Cultural Dissonance in the United States
By Matthew Ung
Many decades ago, A.W. Tozer, author of Christian classics, said “Religion today is not transforming people; rather it is being transformed by the people. It is not raising the moral level of society; it is descending to society’s own level, and congratulating itself that it has scored a victory because society is smilingly accepting its surrender.”
Try as any State may, no wall can completely separate Church & State. Private, religious schools will still educate future public officials and fire departments will still douse church buildings aflame. The gradual wall being built in the name of political correctness is not a wall at all, but an attempt to tear down the wall that already exists which is protecting the churches FROM the State, as Jefferson’s original intent was in his letter with the first mention of the phrase. The State has one-way gates built into their version of the wall, it’s what allows them to organize the active marketing of GM (“Government Motors”) in Detroit’s Hartford Memorial Baptist Church. As icing on the cake to the sermon, presumably, congregants were encouraged this month to freely test-drive GM vehicles in the parking lot after service… just GM, though, no word if Ford was invited.
From the 1892 Supreme Court ruling that emphatically declared the United States a “religious nation,” we can clearly see the luster and boldness of religious pride moved systematically into an unmarked corner of society that is, in actuality, marked “irrelevance.” (That State can take care of the widows and the fatherless, who needs the Church?) As the Obama Administration follows “the politics of the past,” they follow the failed, socialistic examples of Europe by calling more and more things a “human right.” Brussels (more specifically, the European Union Commissioner) has declared tourism a human right, meaning that more and more of the “upper class” will pay for the vacations of the “lower class” in the name of “class equality.” (Who drew the lines to determine what an upper is and lower class in the first place?)
Everyone wants to live at the expense of the State; they forget that the State lives at the expense of everyone. You think everything Obama’s done has been about you?
Progressives today believe that culture is more objective than religion, but they fail to notice that both religion and culture express the subjective beliefs of any population. They accuse religion of “blind faith” but are blinded to the fact that culture is nothing more than learned customs over time, customs that they say are immune to criticism because they have been done that way for a long time. Sounds like a marriage between circular reasoning and static thinking. Funny that “progressives” are so stuck in the past, isn’t it?
Double standards create cultural dissonance—the tension within a society over change for the sake of change.
Change GOD believes in is rooted in the perpetuation of godly rulers to combat ever-present moral decay, because everything rises or falls on leadership. When the righteous rule, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people mourn. One person can make a difference because people are only ever inspired by examples, like that of Christian minister John Witherspoon in 1768. Focusing on biblical principles in government, Witherspoon oversaw the graduation of 478 young men at what is now Princeton. According to author John Eidsmoe, “114 became ministers; 13 were state governors; 3 were U. S. Supreme Court judges; 20 were U.S. Senators; 33 were U. S. Congressmen; Aaron Burr, Jr. became Vice-President; and James Madison became President.”
Everyone and their cousin seem ready to cheer for a candidate who promises “change.” That is all that ever happens, why don’t we listen five minutes to hear what they say after that?? Our best may be ahead of us, but our best tools are abandoned behind us.
Mr. Obama is not the only Constitutional law professor. Enter Clarence Manion, former distinguished Dean of the College of Law of Notre Dame University, who writes in “The Key to Peace” (1950): “The need now is not for ‘new concepts,’ ‘fresh approaches’ and ‘ingenious improvisations’ in the cause of peace and unity. The need now is for rediscovery, and renewed understanding of the true and tried principle of Americanism.”
Our self-refuting culture of post-modernism has turned our focus inward, away from the future of this nation and towards selfishness. Sure, we’ll increase our debt so our children don’t have to worry about a default due to interest payments, but we doom our grandchildren. It’s easiest to centralize blame, but it’s not all Obama’s fault… who said he’d be a good choice to consider for election long before the vote? While this nation is still a Republic, if it is, our leaders represent us. The current Administration’s record-fast drop in popularity (exceeding even Carter) is more indicative of a foolish constituency than a foolish politician.
Thus, the main focus of the “Tea Party” is about removing incumbents. I can understand that when the current Congress and its Speaker have some of the lowest approval ratings in history. But what, pray tell, happens next? Do we institute statesmen, or is that step a few years after the incumbents are removed? The tricky thing about power vacuums is that they fill up before you knew they were there.
The founding fathers did not necessarily desire democratic principles to cause each newly elected official to simply negate the actions of their predecessor; they did in fact want America to grow. Yet they had the audacity, not to “hope” for the next era of government, but in order to draft a Constitution that would serve as a foundation. They declared that the State gets its rights from its citizens, demonstrating that a true leader sets themselves above their followers only in the carrying of responsibilities.
The Declaration of Independence founded this nation by giving GOD the responsibility of assigning rights. After a decade, the Constitution was drafted to express the Declaration to our government, in order to slow the faster rate of moral decay present in our former Confederacy. U.S. Diplomat Henry Kissinger has said: “The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.”
Keep in mind the Constitution is probably shorter than every single bill passed by Congress this year.
Stimulus packages will not breathe new life into this nation. Only a renewed love of the Moral Law Giver will cause the revival necessary to repair the foundation of this Republic—by definition, the rule of law.
America needs the Minutemen once again. Not to fight off the Redcoats, and not to carry out the will of the State, but to act before the State can expand its power. Christians reacting to bad politics is terribly inefficient compared to Christians striking at the root of a problem before it grows into a tree. The Minutemen didn’t react to attacks; they rose at a moment’s notice to BLOCK an attack that was coming.
I say that our nation needs the Sons of Issachar who “understood the times and knew what to do.” Politics is war without violence, no matter what anyone says. Those who don’t believe that, inevitably quit the “game” and call it “dirty,” which signals their retreat and the assumption of another in their place, another who happens to believe politics is still a relevant way to enact change. General Douglas MacArthur, during his address at the formal Japanese surrender, told the world:
“The problem (of war) basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character …It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.” Like the walk of faith, in which changes are constantly made, human government must more closely represent Divine Law to remain morally valid.
The classic proverb tells us that a frog can be boiled alive if you heat the water slowly. The multitudes ignore gradual change. Which is precisely why a correct teaching of American history becomes a passion for any patriot—It shows both how far we’ve come, and how far we’ve fallen. The Old Testament teaches us that sometimes people elect their own judgment. That includes the laws we allow to be passed…
This brings us to the next agenda item for the Obama Administration: Immigration Reform.
This article from The Los Angeles Times said something so ridiculous that Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert could make fun of it for hours (not that they ever will). It talks about an immigration reform bill supported by Obama which would “include a path toward citizenship for the 10.8 million people living in the U.S. illegally,” going on to explain: Citizenship would not be granted lightly, the White House said. Undocumented workers would need to register, pay taxes and pay a penalty for violating the law. Failure to comply might result in deportation.
So… we won’t deport them if they’re here illegally and we KNOW they are here illegally, but if these illegal immigrants don’t become US citizens when we compel them to do so with FINES, then we “MIGHT” deport them??? Oh, the horror!
**DOUBLE FACEPALM**
See what I mean?
Free speech is all that stands in the way of this lunacy. Free speech forbids its own suppression IF the speech is sane. Our culture is trying to compartmentalize morality apart from God by using the “thought police” to legislate “hate speech.” In this, we can only blame the righteous people in government who refused to exercise their free speech. The cynic Kierkegaard had a stroke of insight when he said, “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
My prayers go to President Barack Obama, honestly, they do. But not for the benefit of his peace, for the benefit of the PeaceMakers in this nation.
God bless and save America!
