Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society at The Ohio State University

Here in Columbus, Ohio, at The Ohio State University we now have the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society. The new center was funded as part of a $24 million allocation for intellectual diversity centers in Ohio Senate Bill 117. I sincerely hope it can balance the DEI ideology with intellectual diversity. Today the Columbus Dispatch (Democrat controlled) contained an article about the first event on March 25. The co-sponsors were The Center for Ethics and Human Values, the Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. Four other Ohio universities have these centers, but I'm not sure they all have the Chase name.

The article states that confidence in higher education in America has slumped in recent years. It's my personal opinion that the Obama and Biden administrations (12 years) has contributed to this,
"A Gallup poll published in July 2024 found that Americans are nearly equally divided on their confidence levels in higher education. Those who have a lot of confidence in higher education, about 36%, just barely outweigh those who have some confidence (32%) and those with little or no confidence (32%) in higher education. That is in stark contrast to when Gallup first measured confidence in higher education in 2015, when 57% had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence and only 10% had little or none."

And one of those reasons for the falling confidence was not in the article but in the advertisement that popped up in the middle of the digital version. Maybe the Dispatch and Ohio State had no control over the LGBTQ ad for transition and affirmative care to change the physical appearance of those with gender dysphoria at Cleveland's University Hospital. I scrolled through it and in the small print it said it's for over 18 (that's still high school), but I'm sure that is a soft landing and there are many "farm clubs" contributing to its customer base. Another reason for low confidence is the funding all universities accept to "educate" foreign students. We're seeing that play out now with Trump trying to deport a professional trouble maker.

The Johns Hopkins president was concerned about the "drift to authoritarianism" and a number of students led a protest and wanted OSU President Carter to join them.

 
And we're off to the races to turn this Center to the Left. That's what has happened to so many foundations and NGO's funded by conservatives and patriots.

The Mentor magazine

It was snowing in Columbus, OH, on January 19.  I'm recovering from back strain and much improved, so was tackling the laundry. My adult ADHD kicked in and I noticed something on a top shelf peeking out, calling to me while the washer filled. Debating whether to stress my back, I reached for it and found a May 1929 "The Mentor" magazine.

"The Mentor magazine was published from 1913 to about 1931 by The Mentor Association. The Association was founded by William David Moffat in 1912 and included experts in various fields. Each issue was devoted to a single subject augmented by fine photogravures (photogravures are prints produced in such a way as to mimic the richness and subtle range of tone found in photographs). . . http://archives.dyclibrary.net/?p=206

I've searched this computer for the data base of my grandparents' library, but I can't find it.  I created and printed it back in the 90s, but my back will not allow bending, stretching and lifting. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have picked this up anywhere unless I recognized it. Both my maternal grandparents attended college in the 1890s and although they subscribed to many practical and farming magazines, this looks like it would have appealed to their interests.  This issue concerns wild animals (birds, bears, elephants) and travels, particularly the American west.  Also articles about animal artists. Robert L. Dickey, Grace Mott Johnson, Louis Jonas

I particularly enjoy the advertisements in old magazines. There's a full-page ad for Woman's Home Companion (Springfield Ohio) which promised serialized books for only $1.00 a year. Last year (1928?) the subscriber could have enjoyed The Story of Religion, What is Wrong with Marriage, Mareea-Maria,  The Foolish Virgin, The Quart Eye, Mamba's Daughters, Troupers of the Gold Coast or the rise of Lotta Crabtree, Keeping off the Shelf, and The Father. Of course, on the back, there is a full color ad for Camel cigarettes, "a Miss is as good as a mile" with an attractive young woman offering cigarettes to a handsome man.

Praying for Kamala Harris

Today I prayed for Kamala Harris to become a Christian. Sin is sin and hers don't count any more than mine at the cross, but she has a lot more power. If Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim and now a former atheist, can see the light, why not Harris? Join me.

"Here is what makes her [Ali] public testimony a sign of the times: She states that she converted in part because she realized that a truly humanistic culture—and by that I mean a culture that treats human beings as persons, not as things—must rest upon some conception of the sacred order as set forth in Christianity, with its claim that all are made in the image of God. “Western civilization is under threat from three different but related forces,” she writes. These are resurgent authoritarianism in China and Russia, global Islamism, and “the viral spread of woke ideology.” She declares that she became a Christian in part because she recognized that “we can't fight off these formidable forces” with modern secular tools; rather, we can only defeat these foes if we are united by a “desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition,” with its “ideas and institutions designed to safeguard human life, freedom and dignity.” Carl Trueman, First Things, 11-30-23

Barbara Walters has died

So Barbara Walters has died at 93. She was famous for being a first, a pioneer, and for her interviewing skills--she let the famous people talk instead of hogging the limelight. Today I heard that she was most proud of her legacy of paving the way for women in (TV) journalism. That's where I draw the line.

Next comes a very unpopular viewpoint, so you can leave this post and move on.

Women, particularly journalists whether news anchors on TV or "influencers" on Tik Tok have contributed little, at least no more than men who read lines written by others. The women of Fox at least have great legs and shoes. We've let the fake floozy Drag Queens show us how the world sees us. And unfortunately, their audience is often adoring, silly liberal women.

In fact, compared to the women of the 19th century big three (emancipation of slaves, temperance, and civil rights for women) the 20th and 21st century women pale by comparison. I wasn't particularly knowledgeable about our culture or world affairs in high school or college, but I can't think what women have done beginning with 2nd wave feminism (late 60s) that has changed the world for the better. It wasn't exactly the industrial revolution, the polio vaccine or DARPA (think Internet). Nope, sift through any cultural institution of the last 60 years--academe, entertainment, media, science, politics, literature and the arts--and women mostly are known for advocating to kill their own children--the weakest and most helpless humans in the world. I don't see that as a great legacy. The one thing men can't do and women became wannabe men.

As individuals women have gained a lot of freedom since the 60s, but often freedom is the enemy of freedom.

Making churches relevant

 This is one more article about why mainline and evangelical churches are shrinking (i.e. dying, becoming irrelevant).  Unfortunately, the author after attempting to describe the problem--cultural suicide--suggests finding a new vision.  Huh?  Have they tried Jesus? This is an irrelevant article about why churches have become irrelevant.

The author is still quoting William Sloane Coffin.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/gloriouslife/2021/01/how-mainline-churches-closed-themselves/

Five characteristics of successful civilizations, guest blogger Michael Smitih

Earlier Michael wrote:  "It is hard for anyone with an open mind to look at the policies and executive orders of the Biden administration, contrast and compare them with those of the Trump administration, and not see the Democrat's total, unrestricted, all-out war on every aspect of America - what she is, who we are and how we live.

You can see the attacks accelerating, the condescension and threats are turning into actions - if they cannot bring us to heel with laws, rules, and regulations, if they can't make every single one of us a dependent beggar, they will make your savings worthless and break the entire country with spending and debt."

That passage made me think about how I once proposed that the most successful and long-lived civilizations of history have the five characteristics in common, that the loss of any one of the five results in decline, loss of more than one results the fall of the civilization. In these civilizations, the overwhelming majority of their members share:

• A common theism,
• A common ideology,
• A common culture,
• A love of the aforementioned, and
• A willingness to defend all the above (with deadly force and to the death, if necessary).

A common theism is important – to be a unified civilization and survive challenges from other, competing civilizations, there must be a unity at a spiritual level. Contrary to what our ruling class and the elite academia believe; the rise of Islamic terrorism is not driven by economic or political motives. Most academics and devotees of secularism deny that Islamic terrorism has a religious and spiritual genesis because they give little or no credence to their own spirituality and are motivated by a form of dialectic materialism rooted in their own fealty to socialism and communism. Jihadis come from all strata of Islamic and Western society, we have seen the wealthy and the poor, the educated and the ignorant become agents of human destruction. Islamists conceptualize this “struggle” as Islam versus the infidels – this is the only dimension they understand. If Western civilization cannot unite behind a single, motivating, spiritual organizing principle, it will fall. The Crusades are often thought of in pejorative terms but in more visceral times, the Islamic threat was far more obvious and therefore imminently more visible.

A common ideology (and by ideology, I mean a concept of freedom, liberty, and the governance necessary to preserve them) is also necessary. A common understanding of the political process, the legal environment and a broad understanding of the governing structure is essential. To avoid an arbitrary and capricious nature of savagery, people must be able to predict how their interactions will affect others and what the reaction from those “others” will be. This commonality must also be as minimal as possible – for it to bind all the civilization, it must be simple and clear enough to be understood by the most common of men in that civilization.

Like ideology, a common culture is required – and this does not mean that it is unchanging or without variation, just that it is shared across the civilization as new, unharmful and enhancing aspects of other varying cultures are assimilated (and assimilated is the key point). Important aspects providing strength to a civilization are the stability and predictability brought about by the common bonds between its people – Rousseau called it a social compact or contract. It is the mutual understanding of how things are going to work in society and what are the expectations of, and duties between, members of the civilization.

It goes without saying that the members of a given civilization must love it – that is to be totally and completely devoted to it. Members must value liberty, the systems that protect it, the culture that drives it and the spirituality that preserves it. Absent that level of devotion, the final aspect of defense is impossible - the willingness to defend the civilization with force and with the risk of one’s own life.
For better or worse, it seems clear that Western civilization has witnessed varying degrees of success in the intermixing of these five characteristics. It is a personal belief that America’s success has resulted from

 a) Christianity, 

b) the classical liberalism of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, 

c) the unique American ability to assimilate the best of the world’s cultures and create a singular American culture, 

d) the nationalism and patriotism of American exceptionalism and 

e) the willingness to expend its treasure and give the ultimate sacrifice of American lives to defend the ideals incorporated in these five characteristics and to provide the opportunity for the rest of the world to benefit from them as well.

America’s decline is not an inevitability; it is a choice – we are choosing to violate the characteristics of success (or at least we are not stopping those who are).

Every single one of these five characteristics are under active (and passive) attack. Given that the failure of one set us on a path to destruction, it is not a stretch to imagine that multiple violations of all five will spell our end just as it has the great civilizations of antiquity.

On race, racism, class and opportunity

Who are the white supremacists? Maybe those white and black globalists who control or own academe, entertainment, music industry, major sports teams, the tech industry, government, unions, financial industry, health care, Facebook, Google, Twitter, foundations and non-profits, and especially the Democrat party. They are the ones feeling entitled to tell the peons how to live. Just ask them--they will tell you they are righteous.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why the people with all the power are trying to convince us that it's a 40-somethingTrump lover with no investments, not on welfare, riding a motor cycle or driving truck, with a flag sewn to his leather jacket who watches OANN who is the problem. Makes no sense, but then as Tucker has pointed out, the 21st century social and economic revolution is from the top down. The hyper-educated, moneyed elites are oppressing the little guy demanding he give up his first and second amendment rights so they can have more power! So they can feel morally superior while they trash everyone who doesn't agree with them.

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, earned $280,621,552 in total compensation—more than 1,000 times the income of a median company employee ($246,804 is the median, well beyond what the rest of us can complain about). He was born in India and went to an IT school there before he immigrated. Too bad the U.S. is such a terrible racist country, so prejudiced that no one has any opportunity to become that overpaid. I wonder if Alphabet's employees have to attend reeducation classes to become woke.

What is our culture, our society?

If this isn't a racist society or culture, what is it?

• A culture of excellence. A culture of achievement.
• A culture of do-overs.
• A culture of second or third chances.
• A culture of competition. A culture of love of neighbor.
• A culture that respects history with all its flaws.
• A culture of religious freedom or freedom to have no religion.
• A culture of generosity and love.
• A culture of families making life better for their kids.
• A culture of immigrants, refugees and old timers living and succeeding together.
• A culture with respect for education, the arts, hard work, amber waves of grain, and old glory waving.
• A culture of nationalism, patriotism, good old boys, and ladies night out.
• A culture of freedom of the press and freedom of speech (increasingly controlled by the fat cats of technology).

A culture where the people are ready to say, enough already.

The crazies in our culture

The Left is schizo and psychotic. What they are doing to children while screaming about priest sexual abuse (which is far less than that from teachers) and #MeToo is just bizarro.

• They offer underage children abortions then give them birth control;
• they promote surgery on genitals under the guise of "gender confusion";
• they pump children full of hormones to delay puberty which will damage them for the rest of their lives;
• they allow young girls to be intimidated and bullied by boys in their own bathrooms, locker rooms and athletic events;
• then they punish them if they use the correct pronoun.
• This is a political agenda. In Columbus it was being promoted on a local "news" show a few nights ago, as a medical and human interest story because a 3 year old thought he was a girl.

People. You've lost your minds.

And they call this "progressive?"

Reminder

Print the POLST form and read. http://www.cathmed.org/resources/polst/  Do not sign this form. 
Things are moving quickly.  It was just 2012 that President Obama was still saying that marriage was between a man and a woman.  Were President Trump to say that today it would be more shouts for impeachment.  Polygamy demands were supposed to come after same sex marriage, or incest law revocation, but the transgender lobby  jumped in to use up the coffers for the marriage fight and look how well they’ve done in a very short period of time. We now have unlimited numbers of gender and you can be fired for using the wrong pronoun.  It was just about 3 years ago that the Democrats approved 20 Billion for the wall and now they call it immoral.  So the society and cultural standards are changing quickly.

So after all states start following NY, they’ll be coming after us elderly and disabled or depressed.

Summer School of Faith-Sixth, 2018-Charles Craigmile, Culture Lost, Culture Reclaimed

June 12:  The Crisis of Culture - How We Lost our Story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smIAuenhqBw

June 19:  The Doctrine of Creation - A Subversive Theology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Foz7_HYn3fo

June 26:  Liturgy and the Eucharist - Bridging the Gap
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=FdcejG3GcVI

July 10: The Church – “Called to Communion” https://gloria.tv/video/AtnhXhUUp3eG2R7AAGTjiod9n

July 17: Death and the Afterlife – “The Passage Home ”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGEXlsNjPlk

First week:  Many anniversaries in 2018. End of WWI in 1918.  Czar in Russia and family assassinated.  200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth. We have a sense our culture is in crisis. Catholics are experiencing closings of schools, hospitals, shortage of priests.
Uses “Introduction to Christianity” by Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI)

Week 2 uses Genesis—a radical text.

Week 3, the liturgy and mass, true worship of God

Week 4, The church, the call to communion, uses Ratzinger’s 1991 book, “Called to Communion,” compilation of his speeches

Week 5, Death. Uses “Eschatology,” 1997, by Ratzinger, his last major work as a theologian. The Kingdom of God is the fundamental teaching of Jesus—it is Christ. Eternal life starts now.  The door to mercy is through repentance.

Charles Craigmile holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy, with minors in Latin and Greek from the University of St. Thomas, an MA in philosophy from DePaul University, and an MBA from JL Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Charles has also completed three-years’ course work toward a graduate degree in Theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein. Over the last 25 years, Charles has taught Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) programs across the Chicago area, most recently at St. Mary's in Lake Forest.

Forget Russia. What about the U.S.A.

Let's forget Russia, Russia, Russia for the moment. “They’re here in large numbers, actively trying to penetrate a whole host of sectors—government, industry, and academia.” according to a Obama official in 2016 as reported in the New Yorker. Going on for over a decade--that'd be Bush and Obama. "After neglecting the Russian threat for a decade, the U.S. was caught flat-footed by Moscow’s election operation. Now, officials are scrambling to figure out how to contain a sophisticated intelligence network that’s festered and strengthened at home after years’ worth of inattention." (Politico)

If destroying patriotism and love of country were the goal, the Russians succeeded in academe and the entertainment culture with a heavy boost from the Democrats who failed to see the problem, then added to it.

But then. How much interfering does the USA do in the cultures and elections and businesses of other countries? You know, like Bill and Melinda Gates and birth control? Or big pharma testing its products on brown and black babies? Or removing DDT from the tool box to defeat malaria as demanded by liberals of the 1970s? Or helping with the funding of preferred candidates in Kenya or Egypt or eliminating the leaders like Muammar al-Qaddafi’s regime by Obama? Department of State AID for agriculture? It's endless. We have military bases all over the world through "treaties" and "trade agreements." That's not interfering?

How my children did it

I had a 50’ cord on the kitchen phone so I could keep an eye on the children and walk into the living room to see what was going on.

Bobby Jindal—it’s not that complicated

These shootings are a symptom of deep and serious cultural decay in our society.

Let that sink in for a minute.

These acts of evil are a direct result of cultural rot, and it is cultural rot that we have brought upon ourselves, and then we act like we are confounded and perplexed by what is happening here.

Consider the following brew of decay, and you will realize exactly what is happening here:

• We glorify sick and senseless acts of violence in virtually every element of our pop culture, and we have been doing that for at least a generation.
• Our movies and TV shows feature a continuous stream of grotesque killing of every kind imaginable. And this is true of virtually every genre, from horror to drama to comedy.
• We celebrate and document every kind of deviant behavior and we give out awards to producers who can push the envelope as far as possible. Rape, torture, murder, mass murder, all are cinematic achievements.
• Our music does the same thing, we promote evil, we promote the degradation of women, we flaunt the laws of God and common decency and we promote it all and we flood our young people with it.
• We have generations of young boys who were raised on video games where they compete with other young boys around the country and the world to see who can kill the most humans. We make it so fun, so realistic, so sensational.
• We devalue human life, we have no regard for the sanctity of human life in any regard, from the unborn, to the old, and to every single person in between, we devalue it and act as if we have almost no regard for humanity.
• Our families are a complete mess, and we have raised tens of millions of young boys who will never become real men because they have no values whatsoever, they have no truth in their lives, and they have no regard for common decency.
• Oh, we make sure that we stop them from bullying at school, but we are completely fine with them watching people get murdered and raped on the internet after school, and we are willing to let them go to the basement and join a fantasy world where they pretend they are killing people for 2 hours after school.
• And who is it that generally commits these evil acts of mass murder that are becoming routine? It’s almost always young men who have either no father figure in their lives, or a broken relationship with their father. Is this just a coincidence? Of course not.
• Now, let’s get really politically incorrect here and talk specifically about this horror in Oregon. This killer’s father is now lecturing us on the need for gun control and he says he has no idea how or where his son got the guns.
• Of course he doesn’t know. You know why he doesn’t know? Because he is not, and has never been in his son’s life. He’s a complete failure as a father, he should be embarrassed to even show his face in public. He’s the problem here.
• He brags that he has never held a gun in his life and that he had no idea that his son had any guns. Why didn’t he know? Because he failed to raise his son. He should be ashamed of himself, and he owes us all an apology.
• When he was asked what his relationship was with his son, he said he hadn’t seen him in a while because he lived with his mother. Case Closed.

This mess is not nearly as complicated as we pretend.

It’s the old computer axiom – garbage in, garbage out. We fill our culture with garbage, and we reap the result.

https://www.bobbyjindal.com/jindal-we-fill-our-culture-with-garbage/

Robert Putnam speaks at Lakeside

Robert D. Putnam was our program at Lakeside last night--he’s an entertaining, engaging speaker, about my age, married 55 years, a Harvard graduate and college professor.  Even with charts and graphs that show the widening income and behavior gap between upper class (which is growing) and lower class (also growing) and middle class (shrinking) he can hold a large audience‘s attention. He clearly laid out the reasons (particularly for near-by Port Clinton, Ohio, his home town), but his solutions are what one would expect from an academic--more money for education. Twenty years ago his “Bowling alone” book showed how Americans were not pulling together in the communities, clubs, churches and fraternal societies working for the larger good as they had been in the first half of the 20th century.  And that was before the me-phone.

I was shocked to learn that in 1990 Port Clinton’s out of wedlock birth rate was 9% (below the national average) and today just 25 years later is about 40% just a little less than Columbus and above Ohio’s rate. This is not Chicago or Cleveland, but little Port Clinton (ca. 6,000 population, 93% white).  So guess which children are doing better in all measures? Which children are attending church and leaving Port Clinton to go to college?  Children living with married parents who provide economically, spiritually, and socially for them.

And yet he wants education and government to solve this. My belief is that government has contributed to the problem with 128 transfer programs taking money from the middle class to give to the poor that would make a woman think twice or thrice before marrying a guy who cares more about cars and sports than his children, causing her to lose health and housing benefits. Marriage and responsibility help young men become grown ups; the government helps them remain adolescents until they can collect Medicare.

He noted that at the turn of the 20th century Americans decided tax supported high school was important and it made a huge difference in the lives of the poor.  But for some reason I think he’s believing compulsory, government pre-schools and free college will do the same.  Well, not without marriage, and not without jobs—but it will be more jobs for academics and government bureaucracies.

http://robertdputnam.com/about-our-kids/ 

http://robertdputnam.com/about-our-kids/press-release/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/books/review/our-kids-by-robert-d-putnam.html?_r=0

Why you talk white?

“I was visiting my older sister shortly after I had begun working at the Wall Street Journal, and I was chatting with her daughter, my niece, who was maybe in the second grade at the time. I was asking her about school, her favorite subjects, that sort of thing, when she stopped me and said, “Uncle Jason, why you talk white?” Then she turned to her little friend who was there and said, “Don’t my uncle sound white? Why he tryin’ to sound so smart?”

She was just teasing, of course. I smiled and they enjoyed a little chuckle at my expense. But what she said stayed with me. I couldn’t help thinking: Here were two young black girls, seven or eight years old, already linking speech patterns to race and intelligence. They already had a rather sophisticated awareness that, as blacks, white-sounding speech was not only to be avoided in their own speech but mocked in the speech of others.”

Jason L. Riley, Race Relations and Law Enforcement, Imprimis, January, 2015

Internet users say they are better informed than 5 years ago

I'm definitely better informed about some rather specialized things than I was 5 years ago--my 2nd cousins once removed, Beyonce and the Kardashians, crazy scandals of the Obama administration, but I think I know less local stuff since we no longer get a newspaper. I did all my research for my new kitchen appliances on the internet, and they still are not properly installed and we're looking at January 2015 (purchased in September). I don't use a cell phone except to call my son, but I saw a woman at Kohl's this morning doing amazing things with hers that I didn't even know were possible. I'm using the internet more for recipes, and my own file less. Data isn't information isn't knowledge isn't wisdom, as the sign in my office used to say.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/12/08/better-informed/

Report is based an online probability survey conducted September 12-18, 2014 among a sample of 1,066 adult internet users, 18 years of age or older.

Sensory overload

Last night I came across a website called Verge Network, created a few years back to feature the "missional movement" among churches (most seem to be mega churches--haven't yet found the source.) I looked through some very good preaching and high tech videos, but after an hour of browsing I felt I'd had enough of seeing preachers in jeans and t-shirts, dark, massive assembly halls, waving arms, spot lights, cluttered stages with guitars and Peaveys and floors littered with cords. But that's how "successful" churches do it these days. Join the culture in order to reach the culture.

A few centuries ago, soaring arches, stained glass windows, marble statues, and amazing organs and choirs were all meant to appeal to the senses, particularly for those who couldn't read. Nothing has changed, I guess—except then the churches seemed to be leading the culture.

Adoption falling on hard times

“Adoption referrals, sent to outside agencies, are an infrequent occurrence at Planned Parenthood clinics.  Abortions still outnumbered adoption referrals [in the latest annual report] at Planned Parenthood by a nearly 149 to one ratio!”  Link.

I've seen the statistics about adoption vs. abortion from Planned Parenthood’s annual reports. Not good, but it’s probably not all their fault.  Adoption isn’t a popular option at the church supported agency where I volunteer which exists only to save the lives of babies and help the mom with social services.

Imagine a world in which the culture (TV, movies, magazines, literature, social media and peers) tells a young girl from an early age that a career is her life’s goal, that motherhood is second rate, that pregnancy will destroy her sex appeal, that commitment for a life time is optional for sexual relations, that hanging with friends and posting on Face Book is what life is about, that large families will bankrupt her, where their schools install vending machines with condoms and morning after pills and/or she will be abused or abandoned if she choses life for her child.  Actually, you don’t need to imagine it—that’s the recipe for abortion in 2014.

But it’s not a whole lot different for those women considering single parenting—marriage is denigrated in our culture except for gays, the young men are ass-holes, immature, or totally irresponsible and if she marries him she loses government benefits, and there are 79 programs waiting to make Uncle Sam her baby’s step-father if she can keep her income low enough. There are simply no pluses for adoption these days. Potential adoptive parents write profiles at special websites and for adoption magazines--I almost weep when I read though the websites of couples longing to adopt when I know young women careless about the future of their babies (either choosing death or being raised in an inadequately prepared home).

This is not the 1950s when the rich had abortions, the poor kept their babies or put them in grandma’s care and the middle class went away to visit an aunt or grandmother and someone adopted their babies and they signed away their parental rights. Many young women of today think adoption much more tragic or unthinkable than abortion.

Tolerance is not a Biblical value

              

Shocking isn't it?  Love, compassion, gentleness, kindness, patience, cheerfulness, respect, humility, conjugal fidelity, familial caregiving, honesty, happiness (blessedness), beauty, discrimination between right and wrong, justice flowing from God, the existence of and battle against evil, mercy, work, sharing, responsibility, wisdom, hospitality, gratitude, obligations to God and family, unity as God's creation, holiness, chastity, virtue, children as gifts of God, corporate worship, and many more can easily be located in the Bible and church tradition.

Not on the list of Biblical values are tolerance, Marxism, statism, utilitarianism, multiculturalism, sustainability, environmentalism (worship of Mother Earth), diversity, nihilism, redistributive justice, redistribution of wealth (aka stealing), lasciviousness, permissive sex, cohabitation, unity created by national or political grouping, disrespect for the aged, poor and unborn, relativism, fraud, --these and many others are all the province of the secular culture. Humanists and progressives may borrow temporarily some values and ethics from the Bible and not hurt or change who they truly are, but Christians are at grave risk when borrowing from the secular culture for their values.