Bullying is much in the news. We hear tragic stories of young people taking their lives. Sometimes it’s due to being treated cruelly in person or online, through Snapchat or some other “instant” technology.

Bullies attack others in order to make themselves feel superior. Or because, in their own pain, they lash out. Or simply because, in the depravity we all share, they enjoy the feeling of harming another human being.

Political Activism and Bullying

Yet as we fight bullying among youth — and the First Lady deserves applause for her fine work in this area — many have embraced bullying as a means of political activism. Or accepted bullying as their just dessert, cowed into submission by the attacks of the bullies themselves.

Consider Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter. A couple of days ago, he “tweeted” that he had made a purchase at Chick-Fil-A (CFA). Journalist Soledad O’Brien promptly scolded him for buying something at America’s favorite fast-food chain during “Gay Pride Month.” And Dorsey folded like a paper house in a hurricane.

A few years ago, CFA CEO Dan Cathy did the unthinkable. He said he supported the Bible’s teaching about marriage and opposed same-sex unions. So much for the moral teaching of orthodox Christianity, historic Judaism, and Islam for that matter. Opposition to letting same-gendered people marry legally is now an act of hatred. Didn’t you know?

The hatred Cathy and his company received was astonishing. Vileness, and rage flowed from the homosexual lobby, which screams “hatred!” whenever someone disagrees with its agenda. And, of course, the lobby’s allies in the news and entertainment media burnished the image of CFA as being a cesspool of evil.

CFA’s fine product, the benefits it provides its 40,000 employees, and its remarkably generous charitable work can’t be denied. Its ethical conduct in the professional world and its unashamedly Christian values make it a sterling example of what a good corporation looks like. And the fact that it is a rapidly growing enterprise speaks to its popularity among we, the people.

Jack Dorsey’s Fear

But my point is less to extol CFA than it is to make a larger point. Jack Dorsey’s quick apology seems like the terrified response of a person used to being threatened. It reflected less conscience than it did fear.

Homosexual bullying is well documented. But so is the bullying of the sexual Left at large. Name a single “mainstream” media personality who is identifiably pro-life (excluding certain Fox News personalities). Name one who opposes the transformation of marriage from the life-long covenant between one man and one woman to consensual unions between two men or two women (or whatever other relational bond a given set of people desire).

Go to any secular university and ask the liberal arts faculty where they stand on abortion and same-sex marriage. Or sexual license among students. At best, you will get shrugs. At worst, you will be treated as a leper for even raising such irrelevant and offensive questions.

Intellectual Magic

Our society is a place of intellectual magic. We applaud the bullying of LGBT activists and their allies but say it’s wrong when it comes to our youth. We stomp our feet in anger as we render endless ovations. It’s a trick to be so two-faced, but we perform it every day.

Our society is also a place in which we honor the bravery of those who wear our nation’s uniform, on the streets of our cities or on foreign fields. Yet it is acceptable to heap contempt on the moral courage of people like Baronnelle Stutzman or Jack Phillips. They hate no one but their Christian faith will not let them endorse something Scripture opposes.

We hate child abuse but allow abortion through the ninth month of pregnancy. We know the importance of fathers but permit no-fault divorce in all 50 states. We oppose, rightly, rape but are infused with pornography.

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness,” writes the apostle James. “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be” (3:9-10). Should not be, but in America, it is as common as sprinklers in the summer.

Moral Bravery

Moral courage is grounded in two things: Conviction and a willingness to face opposition to it. There are few virtues honored more in the breach than in practice than these.

It is human nature to want to avoid pain, emotional, social, or physical. So, moral bravery isn’t easy. But a handful of people unwilling to bend to the insistence of the wayward, unthinking crowd move mountains. Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect. The American abolition and civil rights movements. The pro-life movement, which the most recent survey shows is making true headway in moving the hearts and minds of the nation.

The last chapter of the Bible has stiff words about cowardice. “The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars— they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur” (Revelation 21:8).

All of us have hated in our hearts, have lusted in our minds, have worshipped various kinds of false gods (I sure liked that Tesla I saw earlier this evening). But Christians, by definition, are people who have come to a decision to reject and actively fight against such things. Including cowardice. And including the plague of moral cancer that, due to the yelling accusations of a few, is driving the public affirmations of the many. It’s because they lack courage or are plain indifferent to whatever evils don’t immediately affect them.

“Do not be afraid,” the Lord says in Isaiah 41. “I am with you.” Dear brother or sister in the Savior: Do you believe that? And will you obey accordingly?