The Truth Never Exists Unopposed

 

I get email newsletters about things in the media from two different conservative groups.  I’m actually not politically conservative, but I am very morally conservative and so I appreciate these watchdog groups that keep their eyes on inappropriate television shows and the companies sponsoring them. 

Every now and then an email will come out.  It will explain what their current concern is, offer a link if you want to check out the situation more, and then usually have a link to go and send letters to the advertisers.  I’ve been amazed and impressed at how many advertisers are influenced by these campaigns.  Sure, some shows are able to pull in new advertisers, but some shows fold because the advertisers see that enough people are upset about the show’s content.

Several weeks ago a new email came.  It explained that in the new season of “Dancing with the Stars,” one of the contestants would be Chaz Bono, formerly known as Chastity Bono.  The email went on to explain that this would probably mean that the formerly family-friendly show would now become a platform for transgender issues, discussing topics that we might not want our children introduced to. 

 

A week or so later we had the tv on during the day to get information about Hurricane Irene.  When we were done getting our weather update I switched channels and a daytime talk show with a group of women came on.  I believe it was called “The Talk.”  Just as I switched the channel one of the women started talking about this advocacy group and the email they’d sent out about Chaz Bono. 

I was kind of startled as I listened to them talk about the situation.  They were so angry, so indignant that anyone would suggest that a television show during the “family viewing hour” was not the place for a transgendered contestant.  And then one of the women said, “I think that this comes from such a place of hatefulness.”

I was shocked.  After all, I’d gotten the email.  I’d read the email.  There was not a thing ugly or hateful about it.  It was calm and informative and informational.  I was so disturbed that I just switched off the tv, confused about what they were saying and about what I was feeling.

 

Several days later I was reading in the September Ensign, an article called “Valiant in the Testimony of Jesus Christ.”  When I got to this paragraph it was like a light bulb went off in my brain:

The Savior and those who have taken upon them His name have always drawn and will always draw criticism. The truth never exists unopposed. It will always have many times more than its share of antagonists, desperately striving to disprove, debunk, discredit, and destroy. That is so because it is truth; if it were not, it would be of no consequence and the world would pay it no mind, much less waste any effort to oppose it.

The truth never exists unopposed. 

Now I could see why these women were so incensed about this email campaign, why they would label the letter and the people participating as hateful.   Because of the truth; the truth that parents should be able to control what issues their children are exposed to, and the truth that gender is something established pre-mortally and not something that we should choose to change.

 

The next paragraph in the Ensign article was also helpful, though somewhat less comfortable. 

Human tendency is to blend in with the crowd. “Broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat”. But we must be willing to speak up, stand up, and stand out for the truth.

 

I hope I can remember this lesson.  That someone is always going to be attacking the truth, and that it is my job to stop being surprised by it and to speak up for the truth. 

 

PS—Please know that I have every sympathy for people who feel uncomfortable with their gender.  I just don’t think sex-change operations as a solution are a part of Heavenly Father’s plan, and I don’t want my children learning about these things while watching DWTS.  Not that they watch DWTS.  But you know what I mean…