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

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