Independence Day Parades and Barbarism
 
Independence Day Parades and Barbarism
Written By Laurie Higgins   |   07.06.14
Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Barbarous: Primitive in culture and customs; uncivilized; coarse”

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Independence Day parade in Deerfield, Illinois included a nod to sexual deviance, but Wheaton, Illinois?

A justifiably irate parent from Deerfield, a liberal community on the North Shore, contacted me to tell me that one of the scoutmasters and a couple of the scouts he leads in her son’s troop (Troop 50) decided to add rainbow-colored bandanas to their official uniforms to demonstrate their support for something. Perhaps they were showing their support for the change in Boy Scout policy which allows openly homosexual boys to become members, or maybe they were advocating for a change in policy so that men who are attracted to males can serve openly as leaders of males, or maybe they wanted to signal their affirmation of homosexuality, or perhaps they want men-wannabes (i.e., cross-dressers and the genitally mutilated) to serve as leaders.

Angry parents of young children in Wheaton, a conservative community which is home to Wheaton College and a dozen theologically orthodox churches, contacted me to express their frustration that for the second year in a row, the homosexuality-affirming organization Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) had marched in the parade. No one opposes friendships with homosexuals, but, of course, that’s not really what this deviously-named organization is promoting.

For the second year in a row, these Wheaton parents will be contacting parade organizers to express their concerns, which will likely be ignored again. One hopes that Wheaton College professors and priests, pastors, and elders in Wheaton churches will be doing likewise.

It wasn’t enough for homosexuals to have their own parades in every major city in June—parades that have grown in size and decadence. These parades now match or dwarf in numbers of parade entrants and attendees virtually any parade anywhere in the country save perhaps the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade, which last year included a performance of the award-winning Broadway play about sexual perversion Kinky Boots.

Communities now take pride in affirming shameful behaviors, with our elected leaders marching pridefully in celebration of that which no man or woman should celebrate let alone celebrate on Main Street in front of children. What a barbarous affront to families and an insult to our veterans. No Christian should bring their children to any event that celebrates and affirms soul-destroying sexual perversion. If Christians are unwilling to make even this small sacrifice, they are woefully unprepared for what’s coming.

Some will be tsk-tsking me (or worse) for criticizing these intrusions into what should be occasions to celebrate the founding of the greatest nation that has ever existed on this planet—a nation founded by men who understood that God exists and absolute, objective, transcendent, eternal moral truths exist. These men of diverse theological views would share in common a sense of outrage that their vision for liberty has been twisted into a sickening defense of sexual predilections that will hurt individuals and weaken the country that so many have died to bring into existence and to defend.

The tsk-tskers will huff and puff that I am the moral equivalent of a racist. They will offer the specious argument that inclusion of parade entrants who celebrate homosexuality is consonant with America’s vision of equality and liberty. But that argument works only if homosexuality is analogous to race. Opposition to celebrations of homoerotic predispositions, activity, and relationships bears not even the remotest relation to racism because homosexuality is nothing like race.

Our Founders did not conceive of equality as a principle that has any relevance to conditions constituted by sexual feelings and volitional sexual acts. Equality is not a principle that robs individuals or society of the right to discriminate between right and wrong behaviors.  Equality is not a principle that demands citizens treat all beliefs and all actions as equivalent.  And equality is not a principle that demands that conditions that have no behavioral implications—like race—be treated as ontologically and morally equivalent to conditions that are constituted by sexual feelings and sexual acts—like homosexuality.

What will parade organizers in Deerfield and Wheaton do when polyamorists, who are erotically and romantically attracted to multiple people concurrently and who voluntarily forge romantic/erotic unions, seek to march in  July 4th parades in order to promote their vision for the expansion of equality and liberty?

The proverbial writing has been on the wall for quite some time, and it doesn’t take a Daniel to read it. There will be no square inch of life that will be left untouched by the sullied hands of homosexual perversity–no celebration, no public school, no career path, and no church will be left unmolested.

If your community parade included participants who celebrated ideas to which no young children should be exposed, call the appropriate village, town, or city officials to express your opposition, telling them that next year you will find a child-friendly activity way to celebrate the founding of this increasingly uncivilized nation. 


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Laurie Higgins
Laurie Higgins was the Illinois Family Institute’s Cultural Affairs Writer in the fall of 2008 through early 2023. Prior to working for the IFI, Laurie worked full-time for eight years...
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