War On the Family

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   Of interest to Christians and other patriots are these two social commentaries from a book published in 2007:

   (1)   The sharp decline in the birthrate, the scandalous number of abortions, and the rapid increase in the incidence of venereal diseases were fearsome signs.   In some areas…premarital sex had become the new moral standard, [and] the “unblemished beginning of marriage” an exception.   Even the birth of a child out of wedlock was no longer seen as a sin.   Social order, once so firmly constructed, has weakened and shattered, greatly endangering the protection and dignity of the female sex [and threatening] the sense of honor and responsibility that defines the male sex.

   (2)   The decay of the family and the decay of the state are inseparable.   By natural and sacred design, the family is the basis of the state.   But when the foundation stones are hollowed out and crumble, then the entire building is threatened…. Without exaggeration, one can describe the problem of the family as the most acute social problem of our day.

   Sound familiar?   You might be thinking these observations were made about conditions in our country in the 21st century, but both passages are from a history of the short-lived Weimar Republic in Germany in the decade after World War I (Weimer Germany, by Eric Weitz).   The first passage reflects observations by a Protestant group in 1924, while the second came out of a 1929 conference of Catholic leaders.
   
   The point in quoting these passages is that the history of the Weimar Republic is a clear object lesson in how a society’s descent into depravity destroys the family and the church – and, in turn, how the destruction of the family destroys the country.   (Remember philosopher George Santayana’s words: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”)

   When the Weimar Republic is mentioned today, many people think of the 1972 film “Cabaret,” set in Berlin during the end stages of the Weimar period.   Because the film was limited by 1970s film codes as to what could be said and shown, it barely scratched the surface of a degree of depravity that was unimagined by the rest of the world at the time.   For example, German artists quickly latched on to the so-called “Dada movement,” which was a negation of all traditional values in society, philosophy and art, and a total embrace of narcissism and amoral pleasures – and the Dada movement rapidly spilled over into the rest of German society.   We’re talking not only about sensually bizarre art and films, but also about widespread pornography, promiscuity, extra-marital affairs, open homosexuality and lesbianism, public nudity (such as nude outdoor exercise classes), and, of course, the inevitable fueling of much of this by alcohol and drugs.   

   Christian and family values were among the major casualties, as God and children increasingly became obstacles to participating in these “pleasures.”   Along with all this came a period of rapid hyperinflation (precipitated by excessive war reparations imposed by WWI allies), which actually may have had the unintentional positive effect of making some of the “nightlife” unaffordable for the average German.   However, as pointed out in the book Weimar Germany:   

   “Like Protestants, Catholics believed that the Christian family was threatened by virtually every aspect of Weimar culture and society.   A veritable war had to be waged against rampant immorality and the drive of liberals, socialists, and communists to influence Catholic youth….The fatal disease of the age, said Abbot Adalbert von Neipperg…is the family’s renunciation of God [and] its failure to stand under God’s miraculous light….Modern life worships man [and] man worships himself.”

   Back in that time and place, conditions were perfect for the rise of you-know-who.   Even normal, stable German families (e.g., those keeping Christian faith and/or some semblance of morality) supported his rise to power early on – not only because he promised a return to prosperity and professed to leave the church alone, but also because he promised to drive out the communists and curtail the depravity that was debasing Germany, especially its youth.   The rank and file had little inkling of the twisted extremes to which he would take these and other elements of the Nazi (National Socialist) platform, nor did they anticipate his eventual assumption of control over the church and suppression of true Christian doctrine and values.   The new regime’s idea of family life became tall, young, preferably blonde soldiers of pure Aryan ancestry consorting with a stable of nubile, preferably blonde  young women, also of pure Aryan ancestry, to produce healthy, preferably blonde children who would epitomize its vision of ideal German youth.   

   We aren’t to the point of 1929 Weimar Germany yet, but we’re well on the way – with, among other things, a sharp decline in birth rate, a disgraceful number of abortions (although just one is disgraceful); increases in STDs; premarital sex that’s open, rampant, and normalized; deviant sex that’s open, rampant, and becoming normalized; out-of-wedlock births that are open, frequent, and normalized; increasing encroachments by the state on parental control of children; the introduction of pornography in schools and libraries as “sex education” for even elementary schoolers; and most importantly, the increasing abandonment and even suppression of religious teachings and the Judeo-Christian values that have held families together since the birth of the republic.   

   As we now witness, the incessant attacks on the American family’s religious and moral underpinnings, along with the sweeping permissiveness of moral relativism, are degrading the traditional nuclear family that was last ascendant here in the 1950s, and relegating it to minority status in the nation.   Just like in Weimar Germany.

   Finally, we doubt many Americans have ever heard the grim details of Weimar, let alone “remember it.”   And because our own past has been misrepresented in the schools for the last 20-25 years, too many of our young people now believe good is evil and evil is good.   They don’t realize that the light at the end of the tunnel is actually an oncoming train.   That’s why we need to pray that our leaders can stop this descent into moral chaos.   

   History generally repeats itself.   It has to, because nobody’s listening.

Email: NKuk@PioneerCable.net
 

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