Some Quotes About the 2nd Amendment

The Militia is composed of free Citizens.  There is therefore no danger of their making use of their power to the destruction of their own rights, or suffering others to invade them.

Samuel Adams, Writings, pg. 251

The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.

Samuel Adams, Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788

The police of a state should never be stronger or better armed than the citizenry.  An armed citizenry, willing to fight, is the foundation of civil freedom.

Robert A. Heinlein, Chapter 9, “When we die, do we die all over?”, p. 97

A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined…

George Washington, First Annual Address, to both House of Congress, January 8, 1790

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms

Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776

A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785

The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to to John Cartwright, 5 June 1824

On every occasion [of Constitutional interpretation] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying [to force] what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, [instead let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed.

Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, 12 June 1823

I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers.

George Mason, Address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 4, 1788

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.

James Madison, Federalist No. 46, January 29, 1788

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country.

James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434, June 8, 1789 (delete 5/10/17)

A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves…and include, according to the past and general usuage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms…  To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.

Richard Henry Lee, Federal Farmer No. 18, January 25, 1788

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.... The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.

Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778

This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty.... The right of self defense is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.

St. George Tucker, Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1803

The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms, like law, discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside. And while a single nation refuses to lay them down, it is proper that all should keep them up. Horrid mischief would ensue were one-half the world deprived of the use of them; for while avarice and ambition have a place in the heart of man, the weak will become a prey to the strong. The history of every age and nation establishes these truths, and facts need but little arguments when they prove themselves.

Thomas Paine, "Thoughts on Defensive War" in Pennsylvania Magazine, July 1775

What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty .... Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.

Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, I Annals of Congress 750, August 17, 1789

If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers, may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual state. In a single state, if the persons intrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair.

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28

[I]f circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist.

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28, January 10, 1788

The Darkest Day

The darkest day, if you live tomorrow, will have passed away.

William Cowper (1731-1800)

A Powerful Force Affecting Everything

We live in a world that has been bent and twisted by a force so fundamental, so powerful, that it literally impacts every human thought, every human intention, every situation, every experience of society and every moment of history. This force is the inescapable pathology of the created universe. It is sin. One syllable, three letters in English, yet a concept without which it is impossible to every understand your life or mine.

Paul David Tripp, Lost in the Middle, pg.16-17

Emotions are not Illnesses

The brain is a physical organ; the mind is not. With this subtle semantic twist, the mind (disguised as an organ of the body) was elevated as a scientific and medical concept in contrast to the soul, which is a theological reality. A choice was made between a so-called scientific concept and a theological one. The average person does not see that both mind and soul are abstract concepts. One is an abstraction of psychotherapy and the other is an abstraction of religion.

At the same time that a physical organ (the brain) was replaced by an abstraction (the mind), another change took place. Whereas the church had believed that there was a relationship of sin and circumstances to mental/emotional disorders, the psychotherapist introduced the medical concept of sickness to explain such disorders. Nevertheless, mental suffering is not synonymous with sickness—we’ve only been deluded into thinking that it is. We easily accepted the word “sickness” to refer to mental-emotional problems because that was the “loving” and “understanding” way to cover up moral responsibility—ours as well as theirs.

There’s a serious problem when people confuse emotions with tissue and sin with sickness. Such confusion of words leads to erroneous thinking. This very confusion and error virtually ended the cure-of-souls ministry in the church.

Dr. Martin and Deidre Bobgan and T. A. McMahon, Psychology and Psychotherapy (Part 2)

There is No Evidence for Effectiveness of Psychotherapy

Today people wholeheartedly believe that psychological counseling theories, dressed in a wide variety of styles and shades, contain the secrets and answers for helping troubled souls. Their confidence in the curative power of psychotherapy has increased in spite of the absence of substantial proof of any great degree of effectiveness. Persuaded by the claims of psychotherapists, they fail to question the validity of those claims, refuse to examine research, and blindly believe popular myths about psychotherapy.

Dr. Martin and Deidre Bobgan and T. A. McMahon, Psychology and Psychotherapy (Part 2)

Psychotherapy is a Hoax

According to sound research, not only is psychotherapy less effective than it is purported to be, but in many cases it’s even harmful. After examining numerous efficacy (effectiveness) studies on psychotherapy, university professor and widely recognized researcher Dr. Robyn Dawes says, “There is no positive evidence supporting the efficacy of professional psychology.” Dawes further says “Evaluating the efficacy of psychotherapy has led us to conclude that professional psychologists are no better psychotherapists than anyone else with minimal training—sometimes those without any training at all; the professionals are merely more expensive.” In fact, Dr. Lawrence LeShan, when he was president-elect of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, said: “Psychotherapy may be known in the future as the greatest hoax of the twentieth century.”

Dr. Martin and Deidre Bobgan and T. A. McMahon, Psychology and Psychotherapy (Part 2)

A BIG Lie of the LEFT

Admittedly today’s left-wing fascism differs in one important respect from Hitler’s and Mussolini’s left-wing fascism. The old fascists at least used the name; they called themselves what they were. Our fascist Left, by contrast, purports to be anti-fascist. I know, it’s crazy. The very people who champion the centralized state, have a long history of racism and racial terrorism, used the power of the government against their political opponents while they could, and continue to use cultural intimidation and street thuggery to enforce their ideology, insist they are the ones who are anti-fascist.

Dinesh D’Souza, The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, pg.231-232

The LEFT’s Conspiracy

The Left can work together, and does so naturally, to get its message widely disseminated.  This is how big lies get told and come to be widely accepted as incontrovertible truth. Typically, the lie originates in academia, where one left-wing academic concocts it and other left-wing academics whoop it up.  Then the media adopts it, invoking the academic theory for validity and then drumming it into the popular mind as a proven truth. Periodically Hollywood then converts the story into a sitcom or feature film and builds emotional support for the cause while also making it seem fashionable and cool. Finally, all three institutions gang up on anyone who questions the big lie, seeking to discredit them, ruin them, and ideally drive them out of public life altogether.

Dinesh D’Souza, The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, pg.197-198

The LEFT’s Real Power

The Left’s real power does not derive from any covert conspiracy but rather from a state-within-a-state that is very much in plain sight.  He Left doesn’t need to rely on the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA because it already has three of the most powerful institutions of our society.  They Left dominates academia, Hollywood, and the media.  These are the three most powerful megaphones of our culture and they are the primary instruments for disseminating information to people, especially to young people. In a democratic society, whoever controls the flow of information controls public opinion that ultimately decides all questions.  This state-within-a-state is the strongest, deadliest weapon of progressivism and the Democratic Party. Without it neither progressives nor Democrats could get as far as they have, or mount the kind of scorched-earth opposition they have against Trump.

Dinesh D’Souza, The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, pg.196

Like the Liberals in America, Hitler Was Against the Family Unit

Hitler is sometimes characterized by the Left as a social conservative dedicated to marriage  and the traditional family. Let’s listen to what Hitler actually says in Mein Kampf about the purpose of marriage: “Marriage cannot be an end in itself, but must serve the one higher goal, the increase and preservation of the species and the race. This alone is its meaning and its task.” So marriage is not primarily for uniting people who love each other nor is it for giving them the joys of parenthood; rather, marriage exists largely to serve the collective goals of the state and the species. No traditionalist will agree with this, but many progressive did and still do.

Dinesh D’Souza, The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, pg.158

The “One Drop” Rule is Alive With the Left

The “one drop rule” is very much with us, not only as a matter of law but also as a matter of personal identity.  Think about Obama: he’s half white and half black, yet he identifies as black.  Many African Americans have white ancestry, yet they consider themselves black. Why?  Because of the one-drop rule. If any of these people tried to self-identify as white—or refuse to racially classify themselves at all—left-wing groups like the Black Caucus and the Southern Poverty Law Center would condemn them for it. The Census Bureau, even today, counts blacks and whites according to the one-drop rule and uses it to implement a host of affirmative action and other race-based programs.

Dinesh D’Souza, The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, pg.137-138

Where Our Rights Rest

A man's rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, jury box, and the cartridge box.

Frederick Douglas

How the LEFT Are Like Nazis

German National Socialism differs from Italian fascism in making race—as opposed to national allegiance—primary.  Interestingly modern American progressivism also developed an obsession with race. Today if you propose removing racial categories from the census, the strongest opposition is likely to come from the progressives who believe, as one of their number, Cornel West, put it in the title of a book, Race Matters. Mussolini would not have agreed, but [Marxist Ludwig] Woltmann would have, as would any dedicated member of the Nazi Party.

Dinesh D’Souza, The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, pg.82

What Fascism Really Is

Fascism is an Italian term that means “groupism” or “collectivism.”  The fasci in Italy were groups of political activists who got their name from the fasces of ancient Rome—the bundles of rods carried by the lictors to symbolize the unified strength of the Romans. The core meaning of the term fascism is that people are stronger in groups than they are as individuals.

…

Here is a direct quotation from [Anthony] Gregor’s The Ideology of Fascism: “The movement itself was not conservative. It was revolutionary. Its clear intention was to destroy all the social, economic and political artifacts of classical liberalism.”  And here is a quote from [Stanley] Payne: “The nucleus that eventually founded fascism in Italy did not stem from the right-wing nationalists but from the transformation of part of the revolutionary left.”

Dinesh D’Souza, The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, pg.37, 38

What the LEFT Means by “Progress”

Progress by itself is a vacant term; we need to know what progressives mean when they use it.  What they mean is progress toward greater federal power and federal control.  The progressives, in other words, are champions of the power of the centralized state.  Two very bad words in modern progressivism are “state’s rights.” Progressives are happiest when the federal government is running things, and when they are in charge of the federal government.

Dinesh D’Souza, The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, pg.34

The Racist Democrat Party

The Ku Klux Klan was the domestic terrorist arm of the Democratic Party.  The racism of the Democratic Party in America not only preceded the racism of the Nazis, it lasted longer—more than a century compared to the twelve years of Nazi rule in Germany. The Democratic Party’s racism after the Civil War was preceded by the Democratic Party’s defense of slavery and its support of policies for the relocation and extermination of American Indians.

Dinesh D’Souza, The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, pg.25

Be Where the Battle Is

Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefields besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.

Martin Luther

They Control the Culture When They Control the Language

One of the most insidious impacts of the “progressive” movement of the last 20 years is the way the voices of the liberal left have imposed politically correct language on the American public by creating new meanings for old words.

For example, in an attempt to quash reasoned dialogue on important cultural and moral issues, the misuse of the word "hate" has worked very well for the left against conservative Christians. Most Americans – especially Christians – recoil at the idea of hating people. Rightfully so. Therefore, if one can establish hate as the motive for opposing a particular issue or behavior, it sabotages any real debate. End of discussion.  . . .

For example, when it comes to human sexuality, progressives have done a masterful job of seemingly turning Christianity against Christians. How? By convincing the general public – and even many Christians – that to speak against homosexuality or transgenderism is in fact hateful. Thus, Christians must be haters, even though their Bible and their creeds teach love. It’s akin to saying that because Christians believe drunkenness is a sin, we, therefore, hate the person who is drunk. The teaching of “hate the sin but love the sinner” is not allowed by the progressives.

Tim Weldon, How the Loud Left Hijacked Hate, American Family Association Email, 2/14/18

Psychology is NOT a Coherent Science

Clinical psychology and its active arm of psychotherapy have indeed adopted the scientific posture. However, from a strictly scientific point of view they haven’t been able to meet the requirements. In attempting to evaluate the status of psychology, the American Psychological Association appointed Sigmund Koch to plan and direct a study that was subsidized by the National Science Foundation. This examination involved eighty eminent scholars in assessing the facts, theories, and methods of psychology. The results of this extensive endeavor were then published in a seven-volume series entitled Psychology: A Study of a Science.

Koch describes the delusion of people regarding psychology as a science: “The hope of a psychological science became indistinguishable from the fact of psychological science. The entire subsequent history of psychology can be seen as a ritualistic endeavor to emulate the forms of science in order to sustain the delusion that it already is a science” (italics his).

Koch says: “Throughout psychology’s history as ‘science,’ the hard knowledge it has deposited has been uniformly negative” (italics his). He contends that much of psychology is not a cumulative or progressive discipline in which knowledge is added to knowledge. Rather, what is discovered by one generation “typically disenfranchises the theoretical fictions of the past.” Instead of refining and specifying larger generalizations of the past, psychologists are busy replacing them. He adds, “I think it by this time utterly and finally clear that psychology cannot be a coherent science” (italics his). Koch suggests, “As the beginning of a therapeutic humility, we might re-christen psychology and speak instead of the psychological studies”

(italics his). And he would certainly criticize psychotherapy for living under “the delusion that it already is a science” when it is not.

Another reason why psychotherapy cannot legitimately be called a coherent science is because it attempts to deal with deep human complexities that can’t be directly observed or consistently predicted. Furthermore, the therapist and client are each individually unique, and their interaction lends an additional dimension of variability. When one adds time and changing circumstances, it’s no wonder that the therapeutic relationship escapes the rigors of science. In considering the dilemma between science and personal individuality, Dr. Gordon Allport says: “The Individual, whatever else he may be, is an internally consistent and unique organization of bodily and mental processes. But since he is unique, science finds him an embarrassment. Science, it is said, deals only with broad, preferably universal, laws….  Individuality cannot be studied by science, but only by history, art, or biography.”

Dr. Martin and Deidre Bobgan and T.A. McMahon, PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY (PART 1). 

Psychotherapy is Based on Unscientific Opinions

Psychotherapy is based on theories of personality that are simply unproved opinions originating from atheists, agnostics, and other non-Christians. These theories aren’t like scientific theories. They’re simply collections of unscientific, secular, and, in many cases, anti-Christian beliefs that often contradict one another. The therapy itself is simply “talk,” which includes talking about the client and the client’s problems and helping the client to see himself/herself from the perspective of whatever particular theory is being used by the therapist. Psychotherapy (psychological counseling) is the most subjective and therefore the most deceptive branch of psychology.

Dr. Martin and Deidre Bobgan and T.A. McMahon, PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY (PART 1). 

Psychology is NOT Science

Psychology hints at being a science but has failed to produce a significant body of information to prove itself in that way. Its primary emphasis is on human behavior, which can’t be quantified in any meaningful manner. The nature of human choices is extremely subjective, involving emotions, values, and consciousness—none of which can be measured; nor can the mind, being a nonphysical part of the human makeup. The issue of whether or not psychology is a science wouldn’t be worth debating except that just the term “science” carries a great weight of influence. Legitimate or not, the “science” label impresses the masses. Nearly 100 disciplines of psychology cover a wide spectrum of undertakings, from applied behavior analysis to transpersonal psychology. Psychotherapy, i.e., psychological counseling or clinical psychology, is the most prevalent.

Dr. Martin and Deidre Bobgan and T.A. McMahon, PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY (PART 1). 

Celebrating Mediocrity?

They [public school] keep inventing new ways to celebrate mediocrity.

Bob Parr (Mr. Incredible), in "The Incredibles"

Educate Yourself, Think for Yourself

Privacy is harder than ever when everyone is invited to be linked in, connected and transparent to others (including hackers and the government), but it matters.  Reading books is time consuming, but it matters. Reflection is easily drowned out when life is fired at us point-blank, but it matters. Independent thinking is hard when the social media reinforce groupthink, but it matters. Thinking for ourselves is difficult when it is so much easier to download an expert opinion, but it is essential to the freedom of our own agency, so it matters. Conversations with an iron-sharpens-iron quality are rarer when minds seek carbon-copy approval from others in their own bubble, but they matter. History is more crucial than ever when the relentless modern focus is on the present and the future, but it matters. The courage to hold unfashionable convictions is more difficult when social media mobs give their thumbs-up or thumbs-down like a Roman emperor, but it matters.

And so it goes.  Having the right information is vital, but achieving genuine knowledge is better, and mastering both and then attaining true wisdom is better still.

Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.201-202

Words Need Truth Backing

Words, which are on proper occasions the most powerful engines, lose their weight and power and values when they are not backed by fact or winged by truth, when they are obviously the expression of a strong feeling, and not related in any way to the actual facts of the situation.

Winston Churchill, 1926. Cited by Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.200

The Lack of Tolerance With the “LGBT” Agenda

If you don’t believe that Caitlyn Jenner is a woman, you’re the worst kind of hateful. If you think a child deserves a mother and a father, you are a bigot. If you think a gender-dysphoric boy should not be treated as a girl, you’re evil. If you think a man should use the men’s restroom, regardless of what sex he thinks he is, you are discriminatory. If you think parents’ desire to get their children counseling help for their same-sex attraction is okay, you’re very dangerous. If your church teaches that homosexual sexual activity is wrong, your church is bigoted. You must agree with every part of LGBT values or be slimed. This dictatorial absolutism is not sitting well with many Americans.

The crown jewel of the gay movement’s efforts—the Supreme Court’s degendering of marriage—was sold to the heterosexual world on the question, “How does someone else’s gay marriage affect me?” Most people unquestioningly accepted that it wouldn’t.

But they are learning through real-life events that gay marriage does indeed affect them—or, at least, people very much like them. A great many Americans figured they don’t have to like gay marriage, but why should they stand in the way of Jim and Frank across the street marrying? You live your life, they reasoned, and I’ll live mine. But the equation has turned out to be much more complicated. Jim and Frank needed “marriage equality” to feel like full citizens, we were told. Who doesn’t want Jim and Frank to feel like full citizens? I do. But now they are learning that “marriage equality” is not enough. They must also agree to any and all demands from the LGBT powers, regardless of their personal religious or moral beliefs—or be branded with a Scarlet B.

 . . .

The average American who was asked to back same-sex marriage on the principle of justice and tolerance is seeing that those who requested their support are not living by their own rules. They are finding that “marriage equality” is not enough. They are finding the deal has been unilaterally renegotiated: “You will not only support our right to marry, but you will also support our marriages in every way that we ask. If you do not, we will take you to court, ruin your business, take your money, slime your good name, and even threaten your life.” The remarkable examples of these injustices are surprising and alarming many good citizens.

When winners overplay their hand, demanding everything from their opponents by threat of devastating penalty, those who cheered their victory tend to be turned off by their abuse of power.

Glenn T. Stanton, Is America Running Out of Patience with LGBT Activism?

Sexual Anarchy and the Collapse of Culture

If we are to believe the cheerleaders for the sexual revolution and what it is they are out to teach our children, sex is now only for fun with your friends, so experiment freely within the sole proviso of mutual consent. Parents, after all, are no longer the primary educators for their own children. They have no right to interfere with relationships, and marriage and families are irrelevant as anything other than one more lifestyle choice among others. Against such dangerous fantasies, the truth stands that, to the degree that these follies continue, our societies will face unprecedented psychological confusion, social chaos and eventual loss of liberty. With the family devastated through the disaster of such deliberate cultural change, cultural transmission and tradition will be the losers too, and with them our civilization itself. But will enough people think twice before it becomes too late?

 Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.189

The Crisis of the Natural Family

The crisis of the natural family represents a crisis for freedom, a crisis for the transmission of culture and a crisis for civilization. The French philosopher Hypolite Taine described the family as “the only cure for death,” and in the same vein the Swiss theologian Emil Brunner observed that the fifth commandment (on honoring parents) is the Magna Carta of tradition. The overall crisis of the family needs no exposition. From permissiveness of the hookup culture to the pill that separates sexual pleasure pleasure and procreation, to no-fault divorce, to abortion on demand, to alternative forms of marriage, to assisted suicide, to the collapse of the family dining table, and to all the sex education materials for students in public schools, all these recent trends have joined forces to undermine the Jewish and Christian view of the family as the bedrock nurturing and transmitting institution of civilization.

Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.189

Broken Families Leads to Broken Governments

Not even the best of governments can compensate for a broken society with broken families, and a broken society with broken families will produce the government it deserves, which will not be the best of governments.

Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.187

We Learn About Humanity From History, Not Science

Why is it that, contrary to what people think, we can learn more about humanity from history than from science? (As John Lukacs notes, history seeks to understand human beings as agents and subjects, whereas in science they can never be more than objects.)

How do secularists hope to help the advanced modern world rise above a hedonistic mass culture and civilization when they have no strong values to offer, let alone transcendent values, when they have deliberately destroyed such institutions as tradition and the family, and when they are now intent on gutting the independence of the world of civil society and allowing it to be invaded by the forces of the state and market?

Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.150

Personal Integrity and Public Order Are Necessary

According to the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, personal integrity and public order are a necessity and not a luxury for those who desire to build just, free, and stable human societies. To flout the will of God openly will therefore be the fast track to social and national failure for Western nations.

Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.134

A Reason to Study History

One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today has been tried before and proved disastrous before, time and again.

Thomas Sowell

Respect God’s Created Order

For both the Jewish and Christian faiths, and a key part of their strength as the working faith of the West, is the assumption that there are indeed givens. The universe has a created order, including right and wrong, true and false, male and female, and therefore it has an ethical and social ecology just as it has an environmental ecology. Respect this order and the result will be the blessing of a multilevel prosperity, but reject it and the outcome will be the curse of deepening chaos and disaster. In short, there is an ethical equivalent to the second law of thermodynamics. Like all systems and institutions, nations and civilizations lose energy over time, and the idea of ever-innovating, self-engineered perpetual growth is a mirage. Social construction is anti-Jewish, anti-Christian, anti-Western and ultimately anti-human.

Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.134

When Cultures Reject God

When cultures reject God, they cut themselves off from the ultimate ground of reality, and in the end they do indeed become weightless, insubstantial, light as air, ephemeral or, in the terms used by the prophets, “weighed in the balances, and found wanting” (Dan 5:27 KJV). They give birth “only to wind” (Is 26:18), and like tumbleweed before the hurricanes of history, they are eventually “gone with the wind” (Is 57:13).  The judgment over their end is the verdict “Ichabod”—the glory, the reality, the weightiness has gone (1 Sam 4:21).

Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.126

Splitting Sex From Marriage and Children

Thanks to the pill and the libertine freedom of the wider sexual revolution, the modern world has differentiated between sex and love and split apart love and commitment, marriage and having children, and having children and taking care of them ourselves. All these once-integrated areas and ideas are now different matters of individual freedom and choice.

Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.76-77

Three Questions to Always Ask

There are always essential questions too ask of anyone we hear or anything we read. What is being said? Is it true? And what of it? All three questions are discounted in our modern age of information, but as Christians we must never allow the truth question to be removed from its central place. To be sure, faithfulness is costly in the short term. It is upstream and against the flow, and the flow that was once politically correct can suddenly become a raging and life-threatening intolerance. But costly though that stand may be, it is never as costly as the long-term price of rejecting the authority of Jesus and abandoning the way of life in the gospel. Our Lord warned of that very danger: “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt10:28). 

Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.73-74

The West Has Lost Its Soul

The West has lost its soul.  It is no longer distinguished and admired for its ideals it once had, for these have either vanished or are viewed only as spurious claims of a hypocrite. Increasingly now, if the West is admired, it is only for its technological prowess, its economic prosperity and its military power, all of which will soon fade too.

Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.39

The Ease of Deceiving the Populace

The great masses of the people more easily fall victim to the big lie than to a little one, since they themselves lie in little things, but would be ashamed of lies that were too big.  Such a falsehood will never enter their heads, and they will not be able to believe in the possibility of such monstrous effrontery and infamous misrepresentation in others.

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

No, Hitler was not a conservative, but this citation from him demonstrates the ideology of the LEFT, including the Democrat Party.  The LEFT uses big lies to promote their agenda, as they have learned from Hitler.

Are Jews Fighting a Losing Battle?

Once, after having spoken about some of these ideas someone came up to me and said, “I appreciated your words. But don’t you think you are fighting a losing battle?” It was a good question. . . . What I replied, though, was this: “Yes, the Jewish fight is a losing battle. It always was. Moses lost. Joshua lost. Jeremiah lost.  We have striven for ideals just beyond our reach, hoped for a gracious society just beyond the possible, believed in a messianic age just over the furthest horizon, wrestled with the angel and emerged limping. And in the meanwhile those who won have disappeared, and we are still here, still young, still full of vigor, still fighting the losing battle, never accepting defeat, refusing to resign ourselves to cynicism, or to give up hope of peace with those who today as in the past, seek our destruction.  That kind of losing battle is worth fighting, more so than any easy victory, any premature consolation.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Future Tense. Cited by Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.18

Man’s Power Over Nature?

Man’s power over nature is really the power of some men over others with nature as their instrument.

C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man. Cited by Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.16

Judgment on Those Who Think Themselves Gods

Judgment in history falls heaviest on those who come to think themselves gods, who fly the in the face of Providence and history, who put their trust in man-made systems and worship the work of their own hands, and who say that the strength of their own right arm gave them the victory.

Herbert Butterfield, Christianity and History. Cited by Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.16

Irreligion is the Opium of the People

It is only by believing in God that we can criticize the Government.  Once abolish God, and the Government becomes God.  The truth is that irreligion is the opium of the people.  Wherever the people do not believe in something beyond the world, they will worship the world.  But, above all, they worship the strongest thing in the world.

G. K. Chesterton, Christendom in Dublin. Cited by Os Guinness, Impossible People, pg.14

Basic Biology is Not "Transphobic."

Back when Adam took his first home-school anatomy course, science long ago revealed that there are only two sexes: male and female.  There is no such thing as a "gender spectrum."  Any sentient adult telling you that such nonsense exists should have his grown-up card revoked and be required to repeat kindergarten at an approved location.  What's more, contrary to LGBT propaganda, basic biology is not “transphobic."

Trevor Thomas, How Do Liberals Flunk Science? Let Us Count the Ways

Socialism Equals Communism

There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism by vote.  It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.

Ayn Rand

Watch Out for What Your Children Learn

Let [children’s] ears be ever kept from all immodest stories, and from wanton songs, from riddles and puns with double meanings and foul intentions: let them not be suffered to read wanton jests or amorous romances; and due care should be taken to remove all books out of their way that may defile their imagination, or teach them the language or the sentiments of impurity.  Nor let their eyes be entertained with lewd and unclean pictures, and images of things or actions that are not fit to be exposed. . . .  Even the common necessities and actions of nature should be always expressed before them in the most modest forms of speech that our mother-tongue can furnish us with.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.342

Some Excellent Accomplishments of Youth

But among all accomplishments of youth, there is none preferable to a decent and agreeable behavior among men, a modest freedom of speech, a soft and elegant manner of address, a graceful and lovely deportment, a cheerful gravity and good humor, with a mind appearing ever serene under ruffling accidents of human life: add to this, a pleasing solemnity and reverence when the discourse turns upon any thing sacred and divine, a becoming neglect of injuries, a hatred of calumny and slander, a habit of speaking well of others, a pleasing benevolence and readiness to do good to mankind, and special compassion to the miserable; with an air and countenance, in a natural and unaffected manner, expressive of all these excellent qualifications.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.340

We Need Better Songs!

I am sorry that the greatest part of our songs, whereby young gentlemen and ladies are taught to practise this art, are of the amorous kind, and some of them polluted too.  Will no happy genius lend a helping hand to rescue music from all its defilements, and to furnish the tongue with a nobler and more refined melody?

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.338

Importance of Self-Control

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.

Aristotle

Prudence

Prudence consists in judging well what is to be said, and what is to be done, on every new occasion; when to lie still, and when to be active; when to keep silence, and when to speak; what to avoid, and what to pursue; how to act in every difficulty; what means to make use of to compass such an end; how to behave in every circumstance of life, and in all companies; how to gain the favor of mankind, in order to promote our own happiness, and to do the most service to God and the most good to men, according to that station we possess, and those opportunities which we enjoy.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.330

Rules of Prudence

All children should have some instruction given them in the conduct of human life, some necessary rules of prudence, by which they may regulate the management of their own affairs, and their behaviour towards their fellow-creatures. Where all other sorts of knowledge are conferred upon children, if this be wanting, they make but a contemptible figure in the world, and plunge themselves into many inconveniences.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.328

Spelling is Important

True spelling is such a part of knowledge as children ought to be acquainted with, since it is a matter of shame and ridicule in so polite an age as ours, when persons who have learned to handle the pen cannot write three words together without a mistake or blunder; and when they put letters together in such an awkward and ignorant manner, that it is hard to make sense of them, or to tell what they mean.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.323

Do NOT Overfeed Children!

How many graves are filled, and funeral vaults crowded with little carcases which have been brought to untimely death by the foolish fondness of a parent, or a nurse, giving the young creature leave to eat everything they desire! Or if they happen by strength of constitution to survive this pestilence, how often do they grow up young gluttons, and place their happiness in the satisfaction of taste!  They are deaf to all the rules of virtue and abstinence all their lives, because they were never taught to deny themselves when they were young.  O it is a mean and shameful thing to be a slave to our taste, and to let this brutal appetite subdue reason, and govern the man! But if appetites must be gratified in the child, they will grow strong in the years of youth, and a thousand to one but they overpower the man also.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.316

The Foundation for Education

The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion.  Without this, there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.

Benjamin Rush, 1806

Teach Children Self-Control

Children should be instructed in the art of self-government.  They should be taught, as far as possible, to govern their thoughts; to use their wills to be determined by the light of their understandings, and not by headstrong and foolish humor; they should learn to keep the lower powers of nature under command of their reason; they should be instructed to regulate their senses, their imagination, their appetites, and their passions.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.314

The Origin of "Hate Crime"

Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?  In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.

George Orwell, 1984

The Evil of Gambling

Suppose you would convince a gamester that “gaming is not a lawful calling, or business of life, to maintain oneself by it,” and you make use of this argument, namely, “That which doth not admit us to ask the blessing of God, that we may get gain by it, cannot be lawful employment; but we cannot ask the blessing of God on gaming, therefore,” &c.  The minor is proved thus: “We cannot pray that our neighbor may lose; this is contrary to the rule of seeking our neighbor’s welfare, and loving him as ourselves; this is wishing mischief to our neighbor.  But in gaming, we can gain but just so much as our neighbor loses; therefore in gaming we cannot pray for the blessing of God that we may gain by it.”

Perhaps the gamester shrugs and winces, turns and twists the argument every way, but he cannot fairly answer it; yet he will patch up an answer to satisfy himself, and will never yield to the conviction, because he feels so much of the seat influence of gaming, either towards the gratification of his avarice, or the support of his expenses. Thus he is under a strong prejudice in favor of it, and is not easily convinced.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.27

A Trait of a Good Teacher

Labour as much as possible to make the person you would teach his own instructor.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.253

The Importance of Studying History

History is a necessary study in the supreme place for gentlemen who deal in politics. The government of nations, and distressful and desolating events which have in all ages attended the mistakes of politicians, should be ever present on their minds, to warn them to avoid the like conduct. Geography and chronology, which precisely inform us of the place and time where such transactions or events happened, are the eyes of history, and of absolute necessity in some measure to attend it.

But history, so far as relates to the affairs of the Bible, is as necessary to divines as to gentlemen of any profession. It helps us to reconcile many difficulties in scripture, and demonstrates a divine providence.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.212

Principle of Self-Defense

The defense of one’s self, justly called the primary law of nature, is not, nor can it be abrogated by any regulation of municipal law. This principle of defense is not confined merely to the person; it extends to the liberty and the property of a man … it extends to the person of every one, who is in danger; perhaps, to the liberty of every one, whose liberty is unjustly and forcibly attacked.

James Wilson (1791)

Be Careful About Handling Opinions

In reading philosophical, moral, or religious controversies, never raise your esteem of any opinion by the assurance and zeal wherewith the author asserts it, nor by the highest praises he bestows upon it; nor, on the other hand, let your esteem of an opinion be abated, nor your aversion to it raised, by the supercilious contempt cast upon it by a warm writer, nor by the sovereign airs with which he condemns it. Let the force of argument alone influence your assent or dissent.  Take care that your soul be not warped or biased on one side or another, by any strains of flattering or abusive language; for there is no question whatsoever but hath some such sort of defenders and opposers. Leave those writers to their own follies, who practise thus upon the weakness of their readers without argument; leave them to triumph in their own fancied possessions and victories: it is oftentimes found, that their possessions are but a heap of errors, and their boasted victories are but overwhelming noise and clamour to silence the voice of truth.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.190

Are You Violating the Spirit of the Law?

When we watch sex on the silver screen, we are asking unbelievers to behave in ways we would never tolerate among ourselves. Yet we tolerate it so we can enjoy entertainment we otherwise couldn’t enjoy. We outsource our depravity so we can live within the letter of the law, even while violating the spirit.

Tim Challies, Sex on the Silver Screen – Outsourcing Depravity

Watch For the Errors of Men

Remember this short and plain caution of the subtile errors of men.  Let a snake but once thrust in his head at some small unguarded fold of your garment, and he will insensibly and unavoidably wind his whole body into your bosom, and give you a pernicious wound.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.102

Don’t Be Afraid to Admit Error

Make it appear to your friends that it is no hard task for you to learn and pronounce those little words, I was mistaken, how hard soever it be for the bulk of mankind to pronounce them.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.89

When Among Other People

In mixed company, among acquaintance and strangers, endeavor to learn something from all.  Be swift to hear, but be cautious of your tongue, lest you betray your ignorance, and perhaps offend some of those who are present too.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.81

Maintain a Virtuous and Pious Spirit

Ever maintain a virtuous and pious frame of spirit: for an indulgence of vicious inclinations debases the understanding, and perverts the judgment.  Whoredom, and wine, and new wine, take away the heart, and soul, and reason of a man.  Sensuality ruins the better faculties of the mind; an indulgence to appetite and passion enfeebles the powers of reason; it makes the judgement weak and susceptive of every falsehood, and especially of such mistakes as have a tendency towards the gratification of the animal; and it warps the soul aside strangely from that steadfast honesty and integrity that necessarily belong to the pursuit of truth.  It is the virtuous man who is in a fair way to wisdom.

Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: A Supplement to Logic, pg.15