Dear America,
so awhile back, I was viciously attacked -- by someone within my own family circle, by the way -- for having and holding deep seated, fundamentally, diametrically, different beliefs than theirs. Just for having the different point of view was reason alone for being the target of unhinged, and totally unsolicited, remarks.
I responded in the best way I know how -- and spoke up. I didn't fall into the despair; I didn't shudder in the smacks of criticism across the proverbial face.
But make no mistake, in the privacy of my own home, I did cry.
I cried and cried and cried.
And then I spoke up.
I wrote back; directly and privately, I responded with my whole heart, thoughtfully and determined to stand up for myself and my beliefs.
I wrote back.
But, lo and behold, communicating didn't make it stop, while my feelings were ignored, ridiculed, or dismissed altogether; and only then did I take it to the next level, resorting to feeding my bare naked thoughts to the blogosphere...albeit metaphorically, but wide open to the public none the less.
And only once; but let me tell you, once was enough.
Let's just say, making it public opened the flood gates (but let me also say, that this isn't about that. I'm over it already.)
Overall, our public arena has grown even more public -- if you can imagine that! Everything is out in the open; conversation and commentary that is made hundreds of miles away are visible within mere minutes upon facebook, Twitter, even mass media like Yahoo! and cable news outlets, while the mainstream media keeps up with the tags, links, syndication, and rss feeds automatically, each lining up like little soldiers to get the news out and about as fast they possibly can. (what a job to keep up with it all, no?)
From the large scene to the itty bitty lives of people like you and me, we live these days totally exposed in every way. And from a wider angle -- if we have one bad date, perhaps one uncomfortable rift with a girl friend, or make one mistake, it is on. Online and made note -- and in turn, made everlasting, along with an immediate trail of responses and anonymous commentary to boot.
Basically -- strangely -- nearly everything we do is subject for exposure -- whether we agree with it, are aware of it, want it, or ask for it.
BUT the thing is, if we do it -- if we act, say, think out loud about anything! -- it becomes fair game. But more than that, if you invite response in any way, you are culpable. Whether you thought about it well in advance or not; whether you thought about how it would be received, or not; whether you are open to opposition in any way, or not.
Whether in the micro or the macro, our words are powerful.
Our words are like a boomerang and carry the capacity to bounce right back to us; our words can care, or can hurt; our words can love, or can hate. They hold the power to unite or divide, destroy or create, at any given moment.
Is it enough to recognize that a house divided against itself cannot stand -- or do we actually need to know where these words come?
Abraham Lincoln quoted Jesus -- against the advice of his own good council, by the way -- when addressing the Republican delegates for U.S. Senate (yes, indicating we were also still living in the age when the state legislature decided who would be seated as state representation in the U.S. Senate). But consider this, it was 1858 -- and even then, dropping the 'yea, Jesus' as moral authority to get a message across was highly frowned upon. For a quick background check and transcript of the "House Divided" speech, go here.
But needless to say, this moment marked only the beginning of a long, hard fight (for both the country and Lincoln); it was merely the precursor before leading us down a weary history of a war of words and ultimately, to a real, live, civil war. But it was the right thing to do, wasn't it. Nobody questions the wisdom of a Lincoln standing firm to his beliefs, his faith, and eventually, his call to arms within the full context of good reason. Nobody.
How do we know what is right and wrong anymore? What drives our personal authority, within ourselves and in communion with each other, to do the right thing anymore?
The faction of secular progressives would have us all believe that all we need to do is trust our feelings.
Ah, wouldn't that be nice.
And yet, some of us feel more for dolphins, then for the unborn child; some of us feel more for the planet, then fueling the free market with fair and balanced energy and regulation; some of us feel more for radical agendas, then fundamental principles and values this country was made. We could go all the live long day about how much we feel and find a counter feeling just the same.
But what makes us truly moral, or not? What is the code, the example, the method of recognizing what is morally the right thing to do -- just where does this kind of conviction come? Hollywood? Government? School?
I have stumbled in the last week; found myself running into obstacles of faith and questioning nearly everything possible -- as things normally moving forward are now sliding backward -- things usually right side up are now upside down. Christians, more than any other group in America, are being attacked -- sometimes right out in the open, and at other times, hidden deep into legislation:
Let's quickly link to a few standouts:
The San Juan Capistrano Home Bible Study Police.
Vanderbuilt against Christian Liberty
Catholic Bishops confronting Obamacare
and then I found this, something that just might explain everything.
"Why Young Americans Can't Think Morally", syndicated columnist Dennis Prager, as featured on The Patriot Post.
Don't you love that: "Good and evil are no more real than 'yummy' and 'yucky'."
The thing is, both in my personal experience and according to the greater community I share, the more The Left insists on burying our freedom of religion, and the free exercise thereof, the more it inspires me to speak up.
Just how in the world can this ONE NATION under GOD, protector of the "free exercise thereof," be here now -- knee deep in religious persecution?
Just how can this land -- creator of Lincoln and Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness for all -- become so consumed in the every day by the growing number of religious descent, growing more and more visceral, if not totally vitriolic in nature, creating the very conditions for making the house divided?
When it comes to truly living by our faith -- by Divine Providence, if you will -- what troubles me is that it seems no longer good enough to simply coexist and thereby agree to disagree with each other, and live and let live. We have somehow ushered in a new era that allows for our differences of religion to be used against us; we have allowed to let in the unimaginable, writing into the unspoken behavioral rules permission to disgrace, ridicule, discredit and destroy anything that still lives and breathes a symbol of faith (but mostly, our Judeo-Christian history).
The house divided is here again.
But put into words we might all understand, it seems to be a pretty 'yucky' time in history.
Make it a Good Day, G
so awhile back, I was viciously attacked -- by someone within my own family circle, by the way -- for having and holding deep seated, fundamentally, diametrically, different beliefs than theirs. Just for having the different point of view was reason alone for being the target of unhinged, and totally unsolicited, remarks.
I responded in the best way I know how -- and spoke up. I didn't fall into the despair; I didn't shudder in the smacks of criticism across the proverbial face.
But make no mistake, in the privacy of my own home, I did cry.
I cried and cried and cried.
And then I spoke up.
I wrote back; directly and privately, I responded with my whole heart, thoughtfully and determined to stand up for myself and my beliefs.
I wrote back.
But, lo and behold, communicating didn't make it stop, while my feelings were ignored, ridiculed, or dismissed altogether; and only then did I take it to the next level, resorting to feeding my bare naked thoughts to the blogosphere...albeit metaphorically, but wide open to the public none the less.
And only once; but let me tell you, once was enough.
Let's just say, making it public opened the flood gates (but let me also say, that this isn't about that. I'm over it already.)
Overall, our public arena has grown even more public -- if you can imagine that! Everything is out in the open; conversation and commentary that is made hundreds of miles away are visible within mere minutes upon facebook, Twitter, even mass media like Yahoo! and cable news outlets, while the mainstream media keeps up with the tags, links, syndication, and rss feeds automatically, each lining up like little soldiers to get the news out and about as fast they possibly can. (what a job to keep up with it all, no?)
From the large scene to the itty bitty lives of people like you and me, we live these days totally exposed in every way. And from a wider angle -- if we have one bad date, perhaps one uncomfortable rift with a girl friend, or make one mistake, it is on. Online and made note -- and in turn, made everlasting, along with an immediate trail of responses and anonymous commentary to boot.
Basically -- strangely -- nearly everything we do is subject for exposure -- whether we agree with it, are aware of it, want it, or ask for it.
BUT the thing is, if we do it -- if we act, say, think out loud about anything! -- it becomes fair game. But more than that, if you invite response in any way, you are culpable. Whether you thought about it well in advance or not; whether you thought about how it would be received, or not; whether you are open to opposition in any way, or not.
Whether in the micro or the macro, our words are powerful.
Our words are like a boomerang and carry the capacity to bounce right back to us; our words can care, or can hurt; our words can love, or can hate. They hold the power to unite or divide, destroy or create, at any given moment.
Is it enough to recognize that a house divided against itself cannot stand -- or do we actually need to know where these words come?
Abraham Lincoln quoted Jesus -- against the advice of his own good council, by the way -- when addressing the Republican delegates for U.S. Senate (yes, indicating we were also still living in the age when the state legislature decided who would be seated as state representation in the U.S. Senate). But consider this, it was 1858 -- and even then, dropping the 'yea, Jesus' as moral authority to get a message across was highly frowned upon. For a quick background check and transcript of the "House Divided" speech, go here.
But needless to say, this moment marked only the beginning of a long, hard fight (for both the country and Lincoln); it was merely the precursor before leading us down a weary history of a war of words and ultimately, to a real, live, civil war. But it was the right thing to do, wasn't it. Nobody questions the wisdom of a Lincoln standing firm to his beliefs, his faith, and eventually, his call to arms within the full context of good reason. Nobody.
How do we know what is right and wrong anymore? What drives our personal authority, within ourselves and in communion with each other, to do the right thing anymore?
The faction of secular progressives would have us all believe that all we need to do is trust our feelings.
Ah, wouldn't that be nice.
And yet, some of us feel more for dolphins, then for the unborn child; some of us feel more for the planet, then fueling the free market with fair and balanced energy and regulation; some of us feel more for radical agendas, then fundamental principles and values this country was made. We could go all the live long day about how much we feel and find a counter feeling just the same.
But what makes us truly moral, or not? What is the code, the example, the method of recognizing what is morally the right thing to do -- just where does this kind of conviction come? Hollywood? Government? School?
I have stumbled in the last week; found myself running into obstacles of faith and questioning nearly everything possible -- as things normally moving forward are now sliding backward -- things usually right side up are now upside down. Christians, more than any other group in America, are being attacked -- sometimes right out in the open, and at other times, hidden deep into legislation:
Let's quickly link to a few standouts:
The San Juan Capistrano Home Bible Study Police.
Vanderbuilt against Christian Liberty
Catholic Bishops confronting Obamacare
and then I found this, something that just might explain everything.
"Secularism is good for government. But it is terrible for society (though still preferable to bad religion) and for the individual.
One key reason is what secularism does to moral standards. If moral standards are not rooted in God, they do not objectively exist. Good and evil are no more real than "yummy" and "yucky." They are simply a matter of personal preference.
...The heart has replaced God and the Bible as a moral guide.
And now, as Brooks points out, we see the results. A vast number of American young people do not even ask whether an action is right or wrong. The question would strike them as foreign. Why? Because the question suggests that there is a right and wrong outside of themselves. And just as there is no God higher than them, there is no morality higher than them, either."
"Why Young Americans Can't Think Morally", syndicated columnist Dennis Prager, as featured on The Patriot Post.
Don't you love that: "Good and evil are no more real than 'yummy' and 'yucky'."
The thing is, both in my personal experience and according to the greater community I share, the more The Left insists on burying our freedom of religion, and the free exercise thereof, the more it inspires me to speak up.
Just how in the world can this ONE NATION under GOD, protector of the "free exercise thereof," be here now -- knee deep in religious persecution?
Just how can this land -- creator of Lincoln and Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness for all -- become so consumed in the every day by the growing number of religious descent, growing more and more visceral, if not totally vitriolic in nature, creating the very conditions for making the house divided?
When it comes to truly living by our faith -- by Divine Providence, if you will -- what troubles me is that it seems no longer good enough to simply coexist and thereby agree to disagree with each other, and live and let live. We have somehow ushered in a new era that allows for our differences of religion to be used against us; we have allowed to let in the unimaginable, writing into the unspoken behavioral rules permission to disgrace, ridicule, discredit and destroy anything that still lives and breathes a symbol of faith (but mostly, our Judeo-Christian history).
The house divided is here again.
But put into words we might all understand, it seems to be a pretty 'yucky' time in history.
"It does me no injury
for my neighbors to say
there are twenty Gods or no God;
it neither picks my pocket
nor breaks my leg."
Thomas Jefferson
Make it a Good Day, G
Posts
Dear G, In the years leading to the 50s moms taught kids that “Sticks and stones can break our bones but names can never hurt us”. All human rights come from our Creator who created the Universe and the Earth and all life including humans, who alone, of living things have the mental capacity to understand the Universe. The Creator also created the Moral Dimension of the Universe without which human civil/social governance cannot occur. Our future is binary. We either reset to our EXCEPTIONAL PRINCIPLES of the Declaration of Independence or devolve to an immoral status described in books/movies like “1984.” All humans were created with a sense of Creation’s natural law, but some succumb to a power lust that the Creator described in Genesis as “evil;” the hazard of our right to be free. Patriot Thinks.
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