Make no bones about it: I’m a Paul Simon fan. In fact, I’ve been an avid supporter of his since he first made a name for himself in the mid ’60s. That’s when I last saw him perform live and so you will readily appreciate that I am really looking forward to hearing him again when he’s in Cardiff this November. And if you haven’t heard his latest album, you should. It’s just about as good as it gets. He’s not lost his creative touch and as far as I’m concerned November can’t come soon enough. Having said though, that I do hope he sings a couple of golden oldies too, especially ‘The Sound of Silence.’

It’s a great song - and a great title too. In fact, I’ve found myself thinking about it quite a bit lately as I’ve been reflecting on the way in which we often fail to speak up when she should for one reason or another. As someone once observed, there are times when our silence can prove quite deafening.

Take the friends and family of Ron Lafferty. Many of them, including his brother Allen, knew that Ron believed God wanted him to murder Allen’s wife and small child, yet no one felt they should warn her or advise the authorities beforehand. (You can read of this terrible tragedy in John Krakauer’s magnificent study of Mormon fundamentalism ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’).

Dr. Martin Luther King clearly understood the significance silence too as we can see from this poignant quote from his 1967 Steeler Lecture: ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.’

Now as I see it, there has been a deafening silence in the British media recently when it comes to reporting the controversial findings of two distinguished scholars. Dr. Lawrence S. Mayer and Dr. Paul McHugh are highly-respected scientists who have just published the conclusions of a major research project that run completely counter to current received wisdom. For example as far as Mayer and McHugh are concerned, the idea that ‘gay’ people are ‘born that way,’ genetically pre-programmed to be attracted to their own sex, lacks evidence. In the same way, they argue, only a tiny minority of children who experience gender dysphoria continue to identify as transgender when they’re adults, and that those who undergo sex-change operations are nineteen times more likely to commit suicide than the rest of the population

I suppose there are two ways of dealing with unwelcome ideas. We can shoot the messenger (which is why they crucified Jesus) or we can refuse to listen. And when we do that, we react in the way an elderly husband-to-be did when I suggested we should do a little marriage preparation before ‘the big day.’ But he refused. He told me that as far as he was concerned he did not need marriage counselling because he could always turn his hearing aid off!

Now he was joking (at least I think he was), but sadly we often react like this when someone says something we don’t like. It often happens for example, when I try to talk to people about Jesus.

Rob James is a Baptist Pastor broadcaster and writer who currently operates as a church and media consultant for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is available for preaching and teaching throughout Wales and can be contacted at [email protected]