The Light of Hope May Dim, But Will Never Go Out
We know the answer to our greatest problems, all it takes to solve them is the will to act.
I’ve been a bit gloomy in my assessments lately and I know that is unseemly during this season of hope, but as anyone who has read my missives over the past years knows, I’m a big fan of recognizing problems as a means of solving them.
There are lots of problems. One can be sure of that – but none of them are unsolvable.
I do want to point out a couple of major problems and how I believe they should be solved.
Problem #1: the absence of morality – or the existence of an ambiguous “morality”.
The answer: Whether you choose to believe in God or not, believe in the morality of God’s Law.
Whatever your personal beliefs, it is intellectually dishonest to ignore that religion and morality are the basis for the creation of America and that religion and morality draws heavily on Judaism and Christianity and tenets from those religions. America’s very founding principles are based on the idea that our rights do not come from the state. As Thomas Jefferson put it, our rights come from “Nature and Nature’s God.” In every historical case, the substitution of state morality for true morality based on Divine Laws has resulted in a total inability for mortal men to discern right from wrong and good from evil – and in every one of these cases, the result was not good – it was pure evil, sanctioned by and perpetrated on behalf of some human derived “plan” for the “greater good.”
C.S. Lewis, the noted author and Christian apologist, wrote:
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”
In simpler terms, what Lewis is saying is this: Only good people recognize the difference between right and wrong – a bad people are incapable of differentiating.
One must keep in mind some important distinctions with actual differences. History itself has proven that a) there is a close tie between classical liberalism and Christian teachings and b) to classical liberals (such as John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, Lord Acton to name a few), power by itself has always appeared to be a consummate evil, an ever present corrupting force that cannot be destroyed but must be diluted to be survived – but to contemporary collectivists (aka progressives, American liberals, socialists, Marxists and communists), it is something to be courted and concentrated, a goal in and of itself.
I do not believe that every person in America must be a Christian. Christianity is an individual choice, a conversion of the heart; however, to maintain the liberty that is so unique to our country, I do believe that America’s basis in Christian principles must be preserved and followed.
This is not to say that America must become a theocracy because the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are not theocratic – they are universal statements of a free people.
When Hayek noted “There are strong reasons for believing that what to us appear the worst features of totalitarian systems are not accidental byproducts but phenomena which totalitarianism is certain to sooner or later produce”, he was not promoting Christianity. He was identifying the evil that is always created through the imposition of a state morality. His was a logical deduction based on observations taken in the middle of the horror of Germany’s experiment in the evils of national socialism.
History proves that in the modern world, classical liberalism combined with Christian tenets seem to be to be the best (and perhaps only) defense against these evils.
The great news is that living by Judeo-Christian tenets is a simple and individual choice. It’s the easiest thing to do.
Problem #2: The Global left’s war on capitalism.
Let’s look at something even the left in blue cities finally acknowledge is a major issue: illegal immigration and the subsequent pressure it puts on the socialistic welfare state they created to placate the poor and buy their votes.
They blame border state governors, rather than the federal government (although even the idiot governor of Arizona is finally squealing). The problem I see is they are not squealing for the federal government to secure the border; they want more taxpayer money to throw at illegal immigrants (correct legal term). They’ve either never heard of the Cloward-Piven strategy, or they have heard and think it is a good idea.
It is not a good idea.
Illegals come because they can get free stuff they can’t get in their home country – and the more free stuff they get, the more will come. Pavlov and his dogs prove that theory, but where the flow of illegal immigrants is potentially infinite, the supply of taxpayer money is not. In the words of Herb Stein, head of Nixon’s Council of Economic Advisors, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” It can either be stopped by choice, or it can be stopped by a collapse. Milton Friedman correctly stated that we can have a massive welfare state or open borders, we cannot have both.
I don’t know how many people, some supposedly educated, claim the real villain is capitalism, alleging American capitalism has damaged countries from China and Africa to pretty much any other county in the Western Hemisphere.
That is wrong.
The illegal alien (again, correct legal term) invasion (also a correct term) and its aftermath was not created by capitalism; as a matter of fact, most illegals are coming from communist/collectivist or authoritarian states.
What this invasion is, is a stark reminder of the conditions that capitalism has allowed centuries of mankind to escape.
I am not against immigration. I am against illegal immigration – the two are not the same. We should encourage people to come to the USA. We should be inviting to people who desire to become something unique in the world – American; however, we should be judicious in our selection process as is our right to protect our sovereignty.
Simply ignoring the law, as the current administration is doing and many prior administrations have done, is no answer and doing so is not benign. As I have noted, de jure sovereignty without de facto sovereignty is a recipe for no sovereignty at all and perpetuates the destruction of the rule of law. The solution is simple - secure the borders, enforce the law (change it if deemed necessary) and end this travesty. Every bit of the power to do this is in the hands of the federal government.
So, I will end this lengthy diatribe with something I wrote in 2011, a simple ask on this Christmas Eve, and that is to:
“… approach the holidays with a child-like wonder, forgetting for at least 24 hours the cynicism that is so rampant in the modern world…believe that the world can be better, that there really is magic in the world, that we ALL can be better. I don’t ask that you believe in God or Christ the way that I do, I just ask that you believe in Santa for one day. I realize that to some of you he is just another fat white guy in a beard promoting the consumerism mantra of no money down, $50 a month – but give it a chance. Forget modern Santa and see the Victorian Father Christmas of Clement Moore, the Father Christmas that existed before magic became the property of Hollywood, X-Box 360 and the PS3, the Father Christmas of a time when a simple orange was a gift to be celebrated, not something that you forgot to pick up at the grocery store in this modern age of plenty.”
I believe people can do these two simple things – and that is why, even though I tend to live in the dark, I can still see the light of hope in the distance. It brightens and dims, but it never goes out.
Isaiah 9:2-7
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 [a]The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.
3 You have multiplied exultation;[b]
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as people exult when dividing plunder.
4 For the yoke of their burden
and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5 For all the boots of the tramping warriors
and all the garments rolled in blood
shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders,
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Great will be his authority,[c]
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this
Michael - please put on FB the last paragraph of how to approach the holidays. I think that is what we need to hear today. Merry Christmas.