Virtue signaling bothers me at a deep, visceral level.  In 2020 virtue signalling took a quantum leap when millions of Canadians voluntarily covered their faces with a symbol of slavery, secrecy and silence.  Most of my friends were perplexed, even hostile at that assertion.  They truly believed the official narrative about health and safety, while admitting that masks offer no more protection from a virus than a chain-link fence offers protection from mosquitos.  I found this both frightening and fascinating.  Why could I so clearly see that the soft Marxism that had been loitering around the edges of society was suddenly making a bold, mainstream move, while most of my friends were buying and complying with the official narrative?   Dad reminded me that on a Walk ‘n Talk a few months earlier, I had prayed for “spiritual eyes to see things as they are and not as the CBC tells us they are”.  

When the virtue signaling escalated to branding those who refused to wear a mask as a danger to society, I decided that I would never comply, even if it meant being jailed or worse.   As a result, I was verbally abused and physically assaulted–manhandled by four local grocery store employees, and tossed rather brutally onto the pavement here in my newly adopted BC border town. At the time, I didn’t examine the psychology behind why virtue signaling bothered me so much.  I only knew that it meant we were headed in a dark, dystopian direction.

Recently, Canadian flags have been popping up everywhere here.  My next door neighbor put up two huge ones in his ten square feet of patio space and it occurred to me that I was once again witnessing virtue signaling on a massive scale.  Oh the hypocrisy I wailed!  I mean, think about it–if you waved one a few months ago at the Freedom Convoy you were racist and homophobic, but now, you are heroic and patriotic?  

I couldn’t take it anymore, so I went for a Walk ‘n Talk with Dad. He defined virtue signaling for me as   “seeing and responding to events and circumstances in the natural, without God’s perspective and often according to societal standards, community standards, or in this case, Marxist standards.  What food for thought, and I’ve been chewing on it all week.     

My Father went on to explain that virtue signaling is the outward manifestation of “Group Think”. It means that the elites can indoctrinate, brainwash and misinform the public to not only support literal insanity, but also enforce it.  They won’t need cops, soldiers or prison guards to implement their evil agendas because the public will happily do it for them–even if it means throwing old ladies out of grocery stores onto the pavement.

The latest virtue signaling clown show includes booing the Star Spangled Banner while waving the Maple Leaf flag of our corporation and mouthing our real sentiment:  We Canadians are so much better than those sleazy, slimy Americans.  We call it patriotism but it’s really just self-righteousness and pride.  I mean we have no military and very few value added products.  Our education, health care and justice systems are a mess and we have even squandered much the natural resources that the Creator endowed us with.  Let me just say it: We deserve to become someone’s 51^st state.  

Canada and America were once great friends and allies but the newest agenda does not allow for that.  No, we must be turned into enemies. Canadians are cancelling US orders and travel and I even see this oppositional stance in my tiny group of freedom fighters on Telegram.  As provinces and municipalities across the nation remove the Stars and Stripes from the public domain, they would do well to understand what their actions represent in the spiritual realm:  Removing the protection of our southern neighbor and giving themselves over to other less benevolent countries, like China.  

I don’t really blame the average Canadian for this reaction.  After all, they’ve been born and raised in a Godless, amoral, politically correct culture.  Canadian Christians however, are another matter entirely. You see, virtue signaling reaches its shrillest cacophony when God’s people are unable or unwilling to see and call things for what they are.  Without the benefit of a Godly perspective, the average Canuck is only doing what they believe is the right thing. The answer is for the Canadian Church is to end the vacuum!  They must start by praying for a heavenly perspective on what is unfolding and then gently “speak the truth in love”.  (Ephesians 4:15)  After all, their fellow Canadians deserve–at the very least–a choice between what the elites are feeding them and the Eternal Truth.