The Liberal’s Bane: The Rise Of Faith
On the heels of the Terri Schiavo case, the death of John Paul II, and the installation of Benedict XVI, the liberals have dug in, and begun another assault on our faith and values. Hat-tip to Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit for catching this enlightening piece written by Michael Barone.
http://www.instapundit.com/
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-4_25_05_MB.html (I have excerpts below, but I highly recommend that the entire piece be read.)
Faith in Our Future?
By Michael Barone
If you read the headlines, you run the risk of thinking we are headed toward a theocracy.
Alarmists note that George W. Bush invokes his religious faith in many speeches and that his positions on abortion, embryonic-stem-cell research and faith-based charities are informed by it. They decry the law Congress passed to provide federal judicial review in the Terri Schiavo case. Vocal American Catholics bewail the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI.
This is precisely how the Left is reacting over faith in general. They had no problem with Pres. Clinton invoking "God" every time the fancy struck him. The attack on Congress over the Schiavo case is unwarranted, as the Clinton administration completely skipped that step in the Elian Gonzales case, and bypassed the courts, as well. And "American Catholics" can whine about Benedict XVI all they want, but the Roman Catholics (I am one, TY) appreciate the fact that the cardinals did stick to the conservative ideals that John Paul II brought back to the Church after being ravaged by the secular side of America since Vatican II.
Blogger Andrew Sullivan called it "a full-scale assault" on liberal Catholics. One of his correspondents called the new pope "this headstrong, self-assured, anti-democratic and egotistical little man." We all look abroad at the violence done by Islamist fanatics and wonder, without any clear way of being sure, how far such doctrines have taken hold among the world's 1.2 billion Muslims. We note, more reassuringly but perhaps with some wariness, that most Iraqi voters seem to have followed the lead of the country's most powerful cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani.
Andrew Sullivan is a good blogger, but he is extremely misguided and clearly uninformed. There is no assault on "liberal Catholics". The Church—the same one that has stood for over 2000 years—does not pick and choose what it believes and disbelieves. What we believe is set in the Bible; it is the Word of God to us. There is no gray area. And I cannot believe that some on the Left are equating the elevation of Ratzinger to Pope to the Islamo-fascists that have perpetuated the problems of the Middle East. I, for one, like Ali Sistani. He is a moderate that denounces the extremist translation of the Koran that the radicals embrace.
But whether the United States is on its way to becoming a theocracy is actually a silly question. No religion is going to impose laws on an unwilling Congress or the people of this country. And we have long lived comfortably with a few trappings of religion in the public space, such as "In God We Trust" or "God save this honorable court."The real question is whether strong religious belief is on the rise in America and the world. Fifty years ago, secular liberals were confident that education, urbanization and science would lead people to renounce religion. That seems to have happened, if you confine your gaze to Europe, Canada and American university faculty clubs. But this movement has not been as benign as expected: The secular faiths of fascism and communism destroyed millions of lives before they were extinguished.
This is the part that hits home. The liberals, with all their secular beliefs, were hoping that the doubt they could perpetuate would lead others away from their chosen churches. What those people forgot is that while many may have had gripes about their churches—Catholics among them over Vatican II—that FAITH is all they needed. And it is a concept that they have maintained. And the final line of the paragraph says it all. The "faiths" that the Left embraced were some of the most brutal and repressive ideologies ever let loose on the face of the planet. God does not believe in oppression.
The "faith" the Left believes in is one that does not hold true to the concept of morals. For them, there is no right and no wrong. There is only what is, and what feels good. They have reduced "religion" down to the whims of man rather than the Word and Law of God, or whatever deity one chooses. When one reaches the point that they believe they have far greater wisdom than God, a problem occurs.
That problem is simple. In the end, who does one answer to? If there is no overall judgment, if there are no overall morals, then society, as whole, can no longer hold itself together. The secularism of the Left is a prime example. They want God stricken from the public forums, they want child pornographers to have their practices protected under "freedom of speech", we will do anything and everything to keep a truly evil person alive—murderers, rapists, child molesters—yet we stand idly by as an average of 1.3 million babies are killed every year in the US through abortion.
Their secularism is what has destroyed the moral fabric of America. But a funny thing happened in the latter part of the 20th Century. America—mainstream, mom-and-pop America—refused to embrace it. They stuck to their guns, taught values and morals at home, and now that generation is coming out. Many may have embraced secularism, but the great majority have not. They believe in God, they respect God, and they follow His laws the best they can. (We are only human) And that is something that scares the Left even more. They assaulted religion and faith for so long, and they failed to sway the nation.
They cannot sway America to their ideology. They cannot pull them from the pews and the pulpits. The averages for promiscuous sex have gone down, especially among teens, in the last few years. In the late nineties, family values rose again; most of that coming on the heels of having one of the most dishonest presidents in this nation’s history spit all over the values that made this nation great. Those values are alive and well today, and in good hands.
The Bunny ;)
On the heels of the Terri Schiavo case, the death of John Paul II, and the installation of Benedict XVI, the liberals have dug in, and begun another assault on our faith and values. Hat-tip to Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit for catching this enlightening piece written by Michael Barone.
http://www.instapundit.com/
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-4_25_05_MB.html (I have excerpts below, but I highly recommend that the entire piece be read.)
Faith in Our Future?
By Michael Barone
If you read the headlines, you run the risk of thinking we are headed toward a theocracy.
Alarmists note that George W. Bush invokes his religious faith in many speeches and that his positions on abortion, embryonic-stem-cell research and faith-based charities are informed by it. They decry the law Congress passed to provide federal judicial review in the Terri Schiavo case. Vocal American Catholics bewail the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI.
This is precisely how the Left is reacting over faith in general. They had no problem with Pres. Clinton invoking "God" every time the fancy struck him. The attack on Congress over the Schiavo case is unwarranted, as the Clinton administration completely skipped that step in the Elian Gonzales case, and bypassed the courts, as well. And "American Catholics" can whine about Benedict XVI all they want, but the Roman Catholics (I am one, TY) appreciate the fact that the cardinals did stick to the conservative ideals that John Paul II brought back to the Church after being ravaged by the secular side of America since Vatican II.
Blogger Andrew Sullivan called it "a full-scale assault" on liberal Catholics. One of his correspondents called the new pope "this headstrong, self-assured, anti-democratic and egotistical little man." We all look abroad at the violence done by Islamist fanatics and wonder, without any clear way of being sure, how far such doctrines have taken hold among the world's 1.2 billion Muslims. We note, more reassuringly but perhaps with some wariness, that most Iraqi voters seem to have followed the lead of the country's most powerful cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani.
Andrew Sullivan is a good blogger, but he is extremely misguided and clearly uninformed. There is no assault on "liberal Catholics". The Church—the same one that has stood for over 2000 years—does not pick and choose what it believes and disbelieves. What we believe is set in the Bible; it is the Word of God to us. There is no gray area. And I cannot believe that some on the Left are equating the elevation of Ratzinger to Pope to the Islamo-fascists that have perpetuated the problems of the Middle East. I, for one, like Ali Sistani. He is a moderate that denounces the extremist translation of the Koran that the radicals embrace.
But whether the United States is on its way to becoming a theocracy is actually a silly question. No religion is going to impose laws on an unwilling Congress or the people of this country. And we have long lived comfortably with a few trappings of religion in the public space, such as "In God We Trust" or "God save this honorable court."The real question is whether strong religious belief is on the rise in America and the world. Fifty years ago, secular liberals were confident that education, urbanization and science would lead people to renounce religion. That seems to have happened, if you confine your gaze to Europe, Canada and American university faculty clubs. But this movement has not been as benign as expected: The secular faiths of fascism and communism destroyed millions of lives before they were extinguished.
This is the part that hits home. The liberals, with all their secular beliefs, were hoping that the doubt they could perpetuate would lead others away from their chosen churches. What those people forgot is that while many may have had gripes about their churches—Catholics among them over Vatican II—that FAITH is all they needed. And it is a concept that they have maintained. And the final line of the paragraph says it all. The "faiths" that the Left embraced were some of the most brutal and repressive ideologies ever let loose on the face of the planet. God does not believe in oppression.
The "faith" the Left believes in is one that does not hold true to the concept of morals. For them, there is no right and no wrong. There is only what is, and what feels good. They have reduced "religion" down to the whims of man rather than the Word and Law of God, or whatever deity one chooses. When one reaches the point that they believe they have far greater wisdom than God, a problem occurs.
That problem is simple. In the end, who does one answer to? If there is no overall judgment, if there are no overall morals, then society, as whole, can no longer hold itself together. The secularism of the Left is a prime example. They want God stricken from the public forums, they want child pornographers to have their practices protected under "freedom of speech", we will do anything and everything to keep a truly evil person alive—murderers, rapists, child molesters—yet we stand idly by as an average of 1.3 million babies are killed every year in the US through abortion.
Their secularism is what has destroyed the moral fabric of America. But a funny thing happened in the latter part of the 20th Century. America—mainstream, mom-and-pop America—refused to embrace it. They stuck to their guns, taught values and morals at home, and now that generation is coming out. Many may have embraced secularism, but the great majority have not. They believe in God, they respect God, and they follow His laws the best they can. (We are only human) And that is something that scares the Left even more. They assaulted religion and faith for so long, and they failed to sway the nation.
They cannot sway America to their ideology. They cannot pull them from the pews and the pulpits. The averages for promiscuous sex have gone down, especially among teens, in the last few years. In the late nineties, family values rose again; most of that coming on the heels of having one of the most dishonest presidents in this nation’s history spit all over the values that made this nation great. Those values are alive and well today, and in good hands.
The Bunny ;)
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 11:59 AM
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