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Yesterday morning CNN co-anchor Chris Cuomo floated out the idea that the "gay rights flag might be equivalent to the Confederate Flag."
Cuomo said "many people" are calling for the gay flag to be removed. He asked his guest, presidential candidate Ben Carson, if he thought the gay flag should be taken down.
The "many people" he refers to was initially conservative entertainment writer John Nolte, who had written an article Tuesday titled, "Take Down the Fascist, Anti-Christian Gay-Pride Flag."
Others have now followed with variations of Nolte's article, and the war of the flag has begun.
But wait.
Senator Harry Reid said yesterday we now need to look at our statue, because some of them should also come down.
And Nolte is saying today he was not making an equivalence argument, but merely pointing out what the gay flag had come to symbolize.
We are obsessed with the symptoms, ignore the root cause and reject the cure.
Ben Carson was clearly caught off guard by Cuomo's remarks and question. He wisely told Cuomo he had been asked to appear to talk about a different subject and would be happy to address the flag issue another time.
Notle's Tuesday article, "Take Down The Fascist, Anti-Christian Gay Pride Flag", was very direct---most of his articles are. It was also misunderstood by Cuomo and others.
He was not drawing an equivalence between so-called gay rights and the authentic Civil Rights movement.
His article begins, "Under the banner of what is dishonestly called a gay pride or gay 'rights' flag, hate, fascism, and intolerance has festered for years, specifically against Christians and conservatives."
He continued, "Under the auspices of a 'rights and equality' symbol, Leftists have been on a rampage to take away the rights of others through bullying, lies, and online terrorism."
Barronnel Stutzman, the Kleins and a growing number of Christian business people would agree.
Nolte said, "The list of misdeeds and victims resulting from an increasingly emboldened Big Gay Hate Machine continues to grow."
He wrote, "Under this banner of hate, people are outed against their will, terrorized out of business merely for being Christian, bullied and harassed for thought crimes; moreover, 'hate crimes' are being manufactured to keep us divided, Christians are refused service, death threats are hurled, and Christianity is regularly smeared as hate speech."
"If individuals wish to fly this symbol of hate, oppression and bigotry on their own property, that is their choice, it's a free country," he said. "It is unconscionable, however, that this symbol of intolerance is allowed to fly above government-owned buildings."
He concluded by saying he is in favor of removing the Rebel Flag from the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol, but "Equivalence is not the issue here. Hate and intolerance is."
Cuomo was clearly referring to Nolte's article, because he was the first to make this point. It is also clear that he misunderstood, didn't care, or as Nolte said yesterday, "With Cuomo, you can never tell if a particular act of intellectual dishonesty on his part is based on the fact that he's a none-to-bright beneficiary of nepotism-privilege, or his raging left wing bias."
Not only did Nolte's comments start the wagon rolling, but "not to be out done, Senator Harry Reid" took aim at the next symbol that must be addressed.
Statues.
He told reporters, "The problem we have with most of the statues in the Capitol Complex is that there's a law that says---as I understand it---it says each state is entitled to statues, and two statues only. And so that is really up to the states."
But Reid also said he thinks it is important that we "take a look at some of the statues that are here, not as a result of what the states have done, but what others do. And we're going to take a look at that."
Reid said he has already begun the process of removing a statute of Pat McCarran in Nevada.
What's wrong with McCarran?
Reid says he no longer represents the thinking in America or Nevada.
CNS News gives this overview of McCarran's work: He sponsored the first law limiting the working day to 8 hours. As a US Senator, he led the fight to prohibit President Franklin D. Roosevelt from packing the Supreme Court and to curb presidential treaty making powers. He also sponsored laws dealing with national security, including the McCarran-Wood act of 1950, which required the registration of communists and their exclusion from government, and he tightened immigration laws.
How far will this go? Rush Limbaugh said the other day the American flag will be next because it offends certain people.
We are obsessed with the symptoms, yet ignore the root cause.
And we reject the cure for our troubled culture.
America was founded on biblical, not secular principles.
Christianity was the model followed to form our government, and our founding principles. Biblical truth was the propelling force behind the campaign to end slavery, the movement toward democracy and popular self-government and human rights as gifts from God--not government.
To the degree that America, or anyone else, moves away from God and godly principles, there is a troubling corresponding corollary. And we are experiencing that corollary today.
Flags and statues and emblems and the like are symbols, for sure. But they are only that.
Band-aids don't cure cancer any more than removing symbols somehow cures the problems.
As the influence of Christianity is diminished, we are experiencing the systemic erosion of values like dignity, constitutionally based equal rights that both secular and religious people cherish.
As secular Marxism continues its long march through our institutions, we will see the reintroduction of infanticide, assisted suicide, a diminishing belief in the sanctity of life, a radical redefinition of marriage and family, the rebirth of Margaret Sanger's (founder of Planned Parenthood) eugenic theories of human superiority and political tyranny.
In his book, "What's So Great About Christianity," Dinesh D'Souza quotes J.B. Robers in his best selling book, "The Triumph Of The West." He says, "We could none of us today be what we are if a handful of Jews nearly 2000 years ago had not believed that they had known a great teacher, seen him crucified, dead, and buried, and then rise again."
There in lies the cure.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful.