The Secular Wall
By Craig Manners 26th March 2016 Our lack of cultural values in contemporary Western society, the rapid extinguishing of traditional and foundational values, morality and truth, combined with the rise of the secular god of political correctness, is fast desensitizing people to God and leading the majority to be anti-God. With lightning speed our once tolerant society has become very intolerant of God and God's people. At the same time it has become very much for and tolerant of things that God says are bad for people. It is vastly different from the society our forefathers fought and died for, and it seems the rising generation are blind to the dangers ahead posed by this takeover of the West by the rampaging mob of secularism, socialism and selfishness. Christians have had to live in these sorts of times in the past (Daniel's time for instance) and will continue to survive and flourish because God is still God and He looks after His people no matter what may happen this side of heaven. But as a Christian one of the most worrying things about the rapid changes is that the new regime of spiritual darkness constructs all sorts of walls around itself, making it incredibly difficult to communicate, debate, discuss and propose alternative worldviews. In the big scheme of things I suspect it is only a temporary problem, and one we have seen before throughout human history, but it is never an easy period. The once bright West has seemingly overnight become a spiritual wasteland in full rebellion to, and in open war with, God. Nothing good can come from that. Humans long for freedom. The secular tyrants who have taken over the West cannot keep people from seeking God, nor can they do anything to stop God from gathering His people. From a human stand-point, people will not give up their freedoms willingly. The fight to liberate the West is already under way, with pockets of resistance forming and preparing around the world. Like the "Berlin Wall", and the "Iron Curtain," walls can be torn down. So we wait to see when and how these great secular Humanist walls are toppled, as they inevitably will be. In the meantime the message of freedom, the great proposition we call the "Gospel," which pulls down personal walls, transforms lives, families, communities and nations will continue to be spread and people will continue to be saved and changed. And no matter what happens to our society or our culture, for a human being made new by Jesus Christ, the best is yet to come. The Rise of Hopelessness
By Craig Manners 11th March 2016 There is no doubt a link can be drawn between the flurry of books from, and media saturation promoting, the so-called "New Atheists" over recent years, including Richard Dawkins, as well as the anti-God propaganda produced by the Princeton "Immoralist" Peter Singer, who together have shouted at the top of their voices from as many soap boxes and pulpits as they can climb: "There is no God!" They are not the first to do this of course, as this is something we have all been born good at since our first ancestor Adam. The problem is the same problem, man shaking his fist at God, living as if God does not exist, trying to secure autonomy from this same God we insist is not there, and suffering the consequences of our extreme folly. We are a proud race and none of us like being told what to do, so we rebel and try to push God out of our lives. That is the one of the main reasons the "theory" of evolution, which takes more "faith" to believe in than does a belief in a creator God, has been taught as "fact" for so long (since the 1960s in Australia and the U.S.) in the West, and why it has caused so much damage. It seemingly allows people to live unaccountable lives and impose their own will on peoples and nations, such as did Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Id Amin, etc., etc. Without God, who is to say what they did was wrong? It is why Planned Parenthood can take the lives of approx. 300,000 human babies every year in the U.S.A. with government funding and little opposition. It is why truth is no longer truth, why marriage, gender, freedom can be undermined without the evolution "educated" Western populations blinking an eye. It is why some get angry at the slightest mention of God, reject the Bible, don't go to church, mock and ridicule believers and demand that they be the only ones not allowed to speak in the public square. Tolerance for all except the Jews and Christians. Just mention the word God or Christian to a rainbow flag carrying proud rebel and see what colour their face turns, to see what I mean. There is no room on their rainbow banners for the Cross. It is why secularists demand that religion not be taught in schools (again starting in the 1960s). They prefer our children's education be incomplete as long as it is also irreligious, rather than being a proper, well rounded education which does not shy away from the huge questions each of us have about life, our world, death, such as: "Where did we come from?"; "What is the meaning of life?"; "What happens when we die?" Like a pot telling the pot maker to go away and pretending it can live its life anyway it pleases, or pretending that a train can fulfil it's purpose without the constraints of the train tracks, man faces similar resulting brokenness and de-railing when we attempt to go against the laws of life put in place by the God who designed life. While not being new, I think the modern anti-God push, which probably coincides with the beginning of the sexual revolution in the 1960s, along with the no-doubt deserved anti-Catholic PR fallout from the consequences of the mass infiltration of the Roman Catholic church by homosexual men some decades ago, has had a quickening effect on the pace of the anti-religion push and the downward spiral of our society into the moral abyss in recent years. It makes sense that if a society believes wholeheartedly, and is encouraged to believe, that God doesn't exist, then there is no reason to be moral, there is basically no right or wrong, no truth, so anything goes, and it is whatever the mob can put into law that will rule the day. Crime can be what you want it to be. Family can be what you want it to be. Marriage can be what you want it to be. Dictators can do what they want. Why can't we do drugs? Who says I shouldn't steal? Why should I tell the truth? Why should I be faithful to my wife? Why should I respect my parents, my teachers, the police, the government? A belief in God results in behavior which follows a system of morality which flows from the Bible and which has been the foundational platform for the prosperous West. Politicians understand this don't they? Is this why every election year we see some declaring their "faith" in public, trying to convince voters that they are Christians, that they fear God and that they will therefore be trustworthy representatives who will do the right, moral and just things when in power. A person's religious faith (or lack of it) is certainly something to consider in choosing who to vote for because it affects their worldview, which then has a great impact on how they will perform on your behalf in parliament. So, in the lead up to elections we often see pictures of some of these seekers of power leaving a church service holding a Bible. They get it. So do secular parents who want to send their children to a Christian school. So do secular courts which ask witnesses to swear on the Bible. This truth has a flip-side. If the majority agree with Darwin, Dawkins and Singer, which seems to be the case today, then the resulting public behavioral norms will eventually be in direct opposition to the public morality which has shaped, protected and prospered our Western civilization for so long. This is what we are seeing today. It becomes a cold-hearted, vindictive society where it is the survival of the fittest at the expense of the young, the old and the weak. The value of human dignity declines. People are to be used rather than respected. Billions of people will individually believe that they are the centre of the universe, and act accordingly. Immorality will be forced upon people against their consciences, wrongs will be called rights if enough people say so, fear will reign in response to intimidation, government will grow all pervasive as it seeks to rule more and more aspects of individual's lives. While it is no doubt just a part of the rapid rise of the left in the West, the same-sex "marriage" assault is at the frontline of this war on freedom and religion. At its heart it is an anti-God rebellion which is picking up momentum and running rampant through our nation, hell-bent on dismantling and destroying the last remaining foundations of morality and human freedoms. What will they build to replace them? Former Australian Prime Minister, John Howard' was interviewed in an article in the Australian newspaper on Saturday 27th February 2016 and sounded an alarm about the culture war in Australia, warning that people are being "cowed" (bullied or intimidated) and are too scared to speak their mind freely on issues such as same-sex "marriage." 1 He has rung the bell, noting the "dangerous anti-religious push" which has emerged in Australia generally, and specifically singled out Victorian Premier Daniel Andrew's anti-Christian pogrom as "pernicious" (evil or wicked.) Urging frightened Australian citizens to speak up, he said, "There is nothing homophobic about supporting traditional marriage." We do not need to be silenced. We in fact need to speak up, or face the loss of the freedom our forefathers fought and died for. I firmly believe that those who defend traditional marriage, morality, truth and freedoms of speech, religion and conscientious objection will be found on the right side of history. Generations to come will look back on this grand social experiment and be damning in their condemnation of their parents/grandparents for falling for all the gender confusion nonsense and all the other strange new teachings, and for not defending marriage, family and children, for not speaking up and acting. Howard went on to say, "There is (a) sense in which people are so frightened of being accused of being discriminatory or intolerant that they don't speak the commonsense view." "The standards of civil society in Australia were being undermined by a growing intolerance towards people who don't subscribe to a range of progressive (left-wing, socialist, bullying) views," "I think the problem is that too few people are prepared to call it for what it is," he said. The politicians are too scared to speak the commonsense view because they are scared of "losing votes." The people are too scared to speak against or act to stop this tyranny in case they "offend somebody," he said. He goes on to say, "there is a new form of minority fundamentalism" emerging, typified by the Greens use of the anti-discrimination law in Tasmania to silence opponents of the homosexual agenda. "Such cultural intolerance will provoke a backlash." The Liberal Party is fast becoming indistinguishable from the ALP and the Greens (co-founded by Singer), revealing just how far the anti-God left has infiltrated Australia. They have the media, they have the education departments, they are mopping up in Canberra and are forecast to soon unleash a torrent of anti-Christian laws, educational programs, and other attacks against the Christian religion, which will result in prison for Christians for speaking the truth and for living their faith. They can't win though. This gender confusing, anti-marriage, anti-family, anti-children, man-centred, anti-God social experiment is doomed to fail, just like it did in socialist Russia in the 1920s, and the only true hope for men will continue to be found in one place. Thank God for that! 1) The Australian article. We had a power outage at my place on Saturday morning
My PC, Laptop, TV, DVD, iPad & my new surround sound music system were all shut down. Then I discovered that my iPhone battery was flat, I could not access my work email network To top it off it was raining outside, So I couldn't play golf. I went into the kitchen to make coffee and then I remembered That this also needs power, So I talked with my wife for an hour. She seems like a nice person. Parents, school principals and teachers are faced with fierce pressure to embrace Apple's iPad by giving an iPad to children at an increasingly younger age. But is this really beneficial to our children or have we just fallen for marketing hype? Have we elevated the iPad as a modern idol in which we place our trust and future hopes? Some schools are giving iPads to young children aged 10 for use at school, supposedly under "strict" teacher supervision and with "rigorous" protective practices in place. How dependable is this though? Some are additionally giving iPads to 14 year olds (and younger) to use at school and then to take home with absolutely unrestricted internet access outside of the school, either expecting that the children will use them maturely and wisely or that parents will be on top of things at home. Even "Christian" or church schools are doing this. Schools which will only employ Christian teachers are suddenly allowing this modern teaching tool, the iPad, to become a bigger part of and bigger teaching influence on our children than the teacher or parent is. The reality is that most young people (and older people) really only want to do the non-work stuff on iPads, like social media, games, music, photos etc. A trigger in our brains is guiding us to these things and makes us steer clear of the boring work stuff. So basically these devices are mostly just a major distraction from work rather than an aid to work. It is a major temptation to children and is causing a climate of distrust and friction between parents, schools and their children. Students started to outsmart the teachers and any so called "filters" put in place literally the day they were turned on in the schools. So while the students are busy finding and watching porn, music videos, illegally downloaded movies, and wasting time on social media sites the teachers have never even heard of, school leaders smile and pat themselves on the back for being so advanced and having the latest technology. Children are not mature enough, wise enough or disciplined enough to have devices which will open up our increasingly dark internet world to them with no restrictions. They will be tempted to use them inappropriately and rather than be an aid to their education they will just become a major distraction with music videos, games, social media use and pornography stealing their study time and potentially much of their young lives. Busy teachers and parents simply can't police their children's use of these devices and are unwittingly losing their children who are being enslaved by gaming, social media and pornography through either increasingly pornographic music videos or through the torrent of free and easily found pornography which saturates the internet. It is possibly naïve of us to think they will use them wisely when even many adults cannot control their own internet use, or that parents will be able to monitor the use of these devices by their children. We have literally invited the world into their young lives to convert them to our dark culture and drive a wedge between parent and child. Many parents do not know anything about routers or filters. Even then there are so many alternative social media, news, music video sites and apps around that parents will never be able to keep up with, and once addicted, the children will find ways to get around any attempts to restrict them. Students are not mostly doing their school work on these devices, they are mostly being distracted in a major way during class time and at home. Teachers think the student is using the device in class for school work but they are probably looking at stuff which would cause most parents to pull their children out of school. Schools are supposed to educate as well as guard and protect the students under their watch, not facilitate them becoming addicted to games, porn and social media. These devices may well increasingly be Trojan horses from the growing number of social engineers actively seeking to corrupt our children, not to mention be the gateways for drug and porn dealers to get access to your children. Just think of the recent blatant attempts aimed at children by the deceptively named "Safe Schools Coalition" or by "Early Childhood Australia" or by Play School joining in the attempt to normalize (and recruit and groom) in Australia by targeting children. Then there are the predators with their sights on our children such as MTV and increasingly Disney. Parents will not be able to stop these and others who will invent apps and other ways to get to our children without parents knowledge using iPads. An increasing number of schools around the world are removing iPads and iPhones from their schools altogether and focusing on having a computer room where all the computer use can be more seriously monitored. Schools like Sydney Grammar for instance. I am concerned that there has been a breakdown in the duty of care schools have to children. It is unwise of responsible adults to be putting such strong temptations in front of such young children and causing such a major distraction during time they should be learning. I am not convinced that the iPad is the beneficial aid to our children's learning that we have been led to believe it is, rather I think that, for children at least, it is just a flash looking high tech device which will distract our children from their studies, potentially enslave them to debilitating addictions, and will increasingly be very costly to children and their parents. So, I for one do not think we need to succumb to the pressure to have iPads provided for our children at school. I think they could wait until they are at least 15, and that a computer room model is utilized until then instead. Some worry that the students will miss out! I doubt it. They are so easy to use that students will easily learn all about them in a few hours when they eventually do have one and they really are not missing out on anything while they wait. I would actually be happy to pay higher school fees for a school which resisted their use at a too early age. Maybe it is inevitable that iPads will become a part of our children's lives, but parents need to ensure that there are restrictions on them. Request that your school allow you to put a filter which will also monitor your children's use such as Covenant Eyes (covenanteyes.com) so that when they do visit something inappropriate you can at least know about it and have a discussion with them about it for their benefit. Nancy Reagan, the wife of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan has died at the age of 94. As first lady, Nancy Reagan famously spearheaded the “Just Say No” campaign against drug and alcohol abuse in the 1980s, speaking at dozens of schools around the country over several years, and urging the United Nations to improve drug education.
With the rapid darkening of our culture today, with the abandonment of morality and truth and the rising anti-religion (especially anti-Christian) media mob sentiment, and the correlating rise of drug use, drug deaths associated with the promotion of sexual immorality/depravity to our youth, and rampant associated mental and physical health dilemmas, we desperately need responsible adults like Nancy Reagan in the public life of our society. Source |
Craig MannersWhile much of what is written in this Blog may currently appear to be counter-cultural, given our post-truth culture, it is in no way counter-human beings. I am always for people no matter what they think, do, or may have done in their past. Where I put forward ideas or debate against certain ideology, behaviour, ideas, movements, politics, I remain very much on the side of the human beings even though I may be opposed to their worldview, behaviour and politics. Such opposition is generally out of concern for the ultimate consequences of such behaviour or ideas, especially for children. |