Mad World

There are few things that drive me to prayer more than the current state of affairs that we as a society have found ourselves. For many people in Western society the words of Friedrich Nietzsche proclaiming God to be dead ring true. Unfortunately for Nietzsche he heralded the wrong person's death. God, is still very much alive and well but there is another who has died and he goes by the name of Common Sense. 

It is nearly impossible to turn on the news, open up Yahoo, or go anywhere without seeing or hearing about the complete state of madness our society is in. I am not saying that we should all read the Four Blood Moons or that we should be listening with intent for trumpets sounding (although we should always be prepared for the immanent return of the Christ Jesus). I have always taken issue with the belief that the book of revelation was for the 21st century United States, and with the belief that we are somehow culturally worse off than the Greeks, Romans, and Babylonians. I do however believe that we are witnessing a distressing time in our culture, and  the decisions that are being made today will alter the course of our future in ways that I do not believe will play out well.

Popular culture has been infected with a philosophy of progressivism, post modernism, and atheism that have produced a deadly cocktail, which has poisoned Common Sense and laid him to rest in the grave that Nietzsche meant to bury God. There are other harmful side effects to this cocktail that is being dished out by academia and politicians on both sides of the aisle. One side effect in particular being double minded. This double-mindedness causes, hypocrisy, and insanity. One of the most saddening things about this hybrid philosophy that is being shoved down the throats of every one in our culture is that it manipulates the mind into believing that everyone believes this way. This could not be further from the truth. One statistic which proves this is that in a recent poll Americans were asked what percent of the world's population they believed to be LGBT, the answer 20-25% when in reality at it's lowest it is only about 1.5% to at the highest 8%. I am not taking a swipe at the LGBT community but what I am doing is trying to show just how deceiving those pushing this philosophy have actually become.

The hypocrisies of those who further this twisted agenda are increasingly blatant and unbearable. If you agree with them you are open minded and praised, if you have a different opinion your mind is closed and are lambasted as a bigot and attacked. If you are for lower taxes and limited government, that some how makes you a racist and hate minorities. They claim that there are no absolutes and they are absolutely sure of this. They claim that there is no truth, and that this is a true story. In an attempt to never be told they are wrong, they have embraced relativism They claim that there is no race and we are all equal, but are continually divisive in the areas of race. They preach truth and love, but are responsible for violent protests and praise extremists. They view all religions as equals unless it is Christianity. They shamed Micheal Jackson for turning himself white, but applaud an ex NAACP president for being white and wanting to be an African American. Sex is held in little regard, yet they want severe punishment for rapists (which I don't disagree with but I find sex to be sacred). They claim that they are for the rights of women, homosexuals, christians (in their weird twisted way), and those of other faiths, all the while they conspire and make dealings with countries in which these people are gunned down, thrown off of buildings, and crucified. They have built their foundation upon the ever shifting sands of the Sciences. Proclaim that doing whatever makes you happy is to be applauded and the ultimate good unless that which makes you happy is murder or rape. They claim to hate slavery, yet enslave the less fortunate to their social welfare programs... The list unfortunately could go on and on.

No one thinks anymore. Everyone has a philosophy yet they refuse to consider what their philosophy entails. Everyone hates being challenged about their worldview because they have not challenged it themselves. When will the madness stop? When will people truly become open minded, when will people truly question everything? The only things that are being questioned in the 21st century are traditions and the past, yet we somehow forget to put all of our progress and "enlightened" ideals under the same microscope.

Skin Deep

Due to a culmination of tragic events the issue of race has been raised now in our country over these last several months. Race is a great thing that should be talked about, unfortunately there are far to many people who wish to use this issue in order to achieve goals politically. Perhaps what is even more disheartening than the exploitation of race is the fact that so many people of all colors and creed fall into the trap of being herded into separate pins like sheep. Sheep, is that what we have become as western citizens? Black sheep, white sheep, brown sheep, red sheep, yellow sheep, never thinking for ourselves and allowing the wolves and false shepherds place us all into separate groups and lead us blindly and dare I say willingly into the slaughterhouse.

I would say that my political leanings would make me a liberty minded conservative. That is one who believes that everyone should have equal rights, and that progress is not a good thing if it seeks to undermine age old institutions that have helped shape this country into what it was. Contrary to popular belief conservatism and racism are not two sides of the same coin. As far as the media and the left would have you believe this should not be the case. To them I should hate them, wave my confederate and neo-Nazi flags high, and yell racial slurs in the face of anyone who's skin is a different shade. Unfortunately for them the one thing that they believe should make me racist is the one thing that keeps me from it. My Judeo-Christian values and worldview are in reality diametrically opposed to everything that they would have you believe about me. Now those on the left, who are so much more intellectual, and far more brilliant to those dumb, dim-witted, ignorant, and bigoted Conservatives have every reason to BE racist. Something that they don't tell you is that their great champion of evolution (the man who even in his later life questioned his own theory) Charles Darwin titled his book originally "On the Origin of Species, by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle of Life." How ironic is it that the "bible" if you will, of the secular humanists should beget such an idea as favored races, yet the Bible begets the idea that all men and women are created equally. Perhaps this is why so many on the left are constantly stoking the race fire, blaming it on the conservatives and Christians. They need a scape-goat and we standing around twiddling our thumbs were the perfect candidates.

I very recently was writing a paper on abortion, and do you know what I discovered? The founder of planned parenthood was not some great champion of women's rights. Margaret Sanger was vehemently racist and believed that through abortion that she would be able to eventually kill off the African American race. A woman who has been canonized as a saint in the eyes of the progressives and those who are so open minded sought to systematically end the African American culture through abortions. Why is it that this woman is praised yet the founders of our country are so detested? Yes, it is true that many of our founders had their short comings, and no I am not saying that the ends justify the means, but we cannot continue throw the baby out with the bathwater. (Well, if you are pro-choice at least not before they have exited the womb.)

Some may ask if conservatives are not racist then why are they so against immigration? How asinine of a perception is this? The fact that I believe people of other countries should seek citizenship and gain entrance to this country legally through the system that we currently have does not make me a racist! I don't care if you are an Anglo from England, if you want to become a citizen do it the right way. How anyone can come to the conclusion that everyone has some sort of right to become an American citizen is beyond me! And heaven forbid if you do become a citizen that we ask you to assimilate to our society, God knows other countries would never ask us to do such a thing.

The issue of race has become a tool used by the progressive left as a way to be divisive, cause friction, and make racism look like a nation wide issue instead of identifying where it actually lies, on the fringes of our society. My generation, the one so many have "fondly" named the Millinials that sends shudders down the spines of our for fathers is quite possibly the best anti-thesis to this assumption that claims racism is still a deep running issue in our culture. Two of my closest friends are of different race one is a Native American, one is African American, I have Hispanic and Asian friends and family. My generation, I believe, is the first generation taught not to judge people by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. The dream that Martin Luther King had for this country over half a century ago was birthed in the children of the 90's. Race has never been something at least for myself that I have ever questioned in another person. I spent two months in Africa serving the Kenyan people and I felt nothing but love for them, as my brothers and sisters.

Another issue that has arisen lately deals with the Confederate flag. Should the Confederate flag be flown over statehouses or even at all other than for historical reasons? I don't know, should we fly the flags of other countries who were enemies to the united states, make that flag into bumper stickers, etc.? My answer to this is probably not, but do people have the constitutional right to do so? Yes, right or wrong they have the right to do so. Being from the south it has been my experience that the Confederate flag is mostly (key word mostly) not used as a way to promote racism but as a way to celebrate Southern Agrarian culture. It seems to be that many forget that the main reasons Civil War was fought was not over the issue of slavery. As a matter of fact some of the cruelest slave owners of the south, a group of people who made up over 1/3 of slave owners, were freed slaves! It would be easy to say that being from the south that my family probably owned slaves. In reality this is not the case, I am a descendant of cajun share croppers who worked side by side with slaves and were treated just as poorly. Something I have never understood is how slavery is an issue of race, the ancient Romans had slaves that had the same color of skin, slavery still continues today and the most prized possession of these slave traffickers today are young anglo American girls.

Now the symbol of the fleur-de-lis is being called into question because in Louisiana sometimes slaves were marked with that symbol. Based on this logic should be ban the star of David because the Jews were marked with it by the Nazis? Should we ban our number system and find a new one since slaves were marked by numbers? Perhaps we should even just close off the Southern States and have everyone move North because the south was the home of the Confederacy? Maybe we should ban the English language because that is what the evil white oppressors spoke,
and make everyone learn and speak Swahili? When will the madness stop?

If we as Americans want the issue of racism to die then we need to do just that and let it! We cannot continue to live our lives as sheep people; believing everything that the politicians and media tell us we are supposed to believe. It is time we shrug off the burdens of the past and approach the world unencumbered by prejudice. It is time that we refuse to be sheep and think for ourselves. If we are to separate ourselves by race then let us join together in celebration our differences in culture and beliefs, and not let these differences be reasons to segregate ourselves from one another. Martin Luther King and others like him sacrificed far to much for us to continue on like this. Jesus Christ died on the cross so that everyone would now be placed on a level playing field, further edifying the truth that God created all men equally. Not equally in that we have no differences because we do, but equally in that we are all marked by His image. Slavery was an ugly part of our past, but it is time we stare it in the face and move on as Americans and members of the human race.