The View From 1776

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John Lawrence, who runs the excellent blog Conservative Joe, takes a common sense stance on the efforts here and in Canada to portray Christians as more dangerous to the survival of the Western world than Al Queda.

THE INEXPLICABLE ANTI-VALUES CROWD

by John Lawrence

Have you ever been asked why you feel you have the right to foist your views on others? One of the left’s greatest arguments against right-wingers is that they are all a bunch of Christians who are trying to force their values on others. They stand up and cry out that no one in our country has that right.

That is plain silly and illustrates the fundamental problems that are occurring in our educational system. Our children are told what is proper, acceptable, and expected of them. For the most part they are no longer taught how to weigh out arguments, and in the few instances where they are, they are given an argument along with an understanding of what the correct answer should be.

Let me explain what I mean. We hear people speaking out against having to live under someone else’s belief system. After all, what I think is wrong may be okay by your standards, and it is said that I have no right to tell you what to believe. So far, we are in agreement. To go beyond this point gives us a huge problem, because no matter which way we head, we run into a set of standards and guides, or laws if you will.

I am not going to get into the beliefs of our founders or what they intended, nor am I about to preach to you. I think, however, that most people would agree that our earliest laws were formed out of the tenets of the Bible. The Ten Commandments, especially, played a huge part in the formation of our laws.

Over the last several decades, Canadians have been staging a rebellion against anything Christian, and anything biblical. It seems that some are outraged and fed up that a minority would insist on forcing their views on others. If we throw out the ordinances that have helped form our country and make it great, from what will we form our new ordinances?

Our children have been told that there is no absolute right or wrong. This is a recipe for disaster and by telling them this, we are doing them a grave injustice. They are told that violence is wrong, that they should talk their problems out. Instead, they are shooting and stabbing each other. I never wanted to shoot anyone when I was 15, and I am sure that you didn’t either. What has changed? Well, for one thing, we just agreed that our children are taught that there is no right or wrong. Given that philosophy, who says that it is wrong to use violence? If we tell them it is wrong, are we not foisting our beliefs onto them? Why should they have to believe in the values that we teach them? They are using the same argument that many adults have, and it is undoing our justice system and society.

What if I were to present to you the question of whether or not it is okay to walk up to somebody and rob them? Would you say it is wrong? How dare you! Again, you are trying to project your values onto me. You could argue that society finds it unacceptable, therefore it is wrong. Does society change its view of what is acceptable and unacceptable? Of course, it does. It does this through the education system, through the media and mediums such as movies, novels, etc. It does it through legislation, and through social activism. When somebody wants to change the societal norm, they begin to present the change as an idea, and often it is presented to our children as a question, such as, “Why is it wrong for a man to marry a child?”

Societal changes are deliberate in most cases. It begins with a few who do not subscribe to the beliefs or values, (oh, oh, I think those words just applied to you,) of the rest of society. If you believe that it is wrong for a man to marry his dog, for example, you could be accused of standing in the way of that man’s happiness. Who do you think you are?

Those who wish to rewrite our laws and who wish to move our societal norms to the left are applauded and congratulated. They are called educated, enlightened, and tolerant by their peers. Those who wish to hold the bar where it is or who wish to move it back to the right are demonized and called the exact opposite by the same people who wish to move the bar to the left. The attempt to portray the ‘battle of the bar’ as religious vs secular just isn’t accurate. It is just the age old argument as to where the proper placement should be.

What ever happened to the arena of thought? Why can’t we weigh the arguments of both parties by their merits? If we move our standards to the left, and the system starts to decay, such as in the area of crime and punishment, what is the harm in moving the bar back? That is not going backwards, it is sticking with something that has been proven to work for most. Why must we attack and generalize those who attempt this?
Those individuals who wish to liberalize our country are attempting to foist their belief system on the rest of us; it is as simple as that. They are no different from those who wish it to become less liberal. Both sides have a set of standards, and both sides want to convict us of what is acceptable and what is not. To portray only one side as having a moral standard is just not correct; they are simply two different moralities.

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