Legend has it that at the start of the trial of English King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell saw the king approaching Westminster Hall and realized he had a problem.
It is abundantly clear, or at least it should be, that America was, and to a certain extent continues to be an exceptional country because it was founded upon Biblical principles by Bible-believing men, for Bible believing people. Adams knew this and expounded it clearly and unequivocally. When he said the Constitution could only effectively govern a "moral and religious people," he meant Christian people, not buddhist or moslem or atheistic people. There is no argument about this, at least no rational or factual argument. America was to be a country governed by the God of the Bible and in accordance with His laws. When the First Amendment was approved, there was no thought that "freedom of religion" would ever be transmogrified into "freedom from religion," but that is where a series of Godless politicians and jurists have dragged us. The further we have strayed from the founding philosophy the less we are Americans, by definition. We now have a Christian remnant instead of a majority, and the results are clear for all to see. Our country can only survive as the founders imagined and intended it if it is populated by people who engage in self-restraint and abide in their personal lives by the principles set forth in the Bible, especially but not limited to the Decalogue. It would be ideal if the citizenry could aim to self-govern under Jesus' later explication of the Decalogue in the Sermon on the Mount, although that is an impossibility in our current fallen state. But to wholesale abandon those principles as seems to be the idea in vogue among our educated class is to guarantee our national extinction. The limited government enshrined by the Founders will devolve into anarchy and eventually must be replaced by a central government that imposes order on people who refuse to impose it on themselves. I can think of no worse fate.
The importing of foreigners with little in common with the original population has destroyed the shared culture and ideals that made a liberal republic possible.
Of course, there were many other contributing factors. The destruction of state sovereignty in the war between the states, the beginning of empire shortly after, Wilson, Hoover, and Roosevelt all did their shares. One could argue that the Constitution itself was part of the problem, ending as it did the loose confederation of states in favor of an entity that inexorably moved toward consolidation from the beginning.
But you can't have a high-trust society with a huge mixture of peoples who don't share a culture and faith. And only the Christian faith provides the moral foundation for a successful society without tyranny.
What we can salvage from the wreckage remains to be determined.
I think that's true as long as the Christians are European. Blacks were Christian (in their way) like The Most Reverend King and that didn't work. Christians have a problem because they are obsessed with getting souls into heaven but forget about the blood and soil parts of human life.
Where I differ from Zman about the decline is he thinks it's because of Christianity, forgetting about the Normans. I believe it was the invention of the concept of human rights that created the current sacred-victim, entitled parasite culture. We need both Christianity and blood and soil to save our civilization.
It is abundantly clear, or at least it should be, that America was, and to a certain extent continues to be an exceptional country because it was founded upon Biblical principles by Bible-believing men, for Bible believing people. Adams knew this and expounded it clearly and unequivocally. When he said the Constitution could only effectively govern a "moral and religious people," he meant Christian people, not buddhist or moslem or atheistic people. There is no argument about this, at least no rational or factual argument. America was to be a country governed by the God of the Bible and in accordance with His laws. When the First Amendment was approved, there was no thought that "freedom of religion" would ever be transmogrified into "freedom from religion," but that is where a series of Godless politicians and jurists have dragged us. The further we have strayed from the founding philosophy the less we are Americans, by definition. We now have a Christian remnant instead of a majority, and the results are clear for all to see. Our country can only survive as the founders imagined and intended it if it is populated by people who engage in self-restraint and abide in their personal lives by the principles set forth in the Bible, especially but not limited to the Decalogue. It would be ideal if the citizenry could aim to self-govern under Jesus' later explication of the Decalogue in the Sermon on the Mount, although that is an impossibility in our current fallen state. But to wholesale abandon those principles as seems to be the idea in vogue among our educated class is to guarantee our national extinction. The limited government enshrined by the Founders will devolve into anarchy and eventually must be replaced by a central government that imposes order on people who refuse to impose it on themselves. I can think of no worse fate.
The importing of foreigners with little in common with the original population has destroyed the shared culture and ideals that made a liberal republic possible.
Of course, there were many other contributing factors. The destruction of state sovereignty in the war between the states, the beginning of empire shortly after, Wilson, Hoover, and Roosevelt all did their shares. One could argue that the Constitution itself was part of the problem, ending as it did the loose confederation of states in favor of an entity that inexorably moved toward consolidation from the beginning.
But you can't have a high-trust society with a huge mixture of peoples who don't share a culture and faith. And only the Christian faith provides the moral foundation for a successful society without tyranny.
What we can salvage from the wreckage remains to be determined.
I think that's true as long as the Christians are European. Blacks were Christian (in their way) like The Most Reverend King and that didn't work. Christians have a problem because they are obsessed with getting souls into heaven but forget about the blood and soil parts of human life.
Where I differ from Zman about the decline is he thinks it's because of Christianity, forgetting about the Normans. I believe it was the invention of the concept of human rights that created the current sacred-victim, entitled parasite culture. We need both Christianity and blood and soil to save our civilization.