Posted on 03/09/2018 6:18:39 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
Nations that abandon their Christian heritage wallow in self-loathing
Beginning in the spring of 1915, the Ottoman Empire carried out a systematic extermination of Armenian Christians who occupied territory west of present-day Turkey. Over 1.5 million men, women, and children were slaughtered during a two-year period, an event credited with coining the word genocide. To this day, the Turkish government rejects that label and has made it a crime (Article 301 of the penal code) to insult the nation by mentioning it.
In 1937 the Japanese Imperial Army captured Nanking, then the capital of the Republic of China. Over a period of six weeks, soldiers summarily killed anywhere from 40,000 to 300,000 civilians. Four years later Imperial Japan staged a successful raid on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, plunging the Pacific into war. The total number of deaths attributed to Japan between 1938 and 1945 is estimated from 3 million to 14 million, the vast majority of them civilians. Since then Japanese officials have issued statements of regret. But when schoolchildren learn about World War II, the focus is on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Australia was established as a penal colony in 1788. However, in a remarkably short time it overcame its seedy origins and established a forward-looking, industrious, ever-more-prosperous nation—albeit with a few stains on its national character, having to do with mistreatment of the Aborigines. In May 1998, the Australian government instituted National Sorry Day to commemorate that mistreatment, especially the policy begun in the mid-1800s of taking native children from their parents in order to teach them white culture in boarding schools.
All three nations have had crimes to apologize for. But only one continually apologizes for something that can’t be corrected and for which no one now living bears direct responsibility. One author observes that since the institution of National Sorry Day, Australian culture has become “palpably darker, not to mention mawkish about its past.”
That’s Douglas Murray, whose recent book The Strange Death of Europe ponders the swamping of European culture by unrestrained immigration, mostly from Muslim countries. A chapter called “The Tyranny of Guilt” asks why Europe and its heirs, like Australia, Canada, and the United States, have packed into the Last Chance Saloon to drink bitter tears of remorse. It’s not that these nations haven’t committed crimes. But they seem to be trapped in a cycle of unremitting guilt that saps national vitality.
A fascinating pattern emerges: The nations most racked by guilt all share a Christian heritage, but have by and large abandoned the faith. Enough Christian conscience remains to convict them, but without Christ they have no means of restoration. Guilt becomes its own atonement, meaning it never ends until someone dies. The sacrificial victim is Europe itself, committing slow suicide by bleeding out its culture and confidence. “A country that believes it has never done any wrong is a country that could do wrong at any time,” writes Murray. “But a country that believes it has only done wrong … is likely to doubt its ability to ever do any good in the future.”
Europe gave the world the political principles of equality and individual worth, now acknowledged everywhere if only by lip service. Those political principles were faith principles first. Christianity planted them deep within the Western conscience, as even secularists are beginning to admit. But when God abandons the temple, equality and worth cease to be reasonable goals. Instead they linger on as reproaches, setting the bar impossibly high.
In Flannery O’Connor’s novella Wise Blood, a bitter and disillusioned army veteran declares himself free of guilt. He establishes a “Church of Christ without Christ,” preaching a gospel of liberation. But declarations are not reality, and he eventually blinds himself with acid in recompense. Without Christ to atone for us, we must atone for ourselves.
Europe, and the West in general, is becoming a Church of Christ without Christ, burdened with sins for which there is no remedy. The demons once cast out have returned, and “the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
Interesting take. Bookmarking.
Excellent article.
Of all the observations that Alexis de Tocqueville shared about America the most profound were these words;
America is great because America is good. When America ceases to be good America will cease to be great.
Wow, this is worth signing in to ping.
That is one of the greatest quotes ever. Sadly, Toqueville never said it.
It’s been attributed to him for decades, but there’s no evidence of it.
From where it came, no one knows.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-tocqueville-fraud/article/8100
feel free to forward it.
Okay, then I said it and you may quote me.
"America is great because America is good, When America ceases to be good America will cease to be great".
The point of my post is the message, not the messenger or another rabbit hole.
I’ll quote you all day on that one.
It’s sad, but there are so many misquotes out there one always has to be careful. It gives our adversaries ammo.
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34). God says that. You can look it up.
One thing I’ve noticed with those countries that are allowing the Muslim invasion is that they don’t seem to have any Christian leaders on the right. Of course those countries have clamped down on speech and anyone criticizing Islam or their governments actions either gets slammed with cries of being racist or the get into trouble with the law.
The destruction of the Armenians was the blueprint for the Nazis.
We don’t know that Tocqueville never said it, we just know that he never wrote it..................
Interesting post; thread. Thanks.
The verb “quote” means to repeat something spoken or written.
A misquote is a quotation that is repeated incorrectly.
What word describes a correctly repeated quote but erroneously attributed?
When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will. —Abraham Lincoln, Inscription on Pollyanna's locket, a gift from her father. The quote is not actually anything that Abraham Lincoln ever said. The quote was made up by the Writer/Director of the 1960 Disney Film (David Swift.) Swift imagined the inscription in order to really hammer home a Theme of Redemption and the "Good People," in the scene with Reverend Ford.
So, let me ask, regardless of who said it, what do you think of the message this quotation conveys.
This message is a bit more provocative.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
1916 - Written by Reverend William J. H. Boetcker, often erroneously attributed to Abraham Lincoln.
Does the quotation have less to offer after you learn it was not Lincoln?
This is my quote.
Is it the liberal or the conservative who believes you can bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift?
Is it the liberal or the conservative who believes you can help small men by tearing down big men?
Is it the liberal or the conservative who believes you can strengthen the weak by weakening the strong?
Is it the liberal or the conservative who believes you can lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer?
Is it the liberal or the conservative who believes you can help the poor man by destroying the rich?
Is it the liberal or the conservative who believes you can keep out of trouble by spending more than your income?
Is it the liberal or the conservative who believes you can further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred?
Is it the liberal or the conservative who believes you can establish security on borrowed money?
Is it the liberal or the conservative who believes you can build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence?
Is it the liberal or the conservative who believes you can help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves?
Turkey committed genocide against the Armenians.
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