In the twilight of the 18th Century a country was born unique in all the world. From a rag-tag group of settlers and those fleeing religious persecution, came a union of individual states, each with their own culture and identity.
America was born out of ideas and ideals so rarified, that history itself had to be rewritten.
It was not as if there weren’t stresses and strains, debates and conflicts, but all were part of the mix that produced the final product. There were indeed major issues to grapple with as the industrial North and the agrarian South eyed each other warily, until open warfare broke out nearly shattering its soul.
But America and Americans have always been resilient; bouncing back from the precipice of destruction and social upheaval and finding a way forward that would, for the most part, satisfy all sides.
Can we honestly say the same thing now, in our current age and situation?
Anybody who was alive during the Sixties knows how divided a country can become: unpopular wars killing young men and women, racial division—and youth gone wild.
In our present time, it is a conflict of worldviews. There are those who see the so-called traditional values as the benchmark of society, without which, there would be no society at all. Then there are others who see those same values as retrograde, backward—and even evil; ideas that must be destroyed at all costs.
In this process, as the participants of the house argue, the very foundation of the house is cracking and the roof is caving in.
What we see is a government often reaching far beyond its original limitations, and the people, although upset and ruffled, doing very little to rein it in. Were we in the old Soviet Union, there would be no debate; the gulags would be full to overflowing. But here in America, we dig deep into our pockets for more cash to pay the bills, hope our children will behave, shrug, and continue on with our lives.
In the meantime, there is a chasm so large in American society that it defies our wildest imaginations.
Even ten years ago, the issue of transgenderism was on the back burner. It was a nascent movement within the framework of the LGBTQ movement. It has now progressed to front and center. Indeed, there is no hiding from it as candidates for jobs are asked for their “preferred pronoun.”
Roe v Wade has been overturned, with the determination of abortion procedures left up to the States. And yet, abortion for some is a “sacrament” to be upheld and unfettered. Abortion has become an absolute “right” with those opposed thought to be interfering with the individual’s “freedom” and control over “their body.”
It has been sixty years form the start of the civil rights era. Terrible wrongs had to be remedied. Laws had to be passed to ensure that all were considered a human being with dignity, free to vote, hold a job, live where they chose—and do so without fear of physical harm.
Yet, it would seem that everything in our society is racialized. From the actions of police, to the electing of a political candidate, to how one is selected for a particular job.
If we ask how can this chasm be bridged, we must first ask the obvious question: how did we get here?
To answer that question, we must go back, once again, to the founding of the country itself.
The Founding Fathers were not, as some might believe, a monolith, marching to the beat of the same drummer. Indeed, some were extremely religious men, believing that the Bible was the ultimate authority of life and practice. Others were Deists who felt that God, if he existed, showed little to no interest in human affairs. But they all agreed that there had to be a standard for human behavior. Without this standard, a Republic could not exist, and laws to regulate society would be arbitrary.
While many would not take Bible literally in any sense (check out the Thomas Jefferson New Testament sometime as he did some creative “editing”), they did agree that the ethics promulgated by the Bible would be the main tool to the building of society and the creation of its laws.
But the ethics of the Bible are under full frontal attack in our current age. Years ago, people could be non-religious and yet fully agree with the Bible’s standard of living: the “Golden Rule” of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you, that men are men and women are women and that any adjustment to this fact was considered indecent and perverse—and that one is to honor authority.
The fraying of American society, however, did not start a decade ago. There were foreshadows in the art deco culture and movies of the 1930’s where codes had to be prescribed because the films coming out of an emerging Hollywood were becoming more and more risqué. World War II saw the men go to war and women go to work. The wages and independence that women experienced did not go away when the war ended. The cultural result was a “ground breaking” book published in 1963, The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, outlining many women’s unhappiness with the “house wife routine” and seeking to be freed from the yoke of the control of men.
America then proceeded into the heart of the 1960’s and all that went with it.
It is therefore not hard to see that the chasm that was created grew as the never-ending earthquake of societal changes rumbled on.
Can we come back again from the brink? It remains to be seen. One thing that is sure is that we must somehow find common ground, but that common ground must be guided by a higher principle. It cannot be something spun out of the dark regions of men and women.
And on that, we must tip our hat again to the Founding Fathers.
Maybe those Biblical ethics that they felt were so needed were not so bad after all.
In fact, maybe they are needed again—and right now.
