The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1131808
B-2 Wednesday, June 19, 2019 The Press-Dispatch OPINION Submit Letters to the Editor: Letters must be signed and received by noon on Mondays. Email: editor@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg The greatest issue confronting mankind is God. Until the modern secular era no nation, people, or culture banished the idea of "God" from their daily lives. Religious historians can trace the genesis of secularization of the Western World to the Renaissance, and its "Great Leap Forward" to the "Enlightenment" of 18th cen- tury France. Sadly, its foundation was marred by the guillotine, and it reached its apex during what Al- exander Solzhenitsyn called the "Communist Holocaust." Solzhenitsyn in an address at the Templeton Prize Lecture in 1983 zeroed in on what he saw as the evils of secularization. He said "As a survivor of the Com- munist Holocaust I am horrified to witness how my beloved Amer- ica, my adopted country, is gradu- ally being transformed into a sec- ularist and atheistic utopia, where communist ideals are glorified and promoted, while Judeo-Christian values and morality are ridiculed and increasingly eradicated from the public and social consciousness of our nation. Under the de- cades-long assault and militant radicalism of many so-called "liber- al" and "progressive" elites, God has been progressively erased from our public and educational institu- tions, to be replaced with all manner of delusion, per- version, corruption, violence, dec- adence and insanity. Note this address was given 36 years ago, though it sounds as a cultural commentary of today's political class. God has been rein- vented to be all loving and encom- passing, with all references to holi- ness eradicated and banished from the discussion. Why can't we talk about God? The God of Christianity demands obedience, which is the ultimate sign of discipleship. God demands holiness, in which the apostle Paul writes, "Without holiness no one will see God." Jesus declared that God is a Spirit, and those that worship Him must worship in spirit and Truth! Truth, which is no lon- ger accepted as objec- tive by the intellectu- al class, must address sin and the evil it creates. We can't talk about God in the public arena because He brings conviction to mankind's evil deeds. The curse of humanness was summarized by the apostle John as "the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life." This succinctly defines that we are lustful creatures pursu- ing our own desires and ignoring Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Pass it along Continued on page 3 A trip to the old country My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Where do I begin. I disappeared for a couple of weeks. A fter two years of careful preparation, I got to visit the old country (Philip- pines) and made side trips to Ko- rea, Singapore, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. I am still trying to shake off jet lag and ad- justing to the time zones we went through. In order to make it easy for me and the reader, I will be breaking down the sequence of events of our journey. So sit back, relax, and let me tell you the story. There will likely be 4 to 6 chapters spread out over the next several issues, because there is so much to share. It took two years of organizing many things. Rose, my son Law- rence, his wife Kelly, their eldest son Michael and my grandson An- drew made this trip. Our first flight was from Indianapolis to Detroit. That was a breeze. Now hear this, the second phase was the flight from Detroit to Ko- rea, a total of 13 hours, Yup, 13 was the number. Imagine being in a huge plane, sitting in a chair that confines you for those hours, mostly watching T V, standing up to walk and use the rest room, eat- ing airplane cuisine, and trying to sleep while the roar of the jet en- gines though kind of muted just makes you annoyed. The flight crew were frequent- ly checking passengers for their needs, serving meals, giving drinks, and having downtimes too. Strong and brave people they are indeed. While trying to pass away time, you get to review in your mind a lot of things about life, family, friendships, church, faith, and just anything to keep sanity in- tact. Oh, of course, there were ba- bies crying and toddlers who do a Continued on page 3 Continued on page 3 Minority View by Walter E. Williams How to create conflict Continued on page 3 Continued on page 3 We are living in a time of in- creasing domestic tension. Some of it stems from the presidency of Donald Trump. Another part of it is various advocacy groups on both sides of the political spectrum de- manding one cause or another. But nearly totally ignored is how grow- ing government control over our lives, along with the betrayal of constitutional principles, contrib- utes the most to domestic tension. Let's look at a few examples. Think about primary and sec- ondary schooling. I think that every parent has the right to de- cide whether his child will recite a morning prayer in school. Simi- larly, every parent has the right to decide that his child will not recite a morning prayer. The same can be said about the Pledge of Alle- giance to our flag, sex education and other hot-button issues in edu- cation. These become contentious issues because schools are owned by the government. In the case of prayers, there will either be prayers or no prayers in school. It's a political decision whether prayers will be permit- ted or not, and parent groups with strong preferences will orga- nize to fight one anoth- er. A win for one par- ent means a loss for another parent. The losing parent will be forced to either con - cede or muster up pri- vate school tuition while continuing to pay taxes for a school for which he has no use. Such a conflict would not arise if education were not government- produced but only government- financed, say through education vouchers. Parents with different preferences could have their wish- es fulfilled by enrolling their child in a private school of their choice. Instead of being enemies, parents with different preferences could be friends. People also have strong pref- erences for goods and services. Some of us have strong prefer- ences for white wine and distaste for reds while others have the op- posite preference — strong preferences for red wine. Some of us love classical mu- sic while others love rock-and-roll music. Some of us love Mer- cedes-Benz while oth- ers love Lincoln Con- tinentals. When's the last time you heard red wine drinkers in conflict with white wine drinkers? Have you ever seen classical music lovers organizing against rock-and-roll lovers or Mercedes-Benz lovers in conflict with Lincoln Continen- tal lovers? People have strong preferenc- es for these goods just as much as they may have strong prefer- ence for schooling. It's a rare oc- casion, if ever, that one sees the kind of conflict between wine, mu- sic and automobile lovers that we see about schooling issues. Why? Continued on page 3 Socialism is the opposite of freedom Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Oberlin College's day in court Lucid Moments By Bart Stinson Abortion is ecumenical For those who despair that the rule of law in America is be- ing crushed by liberal fake news, we have encouraging news out of Ohio. A jury has ruled that Oberlin College, one of the nation's most left-wing institutions of high- er learning, must pay the propri- etors of Gibson's Bakery in Ober- lin, Ohio, $11.2 million in damag- es for libel, slander and other dis- ruptions that the college caused in the business by encouraging false charges of racism. The day after the 2016 presiden- tial election, an Oberlin student en- tered Gibson's Bakery, near the college campus, and slipped a bot- tle of wine into his coat. Allyn Gibson, whose great- great-grandfather founded the business, told the young man that he was going to call the police. When he took out his phone to photograph him, the youth slapped the phone out of Gibson's hand and ran out of the store, with Gibson in pursuit. When the police arrived on the scene, Gibson, who is white, was on his back being beaten by the youth and two of his friends, all of whom are black. Nine months later, the three youths pleaded guilty to misde- meanor charges and read a state- ment saying that Gibson's behav- ior was justified and not racially motivated. But in the interim, student pro- Hinduism is awash in goddess- es, also known as Devi, whether it's Kali, Tulsi or the female trinity of Lakshmi (goddess of prosperi- ty), Saraswati (goddess of knowl- edge) and Parvati, the multifacet- ed Mother goddess. Parvati has 100 names to ac- count for her many attributes, but she is best known for her re- lationships with other Hindu de- ities, such as her consort, Shiva, or her brother Vishnu, or her three divine offspring. Her long-awaited daughter Ashoka Sundari was con- soled during one crisis by a proph- ecy that she would bear 100 daugh- ters. You would expect this culture to cherish women, value the femi- nine and especially to revere moth- erhood. Surely a Hindu devoted to these female archetypes would honor mortal women and mothers to the bitter end. And indeed it has resulted in a female elected head of state. Yet these are the same people who evict widows from their de- ceased husbands' property, if they don't persuade them to join their dead mate on the funeral pyre. De- votion to feminine divinity appar- ently doesn't translate into high re- gard for mortal women. This does not bode well for wom- en under Wicca. Sex-selection abortions are epi- demic among Hindus, as budget- conscious married couples con- spire with lawless medical profes- sionals to catch unborn girls in the womb - girls who, in the fullness of time, will cost their parents a bur- densome dowry. The Hindu patriarchy and its medical henchmen not only hunt down embryonic girls, but new- borns. Infanticide against girls is on the rise in India, and babies are being abandoned in public places and in buses and taxicabs. They are disproportionately female. (Abandonment of male babies is rare, and they are invariably the offspring of unmarried, disgraced single mothers.) Muslims sometimes outrage our sensibilities by honor killings of adolescent girls or young wom- en. However, we are relatively in- different to Hindu honor killings because, like Christians, Jews and secular humanists, Hindus gener- ally target unborn children instead of young women. New York recently legalized honor killings of newborn chil- dren. There is no imaginable med- ical necessity for the mother to kill her child who is already living out- side the womb. There can be no confusion whether the child is sep- arate from the mother's body after the child is born alive. Infanticide may, admittedly, have other explanations besides honor killing. It may be a purely political act. This would explain the enthusiasm of grotesque man- hating lesbians, who are in no dan- ger of unwanted pregnancy, for abortion on demand. But the dirty secret of abortion and infanticide is how often they are orchestrated by a man, by the patriarchy. It is, after all, a stark denial of the deepest, most authentic femi- nine impulse for a woman to con- spire with strangers against her child - to stab, poison, dismember or crush the life out of her own ba- by. Parvati was consort to Shiva, the destroyer of worlds. American feminists, too, have put themselves at the service of the worst, most destructive, masculine impulses. Young females have watched in amazement as feminists helped men gain the right to intrude in their restrooms, locker rooms and retail store dressing rooms. Femi- nists declared their solidarity with mentally disturbed males who de- manded to compete against girls and monopolize girls' trophies, scholarships, world records and recognition. Pro-abortion feminists were sexual predator-in-chief Bill Clin- ton's most loyal supporters. They celebrate the same legislation that Harvey Weinstein might fist- pump. Liberal abortion laws, fa- vored by most feminists, are the predatory male's greatest conso- lation and encouragement. This is patriarchy on meth. It is no coincidence that the Play- "Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a social- ist country." That's from President Trump's last State of the Union address. I'm sure many people found it as en- couraging as I did, especially in light of surveys indicating that so- cialism is gaining popularity here in the United States. And not just at the fringes. One recent Gallup poll showed four out of 10 Americans have a favorable impression of socialism. Almost half — 47 percent — said they would vote for a socialist candi- date for president. But don't despair just yet. The same poll also revealed that al- most two out of every three Amer- icans — 62 percent — say that de- cisions about the economy should be left up to the free market, not the government. The same holds true when it comes to health care and higher education. If you know anything about so- cialism, these results are com- pletely contradictory. It's obvious that a lot of people who say they favor socialism don't understand what it is. I find that somewhat encourag- ing. Not that so many people don't under- stand what socialism is, of course, but that much of its apparent support is based on a misunderstanding. That certainly beats a genuine conviction that socialism is bet- ter. If they understood what socialism is — "a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state," to use Merriam-Webster's definition — they would realize it's the antithe- sis of free enterprise. That it's the very opposite of freedom. Many Americans who say they favor socialism clearly are hearing "socialism" and thinking of it in- stead as a way to fix whatever so- cietal woes are bothering them. Our attitudes have shifted in a negative way. The American Dream rests on us seeing success- ful people and thinking, "I can do that, too. I'm free. I'm willing to work hard. I can make it happen for me as well." But politicians on the left encourage their fellow Ameri- cans to hate the rich and want to punish them. They equate capitalism with greed. And yet nothing is based more on greed than socialism. Just ask Andy Puzder, the former CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. "If you're in a capitalist econo- my, the only way you can succeed is by meeting the needs of oth- er people," he said in a recent in- terview. "Socialism, on the other hand, focuses you inward. You're focused on what you can get." The irony is, well, rich. Mr. Puzder recalled a time when, as a boy, he accompanied his car-dealer father to make a de- livery to a wealthy client. He was amazed at the man's opulent prop-