SLOUCHING TOWARD GOMORRAH

�� SLOUCHING TOWARD GOMORRAH

�� by Robert H. Bork

�� Book review by Mrs. E.R.M. (And my thoughts will be included)

�� Mr. Bork starts this slide of America toward Gomorrah back to the sixties. I have always thought it started when this great nation of God's kingdom joined the United Nations. (And thus we joined the world order in building a new one world government in which America loses her sovereignty.)

�� Mr. Bork believes that a nations moral life is the foundation of its culture. Thus Welcome to America --1998 and the rough beast which the Visionary poet Keats foresaw in 1919, which is now a monster of decadence, a plague several generations in gestation. We as a nation are now slouching not toward Bethlehem but toward Gomorrah, the Biblical city, burned to the ground for the sinfulness of its people. (Here in 1998, two years after this book was written we have gone further on down that road. Mr. Bork reminds us that our nation is in such serious moral trouble that its very foundation is crumbling. Of our President back there in 1996 Mr. Bork wrote: (Quote) ---"Thirty years ago, Clinton's behavior would have been absolutely disqualifying. Since the 1992 election, the public has learned far more about what is known euphemistically as the 'Character issue. Yet none of this seems to affect Clinton's popularity. It is difficult to conclude that something about our moral perceptions and reactions has changed profoundly. If that change is permanent, the implication for our future is bleak."(Unquote)---(Well then how would you characterize things today?)

�� Mr. Bork lists the root of our decline in the rise of modern Liberalism, which stresses the equality of the outcome rather than opportunities. And radical individualism, the drastic reduction to the limits of personal gratification. The weakening of the intellect, from the role of the Supreme Court as an agent of Modern Liberalism to the trouble in religion. He also stresses the assault of the radical feminism on American institutions, and our freedoms, to the killing for convenience of abortion and euthanasia. (Thus, Judge Bork was sounding an alarm for all America in 1996, when he wrote this book. But today in 1998 it does not seem that our nation has noticed this warning.)

�� Judge Bork believes that to understand our current plight and the direction in which we are moving then we must look back and understand the 60's. That being the time when the moral integrity of our nation came under full blown attack because the radicals of the 60's have today taken over or heavily modified the cultural institutions they once sought to destroy. Thus we can accept our fate, and try to insulate ourselves, and our loved ones from the devastating effects of a degenerate culture, or we can chose to halt the beast. To oppose Modern liberalism in every arena will be the test. To Judge Bork the understanding of our problems and the will to resist may be our only hope. (Looking at the news on T.V. here in February of 1998, how does it look to you?)

�� Not a single American institution from popular music to Higher education, to science, has remained untouched here in America. Modern Liberalism is powerful because it enlisted our powerful cultural Elites. These are the ones who man the institutions, that manufactures, manipulates and disseminate ideas, attitudes, and symbols, universities, churches, Hollywood, the National Press, print and electronic, foundation staffs, the public interest organizations and such. Much of the Democratic Party and some Congressional Republicans as well, and large sections of the Judiciary, including all too often the majority of the Supreme Court.

�� This is perhaps not a conspiracy but a syndrome, for these institutions are now controlled by the people who view the world from a perspective not generally shared by the public at large. Why did this happen? The American people have been asleep, they allowed themselves to be eaten hollow by the assumptions that flowered into Modern Liberalism. When the push came in the 60's, and empty and guilt ridden establishment surrendered. But why now? Liberalism has been with us for a long time, in fact for centuries. Why then did it become Modern Liberalism here in the latter half of this century? Altho it seemed that the radicalism of the 60's had failed, still it did not. Theirs was but a temporary defeat for they and their ideology are all around us today. Thus we need to understand the 60's to be able to see where we are moving as a nation today.

�� It is easy to blame the Vietnam War for the rage of the 60's.� But many of the youth of that day who were asked to fight for America were of a pampered generation which valued personal convenience above almost every thing else. What is not understood is that the NEW LEFT were out to see that America and South Vietnam should be defeated. People like Jane Fonda, and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, and yes, various Clergy were in the thick of that fray. President Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert MacNamara were afraid to bomb the north. Thus our political leaders decided that America should not win the war. And they settled for many body bags of our young men, and a host of those who were maimed, and then backed out of the war.

�� Yes, the war in Vietnam still stirs anger in this nation, and that is because many of the people that undermined America then are still in out culture today, and still working against us. Why then did the best educated, most affluent members of the baby-boomer generation hate the culture that had lavished privileges upon them? Many things led to this, but one of the things was that this was a spoiled generation, with too much concentration on this in the universities, and the pampering by the parents, who failed to do the teaching each generation must have in the home, the schools and the churches. And in this case those youth that rebelled turned against all that their parents stood for.� And yet there were many young people who rode thru this rebellion still a part of their families and schools and churches, but they were ignored by the media, for all concentration was for those in rebellion. Those young people who came thru this period depended on their earlier development of ideals. Where as the rebellion with the idea that there would never be any want in their future led many youngsters into boredom. They were led by the NEW LEFT who were masters of this process. As the Rock Stars brought forward one of their promoters was quoted as saying: �I look for someone the parents will hate.� As Religion went out the window then Rock Music found its place in leading the young into the forest and to destruction.

�� There were many, many casualties in the 60's among the young, but some came thru it and moved on but still with their feeling hidden as to what they were thinking. But the Far Left moved to capitalize in their part in the Dumming down of America. They have wrecked the universities in the process, and those institutions have not as yet recovered. Race relations were turned up side down in the universities and before we knew it all this was the fault of the white male in America.

�� The mood and message of the 60's did not remain safely within the universities, it took to the streets. And then because of the violence the new left of the 60's collapsed but no it was not dead. It collapsed as a political movement, and because of its violence repelled most Americans and because it never was a popular movement even among many of the young, for they saw thru this movement and had nothing to do with it. Today we have in place of it the radical feminists, the black extremists, animal rights groups, people from The American Way, The American Civil Liberties Union, NARAL, and Now, and Planned Parenthood. Each of these pursue a piece of the agenda of the Cultural and Political left. And then in the 1980's the movement of all of these splinter groups began to come together. The New Left has become the spokesman for the radical values expressed by many of the former groups and the fixation on equality has penetrated our society, and its institutions much to our disadvantage. Their idea of liberty has now become license in language, popular culture and sexuality. Everything is now political and the correct term is "Political correct.� Western imperialism, Colonialism, and racism are now the words to use to describe America.

�� One of the NEW LEFT's ambitions so says Judge Bork was to move the Democrat Party further to the left of the American center, and to convert it to a more liberal stance from the traditional liberal-labor ideology the party had held since the days when F.D.R. built his coalition.

�� For those who dislike what we have become the task is not just to resist, but to attack the many manifestations of corruption and restore some things of what marked where we once were. This will not be easy for the formulation of the 60's are now deeply embedded in our opinion forming institutions and our culture. The consequences of liberalism, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness has been pushed too far. Sector after sector of the American life has been ruthlessly corrupted by the liberal ethos. It is an ethos that aims simultaneously at political and social collectivism on the one hand and anarchy on the other. But current liberalism's rot and decadence is merely what liberalism has been moving toward for better than two centuries. As long as the institutions of family, church and school neighborhoods remained strong, America was O.K. Looking back we see the changes accomplished in our slide toward Gomorrah.

�� Our current set of values is inhospitable to the self discipline required for such institutions as marriage and education and hospitable to no fault divorce and self-esteem training. Actually liberty can only be the space between two walls---the walls of morality and law based on morality. It is sensible to argue how far apart the walls should be set, but it is cultural suicide to demand all space and no walls.

�� Then came the passion for equality. No one quite understood the proposition that "All men were created equal.�� Thus, equality became the most powerful and radical thought in America. Different hearts and minds were now interpreting our declarations, and common sense went out the window. It takes very little thought to realize that equality means many things. Yet each individual must carve out his position in this great movement called life. With an equal start still not everyone reaches the finish line in the same position as everyone else.� It is suicide to expect anything else.

�� Under the F.D.R. --"New Deal� and Harry Truman's "Fair deal� the idea that government must step into the picture and cure the equality question came into being. This has developed into the charge of Racism, a new word in America. And to the path further along of what was termed the "Great Society.�� Thus came the age of envy and the idea that you should give what you have accumulated to someone supposedly lest fortunate.� The Supreme Court was changed until it became an agent of this Modern Liberalism and this continued the American slide toward Gomorrah. The American people even today seem unable to find the political will to reclaim the liberty which is rightfully theirs.

�� The collapse of the Popular culture in one life time is shown by the contrast between best selling records. In 1930 these words were sung to romantic music:---"Oh, but you're lovely, with your smile so warm and your cheeks so soft. There is nothing for me but to love you, Just the way you look tonight."� Now in our time in the song "Horny" without music you see the difference:--"I called you up for some sexual healing. I'm calling again so let me come and get it. Bring the lotion so I can rub you, assume the position so that I can f------ you."

�� Then the Internet now brings users access to what is called an untrammeled, uncontrolled whole liberated ocean of information. Such as its Sex stories. If you do not agree with the title of this book, tune in to that portion of the Internet and its stories.

�� The destruction of standards could not have been accomplished without the assistance of the American Judiciary. The courts have destroyed laws that created pockets of resistance to vulgarity and obscenity. Is it too much to ask that the Supreme Court, as presently constituted, reverse and revise the First Amendment? But as you look at the make of the Supreme Court in our time this does not promise too much.

�� Never in the lifetime of the United States did we ever experience before the social chaos and the accompanying personal tragedies that are routine today. We see high rates of crime, and low rates of punishment, high rates of illegitimate births subsidized by welfare, and high rates of family dissolutions thru no fault divorce. The cause of these pathologies is the infatuation of Modern Liberalism with the Individuals right to self-gratification along with this guilt complex sold to you of equality. Then add T.V. to the equation of a child who has time on their hands and then the Internet and what do you find the children watching.

�� Sex education in the schools also seemed to operate more as an incitement to sexual activity rather than a heeded caution. In some schools a Suzanne Landolphi of Massachusetts was hired to give performances for students from 9th thru 12th grades. She then gave explicit monologues and discussed penises and breast size and advocated oral sex, masturbation and homosexual activity among minors. Some parent were stunned and they protested, and they sued.� But this did not stop.� Thus, the slide toward Gomorrah goes on in the schools.

�� Welfare these many years has not helped the culture here in America.� In fact it has been a hindrance, And then came the practice of abortion, assisted suicide and Euthanasia all contributing to our downward slide.� Convenience is becoming the theme of our culture. Humans seem to be just an inconvenience at both ends of their lives. Rover Radical Feminism is the most destructive and fanatical movement to come down to us from the 60's. This was a revolutionary movement and it has had quite a bit of success. Their main theme has been to push the belief that the source of evil are men, the Patriarchy. Feminism rode into our culture on the coattails of the NEW LEFT but now it deserves its own place in the halls of intellectual Barbarousness. America had seen women's movements before but never with the idea of disposing the men only seeking equality in certain things. Some of this was because of the lack of the recognition of the immense contribution women had made to western culture.

�� Most people today think of Feminism as a ranting Bella Abzug or an icy Gloria Steinem, but that is not the case. The extremists are the movement. What these Feminists want is to make the roles of men and women identical. This is not what God intended and it will not work. It not only is destroying education but also the military in this great nation. In the political field the feminists are classed as in the hard left---pro socialist---their cry---"Now is the time to fight back---no God, no master, no laws." But where does this fit into the feminism of the family and in Religion? Even in facts of life, it does not fit.� In education it has wrecked the system of the public schools, and in the armed forces it has reduced our military until God help us if the military is finally needed. It will probably take some engagement loss at high costs with men and women coming home in body bags to stop this foolishness.

�� Kate O�Beorme, Washington editor of National Review said: ---"In the end our girls are going to have to fight their girls."� True.� But after that some males in the academic world, and in the military, and even in congress are going to have to summon up the courage to repair the damage radical feminism have done to this nation, to our families, and even our military.

�� Judge Bork then reminds us that the dilemmas of Race has also caused some of the problems in this nation. You noticed that Black people seemed happy even tho they thought 0.J. Simpson was guilty. America has been in trouble every since the days of slavery. Yet today there is every opportunity to advance in America for the blacks as well as others, but the race question has never been settled.� Men like Farrakhan and Al Sharpton, and (yes--even Jesse Jackson) still fan the flames.� Liberals sought to solve the problem by blaming the whites for oppression. Then came up with the idea of Civil Rights, and affirmative action and government programs to take from the whites and give to the blacks so as to raise their status. The Universities jumped into the fray. And as other Asians and Hispanics came into America they were listed as non-white until the rule has been to range all non-white against all Whites. Today some blacks and others are speaking out against these policies that caused this race war to escalate. They are saying that each individual should stand on their own two feet and raise themselves to the best of their ability. This is the only way this can be settled.

�� By trying to raise the minority to the same standards as the whites, the decline of intellect came about and education has suffered. After all we are many generations onward from the days of slavers. (Besides, there were Negroes in these western isles and even in the south of this nation before the white Anglo-Saxons came to America and started the development of this nation.)

�� As the 20th century arrived, we saw the decline of the influence of religion in the U. S., Alexis de Tocqueville thought it important that in America it was the American Woman that was supremely religious because women are the protectors of morals. Religion prevents people from contemplating and forbids them to commit that which is rash and unjust.� It is also true today that the link between religion and morality can be demonstrated. Then as all the other causes developed in America we see the decline in the influence of religion thus our slide into Gomorrah as the people and the church accepted the propaganda of those who were trying to destroy this nation.

�� The World Council of Churches during the cold war regularly took the position that was pro-Communist and anti United States. The Presbyterian Church during the Gulf War, was on the opposite side from the United States, and soon their membership sank, as it had in other churches.� The Feminists were quick to jump on the band wagon and became antagonists to the Christian Faith. (But look who the leaders of this movement were and you should not be surprised. They do not believe in our Savior--JESUS THE CHRIST)

� �� Can America avoid Gomorrah? That is the question before us today. Knowing what has caused our slide to Gomorrah we realize that it will take the WILL of the people to turn back the clock and come back to our lost values. It may be argued that our values have changed over the years. That the American people are too far gone to want to change.� It seems that a large portion of the American people seem to have turned their backs on that old fashioned word ---Virtue ---private or public virtue.

But who can say what it will take to stiffen the backbone of our people until they stand once more for the values that made this country. (That is Judge Bork�s feelings.)�

I believe that since this is the last great nation of God's Kingdom that yes, America will still stand.� That if we do not do it for ourselves that HE will do it for us one more time. But yes I believe this nation will survive for there are a lot of people out there who still remember the old ways and how much better they were before the 60's came along. Therefore we have always said that you should buckle your belt for we are going thru this crisis and when all is said and done this slide into Gomorrah will be over and we will see America once more that Shinning City on a Hill.