Dr. James Spencer, president of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, joined Fox News’s “Lighthouse Faith” podcast to discuss his new book, Christian Resistance: Learning to Defy the World and Follow Jesus. He compared the current climate in the United States for conservative Christians to that of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. “I think Orwell is describing something that’s a totalitarian regime that’s very much sort of iron-fisted in its implementation,” he said. “What we’re dealing with is almost a more influential problem, where we’re being inundated with way too much information.” Neil Postman, in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, however, contrasted Orwell’s vision of a dystopian world with that of Aldous Huxley’s book Brave New World. “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books,” wrote Postman. “What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

The pressure to conform is strong, with the passage of hate speech laws and rules to enforce “diversity and inclusion,” limiting what Christians feel they can say about gender roles and marriage. Spencer stated that the role of a Christian is to remain strong against societal pressures to conform. “Christians need to be like a dam holding back water,” he said. “There’s all this pressure that’s coming against it, and the dam just needs to hold its shape. You need to be a strong, hard boundary between the water and whatever else is on the other side. But if that dam breaks, if that dam fractures, if it doesn’t resist appropriately the water that’s coming in — then we’ve got problems.” Christians are already feeling the pressure. Recently, an Arizona school board decided to terminate its contract with Arizona Christian University due to the school’s stance on gay marriage. Spencer stated that the push against conservative Christian values is to make “uncritical members of society.” “When you take away my ability to think and speak, and you’re trying to control that, you’re essentially eliminating my free speech or essentially eliminating my thought.”

 Critical thinking in America, particularly when it comes to listening to others with different points of view, is particularly at risk. A survey by the Reboot Foundation found that almost half of the respondents “sometimes,” “rarely,” or “never” seek out people with different opinions for the purposes of discussion. The Bible, however, guarantees that Christians, when they speak the truth, will find themselves opposed. Conforming is a sign of compromise. As Luke 6:26 says, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”