Civilization's Yardstick for Civil Behavior

by: bonnie alba | published: 02 18, 2011

With the recent call to cutting the “hate talk” and all the crassness and intimidation with a return to civility, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re attempting to treat one symptom of a multitude under the heading of “what establishes Western civilization.”

There are signs that our nation is pulling back from its slide into barbarism and that we may yet regain a stable and civilized society with a government under law and the U.S. Constitution.

History

For the framers of the U.S. Constitution and establishment of our nation’s government, Christianity was the cornerstone of public and private life. Morality and virtue were the keys to freedom. Without the yardstick of Judeo-Christian standards in the hearts of our countrymen, the Republic’s freedom and liberty could not exist.

America’s faith in God once was the golden thread interwoven through the fabric of our nation which held together our homes, schools, workplaces and churches. The golden thread is wearing very thin in twenty-first century America.

It’s not difficult to look back and see the course of action taken to divorce our faith in God from the public square. Through the court system, humanists, secularists and communist/socialist organizations took incremental steps which have basically eradicated religion from public life.

Avoiding the question of public morality and virtue in civilized society, the ACLU and Separation of Church and State organizations set the pattern. Pursuing civil rights detrimental to the Republic, in essence they banished God into the closet.

Out of the closet emerged shameless public displays of immoral and radical lifestyles reminiscent of the fall of the Roman Empire.

The fact that the foundation of “civilization” has always been Husband, Wife and Children (under God) has been trampled on by self-serving people who believe they know a better way for all of us. Selfishness to the extreme. Those same people do not recognize the consequences of their actions.

Two U.S. Supreme Court examples (from hundreds):

** 1947/1963 -- Bible teaching was removed from public schools to the detriment of children. The foundational yardstick used to provide values and standards, to judge morality and civilized behavior, and build character in our young disappeared. What we once thought of as civilized society was trampled under the guise that Faith in God should have no place in the public square.

What replaced biblical teaching? Man’s flawed nature developed “situational ethics” and “character building programs” without absolute principles and wisdom. The consequences are seen daily.

** 1973 -- U.S. Supreme Court gave women the right to murder their babies in the womb. The women’s movement for body rights and men’s acquiescing to such blatant inhumanity has been a major element in the destruction of Western Civilization. And that road leads to more destruction. Killing 40,000,000+ babies can only be called barbaric. And it turned doctoring on its head, weakening the accountability of doctors to “do no harm.”

Both these decisions were detrimental to civilized society and our nation as a whole. Pandora’s Box is gaping wide open, loosening all the restraints on, and responsibility and accountability for, all our freedoms and liberties ... the broad road to destruction of Western Civilization.

One small sign that all is not lost:

After the 2001 islamic terrorist attack on our nation, Americans’ response was overwhelming. Prayer, Flags flying, signs with “God Bless America” were everywhere you looked. In the midst of our nation’s heartbreak, the ACLU asked several elementary schools to remove outdoor signs of “God Bless America.” (My teacher-husband’s elementary school responded, as many others did, by putting up dozens of “God Bless America” signs on the chain-link fence surrounding their school.)

I have not touched on the television, movie, porn, sex- and human-trafficking industries which reek of barbaric displays of language, immorality, slavery, and crude attempts at civilized behavior. These serve only to coarsen our society and leads to in-civility in all areas.

We the people are to blame for these ongoing evils in our society. We are all guilty if only for our silence. We have believed the lie. Can we face the truth?

We have to ask the hard questions.

One Bright Note: Several state legislatures are working on bills to restrict abortion. One such, Ohio, consists of the “Heart Beat” Bill which determines that if there is a heart beat, it’s a baby, a human being. Therefore, it can live.

This is a sign the tide may be turning against inhumanity to man and a return to Western civilization’s ideals.

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