"Progressives" and Marriage, Part 3

The State is determined to discredit marriage and make it just another "lifestyle choice," like bowling or crafts. The one thing that cannot be allowed is for individuals to put spiritual beliefs ahead of the State, and belief in marriage — along with faith in God and belief in traditional morality — is a deeply spiritual and redemptive faith in the goodness of life, the goodness of one's mate, and the goodness of the future for one's children.  None of this is within the control of the State, a fact intensely resented by progressives like Biden and those who control him.  Not long ago, Biden celebrated "Pride Month" at the White House.  When's the last time a liberal celebrated the nuclear family?

Jeffrey Folks, Marriage Stands in the Way of the State

"Progressives" and Marriage, Part 2

Progressives are determined to destroy traditional ideas of marriage and replace them with ad hoc arrangements more amenable to state control. The deep and enduring love of man and wife offers something real and meaningful, beyond anything the State can provide.  When love is lasting and true, it is the foundation for a joyful existence — not the State, not what one is told on state-controlled media, not what is taught in government schools, not the endless "benefits" dangled in front of the voter to buy his vote.  From within the bastion of the family, one can see the State for what it is: the enemy of liberty and of life itself.

Jeffrey Folks, Marriage Stands in the Way of the State

"Progressives" and Marriage, Part 1

[P]rogressives have done all they can, beginning with Women's Lib and "Open Marriage" in the 1970s and continuing through woke politics, with its emphasis on gay and trans-gendered experience, to undermine conventional marriage.  At its heart, progressivism is nihilistic, seeking to destroy existing institutions and beliefs and replace them with slavery masquerading as the freedom.  All traditional institutions and beliefs stand in the way of this transformation, which is why they are the target of left-wing politicians and media.

No other institution is as important as the nuclear family.  When a man and a woman join together for life with the intention of raising children and working toward a secure retirement, the State loses much of its control over them.  They do not need the "services" of the State.  Their marriage is a fortress against the State's determination to exert dependency.  They can live happily and raise their children according to their values and not those of the State — and their values are based on truths about human nature, not on the warped ideology of Marxism.

Jeffrey Folks, Marriage Stands in the Way of the State

The Problem With Tolerance/Diversity

Ben Shapiro, 8/25/23, Facebook

What is Leftism?

I want to first point out that for years I have been assigning the word "liberal" to what I understand now as leftist (LEFTIST). I'm leaving posts with that label as they are, but all new posts will be labeled under LEFTISM.  Now, it's time for the thought-provoking quote.

Leftism is the attempt to destroy the past — every value and every institution, the good as well as what it regards as the bad. That is why leftists, by definition, hate conservatism. Conservatism seeks to conserve the best from the past. The Left seeks to destroy the past, including the best.

The first of the modern left-wing revolutions, the French Revolution, quite consciously sought to destroy every major institution and value of French society — not just the monarchy but God, religion, the legal system, traditional notions of good and evil, the calendar, the old way of telling time, the old weights and measures, and even the names of the days of the week. In other words, the past. Just like the Left in contemporary America, the leftists of the French Revolution toppled statues — in their case, the statues of every king of France.

The next major left-wing revolution, the Russian, did the same. As the Soviet dissident joke went, “In the Soviet Union the future is known; it’s the past which is always changing.”

Now you can begin to understand leftism.

Dennis Prager, Can You Define Leftism?

Keep Sex for Marriage

I have never suggested that the only reason to abstain from sex before marriage is because God said so. You should abstain from sex before marriage because it is an intimate act reserved for knowing a person on an intimately emotional level. Sex is actually less intimate in some ways than knowing somebody on a deeper, emotional level.

Sex becomes intimate when tied to commitment. And marriage is the only form of commitment that matters. Sorry, but labeling yourself boyfriend and girlfriend or moving in together are not forms of genuine commitment. The door remains open.

Sex before marriage is particularly foolish for women because - unlike women - men treat sex as an achievement, not a form of commitment.

Again, marriage is the only genuine form of commitment. And when you are married, exposing the most intimate parts of your life to your spouse is perfectly appropriate. Doing so beforehand doesn't create a higher level of trust and bond. It actually makes you more insecure because now you've confided the intimate parts of yourself to someone you're not fully committed to.

Ben Shapiro, 8/22/23, Facebook post.

Social Justice

Character is the First Essential

[A] good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous.

George Washington (1790)

Character

Godlessness, Not Guns, Is the Problem

Americans have had ready access to guns throughout our history. In fact, at one point in time a person could order a hunting rifle from the Montgomery Ward catalog and have it delivered right to your house. Marksmanship and Gun Safety were elective classes in many schools across the county. Pickup trucks often had a rifle rack holding at least one rifle, often more than one, in the parking lots of high schools across America. Yet in all those decades we did not experience the kinds of school shootings that happen far too often nowadays. So, what is the cause?

For one thing, Americans have turned their backs on traditional morality, traditional gender roles, and traditional religion. Studies show that regular church attendance has dropped precipitously in the last few decades. Few young people are receiving religious instruction inside of the home anymore, and sadly even fewer are receiving it outside of the home.

D.W.Wilbur, Want to End Gun Violence? Change Society, Don't Ban Guns!

The Importance of Knowing History

It is often said that when a people forget their history, they are condemned to repeat it.  I prefer to rephrase that by saying that when people either forget their history or never knew it in the first place, they make it easy for demagogues to get away with lying to them about it.

Mark C. Ross, False history and its unwitting victims

The Destruction Wrought By the Pill

This [Sexual] revolution was supposed to have freed women from the injustice of sexual repression.  Instead, it led to millions of women becoming pregnant and abandoned, left on their own, to raise their fatherless children.  Many of them were, as a result, raised in poverty and amid crime.  The welfare state sought to correct this mistake by subsidizing single motherhood.  This, in turn, predictably increased what it subsidized. 

Today, the harm wrought by the abandonment of sexual morality has left us with a society that cannot even recognize the good and natural differences between the sexes, even to the point of denying that there are two complementary sexes, and certainly denying that they are a naturally ordained partnership, one without which, society suffers consequences so pervasive that many people call them good. 

Robert Arvay, The Truth About Morality.

Evil and Tolerance

 

The Demise of Our Military

Let’s look at the attitude of the military towards the people who they want to enlist. Many are white males who know which bathroom to use, but if you’re a white male who knows which bathroom to use, you’re an extremist and a racist and an enemy and you’re going to get passed over for promotions and assignments for people based not on anything that you did, and not because of merit, but purely because of your race, sex, and normality. “Come, join an organization that actively hates you!” is not much of a sales pitch.

Kurt Schlichter, Of Course Young Patriots Are Rejecting Joining Our Failing Military

The PILL Caused More Sexual Immorality

Up until the 1960s, the out-of-wedlock birthrate in most segments of society was small, despite there being no reliable contraceptives widely available.  One overwhelming reason for the low incidence of premarital pregnancy was social opprobrium.  For a young, unmarried woman to be known not to be a virgin was considered shameful.  For her to become pregnant was scandalous.  The prospect of being humiliated was a powerful inducement, for women, to delay sexual intercourse until marriage. 

The advent of the birth control pill changed all that, and as history shows, the incidence of out-of-wedlock motherhood, which was supposed to have been dramatically reduced, instead dramatically increased.  Why? 

The birth control pill helped to reduce the stigma of losing one's virginity before marriage.  This, in turn, indirectly reduced the stigma of premarital pregnancy.  This, in turn, reduced the perceived need for the birth control pill.  Once the initial phase of these events had occurred, the floodgates were opened, and what quickly followed was what is called the Sexual Revolution.

Robert Arvay, The Truth About Morality.