The next frontier is here

As pointed out in the entry, “The Liberal Blitzkrieg against the West,” the next frontier for our same-sex-“marrying” fellow humans and the limitless liberal state that supports them will be to force churches to perform or host same-sex “marriages.” But the general idea, beyond homosexual marriage itself, is to force people to associate with and support more and more bizarre and wicked things of which they disapprove. Check out Paul Cella’s story about the developments in the historic Methodist enclave of Ocean Grove, New Jersey.

- end of initial entry -

Steve D. writes:

Yesterday I wrote to you that liberalism was based on despair—upon a radical hopelessness that drives people to seek all satisfaction now because the future holds nothing for them.

Today, after reading your entry on the “new frontier” of tolerance for homosexuality, I remembered the famous quote from Dorothy Sayers on the sin of Sloth:

“The sixth deadly sin is named by the Church acedia or sloth. In the world it calls itself tolerance, but in hell it is called despair. It is the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive only because there is nothing it would die for.”

Thus tolerance and despair are linked. Every aspect of liberalism is simply a logical expression of the principle of absolute hopelessness.

LA replies:

Except for all their unprincipled exceptions about how “wonderful” everything is. For the liberals, there’s no truth, no God, no inherent male or female nature, our country is a swamp of irredeemable guilt and deserves to go out of existence—but everything is “wonderful”: the latest “wonderful” movie, the latest “wonderful” vacation, the latest “wonderful” presidential candidate …

This “wonderfulness,” in the absence of truth, is the very definition of relativism, which is really another word for nihilism. And nihilism produces despair, regardless of how much people are enjoying their latest vacation.

I’m reminded of a profound comment I heard decades ago that I’ve used ever since. Someone was talking about hip, and he said that the philosophy of hip is that life is a mess, with many beautiful moments. That’s also the basic liberal philosophy. Or, as T.S. Eliot put it somewhat differently (this is not an exact quote): “Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something on which to rejoice.”

And it’s the same with defining our country as an abstraction, such as “rule of law,” which I discuss here. If all you have to say about the meaning of your country is that it stands for the rule of law, then your country consists of nothing substantive, and you are in despair.

Speaking of despair, the theologian Francis Schaeffer, whose ideas I’ve been told are similar to mine (I’ve only read brief sections of his work since being told about him), says that despair is the defining characteristic of the modern age. He says there was a moment of transition when the West slipped into despair. In Europe, this happened in the early 20th century, in America a few decades later.

Laura W. writes (posted June 22):

In this and this story about lesbian couples tying the knot, notice to what lengths the women go to talk about their happiness. They sound as if they are drugged. Why all the bliss? Because the exact opposite is true. Beneath their words—perhaps beneath their own shallow field of consciousness—is unacknowledged despair. That’s why the lawsuits. That’s why the smiley pictures. That’s why the big parties. They need to convince not others, but themselves.

LA replies:

Yes. The less truth there is in people’s lives, the more “wonderful” their lives must be.

Or, more precisely, the less truth there is in the world and in society, the more “wonderful” our individual selves must be.

Tim W. writes:

There’s already a Supreme Court precedent for stripping religious institutions of their tax exemption over marriage issues. In the Bob Jones University case (1983) the court ruled 8-1 (Rehnquist dissenting) that the IRS acted legally in stripping BJU of its tax exemption. BJU is a religious college which banned interracial couples from attending, asserting that interracial marriage or dating violated their interpretation of scripture. The court held that the goal of combating racial discrimination overrode any First Amendment protections the university might claim. In other words, the state had a compelling interest in stamping out racial discrimination by whatever means were available. The decision ended a legal battle that began in 1971, a few years after the Supreme Court ruled in Loving vs. Virginia that there is a constitutional right to interracial marriage.

So within a few years of the Loving decision, and in an atmosphere of eradicating racial discrimination by any means necessary, the IRS (and other agencies) began moving to punish any private institution that didn’t comply, even if it was a religious institution. Most institutions capitulated, but BJU fought for 13 years before finally losing. It’s obvious that this same pattern will be followed regarding same-sex “marriage.” The current court isn’t as bad as the 1983 version, but given Anthony Kennedy’s string of pro-homosexual rulings (Romer, Lawrence…) where he pontificated on how sexuality defines our humanity, I see the First Amendment losing 5-4.

Paul Joshua Washington writes (May 1):

Here is a particularly egregious example of the intolerance so prominently displayed by liberalism. The supposedly Catholic University of Saint Thomas, while allowing all sorts of unchristian, evil, and perverted activities to go on at their university, seems to have drawn the line at volunteering to help out at an abortion clinic and forbids its students from doing so. This has angered the local left-wing media and upset many of the supposedly Catholic students who attend the university. It is a prime example of how liberals cannot tolerate differing worldviews, disdain any adherence to traditional religious values and hold Orthodox Christianity in utter contempt.

The first comment by “Tom” is a classic example of the degenerate liberal mind, which [is] in open mockery of compassion, morality and the borrowed generosity of religious believers. Below is Tom’s full comment:

I am so embarrassed to go to St. Thomas.

Being multiracial, gay, and liberal, I can safely say that besides academics, UST has nothing to offer me. No other private college in the metro area is in the news as much as we are, and it is always for something negative.

If it weren’t for the $17 thousand they give me a year to go here (apparently they need multiracial, gay students), I would stay as f_____ far away as I could from these crazy ass catholic bigots.

Posted by: Tom

Isn’t that “Intolerance”? Those nefarious Catholics have the audacity to give him (a gay liberal and non-Catholic) a free scholarship to their Catholic University, but not let him volunteer for an organization that performs what the Church views as murder! The Orwellian language used by modern liberalism and its brain-dead cult of followers is truly repulsive.

Keep up the good work.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 19, 2008 11:35 AM | Send