Reflections on Progressive Morality, October 7, and the Unraveling of Truth

By Dr. Tim Orr

There are moments in life that tear through the ordinary and leave a scar on your soul—moments when the line between good and evil is so stark and undeniable that it demands a response. October 7, 2023, was one of those moments. It was a day when the world changed—but even more alarmingly, it was a day that revealed just how blind much of the world has become. What should have provoked a collective moral outcry instead exposed a frightening inversion of values. It was not just a terror attack—it was a test of conscience, one that much of the West failed.

I’ll never forget walking to my hotel in London that night. I had just arrived in the city, and I am looking forward to a week of meetings and ministry. But that night unfolded with a chilling weight. News began trickling in—then rushing in—about the unprecedented massacre Hamas had carried out in Israel. At first, it sounded like a flare-up in the region. But quickly, it became clear: this wasn’t war. It was carnage. Men, women, and children were slaughtered in their homes. Babies beheaded. Families burned alive. Women raped. Elderly civilians were tortured. The barbarism was medieval, yet it played out across modern digital screens.

What shocked me even more than the violence itself was the response I saw the very next day. London erupted in protest—not in mourning or outrage over the massacre, but in condemnation of Israel. The protestors didn’t grieve for the victims—they blamed them. Chants of “genocide” and “apartheid” echoed through the streets as if Hamas hadn’t just butchered civilians in cold blood. It was surreal. It was grotesque. And it marked the moment I realized the West isn’t just confused—it’s morally inverted.

The Progressive Narrative: I’m Good Because I’m Liberal

Early today, I found some clarity in a conversation between former Australian Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson and British journalist Melanie Phillips. Her insights were like a flashlight cutting through the fog. Phillips articulated something many people have sensed but struggled to put into words: that much of the Western liberal mind has come to define morality not by objective standards or truth but by ideological self-validation.

Philip points out that the progressive believes they are good. After all, they are liberal and liberal because they are good. Their virtue is self-referential. They imagine themselves as the champions of the downtrodden, the conscience of the world, the guardians of justice. Their goodness is tied to a set of causes—causes that signal compassion, equality, and resistance to power. Supporting the Palestinian cause has become one such moral token. It’s not just a political issue—it’s a way of proving moral worth. In this worldview, Palestinians are automatically victims, and Israelis are automatically oppressors. Support for “Palestine” is not about the particulars of history, policy, or ethics—it’s a kind of moral shortcut, a way to affirm one’s righteousness.

This self-reinforcing logic is intoxicating, but it’s also incredibly brittle. It’s goodness that cannot survive scrutiny because it’s not built on truth but on narrative. And when reality breaks through, the crisis it causes is political and existential.

When the Narrative Shatters

That’s why October 7 wasn’t just a tragedy but a moral earthquake. In horrifying detail, it exposed the grotesque consequences of a worldview that had mistaken sentiment for substance. Hamas was revealed not as a desperate resistance movement but as a death cult. Their atrocities weren’t defensive acts of war; they were expressions of a nihilistic ideology steeped in bloodlust and dehumanization.

But this revelation posed a dangerous problem for the progressive narrative. If Hamas—the supposed victim—was the villain, then the entire moral framework of the liberal worldview began to crumble. The moral roles are reversed. The supposed oppressors were the ones burying their children. The so-called victims were live-streaming sadistic violence. The facts told an intolerable story to those who had invested their moral identity in an illusion.

So, rather than face the truth, many denied it. The response wasn’t, “How did we get this wrong?” but, “How do we make this still fit our narrative?” Instead of adjusting their moral compass, they spun the dial harder in the wrong direction. And so, in the face of unspeakable evil, the West doubled down on its blindness.

Projection: Blaming the Victim to Preserve the Self

As Melanie Phillips explains insightfully, this isn’t just denial—it’s projection. When a person’s moral identity is threatened, they instinctively seek a scapegoat. In this case, that scapegoat is Israel. To relieve themselves of guilt, many progressives project their moral confusion onto the Jewish state, accusing it of the very crimes it suffers.

It’s a psychological shell game. She states, "If Israel is guilty—of genocide, apartheid, Nazism—then I can still be good. I can still be on the right side of history." The accusations have little to do with facts and everything to do with preserving a fragile moral ego.

And the results are grotesque. We now live in a world where the victims of terrorism are cast as aggressors, and terrorists are described as freedom fighters. The logical consequence of this projection is that suffering itself must be reassigned. If the wrong people are suffering—Jewish babies, elderly Israeli women—then that suffering must be hidden or dismissed because their pain shatters the illusion.

Tearing Down the Jews—Literally and Figuratively

Philipps laments the fact that one of the most chilling expressions of this moral inversion has been the tearing down of posters of kidnapped Israelis. These weren’t political messages but simple, human pleas: These people are missing. Please remember them. And yet, in cities around the West, people tore them down, sometimes violently, sometimes gleefully.

I watched videos of people clawing at those posters as if they were defacing something grotesque. But the posters weren’t offensive—what they represented was. They represented the truth that Jews, once again, were being hunted. That Jewish families were in mourning. That evil had been unleashed against them—and that evil came not from power but from ideological hatred.

Phillips rightly notes that this wasn’t just vandalism. It was a symbolic erasure—an attempt to tear the Jewish people out of public sympathy, to remove them from the collective conscience. It was an act of ideological purging. If Jewish suffering couldn’t be integrated into the narrative, it had to be erased.

A Marriage Made in Hell: Progressives and Islamists

Even more disturbing is the alliance that has formed between Western progressives and Islamist extremists—a coalition that Melanie Phillips aptly calls “a marriage made in hell.” On the surface, it makes no sense. Progressives claim to champion women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, democracy, and freedom. Islamists reject all of these. In the society Islamists envision, most progressives would be among the first targets.

And yet, they march together. Why? Because they share a common enemy: Israel, the West, and the Judeo-Christian heritage. Their alliance is not ideological alignment but emotional resentment. It is held together not by shared dreams but by shared hatred.

It is possible to be so consumed by opposition to something that you will join hands with those who would destroy everything you claim to love. That is the tragedy of the progressive-Islamist alliance. It is a coalition that reveals how deeply hatred can blind and how moral confusion can make strange bedfellows.

The Root of the Crisis: The Death of Truth

At the heart of this entire crisis is the erosion of truth. For decades, western academia, media, and culture have chipped away at the idea of objective reality. Postmodernism taught us that truth is relative, that all perspectives are equally valid, and that feelings matter more than facts. It was a slow, steady descent into epistemological chaos.

The result is a society where truth is no longer something we discover but something we declare. If I say I’m oppressed, then I am—regardless of evidence. If I say I’m righteous, I am—regardless of behavior. It’s not just moral confusion; it’s moral delusion.

Phillips traces this decline with precision. If truth is subjective, then lies are just alternative truths. If morality is performative, then evil can masquerade as virtue. We now live in a world where identity determines credibility and emotion determines justice.

Victim Culture and the Collapse of Moral Clarity

All of this has given rise to a culture of performative victimhood. In this new moral order, it is not the content of your actions that defines you—it is your place in a hierarchy of grievance. If you belong to an “oppressed” group, your actions are excused. If you belong to an “oppressor” group, your innocence is irrelevant.

This is why the atrocities of Hamas are overlooked—they are committed by those perceived as victims. And it is why Israel’s defense is condemned—it is carried out by those perceived as privileged. We have created a world where moral clarity is impossible because moral responsibility is not tied to behavior but to identity.

In such a world, justice becomes injustice, compassion becomes cruelty, and truth becomes a tool of power rather than a foundation for peace.

Truth Must Matter Again

More than ever, we need a return to moral clarity—a rediscovery of truth, not as a weapon, but as a compass. Melanie Phillips’ insights are more than political commentary; they are a prophetic diagnosis. The West is not simply confused—it is spiritually sick. And the cure is not another narrative—it is repentance, truth, and moral courage.

I saw the consequences of moral blindness firsthand on the streets of London and saw them daily in the headlines and on social media. But I also believe this is not the end of the story. Truth still shines, even in dark times, and those who love truth must not grow weary. We must speak, write, live, and love in ways that awaken a sleeping conscience.

Because if truth does not matter, then nothing matters. And if goodness is detached from reality, it becomes blindness.

Dr. Tim Orr serves full-time with Crescent Project as the assistant director of the internship program and area coordinator, where he is also deeply involved in outreach across the UK. A scholar of Islam, Evangelical minister, conference speaker, and interfaith consultant, Tim brings over 30 years of experience in cross-cultural ministry. He holds six academic degrees, including a Doctor of Ministry from Liberty University and a Master’s in Islamic Studies from the Islamic College in London.

In addition to his ministry work, Tim is a research associate with the Congregations and Polarization Project at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University Indianapolis. His research interests include Islamic antisemitism, American Evangelicalism, and Islamic feminism. He has spoken at leading universities and mosques throughout the UK—including Oxford University, Imperial College London, and the University of Tehran—and has published in peer-reviewed Islamic academic journals. Tim is also the author of four books, including his latest one, Gospel-Centered Christianity and Other Religions: Unpacking the Depths of the Gospel—Its Foundations, Power, and Uniqueness.