To The Editor:

Culture Matters

Since that day when 3000 American’s lost their lives – a totality of souls that outstripped our losses at Pearl Harbor – there’s been a moral struggle in the conscious of America. As early as October of 2001, I predicted (and wrote) that Americans would quickly forget the barbarity of that day. Even so, I’ve been saddened and surprised at the mental gymnastics American’s have come up with to excuse our enemy.

America is a nation of tolerance. We forgive almost any transgression - as long as the perpetrator asks forgiveness. Politicians, rock stars, Hollywood actors – they can get away with almost anything as long as they say they’re sorry.

Where did we get this idea? Why are we so forgiving?

It’s because of our culture – our Western culture – and a morality that began with a carpenter.

Now believe it or not, this carpenter changed the way everyone – even atheists – thinks. For He is the first person in history to teach that everyone should love everyone we meet - regardless of race, creed, or gender. He said we are all “Sons of God” and that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one”.

Two thousand years ago this was a revolutionary thought. Unlike the Good Samaritan, the morality of the day would have left the victim on the side of the road. Slavery was commonplace, and even talking to the “woman at the well” was considered beneath the dignity of a Jewish man. Yet the carpenter made of point of doing so, permanently engendering a philosophy of equality of the races and the sexes.

And, of course, He told us to forgive. Now, nearly all Americans think this way - even atheists and people of other religions. Western culture practically invented tolerance.

But our tolerance has led to is an unfortunate sympathy – even acceptance – of people who want to kill us. Humanism – kidnapped under the guise of “political correctness” – has made American’s believe that our culture and belief system is no better than any other.

This, of course, is a lie. Western culture abolished slavery and gave women the right to vote. It is generous to the poor and accepting of other religions. It embraces diversity and promotes liberty.

Compare those ideas to those of the terrorists we fight. They openly claim that women have no rights – they shouldn’t vote, own property, or even show their face in public. Men are taught to beat their wives and rape their captives. Their holy book claims that women “lack common sense” and that “the evidence of two women is equal to one man” because “their minds are deficient.” The bulk of souls in hell are women, and children have no higher purpose than to strap a bomb to themselves.

Their prophet was a general. He raised vast armies, conquered huge swaths of land, burned libraries, and killed those who did not convert.

Let me say that again. Their most holy man – the example from which they base their entire morality – ordered his followers to kill anyone who refused to convert. He wrote that they should “fight the Pagans wherever you find them…lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war.” “For those who do not submit…their punishment is execution or crucifixion.”

Compare those words to the carpenter’s - who said we should love your enemy, give to the poor, and do good to those who spitefully use you. There’s simply no comparison.

But American’s don’t like to draw distinctions - and they don’t like to judge. They desperately search for the good - even to the point of sympathizing with killers.

Our naivety has got to stop. Our culture of tolerance is under attack by people who are brutally intolerant. Our freedom is under assault by those who would enslave us. Women’s rights are being shattered by men who think that a woman’s only value is to reproduce.

Our nation should always be based on acceptance and liberty. But when our very culture is under attack, we must denounce that attack for what it is - and stop those who would enslave us.

People who won’t defend their freedom will surly lose it.

Dave Belton
Buckhead