Tag: Culture War

Marginalized – “Not Peace, But a Sword” – Re-Blog First Things

jerusalem-cross-lapel-pin
Jerusalem Cross

Peanut Gallery: Marginalized – it’s a bitter pill to swallow. But the sooner I come to terms with it the better. There is Life outside of politics – thank God. And, in America, this is the season for social conservatives to “stay the course” at the cultural margins… and let the chips fall where they may.

mar·gin·al·ize\ˈmärj-nə-ˌlīz, ˈmär-jə-n ə l-ˌīz\transitive verb : to relegate to an unimportant or powerless position within a society or group Other forms: mar·gin·al·ized; mar·gin·al·iz·ing

Peter Leithart has provided me with some reality therapy… maybe you can use some too. Democrats might find something to think about here as well.

My advice to Bad Republicans is: Let it come. If the price of regaining power is to abandon any semblance of Christian sexual morality, the price is too high. If the Republican party can’t bring itself to endorse a traditional understanding of marriage, let it split. If the Republican party can’t be bothered about the slaughter of the unborn, let it shatter into a million little pieces. Good Republicans will blame Bad Republicans for tearing the GOP to pieces. So be it.

In this article, published by First Things, Leithart maps out the future for social conservatives… and there is no peace on the horizon.

“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.” Matthew 10.34 NLT

Social, cultural conservatives are moving into unfamiliar territory. We’ve got a lot to learn.
_________________________________________

“Not Peace, But a Sword”

President Obama is convinced that liberals have won the culture war, and he aims to leverage that victory to force a transformation of the Republican party. In a New Republic interview published earlier this week, he noted that attitudes are changing “in the country as a whole around LGBT issues and same-sex marriage” and that this poses a challenge to Republicans. Some Republicans will “embrace” the change, but “there’s a big chunk of their constituency that is going to be deeply opposed to that.”

Unity is the president’s preferred weapon to divide and conquer. Continue reading “Marginalized – “Not Peace, But a Sword” – Re-Blog First Things” →

Unlovley America – “Scalia Protest at Princeton Raises an Important Question” – Re-blog (Crisis Magazine)

Peanut Gallery: I am in crisis… I do not recognize the country I have loved and lived in all my life. I do not understand today’s prevailing “culture.” I put the word in quotes because it looks more like a cess pool to me – catering to our basest nature (gangsta rap)… rather than encouraging us to soar to the heights of our God-given nature (flash mob).

We are so caught up in ourselves… in our own frantic activities… running to what, or from what… that we can no longer hear the music.

And now, the issue of legalizing/sanctifying gay marriage is at the forefront of the “culture wars.” Among the political/educational elite, there is no longer any room for civil discussion or debate. The lunatics are running the asylum… as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia discovered.

Justice Scalia at Princeton:

Digging his heels in, [Scalia] put to the students the following question, which goes right to the heart of the matter:  “If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality,” he pointedly asked, “can we have them against murder?  Can we have it against other things?”

Where is all this leading us? Regis Martin reflects on this very question in his important article re-posted below –

If a nation to be loved, as Burke once said, must be lovely, where does that leave those of us who look upon same sex marriage with abhorrence? At what point does cultural approval, followed by juridical vindication from the highest court in the land, so diminish the loveliness of our country that to withdraw one’s love and loyalty from it becomes the only tenable course to take?

These are serious times and Christians are facing serious issues. Please read Martin’s original article here, posted here at Crisis Magazine.

Special thanks to servus fidelis for bringing this important post to our attention.
______________________________________________

Scalia Protest at Princeton Raises an Important Question

by Regis Martin

Scalia-on-Fox-620x320When does it become impermissable for a self-governing people to pass laws that will ensure the survival of the things they love?  When they no longer command a majority of the electorate?  Is that the standard?  Certainly among people of democratic disposition, it is a constitutional given that any time a plurality of voters take charge, they are more or less at liberty to set aside whatever arrangements were in place before they assumed control.

In other words, that massive tectonic shift in the culture we’ve been witnessing over these past fifty years, is about to be given formal and official sanction from the political process.  All the awfulness of the culture, as it were, will sooner or later be codified into law.
Continue reading “Unlovley America – “Scalia Protest at Princeton Raises an Important Question” – Re-blog (Crisis Magazine)” →

Christian Persecution: Saddle Up! This is War! (Of a Sort)

Peanut Gallery – A military friend of mine told me that the first thing an army does when it moves into new territory is “show the flag.” Rebecca Hamilton has issued a battle cry in her follow-up article on Christian Persecution in the West – “show the cross.” Game on!

Christian Persecution: Saddle Up! This is War! (Of a Sort).

September 21, 2012 By

I mentioned in an earlier post, Christian Persecution: In the West, Where the War is Forced Upon Us, that violent persecution of a group of people doesn’t spring fully-formed from the head of some political Zeus. It evolves in an almost invisible progression from a series of smaller things.

It almost always begins with simple criticism, some of which may even be valid. In time, this moves to unjust badgering, slanders and verbal harassment, which is coupled with agitation for changes in the law that impinge on the rights and freedoms of the group under attack. The legal discriminations begin slowly, again at first in areas that may even seem reasonable. Over time, they cut more and more deeply into the basic rights and essential freedoms of the target group. At the same time, insults and verbal harassment move into hectoring, hate speech and outright attempts to silence people.

This is where Christians are now in the Western World. We are bombarded with verbal attacks on our faith in the media, in our conversations, at our schools and even in our friendships and families. We must make the decision over and over to either be quiet and let this bigotry stand or engage in unsettling and exhausting battles that always seem to involve personal insults. At the same time, law-makers, government agencies and courts create laws, mandates and rulings that attempt to compel us to violate our faith or face legal sanctions, or prohibit us from the outward practice of our faith.

The HHS Mandate is an example of the government intruding on the free exercise of religion. The lawsuit against the British government over a woman’s right to wear a cross on a necklace to work without being fired is an example of how Christians are being forced to resist laws limiting the outward practice of their faith. There are many other examples of both these things that I could add.

The next move after legal discrimination and social hazing is violent persecution. Continue reading “Christian Persecution: Saddle Up! This is War! (Of a Sort)” →