A growing recognition that our problems are not economic but moral
Col. B. Bunny
writes at his blog,
Intergalactic Source of Truth:
God’s judgment
I’m not a man of faith in so many words but a lot of Christian concepts resonate strongly in my mind.
We’ve bought the ACLU line and done our best to thrown God out of our schools and the public square. The recent sex-in-the-classroom stories just couldn’t have happened in earlier less secular times. Now Christians can legitimately ask us how we like what we have now that we’ve abandoned God.
Jeff W. on Lawrence Auster’s site [in “The sin that dooms America”] raises the point that that we have violated too many of God’s laws to warrant any expectation of God’s protection. We may not like His justice. If that’s a bit too “spiritual” for you, consider that some set of moral principles has to be followed for civil society to succeed. Is nihilism an option?
Whether you are or are not a Christian, it’s clear that Christian morality underlies every aspect of our culture. One way or another, anyone who endeavors to lead a moral life here is going to be attempting that with at least one eye on Christian principles. They suffuse our culture. Pyramid power just doesn’t cut it.
Kathlene M., also a commenter at Mr. Auster’s site, runs through a few of the Ten Commandments that we are doing our best to ignore. Whether you think the Commandments are from God or are just a pretty good list of guiding life principles, it’s clear that we’ve strayed far from the principled, moral life contemplated for people who choose to obey those commandments or reasonable secular substitute.
Take theft. Today, huge numbers of Westerners live their lives as thieves in that they demand and take money extracted by force from others. They believe, immorally, that what would be armed robbery on the street if performed by a private person is quite moral so long as there is a majority vote in a legislature to authorize the same transaction if the private person is instead a tax collector. This is the two-wolves-and-a-sheep-voting-on-what’s-for-lunch situation. Theft that’s run through the legislature is still theft. (This applies to taxes collected for purposes that are over and above those necessary to fund the legitimate functions of government. In other words, this applies to most taxes.)
The covetousness of socialism, race reparations garbage, and tax the rich rhetoric is clear.
Actually paying attention to the Ten Commandments is for suckers and rubes according to some but it is a bit disquieting to see a straightforward discussion of how we look in light of those divine principles that secularists like to think of as passé. New national motto: Laissez les bon temps rouler?
If life with the ridiculous, laughable, pathetic God of creation is so horrific and unbearable, what do you think it’s going to be like without God?
I’m just sayin’, is all.
“The sin that dooms America.” By Lawrence Auster, View from the Right, 1/27/11.
LA writes:
B. Bunny’s article is not just an impassioned response to Jeff W.’s profound statement; it is a profound statement in itself. Thus he writes:
“If life with the ridiculous, laughable, pathetic God of creation is so horrific and unbearable, what do you think it’s going to be like without God?”
This is a great, quotable quote.
Thanks to Col. Bunny for seeing what he see, and saying it so beautifully.
I would add that Bunny’s article is an example of how truth, goodness, and beauty are all one.
(That’s in connection with my recent discussion of the meaning of the last stanza of Keat’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” and in particular my exchange with Laura Wood in that entry.)
—end of initial entry—
LA writes:
Bunny’s article has been reproduced at the blog Eternity Road.
Charles T. writes:
Col B. Bunny wrote:
If that’s a bit too “spiritual” for you, consider that some set of moral principles has to be followed for civil society to succeed. Is nihilism an option?
I have been encouraged by the posts that Jeff W. and Kathleen M. have posted this week stating that our problems, at their very root, are moral and spiritual. I am even more encouraged that Col. B. Bunny—who claims no allegiance to spirituality—is now addressing the same question. He nails it when he states that society must operate by some set of moral principles for it to succeed.
His question, “Is nihilism an option?” is the right one. I would like to add that we should also ask: “Given the results of nihilism, do we want to continue with it?” If the answer is no, then we must ask, “What belief system do we replace it with?”
I had this same conversation with my best friend this week. I posed the question about who we would rather live next to. Would we rather live next to someone who believes that morality originates within himself and lets us know not to worry, that he is a moral person, is his own authority on things spiritual and moral, and will always treat us right? Or, would we rather live next to someone who believes that morality and spiritual authority originate outside of himself and that he answers to this authority personally, and that this person believes in the authority of the Ten Commandments? The answer to me is clear. I would rather live next to someone who knows it is wrong to steal from me, wrong to covet what I have, wrong to harm me physically if I am living at peace with him, etc. The Ten Commandments tells us that our actions matter. What we do in this life matters now and for eternity. What has nihilism given us? That nothing really matters. Until, of course, the chickens come home to roost. Then things get messy.
Even though times are discouraging, we must have an accurate diagnosis of the problem before anything can be changed. The posts of Col B., Jeff W., and Kathleen M. are pointing to the fact that their hearts are awakened to the true problem. I hope there are millions of Americans, indeed, millions of Westerners who are thinking the same thoughts.
This is a vital topic. We must have an awakening.
Debra C. writes:
I wrote the following at another website and am forwarding it to you since it reflects some of my thoughts on America’s spiritual decline. When the curb of God’s Law is removed from society, autonomous man is a god unto himself and nothing matters except his individual will, his opinions as to what is right or wrong, his interpretations of the world he inhabits. Denying transcendent truth leads to chaos ultimately and nothing but a strong, despotic government can reign in society; into the vacuum the God-is-deathers create rush in all manner of evils that society is incapable of even naming as evils—since all behaviors and thoughts are merely interpretations. Upon this shifting ground the totalitarian plants his tyranny.
I’m beginning to like the term “gamers” to identify the cheats in our society WHO WE LET live off of us.
They game the system, and unhappily, they exist at every socio-economic level. But this is all to the good for the liberal utopians who want to bring down this grand edifice called America, and have it crash over our heads so they can finally achieve the hell-hole, or was that paradise?, they work so diligently, relentlessly, to impose.
Do not for one moment imagine that theft (from the productive and honest segment of society) on such a massive scale could exist without the wholesale rejection of our Judeo-Christian traditions by the so-called elite of our society and their underling cronies.
November 12, 2010—3:30 pm
Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 29, 2011 11:07 AM | Send