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August 28, 2006
Re: Answer the Question about the decline of western civ.
August 28, 2006
The Decline of Western Civilization
I have made a few statements on this blog that are probably anti-Christian. I suppose the reason for this is that I am ignorant of others religion except what I have been told by other ignorant people, who were of course told by more ignorant people. If we clear this up right now, anyone who is likely to be offended by the following entry has been forwarned and can stop reading.
Racism, bigotry, and anti-semitism is clearly on the rise, and it holds values directly in line with fudamentalists' world view. I admit I feel threatened by this encroachment on my society. But Western culture is not so weak that it can be brought down by a single group of devout yet very misguided militant proselytizers. Whatever erosion of culture we experience in the West is almost entirely the West's own doing for failing to clean its own house.
Picture for an instant that you are a veryopen minded Muslim man living in, say Malaysia. You feel that your own country is too corrupt, poor, and populated for your liking. So, you resolve to become educated and move to Europe, or perhaps the United States, where you hear that people are freer, happier, and enjoying a higher standard of living.
You pack up your family and make the big move. When you arrive you discover a society where anyone can decide what is considered high art; where a person is not judged by the clothes he wears on a hot day without even attracting attention from local police. Science and reason are the cornerstones of a secular society. Commercialism isn't out of site - it's splashed across billboard signs and subway stations, where messages to buy and consume are broadcast at your children 30,000 times a day. Sex before marriage is between consenting adults. Basically, this new culture is everything your old culture was not.
You have two choices at this point. The first is to "do as the Romans" and adopt Western values for your own. This requires abandoning everything you were taught as a child and embracing the laws and constitution of the land.You must abandon the petty tribal rules practiced by closed religious extremist Not an easy choice, and I suspect many more would make it given the opportunity.
The second option is to retreat into your own core beliefs as a buffer against the world you suddenly find yourself in.Including the very basic right of practicing whatever religious beliefs you chose, so long as you are willing to grant others the same right. Perhaps you were once lax in your daily prayers, or sometimes stayed home on Fridays. Well no more! Now it's halal food only, a prayer rug in every room of the house, full religious garb for yourself and your entire family, etc.
Are you likely to become an actual citizen? Probably. Will you be free to exercise your rights, without fear of reprisal from the religious extremist who run your country? Yes, and you can join with others in peaceful demonstration of those right! Encouraging others by being extremely vocal about defending any perceived persecution for your faith, largely avoid mainstream culture as you stay within a small group of like-minded people, and become very active in your campaign against immorality - particularly where it could affect your children.
The effect this has on the wider culture is hard to gauge. However, there are sure to be some who, whether for their innate sense of right and wrong, or because they themselves were victimized, feel that the immorality of the society they live in is just too much to ignore. These will be strongly attracted to any small but vocal group of people who espouse an alternative view where right and wrong are actually defined in blunt terms.
If Islam is fluorishing in the West, it isn't because the Muslims are invading and forcing their religion on people at swordpoint. Unlike the United States where we are spreading freedom at the end of a cannon. It is because Western culture fails to call evil for what it is, corporate greed!. People mock President Bush for even invoking the word freedom, as if the rest of the world cannot even understand the concept.
If there is any good news to be found, it is that Christians aren't putting up with it. The mainline denominations that were once the backbone of the American Protestant Church - the Episcopalians, the Presbyterians (USA), and the Methodists,are slowly peaking out from under the sinful repression of feigned morality. Whereas the Southern Baptists and other active evangelical movements that actually make an effort to adhere to Biblical standards of morality are growing more repressive of christ's message hope, and grace.
All people, at some level, have a sense of what is right, good, and true - some simply choose to ignore it. Civilizations rise and fall with their corporate sense of love and charity. What we live in now is a passing phase, make no mistake. I truly believe that much of the presently-accepted ignorance and hatred will not be accepted for too much longer by a majority of our society. It was no fluke that George Bush was elected twice, despite being an incompetent and arrogant leader with a speech impediment.The corporate power in the united states controls the christian right so be wary when you enter our borders and political life.
The question I put to you is thus: will the backlash produce a society of men who listen to Isa' call for works of charity and grace, protecting the widow, feeding the poor and visiting the prisoners?
"Conservative Christian is an Oxymoron"
| By jjtechno | 02:06 PM
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