When Did We Wake Up In The Twilight Zone?

By: Tim Timmons

It’s not unusual to get reaction after writing a column. Some of you share with me your thoughts on my heritage, my intelligence, my sanity . . . and a few of you actually like what I wrote.

But last week brought a lot of you out of the woodwork.

And it appears – at least on the surface – that many of us are in the same boat. We’re wondering where the sanity went, or as one person wrote – how did I wake up in the twilight zone?

No doubt we live in an upside-down world. If you have the audacity to believe there are two sexes, you are clearly misguided. If you think parents have more responsibility for children than the school, you aren’t thinking clearly. If you think Israel is right in its attempt to eradicate Hamas, you are a war-monger.

But those are not the biggest problems.

That, my friends, is the complete hypocrisy in which each one of those points exists.

A few years ago, most of us were told to be tolerant – to respect the rights of those who wished to think, believe and act differently than what we did. For the most part, we went along. That is not to say we agreed, but we were raised to be respectful, to not cram our opinions down the throats of others.

Today, that courtesy is not returned.

Society is venturing further and further from what we once called the norm. Except as it ventures, it also draws lines between “us and them.” And either you go along with the new us, or you are one of them – them being backward, biased, xphobes (replace x with your choice of precedents).

There is no tolerance of traditional, biblical views any more. There’s no tolerance of varying opinions. There’s not even much room for facts in disagreements. That’s hard to believe but it’s true – in many cases facts simply don’t matter.

Thing is, that toothpaste is already out of the tube and try all you want, it ain’t going back.

The only question left, in this reporter’s humble opinion, is where do we go from here?

First off, shame on me and shame on any of us who allowed respect and tolerance to turn into disregard for our duties as parents, siblings and friends. When did some of us decide that as parents it was more important to be warm and fuzzy rather than a teacher of our children?

I get the fact that every generation has their own Dr. Spock – an expert who shares thoughts on how we ought to raise our young’uns. And Lord knows new parents need all the help they can get. Those kiddos don’t pop out with an instruction manual, do they?

But somewhere along the way, somebody told the newer generation of parents how to raise children in a way that didn’t involve discipline – at least not the sort of discipline many of us grew up with.

Reason replaced rigidity – and to some degree, that wasn’t all bad. Then again, most 6-year-olds aren’t deeply gifted with sound reasoning ability and a lot of lessons have gone flying over their heads – much like good behavior went flying out the window.

But hey, we’re not supposed to say anything, right? What were the two things we were told not to discuss in mixed company, politics and religion? (Actually the country might be better off if we all cut back on the political debates.)

But not so on religion.

God hasn’t just been pushed out of our schools. Tell someone you believe in God today and you are as close to an outcast as lepers were in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John’s time.

Think not?

What traditional biblical world view is still accepted without question today?

Matrimony? Please. Sex? Are you kidding? Evil? Look around.

Look, I don’t typically write about religion. The eight or nine of you who regularly read these scribbles know that. But our nation was founded by people who believed in God. The idea of separation between church and state wasn’t to boot God out – but that is exactly what is happening.

Just one man’s opinion, but I think more and more of us need to speak up – to make sure that God and those traditional biblical views are still very much part of the public square.

Twilight zone indeed? The crazier times get, the more important right and wrong become. And for those viewpoints, the answers are pretty clear.

-Two cents, which is about how much Timmons said his columns are worth, appears periodically in The Times. Timmons is the chief executive officer of Sagamore News Media, the company that owns The Noblesville Times. He is also a proud Noblesville High School graduate and can be contacted at [email protected].