10-5-20<\/p>\n
How many of our mothers tried to teach us about wise choices with that time-tested question: \u201cI suppose if so-and-so jumped off a bridge, you would too?\u201d Remember?<\/p>\n
Well, either a lot of Americans don\u2019t remember, or they are quite happy these days to follow every so-and-so and jump off bridges.<\/p>\n
The bridge-jumpers are either self-destructive at heart, or somehow happily survive the dares and the leaps. The so-and-sos go beyond those who commit vandalism and rioting in the streets, even when as serious as arson and murder, heinous as those acts are. More consequential is the fact<\/em> that these things have become normalized.<\/p>\n It is not so much the graffiti and burning of churches\u2026 but that few pastors and priests condemn the acts.<\/p>\n It is not so much the destruction of statues and looting of shops\u2026 but the fact that those acts go virtually unpunished.<\/p>\n It is not so much the occupation of police departments and hundreds of fires\u2026 but that officials excuse (and thereby encourage) such activities.<\/p>\n Since Antifa \u201cis not an organization, but an idea,\u201d according to a major presidential candidate, aspiring leaders virtually admit that there is no manner of countering anarchy, otherwise than gradual surrender. In the American civilization, this is not temporary insanity; it is a suicidal tendency.<\/p>\n Returning to our moms\u2019 finger-wagging lecture \u2013 it was not a rhetorical question. Yes, the rioters jump off bridges. And, no matter how large or small a percentage they are of the population, America has started jumping off too. Many think they would not; but our society is doing so.<\/p>\n The secularized culture has not substituted new standards for traditional standards. It has substituted NO standards. The concept of standards \u2013 right and wrong; codes of conduct; Absolute Truth \u2013 is anathema. Unacceptable. Unfair. Fascistic. So we are told.<\/p>\n Seen in that light, the black-hooded army can operate as it pleases, and so can we\u2026 unless we object, or are harmed by, their operations. How can there be right or wrong, when you deny any value-system of standards\u2026 except by the imposition of their opinions? Lo and behold, we are face-to-face with the totalitarian impulse they claim to hate.<\/p>\n Very much like as in the French Revolution, when the bloodthirsty street-roaming rioters wanted to abolish even calendars and ways of telling time \u2013 not only killing middle-class people and gutting churches \u2013 the anarchists will be crushed between the really serious totalitarians from above, and the traditionalists and religious classes from below. That is in the future, surely. Sadly, but surely, to come.<\/p>\n The road to \u201cNo Standards\u201d has been gradual, but the changing of opinions (once called Hypocrisy) in fact has been resolute. Views of abortion is one instance.<\/p>\n Respect for human life has been a mantra, as never before in political discourse, for several generations, beginning especially in the aftermath of World War II and the United Nations\u2019 Declaration of Human Rights. It has been underpinning the work of many nations, many organizations, many activists. Or… it has been the window-dressing.<\/p>\n When abortion became a sub-set of convenience, and as Christianity and religion in general was scrubbed from society\u2019s standard operating procedures, the relevance of someone\u2019s conscience became something akin to arrogant bigotry.<\/p>\n Many societies throughout history have exercised child sacrifice and practiced infanticide. On the path to contemporary peoples\u2019 destination of No Standards are road signs labeled \u201cConvenience,\u201d \u201cPrivacy,\u201d and the new mantra, \u201cRights.\u201d<\/p>\n Rights, of course, except for the baby. Many women (and, by the way, the legal system) regard as irrelevant the fact that men too can have anguish and bitter regrets over abortions. They have obligations when their babies are carried to term, but no role if their babies are murdered before birth.<\/p>\n \u201cMurder\u201d is a harsh term \u2013 but less so, for instance to those who currently are wishing that President Trump and his family die (a tsunami on Facebook); or that police must be murdered; or, in gated Hollywood mansions, where they make fortunes by producing movies and TV shows featuring unrelenting violence. So \u201cmurder\u201d is a malleable term, too \u2013 another case of Standards melting into No Standards. Whatever is right for them is\u2026 right for them.<\/p>\n Life is tough. Women who want to recast their biological realities are rescued by a culture whose lack of standards offers them the drugs or forgiveness and acceptance. Suddenly the culture wants us to play football without rules, yard-markers, or goalposts. Like changing the definitions of test scores so idiots can feel like geniuses; or awarding sports trophies for every participant \u2013 life might be tough, but is being made easier.<\/p>\n In America 2020, however, easier is getting harder every day.<\/p>\n There is no escaping the fact<\/em> that God wrote the Ten Commandments. Not the Ten Suggestions.<\/p>\n The platforms of political parties\u2026 the pronouncements of cable-news pundits\u2026 the preaching of liberal pastors and priests\u2026 mean Absolutely nothing to the God of the Universe.<\/p>\n God\u2019s standards do not depend on our own standards, nor lack of them. And surely He does not wait upon our opinion of His standards.<\/p>\n