Moral Issues

Without a Sense of Moral Order Man Cannot Attain Any Order

Without a Sense of Moral Order Man Cannot Attain Any Orderby Chris Banescu –

The enduring and Christ-centered wisdom of Malcolm Muggeridge reminds us why the world around us is such a big mess, especially in the West. The main source of our troubles is the loss of our moral order — anchored in and supported by God — without which no other order can be attained.

“It’s good and evil after all that provide the theme of the drama of our mortal existence. In this sense you might capture them [enlighten them] with the positive and negative points that generate an electric current. Transpose the points and the current fails, the lights go out, darkness falls and all is confusion.

What I wish to put to you here is that the darkness falling on our civilization is likewise due to a transposition of good and evil. In other words, that we are suffering not from an energy crisis or an over-population crisis or an unemployment crisis – from none of these ills that are commonly specified. The root cause of trouble is that we have lost our sense of moral order in the universe without which no order whatsoever, economic, social, political is attainable. [Read more…]

A Proper Education Orders the Soul Towards Truth and Beauty and Instills Virtue

Proper Education Orders the Soul Towards Truth and Beauty and Instills Virtueby Chris Banescu –

In an article titled “Let us arise and go home” conservative author and English professor Anthony Esolen eloquently expressed what the ultimate aims of a proper education should be. He writes: “An education that does not order the soul towards truth and beauty, that does not instill the intellectual virtue of seeking the truth, and the practical virtue of putting moral truths in action, is no education at all. It is not fit for a human being. It may be fit for a robot, or a beast, or a devil.” His truthful insights explain a great deal about what has gone wrong without education in the West and especially in America in the last several decades.

So how can we reinforce these timeless and essential principles in the education of a child. “How do you build up the soul of a child?”, asks Esolen. It’s quite simple. Everyone has access to great literature. “That is what great literature and the arts are for. They are for everyone. You can judge a school by its syllabi, or the books in the library, or the poems and the songs the students know and love. Every child should go down to Mordor with Frodo and Sam, or sit atop the mizzen with Jim Hawkins, or float down the river with the worthy Mole and Rat, or ride with Paul Revere, [Read more…]

Eliminating the Notion of God Leads Man to Tyranny, Insanity, and Carnality

Malcolm Muggeridgeby Chris Banescu –

The renowned journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, in his “The Great Liberal Death Wish” article observed the universal pattern of tyranny, delusion, and depravity that follows once man rejects God and embraces godless materialism in all its forms (socialism, communism, progressivism, etc.).

His insights are as valid today as they were in 1979 when he first published it. Looking around the world around us we see the darkness, corruption, insanity, and chaos that accompany man’s rejection of his Creator. As the Psalmist declared “Unless the Lord builds the house those who build it labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)

“Once you eliminate the notion of a God, a creator, once you eliminate the notion that the creator has a purpose for us, and that life consists essentially in fulfilling that purpose, then you are bound, as Pascal points out, to induce the megalomania of which we’ve seen so many manifestations in our time – in the crazy dictators, as in the lunacies of people who are rich, or who consider themselves to be important or celebrated in the western world. [Read more…]

Mental Breakdown Precedes the Moral Breakdown

G. K. Chesterton The Apostle of Common Senseby Chris Banescu –
G. K. Chesterton was one of the deepest and clearest thinkers of the 20th century. He was also a strong defender of the Christian faith, a modern day apologist in the truest sense of the word. As Dale Ahlquist points out in his book, Chesterton was indeed The Apostle of Common Sense who fearlessly challenged the lies and falsehoods of his time. His insights and logic are as relevant today as they were then.

Chesterton foresaw the coming moral breakdowns that we’re currently experiencing. He understood that the corruption and misuse of language in order to obfuscate the truth were symptoms of a mental breakdown that will inevitably lead to moral corruption. He was right.[Read more…]

Catholic Patriarch of Syria: Planned U.S. Attack on Syria is ‘Criminal Act’

Gregory III, the Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, Melkite Greek Catholic Churchby Chris Banescu –

Gregory III, the Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, spiritual leader of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Syria and Lebanon, denounced the Obama administration for planning to attack Syria. If the U.S. launches such an attack, it would be “a criminal act” that would reap more innocent victims and help the “Islamic extremists from all over the world [who] are pouring into Syria with the sole intent to kill.” His Eminence strongly opposes any foreign intervention in Syria which will only fuel hatred, criminality, inhumanity, Islamic fundamentalism, and terrorism.

As reported by CNS News, in a public statement released on August 30, Gregory III, the Catholic Patriarch of Antioch said:

“We must listen to the Pope’s appeal for peace in Syria,” said Patriarch Gregory III. “If Western countries want to create true democracy then they must build it on reconciliation, through dialogue between Christians and Muslims, not with weapons. This attack being planned by the United States is a criminal act, which will only reap more victims, in addition to the tens of thousands of these two years of war. This will destroy the Arab world’s trust in the West.” [Read more…]