Have We Lost the Culture War? by Joe Murray - (AgapePress) July 4, 2006 Category: Social Issues

T'S A STORY we have heard all too often. Girl goes to school. Girl studies extremely hard. Girl becomes valedictorian of her class. Girl asked to address her classmates at her graduation ceremony. Girl wants to thank her family and her friends. Girl wants to acknowledge the Hand of God in her success. High school pulls the plug on girl's microphone. Girl is censored. Turn back the hands of time only 50 years and this story would have caused a public outcry so loud that Cindy Sheehan would have been green with envy. In post-Western America, however, this story is lucky to raise a few eyebrows. To those at the helm of the "mainstream" media, this story is infotainment. Put simply, this news piece, the story of a Nevada teen standing firm for her convictions, is told for the cultural amusement of our societal elitists who look upon Christians as relics that should be displayed alongside the bones of a T-Rex in the American Museum of Natural History. Enter the Brave New World. "It is the duty of all Nations," thundered George Washington, "to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors." To Washington, obedience to God would ensure a prosperous and free America. God was the rock upon which our liberties rested. How far we have fallen from the standard espouse by President Washington. Washington's America is no longer the America of today. The Judeo-Christian compass that once guided our leaders and citizens has been displaced. A new moral order, one fueled by hedonism and a mutated form of individualism, has taken its place. Translation: Christians have become strangers in their own country. What is the state of our Union's culture? Poor. In regards to Christian values, Jesus has not just been moved to the back of the bus, he has been thrown out the emergency exit door. Not only has talk of Jesus, and His Church, been evicted from public discourse, but Jesus has become a favorite target of a cultural elite who have grown intolerant of His nagging presence. On the Fox animated series Family Guy, Jesus was shown as a buffoon who did nothing more than inane magic tricks. On Comedy Central's South Park, Jesus is a half-baked televangelist. Gone are the days of Charlton Heston and The Ten Commandants and here are the days of Tom Hanks and the Da Vinci Code. The cultural pogroms are well under way and Christians are in the cross-hairs. If one digs deeper into the cultural psyche of America, he will find that Christianity no longer sets the standard for proper human behavior. The Sodomy Squadron has been flying high, for the Supreme Court has deemed sodomy a fundamental right, the Federal Marriage Amendment was DOA, and Massachusetts strong-armed the Catholic Church into ceasing its adoption program when it demanded that a Catholic agency allow same-sex couples to adopt children under the care of the Roman Catholic Church. In the political sphere, traditionalists have been hit even harder. Despite the fact that the GOP has control of Congress and the White House, this year's "America's Values Agenda" has failed to spread its wings. While the Flag Burning Amendment was only narrowly defeated, the bill to protected the words "one nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance became a political Hindenburg. As reported by Associated Press, "Republicans could not muster a simple majority on the issue in a committee where they outnumber Democrats by six." And the final nail in America's cultural coffin? The American public. In a poll recently conducted by Gallup, just 48 percent of Americans believe that the federal government should "be involved in promoting moral values." Another 48 percent believe the feds should mind its own business. Thus, we have become a nation home to two different peoples, and we Christians constitute the counter-culture. In 1992 Pat Buchanan declared, "[t]here is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself." Thus we have to ask this question: does Christianity's fall to the status of a "counter-culture" mean that the white flag should be raised and the troops sent home? Not a chance. When Napoleon marched on Moscow in 1812 to eliminate the Russian threat to his European hegemony, the 500,000 soldiers accompanying him made the French seem unstoppable. Following the bloody Battle of Borodino, which left over 100,000 French and Russian dead, Napoleon made the Czar's Kremlin bedroom his own, positioned his troops within the ruins of Moscow, and waited for the Czar's surrender; and wait he did. With the harshness of the Russian winter staring Napoleon in the eye and no signs of the Moscow's white flag, Napoleon was forced to begin one of the worst retreats in military history. Napoleon may have had the manpower, but he did not have the staying power. Washington proclaimed, "[o]f all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports." That, my friends, is the key to victory in this culture war. Yes, the Left has waged an ideological Borodino, is sitting atop the ruins of Washington, and is waiting for the white flag to be raised; but the Left, just like Napoleon, lacks the necessary staying power. Traditionalists, on the other hand, are armed with a secret weapon -- faith in God and a belief in absolute Truths. It is the faith of our Fathers that will sustain us, and it is our unyielding devotion that will run these folks out of DC. Ben Franklin once mused, "[r]ebellion against tyrants is obedience to God." As this author writes, the other side of the cultural divide is devouring its own with the self-destructive policies it espouses. A Russian winter is looking it in the eye; time is its enemy. Retreat is inevitable and when it begins, the words of Ben Franklin will ring true. Joe Murray (jrm1835@gmail.com) is a civil rights attorney residing in New Jersey. Murray is a former staff attorney for the American Family Association and has also served as national director of correspondence for Patrick J. Buchanan's 2000 presidential bid. Murray has been a guest on numerous radio and television talk shows, including the O'Reilly Factor. More guest columns.