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Top Stories Defend Your Position: Healing Our Culture Without Sacrificing Liberty

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Healing Our Culture Without Sacrificing Liberty

  One of my all time favorite songs is the Beatles song ,Revolution. It has a phrase that reflects  the desire of people of all cultures through out history.  " We all want to change the world.". The song also contains an admonition to those who want to tear everything and everyone down and start over.." You need to free your mind instead". It brings another pop song to mind, Micheal Jackson's Man In The Mirror..Where he sets out to change things starting with himself. Those of us who desire to make society  less cruel and profane; we have to start with ourselves.
  This simple approach is an effective place to start, but by no means the only thing that should or can be done. There is a warning given to the followers of Christ in the writings of the New Testament. It is brief and to the point. "Not all men have faith".  Not everyone wants to make this a less cruel and profane place. Not all will believe our cause is noble or even necessary. In the face of that, the task seems herculean. Yet I believe there is hope. A handful of committed citizens can have a profound and positive effect on society. Not everyone has to be converted or even censored for our efforts to produce change.
   The first thing we need to do is to build a consensus that at least somethings need to change. An example of something that all rational people would agree on; graphic pornography that glorifies sexual violence against unwilling victims is not a positive influence in our culture. We do not need to share religious or political beliefs to work together to keep this out of the hands of children We all are made in the image of God, so there is innate capacity in every human being, not only to know what is good, but to do what is good. It has been called natural law. The flip side of that is we are all responsible for obeying that law as far as our ability to understand it. There is a morality that exists that is not negotiable or matter of opinion ..The evidence for a universal moral law is abundant. In every culture in history we have been able to find people who revere virtue; where things like honesty, kindness, friendship and perseverance are held in high esteem. While things like stealing, murder and cruelty to children are held in disdain. Historically all societies expected their people to adhere to at least part of the natural moral law in their dealings with others. If not with their enemies certainly with each other.
   There is a human tendency to want to control and dictate the behavior of others with threats. It is much easier to have a person modify their behavior out of their own self interest and/or the desire to please others. Than to have to spend the effort and capital to monitor, control and punish them. We should make restoration our objective rather then punishment. Even the Bible says, " Mercy rejoices over judgement.
  I believe building a consensus across political and religious lines is essential.There are things all of us will agree are mean, cruel and profane..There are things if allowed will make our country a terrible place to live and raise children and even extremely dangerous. Next comes education. We need to educate the public and our government. We need to identify those things that if tolerated will make us all less free and less safe..There are things that individuals are allowed to do out of a misplaced loyalty to individual freedom. That will rob us all of liberty and personal safety. Liberty is not an all or nothing prospect. Many things if allowed will enslave us....And may even kill us..

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