Does modern liberalism promote a death culture? Are the tenets of socialism, communism, and other forms of Marxism compatible with the growth of a healthy and vibrant society? All attendant studies of history would suggest no. In a society where religion is increasingly dismissed, the claim that the elites seek a deicide, or the killing of God and His things, may not be too far off the mark, as described by Eric Voegelin in
Science, Politics and Gnosticism. After all, that is the shortcut to eliminating the problem of "sin"!
In the pagan world, human sacrifice was known, and religious prostitutes were common. In the modern world, partakers of the sex cult fall victim to disease, mental dysfunction, disorientation, alienation from family, anomalies of anatomy and diminished standards of living. But how much longer can our culture sustain this bitter and schizophrenic disagreement over who defines virtue -- before it cracks, breaks and sinks below the surface of history?
I. Phil Robertson: King Duck & High-Flying Christian Apologist
Phil Robertson is the patriarch of the clan comprising the top-ranked cable production in history, a reality show named Duck Dynasty. The response was deafening when Phil recently shared an orthodox opinion on marriage, albeit in somewhat colorfully graphic terms, arguing against homosexuality. The typical outrage against those who dare breach the PC Ten Commandments was expressed, and exile from civilized human community granted. This should not be seen as fundamentally different from the death sentence levied against his twin Remus, by Rome's founder Romulus, when the former jumped the foundation of the city wall of Rome, marking himself forever a barbarian.
Robertson's
remarks are here:
Out here in these woods, without any cameras around, Phil is free to say what he wants. Maybe a little too free. He's got lots of thoughts on modern immorality, and there's no stopping them from rushing out. Like this one:
"It seems like, to me, a vagina‚--as a man--would be more desirable than a man's anus. That's just me. I'm just thinking: There's more there! She's got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I'm saying? But hey, sin: It's not logical, my man. It's just not logical."
"Everything is blurred on what's right and what's wrong," he says. "Sin becomes fine."
What, in your mind, is sinful?
"Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men," he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: "Don't be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers--they won't inherit the kingdom of God. Don't deceive yourself. It's not right."
II. The Gay Utopian Vision: Militant Pseudo-Puritan Antinomianism?
One of the mysteries of Western political evolution is how liberal progressives became self-identified libertines. Searching back into the medieval period, we can trace this development to the Brethren of Free Spirit movement, according to Norman Cohn in
The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages. Here we find a religious group who believed themselves to be beyond law. Further, they felt compelled to express themselves as sexual free-agents as a way of underscoring their status as "above the law." It is crucial we understand the same spirit lives on today in the gay movement, with the identical and furious belief that expressing even the most unbridled type of sexuality are a higher spirituality than any Believer could muster. This is both an act of rank self-expression and also a bombastic undermining of the traditional political and social structure.
Cohn quotes a member of the Free Spirit movement:
When a man has truly reached the great and high knowledge, he is no longer bound to observe any law or command, for he has become one with God. God created all things to serve such a person, and all that God ever created is the property of such a person... He shall take from all creatures as much as his nature desires and craves, for all created things are his property... A man whom all heaven serves, all people and all creatures are indeed obliged to serve and obey; and if any disobeys, it alone is guilty.
This certainly begs the question as to how the modern socialists and Marxists, who so virulently deny the efficacy of God or any religion, were influenced by Christianity? Voegelin, in
The New Science of Politics, explains that the entire structure of modern leftism was lifted from a debased explanation of the Book of Revelations, delivered by 12
th century Joachim of Flora, a rogue Catholic priest.
In any event, in the combining of denatured biblical theology with the writings of such groundbreaking socialists as Robert Owen, we find an intoxicating mixture of self-righteousness and debauchery. Consider a
description of the Free Spirit believers:
Later followers of the Free Spirit took the same principles even further, saying that for all those who realized their identity with God, any action whatsoever was permitted, including theft, rape, incest and murder. As with Tantric Buddhism, the sex act was regarded as the delight of Paradise and the ascent to mystical ecstasy. The followers of the Free Spirit were the hippies of the day.
The notion of sex, which has evolved into gender, is now a political artifact in which science, religion or psychology has no say. Whatever gender one decides to name themselves, is then reified in the law. In this sense the mentality is indistinguishable from the ideas behind Modern Art. Here, "Art" is indistinguishable from philosophy in that it's all in the mind of the artist, which in itself is based upon clear Marxist theory, according to Christopher Butler in
Modernism, A Very Short Introduction.
III. War of Authority: Bible, Humanism or Thelema?
A. The West's Biblical Foundations
The current
kulturkampf, or culture war, may seem fixated on the issues of rights of homosexuals and the definition of marriage, but it is actually much bigger. There is a colossal battle over the soul of the culture which will result in either the Bible, or humanistic Marxism, winning the day. This battle encompasses a myriad of topics, including feminism versus tradition, socialism versus capitalism, free speech, property rights versus redistribution, scientific integrity, honesty in journalism, ideology versus factual orientation, freedom of religion, and even notions about justice, love, truth and God.
The history of the West is contingent upon Bible followers putting their ideas into practice for two millennia, according to Hugh Trevor-Roper in
The Rise of Christian Europe. Trevor-Roper explains how the outline and history of Western Europe, and therefore the modern world, would be inconceivable without the Bible, church, and various followers. Other authors have richly illustrated this in such volumes as Stark's
The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success, Kelly's
The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World, Kennedy's
What if Jesus Had Never Been Born, and Schmidt's
How Christianity Changed the World, etc.
B. Humanism's Disasters
The West's 2,000 year commitment to Biblical standards, which while imperfectly applied, at least gave a north star to guide the culture, is now in desperate peril. Poised to take its place, already secured in many quadrants, are the standards of socialism, which totally defer to humanistic models. In other words, the Bible and its Ten Commandments which represent God's law, are set aside and the standards of humanism takes its place. The trouble is that no humanistic, or pagan, or philosophical replacement for the Ten Commandments has ever been accepted. Therefore, within socialism and Marxism, any actions are acceptable, depending upon the situation as confirmed by P. H. Vigour's
A Guide to Marxism.
The problem with Marxism is that it is an inherently unstable theory. This is partly because Karl Marx was much better at decrying capitalism than building his own system. And it also has to do with the fact that the ideas behind Marxism are simply illogical, contra-factual and childish.
No society has ever achieved success using a socialism or communism. This is despite Lenin, Stalin and Mao all sacrificing their economies and populations trying to prove the theory true. After 150-200 million residents were murdered by their government in the name of communism, it was proved that Marxism, in any form, was entirely unworkable. And yet today, all Europe is infiltrated and corrupted by Marxism. And western democracy teeters on the brink of collapse as socialism makes its play. Yet given the unfortunate track record of Marxist attempts to run societies, it is certain that this will not last.
C. Thelema of Satan
Given the unstable nature of socialism, and the lawless, antinomian quality of its legal, political and governmental theory, sheer anarchy is destined. Here is Alistair Crowley's famed law: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." This is known as the Thelema, a doctrine which represents a kind of anti-biblical law which makes a person's will synonymous with law.
So, one can see that rejecting the biblical idea of mankind and society seems to lead to an inevitable progression towards the godless and satanic worship of the self. Within this paradigm we can find the ethos of homosexuality. And will we throw out all standards in the name of "equality" when the net effect will be destruction for the opportunity of success of everyone?
For example, when researcher
Mark Regnerus showed that children of gay parents typically suffer diminished outcomes, it's unfortunate PC academics sent over 200 hundred letters to the University of Texas demanding his paper be withdrawn! This, without any evidence of academic shortcomings! In fact, if science itself--like every other academic discipline, is filtered through the screen of Political Correctness then we cannot expect science to protect us any longer. (see
Politics, Environmentalism Beating Out Science In Regulating Risk Say Experts, or
Scientific Groupthink and GayParenting)
Overall, it homosexuals suffer from a much higher risk of mental health problems, substance abuse, disease, self-harm, institutionalization, romantic upheaval, criminal behavior, and shortened lifespans. Should we not be concerned that brother and sister Americans are suffering, with no one even taking their plight seriously?
IV. Costs of the Kulturkampf
Can even God be sacrificed to hide the Truth? This was the insane Nietzsche's dream. The battle currently raging between the Robertson family and A&E cable is merely the latest, and perhaps most unhinged example of the
kulturkampf which threatens to tear America asunder. Is it possible that the costs of the present war to define America's authority and morals will be too great to bear? And, if the gay posse destroys America in their march for full equality, would they even care? Perhaps the only question that matters is the outcome of this war will decide what source book will inform America--the Bible, The Communist Manifesto, or Alistair Crowley's Satanic
Book of Lies.
