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Friday, January 28, 2011

More Tragic Results of Progressive "Values"

The only real hope for any of us lies not in a political philosophy. However, good government is a significant part of the fiber of any great nation. Thomas Jefferson said, “The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the only legitimate object of good government.” Given that America just marked the 38th anniversary of the federal endorsement of abortion on demand, which has seen over 50 million children die in the womb, Jefferson would surely cringe at where we are today.

For a most horrific snapshot of where we are, we must look no further than Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell. In what has been called “one of the most disgusting litanies of murder we've seen in all of western culture,” Gosnell has been criminally charged with, among other things, eight counts of murder. Seven of them were babies who, moments after birth, had their spinal cords severed with surgical scissors inserted into the back of their necks.

Though not receiving the coverage of the Loughner tragedy, as it was not to the liking of much of the liberal media, news of Gosnell’s butchery garnered much shock and disgust. Yet, in the shadow of Roe v. Wade and the culture of death that it wrought, as Kevin McCullough concludes, it is no surprise that there is a Dr. Gosnell among us.

Despite much effort to the contrary, for nearly four decades progressivism has lulled far too many Americans into complacency when it comes to life in the womb. For nearly four decades, despite more and more sound science to the contrary, Americans have been told that a fetus is a not a person and is undeserving of the same protections as the rest of us. The left is littered with politicians, all the way up to and including U.S. Presidents, who have been complicit in perpetuating this deceit.

Hoping for America to wake up, Deacon Keith Fournier (www.catholic.org) notes that, “There are times when the truth concerning what actually happens in every procured abortion becomes obvious and the Nation is shaken out of its complacency. Perhaps the House of Horrors found in Philadelphia will be one of those moments. What was hidden is now being revealed. The truth is what ‘Doctor’ Gosnell did is no different than what is done in every procured abortion. The only difference is that it is hidden from view.”

Of course, with abortion being a lynchpin of progressivism, many leading liberals are taking a very measured tone when it comes to this tragedy. Towing the classic liberal line, writing for Salon.com, Rebekah Kuschmider notes that in such matters, “We need to start with sex. People have sex. You may wish they wouldn't and many preach that, without benefit of marriage, people shouldn't, but people have sex… And you do not have the right to impose your personal sexual morals on anyone else. You don't. It's rude. So please don't try.”

Paving the way for legalized abortion-on-demand, pornography, homosexual marriage, and so on was—again, courtesy of progressivism—the “sexual revolution.” Thus, not only have we abandoned nearly all reason and morality when it comes to life in the womb, but many Americans have also been deceived into believing that nearly any sexual act to which we are tempted is healthy, normal, and without dire consequences.

Therefore, along with Gosnell, we also have MTV. With its infamous new series “Skins,” the number one peddler of youth entertainment poison set the entertainment world abuzz. Citing its “foul language, illegal drug use, illegal activity as well as thoroughly pervasive sexual content,” the Parents Television Council called “Skins” the “most dangerous program that has ever been foisted on your children.”

With actors as young as 15, there has been much discussion about whether the show has actually engaged in child pornography. As even the New York Times suggested, when you come into work and there is a meeting centering on whether you’ve crossed the line into child pornography, you’re probably in the wrong job.

What was that about imposing “your personal sexual morals?” Whose sexual “morals” do you prefer, MTV’s or the Southern Baptists’? Hollywood’s or Focus on the Family’s? The fact is that there is no neutrality in the matter. Every law, every decision is rooted in some morality. As I have noted before, according to the late philosopher Dr. Greg Bahnsen, “At the most fundamental level of everyone's thinking and beliefs there are primary convictions about reality, man, the world, knowledge, truth, behavior, and such things. Convictions about which all other experience is organized, interpreted, and applied.”

As I hinted at the beginning, it will take more than a shift in political philosophies for America to turn from this dark path. However, our politics—and our politicians—reflect our morality and have great impact on our lives and culture. Hopefully more and more Americans dislike what they see as they look to the left.

Copyright 2011, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Jared Loughner: A Product of Progressive Values

“But do remember,” said the demon master Screwtape to his protégé Wormwood, “the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy (God). It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick.”

With the little that we still know about Jared Loughner, I do believe it is safe to assume that this young man is far from God.

In the aftermath of the Tucson tragedy that left 6 dead and several, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, seriously wounded, many liberal politicians, pundits, and the mainstream media who aid and abet them, rushed to tar the TEA Party, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and Michael Savage, (even the Congressional reading of the Constitution!), and anyone or anything else linked to conservatism.

How ironic and backwards is it that the politics of those who have given us abortion on demand, gay marriage, funding for blasphemous art, removal of school prayer, removal of the Ten Commandments, and constitutional rights for pornography now tells us that it is the right’s fault when a seemingly deranged young man goes on a killing spree? I submit to you that the evil deeds of Mr. Loughner are much more a product of progressive values and influences than conservative ones.

Evidence of this has surfaced in a recent interview by ABC of Loughner’s friend, Zach Osler. As Jesse Walker of Reason.com notes, “Loughner turns out to be a fan of Zeitgeist, a feature-length online documentary that is one-third arguments that Jesus never existed and religion is an evil fraud, one-third 9/11 trutherism, and one-third conspiracy theories about bankers.” Now tell me, which political ideology is most hostile to religion, especially Christianity, includes the “truthers,” and is hostile to the banking industry? Exactly.

Also, George Will recently hinted at Loughner’s progressive influences when he wrote, “A characteristic of many contemporary minds is susceptibility to the superstition that all behavior can be traced to some diagnosable frame of mind that is a product of promptings from the social environment. From which flows a political doctrine: Given clever social engineering, society and people can be perfected. This supposedly is the path to progress. It actually is the crux of progressivism.”

In other words, liberals are driven by the idea that human perfection can be achieved through human means. Of course, that explains their lust for everything government. For decades now, liberals have been striving for utopia through government means. Trillions of dollars have been spent on nearly countless social programs in these attempts.

Also, in seeking to explain the world and all that is in it, most on the left have prostrated themselves before the alter of “science.” Whether social, biological, chemical, physical, and so on, everything must have a scientific explanation.

As C.S. Lewis notes, “Science works by experiments. It watches how things behave…But why anything comes to be there at all, and whether there is anything behind the things science observes—something of a different kind—this is not a scientific question.” Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, author of Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, and a graduate of M.I.T., Harvard, Yale, University of Nice, France, and the University of Texas Medical School, says that “science cannot tell us what is right and wrong; it can only tell us what is.”

For far too many liberals, science is their god. To them, religion, especially Christianity, is a crutch—something for the weak minded, and thus never to be taken seriously. Right and wrong, good and evil are arbitrary and cultural—products of human progress. Such a worldview leaves absolutely no room for the supernatural, and thus, no room for God. Therefore, along with championing “social justice,” for decades liberals have also fought vociferously to expel God from our culture. Of course, Jared Loughner is what you end up with when God is shunned.

Of the liberals who do claim a religion, their faith usually takes a backseat to the godless worldview of those who share their politics. Thus, the modern Democrat party is synonymous with abortion, sexual promiscuity, removal of the Ten Commandments, redefinition of marriage, the welfare state, earth worshipping environmentalism, and so on.

These “values” are then championed by the TV, film, and music industries, including the mainstream press. Day after day we, especially our youth, are bombarded with glorification of violence, sexual perversions, foul language, and all manner of godlessness. With such influences in our culture, the amazing—perhaps miraculous—thing is that we are not turning out more Jared Loughners.

The Christian worldview, which is rampant in conservatism, sees the Tucson tragedy in the following light: Simply put, Jared Loughner is a product of sin in a fallen world. His deeds are evil and he is responsible for his actions, which deserve just consequences—even death. However, the Christian worldview also recognizes that Loughner has a Creator Who loves him and desires his repentance. Only a proper recognition of such offers any real hope for him and any real comfort for his family, his victims, their families, and the rest of us.

Copyright 2011, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

Monday, January 3, 2011

Bush Derangement Syndrome vs. the Obama Hate Machine

In a recent column, David Corn bemoans what his friend Jonathan Alter refers to as the “Obama Hate Machine (OHM).” Corn concludes, “That's an appropriate name for the right-wing attack network that will throw any charge it can concoct -- regardless of the facts -- at the president.”

This from the man who, in 2004, penned The Lies of George W. Bush, where, in the introduction he declares, “George W. Bush is a liar. He has lied large and small, directly and by omission. He has mugged the truth—not merely in honest error, but deliberately, consistently, and repeatedly.”

According to Corn, among Bush’s top ten lies were:

-“I have been very candid about my past.”

-“I’m a uniter not a divider.”

-“We must uncover every detail and learn every lesson of September the 11th.”

-Number 1: “It’s time to restore honor and dignity to the White House.”

Of course these statements—the best Corn had, mind you—are not lies at all, but things with which he simply disagreed. The mental manipulation necessary to turn such words into “lies” certainly qualifies one for what is now known as “Bush Derangement Syndrome.”

Barely two years from the 9/11 attacks, in September of 2003, writing for Time magazine, Charles Krauthammer notes that, “Democrats are seized with a loathing for President Bush — a contempt and disdain giving way to a hatred that is near pathological — unlike any since they had Richard Nixon to kick around.” As a result of this behavior, Krauthammer discovered what he considered to be a psychiatric syndrome: Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS).

Consider these statements about President George W. Bush:

“He betrayed this country! He played on our fears! He took America on an ill-conceived foreign adventure dangerous to our troops, an adventure pre-ordained and planned before 9/11 ever took place!”—Al Gore

“There has never been an administration, I don't believe, in our history more intent upon consolidating and abusing power to further their own agenda.”—Hillary Clinton

“President Bush is a liar. He betrayed Nevada and he betrayed the country.”—Harry Reid

“The situation in Iraq and the reckless economic policies in the United States speak to one issue for me, and that is the competence of our leader.”—Nancy Pelosi

“This country was the moral leader of the world until George Bush became president.”—Howard Dean

“No president in America's history has done more damage to our country and our security…”—Ted Kennedy

“I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history.”—Jimmy Carter

“The man's father is a wonderful human being; I think this guy is a loser.”—Harry Reid

“Bush is an incompetent leader. In fact, he's not a leader.”—Nancy Pelosi

“We will take to the streets right now. We will delegitimize (him), discredit him, do whatever it takes, but never accept him.”—Jesse Jackson

“I'd say if you live in the United States of America and you vote for George Bush, you've lost your mind.”—John Edwards

“Regime change! (Do you think this bothered Chris Matthews?) Bush has to go and we have the power to do it. The officials of the government shall be removed from office for crimes and misdemeanor…”—Ramsey Clark

The OHM, Corn claims, is “led by a wide-ranging collection of conservative media outfits, right-wing bloggers, and GOP partisans.” However, Bush Derangement Syndrome was not led by a wide-ranging collection of liberal media outfits, left-wing bloggers, and Democratic partisans, but, as evidenced above, by the very leaders of the Democratic Party. Also, Obama himself, nearly two years after being elected, continues to call upon BDS to further his liberal agenda.

Several times prior to the 2010 midterm Obama invoked Bush in an attempt to try to turn the election for the democrats, and he is still at it! What’s the definition of insanity?!

“The Obama Hate Machine is never slowed by the absurdities it manufactures,” cries Corn. “It just keeps spewing crap.” Why is he so upset? I thought “spewing crap” was as popular with liberals as killing the unborn, encouraging illegal immigration, and reelecting Charlie Rangel.

The hypocrisy of the left is well established, but I thought Corn was smart enough not to get this caught up in it. It goes to show how desperate the left is getting.

Copyright 2011, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com