National Unity 9/12/11

Remember 10 years ago when the response to the 9/11 attacks resulted in tremendous national unity? Suddenly everyone was proud to be American. There were flags everywhere, even on the lapels of liberal politicians. Our national leaders gathered to sing patriotic and religious songs on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building. I’m told they even prayed together. George Bush’s approval rating was at 90%. We were committed to tracking down—and killing—those who had hurt us so badly. Military action was approved by both parties. There was a swelling in church attendance and military enlistment across the nation. It became socially acceptable to use the word “God” as something other than profanity. James Carvel cancelled his coordinated news media attack on the Bush presidency, and the “blame America first” crowd went into hiding.

In short, everyone was suddenly behaving like … Republicans.
Why is that? Why did this single horrific event change so dramatically the behavior of liberals?

The answer is that for the first time in a long time, the liberal belief system had been penetrated by … reality. They had experienced a head-on collision with the way things actually are, with the unbridled evil of which people are capable, and it was so terrible and so dramatic that even those who rationalize cutting up babies and who promote sodomy to schoolchildren couldn’t deny the reality of it. And in a single day, it turned them into Republicans. It would obviously not last, for America’s TV generations have lost the capacity to remember anything for very long, but I had hoped it would last longer than it did. Eventually liberals were able to push 9/11 from their minds and return to spewing venom and hatred at the people—like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Don Rumsfeld, and the entire U.S. Military—who sacrifice and die to keep them safe.

There’s been a lot of talk about national unity in the past week, as if it evaporated while we weren’t looking and no one can figure out where it went. But the reality is this: Republicans haven’t changed. America became unified when Democrats, for a time, gave up the rage, lying, and name calling that are the only tactics available to people who cannot win arguments based on facts and results. We returned to division when liberals forgot their unpleasant encounter with reality and went back to a belief system that is invincibly grounded on the way things aren’t.

The Killers of Children

I know some Democrats who believe abortion is murder. It is truly a bizarre belief to hold that a group could be wrong in their ferocious support and promotion of ripping living human children limb from limb in their mothers’ wombs, and yet morally right about everything else. It is equally bizarre to hold that there is somehow a virtue in that ferocious support and promotion of child murder, even when they resort to lying to do it. Republicans tend to shoot at people who are trying to kill children—-their own or others’. Democrats shoot at the people who are trying to prevent them from killing children-—their own and others’. And, they even make it a major, specific plank in their party platform election after election. No one has ever made “protecting and preserving war and exporting it to as many other countries as possible” a plank in their party platform. I have a friend who, in rationalizing her hatred of Republicans, told me she is against child starvation, which is often caused by war (the implication being that Republicans cause wars). Democrats are responsible for protecting and promoting the unrestrained murder of 53 million human children. There have not been that many children killed in total in every war that has ever been waged in the history of the world, refugees included. And the Democrats have managed this breathtaking atrocity in a single country in a mere 38 years. If you are a liberal/progressive, you have begun with a faulty assumption: that people who actively and deliberately engage in child murder could ever be the good guys. As I have said before, self deception is the hallmark of the liberal/progressive.

The Conservative Problem

Liberals/Progressives believe conservatives are the problem in our nation. Naturally. I mean who could fail to see the link between traditional family values and the explosions of teen sex, forcible rape, pornography, STDs, unwanted pregnancy, and abortions? Who could possibly deny the obvious causation between “thou shalt not lie, steal, lust, murder, and envy” and the tripling of the violent crime rate in the past 50 years? And who among us would dispute the fact that Sunday school attendance in Bible-believing churches obviously causes depression, isolation, anger, suicide, bullying, drug use, alcohol abuse, school shootings, and every other kind of anti-social behavior among our youth?

Of course I’m being facetious. But it requires these kinds of bizarre mental contortions to imagine that paying women to have children out of wedlock isn’t going to increase the percentage of children born out of wedlock, or that removing the most serious consequence for teen sex (by killing the resulting child) isn’t going to encourage our children to behave like animals in heat and result in a mountain of dead babies. It requires this kind of denial to imagine that any policy that is 180 degrees opposed to God’s instruction in the Bible is going to be anything other than a staggering failure—because what’s in the Bible works. And heaven forbid we would ever implement a program of following up on such policies to see what the results actually are. That might mean having to cancel all of these government programs, and then we couldn’t feel good about wanting so desperately to deliver the less fortunate from their basic human responsibilities.

Ultimately it comes down to this: which side is trying to obey God’s instruction, and which side is trying to get rid of God’s instruction? Which side has the greater percentage of healthy kids and strong marriages? Which side has all the STDs? Which side is successful? Which side continues to fail?

Excuses, Excuses....

I was in a personnel seminar a few years ago where the moderator, who was black, suggested that we should all stand up and go to the corners of the room, then return to the middle. She said this was because white people hold more social power than blacks, and that this movement was to symbolize that we whites were "giving up" our power so we could all be equal. I refused to do it, explaining, "One of my sons is black. We got him when he was taken from his mother by Child Protective Services. She was a mess--drug addict, never employed, sometimes homeless--but she was never without excuses for her condition." Later the moderator asked me how I intended to keep my son from suffering from racism throughout his life. I said, "Well, first and foremost I'm going to make darned sure he's never put into a group where the moderator tells him someone else must give up something before he can succeed."

"If I admit I am responsible, I may have to admit that I have been irresponsible." -- Stephen Covey

The Congressman's Mistake

I recently heard a couple of guys on the radio discussing whether or not a known terrorist should be allowed to speak at a university. One guy, a former congressman, said he should be allowed to speak because we have freedom of speech in this country. The other said the terrorist should be prevented from speaking to the impressionable young minds.

This disagreement arises from a common misconception in the United States: that we are great because of our freedom. I submit that this is not the case. The United States grew to greatness because of our virtue, not our freedom. Freedom without virtue is anarchy, and will eventually bring about oppression from those who yield to the basic human desire to control one's neighbors. Virtue without freedom, however, will eventually bring freedom for all.

This is why we, with maximum freedoms, have murdered 50 million babies, why we find our teens behaving like animals, why we have an infinite amount of graphic pornography on the Internet, and why our entertainment industry is dedicated to the corruption of our children. It is also why we are beginning to see a clamping down on some of our freedoms. Expect that trend to continue as long as we deny God.

"I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers - and it was not there . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce - and it was not there . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution - and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great." – Unknown (formerly attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville).

I fear America has ceased to be good.

Why Liberalism is Unchristian, Part III

Not only do Democrats have a habit of being generous with other people’s money, turns out they are also more stingy with their own. In fact, repeated studies have found that both Republicans and Conservatives are more generous than Democrats and Liberals respectively in donations of time or money to charitable causes. This makes sense because Christians tend to give away a lot of money--their own money--and a wide majority of Christians are Conservatives. Apparently Liberals are largely content to allow the government to provide their share of giving.

In other words, this notion that there is anything remotely Christian or generous about being a Democrat is a myth.

Add into all that 50 million murdered babies, the assault on traditional marriage, the depravity masquerading as our entertainment industry, their declaring God off limits in political discourse, and now their lack of actual generosity, and one begins to see the reality of the Democrat party. As one Internet writer put it: “The Republican party may not be the party of God, but the Democrat party is definitely the party of Satan.”

Why Liberalism is Unchristian, Part II

We have pointed out that when Jesus commanded his followers to take care of the poor, the sick, and the needy, he never said, “Take what your neighbor has by force, and give that to the poor,” which is what government welfare does. Nowhere in the Bible is it suggested that we should take from our neighbors to help the poor. That’s not an oversight. If the malady is selfishness, it can’t be cured by force. Forced “charity” only increases interclass resentment and a sense of entitlement. Consider some other consequences of the voluntary vs. forced approaches:

	Jesus’s Way – Voluntary Giving	Liberals’ Way – Taxation
Virtue	Loving Others, Obeying God	None
Motivation of the Donor	Help Those in Need	Avoid Fines, Penalties, Prosecution, and Jail
Attitude of Donor	Concern for recipients	Resentment of bullying government and those receiving entitlements
Instigated by	God	Man
Cause	Choice	Force
Locus of Choice	Internal; Lies with the owner of the money	External; Lies with the holder of political power
Monitored by	The donor or church	Wasteful bureaucracy, if there is any monitoring at all
Additional Benefits	Since aid is given out of a sense of concern, additional help may be given in the form of mentoring, housing, babysitting, and other intangibles	No additional benefits
Use of Resources	Responsible; very efficient	Irresponsible; inefficient
Effectiveness	Very high	Low
Attitude of Recipient	Encourages gratitude because specific donor can be known	Encourages a sense of entitlement because bureaucracy has no face, identity, and rarely any real expectations
Result	Growth and progress in both donor and recipient	Progress is unlikely
Result	Spiritually and socially rewarding; donor more likely to give to the poor; recipient more likely to help others when able	No spiritual reward. Donor less likely to give voluntarily in future and recipient less likely to give when able because “it’s the government’s job”
Result	Decrease in the public’s burden	Increase in public’s burden; Another government entitlement to grow out of control
Result	Relationship	Increased dependence; increased racism; increased classism

This is why the Church, families, and individuals have the God-assigned job of taking care of “the widow and the orphan.” It should not be the government’s job because the government can’t do it well. This is why many people on government aid have no plans to get off of government aid. Anonymous government aid can’t solve the actual problem, which, in our nation, is usually the behavior of the person in need.