“Ideas have consequences. And bad ones have casualties.”
I was at my kitchen table when I heard Rosaria Butterfield say this.
Sure, the concept of ideas and consequences isn’t new. But that follow-up comment, and the way she said it – that bad ideas bring casualties – stopped me short. Could anything paint a picture of our culture more clearly than that?
Another idea I hadn’t considered hit me later that week. Our pastor is leading us through the Old Testament book of Samuel, and during his sermon he mentioned an ancient people group called the Amalekites, a group of fearsome warriors – relatives of Esau – that ambushed Israel from behind. That place where the women and children, aged and infirmed, the physically weak might be.
Which is monstrous, no?
It was the first attack the Hebrews would suffer on their way to the Promised Land. And it would prove a horrific miscalculation by the Amalekites because God promised to wipe that group from the face of the earth. And God followed through.
Ideas have consequences. And bad ideas have casualties.
Our children - our girls specifically - are victims of a modern-day Amalekite ambush by men and women who possess a sexually perverse mindset and agenda. These are people who care little for truth and even less for the carnage their worldview brings.
Take Title IX, for example, and the catastrophic changes that President Joe Biden has delivered to the threshold of every girl’s bathroom, or to the dugout of their sports teams – if those changes haven’t happened already.
His hateful ambush – led by the idea that men can be women, and women, men – will undoubtedly lead to appalling consequences: more assaults in school bathrooms, more girls concussed on the field of play, more bruised bodies and broken bones.
And less freedom for everyone involved.
It's hateful. And it’s been done in plain sight, with wicked men like Joe Biden practically double-daring us to do something about it.
No wonder they cling to lawfare.
When did this sea change occur? In 2016. When the Obama-Biden administration changed the biological definitions of men and women.
That’s scientifically impossible, but they did it. They swapped out two significant words – male and female – for gender identity.
So, if someone felt like a girl, but was a boy? Or vice versa? No problem!
Oh. And now, if you don’t properly gender someone, if you decide that your daughter simply won’t race a man pretending to be a woman at their track or swim meet, or if your child dares to reject the man who thinks he’s a woman, or vice versa, it is not the mentally ill person who gets in trouble.
It's the person who spoke up. Or fought back. That’s who will pay the price.
And so, the ugly reality is this: Women’s sports are effectively extinct.
How did we end up here? It certainly didn’t happen overnight.
I think it started a long time ago - during the time of the French Revolution and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, with their devilish ideas that matter is all there is, and that man needs no accountability.
And God – who needs Him?
And truth – how quaint!
Remember, though, that even first-generation pagan philosophers like Plato and Aristotle didn’t dare reject the concept of truth. Or logic. They didn’t even consider it.
But these men and women have.
And so, claiming to be wise, they became fools.
Lest we think that because we’re not in school or on a sports team we won’t have to deal with these changes, think again. The tinkering Barry and his good pal Joe did with Title IX will affect us, too, through this little thing called compelled speech. It started on college campuses, and it could end up restricting speech for us all.
Case in point – did you see what happened to a young mom on a United Airlines flight recently? She was allegedly kicked off the flight because she misgendered a flight attendant.
The woman had her 16-month-old’s car seat on her back, a bag in her hand, and her child, who was having a meltdown, in her arms. Her mother was there, too.
But then, the captain kicked her off the flight. So because Title IX doesn’t just have to do with gender identity and sports teams, but with speech in general, what happened to her may happen to us, too.
And so, our girls won’t be the only ones to have been ambushed by modern-day Amalekites.
Ideas have consequences. Bad ones have casualties.
Amie Beth Shaver co-hosts Alabama Unfiltered Radio show daily from 9-12 a.m. on News Talk 93.1 fm WAVC, and 92.5, WXJC. Her column appears every other Saturday at 1819 News. To book Amie Beth for media or speaking engagement's, email amiebeth.shaver@1819News.com.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819News.com.
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