Plato said, "No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth," and how true that is in today's climate.
We see media, political and royal elites lecturing us about how we should change our lifestyle to reduce our carbon footprint by not eating meat, not turning on the heater in winter or travelling less - while these same elites travel the world over in their private jets, hundreds of them to Glasgow, lecturing us about 'net-zero' when none of them have sacrificed a shilling of their own pay to do such things in the last 21 months.
We see Christians cancelled, both in the UK with the likes of Franklin Graham, or here in Australia, where one of the nation's biggest evangelical charities, the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), was banned from hiring venues in the state of Western Australia apparently because their views "don't align with the state government".
What about all the Western Australians whose views do align with the ACL? Do they not count?
Over half of Australians (52%) according to our last census identified themselves as Christian, and well over a third (38%) voted 'no' in the 2017 national same-sex marriage survey. So it's clear we don't all agree on things and this should be reflected in any government's approach to freedom of speech.
Yet Christian voices have been cancelled, while things like "Drag Queen Story Time" are allowed in libraries in Perth so we can only presume this is in alignment with the Western Australia government's views.
The fact that grown men dress up as the opposite sex in a public space event aimed at children brings Isaiah 59:14 to mind, that "truth has lost it's place in public squares".
Of course this is the secular world we live in.
If you study Marxist philosophy, the ruling class manipulates the culture of society. In other words the imposed ruling class's worldview becomes the accepted cultural norm.
Social norms that are widely encouraged by the Left are determining what is considered morally acceptable or unacceptable, and this is leading to assisted suicide, abortion, homosexuality, woke-ism, transgenderism and gender neutral pronouns replacing words like 'dad', 'mum', 'he' and 'she'all becoming the accepted norm.
And all the while, those who speak the truth are becoming increasingly hated.
According to McCrindle Research, most Australians (70%) are turned off by public figures or celebrities sharing their faith, and one in three even indicated that this strongly repelled them from investigating religion and spirituality.
So why do we hate the truth givers? Why does it seem that our society is moving towards un-Christian and unnatural stand points on life and gender?
According to McCrindle, only 1.8 million Australians attend church weekly. We'd expect it to be much more, given the 52% who identified as Christian in the last census.
Out of this small proportion of society that attends church, a Christian's worship habits may occupy just two hours of their week while secular podcasts, radio shows, cable news, social media, streaming entertainment and other forms of media take up the rest of their week - much of this media undoubtedly coming from un-Christian sources and possibly in themselves being un-Christian.
And so even for many Christians, it is non-Christian voices that have prominence.
Unfortunately many believers argue the Christian faith on the unbeliever's terms and therefore only point to the possibility that a god exists rather than arguing from a sure foundation about what we actually believe.
All of this suggests a crisis of faith. Do we believe that God's word is the absolute authority in all areas of life and thought?
The God of Scripture, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the only way to have a rational worldview. After all he is the "way", "the truth" and "the life" (John 14:6). Every other system is built upon a lie because its ideas come from sinful and rebellious man.
As the Christian worldview starts with "In the beginning God...", then everything else rests upon this foundation. Let's make God the foundation of our life so that truth will reign again.
Ben Kruzins is a Pastor of The Hub Baptist Church in Regional New South Wales Australia. He has written articles in The Canberra Times and The Sydney Morning Herald.
