By Andrew (Shoebat Sunday Special) When I was a child, I remember my parents and grandparents lamenting how it seemed the world was getting worse with each passing day. Now I grew up during the late 1980s and the 1990s, and everything seemed pretty good to me, although you could see there were changes. Now it not only seems that things have gotten worse- they measurably have worsened significantly.
Historians say that September 11th was a major historical marker in American culture, so let’s take that as a point of reference.
Think about that on September 10th, 2001, Americans knew nothing about Islam. If you said “Osama bin Laden” or “Taliban” people would have no idea what you are talking about, “terrorism” was something the IRA did occasionally in Northern Ireland, and the idea that a bunch of people from the rocky deserts of the Middle East and Central Asia would attack and try to take over the western world was something that would get you written off as a “tin-foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist.” There was general decline in the culture and more references to homosexuality and other kinds of deviant behavior than ever before in history, but it was not a “mainstream” issue in the sense it is today.
I remember trying to tell people about this guy before 9/11. It didn’t work until after 9/11.
Now look at our society, fifteen years later. Everybody is now an expert in terrorism, and American practically is playing a roulette wheel as to which Muslim nation they are going to bomb and take over for economic reasons under the guise of the perpetual “war on terror” (with the exception of Turkey, of course, because Sultan aspirant Erdogan is “our special ally” just like the Shah of Iran in 1953 and Saddam Hussein until the first Gulf War all were until they were of no use to us any more). Sodomy is not only accepted, but it is regarded as normal and if you dare to speak of it on anything less than fawning, endearing terms there is a real chance that you will not only lose your friends, job, and any future meaningful career prospects, but you also physical attack, long-term imprisonment, and even death. Islam runs rampant and is treated with nearly the same fawning as is homosexuality, all the while Muslims are murdering, raping, burning, looting, and destroying western society with the complicit assistance of the governments of the Western European nations. Christianity regardless of the sect has become an ostracized religion whose presence in the very societies it gave birth to is barely tolerated and only grudgingly so as the government and the people which they reflect have turned against them. Satanism, bestiality, and human sacrifice are applauded and promoted.
The Cleaver Family. Once the stereotypical American ideal, they are veritable pariahs today. They would need a heavy dose of economic, social, and personal dyfunction if they wanted to fit in today.
In the wink of an eye, or so it seems, America went from one nation to another. If you put this into a greater historical continuum, such as America 1956 to America 2016, this change becomes not only more apparent, but the differences are just magnified. If Leave it to Beaver was the idealized American family of that time period, then today’s same family would see Beaver’s parent’s divorced, Ward going through sex change to become Wanda while suffering from long-term drug issues to cope with the fact that he is dying of AIDS, June would be a tattoo-covered, 50-shades-of-grey reading single mom with bipolar disorder who works as a waitress by day and turns five-dollar tricks at the local truckstop by night to pay for her hair extension and fake nails, Wally would be a runaway who dresses all in black and has a history of suicide attempts, and Beaver would have converted to Islam and be plotting how to explode his first bomb while unfortunately blowing up everything else around him except his intended target.
Change does not happen gradually as people say, but the steps to change happen slowly and the transition takes place quickly, much like exponential growth in mathematics. It starts slow but once an inflexion point is reached, the growth (or transition) is immediate and drastic. Hence this is the reason why it appears that change happens in the wink of an eye- because it does, but the factors which caused it had been building up for a long time. It is also the reason why change causes such a shock to individuals- because it does not appear to be expected in spite of the fact that it was long in coming unless that person was aware of the circumstances that lead up to that change. Case in point- Islamic terrorism. Walid had been talking about this since in conversion to Christianity in 1993. I had been talking about Islam since I began studying it in 1998 on my own while still in middle school after reading The Autobiography Of Malcolm X. I remember when 9/11 happened how everybody was shocked (and I was too), but I said when I heard the news “It’s Osama bin Laden and the Taliban” and the response I got from everybody I talked to about it was “Who’s Osama bin Laden?” and “What’s the Taliban?” It did not matter that people had been completely ignorant by choice about what was going on around them- all that mattered was reality, and when it hit them it hit them hard in the face, when if they had been paying attention it had been saying all along that it was going to punch them in the face as hard as it could once it reached the point of doing so.
Economists refer to unexpected, unforeseen events sometimes as “black swan’ events. However, since all events have measurable causes which lead up to them, most can be measured and even predicted. Even if they cannot be detected, the fact is that a prior buildup existed.
So being prepared for the unexpected is a good thing. However, nobody can be completely ready for everything. Even the best of plans can and do fail to accommodate the winding path which life takes. That said, preparation is actually twofold. The first part is the obvious- being aware and ready to deal with a situation or situations by taking necessary precautions. The second part is less obvious- it is the mental side, which does not prepare for a specific event but rather prepares for how to calmly reason in an organized manner through a high stress situation to figure out what to do next. Colloquially stated, it’s the ability to think on your feet without losing your cool. This is even more important than the first, because while the first part prepares for what is known, the second part prepares a man by instilling in him a series of principles for how to deal with the unknown so that he may make good decisions in bad situations. It is analogus to the adage “give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.”
This struck me in a particular way when I was driving to work this week. I was randomly searching through the radio stations when I came to a station playing Bruce Springsteen’s Glory Days. Let me be clear- I am NOT a fan of “The Boss”- I find his must rather annoying. However, I knew the song, and in spite of the fact that I find the entire message of the song grating, I listened to it in full. When I had the chance, I watched the original music video that accompanied the song. Again, aside from the grating lyrics and Steven Van Zandt’s disturbing facial expressions, I thought it was an excellent song, because it is really a reflection of how many Americans Christians and Christians in the West in general look at how their faith relates to their lives.
The premise of Glory Days is that Springsteen is reminiscing about randomly meeting with old friends and acquaintances from high school at a bar. They are older and their lives have taken a sharp turn towards the difficult and bitter- former athletes and cheerleaders are now broken, divorced, and depressed after being caught in dead end jobs and other circumstances which they cannot find their way out of. In order to console themselves, instead of talking about their problems or the future, they return to reminiscing about the “glory days” of high school while drowning themselves in alcohol. Springsteen ends the song by singing about how not only is he going to go back to the bar, but he will be singing about the “glory days” even after they are long past and stale because there is nothing left to sing about. At least in the music video, there is the redeeming suggestion that while Springsteen cannot live his dreams, he can live them through his children by passing on to them the love for baseball that he had when he was in high school.
The William Livingstone house in Detroit then and now. This is American and the West. In the past it was a beautiful, elegant, cultured place. Take God out of the structure long enough and let the moral rot consume the people, and it has become an unsafe and uninhabitable structure.
As I mentioned earlier, the once-Christian Western societies of Europe and America have drastically changed. The change was evident, measurable, and people had been speaking about it for many years- centuries, to be precise- and warning about the consequences of what would happen. Sadly, their warnings were persistently unheeded and now the West is not only in a state of apostasy, but is in the midst of a transformation into a mutated beast of its former self. Whether it is Islam, homosexuality, or something else, the trend is clear that the portals of hell have been opened up into and seized control over western society, and hence is the reason why they are all coalescing at the same time, as all these evils come from one source.
It is time for Christians to admit the obvious- the “glory days” of a “Christian West” are gone and they may not come back, and if they do, it will not be for a long time and without a lot of efforts. The culture war is over- we lost, badly, and as history is “written by the winners,” the winners of this war are attempting not just to write us out, but to efface our very existence from the pages of history itself. And yet in spite of the overwhelming and clear evidence to show this, there are still Christians talking about the days of America’s Christian past, and how nice they were, and how we must fight for Christian social change in society, and how we have an litany of perceived obligations to greater society at a major expense to us, and so forth. These are the same people who are afraid to talk about Christianity in a bold, uncompromising manner, for fear that they will lose their jobs, social standing, or other worldly benefit. I see it as the proverbial ostrich who puts his head in a hole at the sight of danger, thinking that if a predator does not see him then he will be fine.
These people do not like you because they do not love, and they do not love because they hate God. The only thing they love is perversity, which is in fact license.
Fellow Christian, American and Western European society does not like you. It hates you for what you believe in. It only likes you when you agree with it. If you do not agree with it, it turns on you. Call it an abusive relationship, a bad friend, whatever you want, but it does not care about you. It only cares about itself, and it will rob and murder you and your family if it sees there is a perceived benefit to doing just that. You are not safe in your own society any more. The “glory days” as we thought we knew or had a vague idea of are gone.
That said, there is another side to this story, and that is that the real “glory days” for Christians in America and Europe are ahead.
The Martyrdom of St. Ignatius of Antioch
The early Church is often spoken about by Christians as a kind of rustic charm of an antiquarian age that, while at times filled with violence, was a return to the simpler, “truer” form of Christianity before it became socially acceptable to be a Christians. Being a believing Christian was a choice, and hard one at that too, since you were choosing to follow a religion that would make you an outcast in your own society, and may get you tortured to death for public entertainement. Yet it was and still is these people who are looked up to by Christians even today as these ideal models of Christendom for all men to follow, and their praises have been sung across the ages.
I propose to you that we have come full circle- the horrors Christians faces in the ancient world have returned and with a vengeance, for while people of those times did not know the truth, the people of today have the truth available to them and yet they still choose their sin because they love it or another habit over the love of God. The techniques, times, names, and places have changed, but the fallen nature of man has not, and the evils of the ancient world he will transpose into a modern context for the same malicious ends.
The future for Christians in America
Tell me, was The Hunger Games an accident, or a vision of a future that some evil men have planned? Remember how people vote on American Idol and other shows? What if America was asked to call to vote for how to have a man put to death for violating a “law” and do it on national television? There are countless ways this situation may happen, but never doubt that man, while he is a good creation, is also capable of distorting that same good by his free will choices into something terrible.
But it is this time- the midst of the trials, tribulations, and even martyrdom that is looming over us- that will be remembered in the ages upon ages to come as one of the greatest eras of the Church, for it was during this period of persecution at the hands of the wicked that the righetous will secure for themselves, at the cost of their lives, the crown of martyrdom and entrance into eternal life.
This is a wonderful time, but it is also a terrifying time. Torturing people to death is not something to be taken lightly, and I can hardly think of anybody but only an insane person would neither see nor feel a great sense of concern, and even fear for what the true consequences of this look like. Just ask the Christians of Syria who have lived through the ISIS terror and the horrifying genocide which has taken place at their hands.
St. Benedict, patron saint of Europe
St. Benedict in his rule instructs his monks to keep death daily before their eyes, both as a reminder to be prepared to face death and also as a reminder that the things of this world pass away but the things of eternal life do not. Death is not the end, but it is just the beginning. It is easy to talk about this, and to remember as a theoretical idea, but to actually see it- photos of men being burned alive, heinous torture videos, beheading videos- is another experience which gives a real, tangible feel to these acts. While no Christian can prepare for everything, the advice would seem clear- prepare for what you know may happen, and prepare you mind and soul to endure the tests that may come unexpectedly.
And most importantly, remember that the “glory days” of the Church are not behind us like an idealized past to reminisce about, but they are right now just as they were in the early Church, as we are in the same situation as they were. Yet these glory days, if we remains indeed truly faithful through them, as hard as they will be, they will be glory days forever to sing about once the curtains of this life are lifted and we pass through the small window of time.
I had a friend was a big baseball player
Back in high school
He could throw that speed ball by you
Make you look like a fool boy
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar
I was walking in, he was walking out
We went back inside sat down had a few drinks
But all he kept talking about was
Glory days, well they’ll pass you by
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl’s eye
Glory days, glory days
Well there’s a girl that lives up the block
Back in school she could turn all the boy’s heads
Sometimes on a Friday I’ll stop by
And have a few drinks after she put her kids to bed
Her and her husband Bobby, well they split up
I guess it’s two years gone by now
We just sit around talking about the old times,
She says when she feels like crying
She starts laughing thinking about
Glory days well they’ll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl’s eye
Glory days, glory days
I think I’m going down to the well tonight
And I’m going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don’t sit around thinking about it
But I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
A little of the glory of, well time slips away
And leaves you with nothing mister but
Boring stories of glory days
Glory days well they’ll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl’s eye
Glory days, glory days
Well they’ll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl’s eye
Glory days, glory days
Well alright oo yeah
Well alright come on now
Well alright oo yeah
Well alright come on now
With you, with you, with you, with you
All right boys keep it rocking now
Keep on going, we gonna go home now
Bring it home, yeah bring it home
Alright, alright, well alright, well alright, well alright, well alright
Well alright, alright, alright, let’s go