Posted on 05/13/2005 10:40:44 PM PDT by goldstategop
Liberals and libertarians like to ask, "How can the relationship of two people who love each other but are the same sex be detrimental to society?" How does porn hurt you or me? How does smoking pot hurt my community? What is the impact of casual sex or general filth on TV to my family?
Perhaps George Will said it best when he wrote, "Some pleasures are contemptible because they are coarsening. They are not merely private vices; they have public consequences in driving the culture's downward spiral."
All the vices listed above in some way do touch our lives. Pornography shops and adult video stores fuel the vile lusts of sex offenders. Promoting same-sex marriage strikes at the foundation of traditional family infrastructure and its inherent values. Violent movies, video games and song lyrics encourage uncontrolled and outward expressions of rage without regard for human life. Drug users don't merely abuse or harm their own bodies but frequently steal to support their habit. What may begin as petty theft can ultimately become home invasion, rape and murder – all to pay for the next fix.
If you doubt any of this is true, spend a day in a local courtroom. Listen to the charges and crimes and the defenses. Look on the faces of the victims as they file past you one after the next. As you do, remember you sit in only one courtroom in one city in one state. Imagine courtrooms all over the country. You might begin to get the picture. The individual examples seen in a single courtroom or reported on the evening news are but a microcosm of what is taking place nationwide and attest to nothing less than a national crisis.
One root of the crisis is clearly our culture's lost distinction between right and wrong. Moral absolutes are not taught to our children anymore because they are no longer accepted as real or true. To the contrary, the loss of absolutes is the hallmark of the "me generation." "What's right for you may or may not be right for me."
Of course, this isn't really a problem if we are to believe the secular media. To hear them talk, "all is well." We are a progressive people and our children live an enlightened existence. Evidently, mothers from across America don't agree – this according to a new survey issued by the Institute for American Values in New York.
They report mothers of all stripes, income levels and backgrounds are in fact concerned about their ability to impart positive values to their children in today's morally declining culture. They feel directly challenged by Hollywood movies, TV, the Internet, electronic games and advertising. Issues include all the vices liberals and libertarians assure are purely private matters and of no public consequence.
Addressing the concerns of these mothers, a friend of mine, Rebecca Hagelin, wrote a book called It speaks specifically of a culture "gone mad" and how to defend and protect our homes and children against its negative effects. Sadly, the entrée of this book into secular media outlets is being blocked. For instance, when a call was made to one major talk show, the response of their producers was: "We don't believe the culture has gone mad, but we believe the author has."
Obviously, they took a pass on an interview with Hagelin, but days later focused their programming on child molestation taking place under the noses of unsuspecting mothers. One woman interviewed was the ex-wife of the infamous "Mall Rapist." He was a child molester in Wisconsin who, living a double life preyed upon young girls in shopping malls. He also began molesting his own daughter while she was in kindergarten.
The question is: How do you explain the apparent contradiction in the producer's position?
The refusal of some secular producers to interview Hagelin either smacks of delusion about the state of society and the needs of parents and/or reflects a media bias so extreme it is willing to sacrifice the welfare of our children to maintain its secular agenda. I am talking of course about the media bias against anyone such as Hagelin holding openly Christian values.
It goes without saying that the bias against Christian values isn't new, but it is growing as secularists attempt to eradicate every vestige of Christianity from our society. The saddest part of all is that this wide-sweeping bias stifles truly beneficial input from an entire segment of our population. Truth is the media liberals may not want the advice contained in Hagelin's book, but mothers across the country are crying out for just this kind of help.
Clearly, the secular media is out-of-step with the nation on this one because liberals dominate most mainstream outlets. There is simply no such thing as a private vice without public consequences. And parents need every new tool available to defend their families against our ever-coarsening culture –even if they come from a professing Christian background.
Beyond that, our culture is in dire need of a morality check and a re-education on the traditional principles of right and wrong. It is a seriously flawed notion that we can raise our children in a moral vacuum and expect society to become continually improved and enlightened. Our courtrooms, jailhouses, drug rehabs and seven-step programs for every imaginable addiction make that abundantly clear.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Just look at Sweden to see where this is going. Not pretty.
Well that was some light reading. Nothing more than a few paragraphs of vague generalizations.
"Addressing the concerns of these mothers, a friend of mine, Rebecca Hagelin, wrote a book called It speaks specifically of a culture "gone mad" . . ."
What's the name of the book?
PONG
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
I think people have been convinced moral decline has been destroying the nation since 1776.
I don't think so . . . "speaks" isn't capitalized here, and "It" appears to begin the next sentence but could also begin the name of a book. Odd.
Yes, at least in a historical context, and at least on a somewhat-temporary basis. See Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, the Roman emperor who actually managed to stave off the inevitable collapse and begin to reverse it between 284 and 304. He made some mistakes, but he bought the Roman Empire almost two centuries.
Agreed. Good artilce.
"article"
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Whether the Byzantine Empire was really the continuance of the original empire or if it was really just a successor state is something we can debate some other time. However, Diocletian bought the entire Empire about two centuries that it probably wouldn't have had. It gave the Eastern Empire enough time to consolidate and stabilize.
Some historians think that the entire Empire would have collapsed by 300 if he hadn't done what he did - having read some of the accounts of the era, I think they're absolutely right.
That would be certainly be true of the Western half of the Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire fared even better and held on until 1452, when the Mohammedan Turks, with the assistance of Italian artillery designers, finally breeched the walls of Constantinople that had stood for 1000 years. (Built by Theodosius II).
Diocletian set up the tetrarchy of course. He also carried out one of the last - and most brutal - persecutions of Christians in the Empire. His fellow tetrarch Constantine ended up issuing the edict recognizing Christianity as a legal religion later on.
Like I said, the guy did make some mistakes - a couple of whoppers, too. On the other hand, it's very hard to argue with his results as a whole.
The shallowest of shallow thinkers have no clue what is being created out there. I pity the upcoming generation and what they are sowing for themselves. It will become self evident in due time.
I think that's a pretty good analysis as well. The setup of the tetrarchy really bought time for the Eastern half to stabilize. They also didn't have the degree of barbarian invasion that the west had to deal with, which might have been a factor as well. By Justinian's time, a good section of the west had even been reclaimed. The West was abandoned with the advance of the Muslims in the mid-600s, though.
ping to self for later pingout.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
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