan said in remarks to The Daily Wire. “As Christians, we love children. Following Christ’s own example, we love boys and girls by welcoming them, protecting them, preaching the gospel to them, and teaching them all God’s truth. This includes biblical truth about men, women, and God’s design for sexuality.”

Pastor Kendall Lankford from The Shepherd’s Church in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, will host a Pastor Story Hour event at his local library. The pastor told The Daily Wire:

“Christ has a vision for the entire world and not just for our homes, which means that the scope of the gospel, the goal for which the Church is laboring, will not be accomplished until all the children of the world come under God’s blessing and have been taught a biblical worldview. With that, the drag queens in particular, and the LGBTQ movement in general, are the ones who are truly on the wrong side of history. And I will admit, the church has much work to accomplish until that work is finished, but sloth, apathy, and hiding our heads in the proverbial sand will certainly not get us there.”

This is how we should be fighting – not by just complaining about what the left is doing, but by providing a competing alternative. People with conservative values will start winning when they emphasize what they are for more than what they are against.

What we could be seeing is the continued rise of a right-leaning counterculture to battle the influence the hard left has amassed over American society. Journalist Chris Rufo touched on this in a piece for City Journal:

The idea of a conservative counterculture might seem like an oxymoron. The term itself has been colored by the 1960s, when left-wing intellectuals, revolutionaries, and artists captured the spirit of revolt against a supposedly homogenous, oppressive, conformist America. That old counterculture has become the dominant culture, having been absorbed into the bureaucracies of universities, schools, government, and now major corporations. The left-wing culture no longer carries a critique; it is the status quo.

We need to see more of this – especially from church leaders, many of whom have shied away from speaking out on controversial issues. I discussed this in a podcast episode with Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills.

Right now, we are witnessing the proliferation of leftist ideology in schools, libraries, medical facilities, and other institutions. This is especially dangerous when it comes to how these folks seek to influence young children, using school curricula to indoctrinate them into gender ideology and ideas inspired by critical race theory.

Parents have pushed back against this in a variety of ways, including sending their kids to private schools or choosing to homeschool them. It is one of the reasons why school choice has once again gained a position of prominence in the national conversation on education.

What these pastors are doing is but one battleground in which conservatives should be fighting. By showing the nation why our ways are preferable to those of the hard left, we can persuade our communities to embrace a better way.

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