Yes, this thread has been side-tracked from time to time. Still, there have been some wonderful contributions from KC Burke, YHAOS, Diamond, Alamo-Girl, spirited irish, and many other writers. It's been a learning experience!
I just visited your home page, Amos, and found this wonderful piece from a few years back by FReeper wagglebee:
...For the past 150 years, the intent of futurists/socialists and those who favor the central authority of government in society has been to remove the authority of cultural tradition and religion from the public sector. Arguments for the privacy of religion and for multiculturism have been thinly veiled campaigns to relegate knowledge and experience from the past to a curio shop of cultural oddities.Oh, wagglebee, so beautifully and truly said!This campaign (designed by Marx, Freud, Dewey, Spinoza, Darwin, Emerson and many others) has designed social structures oriented to a utopian future by breaking radically with the past. The viewpoint of each of these philosophers has been based in a belief that the evolution of society and the individual are hopelessly restricted by the influence of all that has gone before, especially by religion.
The central theme of cultural tradition and its concomitant, religion, is morality based on natural law. Our Constitution is the quintessential example of this. Futurists believe fervently in the absolute authority of government over all aspects of personal and social behavior. It is vital, therefor, for them to overcome the founding principles of the Constitution.
In an attempt to do this the Founders are denegrated as white, racists, slaveholders, capitalists and bigots to a man. Their appeals to the Creator and Natural Law are viewed by futurists as attempts to confine society to a narrow, provincial and wholly backward political system.
The reliance of the Constitution and its historical antecedents on morality are major stumbling blocks to the New World so fervently sought by socialists. This is precisely why it is critical for those who wish government to dominate society to root out all vestiges of religion and morality. They, then, can have a free hand to redisign man and society in their own image. This is the precise struggle in which we are engaged. It is a war for the continued existence of mankind centered on God. We are far along this path with no clear way back.... [emphasis added]
Thank you ever so much for writing, dear Amos, and for your excellent insights!
Betty, I certainly do not intend tyo denigrate the extraordinary efforts of many here. The scholarly erudition has been nothing short of amazing.
I have been trying to find the original posting done by wagabee in 2006 with no luck.
The comment you quoted is by me. I did not give proper credit when copied to my home page. Situation corrected. It was a reply to a particular challenge much like those that you have encountered here.
Maranatha, Jesus!!!