(This article will deal with matters of religious faith, so if you’re not into that, you might want to skip it.)
Fellow author and Christian John C. Wright has penned a magnificent essay, one of the best I’ve ever read about our modern world and the society in which we live. It’s Christian in focus, but I think it also contains general wisdom that even those without religious faith can recognize. He titled it “The Empire of Lies“. Here’s an excerpt.
No-fault divorce, and the corruption of manners, abandoned women to a sexual free-for-all, with obvious and expected results: see the rates of self-mutilation and suicide among women.
Sodomy is legal, and sodomite union is honored and celebrated not just as equal to matrimony, but granted privileges clearly superior: no homosexual baker fears to refuse to make a cake for a normal couple.
The ancient horror of killing unwanted infants, the practices of Carthaginians honoring Moloch, or the Spartans tossing stunted or crippled babes into the pit of Apothetae, has not only returned in a greater number and more grisly form, it has been honored as a legal right and sacred rite.
And horrors never practiced even in the darkest years of even the cruelest excesses of Aztec or Babylonian are currently promoted as necessary medical and psychological practice, namely, the castration and sexual mutilation of children, and drugging them with hormones to hinder adolescent development permanently.
All this is done in service of a vision of the self-anointed visionaries. At one time, it was done in the name of a coming Utopia, albeit that rhetoric has trailed off into awkward silence in my lifetime.
Now all this is done in the name of nothing and no one, for no clear purpose. Anarchic riots are funded and organized by proponents of totalitarianism; totalitarian thought-policing is done by private companies in the name of safety; socialism is promoted by plutocrats; racism is denounced by racists enacting racist policies in the name of anti-racism; atheists fund and applaud jihadist terrorism; and on and on.
Each policy or group promoted by the vision of the blind is contradicted by another. The riddle has a simple answer: the alliance of dogmatic relativists, anarchist totalitarians, socialist plutocrats, and atheist jihadists springs out of their mutual hatred of Christ, of Christendom, of the Western civilization in general, and America in particular.
This blind vision has no name, for to name it is to banish it, but it is nihilist in philosophy, subjectivist in ethics, socialist in economics, collectivist in law, totalitarian in politics. In theology, it is the summation and sublimation off all prior heresies distilled and combined into one. It is hence the total rejection of Creator and of all creation, hence of all things true and beautiful and good.
There’s much more at the link, and all of it is well worth reading.
Eighteenth-century poet Alexander Pope famously wrote, “The proper study of mankind is man“. However, he did so within the context of a Christian faith that had informed and given structure to every legal code in Europe, and was an accepted norm in his society. Today, where Christianity is under siege by secularism – so much so that ours has been called a post-Christian society – that structure has vanished. There is no conception of any authority or wisdom higher than humankind. That leaves moral and ethical development to bog down in a morass of competing human philosophies, emotions and feelings that pay little, if any, attention to the great philosophies of life developed over millennia by our forefathers.
In losing that structure, that history and tradition and evolved wisdom, I fear – like Mr. Wright – that we’ve lost our way. If we have no primary claim on our loyalty, morally or in any other way, then we are adrift on a human sea at the mercy of the prevailing societal winds. There is no star to steer by, no rudder to guide our course. Any moral or ethical norm is as good as any other, because there’s no overriding yardstick against which to measure it.
And, I suppose, that’s just what the secular humanists want, those in charge of our society at present. With nothing to guide them except what they believe or desire, with no constraints on what they do or how they do it, they can (and will) do as they please. Far too many people follow that example. How many parents still set standards for their children, and raise them to observe those standards? Too many simply shrug their shoulders and abdicate the moral formation of their children to schools and churches – almost all of which have also been overtaken by secular humanist ideas, and are no longer sound institutions at root. Is it any wonder that our youth turn to hedonism and self-indulgence? “If it feels good, do it” was a rebellious mantra of the ’60’s, but it’s now the unspoken assumption that appears to guide the majority of society.
Indeed, anyone wishing to live a Christian lifestyle is now regarded with suspicion by many of the organs and structures of society. Often, they will face official and commercial oppression. For example:
- A Christian Colorado baker is fighting yet another lawsuit after being sued by the State and private individuals for applying Christian standards to his business.
- The bank account of a Christian religious freedom organization is closed without any reason being given, and the bank demands details of their donors and political positions before it will consider reopening the account.
- The US armed forces routinely reject religious accommodation requests from Christians concerning COVID-19 vaccination.
There are many other such incidents that one could cite, but for reasons of space I’ll just mention those three.
I agree with Mr. Wright. We are living in an empire of lies. That makes it even more important that we take a stand for the truth in which we believe. Yes, it will cost us to do so – but Christ warned us about that. We should expect nothing less.
Peter
The founder and the current leadership of Amazon is decidedly anti-Christian and anti-God.
In this context, is it acceptable to do business with them?
We all know that Google enabled genocide in western China, and massive repression of freedoms everywhere with social scoring.
Does anyone care? Do you know anyone who gave up using Google?
This random article by somedood is nice, like the thousands of similar articles since the Obama days, but ultimately, no one cares.
@bravokilo: the penetration of Google and Amazon into the very depths of the internet make not using their products nearly impossible.
This really stood out: "…take a stand for the truth in which we believe." Whether we believe it or not, it is Truth. Amazing how "my truth" and "your truth" worm their way into our thinking. This world is insidious. Jesus IS the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
My complete lack of religious faith does not in any way diminish the truth of what you and Mr. Wright have written.
And my lack of belief in Moloch does not imply that our ruling class does not believe.
Evil comes in many flavors, which theology may attempt to explain and to warn us against. Ultimately, we must be alert to any manner of evil, foretold or not. I don't really care if it's Satan, the Eddorians, the Shadows, or just a bunch of hubris-afflicted transnational fratboys pulling the strings; spotting and calling out the evil, and taking a stand for the values of Civilization, are imperative.
"This random article by somedood is nice, like the thousands of similar articles since the Obama days, but ultimately, no one cares."
To destroy is easy to build up takes prolonged effort and common goals shared by men in good faith.
One man can destroy much but to rebuild requires many men to work together.
Some folks have never read the Declaration of Independence
It starts with:
WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
And after describing item by item the injustices inflicted upon the colonies by the King it ends with this:
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
If you have no ethical anchor in your life, how can you even develop a sacred honor?
Also, a quote “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” and it was said by Friedrich Nietzsche.
The meaning of the “When you stare into the abyss” quote is that when you spend too long dealing with harsh realities and tough circumstances, you eventually start thinking that way too.
Thus, the requirement of some sort of ethos beyond simple survival as to be able to sustain the efforts of building up something or someone.
So those that want to do more than simply destroy or hide and survive the monsters of today IT DOES MATTER.
"…From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it…."
This is a long post, with so much information that it is almost impossible to unpack it in a single comment. But I want to at least address the idea of doing business with companies like Amazon or Google et al, that are supporting things that we as Christians might find abhorrent. The thing that I always thought was the best way to look at this problem is to understand that I am responsible for what I do with my money, not for what others do with it.
So I, as a good steward of the money that God blesses me with, try to spend it getting the best value I can, with the company that gives me the best deal on what I buy.
If that company is just a typical public company, I am fine. However I also have to acknowledge that there are some companies that have extreme positions, overtly supporting positions that stand in opposition to Christian principles. In that case, then it is on my own conscience as to whether or not I can ignore that, or if I have to pass on them, and seek a more costly, but less "controversial", choice.
As an example, if a company was openly in support of abortion and you feel that abortion is totally against your Christian principles, then you might wish to withhold your financial support from that company, even knowing that your money would not have much of a tik on their bottom line. I use the abortion issue, with it being a hot button thing here in Michigan, and knowing that some Christians hold the position that it is acceptable as a choice for women. Myself, I disagree, but I could give some Bible verses that might lend support to the pro abortion position. Of course, I can make an extremely strong case that is against abortion, except to save the life of the mother.
One thing that I must add, and that is, as Christians we should not be surprised that attacks against us continue to ramp up, and even more, as some of us think that the end times continue to draw ever closer. And we should draw closer to the Lord, bringing our families with us, as we are encouraged to by the Bible.
but ultimately, no one cares.
That is what they want you to believe.
They wantyou to believe that you are alone, that no-one agrees with you, that no-one is even interested.
I agree with Peter.
Without something higher than ourselves, all sense of Right and Wrong devolves into arguments about utility. Costs and benefits.
How do you convince a Viking or an Arab slave trader that slavery is wrong. Not just inconvenient or economically ineffective at some level that does not concern him, but WRONG.?
Do we really want to base our condemnation of the Holocaust on arguments that the majority didn’t really benefit from killing off the minority?