It is argued that there are four virtues of the American people that have allowed them to establish and maintain the preeminence in the world that we enjoy, today: Industriousness, honesty, marriage, and religiosity.
INDUSTRIOUSNESS: Francis Grund, writing in 1825 said, “Active occupation is not only the principal source of the Americans’ happiness, and the foundation of their natural greatness, but they are absolutely wretched without it…[It] is the very soul of an American; he pursues it, not as a means of procuring for himself and his family the necessary comforts life, but as the fountain of all human felicity.”
HONESTY: John Adams, looking at France and the Netherlands in the 18th Century commented on the difference between their revolutions and the revolution in America; he wrote: “It is a want of honesty, and if the common people in America lose their integrity, they will soon set up tyrants of their own.”
MARRIAGE: James Wilson, writing during the Revolutionary era said, “Whether we consult the soundest deductions of reason, or resort to the best information conveyed to us by history, or listen to the undoubted intelligence communicated in holy writ, we shall find that to the institution of marriage the true origin of society must be traced…. To that institution, more than to any other, have mankind been indebted for the share of peace and harmony which has been distributed among them.” And Cicero said “The first bond of society is marriage.”
RELIGIOSITY: John Adams wrote: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
The above thoughts are encompassed in a fine book by Charles Murray, “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.” I strongly recommend this book to you all.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Souls in Transition: notes on a book by Christian Smith
I have recently read the book by the above title, which has some important things to say about our American culture. This book presents a study of what happens to the religious and social orientation and characteristics of people transitioning into adulthood from adolescence—it looks at people between the ages of 18-23 (hereafter called "emerging adults"). Following is my redaction of a significant message from this book:
It seems difficult, if not impossible, in this world for emerging adults to actually believe anything objectively real or true that can be rationally maintained in a way that might require people to change their minds or lives. Truth and reality are considered unreal facts in the world of emerging adults. For them, all knowledge and value are historically conditioned and culturally relative. Emerging adults have not been equipped with adequate intellectual and moral tools to evaluate the facts of culture/society, so…they just rely on how they feel about their world and do not worry about making any kind of impact on culture. And…as a result, they do not criticize anything that other people choose to believe, feel, or do. One way of life, for them, is just as good as any other way of life. Everything to them is relative, anyway. They will not risk being rude, presumptuous, intolerant, or unfeeling.
All of the above encourages the true virtues of humility and openness to difference. This is, after all, a good quality; but it hamstrings them from being able to decide what is right, good, and true. This leaves them uncertain about basic values; and, therefore, they are suffering from a troubling uncertainty about life’s big questions—they are adrift in a very complex world without guideposts. Some of them might want to move forward, but they feel paralyzed, not knowing how they might possibly know anything worthy of conviction and dedication. A lot of this fuzziness in life’s questions has been fostered by academia’s penchant for deconstructive postmodernism, which has sought to reduce all knowledge and value claims to arbitrary exertions of power and control. The glut of information on the Internet causes a lack of authorized gatekeepers to judge, evaluate and rank the merits or value of excess data.
Emerging adults struggle to establish themselves as autonomous and sovereign individuals, with unfettered freedom. The problem is, however, that they do not know what to do with their freedom; they lack conviction and direction. They lack larger visions of what is true and real and good in both the private and the public realms. One thing that hampers them from resolving their dilemma is a slavish obsession imposed on them by the culture driving them to establish private, material, comfort and personal possessions—this seems to be a key purpose in their lives.
Some, but not all, emerging adults spend their undirected lives in the amusements of alcohol and drug intoxication, and the temporary thrills of hook-up sex; but many of them have found these activities unsatisfying and dangerous. Some of them are looking for something more meaningful; but they have great difficulty finding it in their worlds. Thus ends the redaction part of this post.
Well…if any of my readers are interested in knowing more about this very interesting group of Americans, I can strongly recommend the above book. Thanks for reading!
It seems difficult, if not impossible, in this world for emerging adults to actually believe anything objectively real or true that can be rationally maintained in a way that might require people to change their minds or lives. Truth and reality are considered unreal facts in the world of emerging adults. For them, all knowledge and value are historically conditioned and culturally relative. Emerging adults have not been equipped with adequate intellectual and moral tools to evaluate the facts of culture/society, so…they just rely on how they feel about their world and do not worry about making any kind of impact on culture. And…as a result, they do not criticize anything that other people choose to believe, feel, or do. One way of life, for them, is just as good as any other way of life. Everything to them is relative, anyway. They will not risk being rude, presumptuous, intolerant, or unfeeling.
All of the above encourages the true virtues of humility and openness to difference. This is, after all, a good quality; but it hamstrings them from being able to decide what is right, good, and true. This leaves them uncertain about basic values; and, therefore, they are suffering from a troubling uncertainty about life’s big questions—they are adrift in a very complex world without guideposts. Some of them might want to move forward, but they feel paralyzed, not knowing how they might possibly know anything worthy of conviction and dedication. A lot of this fuzziness in life’s questions has been fostered by academia’s penchant for deconstructive postmodernism, which has sought to reduce all knowledge and value claims to arbitrary exertions of power and control. The glut of information on the Internet causes a lack of authorized gatekeepers to judge, evaluate and rank the merits or value of excess data.
Emerging adults struggle to establish themselves as autonomous and sovereign individuals, with unfettered freedom. The problem is, however, that they do not know what to do with their freedom; they lack conviction and direction. They lack larger visions of what is true and real and good in both the private and the public realms. One thing that hampers them from resolving their dilemma is a slavish obsession imposed on them by the culture driving them to establish private, material, comfort and personal possessions—this seems to be a key purpose in their lives.
Some, but not all, emerging adults spend their undirected lives in the amusements of alcohol and drug intoxication, and the temporary thrills of hook-up sex; but many of them have found these activities unsatisfying and dangerous. Some of them are looking for something more meaningful; but they have great difficulty finding it in their worlds. Thus ends the redaction part of this post.
Well…if any of my readers are interested in knowing more about this very interesting group of Americans, I can strongly recommend the above book. Thanks for reading!
Sunday, April 8, 2012
“We have no king but Caesar!” John 19:15
Thus cried the Jewish leaders at the hearing by Pilate. It is interesting to note just what they were doing at that time: They were actually doing one of the things for which they were demanding crucifixion of Jesus. They had inaccurately accused him of pointing out a false God, i.e., himself; but they failed to realize that he was right all the time. Now they were actually doing the unthinkable—claiming that their true king was, of all persons, Caesar!! How could the Jewish leaders have made such a ludicrous mistake?! Hatred and jealousy can do strange things to well-meaning people. They were trying to stand up for their traditional religious system and the religion of Moses; but…they were SO VERY MISGUIDED by their near-sighted and selfish pride.
Do you and I do the same kind of thing at times? How many times do we condemn others for hanging pornographic pictures on the walls of their homes when we harbor pornography in our hearts? Don’t get me wrong—I am not saying that we should not condemn pornography; but I am saying that we need to cleanse our own values, motives, and affinities before we condemn the same things in others.
How many times do we condemn dishonesty in others when we go home and fudge on our income tax report? How often do we criticize others for greed when we lay up cars, vacation homes, excess clothing and any number of other things we do not need for our own use?
My plea is this: Let’s look to ourselves before we condemn others. But…when we find error and sin in ourselves, let us look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith for the forgiveness and genuine cleaning of our motives. Only he can make our criticism of the evil practices we see in our world accurate and efficacious.
Do you and I do the same kind of thing at times? How many times do we condemn others for hanging pornographic pictures on the walls of their homes when we harbor pornography in our hearts? Don’t get me wrong—I am not saying that we should not condemn pornography; but I am saying that we need to cleanse our own values, motives, and affinities before we condemn the same things in others.
How many times do we condemn dishonesty in others when we go home and fudge on our income tax report? How often do we criticize others for greed when we lay up cars, vacation homes, excess clothing and any number of other things we do not need for our own use?
My plea is this: Let’s look to ourselves before we condemn others. But…when we find error and sin in ourselves, let us look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith for the forgiveness and genuine cleaning of our motives. Only he can make our criticism of the evil practices we see in our world accurate and efficacious.
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