Culture War: Western Culture Vs Secularism and any other foreign ethos.

Our culture war is primarily against Secularism's unholy trinity (Darwin, Freud and Marx) and any and all opposing cultures who challenge us.

Negative Social & Moral Effects flowing from
Darwin, Freud and Marx:

Vic Biorseth, http://www.CatholicAmericanThinker.com

A Culture War, waged against our National Ethos

The real question today is, do we have a culture war or a new culture? Without question, we have a new morality here, a new way of determining right and wrong, and the Decalogue has nothing at all to do with it.

America is recognized, from her birth, to be a "Western" nation. At the core of Western Civilization and this thing called Western Culture is Judeo-Christian ethos, morality, traditions and customs.

To the Marxist, that which is good for the leviathan state is right, and that which is against the leviathan state is wrong. Period.

To the neo-socialist, whatever is good for the Global Village, or the company, or the conglomerate, or the “team,” or the Party, is right, and whatever is against it is wrong.

To the Darwinist, that which promotes or supports evolutionary theory is right, and that which opposes or attacks it is wrong.

To the Freudian, that which supports the idea of “sexual freedom,” and the elimination of sexual inhibitions and any sense of guilt, is right, and that which opposes them is wrong.

There are all sorts of little sub-divisions beneath these, because once secularism has eliminated spirituality, something must replace it as a guide, or set of sign-posts. Those who embrace the Earth establish all of their right-wrong guidelines around the Earth, and there are sub-divisions even here, some pointing to some favored species or eco-system, or even perhaps the universe; for them, what is right and what is wrong is solely determined by how you treat their pet piece of the Earth.

All of these culture war victories for secularism have had and are having a profound affect on the general view of truth, and the value given by men to truth. Today many millions twist and deform the truth, and they actually believe that they are fully justified in doing so. Those of us who do not recognize that we are in a culture war are in snooze mode while our culture deconstructs all around them.

That The Ends Justify The Means is a distinctly Marxist idea that may be demonstrated to be also dominant in Darwinism and in Freudianism; thanks to their successful prosecution of the culture war, it is becoming the dominant norm here.

We know that, once a Socialist is convinced of the “correct” economic or social or natural viewpoint, lies of omission and commission are then acceptable, if and only if they support that economic or social or natural viewpoint. Show me a real Marxist and I’ll show you an ends-justify-the-means liar.

But, through evolutionary dogma, the hard sciences are similarly affected. Show me a convinced Darwinist and I’ll show you an ends-justify-the-means evidence suppresser.

And the soft sciences are similarly affected. Show me a devout Freudian and I’ll show you an ends-justify-the-means propagandist and censor.

The easiest way to find evidence of the falsehood of the hard and soft sciences affected by Marx, Darwin and Freud is to look at the distinct lack of solid empirical or historical or observable evidence for the foundational theories themselves. Their response: “Evidence? What evidence? We don’t need no stinking evidence. We’ve got all of the conventional wisdom and all of the well known facts and all of the general consensus.”

But what they do not have is critical thinking.

Tell the unmitigated truth, publicly and in bold language in front of any Marxist, Darwinist or Freudian, and the next sentence out of their mouths, as they try to hush you and speak privately or not publicly to you will likely involve how "you don’t even know the damage you’ve done," by so openly speaking the truth. All secularists have some agenda that is of greater importance and value to them than the truth; there are no exceptions that I can find to that statement.

The American media is a perfect study because it is so very overwhelmingly secular, with a clear majority of unbelievers, a clear majority favoring Socialism, a clear majority favoring evolutionary theory and a clear majority embracing Freudianism. As we will see again and again, the American media almost universally opposes truth, claiming justification in the socially acceptable mission of promoting the proper “education” of the masses.

The Conventional Wisdom and the Generally Accepted Facts and the Recognized Expertise on any subject is promoted and spin-doctored, and opposing viewpoints are, if not ignored, if treated at all, then trivialized, marginalized, or just flat out censored.

New morality is introduced to replace the tired, old Christian morality, because we need some sense of right and wrong. Helping the whales, saving the rain forests, cutting the human population of China and India and Africa, de-industrializing America, spending billions to eliminate non-existent acid rain, legislating global temperatures, safe fornication, protected sodomy, responsible promiscuity, the right to choose to abort someone, special rights for sodomites, and more, are all promoted in a manner that says that the old way, the Christian way, is no good any more.

It’s as though all of the ancient words opposing sodomy and fornication and adultery, and telling us how we are to behave, were never inspired by God and written by man in Holy Scripture. Scripture itself is directly opposed when it is not trivialized, or even black-listed and religiously censored, as it is today in our public schools. Or perhaps I should say their public schools. Even Creation itself is no longer His Creation, but rather, Our Environment.

Or even, Our Precious Resources.

Culture war? What culture war? You can bet that the SLIMC¹ in America today either do not recognize this as a culture war at all, or, they view it as one in which they are the super-hero champions of goodness doing battle with the evil and dangerous Religious Right Wing.

In point of fact, among America's intellectual elite, the culture war is over, and they won, long ago. And that's quite a statement, because there are so many fronts to the Culture war that it's actually a bunch of wars. There's the moral culture war, the economic organization culture war, the political culture war; there are even sub-divisions among those. There are mini- culture wars being fought over Darwinism, Freudianism and Marxism, all of which led to larger culture wars on the very nature of our social culture, from the primal social unit, the family, on up to the nature of the whole of our society.

But the media elite don't even mention a culture war, and the overwhelming majority of us are largely unaware of any culture war, and yet, here we are discussing it; some who read these words will even wonder what I'm talking about.

So - is this a culture war, or not?

Yep; and it's a doozy. Part of it is moral, part of it is economic, part of it is social, part of it is government organization. All of which overlap.

For instance, let's look at the economic culture war, which, necessarily, forces us to look at the form-of-government culture war. The reason I say that is the current economic contention here is between Capitalism and Socialism, one of which can only exist in the ABSENCE of government control, and the other can only exist WITH government control. These competing systems are defined and discussed in detail within the Catholic American Thinker in the Marxism page. Here we will just address the affects that they have on our lives and how we live. First, let's take a look at Capitalism, from the culture war perspective.

Laissez Faire Free Market Capitalism

This is the system America started with, before the culture war commenced. Today, it has been estimated that we are some 40% Socialist, meaning, that 40% of our market and economy is controlled by largely unrepresentative government regulation, and our government bureaucracy is therefore that much larger, and that much power has migrated from the people to the government.

Free market Capitalism is the economic and social system in which individuals are free to own the means of production and to maximize profits, and where an automatic price system determines resource allocation. The right of the individual to excel, or to improve himself or his condition is granted, along with all other individual rights, at the expense of one single individual right: the right to be exactly the same as everyone else. The balance between the mutually exclusive ideals of individual liberty and total equality always favors individual liberty at the expense of total equality.

Capitalism requires open markets and free competition, which cannot exist without some degree of individual liberty, and operates at its best in the absence of government intervention in the affairs of men and their business. Although Capitalism exists under some monarchies, dictatorships and military juntas, it flourishes best in combination with true majoritarian Democracy, and nowhere so well as in the United States, where Jeffersonian Democracy has historically sought to expand individual rights and to grant, not total equality, but equal opportunity, equal rights and equal legal protections to all citizens under the civil law. We are all equal under the law, and we consider ourselves to be a nation of laws and not just of men. The opposite position in the culture war would have not merely equality before the law, but equality of outcome, meaning housing, wealth, clothing and so forth.

The rule of subsidiarity, whose two main precepts are that everyone who is affected by an issue should be in the jurisdiction responsible for it, and that as few people as possible who are not affected by an issue should have jurisdiction or responsibility over it, says that all political authority should be vested in the most local jurisdiction possible. Problems affecting only a town should be handled by that town, county problems by that county, etc., and problems that can be handled by any part of the private sector should not be given over to any level of government at all. The opposing position in the culture war has the top level of government in charge of all aspect of economic, political and social life.

People should be given, or rather, allowed to assume, as much responsibility as they are willing and able to assume. The ideal situation under Capitalism and majoritarian Jeffersonian Democracy follows:

Many from the other side of the culture war call for personal liberty, or freedom, when what they really want is freedom to not have to do too much, or risk too much, or be responsible for too much, or suffer too many “liberty/responsibility” consequences; in other words, freedom to be lazy, and perhaps even freedom to be somewhat dependant. But true freedom is not for wimps, nor is it for the lazy; liberty has a price that is well worth paying at the individual level. Any person, left alone, will strive to improve his condition as best he can; nearly all will succeed; if they are left alone they will find a way. History repeatedly proves it.

Very large numbers of people cannot improve their own condition without improving their larger environment. The greater the number of individuals striving for self-improvement, the greater will be the positive effect that this improvement will have on the entire economy and the entire society. Social “safety nets” need to exist at the lowest levels of government for the always very small number of people who cannot, as opposed to the always larger number of those who will not, be able to take care of themselves for whatever reason.

People free to improve their own condition are the only source of the creation of new wealth. Free people improving their own condition in life are what drive Adam Smith's "invisible hand of Capitalism." (Wealth Of nations.)

Only free people generate new wealth; governments only spend it.

Now, let's look at the opposition in this part of the culture war.

Socialism

Socialism is an economic and social system under which total equality of individuals is given preference over individual liberty, and under which all of the economic means of production, distribution and exchange are collectively owned. Socialism represents a completely planned economy, in which state authorities rather than free market forces directly determine prices, output and production. The most important features of the planned economy are:

1. production targets for different segments of the economy,
2. rationing of certain commodities to determine demand for them,
3. price and wage fixing by the state, and
4. a conscripted labor market in which workers are assigned jobs by the state.

The right of the individual to excel, or to improve himself or his condition is denied, along with all other individual rights, in favor of one single individual right: the right to be exactly the same as everyone else. The balance between the mutually exclusive ideals of individual liberty and total equality always favors total equality at the expense of individual liberty.

All forms of Socialism, from the most extreme forms of Marxism to the social-democrat systems of Western Europe, share the belief in the absolute necessity of collective intervention in, if not complete control of, all economic and market affairs. "Pure" Socialism cannot coexist with the honest popular elections of majoritarian Democracy because no population would ever willingly (or knowingly) vote for the total loss of individual rights required to achieve pure Socialism; thus the biggest problem of Socialism is how to select the leadership.

In practice, the Socialist method of selecting leaders has been by use of force. In pure Socialism, all power is vested in the central government, and, economically speaking, the government does everything, and the individual, nothing. This is what the culture war is moving us toward. The ideal Socialist situation follows:

Such a situation is, of course, possible only under the fiercest form of totalitarianism imaginable, where the central government involves itself deeply in the most minute and mundane details of the private affairs of the individual citizen.

Majoritarianism must be replaced by absolute authoritarianism (to use the Orwellian Newspeak terms favored by America's opposition in this culture war against them.) Von Mises argued that a planned economy is not only wasteful, but must ultimately fail because it lacks the most efficient basis of resource allocation, which is a natural price system, and it cannot institute a price system without betraying and destroying its political principle.

On the bright side, since the government is the only employer, pays all salaries and holds all wealth and property, there are no taxes to worry about. Only work quotas.

Culture War 2

Secularism, and our Variable Civil Law,
Versus our Fixed Ecclesial Law

Here is where the culture war is being most effectively fought by the real enemy: Secularism.

The theist believes in Divinity, the atheist does not, but the secularist is different from both; all secularists are atheist, but not all atheists are secularist. Theists and atheists can and do tolerate, respect and even love each other, but secularists, by definition and by nature, must always oppose all ideas of God or gods or spirituality or other-worldliness, which makes secularists intolerant of all believers and of any viewpoint which is in any way “tainted” by spirituality.

Secularism in general is pro-active in the silent, hidden culture war, and the secular-ist is by definition an activist; secularism constantly seeks to separate spirituality from everything, in the interest of promoting a strictly worldly or natural view of everything. Which reflects the currently popular modern liberal intellectual position. This is why so many liberal intellectuals and so many “secular” Jews always seem to be suspicious of the most devout among us, whether Jew or Christian. (In this connection it is necessary to note that terms such as “Jew” or “Christian” often pertain more to Jewish and Christian tradition and/or family or lineage than to faith; that is the case here. There may be greater numbers of Jews and of Christians who are secular than those who are devout believers. Secularism makes inroads wherever it can.)

To me, the term secular Jew makes about as much sense as the term secular Catholic, or secular Baptist. Nevertheless, there are those in Jewish (and perhaps in Catholic and Baptist) families who maintain all family traditions while being atheist/agnostic, and who still consider themselves to be Jewish (or perhaps Catholic or Baptist). Go figure.

The more actually and openly and publicly our devotion is expressed the more likely we are to be held in suspicion or contempt or lower esteem by liberal intellectuals and secular Jews. In the secular mind the more devout are held to be more threatening, narrow-minded and even intellectually inferior, and the sole reason, in the complete absence of evidence, to support that holding is, of course, more observed open belief in Divinity or in spirits of any kind. Paradoxically, secular people in general and secular Jews in particular regularly display great intolerance and great insensitivity toward devout people in general and devout Christians in particular, even while preaching to the world about “their” new inclusiveness, tolerance and sensitivity. (Similarly, they are often blind to the existence of the culture war.)

But this kind of thinking makes bedfellows of many Jews and the very worst enemies of both the faith of Judaism and Jewry in general, while simultaneously alienating and offending the most reliable allies of all Jews. Throughout history few (if any) people have been persecuted as repeatedly or as thoroughly as have Jews, and few have been as successful in life, in surviving, in carving out new niches in societies, in blending in, and in maintaining their identity. Many among them, secularists in particular, blame other religions for the many pogroms and persecutions they have survived, but if we look more closely at the historical record, particularly within the last century, we see that their worst enemies were and are less religions than crowns, and more recently, not religions but the opponents of capitalism, the worst of whom always happen to be secular.

Irreligion and anti-religion always feeds the vices of jealousy and envy and covetousness, among others. And Jews, throughout history, have always been marvelous capitalists. Merchant and business and finance traditions run in Jewish families for untold generations, and sooner or later in most free markets, Jews will be preeminent or dominant in certain markets and niches and industries. There is nothing wrong with this, as there is nothing wrong with any other tradition or talent or inherent superior ability.

All of society benefits from the creation of new wealth; the only people who don’t recognize that fact are those who still think that “wealth” is not continually changing, growing, shrinking, being created and being destroyed, but rather see it as some sort of an eternally fixed and unchanging “pie” in need of being “fairly” divided up or somehow claimed and redistributed. Marxists, poor dears, have never understood wealth.

However, inevitable free market success periodically makes Jews into convenient scapegoats for Marxists, or milder redistributionists, or the more covetous, or populists seeking a political base, or combinations of the above. Place an immoral, irreligious, covetous person with a chip on his shoulder within sight of a rich Jew, legally and educationally and publicly promote secularism, and then just watch what eventually happens.

The most devout among us are certainly not the enemies of the Jews, but their allies; the most serious enemy of the Jews is, always, opposition to capitalism, covetousness, and the lower morals that always go hand in hand with irreligion, which, whenever allowed to do so, always grows into barbaric ruthlessness, political and otherwise. The worst enemy of the Jews is the worst enemy of all of us: secularism; the most intolerant of all belief systems. It wasn't Western Culture morality that brought about Hitler's holocaust, but open repudiation of it and direct opposition to it.

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Secularism does great damage to society due to two simple facts. First, monotheistic faith and monotheistic morality may not be divided from each other. To weaken monotheistic faith is to weaken the foundational basis for morality as we all know it. Second, Marxism and secularism may not be divided from each other. Secularism must always attack spiritual faith, and Marxism must always attack monotheistic morality. Marxist principles aimed at achieving social utopia at all costs, such as the dreamed-of ends, always seen as noble, always justifying the means, however horrible, as applied in Red China, the old Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, fly in the face of the world’s most widely recognized and successful and entrenched morality.

But the enemy in the culture war does not clearly state his position or intention or direction; indeed the culture war is not recognized as a culture war.

Marxism and secularism are joined at the hip and inseparable. Marxism, the mortal enemy of capitalism, may not peacefully coexist with monotheistic morality, and secularism, the mortal enemy of spirituality in general and religious orthodoxy in particular, may not peacefully coexist with any theistic faith at all. There you have it. Still, a very significant number of Jews and people who claim to hold to some faith consider themselves to be Socialist. So do a lot of Christians. Go figure.

The popular secular argument says that religion is an intensely personal thing, and must be kept strictly personal; and that’s true enough, because religion is indeed a very personal thing. But religion is also a very social and public thing. Religion may be found at the root of nearly all tradition, and any tradition that would not die if the religious roots of it were cut is very rare. You would be hard pressed to find an ethnic tradition that is not heavily intertwined with and dependent upon religion. The culture war could undo that.

The family, the primal, elementary social unit, is always, in the most successful examples, associated with great family traditions, and the long family traditions of all successful families are also heavily intertwined with religious tradition. Which may explain the generally negative attitude of Left-liberalism toward tradition in general and families in particular, and how Hillary and friends conclude that your children shouldn’t be considered to belong to you, their parents, but rather to a new utopian “global village” or something. Guess which side of the culture war the Democratic Party is on.

A surprising number of people who hold, or appear to hold, or claim to hold a faith of some kind have already been somewhat secularized by the hidden culture war. The Christians and Jews who don’t always, but sometimes, observe the Lord’s Day or the Sabbath, the “devotees” only occasionally seen on the fringe of the religious gathering or service, or in the farthest back pews, or only making an appearance at weddings and funerals and Christenings. Some of them are even fairly regular at services; nevertheless they are, for the most part, lukewarm weak believers or closet atheists who do not necessarily see themselves as secularist at all, and perhaps they are not, yet. There is a step that must be taken between having become secular and becoming secularist. They are, at least, secular, although they might still go through some of the religious motions.

But, when they go back to the house, or to the office, or to the factory, or to the laboratory, or to the microphone, or into the spotlight, they carefully, studiously, put all matters religious aside and assume a strictly secular posture, which will be maintained until the next “religious” occasion. Faith is driven out of almost their entire lives; they will keep up appearances and set a good example for the kids; they seem to understand the value of the underpinnings of morality, and so they pay lip-service and go with the religious flow. Their sense of religious tradition and their sense of family tradition are in all likelihood very weak if alive at all.

Many do not even realize they have not only lost their own personal culture war but they have very smoothly been recruited to the other side, even as they still go through the religious motions.

Faith is a sometimes kind of thing, reserved for religious occasions and times and places only. Discussing and even thinking about religion is very strictly reserved by many for one time, Sunday, one place, Church, and one subject, the subject of religion itself. There is no other time or place or subject within which religion should not be put aside and very strictly avoided; it’s almost at though it were dirty and might taint anything else it might touch. It isn’t a conscious thing today; that’s the way it is. For the most part, semi-secular people do not consider themselves to be secular, because they do not attack or oppose faith, at least openly, at least consciously.

However, when upwards of 90% or more of their non-sleeping time is spent actively avoiding any personal religious reference, and raising their eyebrows at any religious references made by others, they are certainly more secular than not. Secularism is against the religion of everyone who has a religion. Period.

Secularism is not neutral; it is just "hidden" and smooth. I'm telling you, if you don't know that you're in a culture war right now, the chances are pretty good that you have already lost your personal culture war, you've been secularized to some degree, and you're already quietly waging culture war against the rest of us.

In the truly literal sense, it is not possible to be simultaneously a believer and secular; yet there are many millions of kind-of sort-of semi-secular people everywhere, who do not think of themselves as being secular at all, in the true sense of the word, mainly because they have never given much or any thought to the subject. That is the danger and the unique nature of secularism and it's hidden way of waging this culture war. It is a very unobtrusive, very effective, very sneaky form of an atheist Evangelization and recruitment program. And Elementary Secularism 201 is the prerequisite for Principles of Socialism 101.

The committed unrepentant sinner is always a ripe candidate for secularism, because he already tends to unconsciously favor such negative thoughts as, away with God, and, would that there were no God; thus the ranks of secularism are swelled by those who don’t think enough, the fundamentally immoral, as well as from those who think far too much, the pseudo-intellectuals.

To effectively fight the culture war, we must be awake to it and see, hear and recognize the subtle secular signals given off by family, friends, co-workers, whoever. And engage secularism, immediately, as nicely but firmly as we can. Drag it out into the open and speak openly about it.

The culture war seeks to quietly change us and make us like them, without our knowing it. Learn and remember the differences.

There are clear differences in how we live our lives. Devout theists are not in a particular hurry to live it, or to “grab for the gusto,” or to hurry up and “enjoy it while they can.” They have another goal, and they see other things as more important. Theists concentrate more on the end of life. Atheists devote as little time as possible to contemplating the end of life, and they build ulcers and heart conditions working feverishly to enjoy life while they still can; you only go around once, you know. It would appear that the lines are well drawn for the culture war. The implications to our general morality are obvious.

None of us are perfect, and probably there are few pure secularists and few pure devout worshipers, but we can all see that secularism leads to a less moral lifestyle, and a less moral lifestyle is always less healthy, in more ways than spiritual. The important thing is this: sooner or later the immoral man will seek unfair advantage over his neighbor. While we may properly be more concerned about the next life than this one, our neighbor’s problem is, to some degree, our problem, those within our providence deserve our protection, and we, individually, have every right to expect to live our lives in peace and normalcy, and to expect that there actually be such a thing as normalcy.

We have moral goals to fight for in the culture war. There can be no more holocausts. There can be no more slavery. There can be no more religious or ethnic or political oppression. We cannot afford the risk of unrepresentative or even less representative government. And, arguably most important of all, we cannot afford to allow objective truth to be deformed, denied or hidden.

This culture war, this direct confrontation and clash between theism and secularism, is today, in America, actually Westernism versus Secularism, and, as I have said elsewhere, Westernism equals Judeo-Christianity, even though the differences between Judaic and Christian culture are clear enough for anyone to see. Western Culture, i.e., American Culture, primarily, eats pork, and has no ritual involving circumcision, and so forth. Many of the details of the “Mosaic Law” involving dietary restrictions, circumcision and the like were loosened for the non-Jews to whom the Jews Peter and Paul carried the Gospel of Christ, as we see in Acts 10 and in Acts 15. We worship and break bread on the Lord’s Day, Sunday, the day He rose, as opposed to the Sabbath, Saturday, as we see in Colossians 2:16, Acts 20:7, and in 1 Corinthians 16:2, and in Revelation 1:10.

We do not divorce and remarry, as Jesus raised the marriage covenant to the level of a sacrament, saying, What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder in Mark 10:9. Marrying after divorce, or marrying a divorced person while the divorced spouse lives, was made adultery, as we see in Matthew 19:9, Mark 10:11-12, Luke 16:18, and in Romans 7:2-3.

Now on this particular point, there is another seam in Western culture, since the Reformation, when Luther introduced divorce into the new Protestantism, back during THAT culture war; there will be much more about that later. Jesus said, in Matthew 5:32, “But I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.” The word used is fornication, and there is, of course, a difference between fornication and adultery. The first is a sin committed before marriage, and the second is a sin committed afterward.

If a new wife (or husband) was discovered after marriage to be “unclean,” then she lied, and there was no true marriage in the first place. A contract based upon a lie is no contract. The very terms of the marriage covenant involved a state of sexual purity. It’s the same in Matthew 19:9: “And I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.” Two times He said it. Do not pretend that our Lord did not know the difference between fornication and adultery.

In those days, fornication could terminate a marriage, but adultery was punishable not by divorce, but by death. So if the man put her away for adultery, she would be stoned, and she would have no opportunity to marry again.

This is a very important point that needs attention. Today, in civil law, we do not kill adulterers. But if we ultimately divorce an adulterer, if the matter cannot be reconciled in any other way, then we accept it and we do no remarry.

There are several places where we see positive physical ramifications stemming from adherence to spiritual laws.

The positive side of “no divorce and remarriage” is strong families, which make strong societies. Increasingly easy divorce has, without question, damaged our society and caused it to morally bleed. And the Protestants are not the only ones on the divorce side of the line (indeed many denominations do not allow it;) many Catholic bishops and dioceses are well known in Catholic circles to be the ones to go to if you want an easy “annulment,” which is to say, the new scandal called “Catholic divorce.” Annulment is a declaration of nullity, which says there was no valid marriage to begin with, and is supposed to be reserved for extremely unusual circumstances, and therefore quite rare; but in some dioceses, it is quite common. Indicating that clerics, too, fall victim to the culture war.

No organization of men may ever be expected to be perfect, and today, as always, bishops may be found who are at odds with Rome. (In my opinion the culture war has made serious inroads among America's bishops.) But note well that it was not the Church of Rome that brought into our Western culture common, simple, easy divorce. I must concede that the Catholic view is the minority Western view here, since Catholics make up only about 24 percent of the Christian American population, and are outnumbered by the Protestants, in all their diversity, by slightly better than three to one. But I will not concede the moral point. Still, in all of Christendom world-wide, Catholicism represents half the population, but in America, only a quarter.

As I said, divorce and remarriage marks a seam in Western civilization since the Reformation. Some of us think that no-fault divorce is quite moral, some of us cannot tolerate divorce at all, except in the most abusive or unusual circumstances, and even then cannot condone remarriage. This divorce issue, this cultural seam, is the beginning point for any and all moral differences between the Protestant and the Catholic subcultures that coexist together within the larger Western culture itself.

We are talking about moral differences here, not theological or liturgical differences, which should not be touched by civil law or political action anyway. These are issues addressed by the last seven Commandments (in the Jewish and Catholic counting; the last six in the Protestant counting) which address man’s relationship with his fellow man. This single, moral, culture war issue, with its heavy ramifications touching the family unit, is the key knot from which it is possible to completely unravel our entire morality and eventually destroy our entire culture. We could potentially loose the culture war over divorce and remarriage.

Easy divorce and remarriage is the point in the culture war at which we must become politically aware and active, and use every persuasion and tool at our disposal to make the larger society look very closely at it, and recognize it for what it is.

The culture war is waged against Catholics, Protestants and Jews alike. Although there are these "seams" between us, overall, we are all of the "Western" moral standard and we need to stand together as much as we can. Any reasonable Protestant and any reasonable Jew ought to see the rapid, incredible damage already done to marriage, family and tradition by such things as easy divorce, contraception, abortion, and so forth. If we are not to totally loose the culture war, then we need, together, to at the very LEAST, resist further easing of divorce restrictions, and perhaps do some rebuilding of the sense of commitment and responsibility involved in marriage. The culture war seeks destruction of ALL Western culture.

The culture war is morally choking us all. We, in our majority, seem to want actually to be, and to be recognized as, a Christian culture, but a Christian culture that does not want to give up its relatively new attachment to easy divorce. We are a Christian culture, but a Christian culture that wants to keep its even much newer attachment to easy “birth control.” We see ourselves as a Christian culture, but one with lots and lots of “Christians” who are unwilling to give up an easy “escape” path represented by some limited allowance for legal abortion on demand. All of which point up the ease with which vice, over time, becomes unrecognizable as vice, and how a sense of personal sacrifice is lost.

I submit that any man, however poor or rich, who cannot personally sacrifice for his own children is unlikely to sacrifice for his own spouse, and any man who cannot sacrifice for his own spouse is extremely unlikely to make any sacrifice for his nation, or for anything other than his own self interest.

As the primal social unit goes so goes the larger society. If the current trend continues, we loose the culture war. Clear vice is now widely seen as social responsibility.

(What? Pregnant again? Haven’t you two heard about birth control? Isn’t it about time you started planning these things and being more responsible?)

We are a Christian culture that makes easy compromises with the world, pure and simple, and the compromises are not only addictive, but they always lead to more compromises, and our own history proves that this situation only gets worse over time, not better. Birth control and choice are such easier and softer terms than human control and Nazi eugenics, but the actual nature and reality of these vices has never changed. Not once. Only our view of them has changed. The evidence shows that the real culture war has been going on for some time, and we're loosing.

Marriage is now so cheapened that hobbies or careers are seen as equally or more important, as any week your local paper is likely to showcase a wedding on motorcycles, or while sky diving, or while scuba diving, or while bowling, or whatever. Changing demographics of inner city dwellers drives the point home as we see that the fastest growing “family type” is the single parent family, consisting of an unattached and unwed mother living on welfare with her several bastard children.

“Unattached” young and not so young men in a continual state of arrested adolescence repeatedly proving their manhood by shacking up with various women and making lots of babies. Some of them regularly go to church.

Frequently the “family” many slum and inner city young people are most solidly attached to is, if not a gang, then a gang-like gaggle or loose confederation of like-minded individuals. Young women, sometimes alone and sometimes in groups, who visit women’s health clinics and crisis pregnancy centers regularly, sometimes even monthly, for free pregnancy tests, with multiple bastards in tow, all from different fathers, and who will respond with a straight face, if asked, that yes, they do have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

And we see that situation as good, because at least she’s seeking help at a pro-life place rather than at an abortuary. But the only reason might be that such health care is always free while abortion clinics always cost money. (Social planners of other people’s lives never contribute their personal time or talent or resources, or anything, for free, because, you see, that’s what redistributionism is for.)

This promiscuous behavior is not restricted to any “lower class.” Young engaged people nowadays are as likely as not to “move in together” before the wedding, which will still be in a church, or which might be called off, depending on which way the wind blows, and either way it’s no big deal.

As long as birth control is available, as long as they’re responsible about it, what’s the difference? Fornication? What’s that? That’s not a word in much use today, as singles shacking up see their sexual activities and behavior as adult, and responsible, and non-exploitive. Who does it hurt?

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The culture war is a real war like any other. It's a war of ideas and moral norms more than a war of blood; but make no mistake about it, the culture war is a real war with a more insidious destructive capability than any military war. The culture war can destroy peoples, nations and even civilization itself. It is waged in the military ranks, in the civilian population and among clerics, all at the same time. No one is unaffected; no one is not at risk.

Once there was one single Gospel message, one single teaching authority, and all of Western culture immediately recognized immorality as immorality. Since the Reformation there are multiple Gospel messages and multiple authorities, and immorality is not so easily distinguished. There are many Protestant denominations that are “Catholic” and orthodox to the degree that, if we were un-blindfolded in one of their churches during their liturgy, most of us would have some difficulty recognizing that we were in something other than a Roman Catholic Church.

The moral teaching of these denominations is, to most laymen, virtually indistinguishable from our own. But they, and we, still represent a minority, here in America. And each of these churches, and our own, have also had their own rifts and schisms and liberalizations and some degree of secularization from within. There are culture wars within culture wars.

What we are left with is some percentage, hopefully half, of the “orthodox” churches who still clearly differentiate old fashioned right from wrong. Scattered among the softer denominations are still clearly moralistic islands. The rest of us, the majority of us, still know right from wrong, but we’ve gotten used to skating, and sliding, and easing past the rules. Note well that the original Gospel has never changed; not once. Through culture war after culture war after culture war.

It's time for us all to turn back to our faith. It's time to become more of a thinking Jew, or a thinking Catholic, or a thinking Protestant. Because, this culture war goes on right now, with active antagonists on both sides.

How about you? Are you in it, or are you on the sidelines? Look at your family. Look at your church. Look at your nation. The culture war is on, the enemy on the move, the battle is hot and the outcome is in serious question.

Turn to your traditional faith. And pick up your sword.

Read the Catechism, in detail, line by line. There is nothing in it that will hurt you.

Do your part in the culture war.

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Sarcastic Acronym Hover-Link Footnotes: For the convenience of those readers using devices that lack a mouse, these footnotes are provided for all webpages, in case any webpage contains any hover-links. (If you don't have a mouse, you can't "hover" it over a link without clicking just to see the simple acronym interpretation. Click any footnote link to see the acronym and a detailed explanation; "Hover" the mouse over it just to see the simple interpretation.)

SLIMC¹ Secularist Liberal Intellectual Media Complex
GESGOEAEOT² Gradually, Ever So Gradually, Over Eons And Eons Of Time
PEWAG³ Punctuated Equilibrium's Wild-Assed Guess
TTRSTF⁴ Them There Real Scientifical-Type Fellers
TTRSPTF⁵ Them There Real Smart Perfesser-Type Fellers
TTRSJTF⁶ Them There Real Smart Journalistical-Type Fellers
SNRTACBT⁷ Surely No Right Thinking Adult Could Believe Today
STNSEACPB⁸ Surely Today No Serious Educated Adult Could Possibly Believe
WDN⁹ We Don't Know
BMDFP¹⁰ Baboons, Mongrel Dogs, Filthy Pigs and ...
HBAACOTE¹¹ Human Beings Are A Cancer On The Earth
ACLU¹² Anti-Christian Litigation Union
FLORMPORIF¹³ Flagrant Liar, Or, Mindless Parrot, Or, Innocent Fool
MEJTML¹⁴ Marxist Ends-Justify-The-Means Liar
IEJTML¹⁵ Islamic Ends-Ends-Justify-The-Means Liar
MPAV¹⁶ Marxist Principles And Values
WBESSWG¹⁷ Wise, Benign, Elite, Super-Scientific World Governance
TRMITM¹⁸ The Reason Man's In This Mess
IYI¹⁹ Intellectual Yet Idiotic
TTRSCBTF²⁰ Them There Real Smart Catholic Bishop Type Fellers
IACMPVND²¹ Illegal-Alien-Criminal Marxocrat-Party-Voting Nation-Destroyers
PEJTML²² Palestinian Ends-Justify-The-Means Liar
PSYOP²³ "Psychological Operation" Mind Trick
CDC²⁴ Covid Developmentally Challenged
LGBTQ+ Every Letter Represents A Serious Psychotic sexual Identity Disorder
HEJTML²⁶ Hedonist Ends-Justify-The-Means Liar
SEJTML²⁷ Scientistic Ends-Justify-The-Means Liar

Reference Material

[All Web Pages listed in Site Map by date-of-publication;
oldest at the top, newest at the bottom of the list.]

Culture=Religion+Politics;  Who Are We?  Vic Biorseth

The Brilliantly Conceived Organization of the USA;  Vic Biorseth

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Date:   Mon Oct 13 2014
From:  Vic Biorseth
Comment:  

Changes pursuant to changing the website URL and name from 
Thinking Catholic Strategic Center to
Catholic American Thinker.

Pulled the trigger on the 301 MOVE IT option June 1, 2014. Working my way through all the webpages.  . 

Regards,

Vic

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