Posted on 05/29/2002 5:12:08 AM PDT by Starmaker
Is there anywhere a more despicable and varmint-like assembly than the U.S. State Department? These career bureaucrats, unanswerable to the people through elections, have joined with the CIA in proclaiming that hopes for peace in the Middle East require the maintenance of Yassir Arafat as head of the Palestinians. Isn´t this the same group that blames Israel for the problems, and that doesn´t want us to go after Saddam Hussein in Iraq?
Some of us point to the arrogance and aloofness of our elected officials, at all levels, as a major source of the decline of our culture. We at least have the option of voting those creatures out of office (though, of course, we won´t). But over these Arabist bureaucrats who retain their power no matter the electoral outcome, we have no power or authority, though they hold sway over Congress and presidents, and over our the fiasco that is jokingly referred to as our foreign policy.
Speaking of elected officials: Here in my home state of Tennessee, the governor and state legislature are pulling out all the stops in order to burden us with a state income tax. You may have read last year about a ‘tax riot´ in the capitol of Nashville—it was merely irate citizens demonstrating, with placards, chants, etc., against the proposed tax, yet because a window was broken in some minor shoving, the politicos and media called it a riot. Well, despite the clear intent of the majority of Tennesseans, the finance committee held a five-minute meeting and a voice vote to send the proposal to the floor of the House, where the Speaker put it up for a vote…against, by the way, our state´s Constitution.
The measure failed, 53-45. But the Speaker got four members to change their vote from ‘no´ to ‘present,´ putting the nays at 49; if a bill gets less than 50 ‘no´ votes, it can be brought up again…which the Speaker threatens to do. What was that about ‘taxation without representation´? It's not just the federal government that is the problem, folks.
Is anyone else absolutely sick to death of this separatism and racial focus? My local paper today lauds a program to partner black and white medical students, just as it sang the praises of black businessmen yesterday, and wailed about the number of black CEOs in industry in the preceding weeks, etc., etc. I thought ‘separate but equal´ was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court decades ago!
As long as we see ourselves as hyphenated Americans, defined more by our skin color or ancestry than by our shared cultural, political and social heritage—good and bad—we will never again be the ‘United´ States. It appears that many blacks in this nation, and their simpering ‘liberal´ sycophants, would prefer that we continue our decline into endless squabbling between warring tribes defined by ethnicity or race. They seem willing surrender the prosperity and freedoms built upon universal moral and political principles and equality before the law in order to extract vengeance for past wrongs or imagined sleights today. Why, given the idiocy and self-absorption of these race-baiters, do the rest of us listen to them?!
A final thought on race: In Matthew 24:7, Jesus describes for His disciples the signs of the ‘end of the age.´ He says, ‘For nation will rise against nation…´—and the Greek word for ‘nation´ is ‘ethnos´…that´s right, from which we get our word ‘ethnic,´ meaning ‘people, tribe or race.´ He tells us that countries, or ‘kingdoms,´ will also be at war; but this particular statement is about what the Bosnians, the Arabs and Israelis, the Africans, the Asians are already doing, and what we´re apparently building up to…war between racial and ethnic groups. It´s all about self, and by extension, ethnic group…even though every ethnic group has prospered in America, even blacks (and yes, in spite of slavery and Jim Crowe). But we´ll throw it all away for…what? Equality? You have it. Equal outcome? As a white male, I don´t have that; why should you? Revenge? I think ‘stupidity´ is a more apt description.
On the other end of the spectrum from that stupidity is the wisdom and foresight of the few. In a recent column, National Review Online editor/columnist Jonah Goldberg included part of a poem from W.H. Auden, startling in its prophetic accuracy. Written fifty years ago, ‘For the Time Being´ gives us King Herod, pondering the future:
‘Reason will be replaced by Revelation. Instead of Rational Law, objective truths perceptible to any who will undergo the necessary intellectual discipline, Knowledge will degenerate into a riot of subjective visions… Whole cosmogonies will be created out of some forgotten personal resentment, complete epics written in private languages, the daubs of schoolchildren ranked above the greatest masterpieces. Idealism will be replaced by Materialism. Life after death will be an eternal dinner party where all the guests are 20 years old… Justice will be replaced by Pity as the cardinal human virtue, and all fear of retribution will vanish… The New Aristocracy will consist exclusively of hermits, bums and permanent invalids. The Rough Diamond, the Consumptive Whore, the bandit who is good to his mother, the epileptic girl who has a way with animals will be the heroes and heroines of the New Age, when the general, the statesman, and the philosopher have become the butt of every farce and satire.´
Herod´s musings are the ‘liberal´ dream—and our national nightmare—and it has come true.
The ‘liberals´ have succeeded in creating much of what they want in society…yet even they, themselves, are appalled at the results. Their ‘solution,´ though, isn´t to abandon their poisonous vision, but to demand more of it! The perfect example is seen in the ‘progressive´ movement in the Catholic Church. It secured the liberalization of traditional priestly standards of behavior and the subsequent influx of homosexuals into the priesthood, many or most of who were actively practicing their perversion. The ensuing flagrant violation of vows to G-d—the sexual abuse of young boys—has resulted in a scandal that threatens the existence of the Catholic Church. But the ‘progressive´ solution isn´t the reestablishment of the high moral standards that Scripture demands, but the further dismantling of traditional standards: do away with the celibacy vows and prohibition against marriage for priests. What you´ve already prescribed has failed alarmingly, so increase the dosage?!
I´ve often used G.K. Chesterton´s quote about disbelieving G-d, but it bears repeating: ‘If the world stops believing in G-d, it won´t believe in nothing…it will believe in anything.´ And if you´re foolish enough to believe in the ‘liberal,´ socialist ideology—proven bankrupt morally, deadly to the human spirit and the scourge of freedom and hope—you are, indeed, capable of believing in ‘anything´…even in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary.
Other than the nation of Israel´s repeated return to G-d—and subsequent restoration politically, economically, socially and spiritually—where is the historical evidence that a nation, once it abandons the principles and standards upon which it was based, has successfully returned to those values, and to its former glory? The only hope I have for this nation to do so lies in my trust in a holy G-d, from whom the United States has turned away, just as the children of Israel did. For He is faithful, even though we are not.
The evidence is in, the matter is beyond ideological dispute: The farther we have strayed from the moral standards and obedience to G-d´s admonitions upon which this nation was founded, the less freedom and more chaos we have. The sensible, practical solution would seem to be, therefore, a return to those standards, and to that obedience. But we´re too wise for that, aren´t we?
Another Paul wrote long ago that (1Cor1:23) ‘We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.´ Yes, today G-d is considered foolishness, though it is to Him this nation owes its gratitude for its many blessings. But Paul also wrote of those who hold to such ‘wisdom´ (1Cor3:18, 19): Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before G-d.´ And, finally, ‘Because the foolishness of G-d is wiser than men, and the weakness of G-d is stronger than men.´(1Cor1:25)
Scoffers and wise men, though you will belittle and ridicule these words, even scholarship and history shows it to be true, if you would but open your eyes. That, of course, would require a miracle. But you´re in luck, for miracles—those like the United States of America—are the very business of G-d.
To comment on this article or express your opinion directly to the author, you are invited to e-mail Paul at pescates@earthlink.net .
Active homosexual priests (a significant percentage of whom have turned out to be teenage boy molesters) are destroying the Catholic Church in America.
Yasser Arafat is and always has been a terrorist - that is, he believes is fine and dandy to brutally murder innocent men, WOMEN and CHILDREN to further his political causes. It is always a cruel mistake to try to negotiate with such people. Will we never learn?
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