I wrote in a post yesterday, “In The Year 3010”, that it would largely be economics that destroyed the United States. There is no question that this country, given the wastefulness of Congress and its contempt for intelligent economic laws, is headed for a day of reckoning that will not be pretty. One cannot live forever on a credit card; that is as true for a country as for an individual. The welfare policies which were mostly put in place under the administrations of Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and now Barack Obama are simply unsustainable. Not even the American economic machine, the greatest the world has ever seen, can prop up these redistributionist policies forever.
But, as vital as economics are, that’s not what is going to sink this country. America will fall because its foundation is being destroyed. Every successful society in history has been built upon some strong foundation—a culture, customs, traditions that are agreed upon by the people of that society, that unite those people, that indeed make them a people in that society, a cohesive whole that distinguishes them from every other civilization in history. Greece was not Rome was not China was not Japan was not native America. And what made those communities and nations unique were those values and norms that everyone within that community accepted—a foundation that, when it crumbled and cracked, led to disintegration. When the Sophist philosophers attacked the gods and traditions of Athenian democracy, traditions that had been the foundation of Athenian society and bound the city’s people together for generations, Athens slipped from its golden age to being a third-rate Greek city-state, indeed, easily conquered (as was all of Greece) by Philip of Macedon and his more famous son, Alexander. Rome was not built in a day, but underlying that growth was a cornerstone of stoic virtue and family strength, both of which were deserted in the later empire; thus, Rome became an easy victim for the barbarian hordes who conquered her. No, the Greeks and the Romans were far from perfect. My point here is that “Greece” and “Rome” meant something—cultures, traditions, customs, mores, ideas that were agreed upon with near universality by their peoples. A foundation that made Rome and Greece what they were. And when that foundation was attacked and destroyed, down came those great ancient powers.
The United States of America was built on the foundation of Christian principles; a single quote to confirm this will suffice for this article. Alexis de Tocqueville, the brilliant Frenchmen who visited the United States in the 1830s, wrote, “I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion—for who can know the human heart?—but I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable for the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion…belongs to the whole rank of society.” Americans became and were Americans because of common values, customs, beliefs, mores, and these were largely founded upon the Christian religion. “E pluribus unum”—out of many, one. If a country expects to survive, its people must be united by…something. And the more that unites them, the stronger they will be and the longer they will exist. The more that divides them, the less the chance for long-term stability and survival. “Diversity”—division—has never led to successful national continuance. Indeed, where found, it has nearly always been a factor in society disintegration. It is no accident the among the longest lasting nations/empires in history are the Egyptians, Chinese, and Japanese—perhaps the most homogeneous states that ever existed.
The Christian foundations of this society have been under attack by the “intelligentsia,” the “progressive” left for at least a generation now; the 1960s is largely when it began. And the United States has been fracturing ever since. The leftist intellectual is doing everything he can to undermine belief in Christianity, much like the Sophists of ancient Greece seemed determined to destroy faith in their gods. The problem is, if you destroy the foundation, you better replace it with something else very quickly or the whole structure will fatally collapse. Destroy the foundations of a building, and what will happen to that building?
It’s easy to tear down; it’s hard to build. “Progressives” have offered us nothing as a substitute foundation for the Christianity they abhor and want to obliterate. Ethical relativism, the “morality” of the modern left, is no foundation; it’s nothing but a shifting sand of change and variation upon which nothing can be built. How can a society have unity under a doctrine of “every man does that which is right in his own eyes”? Yes, the “progressive” would love for us to listen to him, to let him guide and direct us, to give him control over our lives and moral code, but I’m sorry, buddy, why should I listen to you? What makes your moral code any better than mine? By definition, there is nothing permanent about relativism, and that’s all the modern liberal has to offer. Like a disease, they slowly destroy, and they are indeed destroying, and the economic malaise in our country is only one symptom—a country where people think they are “entitled” to other people’s money, and politicians who, with no qualms of conscience at all, steal through taxation the hard-earned wealth of some to “share” it with others…and the fact that so many people never think anything of it or consider it in the least bit improper…this is a lucid illustration of the success liberalism has had in destroying the Christian foundation of this nation. For, while Christianity certainly teaches concern for and charity to the poor, it does not teach that it is to be done through governmental force. That’s secular intellectual doctrine, Marx’s, Obama’s, not Christ’s.
But this country today is horribly, horribly divided. And it is so because of the left’s unrelenting attacks on Christianity and the foundation principles of this country. There are an awful lot of people who still believe in the latter and they are fighting back. But, “every city or house divided against itself will not stand” (Matthew 12:25).
And, indeed, “if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3).
I do not have the answer to that question. For if “progressivism” offers redistribution of wealth, victimhood, and the pleasures of a debauchery with no consequences, while Christianity means hard work, personal responsibility, and a self-controlled morality that understands that actions have consequences….who do you think is going to win?
But which one built the country? And which one is destroying it?