1-18-21<\/p>\n
Can we imagine a day, or a time, when things will be \u201cback to normal\u201d?<\/p>\n
\u201cNormality\u201d has been the mantra of politicians and pundits, and the dream of friends and family, in this year of plagues, riots, political crises and much else. Warren Harding ran for president in 1920 \u2013 after a traumatic World War, an unprecedented influenza epidemic that killed more than our soldiers\u2019 death tolls, an economic crisis, and a raft of Communist and labor violence \u2013 his promise: \u201cA Return to Normalcy.\u201d<\/p>\n
America wanted reassurance, and even accepted invented words in pursuit. What America got, with Harding, was the Roaring Twenties with Prohibition, gangsters, an Administration riven by scandals, and the president\u2019s mysterious death.<\/p>\n
Meaning? We wish, and learn (not really) that wishes seldom come true. We pray, and expect God to check the boxes on our prayer list. God doesn\u2019t work like that, no matter how much we ignore history or God\u2019s ways.<\/p>\n
Of course my context here is the recent panorama of disruption in our national life. We have all been affected, and, uniquely, not one soul in a positive way. Yet to know what these crises will mean, what changes might come in our national life, requires \u201ctime and chance,\u201d which happeneth to all \u2013 a historical perspective. Rudyard Kipling wrote in his poem \u201cIF,\u201d \u2026 Meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same.<\/em><\/p>\n In Ecclesiastes we are told that \u201cthere is nothing new under the sun,\u201d and we humans need that reminder, because we tend to think that our problems are unique\u2026 that we are the first generation to face certain challenges\u2026 that old rules are irrelevant when we want to solve our new crises.<\/p>\n In II Corinthians 4:17-18 we have God\u2019s perspective on\u2026 perspective; Now vs Long-term. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.<\/em><\/p>\n I am not<\/em> dismissing the crisis of the old order, or the new order. I think we are at a deflection-point, and America\u2019s survival is in jeopardy. The continent will still be here; houses and highways and weddings and babies will never cease being a part of everyday life. But the United States might cease to be united; the government might govern differently.<\/p>\n The social fabric is ripping.<\/p>\n We here in this country can, and do, argue about taxes and rules, foreign policy and domestic justice. Our disputes sound important, and often are important. But far more important \u2013 more dispositive of who we are as a people \u2013 are questions of our national integrity. Our character. Our morality.<\/p>\n The visitor from France Alexis de Tocqueville \u201cgot it\u201d almost 200 years ago when he observed that \u201cAmerica will cease to be great when it ceases to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n In that regard, we recognize that there has not been a straight line in manners and morals over the millennia regarding monogamous marriage, infant sacrifice, slavery, the role of women, personal freedom and liberty, democracy, even monotheism until the Revealed God revealed Himself fully. \u201cProgress\u201d is defined by the codification of \u201chumane\u201d standards about such things.<\/p>\n Yet abortion is an act that mostly has been regarded through history as anathema at all times and in all places, by whole societies and by individual women. Its sanction, and its approval, have always been exceptions. Mostly it is regarded as something to be discouraged because of the implicit recognition that it is horrible, contrary to human impulses.<\/p>\n Until our generation.<\/p>\n We all know the arguments, many emotional and many persuasive, about the burdens of unplanned births. Many justifications for \u201cterminating a pregnancy\u201d \u2013 or \u201ckilling the baby,\u201d take your pick \u2013 are economic and social. But in history\u2019s richest and purportedly happiest culture, these reasons are hollow. Some years ago I interviewed Norma McCorvey, the \u201cRoe\u201d of Roe vs Wade, who had regretted her manipulation, reversed her views, and became a Christian. Pro-Life. Before she died, this victim of manipulation reportedly was contrite about her contrition, a one-woman tornado of contradictions.<\/p>\n Her testimony confirmed my views, but did not change them. That happened earlier; for a long time I was indifferent to the issue, and saw it as more a matter of convenience than morality. I even took that point of view in public, and now am conscious of blood on my hands.<\/p>\n But one does not have to trade Pragmatism for Christianity to realize that abortion is murder.<\/p>\n I offer this on Celebration of Life week, Sanctity of Life Sunday.<\/p>\n A lot of the world preceded the US, or closely followed us, in the legalization of abortion. We are among the few human-rights garden spots like North Korea and China that allow late-term abortions, killing babies otherwise viable outside the womb.<\/p>\n The mists must part. Are we doomed to suffer the proper dissolution of a society no longer dedicated to savoring life? Why do we buy the lie that \u201ctrue\u201d women must support abortion \u2013 a \u201clitmus test\u201d for votes or employment. It is a Big Lie that women are pro-choice and men want disposable women and babies, belied by the profile of marchers at Pro-Life rallies. Mostly women. And men who are passionately against abortion.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t like being a woman who is \u201cwired\u201d to bear babies, don\u2019t conceive. You cannot reverse nature. A lot of times it stinks to be a man too, but whatever. People have intimidated the culture to an extent; but they cannot reverse nature. They can tinker with the plumbing, but we still are men and women. Period (no pun intended).<\/p>\n Therefore, abortion, as a litmus-test, is a symbol. It is the result, not a cause, of America having become a Culture of Death. Our current challenges will seem small in the long run.<\/p>\n And when we have become desensitized to death, we have become desensitized to life. There are ramifications beyond \u201ccorrecting a mistake\u201d 60-million times over.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n