Special to WorldTribune.com
President Barack Obama and his wife consistently advance the liberal project to dismantle our Christian identity. On Nov. 5, First Lady Michelle Obama declared that by celebrating Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, she and the president are truly making the White House “the people’s house,” by which they “mean all people.”
“We mean that we want to honor and embrace all of the many cultures and faith traditions that make us who we are as Americans. And Diwali is very much one of those traditions,” she said.
In other words, in their view, America is a universal nation in which all religions are co-equal.
Previously, American presidents and their wives touted this country as a predominantly Christian nation that tolerates other beliefs. This is not so for the Obamas. By appearing broadminded and tolerant, the First Couple are in fact undercutting our core Christian faith.
American liberals have done this systematically both by removing the central place of Christian holidays in our national celebrations and by assaulting our vocabulary. Many words that were once common and conveyed a Biblical worldview are now currently shunned.
To paraphrase the twentieth-century novelist, George Orwell: words are a conduit to thought; destroy the word and the idea dies with it.
If we no longer use Biblical language, we are ensuring that Christian concepts will disappear.
For example, the key word “salvation” is now rarely used. The end goal of human existence is to attain salvation rather than happiness. Hence, in order to dismantle liberal arguments predicated on the happiness of the individual, it is useful to recall that individuals may or may not be happy at any given time; happiness is a fleeting emotion.
Instead, Christians have understood that life is often fraught with suffering, which must be borne gracefully in order to attain salvation. When we stop using the word “salvation,” we are enslaved to ideas that disregard the afterlife.
The word “pervert” has also often been lampooned as judgmental. And, in fact, it is because when we use it we are affirming that there is a natural moral order and the human body is part of that order. Hence, acts that defile the body are properly understood as a perversion of the natural order. When we use this word we affirm both the harmonious nature of the universe, designed by a loving Creator, and the absolute moral laws that He entrusted his creatures to uphold. Indeed, some sexual acts are perverted; and that is, whether they are done alone, by same-sex conjugation and even by men and women on one another.
Liberals have also deliberately sought to bury the word “judgment.” This is essential in order to promote the philosophy of moral relativism. Yet, the Bible teaches us that in order to obtain salvation we need to abide by absolute moral laws, which can be discerned by making judgments. This is necessary in order to combat the notion that individuals are free to make a moral code at their discretion. Christians need simply to recall that to judge is not the same as to stone or inflict any other physical punishment, as was the custom in ancient times. The oft-cited Biblical invocation “not to judge” refers to leaving the ultimate assessment of each soul up to God. This is too often misinterpreted as meaning that there should be moral relativism.
Other key words that must be used with confidence are “God,” and “His son, Jesus.” From an affirmation of God comes the notion that each individual is created in His image, rendering all life sacred. Furthermore, the divine image means there is a powerful conscience in each person that is a guide to the divine will. Finally, by loudly affirming the resurrection of our Savior, we also state there is a singular path forward toward redemption.
It is important to return to the use of words like “good” and “evil.” For decades, we have been told that this is simplistic; it is better to consider how “complicated” so many issues are and how “grey” are the moral questions individuals confront. But this is not Christianity: we are told in the Bible that there is a stark difference between good and evil. Let us not be ashamed to return to this more muscular use of our language.
Also, the Bible tells us to aim toward perfection — moral perfection akin to the holiness of the Lord. This aspiration is beautiful and glorious — and calls forth noble ideals, even though they cannot always be met. Nowadays, we are told to wallow in imperfection as though moral perfection is impossible.
Yet, Christianity tells us the opposite: aspire to be pure and perfect. We may fail along the way, but the aspiration is an affirmation of the perfection of God Himself in whose image we are created.
And the opposite too, is now buried. Words such as “evil,” “sin” and “damnation” are considered primitive, simplistic and old-fashioned. Yet, these concepts are central to Christian thought.
The fear of evil and its consequences in the afterlife has been abolished in order to make way for the permissive society. The only way to combat the rampant hedonism and moral equivalency of our time is to confidently use the words that have been used for centuries. When the love of virtue does not work, the fear of evil and damnation can be effective to compel righteous behavior.
Finally, the “Devil,” “Satan” or even “the demonic” is rarely invoked in order to avoid appearing superstitious, archaic or a simpleton. Liberals have succeeded in branding the language of faith as that of the uneducated. Instead, Christianity is the highest form of thought and the greatest moral creed ever created. It is primitive and simplistic to be ashamed of it.
Christians have been cowered long enough. We are often cajoled into using the utilitarian, secular language that belies a materialistic view of the world. The focus of our discussions is rarely on “the soul,” which conveys a transcendent view of the world.
We cannot win the culture war if we concede first principles in our language. It is therefore high time to use the powerful Biblical words we have been given to smash the liberal creed that is destroying the central ethical code of Western civilization.
In other words, liberalism is the handmaiden of the Devil. Resist and smash this demonic ideology with the wellspring of truth, beauty and goodness that emanates from Biblical language and godly concepts.
Grace Vuoto is the Editor of Politics and Culture at World Tribune. The founder of the Edmund Burke Institute for American Renewal, she is the host of American Heartland with Dr. Grace on WTSB Radio Saturdays at 3:00. See show and archives at: the Grace Vuoto channel at WorldTribuneTV
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