To Make Schools Better #1

No principal should promote clubs that divide students based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or whatever other characteristic becomes en vogue. Clubs like these promote narcissism; if you join a club based on your own demographics, what you are really saying is that little interests you outside of you own self. Since the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself, school clubs and activities should instead be based on common interests and passions--clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you don’t already speak, and more.

Prioritize the English language. Every student should leave high school speaking and writing English as fluently as possible. Any school that doesn’t ensure students leave with excellent English language skills is remiss in its duty to prepare graduates for the job market.  … 

No Safe Spaces, edited by Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph, pg.215

Identity Politics

Smearing opponents as homophobic, Islamophobic, xenophobic, racist, sexist, bigoted, or otherwise misguided is becoming as common off campus as it already is in the identity politics that dominate higher education. Leftists reduce people to their membership in groups based on superficial characteristics like race, gender, or sexual orientation. Those characteristics are assumed to determine what people believe, and how they vote.

No Safe Spaces, edited by Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph, pg.186-187

Color Supremacy is Wrong

Victimhood

Speech vs. Violence

These [college] kids that equate speech to violence, that could be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life. You know what you use when you don’t want to be violent? Speech. And you know what you use when you can no longer speak? Violence…. You want people speaking bad things because it means they’re not blowing people up…. The second you stop speech what do I have left? I got to beat you up…;. You don’t want violence, let people talk.

No Safe Spaces, edited by Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph, pg.172-173

How to Make Ignorant Snowflakes

Schools erase Shakespeare from their English curricula and America’s Founding Fathers from their history classes for the same reason youth sports leagues stop keeping soccer scores: they don’t want anyone feeling hurt or left out. And in both cases, handling the children with such over-the-top care and attention creates an unearned sense of entitlement. If you try to prevent students from dealing with difficulty, soon they begin to expect (nay, demand) that level of comfort.

No Safe Spaces, edited by Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph, pg.127-128

Bulldozer Parenting

You’ve heard of helicopter parents who hover over their children, eager to rescue them from the slightest misfortune, haven’t you? That’s nothing compared to another recent trend: bulldozer parents. Bulldozer parents clear the way for their children, pushing aside any obstruction. When their precious little snowflake angel gets a D in algebra, these parents rush to the school and demand to know why. They blame the teacher instead of encouraging their own child to study harder and get better at math. These are the parents who bark at umpires at Little League games. Delightful.

No Safe Spaces, edited by Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph, pg.126

College Indoctrination

Professors have looked at their classrooms and seen political activists in training, rather than citizens in training. They have quit teaching how our institutions work and imparting history’s significant facts. They choose the literature they teach based on what the author looks like. Meanwhile, there are more college graduates in our population than we’ve ever had before.

No Safe Spaces, edited by Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph, pg.91

Disenfranchisement

“Hate Speech” Hypocrisy

Many on the left love hate speech if it’s directed against Jews, against Israel, against Christians, against conservatives. That is their modus operandi, hate speech. But if it is directed against them, even if it’s minimally critical, it’s hate speech, it’s white supremacy, the new code word. If you say anything controversial, you’re a white supremacist, you’re a sexist, you’re anti-Muslim, and you’re homophobic.

No Safe Spaces, edited by Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph, pg.83-84

Intersectionalism

Intersectionalism is a euphemism for anti-Semitism, anti-Christianity. It’s simply a way of saying, “We’re the victims. We’re gays, we’re women, we’re blacks, and we all have the same oppressors. Our oppressors are the Zionists, the United States of America, capitalists, imperialists. We’re the victims, and we have to hang together, and we need safe spaces, but we’re not going to give you any safe spaces because you really have no right to express your views.”  That’s the basic core belief of the hard Left on American campuses today--and they’ll tell it to you directly, that certain views should not be allowed to be expressed on campus.

No Safe Spaces, edited by Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph, pg.81

“Safe Space” is Phony

Of course the safe space rationale is a total phony. The last thing that these intersectionalists want to do is have safe spaces for Jewish Zionists, or for Christians, or for conservatives. They want the university to be unsafe for them, not only intellectually but physically.

No Safe Spaces, edited by Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph, pg.81

Feminist “Choices”

Campus feminists talk a big game about choice, and about respecting all women. But they lack patience for women whose choices include building a family, or who don’t share their left-leaning political views.

No Safe Spaces, edited by Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph, pg.61

Ignorance Destroying Civilization

Fatherlessness Ruins Lives

In the black community, two-parent households are becoming an endangered species. Census data reveal that about 40 percent of all Americans children (regardless of race) are born out of wedlock; that number jumps to 53 percent for Hispanics and 71 percent for blacks. The Great Society programs of the 1960s, which did nothing to cut the poverty rate, implemented rules that inadvertently punished two-parent households, creating a disincentive for families to stay together.  As a result, black children today are less likely to grow up with their mother and father than black children born during the time of slavery.

No Safe Spaces, edited by Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph, pg.4

Victimhood

Victimhood mentality blames “white privilege” for the plight of American minorities. Privilege does indeed exist in America today, but it is not white privilege. It’s “two-parent” privilege.

Study after study has shown the long-term socioeconomic benefits children enjoy when they come from a stable two-parent household. Kids who grow up in a home without a father are four times as likely to end up poor as kids in two-parent homes. Kids who grow up in a two-parent household have a lower risk of teen pregnancy. They do better in school, and they commit less crime. And according to the Brookings Institution people who finish high school, hold down a full-time job, and wait until they are at least twenty-one to get married and have kids (in that order) avoid poverty at a 98 percent clip—regardless of race.

No Safe Spaces, edited by Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph, pg.43-44

College and Identity Politics

The whole point of college used to be expanding the mind. Academia gave you the opportunity to think about things in brand new ways. And yet today, walk onto many of America’s most prestigious university campuses, and you’ll find a culture that is the complete antitheses of open-minded intellectual inquiry.

Identity politics and political correctness have taken over. Leftist mobs are enforcing a strict code that defines acceptable speech and thought, and rules anything else out of bounds. “Trigger warnings” and “safe spaces” shield students from any concepts the might upset this delicate construct. Dissenters from the new orthodoxy are ostracized, vilified, threatened, and even physically attacked. Opposing viewpoints are shut down; visiting speakers are shut out. Faculty and administrators, whose job it is to help enlighten younger minds, act as hapless enablers, giving free rein to student activists whose passion outreaches their emotional maturity.

The values that supposedly define academia—the pursuit of knowledge and the open exchange of ideas—have become sad casualties. Free thought is not allowed if it broaches concepts deemed “problematic.” When you enroll at a college or university today, you can expect four years of being told what to think—and precious few opportunities for critical thinking.

No Safe Spaces, edited by Dennis Prager and Mark Joseph, pg.6-7

Education Has Been Weaponized by the LEFT

Education has been weaponized by radicals and used to chip away at what this country used to be. Under code words such as diversity, inclusion, health, equality, sex education, tolerance, white privilege and wokeness, most schools proudly promote anti-Christian and anti-American ideas.

So who has this very influential weapon been used against? Jesus, the truth, biblical morality, conservatives, the church, America’s founders, Republicans, and the Judeo-Christian principles this country was established upon. I’m not saying there aren’t some good teachers out there, but their hands are tied and their frustrations are at a tipping point – just like our culture.

David Florazo, Anti-American “Education” and the Collapse of Culture

LEFTIST "Tolerance."

The Real Division in America

The Evil of Violence

The "Systemic Racism" Lie

When Truth is Hated

Work vs. Family

No matter how much a man may be concerned with his work in the world, he cannot normally care about it as much as he cares for his family. This is because we have, in the life of the family, a bigger stake than most of us can ever have in our employment. We can change business associates…we can leave a poor job…but we cannot change sons. If we lose the struggle in our occupational interests, we can try again, but if we lose with our children our loss is terribly and frighteningly final.

Elton Trueblood. Quoted by Alexander Strauch, The New Testament Deacon, pg. 142

Good Leadership

Good leaders always distinguishes themselves by their ability to skillfully confront troublesome issues and to be decisive. In fact, confronting problems is a major part of leadership responsibility. Fearful leaders who refuse to confront problems have demoralized many churches and organizations. Running away from problems creates worse problems.

Alexander Strauch, The New Testament Deacon, pg.18

War May Be Necessary for Freedom

In his essay "The Contest In America," 19th century libertarian philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote, "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

It is that "decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling" which accounts for why so many "miserable creatures" have downgraded Memorial Day to nothing more than a date to exploit for commercial greed and avarice. While America's Armed Forces stand in harm's way around the globe, many Americans are too preoccupied with beer, barbecue and baseball to pause and recognize the priceless burden borne by generations of our uniformed Patriots. It is also why such "miserable creatures," are found in abundance today among leftist cadres on college and university campuses, in the leftist halls of the Capitol building and in the slums of their Leftmedia echo chambers.

The Patriot Post, Memorial Day.

That World Is Now

Memorial Day Denigrated

Today, Memorial Day provides a stark contrast between the best of our nation's selfless Patriot sons and daughters versus the worst of our nation's selfish culture and consumerism. Astoundingly, some businesses actually promote a "Memorial Day Sale." But Memorial Day is NOT for sale. Millions of Patriots have already paid the full price.

Amid the reverent observances honoring the sacrifice of millions of American Patriots who defended Liberty in accordance with their sacred oaths "to Support and Defend" our Constitution, it is unfortunate that too many venders have commercialized Memorial Day. Indeed, Memorial Day has been sold out, along with Washington's Birthday, Independence Day, Veterans, Thanksgiving and Christmas Days. And no wonder, given that government schools now substitute grossly adulterated and revisionist history for the civics courses which used to inform young people of their duty as citizens.

Further eroding the meaning of heroic sacrifice, the word "hero" is ubiquitously applied, and often grossly misapplied, to anyone serving others in any capacity — most often by those who have little context for genuine heroics. I spent five years in law enforcement, serving and protecting others, but I am no “hero."

The Patriot Post, Memorial Day

A Republican Government

[James] Madison…defined the republican form. A republic is “a government in which the scheme of representation take place.” It is “a government which derives all its powers directly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure for a limited period, or during good behavior.” He continued, “It is essential to such a government that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans and claim for their government the honorable title of republic.”

Larry P. Arnn, The Founders Key, pg.84

Did the Founders Fail in Regards to Slavery?

The third charge [by the English] against the Founders was that they failed to abolish slavery. Our answer, to this point, has been: they limited and eventually outlawed the importation of slaves from abroad; they abolished slavery in a majority of the original states; they forbade the expansion of slavery into areas where it had not been previously permitted; they made laws regulating slavery more humane; individual owners in most states freed slaves in large numbers. In light of all this, it is a gross exaggeration to speak…of “the unfree origin of the United States.” Freedom was secured for the large majority of Americans, and important actions were undertaken in the service of the rest.

Thomas G. West, Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America, pg.14

A Reason for Interracial Violence?

The claim that black interracial violence is the product of redlining, slavery, and other injustices is a largely historical claim. It is for historians, therefore, to explain why Japanese internment or the massacre of European Jewry hasn’t led to equivalent rates of dysfunction and low SES performance among Japanese and Jewish Americans respectively. Arab Americans have been viciously demonized since 9/11, as have Chinese Americans more recently. However, both groups outperform white Americans on nearly all SES indices – as do Nigerian Americans, who incidentally have black skin.

Anonymous, cited here

Poverty Relief?

The Founders thought that the greatest effort in relief of poverty in human history is the building of a free republic, protecting equally the right to property and resting on consent through a free Constitution. They thought that this would give rise to a system of local government, run mainly by volunteers, that would be involved in every kind of relief of the needy. They thought that churches and other philanthropies would flourish in aid of those who fell behind. They thought that people would grow in the strength and practice of self-government to be as good as people can be. They thought that universal education, run like every other matter of domestic administration—without bureaucracy or central control—would help to provide the ideal of the first free nation on earth. Lincoln, a great student of the Revolution, would call this “an open field and a fair chance” for all.

Larry P. Arnn, The Founders’ Key, pg. 63

Is God an Imaginary Being?

Some might think God an imaginary being and ask, what good is it to compare ourselves to something made up? The answer is that if God is an imaginary being, he is a being very easy to imagine. That is because we can see ourselves and the other creatures around us. If we can see what is different between a beast and a man, then it is not hard to imagine what would be the next step after man. If we can see inside ourselves which are the better and which are the worst capacities, then we can imagine a being with only those better capacities. If we can see that these better capacities that we possess are still imperfect in us, then we can imagine them perfected. Not only the Bible but also the classic authors conclude that nature points to the heavens.

Larry P. Arnn, The Founders’ Key, pg. 51-51.

Responsibility?

Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity where some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, while other people are not held responsible for what they themselves are doing today?

Thomas Sowell on Twitter, 6/1/20

Reasoning Is Important

Demokrat Policies Are Harmful to Blacks

The LEFT Controls Us

Evil

No Absolutes?

If there is no absolute by which to judge society, society is absolute.

Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live DVD series, episode 9

Choose Wisely

Much of life is shaped by choices we make. We do not choose what happens to us; we choose how to react to what happens to us.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Genesis: God, Creation, and Destruction, pg.431

Love Must Be About More Than Externals

A man who loves a woman only for her beauty doesn’t love her. Those relationships are doomed to end sooner or later—often sooner. But well-meaning parents and a well-meaning society do young women no favor by denying the importance of looks in attracting a man. And a woman does neither herself nor her marriage a favor if she denies the importance to her husband and therefore their marriage of her trying to remain physically attractive. . . . 

It is often countered that men’s looks are also important. But they are rarely as important as a man’s personality, masculinity, brains, power, or wealth in attracting a woman. The power of the visual in men is simply far greater than the power of the visual in women. The fact that physical attractiveness is not distributed at all equally… is one of the many built-in unfair features of life.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Genesis: God, Creation, and Destruction, pg.343

Bad Company Corrupts Good Morals

In evil societies, it is difficult not to participate in evil. Human nature is to go along with the crowd. Hence, the importance of avoiding living among bad people, unless one is strong enough to work to make a bad society better.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Genesis: God, Creation, and Destruction, pg.224

The Reason for Capital Punishment

Society teaches how bad an action is by the punishment it metes out. Only when a society takes the life of a murderer is it announcing in the clearest way possible that murder is the ultimate sin. Keeping every murderer alive makes no such announcement—even if it involves life imprisonment. Life in prison is a harsh punishment—but the murderer, while not free to leave prison, is allowed to keep his life.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Genesis: God, Creation, and Destruction, pg.122

Self-Control

One might say self-control is the most important achievement we can attain. That many parents work harder to instill self-esteem than self-control in their children is a moral tragedy. And, ironically, no self-esteem can equal the self-esteem that derives from self-control.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Genesis: God, Creation, and Destruction, pg.67

One Man, One Woman Only

By ending Adam’s alone-state by making one woman—not more than one woman, not another man, not children, and not a community of people—God is declaring the human ideal is that a single man bond with a single woman.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Genesis: God, Creation, and Destruction, pg.40

Marriage is a Prescription

As this verse [Genesis 2:18] is followed by the creation of woman, with whom Adam is to bond (i.e., marry—see verse 24), it is clear God wants men to marry. Marriage is a prescription, a moral and social value, more than it is a male instinct. The dramatic decrease in marriage rates at this time attests to this (with regard to women as well), as does the fact that more people in the West and other developed societies are living by themselves than at any time in recorded history. So, while more and more men and women choose not to marry, loneliness has become a major social pathology. In the words of the National Institutes of Health, “Loneliness is a painful universal phenomenon.”

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Genesis: God, Creation, and Destruction, pg.39

Medical Progress Came from the West

It is no coincidence that the Western world essentially developed modern medicine. In order to develop medicine, the first requirement is to understand human beings must learn how to conquer nature—conquer, not pray to natural forces (like rain gods) or try to propitiate them.

That is one reason diseases like smallpox and polio were eliminated in those parts of the world influenced by the Bible.

Human progress is not possible unless humans rule over nature. Many secular people in our time romanticize nature, perhaps not realizing—or not wanting to realize—that either humans rule over nature or nature will destroy humans. Either we conquer natural diseases, or they conquer us. Until the very modern age, people everywhere feared being eaten by animals. Most of us no longer give this a moment’s thought because most of the human race has come to successfully rule over the animal kingdom.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Genesis: God, Creation, and Destruction, pg.27

It's Dangerous Out There

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Albert Einstein

Homosexuality and Pedophilia

Substance abuse, depression and suicide are virtually undisputed as epidemic problems [for those practicing homosexuality], but they are by no means the only problems. One other concern that merits attention is the disproportionate number of male homosexuals who prefer sex with boys. Homosexual men are not necessarily pedophiles. Still, several studies reveal that while no more than 2 percent of male adults are homosexual, approximately 35 percent of pedophiles are homosexual. Further, since homosexual pedophiles victimize far more children than do heterosexual pedophiles (150 to 20), approximately 80 percent of pedophilic victims are boys who are molested by adult males. The number of boys victimized is approximately 3.2 million. It is impossible to determine the number of male pedophiles, but they may constitute as much as 10 percent of male homosexuals. 

Thomas E. Schmidt, “Straight & Narrow? Compassion & Clarity in the Homosexuality Debate, pg.114-115.

They WILL Come For You

To paraphrase the famous quote from the German pastor and Holocaust survivor Martin Niemoller:

-In the West they first came for statues of “racist” figures – but I did not speak up because it did not concern me.

-Then they came for statues of Columbus and Washington and Jefferson and Captain Cook – but I did not speak up because these are just ‘old dead white men’.

-Then they came for religious statues and monuments – but I did not speak up because it is just ‘religion’.

-Then they came for Christian figures and stained-glass windows – but I did not speak up because it is just physical stuff.

-Then they came for churches and Christian institutions – but I did not speak up because ‘we are the church’.

-Then they came for Christians – but by then it was too late.

Bill Muehlenberg, They Are Out To Get Us – And We Are letting Them Do It

Homosexuality and Promiscuity

Promiscuity among homosexual men is not a mere stereotype, and it is not merely the majority experience—it is virtually the only experience. And even if we set aside infidelity and allow a generous definition of “long-term relationships” as those that last at least four years, under 8 percent of either male or female homosexual relationships fit the definition. In short, there is practically no comparison possible to heterosexual marriage in terms of either fidelity or longevity. Tragically, lifelong faithfulness is almost nonexistent in the homosexual experience.

Thomas E. Schmidt, “Straight & Narrow? Compassion & Clarity in the Homosexuality Debate, pg.108.

The Distractions of Toppling Confederate Statues

In all the acres of media reporting on the Confederate leaders, scarcely anyone has pointed out that they were all Democrats. In fact, the whole point of the campaign to topple Confederate statues is to disguise it. It is an effort not at historical exposition but at historical concealment. The point of blaming the Confederacy is to blame slavery entirely on the South, and the point of blaming the South is to blame the party that is now politically dominant in the South, namely the Republican Party. Thus the left targets Confederate statues in order to promote its big lie that racism and white supremacy are the province of the right.

Dinesh D’Souza, Death of a Nation, pg.50

Hitler and Christianity

In fact [Hitler] hated Christianity and showed a justified contempt for its German practitioners. Shortly after assuming power, he told Hermann Rauschnig that he intended to stamp out Christianity in Germany “root and branch.” “One is either a Christian or a German. You can’t be both.”

Paul Johnson, A History of Christianity, pg. 485

Yes -- after Jews, Christians were next.

Have You “Prostituted” Yourself?

Metaphorically speaking, people “prostitute themselves” whenever they compromise their higher values, whether for money, success, fame, or anything else people crave. A prostitute sells her body for money.  A crook sells his character for money. A crooked politician sells his influence for money. People sell their souls—prostitute themselves—for a whole host of desired things. And one might say such individuals are considerably worse than a prostitute. She sells her body, they sell their souls; and crooks and others who prostitute their values do greater harm to society than prostitutes.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, p.471

Gratitude

In many ways, gratitude is the most important of all the good character traits. It is the most indispensable trait to both happiness and goodness. One can neither be a happy person nor a good person without gratitude. The less gratitude one has, the more one sees oneself as a victim; and nothing is more likely to produce a bad person or a bad group than defining oneself or one’s group as a victim. Victims, having been hurt, too often believe they have a license to hurt others. As for happiness, if you think of all the people you know, you will not be able to name one who is ungrateful and happy. The two are mutually exclusive.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.440

Malcom X Was Right

Value Old People!

Throughout history, not only in ancient Israel, virtually every society greatly valued old people—because old people were associated with wisdom, and wisdom was valued. In the contemporary world, especially in the West, youth is increasingly valued more than age. That is a reflection of the fact that wisdom is less valued and therefore the old are less valued, or the old are less valued and therefore wisdom is less valued. It is hard to know which came first—the devaluing of the old or the devaluing of wisdom. But whichever cause the other, both are tragedies.

In answer to some young people who told the great German-Jewish actor Fritz Kortner he could not understand their problems, Kortner responded, “You were never as old as I am; on the other hand I was as young as you are now.” 

The devaluation of old people is a tragedy for their sake, for society’s sake, and for the sake of the young who can so benefit from being with and learning from the old. Anyone who has, or has had, a bond with a grandparent or a mentor knows how true this is. And the devaluation of wisdom is an even greater tragedy. We live in an age that values—or at least claims to value—knowledge. But knowledge without wisdom tells you nothing about how to lead your life. It is like owning a map but have no destination. If you don’t know where you need to go, knowing exactly where you are is useless.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.355-356

The Existence of God

God’s existence does not necessitate a bit “leap of faith.” There is an element of faith but, given the otherwise inexplicable existence of the world, of life, of intelligence, of order, and of design, belief in God the Creator, while not provable, is rational, even rationally compelling. However, given all the evil caused by human beings and all the suffering caused by nature, belief in God’s goodness may necessitate a leap of faith. That’s why God informs us, “I am compassionate.”

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.329

The Damage from Sexual Anarchy

After World War II, Western society underwent what is known as the “Sexual Revolution.” With the weakening of biblical values, and the ease in obtaining both contraception and, since the 1970s, abortion, more unmarried people have had sexual relations with more partners than ever before in Western—and perhaps world—history. However, in addition to creating more fatherless children than ever before, this revolution has harmed both sexes, especially women. But men, too, have paid a price in at least two ways.

One is fewer men seek to marry, and men benefit enormously from marriage. In the words of Nobel Prize-winning economist George Akerlof, “Men settle down when they get married; if they fail to get married they fail to settle down.” And in the words of the late University of Virginia sociologist Steven Nock, “Marriage is one of the last ‘rite[s]’ of passage into manhood” remaining in our society.

The other is many men are less motivated to succeed in life. One of the primary reasons men always worked hard was to “earn” the commitment of a woman. But if women are readily available without having to achieve much, fewer men will seek to achieve much.

Women, for their part, were told they could enjoy emotionless and commitment-free sex as much as men could. But a host of academic studies and popular reports of sexually promiscuous women refute this notion. Indeed, among young women, high rates of depression often relate to casual sex.

For example, a major study of American college-aged women, published in The Journal of Sex Research, a publication of the United States National Institutes of Health, concluded “hookup behavior during college was positively correlated with experiencing clinically significant depression symptoms.”

Similarly, regarding teenagers generally, “A recent longitudinal study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology suggests that teenagers who engage in casual sex are more likely to suffer from depression than their peers who don’t engage in casual sex…. Given that teens who practiced celibacy were rated lowest for clinical depression and depressive symptoms on the charts, promiscuity may be symptomatic of depression.”

One consequence of so many young women believing the message that they can—and should—enjoy sex with as many men as men can with women was summarized in this comment by a young woman cited in the American magazine Vanity Fair: “It’s rare for a woman of our generation to meet a man who treats her like a priority instead of an option.”

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.318-319

Without God, Why is Murder Wrong?

If there is no God who says, “Do not murder,” there is no way of saying murder is objectively wrong. One can say, “I don’t like it,” or “I think it is wrong,” or “I feel that it is wrong,” or “My society says it is wrong,” but not “It is wrong.” For that, you need God.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.259

Children, Honor Your Parents

Yet another reason why honoring parents and long enduring civilization are connected is strong families form a major bulwark against totalitarian regimes. A standard feature of totalitarian regimes is the shifting of children’s loyalty and obedience from their parents to the state. One of the first things totalitarian regimes seek to do is weaken parental authority and replace it with the party or state. In such countries, children are encouraged to inform on their parents if they make critical comments—or even tell jokes—about government leaders or about the dominant ideology (in the modern period, that would almost always refer to communism, Nazism, or radical Islamism). Consequently, parents would often fear to speak openly in front of their children.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.258

Immoral Ideologies, Intellectual Foolish Beliefs

Nearly every American university was founded to teach young people theology and other subjects. Moral education was deemed the most important form of education, and knowledge of the Bible was assumed to age part of that moral curriculum. By the early-to-mid twentieth century, education, first at universities, then at high schools and elementary schools, was divorced from God and the Bible, and a disproportionately high percentage of secular intellectuals adhered to immoral ideologies and intellectually foolish beliefs.

Nowhere is the belief in education as the road to a moral society more apparent than in some of the later writings of the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, an atheist who was deeply committed to moral behavior, published a critique of religion, The Future of an Illusion (the illusion being God and religion). Freud did not fear the breakdown of belief in God would have any moral implications among intellectuals: “Civilization has little to fear from educated people and brain-workers. In them, the replacement of religious motives for civilized behavior by other secular motives, would proceed unobtrusively.” 

As Dr. Freud was to witness within ten years of his statement, civilization has as much, if not more, to fear from educated people as from the uneducated. Freud’s fellow Austrian and German intellectuals show no more moral insight or strength than any other group of Germans and Austrians. What Germany lacked during World War II was not enough educated people or, for that matter, artistically sophisticate people but not enough good people.

Many would counter here that Germany lacked enough good people among the religiously educated as well. They would be entirely right. The failure of German Christianity was horrific. But the moral failure of German Christians (with noble exceptions such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer) is almost universally acknowledged—even by virtually all Christians.

On the other hand, the moral failure of secular education and secular intellectuals in Germany is almost universally ignored.

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom, pg.229-230