I was 13 years old, and I had found out we would be moving.
I had so badly wanted to try out for the JV basketball team or the soccer team, but I never got the chance. I never played a JV or high school sport.
The parochial school I had attended after we moved didn’t offer any intermural sports. I didn’t go to high school dances, didn’t go to prom – we didn’t have those things.
We didn’t go to movies with friends. We didn’t go roller skating. Some people didn’t even go to bowling alleys. And the most devoted people definitely didn’t go to the beach.
Sports was a distraction, and one where we might encounter teenagers from other schools who didn’t believe the way we were told we believed.
Dances were not at all part of the social scene (we really didn’t have a social scene). Dances would lead to thoughts of sex.
We weren’t allowed to go to “Hollywood movies” because there was something wrong with each and every one of them, even the rated G ones. Trust me, there was always something.
Roller skating rinks were off limits when the public skated because of the rock music, among other things, but on the rare occasion (once I believe) that the church did arrange for a church members only event at the rink, it was organ music all evening.
The more pious avoided bowling alleys because alcohol is often served there, and at one time people could smoke in bowling alleys. The smoking was actually the only good reason to avoid bowling alleys.
Words like cool, man, dude, shoot, and bogue were banned from school and youth group activities because they weren’t just teenage nonsense slang, they were worldly words.
Girls weren’t allowed to wear jeans, or denim jackets, or anything else that would have been considered current fashion. Make-up that was too dark was too punk. Too much make-up was too suggestive.
Jewelry was potentially okay, but too much jewelry, or earrings that were “too big,” was considered tawdry.
The peace symbol, the circular one that has long appeared on everything from t-shirts to necklaces, was banned as a symbol of the hippy movement.
If you had athletic talent and just wanted to participate in sports, that didn’t matter. There were more important things. If you liked to roller skate because it was fun, that didn’t matter. Find something more saintly to do. If you weren’t a girly-girl and liked jeans, you needed to get right and dress more modestly. If you liked bright, fun colors or funky earrings, you needed to tame your wild spirit.
One’s intent did not matter. No questions were actually asked about one’s intent. The leadership didn’t need to ask; they knew the intent, not only of teenagers who may seek to dissent from the expectations that were being imposed, but also of the adults who dared challenge it as well.
If after reading this you think that this kind of life would have been stifling, repressive, and even oppressive, you would be correct. It was.
It created a false narrative of who was good and who was evil based on the often arbitrary rules set by those who had assumed positions of power, and who had created the constricting expectations.
Quite often when the word dogma is used, the word religious precedes it. Dogma is not subject to religion alone though.
Everything from activities, like eating at Chick-Fil-A, to legally owning a gun, to going bowling, or even choosing whether or not to get a vaccine is now subject to some arbitrary labeling. Such choices can be considered homophobic, transphobic, nationalist – even white nationalist, and science denying.
Even words are deemed phobic, racist, nationalist, or any other “ist.” The intention of the user does not matter to those who have assumed some sense of power/ Usually that power is spurious at best.
Unfortunately it is the case that some of the unwarranted, fabricated accusations have led to actual incidents of everything from harassment on social media to loss of jobs and to even more serious attempts to ruin the life of the “offender.” The self-righteous outrage mob angrily chants “crucify them” at everyone who violates their bizarre and maniacal expectations of behavior.
Many people who strongly oppose the imposition of religious dogma upon a society are the very people who are waring to impose a dogma upon the society. Many people who believe there is no absolute truth, except their truth, are attempting to impose their truth, however manipulated it may be, upon a free nation.
The scripture tells us that “So if the Son sets free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36) In my soul, I somehow knew that. The Spirit must have given me the gift of that knowledge.
I had then dared to question, even in that religiously oppressive environment. It was the only way to become free indeed and to live the life that God had intended for me to live, in the church (though clearly not that church) and in the world as a whole.
The same is true as it relates to the dogma of the woke. In order to be free, you have to question the agenda of those who are trying to manipulate and to gain power and control over you.
Do not allow the mob to ascribe intent where they have no insight. Do not allow them to exercise control when they have no conscience. Do not give them power when they have no wisdom.
Dogma is defined as “a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.” Be careful to check the source of the dogma that is being presented to you as truth. The truth can only set you free if the truth has a foundation in the One who is not only the same yesterday, today, and always, but in the One in whom there is no self-interest, no manipulation, and no evil intent.
The Listener 