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Are the Culture Wars Over? Have We Lost?
Many people look around our culture and society and see utter destruction. They see grade-schoolers being taught that the gay-sex drug PrEP is just peachy. They see kids being taught there is this thing called anal sex. Seventh graders in my local school system hear it 22 times—not 21, not 23, 22 times in a single year. It is for safety reasons, you dolt.
Kids can access the hardest of hard-core porn on the iPhones that they ought not to have. Most of what they are watching is prosecutable under federal law that has been adjudicated by the Supreme Court; but no one has done anything like that since the Reagan Administration.
In your place of employment, they are passing around gay propaganda; and there is nothing you can do about it. A lady who works for Alaska Airlines was canned because she asked if it was a good idea for her company to so vigorously support the Equality Act which will have the effect of making Christians second class citizens.
Most of the Fortune 500 score a perfect 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. To get a perfect score, a corporation must agree to every jot and tittle of the gay agenda, including insurance coverage for the lopping off of otherwise healthy breasts and penises, and going along with the strange sexual kabuki of “trans men” and “trans women.”
This started long ago, going on sixty years. They took prayer out of public schools. There was no groundswell of support for such a thing. In fact, when the Supreme Court struck down the Regent’s Prayer in New York, newspapers from coast to coast condemned the decision. The next year they struck down Bible reading in public schools. The Supreme Court said the government must be neutral in religious matters and the only way it could be neutral was to come down on the side of—get this—secularism, which even then meant without God, without religion. That was when the Federal Government took a side in the Culture Wars against us.
What followed? Hell followed.
A few years later, they said contraception was a Constitutional right for married couples. Not long after, contraception became a right for singles. Then came a right to abortion. Then a right to sodomy. Then a right to homosexual marriage. And they say we are obsessed with sex!
Want to know what we lost all across this land? Consider that as late as the 1950s, fornication was illegal in at least 38 states. Adultery was illegal in all but five states. Sodomy was illegal in all the states. Even seduction was considered both a tort and a crime. And contraception was forbidden in most places. Each of these laws reflected fundamental aspects of traditional Christian teaching.
And what has replaced these fundamental Christian teachings? The teachings of a new faith, a new Established Church. After all, where kids once prayed and read the Bible, they are now forced to recite “proper pronouns” and to believe that kids can be born into the wrong body.
The Pelvic Left laughs at us when we say there is a Culture War going on. They say we are paranoid conspiracy mongers. This is nothing less than gaslighting by those holding the whip hand. Make no mistake, the Culture War is real. It is a war of aggression by the progressive Left against the Christian people. For our part, it is a defensive war, and therefore it is not only a just war, but it is mandatory that we fight.
Sadly, young Christians laugh, too. They think the Culture Wars are so 1980s, so Jerry Falwell, and we ought to get over it and get to building little pockets of Christian orthodoxy in the woods of New Hampshire, or in the reclaimed gritty blocks of Pittsburgh. And hats off to them! But they ought to know the Culture Wars are coming for them even in the New Hampshire woods and in the neighborhoods of Pittsburgh.
The Culture Wars are real. You may not believe in the Culture Wars, but the Culture Wars most assuredly believe in you, and most especially your children. Recall the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus singing about how they are coming for our kids. They claimed later they were just kidding, or something. Do you believe them?
I see the exact same things as the defeatist conservatives. I have written about these atrocities for the better part of 25 years. What’s more, I have acted. My group has played a key role in stopping the Pelvic Left at the UN. They want a global right to abortion, and we have stopped them. They want to redefine the family, and we have stopped them. They want “sexual orientation and gender identity” as a new category of nondiscrimination in international law, and we have stopped them. We have gone up against all the powers of the earth and stopped them.
Sure, the Pelvic Left has the upper hand. They command the heights of power. So what! As my boss at Fortune magazine used to say, “If it was easy, they wouldn’t need [expletive deleted] like us.” T.S. Eliot said there are no lost causes because there are no gained causes. The fight that started in the Garden is not going to end any time soon, not until Jesus Christ himself comes down on a cloud. In the meantime, the fighting is good. It’s just. What’s more, it’s kind of fun. And as that great Culture Warrior Richard John Neuhaus used to say in bleak times, “We can turn this around.”
Published in Domestic Policy
What’s that old saying? “No general ever won a battle by surrendering.” Damn straight we can turn this around!
The culture war is not over, but we ground troops need a Patton-like leader to rally behind. Trump was that leader, but the full-court press by the MSM, never-Trumpers, and weak-kneed Republicans who resign their offices took its toll – not to mention the Wuhan Flu.
I can see a Trump/DeSantis ticket in 2024 . . .
“Is there not a cause?”
The battles will not be over until they marginalize all that disagree with them. Sadly we are heading that way faster than expected. Not sure why the Right surrendered the battle but it did. Now we just have to watch the ever quickening ride into oblivion.
Was it OVER when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? No!
Social conservatives promote values that sustainable. If the new values are sustained, they will be become the new conservative values. If they are not sustained, then conservatives have won. Thus, in the long run, social conservatives will win the culture war, but today’s social conservatives might not like the win.
Welcome to Ricochet, Austin.
FIFY
If I had school age kids, I wouldn’t allow them a smart phone. A flip phone, maybe, for emergencies. Though I seem to have made it alright without a cell phone at all.
A major problem with Trump as a culture war leader is that his personal history is less than exemplary. On the other hand, his habit of defiance was refreshing.
The crux is not whether confused people should be allowed a zone of personal freedom to act on these “identity” issues but whether the rest of us are required to approve and applaud. I don’t mind Jenner donning a dress and finding a surgeon willing to mutilate him. What I mind is the expectation that I regard this as positive and brave and that I concur in his decision.
The left has succeeded in conflating Americans’ almost instinctive desire to grant each other as much liberty to act on our beliefs and desires as possible with a mandate to believe that adherence to the “normal” is a hate crime because it precludes automatic endorsement of perversion and self-destructive undertakings. Presumably, Lou is not really free to be Louise unless all of the rest of us are willing to help him pick out his first dress.
By its nature, the left does not give a rat’s a$$ for the well-being of actual, individual people (look how fast cis-female feminists have been knocked off the ideological victims’ pecking order and trashed for not cheering male competitors in girls’ sports and men in the ladies room). That is the vulnerable port on the death star that we ultimately need to exploit.
My hypothesis is that it is precisely the sort of tolerant attitude that you express which has led to the massive increase in the prevalence of sexual deviance. Isn’t it analogous to a team that wants to play defense, but won’t play offense?
sorry – I am just very literal and have never seen Animal House
It’s worth the effort.
No need to apologize. I was merely bringing the cultural referent to your attention.
The “tolerant attitude” is less a cause and more of a consequence. It is almost as if the entire western world woke up one morning and decided to admit they no longer really believe the animating religious principles of their civilization and that they have just been going through the motions for decades. There is then no energy to act to protect moral standards and save souls if it no longer seems to matter.
There is only 2 things we can do but it requires republican politicians to do the one thing they hate to do. Something.
So the only path to even just creating a space for existence requires going hard at employers under EO law, and the ability to bid on state contracts, prosecuting employers for fraudulant misrepresentation of being EO employers.
Start running EO seminars and develop a network of labor attorneys with at minimum free cease and desist nasty grams.
That is the only ace we have left.
I don’t understand this. I’m opposed in principle to EO law. I can’t imagine suing someone under its auspices.
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Mr. Ruse, I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to see your name attached this post on Ricochet where I’ve been a member since 2010. Welcome! I make it a point to read whatever your write at CRISIS Magazine (you and Anthony Esolen).
A month or so ago, I hurried to finish your book, Under Siege: No Finer Time to Be a Faithful Catholic, before Mass so that I could hand it off to our very young, faithful pastor. It turned out the deacon gave the homily that day and it was so aligned with your book, I was propelled by the Holy Spirit to the front of the sanctuary after Mass where he was preparing the altar for the next Mass, and said to him, “I thought I was giving this book to Fr. Jim, but it’s very clearly intended for you, Deacon.” He called me the next day and thanked me profusely and expressed his admiration for your message. I asked him to hand it off to Fr. Jim when he was finished with it.
A couple weeks later, Fr. Jim caught me after Mass where his homily spoke to your message and he said to me, “Can you tell I’ve been reading Austin’s book??” Yes, I could tell.
I have since bought a second copy of your book and plan to read it again (I have it with me at Hillsdale College this week where we’re meeting with other Ricochet members for a CCA on the election). The final chapters dealing with modern day saints were so inspirational, it’s a message I needed to absorb again. Everyone needs it in these challenging times.
I believe you’re doing important work — the Lord’s work. Many blessings and thanks to you, sir.
P.S. There’s a Ricochet Catholics group open to all. We’d love to see you there, as well.
I like it this way. It could be a John Belushi reference or a prediction of what Joe Biden will say in his remarks on the eightieth anniversary of the event, 12/7/21. Either way, it’s delicious.
I guess it’s a lack of imagination on my part. I have a hard time picturing Donald Trump leading a crusade for chastity and sexual purity. That strikes me as likely as a 1970’s Dean Martin leading a crusade against alcohol.
Oh wow, is Austin Ruse now a columnist here on Ricochet or a member? Or perhaps neither and the moderators saw it in their wisdom to posted this marvelous article. I read this originally when it was published in Crises magazine. I was overwhelmed on how spot on it was and expressed many of my thoughts. I was considering putting a post together for Ricochet quoting key parts. I am grateful it has been posted for all to read.
The only place I would quibble is in the optimism at the end. I’ve stopped being optimistic about our culture. The rot will continue for the foreseeable future. Gay marriage is not getting overturned. Abortion isn’t going away. I doubt many mass conversions to real Christianity is going to occur in my lifetime. I don’t think we have stopped sinking into the slime and I can’t see a change to western society’s decline. Only through God will it be possible. I pray for it to happen.
I agree. As positive as a leader Trump was in fighting the left, he was not that good in promoting moral values. I agree.
It says he’s a Reagan Member. If TPTB (not the volunteer moderators, who have no such power) had added him, it would be as a contributor. He must be supporting the site.
Wow…how very lovely. I am so grateful. I am new in these parts and glad to find the sympatico!!! Feel free to pass along austinruse@c-fam.org to your priest and deacon…
Many thanks for your kind words. Yes I just became a member and crossposted this from Crisis!
All the best,
Austin
I am supporting the site. I am brand new. Thanks for the welcome
Thanks to all for the lovely welcome. Much appreciated.
Thanks.