Guest Commentary by Joy Overbeck
I’m writing this the day before Mother’s Day and so the Lord has put it on my heart to talk about the crucial role of Moms and Grandmoms and daughters, all women, in speaking out and taking action against the forces of evil that are trying to destroy our families. When the actual “Department of Justice” in the most free nation in world history labels Mothers “domestic terrorists” you know we are in deep trouble. When the left stream media and government mouthpieces insist on calling mothers “pregnant people” because men can get pregnant too, we can see the engine of normalcy and rationality has gone dangerously off the rails and is headed for a crash.
I know just how my own Mom would have reacted to her children being taught that they may have been born in the wrong body, that America is a terrible racist nation, and the rest of the prevailing leftist insanity. She would have marched to the podium at school board meetings, joining the other outspoken “Momma Bears” demanding an end to the indoctrination and to Critical Race Theory that pits our kids against each other based on their race and family economic status.
My Mom’s fiery example is the reason I speak out at those meetings, work for our Republican candidates, and write columns promoting our Conservative and Christian values on national sites like Townhall, American Thinker, and statewide on Complete Colorado. I absorbed her fierce patriot spirit from an early age as I watched her walk neighborhoods for Ronald Reagan, call and write our congressional representatives, and tangle with the local school board that wanted to stop using phonics to teach reading. She wrote so many letters that the editor of the local paper told her she needed to take a couple months off before he would publish her missives again!
My Mom got her passionate love of country from her Swedish parents who ran away from home to America (in separate ships!) when they were mere teenagers. I come from a long line of take-no-prisoners Vikings. In Sweden, my Grandfather was apprenticed to a butcher and hated it, but that would be his lifelong job in the old country way. With only a grammar school education, in America he became a self-taught engineer and worked for a big elevator company. Although they had thick Swedish accents their entire lives, they never spoke Swedish at home because they wanted their son and daughter to speak impeccable English. Living in the Boston suburbs, they did very well financially and sent their two children to college – my Mom at a time when very few women got that kind of education. Their lives were the America dream personified.
My Mom was also a fervent Christian and lover of Jesus who prayed constantly over her family, our nation, and all of her friends. She was the first one to pray for me over the phone to ask Jesus to immediately intervene in whatever difficulty I was having, and that’s what I do now with my friends and family. She was a happy warrior, full of fun, who effortlessly gathered friends around her wherever she went. I can’t even imagine how many souls she brought to Christ.
Mom daily praised the Lord for all His blessings which He bestowed so continuously in her life. She told her four children to look beyond our earthly ups and downs to the abiding love of the Lord and His glorious plans for believers, plans that transcend the day-to-day. She navigated the perplexing dilemma that I think prevents so many Christians from becoming active in political issues: if God is in charge and is working all things together for good, (Romans 8:28) then why do we need to get involved?
Because if we don’t, the bad guys will take over. We can see their perverse war against truth and justice gaining ground daily in our world. And then too, we have the example of Jesus Christ. God’s Son knew better than anyone that His Father is in charge, but that didn’t stop Him from fighting the societal rot of His time. Commonly portrayed as the meek and mild teacher who above all commanded that we love everyone and even do good to those who hate us (Matthew 5:44) Jesus also had a bold activist side. He was a fearless warrior for God’s truth, and He ultimately gave His life for that truth.
Jesus directly confronted the false teachings of the all-powerful political elite of the age, the Pharisees who controlled the messaging and enforced the rules and laws governing the Jewish population. They were the authorities who held the same power over people’s lives that our own government has wielded over us. In the past two years that control has expanded alarmingly to become the power to lock us up, to destroy our jobs and our livelihoods and shut our churches with drastic Covid lockdowns. And they even claim the power to infect our children’s minds with anti-American and anti-Christian propaganda and sexual deviance.
Once parents realized what was going on, they rose up against the false teaching of this ugly and dangerous “woke” ideology. Mothers began talking to their friends and started to form a mighty Mom force that became such inspiring national groups as Moms for America (https://momsforamerica.us) and Moms for Liberty (https://momsforliberty.orgwith websites packed with empowering information and ways to combat the “wokeness” eating away at our families’ lives and futures.
Women and men who had never been “political” ran for school board or their local town council to take back their power as free citizens. They registered as volunteers at their county’s Republican Party website to help elect representatives who would uphold their values of God, family, and country.
What about you? The Katalyst “Resources” tab will give you many fruitful places to start. Don’t worry about what to say – when Moses told God “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” and so was unable to achieve His purpose, the Lord responded sharply, “Who has made man’s mouth? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” (Exodus 4:10-11)
Paul gave the Philippians instructions that so clearly apply to today, telling them to do everything possible “that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world…” (Phil. 2:14,15) Let’s go forth and shine.
Joy Overbeck is a Colorado based journalist and author who has written for Townhall, American Thinker, The Washington Times, The Federalist, the Daily Caller, and others. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter @joyoverbeck1.