Banning Books and Changing Words

From banning books to changing the meaning of words. What's coming next? Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Labor Day. But I first want to give a shout out. If you are watching on America's Voice, it's Saturday night so it's not Labor Day. You're watching this on America's Voice, Saturday night.

You're watching right now on Dish TV, on Pluto, or another outlet for America's Voice. I want to shout out to you and give you a special free offer. So stay tuned. I'll be right back to you.

866-342-866-348-7884. Before I get into the major subjects today, including Amazon's ongoing banning of books, including dictionary.com, changing the meaning of words. Oh, this is stuff that should concern you. And a bunch of other things we're going to talk about as well.

And in the question of pastors teaching we should obey the law and now turn around saying, well, we should disobey when they're telling us we can't meet. I want to revisit that topic as well. But first, if you're watching on America's Voice, you may not know, but we are five days a week live on radio and on YouTube. We do a live stream five days a week on Facebook and YouTube, the S. Dr. Brown channel or page, and then on radio stations across America, then by podcast, The Line of Fire. And we take one show a week that is especially relevant for America's Voice viewers. And we air it on Saturday night.

So again, you may be watching on Pluto or on Dish. But if that's you, I want you to take a moment and just do this one thing. All right. Because I want to send you something free and I want to know that you're out there and that we're here for you. Go to my website, AskDrBrown.org, A-S-K-D-R Brown.org. And on the homepage, you'll see in the right corner. If you're on your cell phone, you may see it differently where you put in your email. So you get on our email list. Okay. When you go there, you'll see a page that says weekly updates and free ebook.

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Go to the email, type in other, how you found out about us and put in America's voice. Okay. I did a poll on Twitter and did it over the weekend before Labor Day and got almost 2000 votes, which is a good response for us on Twitter. And the question was this, what's your view on the return of Jesus? So everyone listening right now, phone lines are open 866-34-TRUTH. What's your view?

When do you think he's coming back? Obviously, I'm simply asking for your own opinion, not trying to arrive in an eschatological conclusion, which we're not going to find out what the Bible says based on your opinion or mine. All right. Or it's on a poll. But I gave four choices. Number one, within the next 10 years, that got 16.8% of the vote.

So what? That's about one in six. Between 10 and 15 years, that's 20.2% of the vote. So that's about one in five. But if you add them up together, that's 37% of the vote. That's almost four in 10 saying, we believe he's coming in the next 50 years. Then not for at least 50 years, that was only 6.3%, like one in 16, remarkably. And then no idea, that was the majority, 56.7.

No surprise that folks had no idea. And obviously, we don't want a date set. But if you had to pick one of the first three, in other words, if you're not allowed to pick, no idea.

Which of the first three would you pick, within the next 10 years, between 10 and 50 years, and not for at least 50 years? Phone lines are open 866-344-TRUTH. Now, here's why this is a relevant question. When I came to faith in 1971 as a heroin shooting LSD-using Jewish hippie rock drummer, 16 years old, we were taught Jesus is coming any minute. The rapture is going to happen very, very soon. All the prophecies are in place. These are the signs of the times. The 60s was the proof. This was the final apostasy, the bringing in of end-time wickedness and falling away. And Jerusalem was back in Jewish hands. And look at everything happening in the world.

Surely, this is the end. And how Lindsay's best-selling book, Late Great Planet Earth, came out in 1970. Well, that's 50 years ago. 50 years ago. I was 16. I'm 65 now. I was 16.

Our oldest granddaughter is 19. We're talking about a long time, all right? And Jesus still hasn't returned. So, on the one hand, there was an erroneous mentality, an erroneous theology that gave us the idea we're out of here any minute because of which many of us abdicated our role in society. After all, if you know Jesus is coming at any minute, you're not going to be thinking 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 years down the line. If you know that things are only going to get worse before the second coming and it's very, very near, why even bother getting involved politically, culturally? Just preach to as many people as you can. Get as many people, quote, saved before Jesus returns.

That's the only thing that matters. Now, I agree that being witnesses, being Christian witnesses, sharing the gospel, fulfilling the Great Commission is the number one priority. But it is a priority and calling to go and make disciples. And then the question is, how do we as disciples live? Are we not called to be the salt of the earth in the light of the world? Of course, we get involved. How can we not get involved? And there's even a story of a famous rabbi in Talmudic days and a famous preacher from the 1800s, the preacher being Dwight D.L.

Moody. And both were asked the question, what would you do if you were told the Messiah, so for Jews, Messiah is coming, for Christians, Messiah returning? If you had a tree in your hand, basic question, if you had a tree in your hand and you were told the Messiah is coming tomorrow or the Messiah is returning tomorrow, what would you do?

And the answer in both cases was plant the tree. In other words, you still have to live your life. You still have to do what you know how to do on a daily basis. And in point of fact, we don't know the day of the Messiah's return. There's a rabbinic saying, an old Jewish saying, repent one day before you die.

But since you don't know the day you're going to die, you repent every day. So there were Christians that had this mentality that still do. We're out of here any minute. Why bother trying to bring about change? And in the meantime, because we abdicated responsibility, others filled the void. Others said, well, we want to bring about change. Radical feminists said, we want to bring about change. And pro-abortion, we want to bring about change. And gay activists said, we want to bring about change. And other secularists and socialists and others, we want to bring about change.

So they've been active seeking to bring about change in society from pre-K through the universities, in the business world, in the media, and a host of other ways. And we felt, well, you don't want to mix the gospel with politics. You don't want to mix religion with culture. And whereas everything intersects. Yes, our priority is on spiritual things, which then affects how we live in the material in this world.

It's not one or the other. I mean, you still have to eat, you still have to drink, you still have to have a job, you still have to have a place to live. We still live in this world. And we are involved in this world. And we're called to make a difference in this world. So on the one hand, if you have the mentality that Jesus is coming at any minute and things will only get worse before he returns, then you might well abdicate political, cultural, social responsibility.

What's the use of trying? Everything's going to get worse. If someone, you know, your neighbor is dying and you know you're a medical doctor, this person is going to die within a minute and there's nothing that a doctor could do to resuscitate them, then you are not going to throw that person in your car and drive 120 miles an hour and go through red lights to get them to a hospital, to emergency room, because there's nothing that can be done. That's the way some of us live in terms of this world.

Well, there's nothing we could do. It's all going downhill. Well, just show me where it says in the Bible in the year 2020 until the end of the age, it will only go downhill.

Just show me the chapter in the verse. And how do we know how much time we have left? On the other hand, we become complacent. We can live like everybody else lives. We can just live in this world.

Hey, Jesus isn't coming for another thousand years. I mean, we have no idea. Why even think, you know, get into these erroneous theologies and eschatologies and all kinds of end time views and hey, we don't know. So just, hey, live in this world and enjoy life. And what happens is we get seduced by the things of this world and we make it as if who wins the Super Bowl is really important. Or, you know, the latest scores is really important.

What's happening on the stock market is really important. Or whatever we do in this world is really important and eternal things just don't matter. We get so focused in an earthly way that we lose sight of eternity. So what we have to do is we have to live.

Here's the way you can boil it down. We have one life. That's it. One life. Maybe 80, 90 productive years. Who knows? That'd be a nice long full life, right?

Being productive that many years. We have one life to live. And after that, whatever we do in this world will have eternal implications for good or for bad. That means what happens in this world is very important. And the role we play in this world is very important. And we want to live in a way that makes sense in the light of eternity.

That when we look back a billion years from now, the way we live today makes sense. So there is an urgency with it. Of course, we don't know the exact time of the Lord's return, so we always live in readiness. But in point of fact, there's a sense of urgency because there's only one life and people are dying and there's pain and there's pain and suffering in this world and the eternal lives at stake, eternal fates at stake.

This is reality. So we live with a certain urgency, but we don't live with this any second, any second he's returning and it's all going to get worse. Therefore, we don't do anything or just, ah, whatever.

Just live in this world and become complacent. So let's live with the holy urgency and let's make a difference for the gospel. Let's make a difference for God in this world.

God's ways are best for everybody politically, socially, culturally, educationally. To the extent we can follow his wisdom, things will go the way they're supposed to go. All right, we come back and we'll talk about Amazon banning books and dictionary.com changing the definition of words. We'll be right back. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks for joining us today on the line of fire, 866-34-TRUTH. What's your view on the return of Jesus? If you had a pick, you can't say, I have no idea. If you had a pick, you believe he's coming within the next 10 years? You believe he's returning between 10 and 50 years? Or at least 50 years from now?

We'll go to the phones shortly. All right, Amazon has been doing this increasingly. It is dangerous. It is a bad precedent.

It is absolute discriminatory practice. And as much as I've enjoyed being an Amazon customer for many years because of everything they provide and their customer service has been terrific, so I appreciate ways that the company operates and our own ministry. You can actually donate to via Amazon, you know, tiny percentage of all sales they put away for donations. I appreciate a lot of good that they do, but they've taken some really, really dangerous political stands. For example, the Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the premier legal organizations in America, one of the top Christian legal organizations is deemed a hate group by Amazon because of the SPLC listing, SPLC itself being a hate group.

And because of that, if you want to designate your donations, the percentage of sales to them, you can't do that on Amazon. Amazon started banning books having to do with so-called conversion therapy. So if you're an ex-gay and you shared your testimony and how counseling helped you, that was banned, or books by counselors. Well, just got a note the other day from Amy Contrada from Mass Resistance, and she's the author of a large compendium called The Health Hazards of Homosexuality. And the book endorsed by prominent physicians, and she says, Mass Resistance reports, cancel culture, our renowned health book suddenly banned by Amazon after three and a half years of successful sales, The Health Hazards of Homosexuality endorsed by prominent physicians, suddenly deemed offensive, used around the world for hard-to-find accurate information, which you see what Amazon does not consider, in fact, offensive.

You can take action, see below. And she breaks this down, then says, why this book is important, the mainstreaming and normalization of homosexuality has created a public health crisis affecting us all. This book documents in detail the enormous public health problems, both medical and psychological, associated with homosexual behavior.

Then goes on from there and then lists bunches of books that Amazon does not consider offensive. You say, well, that's offensive to talk about health hazards of homosexuality. What is offensive to talk about health hazards of smoking? Isn't that something that every pack of cigarettes has to have on it?

Right? Used to be advertised, promoted, even have medical doctors talking about, oh, yeah, look at the old ads. It's funny, but it's pathetic because they're telling people something unsafe was safe.

All right. So here's a book that's documenting things, that's giving medical information, psychological information, access to journals, and that's what it's doing. It's not on every page saying you're going to hell if you practice homosexuality. It's not quoting scripture page after page saying, look at the health hazards.

These are real. Well, why is that deemed offensive? Well, it is offensive if you want to celebrate homosexual practice. It is offensive if you want to say there are no negative consequences. It is offensive if you are wed to celebrating this, but if you are wed to truth and facts, it's not offensive. It's helpful information.

Oh, but hang on. Even if it is quote offensive, you know how many titles on Amazon are offensive to millions of people for different reasons? I'm not sure you can find thousands and thousands of titles of all kinds that just looking at the titles like, oh, that's offensive to me. But Amazon publishes it because it's a publishable book and it doesn't break certain laws. So you say, well, Amazon's independent.

They can do what they do. It's a dangerous precedent and we need to draw attention to it. I wrote an article about this. When was it?

July 4th, 2019. Will Amazon ban the Bible next? And I explained there in a very disturbing move, Amazon has removed the books of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, the psychologist whom critics have dubbed the father of conversion therapy. In other words, for claiming that sexual orientation is not innate and immutable and for claiming that change is possible, Dr. Nicolosi's books must be banned. This leads to the logical question, will Amazon ban the Bible next?

There's no hyperbole there. After all, it's the Bible that condemns same-sex relationships and the Bible that speaks of those who once practiced homosexuality but do so no more. 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. These people today would be known as ex-gays and it was Dr. Nicolosi's life work to help people with unwanted same-sex attraction, to sit and talk with them and help them. Well, I think should Amazon ban his books but continue to sell the Bible which provides the theological underpinnings for Dr. Nicolosi's scientific work.

Here, here's another example. Christian Post reported this, June 22nd of this year, June 22nd, 2020. Amazon bans ads for book on how transgender ideology harms girls and young women.

Hear that again. Amazon bans ads for book on how transgender ideology harms girls and young women. And the story by Brandon Showalter explains that one online retail giant Amazon has disallowed a publishing house from buying ads to promote a new book critical of transgender ideology that points out its many harms on young girls. Regnery Publishing, which is one of the world's largest conservative publishers, a Washington D.C.-based conservative company that is publishing journalist Abigail Schreier's new book Irreversible Damage to Transgender Crazed Seducing Our Daughters, announced Sunday that they could not bid on ad space on Amazon to promote the book.

Wow. So Amazon bans books saying change is possible. Amazon has now banned a book outlining health hazards of homosexuality.

Amazon has banned advertising for an important book, and all these books are important that I just mentioned, for an important book about this transgender crazy just sweeping through. You'll have groups of teenage girls all identify as transgender together, and then you have younger people that are getting on hormone blockers. There are things that can ultimately sterilize them for life. You've got little kids making decisions with their parents saying, yeah, go ahead.

That's how you really feel. Kids getting sex change surgery. They're still teenagers. Then a few years later saying, what did I do? I mean, you've got a healthy young woman whose 20s had double mastectomy thinking, well, why did I do that? Or they're now sterile.

What did I do? And there are more and more of them coming out with their painful and horrific stories. This is important. And Amazon says, no, you can't advertise the book. They didn't ban it.

They said you can't advertise it. Did I not say for the last 15 years that those who came out of the closet want to put us in the closet, want to silence our voices? This, friends, is the reality.

If you don't push back, this could well affect your kid next. In fact, a major poll from California indicated that the vast majority of parents in California do not support giving drugs or sex change surgery to teenagers and young people that will sterilize them for life. Obviously, obviously, there are tremendous dangers inherent with this. Interestingly, and I'm not playing this to play political ads saying don't vote for Biden, vote for Donald Trump, or don't vote for this candidate in Michigan, but vote for the Republican candidate. I'm playing this to say I am glad that this is being made a political issue. Check out these two ads that are now running in the state of Michigan.

Here's the first one. As a young teen, I felt I should be a woman. Seventeen years later, I felt I should be a man again. Treatments to change the gender of a minor so that you cannot go through puberty causes damage. Sex change surgeries at 15 years old. This is legal child abuse.

Gary Peters and Joe Biden support gender change treatments for minors. It's not okay. Yeah, it's not okay.

It's not okay. Again, I'm not playing it as a political ad. I'm playing it to say I am glad that the issue is being addressed. By all means, we want to have compassion on kids and adults who struggle. By all means, we want to do everything in our power to help them find wholeness from the inside out without drugs and radical life altering surgery. By all means, we want to be long suffering and do our best to have empathy and pray and work with folks and be patient by all means. And by all means, we want to expose the dangers and we want to expose the inequality and we want to expose the fundamental attack on women and young girls with this as well.

Here's the other ad. All female athletes want is a fair shot at competition, at a scholarship, at a title, at victory. But what if that shot was taken away by a competitor who claims to be a girl but was born a boy? Senator Gary Peters and Joe Biden support legislation that would destroy girls sports. They call it equality. Really? That's not fair. Not fair at all. Vote against Gary Peters and Joe Biden.

They are too extreme for Michigan. Again, I'm not playing that as a political ad. I'm playing that to say I'm glad the issues are being raised.

Candidate Joe Biden has said that transgender rights are the civil rights of our day. Many feel that way. Others, like me, differ with that very deeply. Once more, we have compassion on those who struggle. We don't say, what's the matter with you?

You're just stupid. I can't imagine the inner turmoil and pain that people have lived with, the confusion and the sense of frustration and things are not right and how sex change, surgery, or hormones seem to be the only way out. You know, one man said to me it was either that or suicide. I am not minimizing the trauma or the pain. I'm simply saying there is a better way. And I'm glad that this is being addressed. And if Amazon and others are trying to stifle the message, all the more do we need to raise our voices and let our voices be heard and tell the Amazons and the other outlets, you do not have the right to censor this. You are being unfair. You are being discriminatory and you are hurting people in the process.

And if it's, quote, you're right as a bookseller to sell what you want, it's our right to say, well, we'll take our business elsewhere. ...cultural and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Friends, we need it. We need a gospel-based moral and cultural revolution. America is at a tipping point. America is about to go over the edge. Interestingly, both parties are saying this is the most important election. If you want to save America, you have to vote Democrat. You have to vote Republican. My take is that even with Donald Trump reelected four more years, that doesn't save America.

It just gives a bit more of an opportunity for freedom of speech and conscience and religion where the church better start doing its job and living out according to its convictions and quit being hypocritical and superficial and cowardly and stand up and speak up and do what's right and impact the world around us. Otherwise, we're in big, big trouble. 866-348-7884. Before going to the phones, just want to do another quick shout out for everyone watching on America's Voice channel. So you're watching on Pluto TV or Dish Network, and it's Saturday night where you are. This is a live Labor Day show, but you're watching it on Saturday night. This is our live daily broadcast, and we take one of our shows and air it on Saturday night on America's Voice. So if that's you, if you just channel surfed and found us or watching intentionally, maybe you've been watching the few weeks that we've been on now, then we'd love to be in touch with you.

We'd love to know you're out there. Okay, so here's the simplest way to do it. If you go to my website, askdrbrown.org, you'll find thousands of hours of free resources, of articles, videos, teachings, debates, all kinds of stuff. You'd spend years digging in the material there, askdrbrown.org. But we want to send you two free eBooks. So here's what you do.

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Before we take you to more disturbing news, yeah, disturbing, but these are things that should cause us to be awakened to action, things that should stir us to take a stand and speak out. I've asked the question, tweeted it over the weekend, when do you believe Jesus is returning? You believe it's within the next 10 years, or between 10 and 50 years, or after 50 years? Well, 56.7% said no idea. Only 6.3%, so about one in 16 said not for at least 50 years, and then 16.8% said within the next 10 years, 20.2% between 10 and 50 years, that means 37%, so almost 4 out of 10 believe Jesus is coming within the next 50 years. I want to get a few takes from you, and then we'll get over to dictionary.com and their new vocabulary.

So we go to Mickey in Rockford, Illinois. What's your take, Mickey? So, first of all, Dr. Brown, I want to say that I'm so thankful for you, for your ministry, for everything that you help represent, and my personal take is that I think he's not coming for at least 50 years. I listened to Jeff Durbin on Ali Beth Stuckey's podcast, and he makes a compelling argument for post-millennialism, and he says that he thinks that the church is in its infancy, and so that's probably the way that I would lean right now. Got it.

So the post-millennial view would say that the church, through the preaching of the gospel and godly living, will impact and influence the entire world until the entire world comes into obedience to God, and basically the kingdom of God is unveiled through the preaching of the gospel, and at the end of that, Jesus returns. That would be the basic view, correct? Correct. Got it. Hey, Mickey, thank you for the kind words, and thank you for weighing in. I appreciate it. 866-34-TRUTH.

Let's go to Orlando in High Point, North Carolina. You're on the line of fire. What's your take?

How you doing, Dr. Brown? My take is, when he was here, he left us 33 years after, so he was born on 6 BC, more likely, 1st of Nissan. I would think that he'll come back around 27, 2027. That will bring us to the brink of the tribulation, if there is a tribulation, and if you're post-trip, so it'll be seven years. If you're mid-trip, two or three and a half, and if you're pre-trip, you're about ready to fly.

All right, and let me ask you this, Orlando. How do you get the 2027 date? How does that connect to—so you're saying because he lived 33 years, that he'll come in the equivalent of 2,033 years later? Right. Yeah, two days after. Ah, two days. Okay, two symbolic days. Got it. All right.

Hey, I appreciate the call, Orlando. So there you have one saying, coming very quickly, and you have the other saying, not coming for perhaps many centuries. So where does that leave us? Well, keep studying Scripture, but it leaves you with this. Here's what we know. We have one life. We have one life.

That we know. We have one life, after which we will be accountable to God. There is no reincarnation. There is no transmigration of souls, as mystical Judaism teaches. There's not coming back over and over until you get it right.

Nope. It's not biblical truth and whatever. It's a whole other subject, but we're not going to go there. But what we do know is we have one life, and we have one life to live for the Lord. The famous words of C.T. Studd, only one life will soon be past.

Only what's done for Christ will last. If you want to weigh in, by all means, give us a call. I'm not going to argue with you.

That's not my point to debate the issue, but to get your take. I wrote something a couple years back when Infowars was censored by YouTube. And I'm not an Infowars fan. Only this Alex Jones, a little. I'm not an Infowars fan. I know he's very popular in some circles, but I've never been into Infowars. Sometimes they're reporting. There'll be some great articles that really expose some things going on. But otherwise, I'm not an Infowars guy. So it's not like when Infowars was picked on, they're picking on my guy or my team or my camp. But I had a real issue because my question was what's coming next?

And many of you know the famous poem by Martin Niemöller. First, they came for the socialists. I wasn't a socialist. I didn't speak out. They came for the communists.

They came for the Jews, whatever the order is. And I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. I wasn't a socialist. I wasn't a communist. Then they came for me. There was no one left to speak for me. And if you read biographies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Niemöller opposed Nazism, but he wasn't willing to take radical steps enough.

He didn't recognize how wrong things were or how compromised much of the Lutheran church was until it was too late. So I wrote this saying, first they came for Infowars and I did not speak out because I found them offensive. Then they came for Geller and Spencer, meaning Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. Then they came for Geller and Spencer and I did not speak out because I found them obnoxious. Then they came for PragerU and I did not speak out because I found them opinionated. Then they came for a host of others and I did not speak out because I have my own life to live.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. We bring these issues up because it's going to come your way. It is going to come your way. It is going to knock at your door. You will be impacted. You will be affected. Therefore, we need to do what's right.

But either way, we need to do what's right because it's right. So dictionary.com. Are you ready for this? Here's the gay website out.com celebrating the news. Dictionary replaces homosexual and largest update ever.

Now, by the way, I find it revealing this website out.com has a menu across the top on my screen saying editor's pick, fashion, popnography, entertainment, news, and opinion television. That there's a play on words of pornography, popnography, obviously, pop news, whatever. Dictionary replaces homosexual and largest update ever.

So here's what the story says. Dictionary.com has issued a massive update altering more than 1,500 entries on its site. The changes which comprise the largest update ever to the resource are mostly aimed at putting people first and respecting and reflecting the relationship language has with society and its values.

The unprecedented events of 2020, from the pandemic to the George Floyd protests that profoundly changed our lives and language, they wrote in the post. Among the changes, dictionary.com capitalized black when referring to a race or culture and made it its own entry, in addition to improving language around addiction and suicide. Now, my obvious question is, maybe we can check this during a break, did they do the same with white or with red or yellow or anything else that was referring to a race or brown? There's only black that gets capitalized. I have a problem with that. If you want to capitalize anything I'm going to do with race, black, white, brown, fine, just be consistent.

Fine, just be consistent. In addition to improving language around addiction and suicide, words like jabroni, maga, goat, and contouring were also added. But a large contingent of changes had to do with the LGBTQ plus community. And of course, the acronym has to keep growing LGBTQ plus.

Capitalizing black joins many of the dictionary wide efforts with people not practices first that ensure our definitions reflect and respect how people use language. One of those changes was to replace references to homosexual and homosexuality with gay, gay man, gay woman, or gay sexual orientation. As such, the definition of gayness is now gay or lesbian sexual orientation or behavior as opposed to homosexuality that change impacted over 50 entries. So, there's not a contrast now between homosexual and heterosexual, perfectly good descriptive words, speaking of attraction to the same sex or attraction to the opposite sex. No, now it's gay, gay or lesbian.

And I imagine that must be contrasted with straight or maybe non-gay or non-lesbian. Listen, friends, you start playing with words. You start saying what words can be used and not used. Now, what if you want to write, what if you're writing a book and you go to use the word homosexual?

Oh, no, no, that's not a lot. Well, so now I have to use the word gay or lesbian. What if I don't want to? What if I don't think that's the best description? What if I want to use a word that has a historic meaning in the last century? Plus, forbidden, friends, not just banning books.

It's telling you what words you want to use and not use. This is dangerous. It's The Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution.

Get into The Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Friends, there is a reason that Canadian professor Jordan Peterson, before he became internationally famous as a conservative intellectual, there's a reason that he pushed back at his university in Toronto when he was told if a student wants to identify as she, even the students of biological male, you must call the student she. If the student wants to be called by another pronoun, you must do that. There's a reason he pushed back. It was not simply that he rejected the ideology, but having studied communism for many, many years, he understood the thought police. He understood the danger of controlled speech.

That's the biggest reason he pushed back against it. I just typed in the words in a search, he who controls language. And a bunch of quotes came up. He who controls language controls the masses. He who controls language controls thought. Whoever controls the language controls the conversation, controls the debate.

In George Orwell's 1984, he who controls the language controls the argument. So, for many years, it was considered wrong, politically incorrect, to say homosexual. And we were told, no, you must say gay or lesbian. Now, I would use terms gay or lesbian for two reasons. I've also referred to homosexual homosexuality when appropriate. But I would refer to gay and lesbian for two reasons.

One, in order to reach people that I'm trying to dialogue with and reach out to use terminology that was preferred. And the other, for the larger audience that was secular, that didn't share my conservative religious beliefs, I just wanted to talk in terms that would get us into the conversation together. So, on the one hand, trying to reach gays and lesbians and have a reasonable discussion. On the other hand, just the general wider audience, why push them away unnecessarily?

Let's get to the truth of matters. And if that pushes you away, fine. But bottom line, bottom line is that it really didn't do any good. Oh, it's helping to reach people individually, for sure.

That's been positive. But I'm still vilified. I'm still hated.

I'm on the hate list from SPLC to GLAAD to HRC, et cetera. So, bottom line, bottom line is that the vilification, the hatred is going to be there. Because the fundamental stand says, stand says, I do not affirm same-sex relations. I do not find them equivalent to heterosexual relations.

That is not what God ordained or what God desires. So, you're still going to be hated and vilified for that. But when it comes to controlled speech, cannot say this, must say this.

That's why some of my friends have always said, no, we're just going to say homosexual. We're not going to say gay list because that's already a capitulation to political activism. So, check out this article. And it's going back to George Orwell's 1984 book. And the days we're living in now in 2020 are much more Orwellian than any other time in American history.

So, this is from the Essential Encounter website. The article is the destruction of language in George Orwell's 1984. And I want to draw your attention to two quotes in the article. One says this, by 2050, earlier probably, this is from the book, by 2050, earlier probably, all real knowledge of old speak will have disappeared. So, the way people used to speak in 1984, they're saying by 2050, it'll be gone. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed.

Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, they'll exist only in new speak versions. Never really changed into something different, but actually changed into something contradictory of what they used to be. Even the literature of the party, meaning the ruling party, will change. Even the slogans will change.

How could you have a slogan like freedom is slavery when the concept of freedom has been abolished? The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking, not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.

In other words, you just go with the system. What's interesting is this prediction which Orwell made, what was in the late 1940s he wrote this, and it's titled 1984, predicting what's going to happen by 2050. So, about a century after Orwell wrote the book, you know, we're in a situation now where classics are being increasingly rejected. Well, it's just white supremacy or that reflects an old world theology or ideology or this one was a slave owner.

So, we get rid of all these. You know, you don't study literature the way that you used to study it. You don't study classics the way you used to. You kind of, how do I feel about it? What's my take on things? And, you know, you study geography. How do I feel about it?

How do I feel about history? As opposed to learning data and learning how to think critically. Here's another quote from the article. By controlling the language, Big Brother controls the way that the people think.

With a limited vocabulary, the people are limited and how much they can think, as well as what they think about. Friends, this is where we're at today. And you say, well, it really hasn't affected me yet. It probably has, and you don't realize it.

But if it hasn't, it will. And by the time you speak up, like the Niemoller quote, it will be too late. Now, I was on a chat last night, a pastor in California who's actually right now being held in contempt of court for continuing to hold church gatherings while the law says it can't.

And it's much hypocrisy in the way California laws are being enforced right now. So, he asked me to come on his live stream, talk to a couple of other guys on his team. And we got to talking about the role of Christians in politics.

And he served on the city council, been the mayor of a city as well. And I told them what I did with other activists in the past, that I was called by a friend, said, hey, can you blot out time for this? On this particular night, it's going to be a Monday night city council. There are 10 speakers that are going to address issues with gay activism in the city. And we'd like all 10 to be bringing a gospel perspective. So, we've called, we've got the slots filled. Can you take one?

Absolutely. So, we then encourage folks in our local congregation to show up that night. And the city council was there.

And to their shock, the place was packed. Normally, it's empty for a city council meeting. They're talking about, you know, do we put a new stop sign here?

Do we need to change the gas main here? You know, discussions like that, where we get funding for the parks. And so, you know, there are not a lot of people there. This was a controversial issue talking about gay activism in the city. And all 10 of us spoke. We presented our case. We presented our reasons for what we're saying in children and influence, what was happening in public, and so on and so forth.

So, one of the gentlemen said, if you agree with my position, I'd like you to stand to your feet. And basically, the whole place stood and city council was shocked. And there were a few folks there on the other side of the issue. They were shocked. And then, when it was done, when that part was done, we all left. So, it was a very dramatic and loud testimony. But the city council did not vote in our favor. You say, what? And this pastor, Rob McCoy, said, I didn't tell you why.

It's because you're not involved in the process otherwise. You showed up that night. You made a statement. And it was powerful. And powerful demonstration.

Got the message across. But unless we're voting for city council members, what do they care? Unless it's going to make a difference with who's on the city council, what would they care? Unless some of us say, you know, we live in this neighborhood, maybe I should be on the city council. Most are not called to, but some are.

Some are. So, stuff's going on in your school. You have a problem with it, sex ed curricula, gay activist curricula, trans activist curricula, other things in the school being taught, maybe just at a very aggressive anti-God, anti-Christian ideology or whatever, or exaltation of other faiths and denigrating of Christian faith. And this is happening in your kid's school. Don't think, well, someone else is going to say something. You have to say something.

And then if that produces no good, then you get others. We're not trying to intimidate. We're trying to say, we have a problem with this. We have an issue with this. Then maybe you have to look at who sits on the school board and maybe get involved with that.

Are none called to do that? I was in, was it Indiana, a few years back, Indianapolis maybe, and talked to an older gentleman. So, if I was in maybe my early 60s then, he was mid to late 60s, few years older than me, and he was telling me about what's happening in the schools there. And this incredible open door they have to bring the gospel to kids that want to hear it. And you could have a lunch meeting, kids can come and hear the gospel, whatever it was.

But incredible openness to the gospel. And I asked him how that happened. He said, well, I'm a retired school principal. And when I retired, the pastor said to me, oh, no, no, you're not ready to retire.

We need you involved. So, he got on the local school board. Then some other godly believers got on the local school board and had a positive influence. It's not enforcing things on others. It's not saying, you must conform to this or that. But it's giving opportunities. It's giving freedom. It's not keeping God out.

Just people getting involved. So, look, we can't have it both ways. We can't say this is wrong in the culture, and that's wrong in the culture, and this is wrong with politicians, this is wrong with the system, and then not get involved. If we want to just say, hey, it's a fallen, messed up world, whatever happens, happens, it's an evil world, and we're concentrating on eternity, and we're just going to praise God every day and not complain about things around us, not get upset with what my kids are learning in school, not get upset with suppression of free speech in the university, not get upset with this one getting fired for holding a biblical conviction in the workplace, won't worry about any of that, then just be consistent.

But if these things do bother you, if they do concern you, as they should, they do bother you, they do concern you, then do what you can to make a difference. One prays. One teaches a Bible study. Another runs for local office. Another becomes a school teacher. Another leads up a community action group with concerned parents. Everybody does what they can do, and together we make a real difference. And, friends, it's my calling to be a voice and not only to teach and preach the gospel, to call non-believers to believe, but also to bring gospel principles into every area of our society and our culture. Don't forget to meet me at the website, askdr.brown.org. Sign up for our emails if you want to be in touch with me.