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Divide and conquer has too often proven to be a winning strategy. On the cultural battlefield division is easily found in the form of defamatory accusation.

Two stories broke this week that should serve as reminders that allowing division by defamation is how we are beaten.

Italian female boxer Angela Carini was forced to fight a biological male at the Olympic games in Paris. Barely a year since he failed a gender test her opponent competed in the Olympics. The fact that we have gender tests at all is an issue unto itself. If not so cringingly gross it would be the stuff of a comedy. The outcome was more of a Greek tragedy. Carini was encouraged by many not to fight, but a fighter is what she is. With high hopes, wearing her countries flag, she entered the ring. Forty-five seconds and several dynamic blows to the head later she threw up her hands, dropped to her knees and cried in frustration, saying “this is unjust!”. The fight was over

But the broader fight had just begun. The effort to divide began in earnest.

Let’s be clear, this is an awful affront to women in general. We should all be sick over that young lady’s stolen dreams. The Olympic committee should be ashamed. But division is the devil’s game.

Apologists in the liberal media jumped into action. Accusers accused. Malignment became the order of the day. Among the worst, Vox ran a headline reading, “Discrimination against trans Olympians has roots in Nazi Germany”. Did you catch that? Division by defamation.

Dare to take issue with someone’s personal suspension of disbelief allowing them to inflict pain, discomfort, and insecurity on others so that they can ignore actual science and live out their truth…..well, then we are just like the Nazi’s!

This is division. Division is the devil’s game. It’s what the devil does. Recognizing it is the first defense.

The word devil is actually derived from the Greek word “diabolos” which means, one who falsely accuses and divides people; an accuser or slanderer. Sound familiar?

Suddenly, the false and defamatory accusations fly and those too weak to know better back off because they can’t stand in the face of slanderous accusations. We allow ourselves to be cowed into division. Division is the devil’s game.

A second story was buried among all the headlines about politics, culture and war. Alabama’s lone Democrat in DC, Congresswoman Terri Sewell (AL-07) was excited to announce Alabama has been awarded $383 million in federal funds! For what you may ask.

Racial reparations.

Unbeknownst to many, the Biden-Harris spendapalooza known as the Inflation Reduction Act contains over $2 billion in set-asides to compensate black farmers for past injustices. Minority farmers who feel that they have ever been treated badly, or the descendants of those minority farmers who believe they were treated badly, or the folks who inherited debt on loans from former minority farmers who believe that they were treated badly, can apply for what USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack describes as compensation to serve as “acknowledgment” of past injustices. Money from today’s taxpayers who had nothing to do with the ills of the past so that division can be foisted on society in the name of acknowledgment.

This is division. The devil’s game.

Racism is wrong. It exists, and until Jesus comes back it just will continue to pop up. I also know that the sins of the past were real with racism not only allowable but legal. But the days of sanctioned racism are over in the US. Bad things happen now because of occasional bad people, yet as a nation we have officially repented and made every effort to repeal, replace, and redeem that which was ignorantly and wrongfully done in the name of racial disparity.

But it’s not enough. There must be division. Because division is the devil’s game.

Virtue signaling omnibus legislation with buried line-items designed to use the tax dollars of innocent modern-day citizens to pay for the acknowledgement of past failings from prior generations is division. Reparations paid to slander the present on the sins of the past serves not to right a wrong. It serves to create divide by implying that old guilt should be worn by the new all. If you object, then brace yourselves as accusations of racism will soon be slung your way by the great dividers.

But truth serves as the ultimate defense in any defamation. Don’t buy it. Don’t kowtow or acquiesce. Don’t let them tell you that you’re something you’re not.

If you don’t believe that men should be allowed to punch women in the face then say so. If you don’t believe that you should have your tax dollars used to pay for things you never did or would ever sanction, then say so. And when they attempt to accuse you just answer their accusations with calm questions…..”when did I say that?” …..”why are you lumping me into someone else’s problems?”…..”why should I pay for what I didn’t do?”……”what proof do you have?”.

As Christian conservatives we stand for the ideals of liberty, self-determination, freedom, and democracy wonderfully mixed with the hope eternal that forgiveness and grace come from a real and loving God. THOSE are our messages. THAT is who we are. No amount of devilishly false accusation and behavior meant to insultingly divide should ever change that.

Division is the devil’s game. It’s what he does. It’s who he is.

We are not that.