A friend recently brought an article written late last year by Bill Lussenheide to my attention. The article, From Madrid to Missoula: When Marxist Chaos Meets Faith and Family – Western Montana News, is a radical statement on the current state of America's Culture Wars. According to Mr. Lussenheide, what happened to Spain in the 1930s represents "a cautionary tale wrapped in tapas and gunpowder" for all of us.
For Bill, the cities of the United States exhibit many parallels to the cities of Spain just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. He wrote: "The cities were full of Godless and untamed Marxist philosophy, and crazy chaos masquerading as culture. Madrid, Barcelona—urban playgrounds of the left—buzzed with increasingly radical and violent thinking." In Mr. Lussenheide's view, the cities are full of Marxist, atheistic, anarchists; and rural American is full of God-loving, gunslinging folks just brimming over with plain old common sense. In other words, Bill has embraced the ever-popular formula of "us against them."
Indeed, this is a phenomenon that we have seen repeated over and over again in the annals of human history. When more traditional folks feel unsettled and threatened by the pace of change in the society around them, a suitable and plausible scapegoat is sought out and identified as the source of all of society's problems. This allows the bewildered traditionalists something to sink their teeth into and fight against. In short, they become a righteous band whose mission is to save sinful society from its own excesses!
In Bill's reality, Christianity and traditional moral values are under attack by the godless hordes of the Left. In his view, the other side in the Culture Wars is demonic, self-righteous, and intellectually arrogant. In short, any behavior or beliefs that fall outside of what he and his ilk would define as traditional moral values, family, or WASP culture is seen as threatening and/or aggressively undermining what's "normal" and "good."
Mr. Lussenheide solemnly warned his readers that "if history is any guide, the longer the cities and the liberals anywhere insist on rewriting the rules while ignoring the country at large, the closer we get to a Spanish-style reckoning." He went on to warn: "Marxist cities can tweet all they want about inclusivity, spending recklessly and sexual liberation, but when the rural heartland decides the experiment has gone too far, there’s no hashtag to fix that. Spain is a warning, and the U.S. liberal urban elite seem hell-bent on treating it as just a historical, forgotten footnote."
Interestingly, Mr. Lussenheide never mentions the fascist dictatorship which was established under Francisco Franco as a consequence of the Spanish Civil War! Unfortunately, as with too many of the folks who identify with the modern American rightwing led by Donald Trump, Bill wants everyone to believe and act the way that he does. In his America, there is no room for drag queens, transexuals, pointy-headed intellectuals, and "liberal" artists! No, Bill and his supporters want conformity, and they are not bashful about insisting upon it!
What does all of this have to do with God, Jesus Christ, and Christianity? My answer: "EXACTLY!" Bill and his buddies aren't really interested in any of that. They seek to impose their worldview on folks who do NOT share their worldview. Hint, there is NOTHING Christian or democratic about that!
No comments:
Post a Comment