A few other things from Eric Metaxas, not about Donald Trump, in discussing his new book, If You Can Keep It. (Longer NRO Q&A here.)
KJL: What are your If You Can Keep It thoughts in the wake of the Orlando attack this past weekend?
METAXAS: The atrocity of the murders in Orlando is a genuinely clarifying moment for us. For one thing, serious Christians who are traditionally against same-sex marriage and against homosexual behavior have demonstrated a great outpouring of love and sympathy and support for the victims and their families, which underscores their general commitment to seeing others as creatures made in the image of God, no matter what, and to showing that they really do genuinely care for those who disagree with them. For example, did you see that Chick-Fil-A actually stayed open on Sunday to show their support for the victims and their families? That’s a staggering departure from their commitment to stay closed on Sundays, and they did it specifically to show their love for the victims.
On the other hand, many leftist LGBT activists have ignobly seized on this horror to accuse Christians as being the root cause of this attack, which is unplugged loonieness on a stick and then some. For one thing, it was a Muslim who murdered 50 people, and reports are coming in that he was himself gay. He claimed fealty to ISIS, which murders Christians every single day, and throws gays from the tops of tall buildings. So for anyone to go so far as to say what some LGBT activists have said is genuinely dangerous and a threat to everyone’s actual liberty. It shows that the vital American tolerance for different points of view has become something many on the left have now simply abandoned. They peevishly want to crush the religious liberty of those who disagree with them and will use whatever cudgel they can find, including the worst bloodbath in our history. If we needed proof that our system is broken, it’s the flowering of this decidedly anti-American impulse in large segments of our population. Unless we name this and face it, we will all suffer. Those who do this are, to borrow my friend Chuck Colson’s phrase, sawing off the limb on which they are sitting. By working to end genuine religious liberty they push us toward a society that is far less free for everyone.
KJL: How are we a nation for others and what does that mean for how we address the migration from Isis targeted lands and the so called Arab Spring?
METAXAS: From the beginning, we understood that America was to be a light to the whole world, a beacon of freedom for all beyond our shores. Reagan understood this, and knew that his words would echo in the dank cells of the Gulag and give hope to those suffering under Soviet oppression. We have always wanted others to see in us a promise of something that they too could have, whether that meant actually coming here, or simply importing our ideas into their own lands. We didn’t patent our ideas, but wanted to share them with the world, knowing that these ideas were gifts to us, ones that we were entrusted with, but meant to share as we could. But that can never mean we open our borders in such a way as to threaten our very existence. If we truly care about sharing what we have, we must of course first guard it against destruction, whatever that means. A rich man who wants to bless those with no money will be careful how he shares his riches, lest he run out and cease to be able to do any further good.
KJL: What’s so important for Americans to know about your parents?
Metaxas: My mother came here from Germany in 1954, having first escaped communist East Germany by herself at age 17. My father came here from Greece in 1955, having survived the Axis occupation of his native island, Cephalonia, followed by the Greek civil war with the communists, followed by a devastating earthquake in which we lost everything. Both my parents knew real hunger and the horrors of war and the evil of communism; and both knew that being able to come to America was a glorious gift from heaven, one they didn’t take for granted — and still don’t. Nor have they let their children. They met each other in an English class for immigrants here in New York City, a mile from where I now live. God is good.
KJL: What are you most grateful for?
Metaxas: I’m most grateful for this nation, which welcomed my parents sixty years ago and made their lives and my own life possible. Who are we to deserve the immense blessings of freedom that we have, that so many others around the world hardly dream of? The only thing we can do and must do is to try and share these ideas with as many as we can. But first we must ourselves appreciate what we have, and in writing this book I am desperately hoping to rekindle in Americans an appreciation for the immense blessings that we have in our nation, for these freedoms that are not normal or natural, but that we have the immense privilege of being stewards of and enjoying. Having an appreciation of the great and fragile treasure we have — and hve so often taken for granted — is a basic requirement of truly being an American, so I think those of us who live here and enjoy these freedoms have a solemn obligation to do so.
Eric Metaxas on Orlando, Religious Freedom & More