It's Raising the Barr Thing

Dear America,

"We have staked our future 

on the ability of each of us to govern ourselves..." 

This was Attorney General William Barr, quoting Founding Father James Madison...in one of the best speeches to have ever been told.  Location:  South Bend, IN, at the University of Notre Dame.

And yet, this quote -- included in Barr's remarks just like so -- was actually taken from Madison's speech to the General Assembly of the State of Virginia, in the year 1778, and went something more like this:

"We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments of God."

Alrighty then.

Now, in some respects, Barr was preaching to the choir; he is Catholic, and he was making his address before a room full of Catholics, and the like, so, there is that.

And given Barr is living as an individual in this country -- he carries the same liberties as everyone else in this country -- he has the right to say what he wants to say, to believe in what he wants to believe, and to walk his talk in his daily life.  And these liberties hold true no matter the audience, no matter if at work or play, for these liberties are all encompassing and walk with each of us, as individuals.

And yet, as Barr emphasizes throughout his remarks, he notes how the nation is losing its religion across the board, across state lines, across the continent, and delves into making further observations as to what this truly means for America.  And it isn't good.

Barr says:

On the one hand, we have seen the steady erosion of our traditional Judeo-Christian moral system and a comprehensive effort to drive it from the public square. 

On the other hand, we see the growing ascendancy of secularism and the doctrine of moral relativism. 

By any honest assessment, the consequences of this moral upheaval have been grim.

and in about the next breath, details said consequences like so:

In 1965, the illegitimacy rate was eight percent. In 1992, when I was last Attorney General, it was 25 percent. Today it is over 40 percent. In many of our large urban areas, it is around 70 percent. 

Along with the wreckage of the family, we are seeing record levels of depression and mental illness, dispirited young people, soaring suicide rates, increasing numbers of angry and alienated young males, an increase in senseless violence, and a deadly drug epidemic. 

As you all know, over 70,000 people die a year from drug overdoses. That is more casualties in a year than we experienced during the entire Vietnam War.

And as the story of America unfolds, just how do we respond to our growing issues of a fallen, desperate, sick, morally corrupt, addicted society?  We call in "the State to mitigate," as he says.

Are you ready for it?  Here it goes -- Barr, speaking to the mitigation process:

So the reaction to growing illegitimacy is not sexual responsibility, but abortion.

The reaction to drug addiction is safe injection sites.

The solution to the breakdown of the family is for the State to set itself up as the ersatz husband for single mothers and the ersatz father to their children.

The call comes for more and more social programs to deal with the wreckage. While we think we are solving problems, we are underwriting them.

We start with an untrammeled freedom and we end up as dependents of a coercive state on which we depend.

Interestingly, this idea of the State as the alleviator of bad consequences has given rise to a new moral system that goes hand-in-hand with the secularization of society.  It can be called the system of “macro-morality.”  It is in some ways an inversion of Christian morality.

Christianity teaches a micro-morality. We transform the world by focusing on our own personal morality and transformation. 

The new secular religion teaches macro-morality. One’s morality is not gauged by their private conduct, but rather on their commitment to political causes and collective action to address social problems.

there it is:
That thing called self-government, to govern ourselves accordingly, for the benefit of the whole.

The truth is, this is a story as old as time itself.  The Rise and Fall of Civilizations is nothing new, right?  It's just new for America.  And just who could ever have imagined it would come to this?

Well, for starters, heeding to another quotation [by Barr] of one of our Founding Fathers, John Adams -- our founders saw this day coming and made their own fair warning, right up front:  “We have no government armed with the power which is capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”

Which explains why things have become so unglued in less than twenty five years.  The secular missionaries of the Left -- the radicals, progressives, socialists, community organizers --  have not only made secular advances in replacing, if not totally dismissing, the essential elements of religion in daily life, but have also made nearly routine, the unethical, amoral advancement of undermining the Constitution, itself.

Without a smidgen of doubt, the use of judicial power from state to state, has grown into a leftist machine -- making radical changes to society without so much as a second opinion.  As Barr notes, even Catholic institutions are being called out on being too Catholic, abiding by their faith too much!

AGAIN,  just who could ever have imagined it would come to this?

Let's head back to the year 1947, when a sociologist from Harvard wrote a book about just this topic, Family and Civilization, by Carle C. Zimmerman.  In simple, easy to understand words -- Zimmerman predicted this day would come, too...seventy-two years ago.  Cataloged between the binding, Zimmerman frames the fall of civilization by the following characteristics:

• increased and rapid "causeless" divorce
• decreased number of children, population decay, and increased public disrespect of parenthood
• elimination of the real meaning of marriage, marital ceremony
• popularity of pessimistic doctrines about the early heroes
• rise of theories that "companionate" marriage, couples living together, and allowing for a permissible looser family form would solve the problem
• the refusal to maintain family traditions
• breaking down of most inhibitions against adultery
• revolts of youth against parents, making parenthood more difficult
• juvenile delinquency
• common acceptance of all forms of sexual perversions

Our issues, in America, stem from this kind of breakdown of the family unit, in concert with losing our religion, which can only lead to fundamental and detrimental changes to society as a whole.

And, as you can well imagine, Zimmerman quickly lost all respect after this book was published; ostracized by his community of peers who believed to know better and, ironically, chocking up his warnings to that of near heresy. 

Ah, but Zimmerman was right.  Along with all the other historians over all time, who not only recognized, but truly understood, just what the Fall of Man -- the fall of Civilization -- looks like, acts like, talks like, and walks like, no matter in the light of day or dark of night. And for some of us, this realization is historically made significant the day Jesus was nailed on the cross, and ultimately glorified by His resurrection on the third day.

Barr continues speaking of faith, hope and love, much like that of a famous letter to the Corinthians...taking this address to great heights, while making clear of his intentions moving forward, being a man in his position -- the top attorney in all the land.

There is some glimmer of light:

Because this Administration firmly supports accommodation of religion, the battleground has shifted to the states. Some state governments are now attempting to compel religious individuals and entities to subscribe to practices, or to espouse viewpoints, that are incompatible with their religion. 

Ground zero for these attacks on religion are the schools. To me, this is the most serious challenge to religious liberty.  

For anyone who has a religious faith, by far the most important part of exercising that faith is the teaching of that religion to our children. The passing on of the faith. There is no greater gift we can give our children and no greater expression of love. 

For the government to interfere in that process is a monstrous invasion of religious liberty.

and continuing,

We understand that only by transforming ourselves can we transform the world beyond ourselves. 

This is tough work. It is hard to resist the constant seductions of our contemporary society. This is where we need grace, prayer, and the help of our church. 

Beyond this, we must place greater emphasis on the moral education of our children.
Education is not vocational training. It is leading our children to the recognition that there is truth and helping them develop the faculties to discern and love the truth and the discipline to live by it. 

We cannot have a moral renaissance unless we succeed in passing to the next generation our faith and values in full vigor.

still
it is all about transforming ourselves, one by one, from the inside out.

The fact is that no secular creed has emerged capable of performing the role of religion. 

Scholarship suggests that religion has been integral to the development and thriving of Homo sapiens since we emerged roughly 50,000 years ago. It is just for the past few hundred years we have experimented in living without religion. 

We hear much today about our humane values. But, in the final analysis, what undergirds these values? What commands our adherence to them? 

What we call "values" today are really nothing more than mere sentimentality, still drawing on the vapor trails of Christianity.

indeed

It's called raising the Barr, raising the bar, raising the Barr bar and it's all good.


"THE FACT IS THAT NO SECULAR CREED HAS EMERGED CAPABLE OF PERFORMING THE ROLE OF RELIGION."  Period.

"What we call 'values' today are really nothing more than mere sentimentality, still drawing on the vapor trails of Christianity."

Which begs the question, wonder how much longer it will last...this wee little vapor trail of Christianity, with the potential of vanishing into thin air almost any day now.

At least we still got  our Free Speech, right. right?   right?  right?

Make it a Good Day, G