When we think of spiritual warfare, we have a tendency to think of a glorious knight slaying a dragon, but the go-to passage on spiritual warfare, Ephesians 6:10-17 NASB – The Armor of God – Finally, be strong – Bible Gateway, describes something a bit more mundane, a Roman soldier standing — persevering — firmly in place, desperately trusting in the armor God has given him for the battle.

How does this work in practice? I expect most of us, most Christians, hope our lives look at least a little like Nehemiah’s life. With some confusion we struggle to obey God. Each of us believes God has something He called us to do, and we struggle against the temptations of this world to make ourselves do what we are supposed to do.

What was Nehemiah called upon to do? The Book of Nehemiah describes what he did. He led the construction of a wall around Jerusalem. That involved spiritual warfare, careful, focused choices, and lots of hard work.

Did Nehemiah and the people he led have to fight? No. Because they prepared to fight, their enemies feared them. So, they just had a lot of hard work to do.

What about us? Well, most of us need to consider the example of Nehemiah and the people he led. We need to prepare for spiritual warfare, but we also need to think about what God has called upon us to do, to make careful, focused choices and do lots of hard work.

One of the things Nehemiah had to do was resist constant discouragement from his enemies, people opposed to the construction of a wall around Jerusalem. In a sense this is spiritual warfare, but it is also about focus, knowing what God expects and keeping at it. How does that work? Consider the example of the Republicans supervisors in Republican Supervisors Walk Out on Prince William Joint School Board Meeting Unconscious Bias Presentation – Bristow Beat : Bristow Beat.

Why did the Republican supervisors walk out? Here is part of what Supervisor Candland said.

“I don’t think this is an appropriate venue. ..Frankly, its highly insulting because you are insinuating that somehow members of the Board of County Supervisors hold these implicit biases against different racial groups….If the Board of County Supervisors wants training on implicit bias, then we will decide on how we are going to train ourselves, but to have the School Board come and say, ‘we are going to train you on implicit bias, your own implicit bias,’ is highly inappropriate.”

“The fact that we’re talking about this when we’ve got a global pandemic happening, when we have kids who are floundering at home, we we’ve got to figure out how we are going to fund schools for next year. We’re taking time during the joint meeting to talk about this. I find this very disturbing and I object to this type of training during this meeting.”

Republican Supervisors Walk Out on Prince William Joint School Board Meeting Unconscious Bias Presentation – Bristow Beat : Bristow Beat

Because of the way the meeting was sidetracked, Republicans were furious. Bias training? When we need to get the children back in school?

Ask yourself this question. When we are supposed to evaluate each other based upon the content of our character, do you want people responsible for teaching your children who are constantly obsessed with identity politics, that is, judging others based upon their sex, race, creed, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability status, and so forth? That is as dumb as judging a book by its cover. In fact, it doesn’t even have all that much to do with genuine diversity. Our nation is more divided by political issues than it is by race or sex.

Consider this observation.

Bacon’s bottom line: Few would disagree that we all should be aware of our unconscious biases and strive to treat all individuals without regard to their race or ethnicity. The problem is that anti-bias “training,” increasingly permeated with the rhetoric of Critical Race Theory, has become a mechanism for indoctrinating people with a leftist critique of society that presumes white racism and white privilege.

Prince William Republicans Walk Out of “Bias” Training Session | Bacon’s Rebellion

We want people looking at our children and calling them racists and sexists because of their race and sex? We want people looking at our children and telling them they should enjoy special advantages because of their sex, race, creed, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability status, and so forth? That’s not bigoted?

We live in a society where we are being constantly propagandized, where people are determined to fill our minds with bad ideas and bad thoughts. An open mind is fine, but we don’t want our minds filled with sewage. We cannot placidly accept people filling our heads with garbage and remain unaffected. We most certainly should not allow sewage and garbage to be pumped into the minds of our children. The Bible tells us to resist and focus on good ideas and good thoughts. The Apostle Paul put it this way.

Philippians 4:8-9

New American Standard Bible

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is ^[a]lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ As for the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

God wants us both to contemplate what is good and do what is right. Why? If we focus upon whatever is false, whatever is dishonorable, whatever is wrong, whatever is polluted, whatever is ugly, whatever is damnable, all that is unworthy of praise; then we will work to construct falsehoods, dishonor people, do evil, spread ugliness and filth, and damn everyone around us.

In a society filled with people determined to fill our minds with rot, we each need to support those people who encourage us to think upon what is good and through their example do what is right. We each must:

• Find a good Christian church and actively support it.
• Ensure our children receive proper Bible instruction. That includes setting a good example by learning ourselves.
• Take an active role in the education of our children. Ensure our children can become productive citizens. Send our children to private Christian schools if we can afford it. Do our best to make certain the people running our public schools don’t fill our children’s minds with rot if we cannot.
• Choose jobs that are good for our communities. We cannot take a job just because it pays the bills.
• Carefully choose our entertainment and news sources. These sources shape our own beliefs and the beliefs of our children.
• Make use of businesses that promote and exemplify Christian values. If we are giving our business to good businesses, we don’t have to worry about boycotting bad businesses.
• Support political leaders working to protect our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That includes the School Board even if we don’t have children in the public schools.

As salt we must work to preserve the best of our culture. As light we must shine the truth upon whatever is good.

Matthew 5:13-16

New American Standard Bible

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how ^[a]can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by people.

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city set on a ^[b]hill cannot be hidden; ¹⁵ nor do people light a lamp and put it under a ^[c]basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶ Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.