This is the fourth month of our lives being impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. We have gone from total uncertainty of the length and strength of the virus, to having some knowledge without definite assurance of the accuracy of the information.
We hunkered down and did our best to find ways to usefully apply ourselves, all while remaining hopeful that the restrictions would be able to be completely lifted soon and we could get back to some semblance of normal life, although normal will definitely be different than it was before the pandemic.
It has given me some time to reflect and think about what is going on culturally and politically in America and ask some questions.
What is going on in America?
- What is causing the vitriol in the conduct of members of Congress and the President toward one another?
- Is it strictly personality differences and attempted one-upmanship, or is there something deeper?
- Is there a traceable historical basis for certain groups’ actions that give us reason to believe where they intend to go and what they want for their future?
- Is the Democratic Congressional leadership directing legislative decision-makers not to find compromise on the Covid-19 issues unless there are unrelated matters included from their master agenda?
- What and who are the drivers of the direction in which the country is headed? Is it elected leaders, organizations and their lobbyists, caucuses, powerful behind the scenes influencers because of financial contributions, or party insiders?
Speaking from legislative experience
From my personal legislative experience in the Texas House of Representatives, I was a bill passer.
While I certainly had legislation that I drafted or that I had the Legislative Council draft for me, a good number of my bills came from areas where I had professional or business experience.
But proposed legislation can come from other avenues as well.
Very often legislation is developed by trade associations or specific purpose organizations. These groups have their lobbyists, most of whom provide useful information on the bill both pro and con. Most lobbyists are helpful, a legislator just has to remember that person is a “hired gun,” so to speak, but their information comes from people who are “boots on the ground” in their area of expertise.
In addition, there are several dozen significant public interest bills during a legislative session that involve many members and that affect the citizens at large, their way of life and often their finances because of the tax funds needed to implement the proposed legislation.
I chaired the Constitutional Amendments Committee, which always had important matters before it. That, along with my legal training, caused me to follow matters before the U.S. Supreme Court and watch for significant decisions here.
There are checks and balances amongst the three branches of federal government – legislative, executive, and judicial. Individual citizens and groups seeking legislative solutions often require compromise to obtain passage of a proposed law.
One must watch at the federal level how groups which cannot move their concerns through the Congress attempt to use the courts as a means to accomplish their objectives.
This has happened, particularly over the last 60 years, where the Supreme Court has found unwritten constitutional principles, in the penumbras (shadows of other rights) and emanations (from these guarantees that give them life and substance), of the Constitution, e.g. a right of privacy, and adopted them as the law of the land.
So, what’s going on in the United States?
There is and should be deep concern about what is going on in America in the efforts to remove religion from the public discussions and particularly Christianity.
There have been entire books written on this subject, so I will attempt to be succinct, but I must provide enough detail to get your attention.
In the new book Dark Agenda:The War to Destroy Christian America, author David Horowitz tells of an author and the story of the New Atheism written about in another book. He refers to a 2007 book entitled, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens.
Horowitz summarizes Hithens’ thesis as: “Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience.”
“In this utopia,” Horowitz continues, “the author [Christopher Hitchens] sees scientific progress to make possible divorce between sexual life and fear, sexual life and disease, sexual life and tyranny… on the sole condition we banish all religion from the discourse.”
“The reverse of Hitchens title is in fact true, “ Horowitz explains. “Human Beings poison religion, imposing their prejudices, superstitions and corruptions onto its rituals and texts, not the other way around…. The secularists are confident that the nonexistence of God is a self-evident fact… Many people could not live without the consolation of faith. The virtues of religion should not be dismissed lightly.” Horowitz
I do not know about you, but for me this type of irreverence for God is astonishing. I had not realized the extent of it. Maybe I have been a little naïve, but no longer will I be so.
The war against Christians
“In America, the war against Christians is not merely a war against an embattled religion. It is a war against an imperiled nation – a war against this nation and its founding principles: the equality of individuals and individual freedom. For, these principles are indisputably Christian in origin. They are under siege because they are insurmountable obstacles to radicals’ totalitarian ambition to create a new world in their image.”
Horowitz himself had been a progressive until he had an awakening.
Of this transition, Horowitz writes: “I eventually came to understand that my parents and their friends referred to themselves as ‘progressives’ to hide their true faith, which was Communism. For them, Communism was the vision of a future in which the long history of social injustice would finally come to and end. When I eventually rejected this illusion, I realized that their atheistic creed was itself a form of religious faith. Their God was History, which they viewed as an inexorable march to a promise land.”
Same words, Different meaning: Purposeful deception?
What I find so alarming is the use of words within American culture with a certain meaning, but in the words of the radical progressive left the same words have a different meaning.
Take the matter of “Catholic social justice,” which is defined as all people are made in the image of God and so possess an equal and inalienable worth. Because of this essential dignity, each person has a right to all that is needed to allow him or her to live his or her full potential as intended by God. —Network Advocates for Catholic social justice
“When Communism fell in 1991, the progressives did not give up their illusions, they just changed the name of their utopian dream. Today they no longer call their earthly redemption ‘Communism.’ They call it ‘social justice.’ Like Communism, social justice is an impossible future in which the inequalities and oppressions that have afflicted human beings for millennia will miraculously vanish and social harmony will rule.” —Horowitz
Now we have two distinctly different groups using the same words, with significantly different meanings. But the great majority of each groups’ members do not truly know how the other group defines the term “social justice,” yet they all believe they are all on the same side.
Recent examples
After 2008, as Horowitz puts it,“Obamacare comes along with its anti-conscience requirement that employers must provide employees insurance coverage for abortion inducing drugs, contraceptives, and sterilization, even if such provisions violate the employer’s religious convictions.”
Then a religious charity, The Little Sisters of the Poor, whose vision is proclaimed on their official website as: “ to contribute to the Culture of Life by nurturing communities where each person is valued, the solidarity of the human family and the wisdom of age is celebrated, and the compassionate love of Christ is shared with all,” were accused by radical feminists of criminal-worthy practices.
Without efforts to settle by the Administration, and with huge legal fees and court costs as appeals continued, radical feminists attacked the sisters ‘sanctity of life’ position as unconstitutional discrimination against women.
What?! The accusation, especially in light of the Little Sister’s mission, makes no sense.
The big picture
That’s where the matter takes a closer look. Horowitz does a good job of putting a magnifier glass to the reality of the situation. The accusation against the Little Sisters of the Poor is more likely a test case to see what long-term changes can be implemented in our country.
Horowitz explains, “The Little Sisters were accused of putting ‘undue burden’ on women and were therefore part of the oppressor class. Under the cloak of “social justice,” the government radicals were determined to prove that their mandates must be obeyed. Not even the First Amendment could be allowed to stand in the way of fundamentally transforming America,…”
George Weigel, a noted Catholic author, described the situation between the Obama Administration and the Little Sisters as follows: “…whether civil society will survive, and whether voluntary institutions or voluntary associations ranging from the traditional family to multimillion member organizations like the Catholic Church to small business will be allowed to function only if they imitate the government, only if they imitate the state.” “In other words, what was at stake was whether America would remain a democracy or move in the direction of a totalitarian state.” Horowitz
The Little Sisters of the Poor are still in court regarding the matter, no thanks to the Obama Administration.
I hope you now more deeply understand my concerns.
People in this country are being used by powerful organizations that have ulterior motives, a detailed agenda, and a desire to do away with God in American society, Part of their strategy for power is using words that are the same but have a very different meaning!
It is time to become more alert to what is happening. Start asking questions. Do not wait until it is too late and say “I wish I would have become involved to realize what is happening to by country.”
Next month we will explore more alarming aspects of how people with lots of money and shrewd organization skills are working to take away more of our constitutional rights.
May God bless you and your family and keep you safe from the Coronavirus!
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