Away With the Absurdity That the Left and the Right Are Equally Vicious | The American Spectator

“I am Charlie,” or perhaps better, “We are Charlie,” has quickly become an appropriate moniker for those who share many of the same views for which Charlie Kirk was killed and his death celebrated (and a moniker for a few who, though not sharing his views in a significant way, are willing to stand with those who do).

I can say categorically, after a half-century mostly spent at leftist institutions of higher learning, that the most viciously intolerant persons are found on the Left, by far.

As compared to conservatives, they are far more given as a whole to expletive-laden rhetoric, hateful personal abuse, misrepresentation of an opponent’s views, outright lies and slander, ostracizing and harassment tactics, justification of violence, and all-around incivility. There are, of course, exceptions, but the exceptions here don’t disprove the rule. (RELATED: Demons and Demonization)

This should not be surprising, given that their two greatest idols are the promotion of the immorality of transgenderism and homosexuality, and the promotion of virtually unrestricted abortion, the killing of human life. And the means by which they achieve these ends is the suppression of the First Amendment on freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion. (RELATED: Political Zealotry, Like Psychopathy, Can Allow One to Murder Without Qualm)

The Leftist Penchant for Celebrating Assassination

Nothing has demonstrated this to the general public more than the sickening display of exuberant joy erupting from the Left at the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It’s even worse than you think. The ones who have been caught expressing this depraved joy are simply those members of the Left who are the most tone-deaf and have the lowest social IQ. (RELATED: CNN and Taylor Lorenz Exposed Their Motivation)

Much larger numbers of the Left, especially politicians and members of the media, experience the same joy but are socially smart enough to keep it to themselves or even to profess, with deception, that they are shocked that such an assassination should happen to a person whom they have repeatedly characterized (even in the aftermath of his death) as a “divisive,” “far-Right,” “polarizing,” and “hateful” “fascist” and “Nazi.”

That the number of leftists who are at least “somewhat” accepting of violence against conservative influencers is much larger has been confirmed in a recent Rutgers University study that found earlier in the year that “over half of those who self-identified as left of center (56 percent) reported that if someone murdered Donald Trump, they would be at least somewhat justified” (50.2 percent with respect to Elon Musk being murdered). This is no longer a fringe view of the Left or the Democratic Party. It is a mainstream view.

Leftist Obsession With Transgender and Homosexual Immorality as Prime Mover

What riles the Left up the most is any dissent from a full-throated promotion of “gay” and “trans” immorality, arguably now even more than a pro-life stance on abortion. If you are conservative (orthodox, faithful) on sexual ethics, the Left either wants you dead or at least wants to have you prosecuted, terminated from employment, canceled in speech, publicly vilified as a “hateful, ignorant bigot” (the moral equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis), and denied membership in mainstream society. (RELATED: 3 Major New Developments in Trump’s Battle Against Transgender Tyranny)

I know what I’m talking about. Few people in the past quarter-century have experienced firsthand the intolerance of the Left against dissent from what has become LGBTQ orthodoxy more than I have. Certainly, in the field of biblical, theological, and religious studies, no one has experienced anything close to what I have experienced. Not just from the hard-core leftist “liberals” but also from quarters of “progressive Evangelicalism” (though the latter in a more covert way).

My Experience of Leftist Hate

Why have I been the recipient of so much hate? There are multiple reasons.

Chief among these is having written a 500-page book almost a quarter of a century ago, entitled The Bible and Homosexual Practice (Abingdon, 2001), that leaves few stones unturned in showing the untenable exegesis and hermeneutics of “revisionist” scholars of the Bible, theology, and ethics on homosexuality. Oh, and the fact that I haven’t left the issue alone over the years but have written a second Two Views book, as well as a number of articles (some book-length) and encyclopedia entries, and have continued to speak on the issue publicly, responding to critics with effective arguments. The “Liberal” Left and even some Evangelicals don’t like that.

A second reason for suffering the slings and arrows of the Left and covertly in some Evangelical quarters is that I have never obscured the fact that Scripture, including Jesus, treats homosexual practice (and, by extension, transgenderism) as the worst form of sexual expression among consenting human adults. Not just one among many sexual offenses, but the worst, because it is a violation of the foundational principles established in Genesis 1:27 (“male and female he made them”) and 2:24 (“for this reason a man … may become joined to is woman and they [or: the two] shall become one flesh”), upon which all other sexual standards are predicated.

I have not bought into the “all sins are equal” pablum that many Evangelicals have fed off of as a way of inoculating themselves from leftist criticism of an orthodox stance on sexual ethics. There is no biblical support for such a view (as I have written elsewhere). Think of it like a good healthcare plan, which, though covering all injuries equally, does not treat all injuries as equally severe. (RELATED: No, Rick Warren, Jesus Crucified Between Two ‘Bandits’ Doesn’t Mean He’s in the Middle)

A third reason is that God has trained me in “boldness of speech” and debate (but not adding offense to the message that is already so offensive to many) to speak on the matter of the Bible and homosexuality (and transgenderism) with clarity, regardless of how it affects my job or my circle of friends and enemies. I didn’t get that chip implanted in my brain that says, “Don’t say ‘the Emperor has no clothes’ to avoid getting into big trouble.” The stakes are too high for the world for me to make my own safety my biggest concern.

This is a perspective in short supply today. The dominant view, even in Evangelical circles, is that boldness of speech on the severity of homosexual practice and transgenderism (and I’m talking about a boldness of speech that seeks to reclaim the lost in love) is antithetical to love; that one has to reduce the severity of an offense in order to love those who are engaged in it. There is no support for that view in the pages of Scripture.

A fourth factor is that I recognize that this Jesus-honoring moral view on homosexual practice and transgenderism has a political dimension: It requires Christians to do their civic duty by casting an effective vote against candidates from today’s Democratic Party, where Leftists rule and where LGBTQ immorality and abortion are the chief idols. (RELATED: Our Two Main Parties Are Non-Christian but Only One Is Demonic)

Many Evangelicals, especially within the academy of scholarship, foolishly despise this political dimension. Yet it is a necessary one, without which the Left will continue their efforts not only in forcibly indoctrinating students at an astounding rate but also in codifying into law and securing through court appointments the view that opposition to LGBTQ immorality is bigotry of the highest order.

Proclaim the Truth

I have often compared the flak that I have taken from many “Evangelicals” (again, much of it covertly done behind my back) to being on the front lines on D-Day, with soldiers who are knitting in the rear complaining about how I hold my rifle. If you can do it better, why don’t you get up to the front lines?

Charlie Kirk’s death will not be in vain if it raises up many people to proclaim the truth about sexual ethics, including its political dimension, boldly, civilly, and lovingly. Let us honor his memory accordingly.

READ MORE from Robert A. J. Gagnon:

The Resurrection: The True Meaning of Easter

Why Good Friday Is the Best of All Days

Our Two Main Parties Are Non-Christian but Only One Is Demonic