Randall Murphree
AFA Journal editor
June 2009 –Having worked for Don Wildmon for almost 26 years, I’ll be the first to say my boss is often silent – but never speechless. So when his book is titled Speechless, he’s not talking about himself, but about a very real threat to freedom of religious expression in our nation.
We’ve all experienced those times (committee meetings? brainstorming sessions? networking?) when words move ploddingly toward their intended end. In those times, Don Wildmon will last about five minutes. Then he’s out the door to do something, unceremoniously leaving the meeters, brainstormers and networkers to follow in his wake.
On the other hand, when circumstances are challenging, when our freedoms are at stake or the Christian faith is under assault, when situations demand that someone speak up for what is right, Don Wildmon will be the first to speak. Loud and clear.
Since he founded National Federation for Decency (NFD) in 1977, Don has been a leader among conservative voices calling attention to the moral decay in our culture. Initially, he led the campaign against anti-family television programming and the increasing availability of pornography in the family marketplace, e.g. the corner convenience store or the family drug store.
Within a few short years, Don found himself tackling other issues as well, e.g. abortion, education, marriage protection, the gay activist agenda. He soon found himself working to inform and motivate citizens to take a stand on all moral issues that impact the family. Subsequently, in 1988, NFD changed its name to American Family Association, more accurately reflecting the broader focus on issues.
In Speechless: Silencing the Christians, based on a 14-episode television special of the same name, Don continues down the path of challenging the liberal elite and calling Christians and conservatives to action in the public forum, politics included.
To be sure, the book includes a string of scary stories, real life examples of attempts to shut the Christian faith out of the public arena. But it’s not a book manipulating readers with mere scare tactics. To cast light on the anti-Christian movement in our nation, Don uses the very words of the Christian bashers and why they must try to get Christians out of the national public life.
Just to pique your interest, here are a few signs of the times Don cites:
▶ Christians threatened with prison for protesting the homosexual agenda;
▶ Employees of Fortune 500 companies fired for quoting the Scriptures or forbidden to display family pictures in their office cubicles because the photos offend homosexual employees;
▶ Christian churches ordered by the government to perform lesbian marriages;
▶ “Antibullying” programs explicitly promoting homosexuality in public schools;
▶ Municipal workers forbidden by the city to say “family values” because those words constitute a hate crime;
▶ Proposed federal laws supposedly aimed at preventing employment discrimination that would make discrimination against Christians the law of the land;
▶ Other “antidiscrimination” laws making Christian charities illegal;
▶ Secularist liberals in Congress seeking to censor or bankrupt Christian broadcasters;
▶ The IRS “cracking down” on Christian pastors who oppose homosexual propaganda in schools, abortion on demand, or same-sex marriage.
Have you heard those stories reported in the mainstream media? Probably not, because almost never will the media elite report discrimination against Christians. Maybe we should be scared.
I never cease to be amazed at the respect Don has earned among conservative and Christian leaders across the country. For example, Dr. James Dobson, who founded Focus on the Family the same summer Don founded NFD, has said, “There are few Christian leaders on the national scene who have done more to advance the cause of righteousness and defend Biblical truth than Don Wildmon. For more than 30 years, he has been a voice crying in the wilderness, confronting immorality and speaking the truth when others were unwilling to do so.”
After a statement like that by Dr. Dobson, I won’t even try to brag on Don. But I will recommend his book Speechless. It reveals the struggle of Christianity to stay viable in a post-Christian culture, and it will challenge you to take a stand.
In the words of conservative columnist Ann Coulter, “Rev. Wildmon saw earlier than anyone I can think of that the sexual revolution and the secular assault on Christianity were one and the same thing. ... From the very beginning, he saw the slippery slope that led us from Hugh Hefner to Heather Has Two Mommies. So read this book and then pass it on. Help shine the light. Don’t be silenced. Don’t be speechless.” 
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