THE SERPENT'S SQUEEZE

Our Founding Fathers learned from history that governments have a habit of wanting to control people, to make them toe the mark, and abide by the party line, whatever that might be. Governments have all kinds of weapons to do enforce such control; the one that comes to mind immediately is the firing squad or the sudden disappearance of the dissident warehoused in an asylum for the state-declared insane or in a forced labor camp.

But governments have another way of controlling the masses to ensure their compliance with the regime and it's a brilliant one, one without bayonet or bullet, asylum or camp. It's brilliance lies in its simplicity and it's guaranteed 99% effective. 

Although the French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) isn't a person with whom we'd agree most of the time, we agree on this--"If you want to know who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." 

HERE COME THE GRADUATES
 
We've raised three generations who firmly believe that there is no absolute truth and that we're not to offend, that is, we're not to say that any belief held by any group is immoral or wrong or say that any act is a sin because to do so would be intolerant and discriminatory. We have three generations who think no one has the moral authority to judge (which is a moral judgment itself) any belief or belief system. They paid big bucks in college tuition to be indoctrinated with this.

THE SQUEEZE

And what is the weapon of choice "they" use to control you? I've alluded to it: We can say it in two words--public shaming. Dare to criticize what "they" consider uncriticizable, and you'll feel the wrath of public shaming as witness Christina Quinn's open letter to the President of NYU in 2012, condemning a chain of diners wanting to locate in NYC: "The President of Chick-fil-A continues to make statements and support causes that are clear messages of extreme intolerance . . . . [holding that] some Americans are less than others. I do not want establishments in my city that hold such discriminatory views.” They ran the letter in a leading newspaper for one and all to see. Mrs. Quinn's work of public shaming was done.

IS THE SQUEEZE INADVERTENT? 

"They" know what they're doing.  Hillary Clinton, speaking in Turkey, promised to make criticism of Islam in America evaporate, intoned, "For 235 years [of American history], freedom of expression has been a universal right at the core of our democracy.” Yet, “[We promise to] use some old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming, so that people don’t feel that they have the support to do what we abhor.”

There it is, plain and simple, Mrs. Clinton, then Secretary of State, said it so that even we simple folk can understand--public shaming is the squeeze that a government can use to bring those who disagree into sycophancy. 

There is no statute of limitations for public shaming--they'll dig into your past to find anything to publicly humiliate you if you dare to criticize the uncriticizable. Whatever you said 20 years ago will thrust you into the spotlight of shame, humiliate you, and marginalize you for the rest of your life. 

IT'S OLD

It's a tactic as old as the Pharisees who sought to publicly shame the Lord Jesus by dissecting His every word, His every deed, and who culminated their quest on Calvary. The author of Hebrews wrote, "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. The hymnwriter captured it: "bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place, condemned, He stood."

A SOFT TYRANNY

The squeeze is what Alex de Tocqueville called a soft tyranny. It's not that they're throwing Christians to the lions; it's not that they're getting out the whips, and oiling the guillotines. It's a different kind of persecution that's like a python's squeeze. Tocqueville wrote about the tactic of public shaming:

"The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

The serpent's squeeze takes your breath away so that you can't talk about forbidden subjects in a critical, rational way. To do so is to experience an ever-growing tighter compression which reaches into the home. Those who come from totalitarian countries tell us about the squeeze:

"[Eventually people] will not voice their opinion in public spaces, they restrain themselves from voicing it at home to their families and close friends, and perhaps even to themselves. Schools and other religious institutions may not be able to forthrightly define their criteria for employee behavior, so they must hint at it and hire people through private instead of public channels. People withdraw, and become isolated, both internally and externally."

Have you ever thought twice about the biblical opinion you were writing in an e-mail and then hit the delete button? Have you lowered your voice to a whisper in public to express your ideas to a friend? Have you wondered if your remarks on the telephone were being recorded? Have you devised code words to express yourself to a friend or spouse? Then you've experienced the squeeze. 

IT IS HERE. IT IS NOW

We stand under the authority of Scripture. Based on the Book, if a belief system is fallacious, we say so. Sin is sin, and we say that too. If a person is espousing false teaching, we're to be as specific as Jesus (cf. Matt. 23) and as definitive as Paul (cf. Galatians). Elders have a specific command to expose the false and proclaim the true (Titus 1). 

We live in a society where more and more, everyday and in every way, the squeeze is on to shame Christians into submission, then into isolation, for "they" know that those who rule are those you're afraid to criticize." 

For once, well-said, Volaire!