Never in our lifetime has the family been as vulnerable as it is today. There is serious pressure behind the siege on the family.
For example, the pandemic lockdown is invading family life. Public health measures are destroying our economy and our life savings in order to fight the enemy, the coronavirus, even though the survival rate is 99.7%. Unfortunately, the lockdown has impacted wage groups differently. Those in the low-wage group, mostly employed in the service industry, are experiencing slow job creation, whereas those in the higher wage groups, many of whom have transitioned to remote work, are thriving because this has allowed them to maintain or even grow their operations.
The lockdown, however, has affected all families in their ability to visit family members, whether in long-term care facilities or in a house around the corner. We cannot travel to visit family abroad or even in the next province. This causes a gap in our family ties. The lockdown has also prevented families from attending religious services or engaging in ordinary social contacts, such as entertaining in the home, attending sports events, or enjoying restaurant meals. Instead, we are locked up in our homes.
Parental Authority Ended
Our public schools are indoctrinating our children by forcing values on them that frequently contradict those of the family. Parents’ authority is being eroded, not only in the public schools, but also by legislation, which prevents parents from even private conversations with their children in regard to their child’s sexual identity or orientation. Under the conversion therapy legislation (Bill C-6), a parent, pastor, or knowledgeable professional cannot even discuss with the child his/her decision to supposedly change to another sex. The LGBTQ community argues that its behaviour is normal and is determined or set at birth. This is factually incorrect and contradicts the thousands of individuals who have, through compassionate care and counselling, been helped out of their homosexual practices to enter into happy, satisfying, family-oriented relationships. The LGBTQ community’s arguments are rife with contradictions. It claims that sexual orientation cannot be changed but that gender is fluid and can be changed. This contradiction is due to the fact that their arguments are made for convenience and are not based on fact.
Control of our children by the state breaks down family unity. Our pleasure-seeking culture is crushing society. We know, from the very centre of our being, that many of the current notions prevalent in our culture are not valid. The timeless values that define right and wrong, acquired through human experience, have been to the nation’s advantage, and are being destroyed.
We must never let the intimidation by government or the ridicule of others stop us from believing and doing what we know is right. Our friends, neighbours, and even members of our own family, such as the younger generation, who are heavily influenced by our culture, but who, because of inexperience, have not yet acquired discernment, must not deter us. We must stand firm, and assert the truths which have developed via human experience and which have benefitted the common good.
The Economic Security of Family Imperiled by the Cancel Culture
In order for a family to thrive, it is important that it have economic security. It must have financial stability in order to provide the necessities of life, such as putting food on the table, clothing, mortgage payments/rent, etc.
This financial stability is being imperiled by the cancel culture that is growing more prevalent each day.
The object of the cancel culture is to silence those who do not agree with the progressive, woke culture. This disenfranchises the traditional family. Families should be able to speak freely about their culture, faith, and values. They should not be intimidated into silence on these important aspects of their lives. The cancel culture also creates collateral damage by destroying people’s jobs. Consequently, any dissent to modern culture must be done with care and circumspection.
This is because employers, especially large companies, are terrified of employees who speak against current progressive views. Due process goes out the window and the employee no longer has a job. It is all about power and control by a few over many. In effect, the cancel culture is a highly effective tool that allows a self-appointed and often small mob to control the voice of many others. It wants to remove a person from every semblance of their life – personal and professional. British comedian Rowan Atkinson, better known as “Mr. Bean”, describes cancel culture as a “medieval mob roaming the streets looking for someone to burn”. The reason why the left uses the cancel culture is that it is afraid of dissent. Leftism is not intellectual, as it has little intellectual substance and is nothing more than a combination of doctrine and emotion. The left fears dissent because it is afraid of being exposed as shallow and meaningless. Nevertheless, individuals have been publicly humiliated and, in many cases, have lost their employment under the cancel culture because they have spoken truths contrary to the leftist, progressive narrative. These include: writers (such as J.K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter, for her objections to transgenderism); journalists; broadcasters (even sports broadcasters such as Damian Goddard and Don Cherry); teachers; physicians; politicians (such as Andrew Scheer, whose views on same-sex marriage and abortion are informed by his Catholic faith, and Conservative MP Derek Sloan); and some public servants.
Cancel culture has been assisted by Big Tech corporations – Google, Amazon, Twitter, and Facebook – which brazenly remove conservative voices from their platforms. Court challenges to these aggressive, unethical actions by Big Tech have been launched. The bad news is that some courts will not respect freedom of speech and opinion and will support Big Tech’s obliterating conservative voices, while ignoring the right to freedom of speech.
The Good News
The good news is that these difficult times will eventually draw to a close. They cannot last forever. A culture built on lies will decay internally from its many deceits, fraud, shaming, and tyranny. It will collapse on itself. How long will this take? We don’t know.
However, as long as it takes, we have the weighty responsibility to never yield but to stand firm in our beliefs. We must not let apathy and indifference take hold of us. We must not surrender to the hammer blows currently being wielded against the integrity of our society.