Dead men hanging in Glenside

It’s October again and there are dead men hanging all over Glenside, especially in the artsy district. They are slumped, they are impaled, they are tethered to lampposts. They are stuffed with straw, which is closer in color to white than black, so there is no racial insensitivity.

The insensitivity will come a month from now when someone tries to set up a nativity scene, a scene of birth instead of death, angels instead of devils. Everything is upside down now. These are the days when they call evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20), when churches are as likely to be defending gay marriage as opposing it.

Those who speak out for marriage solely between a man and a woman are called “bigots,” those who voice obvious truths are deemed “intolerant.” The righteous in restaurants pray in hushed tones before a meal, while the nearby table spews all manner of trash talk with abandon. My brother was recently silenced for reading from Luke to his seatmate on an airplane. If he had been engaged in lively World Series banter like the man behind him, he would be OK.

“Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house” (Micah 7:5–6, ESV).

Perhaps you feel it in the autumn air—the chill on conversation, the excessive care not to offend, not even with your children. There are traps laid everywhere. No one is allowed to suggest that maybe the trend of the culture is wrong.

“When Winston opens the door, he is relieved to see that it is not the thought police, but Mrs. Parsons, the wife of a neighbor, who had come to ask for help in unblocking the kitchen sink. Mr. Parsons, Wilson reflects, was the kind of dull, unquestioning adherent who ensured the survival of the Party, even more than the thought police. Whatever the Party said was accepted with doglike obedience by Mr. Parsons and his kind. Winston follows the woman into her flat and tries to unblock the sink. … Winston is horrified by the behavior of their two children. Both the boy and the girl have been indoctrinated by the Party organizations like The Spies and The Youth League. … Winston reflects that within a few years they would not be playing, they would … turn in their own parents to the thought police if they displayed any signs of unorthodoxy or nonconformity” (from 1984 by George Orwell).

Happy Halloween to all. But watch yourself with Christmas.