Imagine, if you will, a yardstick standing on end. On either end are the extreme policy actions for any political issue. Between the ends lie all gradations of policy from one extreme to the other. The yardstick represents the full political spectrum for a particular issue. The essence of the Overton window is that only a portion of this policy spectrum is within the realm of the politically possible at any time. Regardless of how vigorously a think tank or other group may campaign, only policy initiatives within this window of the politically possible will meet with success.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

All issues fall somewhere along this policy continuum, which can be roughly outlined as: Unthinkable, Radical, Acceptable, Sensible, Popular, Policy. When the window moves or expands, ideas can accordingly become more or less politically acceptable. <\/p>\n

Overton\u2019s model was developed to explain adjustments in the political climate.<\/strong> But I believe it can also illuminate how profound and deleterious changes are advanced in our culture. If the goal were to undermine cultural institutions, the process for getting from Unthinkable to Policy would follow these five easy steps:<\/p>\n

Step #1: From Unthinkable to Radical<\/em> \u2014 The first step is the easiest\u2014provided the issue can become a fetish or the topic of an academic symposium. Since both the professoriate and the perverts have a fascination with the faux-transgressive (the truly transgressive [i.e., Christianity] tends to terrify them) all you need to do is get the attention of one of these groups. It doesn’t matter which you start with since the politics of the bedroom and the classroom inevitably overlap.<\/p>\n

Step #2: From Radical to Acceptable<\/em> \u2014 This shift requires the creation and employment of euphemism. Want to kill a child exiting the womb? Call it “dilation and extraction\u201d and infanticide becomes a medical procedure. Want to include sodomitic unions under the banner of \u201cmarriage?\u201d Redefine the term \u201cmarriage\u201d to mean the state-endorsed copulation of any two(?) people who want to share a bed and a tax form. Be sure to say it is about \u201clove\u201d\u2014in our culture, eros<\/em> excuses everything.<\/p>\n

There will naturally be a few holdouts, of course, but those who reject the shift from Radical to Acceptable can be shamed into approving. All that is required is to deploy a stingingly suitable insult. The word \u201cbigot\u201d, for instance, is more effective than a billy club at beating the young into submission. There are few core beliefs they won\u2019t change to avoid being called a bigot. The disapproval of their Creator is unfortunate; enduring the disfavor of their peers is unimaginable. <\/p>\n

Step #3: From Acceptable to Sensible<\/em> \u2014 There is nothing more sensible than to submit to one\u2019s god. And while Americans may profess to worship Allah, Jehovah, or Jesus, we mostly worship an American Idol\u2014ourselves. That is why social libertarianism has become our country\u2019s fastest-growing cult. It has tapped into this self-idolatry by preaching a gospel of the Individual. It\u2019s a pragmatic and accepting message. You were, as its chief evangelist Lady Gaga says, \u201cborn this way\u201d: \u201cIt doesn’t matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M \/ Just put your paws up \/’Cause you were born this way, baby.\u201d <\/p>\n

Step #4: From Sensible to Popular<\/em> \u2014 This step merely requires personalizing the issue. Do you know someone who is LGBT? Divorced? Had an abortion? Sure you do, they are in your family, in your school, at your church. <\/p>\n

Do you hate them? If not, then how can you still disapprove of their actions? (Note: Be sure to talk fast so that no one follows the logic.) As it says in the Good Book (or maybe in a Lady Gaga song), judge not lest God judge you for judging. You want people to like you, don\u2019t you? Then express popular approval for what your cultural betters (e.g., people on reality TV) believe should be popularly approved. Then you\u2019ll be popular and it won’t be necessary to call you a bigot.<\/p>\n

Step #5: From Popular to Policy<\/em> \u2014 Commission a public opinion poll. Show it to a politician. They\u2019ll do the rest.<\/p>\n

Of course not everyone in society will agree <\/strong>with every step along the way, but that won\u2019t stop an issue from sliding into policy. All it requires is for a majority of the people who find the issue unacceptable to do nothing at all. <\/p>\n

Almost every culturally corrosive policy\u2014from abortion to no-fault divorce to gay marriage\u2014has come about in America this way: Christians who find such issues \u201cunacceptable\u201d tacitly accept this social-libertarian shift by their refusal to take action. <\/p>\n

Taking action is perhaps the wrong word, though, since what is most often necessary is deliberate inaction<\/em>. For example, if every Christian in America who claimed to be pro-life would simply refuse to vote for any candidate\u2014regardless of party\u2014who supports abortion, the abortion laws would change within two election cycles. Similarly, if every Christian in America who claimed to be pro-marriage had refused to support no-fault divorce, there would be less poverty and fewer broken families in our country today. And if every Christian in New York had made it clear that he would hold his representatives accountable for attempting to redefine marriage, then the recent expansion of homosexual-rights legislation would have never come to a vote. <\/p>\n

Sadly, such inaction has never happened and is unlikely to occur in the near future. America has produced an overwhelming number of Christians who are adept at explaining why they can support issues that are antithetical to Christianity and depressingly few who can give reasons why we should adhere to the teachings of scripture and the wisdom of the church. <\/p>\n

History has shown that dedicated Christians can close the Overton window and reverse the shift from \u201cpolicy\u201d to \u201cunthinkable.\u201d But it requires a people who have courage and conviction and a willingness to be despised for the truth. Do current generations have such virtues? Probably not. But I\u2019m holding out hope that our grandkids will be born that way.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: First Things On the Square | Joe Carter In his book The Future of Marriage, David Blankenhorn, a liberal, gay-rights-supporting Democrat and self-professed \u201cmarriage nut,\u201d offers this sociological principle: \u201cPeople who professionally dislike marriage almost always favor gay marriage.\u201d As a corollary, Blankenhorn adds: \u201cIdeas that have long been used to attack marriage are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1784],"tags":[11,1683,1686,310],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10288"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10288"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10291,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10288\/revisions\/10291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}