Just Because The Water is Not Boiling Doesn’t Mean the Frog Has to Stay in the Pot

by Jeremy Dys

You have no doubt heard the old adage about the frog who is thrown into a pot of boiling water will quickly jump out, but throw him into a cool pot and slowly turn up the heat, and soon enough you will have a boiled frog. I have always wondered just who discovered that truism. No doubt it was a little boy with too much time on his hands and an abundance of frogs and unfettered access to a heat source. But, I digress.

How often has that phrase been invoked to warn of impending danger, and yet how many frogs have actually been saved?

It has, of course, been applied heavily to social issues over the years. Many have warned that, should we fail to speak faithfully on a given issue, over time our convictions will be the boiled frog, consumed by the heat of our opponents. We saw that with the issue of abortion (but we could easily apply the same logic to the slow evolution of same-sex marriage and the slow erosion of religious liberty).

First, the heat was turned up on the issue of sex urging that we ought not be so constrained to the ‘puritanical’ rules governing the prudes of old. Rather, we ought to express ourselves as often as we are urged to do so.

Then, the dial was cranked a bit as the sexually liberated trumpeted the advance of science and technology in the creation of, “The Pill.” Since then, we have seen an increasing sense that sex and procreation are linked. Sex and pleasure, yes; sex and procreation, not so much.

That gave way to the increased heat of abortion, originally offered as a form of female empowerment, the next logical step after the pill. If – gasp – safe sex proved less then safe, Planned Parenthood was at the ready to provide you with an abortion.

Of course, we did not get to abortion on demand for any reason at any stage overnight. No, that bubbled up over time. Apparently no one was watching the pot though, because it came to a boil rather quickly.

First trimester abortions turned quickly to second and third trimester abortions. As the abortion industry grew more efficient, it could remove life quickly and with ease. The bodies – er, blobs – piled up.

By the time we get to the mid-90’s people were starting to sweat. As the water roiled around us, we realized that we were no longer discussing amorphous lumps or undeveloped fetuses. Partial-birth abortion brought us to an overflowing boil as we realized that the pro-life frog had been boiled to death in the waters of infanticide.

Did God Really Say?

It’s a nice analogy, this frog and pot, but the reality is that it was a reptile that pre-cursed the amphibian phrase. It started in Genesis 3 where the Snake said to the woman, “Did God really say?” One can almost hear the clicking of the lighter trying to flick into flame the fire that would later boil many frogs.

Did God really say human sexuality is to be engaged for God’s glory? Did God really say that sex has a purpose of both pleasure and procreation? Did God really say that the lump of cells inside one’s body is an autonomous human being and not a lump of cells? Did God really say that it is wrong to deliver a baby up to its neck, insert a curette, and suck out its brains?

“Did God really say?” Of course He did and he is not a God that changes His mind or adapts His eternal rule for the whim and fancy of His creatures.

Interestingly, it didn’t end there. The frog that seemed to have boiled seems to have come back to life in recent years. For the first time in decades, ours is a country that is more pro-life than it is not. Today, though sweaty, faithful frogs seem to be awakening from their coma and splashing water out of the pot an onto the fire.

Conclusion

It is these faithful frogs that have been explaining the science of life, the morality of life, and the practical reality that killing a generation is bad for everything – government, business, family life, and even church life. So, the next time someone tells you that anything is inevitable – whether that’s Beta video tapes or same-sex marriage or anything – listen for the click of the lighter or the voice of the serpent. Talk back to it with reasoned argument, moral authority, and practical policy.

And jump out of the pot.

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Jeremy Dys is President and General Counsel of The Family Policy Counsel of West Virginia. In addition to his duties of providing strategic vision and leadership to the FPCWV, Dys is the chief lobbyist and spokesman. Dys is regularly featured in local, state, and national print, radio, and television outlets. He lives close to Charleston with his wife and growing family. He is a lead blogger at EngageFamilyMinute.com and host of Engaging the Issues.