USA Today

Situation Review.

So what is our situation in the West in a few brush strokes?

The U.S.A.? … A nation divided. True, there has long been a two party state with the inevitable division of half (more or less) supporting Republicans and the other half Democrat. But now it is different, deeper and not along party lines

The difference now is between two totally different mindsets

The old labels don't serve us well. Left, Right, Fascist, Socialist are slung about – usually as insults – with very little regard to their meaning. But what they actually mean is anyone's guess and they are either useless or downright misleading as applied to current political positions.

So how can one name the opposing camps the US is dividing into.

 

“Progressives” I think will do for one side. For a start they self describe that way. It then remains to fill in this term with an accurate description.

There is a spectrum from beyond Bernie Sanders through Hilary Clinton to … to something middle-of-the road. In “-isms” they cover a vast array, but with a recognition of kinship between the particular groups. So our task becomes a bit like trying to do facial recognition on a Hydra!

I think the recognition of kinship between progressive groups springs from features they typically have in common. 

These are notable ones:

State rights above individual rights;
State controlled re-distribution of wealth (at one end of their spectrum)
Anti-Capitalist
Censorship of opposing news and views
Rejection of democratic process if it does not give the results they want
Rejection of America's historical roots
Rejection of the role of Christianity in shaping the good things in the nation
Rejection of the role of universal “fallen” human nature in shaping the bad things.
Bias against males, whites and Christians
Utopian dreams, but a man-made utopia without God and without recognition of warped human nature. So a utopian dream that is just a phantom leading to hell-on-earth!

On the other side there is an embarrassing lunatic fringe claiming the limelight – Neo-Nazi's, white supremacists, KKK, and even some of the “alt-right”. But I think (and pray!) they are quite a separate phenomenon to the bulk of people opposed to Progressive ideology. At most they may be just a tail trying to wag the dog.

Hilary's “Deplorables” are I think the dog itself! Ordinary hard working people. People who struggle through life: work, marry, raise families, take part in their community and otherwise try to mind their own business.

On the whole, by-and-large they cherish:
 

Patriotism
America's Christian roots and the ideals of the Founding Fathers
American society (which on a world standard is pretty impressive),
Freedom of the individual - not tyranny by the government.
Freedom of Speech
Individuals being rewarded according to their ability and efforts.
Democracy
Rule of law
Pro-Capitalist

I can't think of a name that does not carry baggage or mean other things as well. In Australia we can turn intended insults into badges, for instance Rommel abused the Australian soldiers holding out against his siege of Tobruk by calling them “rats”. Ever after they proudly wore the title “the Rats of Tobruk”. In that vein I thought “Deplorables” might do as a name – but I'm not sure Americans have the same sense of humor. For now the best I can do is “Conservatives” because it is already popularly applied to this group, even though it does not describe them all that well.

If my assessment if the key points of the two sides is correct, these represent opposite and largely irreconcilable belief systems. Moreover each side cannot even comprehend how a sane person could think what the other side believes!

Now we are seeing signs of violence:
To take the example of the violent progressive protest group Antifas: they say that their opponents are “fascists” and so not real human beings worthy of being allowed to have, let alone propagate, ideas. This is the age old perversion that gave us: “Jews are not real people – so we can exterminate them” by the Nazi's; and “Blacks are sub-human - so we can enslave them” by the nineteenth century Democratic Party and so forth!

In conflict with them at the moment is an equally lunatic fringe of extremists who have an even more ruthless penchant for violence. Surely the riots and murder in Charlottesville recently has brought this home to us. Between them these violent extremists on both sides could drag the rest into violence.

There is, tragically, a real possibility of the nation descending into another civil war. Please God, this must not be allowed to happen!

Can the nation be re-united about some compromise position? I truly pray that it can. However to give a successful solution this must be a position that recognises the real world, not a misguided utopian dream nor a return to past errors. For this I think two things are vital.

1. Free speech: let words not bodies be the battleground.

2. Christian revival: “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom”

to All Angry Atheists

To All Angry Atheists

Hello,

Since you are passionate about your opposition to Christianity, I don't need to persuade you further that the question of God's existence is important.

As it is important and I assume you are a seeker after truth, I hope you will play along with me when I ask you to perform a thought experiment. First let me narrow the field. We are only interested in God – not churches (no matter how badly they may have behaved) or priests (and unfortunately we do know how evil some of them have been). A person may be quite justified in being angry at any of these, and angry at their misuse of religion and perhaps angry at “religion” in general as a result. But for our present purposes I ask you to hold this in abeyance. It is your passion for the belief that there is no God that is the subject of our thought experiment.

I am going to ask you to do a simple but difficult mental exercise. To try to look inside yourself and determine what makes you passionate about your belief?

Now I believe that UFO's do not exist. But I'm not passionate about it. I can be indulgent towards people who do believe they exist. And I suppose if a real one landed on my lawn I would become a true believer without any angst!

So back to you: can you pinpoint what puts passion behind your belief? Make, if you will, a note of your reasons.

Now am I right thinking that many of you will have put some variation of “If there is a just & loving God then why is there so much suffering in the world” (In a few posts time I think I can satisfy you on that one). That that may be sufficient reason for thinking Christians are a bunch of duffers – but is that reason for you to get worked up about it? Does it not indicate something further is present?

Please bear with me – since we agree this is an important issue – while I suggest two reasons which I expect none of you will have put down.

The first is guilt. No, I'm not suggesting you are a bad person. Don't we all, if we are driving down the road at a safe and legal speed instinctively slow down. But if we are people with a keen sense of justice, we are not only distressed by the injustices in the world, but also conscious that we ourselves have at times contributed to them. It would be natural indeed laudable if – perhaps at a sub-conscious level – one thought along the lines: “Well there had better not be a God – or I'm for it!”

Now what if I say to you that in fact the God who does exist has done something such that “justice” can be fully served even when He forgives people the punishment “justice” would otherwise demand. Details can come later. But if this is the case and if God has offered to forgive any person who rejects evil and commits themselves to a friendship with him, does this de-fuse the anger you had felt?

The second is an inexplicable surge of anger – pain even, whenever God or Christianity comes to mind or is mentioned. If you have or do feel this, I can give you an explanation.

In the Christian world view there is not only God and a host of good spiritual beings loyal to him, but the devil – a defeated enemy but for the moment an active enemy of God and all that is good – and spiritual beings under his control. These beings assault humans in many ways. One way is stirring up anger and causing a mental / spiritual pain that makes us react against other people. There is solid precedent of these evil spiritual beings doing this to make people flee from thinking about God or Christ. So if you have experienced this sort of attack, you have by experience proved at least the existence of evil spirits. The logical next step is to accept the corollary: the existence of God. The wise move then is to find out more about God and to reject evil and chose to align yourself with the all-good God.