In a recent message, Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills made a chilling observation regarding the condition of our Country. He explained that no nation has ever descended to the point of raging depravity where we currently find ourselves and recovered from it. Living and preaching the Truth from the “Belly of the Beast” in the moral abyss of Southern California, he speaks from a position of personal understanding
His grave admonition begs the question, “How did things get this bad?” And while Pastor Hibbs certainly didn’t make such a declaration to tell us to give up hope, it is inarguable that if we are to have any chance of turning our circumstances around, we must first determine just how we got to this awful place. Only then can we formulate an effective plan of action to change course.
Societies have certainly fallen into moral degradation and turmoil throughout history, and that includes even some dark eras in America’s past. But something is very different this time. A major threshold has been crossed, possibly representing a point of no return. And if we haven’t already passed that horrific precipice, we are clearly extremely close to it, and daily getting closer. So if our situation is at all redeemable, the correction must happen soon.
In an effort to understand this, sociologists and other “experts” proffer new theories of modern culture on almost a daily basis. But they overwhelmingly miss the point. The counterculture revolutionary Saul Alinsky wrote his game-changing “Rules for Radicals” back in 1971 as the quintessential guidebook for modern leftists to supplant traditional morality with their depravity. Of primary importance to the Alinsky strategy is that with every challenge they mount against society, they always claw their way onto a phony “moral high ground.” And they’ve become very adept at it. The examples are endless.
So how do they accomplish this neat trick in the face of the glaring and seemingly indefensible atrocities which they embrace and advocate? To understand the forces that are really in play, one must revert to the admonitions of a much older writing, that of the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah, who issued this stern warning “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)
Isaiah perfectly characterized the behavior and motivations of all subversives, including the modern leftist counterculture. In order for them to claim to be doing “good,” it is essential to first castigate and denigrate the decent and worthy aspects of our society, thus deeming those things to be “evil.” Only then can they present their sick/twisted alternatives as the “better way.”
Pick your issue! In every case you’ll see the time honored and invaluable wisdom of traditional America, and in particular its Judeo-Christian foundations, mocked and attacked as having caused harm and suffering to the innocent. Once they’ve sufficiently made their case, countercultural leftists are then ready to offer their “improved” version of how society should operate. And all too often, the “mainstream” of America is too gullible and guilt ridden to offer any proper resistance.
Consequently we’ve seen the American family dismantled with surgical precision, as leftists first intruded with their claims that proper parental discipline was “child abuse.” As parents lost control of their children, subsequent generations lacked the proper upbringing to be responsible in gainful employment or keeping their own homes, at which point the same leftist counterculture was there to make sure this malignant trend continued to metastasize. The welfare state and “family services” were ready and waiting to supplant traditional parental roles with their morally bankrupt handouts, along with morality and discipline-free “education”/indoctrination.
On every front, right and wrong have been reversed, to the point that now, only the anti-American, anti-Christian ideology of the left is present in virtually every official position, from the local daycare center to corporate executive suites, to the highest offices in the land. High government departments have become veritable freak shows of overweight, middle aged males parading as “female” field grade military officers, while raging deviants are given the highest of security clearances, with which they can compromise our National security when they so choose.
Law enforcement has now been fully weaponized against the American people, to the point that actual criminals who engage in robbery, assaults, and even murder are given a pass. Meanwhile prominent Americans who only pose a political threat to the established order have their homes razed and their Constitutional rights thoroughly trashed in “Swat” team attacks by the FBI.
In schools, children are being subjected to the vilest and most perverse material, which until recently would have resulted in those presenting it being rightly imprisoned for indecent exposure and overt criminal acts of child molestation. But let any parent or teacher try to sing “Silent Night” in that same classroom, or tell the kids to “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and an army of ACLU lawyers will swarm like gnats to financially break them with lawsuits.
In every case, the single factor that enables all of this, far and away more decisive than any other, is that those who were ostensibly on “Our side” have capitulated, and accepted the twisted premises against which Isaiah warned. Too often, parent groups are colluding with “teaching” staffs in re-characterizing such perversity in the classroom as “inclusion.” Worst of all, supposed “spiritual leaders” from too many pulpits across our land have been drifting only a few steps behind the counterculture revolutionaries, to the point that a huge portion of the populace has lost any semblance of moral grounding and now blindly accepts the lunacy.
When the initial debate is engaged under the premise that right is wrong, good is “intolerance,” truth is hate, and lies are compassion, the door is closed for reason or decency to prevail. And that is where the leftist counterculture has brought us. Worst of all, it happens in our midst with little or no resistance, which amounts to our “consent.”
Still, the good news is that the very thing by which the leftist counterculture has gained so much ground also presents its greatest vulnerability. The moment Americans muster the spine to stop attempting to find “common ground” with this depraved movement, it loses all sway over them. Yes, the outrage from it will be shrill and venomous. But that is never a reason to give in to it. Simply calling it out in bluntly honest terms and -this is key- never allowing any phony leftist “moral” grandstanding to effect even a slight deviation from the truth, will do the utmost to spotlight the real moral/spiritual element of the battle we are in. And that awareness provides the best protection against it by far.
Again from the Old Testament, we read II Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” For most Americans, our “wicked ways” have not been those of murder or robbery, but of apathy and even outright indifference. These attacks from the left were initially moral and spiritual, but are now increasingly physical. We should long ago have stood firm, in righteous anger, against the onslaught. It is not too late to do so!
Christopher G. Adamo
As a lifelong conservative, Christopher G. Adamo has held great concern for America and the direction in which the leftist counterculture has been taking it. Throughout the more than three decades that he lived and worked at the 'grassroots' in Wyoming, he gained a close-up perspective on both the political process and the strategies of activists from across the political spectrum. In response, Adamo has written "Rules for Defeating Radicals - Countering the Alinsky Strategy in Culture and Politics" (available on Amazon). He is also a regular contributor to GOPUSA.com a website dedicated to "bringing the conservative message to America".
