The Cut Flower Culture
A warning from the recent past.
First the quote. Then my comments.
The attempt made in recent decades by secularist thinkers to disengage the moral principles of western civilization from their scripturally based religious context, in the assurance that they could live a life of their own as "humanistic" ethics, has resulted in our "cut flower culture."
Cut flowers retain their original beauty and fragrance, but only so long as they retain the vitality that they have drawn from their now-severed roots; after that is exhausted, they wither and die.
So with freedom, brotherhood, justice, and personal dignity — the values that form the moral foundation of our civilization.
Without the life-giving power of the faith out of which they have sprung, they possess neither meaning nor vitality.
―Will Herberg
For the most part, the religious heritage of the United States that came from the Bible (we were founded by Europeans, and that was their book), has been successfully cut out of politics and much of the culture of today.
Initially, it didn’t seem to be a big deal that prayers were band from public education (1962) or that the Ten Commandments would become a controversial display on the walls of courthouses — never mind they are foundational to the formation of our legal system.
Eventually marriage, that had been between a man and a woman for millennia, became determined to be narrow-minded by more “enlightened” and “tolerant” thinkers of our day.
And like dominos falling we have now reached a point where mothers and fathers can no longer say whether their children will grow up as boys or girls — not to mention whether girls right now can have safety in their sports and locker rooms. Those who stand to make a lot of money when gender turns “fluid” plan to make these decisions for the unenlightened masses from now on.
I could go on, but it is unnecessary because all of this is all now clearly visible to even the most out of touch among us. The flower peddles are withering and falling off the lifeless stem at a much faster rate than ever before.
We are nearing the end.
And yet sadly polls are indicating that many “religious” people are choosing not to vote in the upcoming election for one silly reason or another.
Without hyperbole, this is the most important election of our lifetime — because if things don’t reverse course it may be our last. We have been invaded and the nation we grew up in will be controlled by the one party that permitted, even orchestrated, this to happen.
Many Christians cite Romans 13 as the reason they will not vote — forgetting one critical fact.
In this constitutionally formed republic we the people are in charge.
We are the sovereign, the ruler, the governing authority. Those elected to offices are our servants. They work for us. Not the other way around.
With this in mind, take another look at Romans 13:1-2.
Let every person
[including elected officials]
be subject to the governing authorities.
[The true governing authority in a constitutional republic are the lawfully voting citizenry].
For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
I take this to mean that Christians and other spiritual people who are lawful citizens of this country have a sacred duty to vote.
When failure to vote results in evil winning then it is tacitly condoning evil to spread. This is, in my mind, a serious sin of omission.
William (Will) Herberg (1901-1977) was an American Jewish writer, intellectual and scholar. He was born in Russia to a Jewish family that emigrated to the United States when he was an infant.
Herberg, as a young man was a self-proclaimed Marxist but over a long period of time he became a conservative political writer and prominent Jewish theologian.
