Real combat . . .
. . . is not always a physical battle.
The question is “What will you fight for, and why?”
Watch our Truth in Two video, to find out our answer (full text with afterword, below).
The old adage is true, “Fight for something or fall for anything.”
Subscribe to “Truth in Two” videos from Comenius (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), hosts a weekly radio program with diverse groups of guests (1 minute video), and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).
Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT
Al Pacino’s speech in the movie City Hall still sends shivers up my spine. A little Black boy is unintentionally killed by the errant gunfire from a White police officer. Al Pacino plays the White mayor of New York. He goes to the little boy’s funeral at a large Black church, against the advice of his staff.
The mayor begins in low, quiet tones and ends in a battle cry, “I choose to fight back!” The mayor’s speech both honors the death of a child and seeks to protect the citizens of his city. I love that line, “I choose to fight back!”
Sometimes you pick a FIGHT just by showing up. You have no intention of fighting. You don’t want to fight. You might not even *like* to fight. But you are already in a fight. Just by being who you are. By what you believe. By what you have said. By what you haven’t said.
Just because you believe something different, you are questioned, then excluded, then belittled, then attacked. You are in a fight just by showing up. So, here is where I draw my line in the sand. I will not back down from three fights.
One, I will continue to proclaim, without apology, true Truth found in God’s creation and God’s Word. Two, I will continue to stand with others who stand for freedom, against tyranny. And, three, I will stand with my Lord Jesus against the principalities and powers of this world.
I encourage you to find Al Pacino’s City Hall speech on YouTube. I hope it sends shivers up your spine as well. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.
Afterword: [A brief, incomplete reflection as I read Jesus’ words this morning, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51, ESV).]
Some of the groups who are most upset by your presence are people who propose peace. The cost of peace, however, is believing what that group believes. “Tolerance” and “acceptance” are watchwords at the heart of this group. But those words are set aside when you stand in disagreement.