Shaking off a little green witch dust

In C.S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair, our heroes Rilian, Eustace, and Puddleglum come very close to being bewitched by the Lady of the Green Kirtle into forgetting who they are and where they came from and what their mission is. In the nick of time they shake themselves free of the beguilement and resume their duties with new vigor.

The same thing nearly happened to me—and not only to me, judging by my conversation with my lady friends as we drove home on Saturday evening from a weekend workshop on teaching English as a second language. Until the weekend we had nearly been seduced into an effete PC version of our mandate in the kingdom.

First of all, though I knew the ESL outfit was a Christian one, I had more or less expected to find a program with the emphasis on English and social work, thinly overlaid with Christianese, at best a bracketing of prayer before and after sessions. It turned out to be quite the reverse. Though the program is first-rate for teaching English, the director training us was all about the gospel and the salvation of souls. She gave no encouragement to the notion of toning down the gospel or the name Jesus Christ for the sake of being culturally sensitive.

As we rode back in the car, the women and I were mildly horrified to realize how PC we had become without realizing it. We had been drinking the Kool-Aid of cultural sensitivity and tolerance and the avoidance of boorishness and of so-called “hate speech” for so long that we had begun to assimilate the ideas of our times unawares. We had begun to put politeness over the boldness in soul-winning that Paul and Peter spoke of and urged and died for. Back to the Scriptures:

“… whoever captures souls is wise” (Proverbs 11:30).

The women and I have resolved that we will henceforth not allow ourselves to be the latest casualty in the long line of Harvard, Yale, and the YMCA. By the grace of God we will speak the truth of Christ as we have opportunity—and we will let the chips fall where they may. Jail is not the worst thing that can happen to a person.

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