Monday, November 12, 2012

Wake Up America – Winning the Culture War


This week, after learning of the election results, I experienced a great disappointment to say the least.  For a few days I felt depressed, disillusioned and tried to figure out what went wrong.

I am not really interested in politics and certainly thought of all the political games going on before the election as childish and ego-centered.  I had great hopes that we could restore a God-centered America with the leadership of President Mitt Romney.  Sometimes you have to keep up your hope despite all the external evidence.  I surely believed that God would have mercy on this country once again and allowed for God-centered principles to rule this land.

 

Certainly, there are some voices which point to voter fraud, vote rigging,  military-vote-suppressing, or plain lawlessness.

We have to ask ourselves if the end always justifies the means.  The liberals are determined to overthrow this country with their socialist-communist agenda and use any method to get to their goals.  They have the general media completely under their control and have the public brain-washed with their godless focus on economy, ecology, education, immigration,  LGBT community, politics, racism, and the endless welfare system.  In the name of social problems, they are robbing us more and more of our hard earned freedom.

 

We demand an election recount.  Allen West ask for election recount.

 

“A society that boos or ridicules the Golden Rule is not a moral society.”
~ Ron Paul  at his fare well address to Congress

What are some other alternatives we have at this point?  Just because we couldn’t elect a godly man into the White House, doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have a better solution.  I believe that the only better alternative can come from a spiritual revolution.  First of all, we have to recognize that we are spiritual beings living a physical life not the other way around.

 

Social Networks can change the minds of the people.  Here is a link to a conversation between Oprah and Deepak Chopra. 

Education has to include the history of the Cold War and all the cruelties committed under Communism.  Obama was reelected by the younger generation, who wasn’t taught about the atrocities performed under Stalin, Lenin, the Khmer Rouge, and other communist societies.


In order to win the culture war we need more than the traditional evangelical approach.  It is pretty clear these days, that most people follow the popular opinion, being rather confused of a right or wrong.  That’s what propaganda does, when phrases are repeated often enough, people start to believe them.  In the New Age movement we learn that we are living in “the end of time” or as Christians believe, the “Last Days.”  How can we make sense of all the different views?  Most of all we have to start listen to that small voice inside of ourselves.  That means at times, we have shut out all noise and all chatter and simply be quiet to hear our heart.  We all have a conscience which will guide us to the truth.

I like to share here an excerpt from the True Family Values, a teaching which has its root in the Divine Principle, taught by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.  To understand where we need to go, we need to understand where we have been.  His-story can be very interesting when we take a different point of view.

 

Civilization’s Fundamental Contradiction

Culture is the collective expression of human consciousness through creative and social activities.  Since God created human beings with hearth as the core element, it is natural for people to desire a culture conforming to their nature, having heart as the central element.  All the creative activities of culture should be rooted in the desires of the heart.  Nevertheless, no civilization in human history has been a culture of heart.  This is because in reality the human heart is wayward and corrupt, more often inclined to selfishness and greed.   The human Fall corrupted the human heart with the elements of selfishness, resentment and deceit.  Were society to allow people to express their wayward hearts unchecked, we would be living by the law of the jungle.  The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes well described human life in this fallen state of nature: “nasty, brutish and short,” a “war of all against all.”  For Hobbes, the first principle of civilization was that human beings be constrained by laws and institutions which would reign in their passion for the sake of the social good.

Every civilization in human history has placed a fence around the human heart, subordinating its desires to something universal and unchanging.  Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations controlled population by subordinating human beings to the service of the gods, who required the people to serve the whole—the god’s estate—by constructing great public works projects to irrigate the land and glorify Heaven.  In the biblical Israel, the fence around desire was the Law as decreed in the Ten Commandments and other provisions of the covenant at Mount Sinai.  The ancient Greeks erected a great civilization by ennobling the faculty of reason as plumbed by philosophy.  Reason occupied a place higher than emotion because it is unchanging and can be the basis for universal norms.  Roman civilization gave preeminence to the law.  Medieval civilization subordinated human desires to the aspirations of faith.  In the history of China over the last 2500 years we see a running debate between two regulatory principles: the Legalists advocated social unity imposed by force of arms and by law as laid down by the Emperor, while Confucianism regulated society based upon a universal ethical teaching.  When America’s Founding Fathers established a free society, they expected it to function well only as long as its citizens exercised moral restraint according to the ethical teachings of religion.  They regarded the prospering of America’s churches as essential to the preservation of freedom.

Each of the great civilizations was built upon a solid pillar, be it law, ethics, faith or reason, which could channel human aspirations to a public purpose.  As long as these pillars stood firm, holding in check the selfish impulses of the human heart, the civilization stood firm.  Nevertheless, since heart is the core of human nature, it cannot be contained forever.  Sooner or later, the wayward impulses of the heart would corrupt the society, subverting the pillars of law, ethics, faith or reason upon which the society was based.  Hence, no great civilization has been lasting.  Each has gone through its periods of youth, maturity and decline.  Each began with the youthful enthusiasm of a new-found ideal.  Each matured to produce great achievements in art, literature, philosophy, science or religion.  Each then declined, its values subverted by decadence and corruption.  The Roman Empire fell when corrupt officials misused its vaunted legal system for personal gain and a life of decadence undermined public morals.  Today, America likewise is beset by corruption and decadence as its founding Christian spirit grows dim.  Our precious freedoms are no longer a call to sacrifice and an opportunity for responsible public service.  Rather, they have become a celebration of self-seeking and licentious lifestyles.

Nevertheless, God created us with heart as the central motivating element in our lives.  We are meant to live in a culture where the heart can be freely expressed and its achievements glorified.  God never intended the contradiction between our essential nature and the civilizations we create.  It only arose as a result of the human Fall, which rendered the human heart self-seeking and corrupt.  The contradiction will cease to exist only when our hearts become pure and true.

 

Excerpted from The Culture of Heart in the New Millennium -- TRUE FAMILY VALUES by Joong Hyun Pak and Andrew Wilson, 1996, The Holy Spirit Association for Unification of World Christianity



I have been toiling with this loss for a while and get more and more negative and hopeless.  I decided for myself to focus on the spiritual path again.  I feel that my personal influence can have the greatest impact in this direction.  I will talk more about forgiveness and letting go next time.

 
“Forgiveness is giving yourself the freedom to be happy again.”
~ Steven Lane Taylor – spiritual leader
 

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