I strongly disagree. Morality crosses cultural lines as well as national borders. There is Good and Evil and they have nothing to do with culture, customs, race, gender or anything like that. There are good and moral Muslims and immoral and bad Christians & Jews. We're in a war, not so much between cultures/countries as it is between Good and Evil, a spiritual war that starts off seeming like a secular war between competing cultures. America is fundamentally Good but needs to work hard on becoming more moral in order to win this war. This could be our longest and last war.
I am not sure about Muslims or Jews, but a good Christian is a repenting sinner - a man who knows that the struggle between Good and Evil goes inside of his heart.
People who see themselves as good and who divide individuals and nations into good and evil are enemies of the Gospel.
"If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" (Alexander Solzhenitsyn in Gulag Archipelago)
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." (Saint Paul in his letter to Timothy)
We don't as a nation protect terrorists, we coddle them. Try espousing freedom to a lot of individuals in the inner city with bars on the window, deadbolts on the doors, and a loaded thirty eight on top of the dresser. This country has ignored a lot of problems of our own while becoming the leading advocate of reform overseas. Do as I say, not do as I do, is responsible for a lot of misunderstanding in the world.
Some moral values are consistent among cultures, such as not committing murder, theft, assault, or fraud. They can better be described as "ethics". "Moral" considerations involving eating, drinking, smoking, entertainment, attire, consensual sex, etc. vary from culture to culture. In a free nation, it's best for government to butt out of those.What we need to do is stop allowing people like Buchanan and the other cultural collectivists to define things which are by no means universal as "universal morals". It cheapens the really important morals.I strongly disagree. Morality crosses cultural lines as well as national borders. There is Good and Evil and they have nothing to do with culture, customs, race, gender or anything like that. There are good and moral Muslims and immoral and bad Christians & Jews. We're in a war, not so much between cultures/countries as it is between Good and Evil, a spiritual war that starts off seeming like a secular war between competing cultures. America is fundamentally Good but needs to work hard on becoming more moral in order to win this war. This could be our longest and last war.
Lyndie England allegedly did some things which most would consider "indecent" away from any prisoners. That's not a matter of morality, but a matter of military discipline. Buchanan would make the assertion that one inevitably leads to the other. That's not only false but dangerously so.
-Eric