Can the land live again?

Much has been made in the press recently of Disney’s overt attempts to indoctrinate children into LGBTQ+ values. Films since 2017, for example, have included openly gay characters. But even that is apparently not enough, and Disney executive Karey Burke has recently vowed to do far more to make the Corporation’s content ‘inclusive’, pledging that up to 50% of its regular characters would be drawn from underrepresented groups, such as racial minorities and the LGBTQ+ community. More specifically, Ms Burke said she had been dismayed to learn that the company had only a handful of queer lead characters in its content, and that as the mother of two queer children, one transgender and one pansexual, she was 100% in favour of featuring “many, many” LGBTQIA characters (the acronymn is for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), intersex, and asexual [or allies]) (https://nypost.com/2022/03/30/disney-executive-wants-more-lgbtqia-minority-character/).

This, however, has produced something of a backlash that has taken Disney wholly by surprise. The company, which has previously removed the use of gendered pronouns from its theme parks, has already been forced onto the back foot, with outraged parents across the world cancelling their subscriptions to the Disney channel, boycotting films in the cinema, and abandoning planned visits with the kids to theme parks. Here in the UK too, parents have protested, with people signing the over 208,000 strong petition calling for Disney to stop promoting the LGBTQ agenda (https://citizengo.org/en-us/207229-stop-promote-lgbtq-agenda).

As part of the counter-blast, and to the outrage of gay rights’ campaigners, the State of Florida has also recently passed legislation banning promotion or discussion of LGBTQ topics, including sexual orientation and gender identity, to children under the age of 9.   Acknowledging the profound and damaging effect such teaching can have, legislators stated unequivocally that active promotion of such concepts to young, highly suggestible children is a form of indoctrination and inappropriate.

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, this is not a view shared by Disney.  The Company tweeted in response, ‘We oppose any legislation that infringes on basic human rights,
and stand in solidarity and support our LGBTQIA+ Cast, Crew, and Imagineers and fans who make their voices heard today and every day’ (https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/disney-exec-wants-half-characters-LGBTQ-ethnic-minorities-07.jpeg).

Let us make no mistake.  We are caught in a battle for the soul of the world.   Humanity is currently witness to devastating physical war in Ukraine, but if evidence were needed of the vicious and uncompromising spiritual battle being waged concurrently for control of the Earth, it is surely provided by the war to reconfigure society’s values.   Whatever activists maintain, children as young as three do not need to be introduced to the idea of gender choice and the mechanics of sex, on the spurious grounds on inclusivity.   Nor do they need to be encouraged to ‘experiment’ from puberty, so that they can make an informed decision about their own orientation.

The truth is, over the last century the West has become increasingly immoral, corrupt, decadent, and weak.    This is not to say that society was exactly ‘Godly’ prior to that.  It wasn’t, but moral boundaries founded on religious belief ensured that, by and large, men and women observed a code of conduct that respected and cared for others, upheld the family, and that worked for the common good.

This mindset has largely gone as society has increasingly rejected God, with worship transferred instead to Self and consumerism.   Consequently, values founded on self-restraint, responsibility, and discipline, have been jettisoned – lost in the strident demands for self-gratification and indulgence.

The chaos in which we now find ourselves is not freedom.  Rather, it is bondage to moral degeneracy, and to a dog-eat-dog rivalry that savages those who disagree.   To have any hope of salvation, it is urgent that men and women reject what, at the end of the day, is the enforcement of immorality, and that we make a stand to defend the genuine wellbeing of all.

The world is currently faced by a combination of events that imperil our very existence.  Covid, climate change, war, depletion of global resources … the threat of worldwide famine and collapse of the financial markets.   In human terms there is no obvious and easy answer for any of these problems.  Indeed, whatever we do, it seems as if nature, perversely, stays one step ahead.

For deliverance, we need God’s help.

In our hubris, we have challenged His sovereignty – small wonder then that God has withdrawn that protection that over the centuries has kept the forces of chaos at bay.  Yet it is not too late.  Even now, if we reject the evil we have so thoughtlessly celebrated and ask for forgiveness, placing ourselves, in obedience, under His banner, He can save us from the maelstrom of evil raging across the earth, and restore us to life.

Can the land live?  Yes, it can.  But only if and when God Himself enters the field and smashes Satan’s hold.    Even now, and despite our rebellion, God yearns to help – but for that to happen, we need to repent.