The following post is from March of 2015. Barack Obama was in office. As bad as this post describes American society we have at least doubled the chaos since then. Conservatives must be either in shock or disbelief. Whatever it is...they haven't yet come to grips with the fact that the American people of today are not the American people of yesterday. We are acting under the assumption that it is merely the American government that has to change. 'Guns don't kill people...people kill people'...that the phrase we use right? Well, governments don't go bad.....people go bad. We have fallen as a people. We are trying to light the wick on a candle made of a substance that gives off toxic gasses and then choking on the fumes.
These posts are turning into more of a journal and the reason is that this ship of state is so rapidly sinking that the posts seem to be merely recording the events as they happen. There is no order, not even signs of order, developing out of the chaos that has engulfed us. If you cannot discern this chaos then your mind has adapted to it. We have watched so many disaster films over the decades and seen so many movies of dystopian societies that we have essentially rendered ourselves subservient to a world of pulp fiction. To observe what is going on with any kind of accuracy one has to have the ability to stand back, and standing back, ignoring the hype and separating ourselves is something that is anathema to us, for we just don't want to miss out on anything that otherwise we would be observing. Facebook may be the prime example of this. The following are parts of two older posts:
Edmond Burke once penned these words to an acquaintance, "The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion." We in America are, and have been for quite some time, living under a delusion. That being that we are a capable...intelligent people, secure in our liberties and confident of our ultimate preservation as a nation and even as a world power. Yet we have no wisdom; and intelligence without wisdom is as a ship without a rudder.
We are drifting wherever the winds take us, with no meteorological forecast, no lifeboats, no anchor, no experienced crew and hull breached. Taking on sea water we have thrown overboard the food and drinking water to lighten the load but kept the exercise equipment. If I might paraphrase that Walt Whitman poem:
O Captain! my Captain! Our fearful trips' begun;
The ship is sinking in the mist, and there's no where to run;
The game is on, the song's begun, the people all exulting,
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the smiles upon his face,
Where on the deck my Captain sits,
His mind in some other place.
We Are Failing Our Children
There are horrendous exceptions of course, there always were and always will be, but a parent's love and protection for a child is a foundation of human society. We can't even say that it is something that elevates us above the animals for we have all seen heartwarming videos of animals protecting their offspring.
Those who traveled to America in search of religious liberty and freedom sacrificed greatly for their children... beginning with the voyagers on those three ships.... the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, that weighed anchor at what would become Jamestown in 1607; and American parents have not ceased sacrificing since. How many mothers and fathers have worked two and three jobs and gone without even the basic comforts of life in order for their children to survive and someday live in a land of opportunity, with liberties and freedoms, a land that reverenced and trusted in Almighty God, the giver of all that is good? How many gave up their own goals in life for a new goal, the happiness and safety of those children? We've worried about them and prayed for them and taught them everything we thought they needed to know. Need I go on? We did do these things and continue to do them but ultimately we have failed them miserably!
I'm writing here about the collective whole of American parenting today, specifically as it concerns our children's future. It's an area that we neglected to protect. We didn't think there was a real danger here. America's enemies worked while we slept. They were patient while we sought instant gratification. They grabbed leadership in education while we were more concerned about facilities for the sports teams. They became professors while we became financial advisers. They taught in liberal seminaries and read Rules For Radicals while we golfed and read The Godfather. They became activists while we watched television. They took over unions while we filled the stadiums and arenas. They allied themselves with every special interest group that voted while we worked on our abs. They cheated while we played by the rules. They lied while we told the truth. They studied the game of chess while we hopped around on a checkerboard shouting out 'King Me!'
No, we have failed them! We let them take God out of everything. We'd sooner defend our enemies than the Bible. Our culture is toxic and our reasoning is warped. We believe anything that they say because that's what we have been programmed to do. We reach, as a child in a crib, for every mobile that Silicon Valley extends over us. We can provide our children with any piece of sports equipment they could ever want and chauffeur them anywhere to use it. Their clothing stores have overtaken ours. Then finally we send them off to college, congratulating ourselves on a job well done.
The love is still there. We would still sacrifice everything, but it is too late, even if we were aware of what has transpired. Our government has become an oppressor, our Constitution is ignored and our user-friendly churches are powerless. We have failed our children. We failed to protect our liberties, even our minds. We failed to protect our Christian heritage. We are undone and have but one hope left but there are no signs that we are anywhere near humbling ourselves before our Creator, no evidence that we are prostrating ourselves in reverence at the mere mention of the name Jesus.
These posts are turning into more of a journal and the reason is that this ship of state is so rapidly sinking that the posts seem to be merely recording the events as they happen. There is no order, not even signs of order, developing out of the chaos that has engulfed us. If you cannot discern this chaos then your mind has adapted to it. We have watched so many disaster films over the decades and seen so many movies of dystopian societies that we have essentially rendered ourselves subservient to a world of pulp fiction. To observe what is going on with any kind of accuracy one has to have the ability to stand back, and standing back, ignoring the hype and separating ourselves is something that is anathema to us, for we just don't want to miss out on anything that otherwise we would be observing. Facebook may be the prime example of this. The following are parts of two older posts:
Edmond Burke once penned these words to an acquaintance, "The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion." We in America are, and have been for quite some time, living under a delusion. That being that we are a capable...intelligent people, secure in our liberties and confident of our ultimate preservation as a nation and even as a world power. Yet we have no wisdom; and intelligence without wisdom is as a ship without a rudder.
We are drifting wherever the winds take us, with no meteorological forecast, no lifeboats, no anchor, no experienced crew and hull breached. Taking on sea water we have thrown overboard the food and drinking water to lighten the load but kept the exercise equipment. If I might paraphrase that Walt Whitman poem:
O Captain! my Captain! Our fearful trips' begun;
The ship is sinking in the mist, and there's no where to run;
The game is on, the song's begun, the people all exulting,
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the smiles upon his face,
Where on the deck my Captain sits,
His mind in some other place.
We Are Failing Our Children
There are horrendous exceptions of course, there always were and always will be, but a parent's love and protection for a child is a foundation of human society. We can't even say that it is something that elevates us above the animals for we have all seen heartwarming videos of animals protecting their offspring.
Those who traveled to America in search of religious liberty and freedom sacrificed greatly for their children... beginning with the voyagers on those three ships.... the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, that weighed anchor at what would become Jamestown in 1607; and American parents have not ceased sacrificing since. How many mothers and fathers have worked two and three jobs and gone without even the basic comforts of life in order for their children to survive and someday live in a land of opportunity, with liberties and freedoms, a land that reverenced and trusted in Almighty God, the giver of all that is good? How many gave up their own goals in life for a new goal, the happiness and safety of those children? We've worried about them and prayed for them and taught them everything we thought they needed to know. Need I go on? We did do these things and continue to do them but ultimately we have failed them miserably!
I'm writing here about the collective whole of American parenting today, specifically as it concerns our children's future. It's an area that we neglected to protect. We didn't think there was a real danger here. America's enemies worked while we slept. They were patient while we sought instant gratification. They grabbed leadership in education while we were more concerned about facilities for the sports teams. They became professors while we became financial advisers. They taught in liberal seminaries and read Rules For Radicals while we golfed and read The Godfather. They became activists while we watched television. They took over unions while we filled the stadiums and arenas. They allied themselves with every special interest group that voted while we worked on our abs. They cheated while we played by the rules. They lied while we told the truth. They studied the game of chess while we hopped around on a checkerboard shouting out 'King Me!'
No, we have failed them! We let them take God out of everything. We'd sooner defend our enemies than the Bible. Our culture is toxic and our reasoning is warped. We believe anything that they say because that's what we have been programmed to do. We reach, as a child in a crib, for every mobile that Silicon Valley extends over us. We can provide our children with any piece of sports equipment they could ever want and chauffeur them anywhere to use it. Their clothing stores have overtaken ours. Then finally we send them off to college, congratulating ourselves on a job well done.
The love is still there. We would still sacrifice everything, but it is too late, even if we were aware of what has transpired. Our government has become an oppressor, our Constitution is ignored and our user-friendly churches are powerless. We have failed our children. We failed to protect our liberties, even our minds. We failed to protect our Christian heritage. We are undone and have but one hope left but there are no signs that we are anywhere near humbling ourselves before our Creator, no evidence that we are prostrating ourselves in reverence at the mere mention of the name Jesus.
